Why I don't scrapbook...

Senecca's going away-to-college party took place back in September.

It's now November.

27th.

Three months behind...

 Marjorie Pay Hinckley once said, "I made a resolution to read my scriptures every day...I'm on day four and I'm only 3 days behind!"

We would have been good friends, Marjorie and I.

Meg, who is also attending BYUH was in attendance. As was Lisa, our Cafe des Amis lunch partner.

The girls' party favors.

Almost good enough to eat.

Meet Allison.

Senecca's roomy from last summer.

They have the funniest rat story EVER that I will share with you all someday.

For now, I'll share these beautiful flowers...and that handsome man in the background...with you instead.

And someday when I grow up and become responsible...

 I'm gonna be a scrapbooker.

At the Kula pumpkin patch...the only place on Maui that feels like fall!

I was sooooo wrong...

I always thought I could take a great family photo.

All I needed was

 a better camera,

some decent lighting,

a somewhat cool background,

and the ever elusive

cooperative warm bodies...

Then, surely then, I would be able to take a great photo of la familia.

I was

  so, so 

wrong. 

 Believe me, I tried.

It wasn't pretty.

Enter the magnificent Micha Wixom.

Photographer extraordinaire and owner of Shuttergirl Photography .

Talk about saving me from myself.

Micha,

 you rock.

Coming up for air...

Hello?

Hello?

Is anybody still out there?

Hello...?

Just thought I'd let you know where I've been for the last month or so.

A vortex.

Yes, that's right.

A vortex.

I was sucked into the
early morning seminary
vortex, and I'm just now coming up for air.

It has been a crazy, life changing, beautiful, challenging, exhausting, glorious month.

And every day I am changed.

I have never known such intense tutoring by the Spirit, save the time that I had Sawyer here on earth with me. 

I just have one question...

Why is it that the Lord uses the hardest things in our lives to teach us?

Granted, studying for hours and getting up insanely early to teach a roomful of teenagers is not high on the list of major challenges in life, but c'mon, I mean

  4 a.m.?

Seriously?

How is that holy?

And yet, when I walk in that room with those kids,

 and the Spirit begins to open eyes and warm hearts
 (mostly mine)

something glorious happens.

And then I know.

This is God's work.

And I am lucky to be there.

Move over, Dominos...

I've never been accused of being a great cook.

I come from a looooong line of food burners.

It is a long held tradition at my family's Thanksgiving dinners that we (the women in the kitchen) "flambe'" the marshmallow topped sweet potatoes not once, not twice, but three times before we get it right.

The secret of our success is to never, under any circumstances, use a timer.

We like to think that the smoke pouring out of the oven and the fire alarm ringing in the background brings an element of danger and excitement to a meal that is otherwise satisfying, yet somehow...dull.

Don't you think so too?

Speaking of food and family, I always get the urge to cook...um, burn stuff, when I get home to Idaho.

One night while the urge was strong, I wandered to the freezer which holds the remains of our 4-H pig, Winston (rest in peace, Winston) and guess what I found?

Sausage!

Which made me think of pizza.

Which reminded me that we had flatbread. And pesto. And olives. And peppers. And onions. And feta. And mushrooms. And artichokes. And provolone.

(heavenly choir singing here)

THE  MAKINGS OF A PERFECT PIZZA.

(Don't you just love how olives shine?)

Simple ingredients that just hang out in the refrigerator and pantry, waiting to be whipped into a
 culinary masterpiece.
 Okay, you can stop laughing now, Eric.

I must say...

It was delicious...

And easy...

And I only burned 2 of them before it came out perfect.

Part Three: How to become a Farm Chicks groupie

the rules:

First, you must shop like a maniac and not let one white or cream chippy painted object go by without a good look-see.

Second, you must spread it all out on the Spokane fairgrounds lawn for a quick show-and-tell before loading it into the wagon to head for home.

(Go ahead, don't be shy, dump the contents of your wheeled market baskets and brown paper bags into big 'ol heaps, right there on the ground.)

Finally, you must whip out your trusty camera and proceed to document...er, incriminate yourself with... the loot.

We followed the rules.

(Can you believe it?)

Do you wanna take a peak?

Don't you just love vignettes?

Sometimes I wish life was a vignette.

We tried to convince these little darlings to crawl into our suitcases (vintage, of course...okay, not really...does 1985 count?) and come back to Idaho with us.

For some strange reason their mothers vetoed that idea.

Go figure.

We met these super sweet ladies on the lawn during show-and-tell.

They too, declined our invitation to tag along with us to Idaho.

Something about a cute little store to run...

Loaded and ready for the trek home.

Giddy-up.

"Would you rather live in the summer or the country?"

 That is the question my sweet grandpa used to ask when I was a little girl and would climb up on his knee for a bounce. I'm certain it was the perplexed look on my face that would make him smile and raise his grey bushy eyebrows at me while he waited for my answer. I remember considering his question very carefully and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of both, unsure of which would be the best answer. In the end I usually replied, "The summer," at which he would nod and smile broadly, making me feel as if I had answered correctly and would somehow help him make his own choice between the two.

My sweet grandpa has long since passed on, but I still sometimes think about his question and wonder what he would say if I would greedily answer, "Both!"

I'm not sure why, but there is something about the sight of my boys in blue jeans, leather gloves, and work boots (which my kids call "pig boots" because we bought them the summer we raised 4-H pigs)

 that just makes me smile. 

So yes, I would rather live in the summer AND the country.