Andrew continues to work hard, do well in school, and have an active social life. We look forward to seeing him in a week!
Eric made the Dean's List at WNC. Right now we are working on
submitting his mission papers (he won't be called to a proselyting mission but will be released from serving
due to his Asperger's). Then we will work on finding him a service
mission to serve in.
Ryan just had his wisdom teeth out on Tuesday...and it went so well (so far) that I'm amazed (I'm still afraid he'll wind up with dry socket, because nothing should be that easy). He only took a few advil here and there. We have him at home only one more month before he heads off to BYU-I.
Hannah's trying out for the tennis team again. And she's getting a kitten. His name is Steve (Steve Rogers, because he's the runt of the litter just like Captain America was).
Alex...I don't know how he is as he seems to currently be living at his cousins' Ben and Thomas's house. I think he basically only sleeps here these days. I also think we need to send some grocery money over to them, not that he eats much. I guess he's doing OK, or they would send him home to us, right?
Glen keeps very busy. He's been working on the yard as well as on his family history lately. I'm still feeling like we have a lot of summer left, for some weird reason (maybe because it's a whole month before Ryan leaves), but Glen is starting to feel the pressure of summer winding down and him needing to get ready for the new school year...his 24th year of teaching.
We bought another "new to us" car...Glen gets to use it and Hannah will mainly use the mini-van. Glen's new car is a fraternal twin to mine...they are both 2000 Camrys, but mine is a gold color and his is a ... taupe? type color. I realized when Andrew got his license, he was only a few months away from leaving for college, and the same thing for Ryan. Whereas Hannah has 27 months here before she goes off to college. Life will be easier with another car...of course the mini-van has over 200,000 miles on it and might not last much longer, but I hope it will last.
Glen has also been having fun making his own yogurt and putting it in his frozen ice cream/yogurt maker he bought at a yard sale in Oregon. Good stuff. Most of us also enjoy the yogurt without freezing it.
I have stopped working on home projects and have been working on my family history, reading, and being less productive. I have also made some recipes found online and at pinterest lately and thought I'd mention some here. These are loosely in order of what we liked most to what we liked least:
Our favorite, hands down, was the "One that almost got away"--
Raspberry Cream Cheese Bars...only I had blueberries and not raspberries, so we had Blueberry Cream Cheese Bars and they were fabulous. Just realize that after baking and cooling, it needs to go into the fridge for a bit, so it's not a recipe for when you need something in a hurry.
http://tofw.com/story/641-our-best-bites-the-recipe-that-almost-got-away
Next up is the
Jalapeño Popper Dip that was really, really good, and so easy, though next time I might just make 1/2 a batch as it's dangerous to have around.
http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2008/10/jalapeno-popper-dip/
Hannah discovered this
Cheesy Garlic Bread Stick recipe that we like--you dip it in marinara sauce (and she makes it better than I do):
http://www.laurenslatest.com/fail-proof-pizza-dough-and-cheesy-garlic-bread-sticks-just-like-in-restaurants/
Last night I made some
Garden Marinara to go with it (though we don't have enough tomatoes yet and I had to use canned tomatoes). I liked it well enough...and it uses zucchinis! (Glen liked it quite a bit, too)
http://www.simplehealthytasty.com/2012/08/garden-marinara.html
I really liked the
Cream of Zucchini Soup. I might need to make more today.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/03/cream-of-zucchini-soup-1-ww-point.html
And then there's the
Crockpot Cashew Chicken, which Glen really liked and I thought it was OK...maybe had too much ginger in it (couldn't put my finger on what wasn't quite right to me):
http://preppypaleo.blogspot.ca/2012/01/crock-pot-cashew-chicken.html
The one recipe we didn't like was the
Sweet Potato Cauliflower soup:
http://www.manifestvegan.com/2011/10/sweet-potato-cauliflower-soup/
