What's Tyler been up to lately?

Not working, that's for sure. Unless you count drawing up floor plans in Google Sketchup. This has pretty much consumed every day, all day for the past month. But they are almost done. Just a few minor tweeks we need the architects to make and we should have finalized plans.

Except . . .

That every day we seem to add something new or come up with some *bright* idea like a balcony above the deck with a slide into the pool that is just off the deck or a zip line off the rafters (nevermind neither of us have ever been off the zip line at my parents' house). Oh, we like to dream big. But reality will kill the dream when we finally hand these over to the bank.

A nesting instinct?

I have been on a roll this week. It all started with my bathroom that was badly in need of a cleaning. I don't even want to mention how long it's been since I last cleaned it. Nothing feels better than a clean bathroom. Then I tackled the toy room while ALL the children were out of the house. I threw away; I hauled away; I put away; I hooked up the old monitor that's been sitting on the floor for ages. That took me all of 5 minutes so why didn't I do it before now. I don't know. Anyway, it felt wonderful. Today I tackled some of my closet and had high aims of getting to my filing drawer and purging all the old stuff until an offer of a hot lunch date came my way. Maybe tomorrow.

I don't know if this sudden urge to clean and dejunk is because a new year is upon me and I always get excited to start a new year clean and clutter-free. Or maybe it's the thought of moving and who wants to move more stuff than they have to. Or then again, maybe it's that old nesting instinct that comes to a woman before she brings home a new baby. I doubt it's that. I still have 5 months to go! Whatever it is, I hope this energy stays with me for a few days. I have boxes of books to go through and papers to sort and Tyler's office . . . well that might take me more than a few days.

On a funny note: Ash came into my room tonight to tell me, "I don't believe in Elmo anymore." What! You mean Elmo isn't real. I never thought Elmo was right up there with Santa and the Tooth Fairy. I guess in Ashie's world, he was just as life-like.

Jr. Jazz has officially started

For the past couple of weeks Tyler and I have been running the kids back and forth to Jr. Jazz basketball practices. Last year Kiersten and Erik played; this year we threw Nate into the mix. And speaking of practices I'm a little perturbed that Kiersten got placed on a Tooele team instead of a Stansbury team. Ty and I both tried to rectify the situation, but no one would return our calls. So we are stuck taking her to Tooele every week for practice. At least she's enjoying it.

Yesterday was our first game day as spectators for the 2010 season and Nate's first game ever. All three kids won their games easily with all three scoring the first points for their teams. Nate astounded us by how good he was. A lot of kids his age will double dribble, run with the ball, shoot from miles away. Nate dribbled well, took it to the hole a couple of times, and scored 12 of his team's 32 points. Erik wasn't that good at his age, but he's gotten progressively better each year. Erik played well scoring 14 of his team's 34 points, and Kiersten had 2 points and loved every minute of it.

During the last game which happened to be Kiersten's, Tyler and I looked at each other and asked, "What did we get ourselves into?" Three games every Saturday for the next 2 months. I'm looking forward to it even if it means my Saturdays are pretty much shot. I also remind myself that we allow our kids to play one sport a year in order to maintain our family mealtime together. They just all happen to want to play basketball which equals a couple of very busy months.

Quickie Flickie Ice Cream

My siblings and I are ice cream fanatics thanks to my dad who kept one of two deep freezers stocked with the stuff. Naturally I've passed that on to my own children. I don't have an extra freezer to devote to ice cream but at any given moment we have around 5 different half gallons of the stuff in a freezer somewhere. My dad was a HUGE fan of ice cream parties and Sunday night round table discussions that always included ice cream and possibly brownies, cookies, or cake (or even just the cake batter straight). I remember those nights when we'd make a tent in the living room out of blankets, put a few logs on the fire, whip up some shakes in the blender, turn out the lights and tell stories in the tent with our shakes. What great memories.

Shortly after Tyler and I got married, his dad pulled out their old ice cream machine from the shed and gifted it to us since they never used it. We got plenty of use out of it, so much that it finally gave up the ghost one summer evening and I sent Ty in a mad dash to Wal-Mart to purchase us another. I would have been deeply disturbed if this had happened in the winter when there are no ice cream machines to purchase. Thankfully he arrived with a bright, hot pink one in hand and we've been cranking out ice cream ever since (although I'm sure this one is going to lie down and die one day too, and I've been thinking I should have a spare just in case).

I've tried my share of ice cream recipes. I partial to good old vanilla. Raspberry shakes in the summer are fabulous, and as I sit here writing this I'm thinking of the 2 big buckets of raspberries in my freezer that we pulled off our bushes this year just waiting for something to be done with them . . . I believe raspberry shakes are somewhere in my near future. I also rather like Oreo. Like I've said I've come across several good recipes but they all tend to leave a coating in my mouth and freeze rock solid when the remainder is put in the freezer. My friend brought homemade ice cream to book club several months ago and I was in love. No coating!! I've made it several times now at home and love the texture, the taste, and it's not terribly hard when I pull it out of the freezer to "taste." It does include a few extra ingredients which often involves a trip to the store, but well worth it. 

QUICKIE FLICKIE ICE CREAM
1 pint heavy cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 small package vanilla instant pudding
1 quart whole milk
1 can evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla
candy mix of choice, optional

Combine all ingredients except candy in freezer. Stir until mixed. Churn until ice cream reaches a soft texture. Then add crushed candy and continue to churn until desired "freeze" level.

The Chocolate Bar

Earlier in the week I was asked to give a brief message for our Primary board meeting this morning. I was stumped on what I could say that might be beneficial, that might inspire our teachers a little, that might be uplifting. Then I remembered a seminary devotional given when I was in high school. It was based on a talk by Elder Monte J. Brough titled, "The Message: The Chocolate Bar" and I knew I had my little thought.

He told of an experience he had with his 12-year-old son while visiting Africa. He gave his son a chocolate bar to share with the children. They immediately shunned it and wanted nothing to do with it until he took a piece and ate it himself. They were suspicious but agreed to try it, one nibble at a time. Joy overcame their faces as they tasted chocolate for the first time and tasted how sweet and good it was.

Elder Brough compared "the taste of that chocolate bar to the taste of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Although the gospel tastes sweet and wonderful and good, sometimes other people don't understand it, and it's hard to get them to take just a tiny nibble. But it they'll take that nibble, and then a larger nibble, they will arrive at a marvelous moment when they place it in their mouths and taste the wonderful sweetness."

"We have something wonderful and sweet, something much more vital than a chocolate bar, something that affects everyone for all eternity. We have tasted the gospel, and we know it is good. We cannot and we must not ignore the opportunity to help others taste it, too."

I then handed out some chocolate to go with the above quote. It was short, it was "sweet", it was "good", and it was just what I wanted to say to go along with our Primary theme for the year: "I Know My Savior Lives".