"Doctor finds solace through art"

Wanted to share this clip of Brother Condie from our ward. He was on the news tonight (Channel 5 KSL). Brian remembers seeing him in the ER before he became ill. He is inspiring and we love the Condie family! video clip

CuRLinG hAiR

Anyone who has known me long enough is well aware of my hair, shall we say "disabilities" (yes, plural). This was a real worry for me when I kept giving birth to daughters. I DID take care of 7 girls while I was in college, standing in for their mom who was a flight attendant. Unfortunately doing the hair of 7 little girls didn't make much of a dent in my ability to do it well- just my ability to improvise. I'd still like to figure out braids, ANY braids. Coming Soon (maybe).



I figured if I could find a good way to curl my girls hair that at least it would look like I knew what I was doing. They both have really fine hair just like their momma. I started looking for ways to curl their hair with rags... let it work while they slept! Thought I would try this before I went out and bought some of those soft curlers. I found this video on You tube helpful... How to curl your hair with rags. Also found one that I liked on curling your hair with paper bags, I used her method of wrapping the hair but figured the girls would not like sleeping with bags in their hair. I got some sheets on sale for $7 (Bought a deep red w/out thinking and then thought, "is this going to dye their hair???" Hmmm, I wonder- tie dyed hair! To be safe I washed them in hot water & vinegar first). She said to do 3x8 strips but some of mine ended up more like 2x8 and the skinnier ones were easier. I figured if it didn't work I still had plenty of sheet left.

I gave the girls a bath before bedtime to make sure their hair was nice and damp. The video said to use leave in conditioner which I could not find ANYWHERE. I used a detangler that we already had in the house.
I was VERY impressed with how still Abby was for the tying process. Ginny was okay until the very last one... she tended to turn her head anytime anyone spoke.
They went right to sleep when I was finished. Sleeping pictures and results show to follow....

Daddy's Girl(s)

While Ginny has always been a momma's girl Abby has never been partial to one parent over the other. That is until her daddy moved to Denver.

• When Brian is gone Abby counts down the days until his next visit. She doesn't always remember the difference between days and weeks but she's thinking.
• She makes lots of crafts for daddy. Mostly pictures. She draws pictures of herself and daddy (labeling them) and puts a heart between them. Every time we make something she sets hers aside to give to daddy.
• We have a United States puzzle. Abby likes to ask me to get it down, puts it together once and then absconds with the state of Colorado. She'll carry it around all day and would sleep with it if I let her. I guess she feels like she's carrying around a little piece of daddy.
• When Brian is here Abby becomes a growth on his leg. It's a great work out for the leg of choice as he tries to carry her around the house with him.
• Last week we went to Denver with daddy for Spring Break. All week long Abby would look at me and say, "we're in Denver". I think she was in shock that we were actually there. When we are at home she tells me that she wants to live in Denver with daddy about 50 times a day ( I may be exaggerating a bit).

I try not to tell Brian too many of the things that she does since he gets pretty emotional = his manly pride takes a hit. I know he likes to know that he is missed but even though this is hard for Abby (and Ginny & I) it's the hardest on him. This is a great learning experience for our little family. We sure do love and appreciate our Dad/Husband!!!

chocolate rant

Why, oh why do some people use milk chocolate chips in their chocolate chip cookies?
#1 There is nothing special about milk chocolate- there's no punch, no zing, no ka-pow. The flavors of milk chocolate and the abundant sugars in the dough are too similar. I almost can't tell there are chips in them. This, I can only suppose, is why people use extra large chips when committing this cookie crime.
#2 I have NEVER liked milk chocolate unless we're talking peanut M&M's or an occasional snickers. Dark chocolate on the other hand, mmmm (not that I eat much candy, if someone else buys it... sure. If I feel the need to be unhealthy I'm much more likely to find something salty, bake some bread or reach for a Dr. Pepper).
#3 As previously stated I have yet to try a milk chocolate chip cookie that does not use very large chips. Stephanie, my marvelous marvelous brilliant friend, introduced me to the mini chips and I will never go back. The semi-sweet chocolatey flavor is evenly dispersed through out the cookie instead of getting huge spaces with no chocolate or too much chocolate in one bite... since I don't even like milk chocolate why would I want to take a huge bite of milk chocolate sugary sweetness?
Did any of this stop me from eating the giant cookie that my husband brought home from the to remain anonymous local restaurant? Nope. Such is life.

Our own personal Zoo

The girls came running to me oh so excited over the zoo they had created. There were zebras, giraffes, lions (in a completely enclosed cage to prevent Snow White, Belle and etc. from being horribly mauled), a horse, elephants (the only animals with food- a bale of hay), monkeys (my favorite cage, the purple hamster wheel sitting on a tambourine), birds flying around free and seals. Just in case you were wondering the visitors did not have a near-fatal accident in the parking lot... the upside down bus is the seal house. It has great windows for viewing. Not sure why the little car is upside down, forgot to ask.

Easter in the Great White North (okay okay... Utah)

Honestly, this is the best shot I got of the two of them together. Ginny refused to look at me and Abby's eye's were half open making her look challenged in every picture. I think this was their way of saying "Enough, now let's go home and warm our fingers... you know those things we use to get the candy to our mouths".
I'm thinking that next year we need to avoid the sugar rush and just do the hard-boiled version. Brian LOVES deviled eggs. Let's be honest, a multi-colored egg salad sandwich is nothing short of awesome (keeping in mind that Ginny cried and Abby looked squeamish when Grandma thought it would be cute do to green eggs and ham). So, we'll just do some peeps and a moderately sized chocolate bunny each and call it good. Here's hoping.
I somehow managed to get pictures w/out all of the neighborhood kids. I promise there were tons of them!!! We are not the only crazies hunting eggs in the snow at 9 am on a Saturday. This was really minimal snow for what we had been seeing all week, yeah we lucked out.
I told my mother-in-law that someone somewhere had better be praying for/grateful for the snow. It's just a minor inconvenience, really, no one lost life or limb.

Two Fools

Happy April Fool's Day!!! We had used the story about the "Sneetches" at Joy School to teach about the "joys" of being unique, not being mean to others when they are different from us, that no one is better than any one else just different, etc. The next Sunday the girls got stars at Primary and they quickly stated that they were the star headed sneetches! They sure are cute whatever they are.