Change

Change is an interesting concept. Sometimes it can be an exciting thing like a vacation to a new place or maybe even a move that you have been looking forward to. Perhaps you are experiencing a change like a new addition to your family or a new job that brings in more money. But then there is the flip side. Change that causes sadness. A death , losing a job, a friend moving away or a relationship that ends.

I know why our Father in Heaven has given us these vastly different highs and lows. It is so that we can recognize the highs when they do come. The lows can be to humble us or to help us realize that we are dependant on more than just ourselves.

I've been experiencing such a myriad of highs and lows lately. Over the past two weeks my emotions have gone from extreme happiness to extreme sadness. It feels like I've been crying for a week due to happy times and sad. It is at times like this that I can't imagine what people do that don't believe in God. I know that I can pray for comfort and that He will help me. It won't take that sadness away completely but it will help me. I'm sure in ways that I don't even realize at times.

So despite the fact that I'm sad, I am grateful for change. It teaches us a lot about ourselves. So with the beginning of a new school year here is to hoping that all of us can embrace the changes in our lives.

Faire Time

I can't wait for the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire. This will be our 5th year of going and we love, love, love it. Our whole family looks forward to it. Right now we are in the full swing of planning what we will wear and how we will do our hair. Makenzie bought a new dress this year and my mom is making an underskirt to go with it. She is going to look stunning and I can hardly wait to see her in the finished outfit. I'm getting a new dress this year and can barely contain myself. It's taken me a few years of figuring out exactly what I wanted. Last year I found the perfect chemise and bought it. This year I'm getting the dress to wear with the chemise. I found a lady in Gresham that makes the type of dress I want and I can hardly wait to see it. She is customizing it exactly how I want it. So if you are interested in doing something fun and unique with your family then come join as at the Shrewsbury Faire!

September 13th and 14th 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Kings Valley, Oregon

Let's dig in the dirt

A couple of years ago we planted potatoes for the first time in our garden. I don't know why I waited so long. Every year while growing up we would have rows and rows of potato plants. It was Krista's and my job to plant them and help harvest them. I remember the feel of the dirt through my fingers and the smell as I would unearth more of that rich soil to uncover a treasure. Then I would dig a little more to find even more treasures. Potatoes are amazing plants. You plant three little seed potatoes in a mound of dirt and come back a few months later to unearth about 10-15 potatoes all connected underground through their network of roots. A couple of days ago I decided it was time to see what kind of treasures my girls could find under our own potato plants. This is what Emma found.



I couldn't believe my eyes. Our potatoes are bigger and better than any we have grown before. We certainly found some treasures.

See the green onions? I found those among the potato plants. They apparently sprouted up from some compost we threw in there this spring. You just gotta love a garden!

I washed all the potatoes up and put the big ones away for baked potatoes another day. The little ones I threw in a pan with some olive oil, fresh chives from my herb garden and some sea salt and baked them in the oven. When they were done they didn't even make it out of the pan.
We all kept wandering over and eating one and then another until they were all gone. Oh so good.

P.S. Merilee, you better hurry up before we get too greedy with these and dig up your share!

Come And Go With Me Today

In my roadmap I briefly mention a time in my life when many of my friends learned about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and were baptized. This occurred during high school.
So our 20th class reunion seemed like a great time to get all of us together. The last time we were all together was in 2000. We are spread out across the country and one of us even lives in Germany. As our reunion was approaching it looked like there was only going to be three of us there. Then, miraculously, two weeks ago I got a phone call from Eva. "I'm coming and I'm going to get a hold of Naomi and try to get her there too." I replied with, "Okay, I'll call Leah." Within 48 hours everyone had a booked plane ticket except for Quinn in Germany.

This is how it started. The ending is almost too emotional to write about. I debated whether to put this in my blog but since this is my journal I couldn't NOT write about it. It's hard to say goodbye to those you love. I'm not good at it. Who is? I stayed strong as I hugged each one of them goodbye but as I drove away I sobbed. Sad because I don't have them in my life on a daily basis to share every minute with and happy because our friendship is one of a kind. I also think tiredness has something to do with it.

When I went to bed:

Thursday: 1:30 a.m.
Friday: 2:00 a.m.
Saturday: 3:00 a.m.
Sunday: 6:00 a.m.

This was of course getting up extremely early each day too for the various reunion events and church and driving to the airport.

I am tired.

I have tons to say about the fact that I got to see some great people that I hadn't seen in 20 years. And I will blog about that another time. But for now, I just have to say that I am grateful for Sabrina, Michelle, Naomi, Eva, Leah and Quinn. Naomi, Quinn and Sabrina are converts. Eva made a comment last night about how not only did they gain testimonies while taking the discussions, those of us that were already members gained ours as well. We did it together and I will always be so grateful to my Father in Heaven for that. Your testimony is strengthened as you share it and that is what happened for each of us.

I have two things that I love the most about my time spent with these friends. Laughing, we are really good at this. And singing. The adults in our life were begging us to sing because that is what they remember the most of us. We used to travel around in our stake and sing in various wards. I think the love that we have for one another comes through in our voices and it makes for some amazing music. After singing the closing song in sacrament meeting, my husband, turns to all of us and in a very serious voice says, I don't care what you do tonight but you HAVE to sing that song again tonight at our house. We all laughed because he was so serious but we also understood what he meant.This is a picture of us at my house on the last night. We invited some more friends from our home ward to join us for some fun. Arthella, in the middle was our Laurel advisor.


Then there is the laughing. It feels like it is seriously non stop when we are all together. It's exhausting and I wouldn't have it any other way. One thing after another kept fueling the stockpile of material we had to laugh about. I won't get into it all because it wouldn't be funny to you. I will say this though, don't stand with your hands clasped behind your back if you think a strange man may come up and hug you from behind. There is only one place those hands will end up. I was glad I had hand sanitizer.Looking at old photo albums and laughing our heads off.


We were all emotional at the end of the weekend and made promises to have another reunion next year. Our bishop and his wife of when we were in high school have insisted we have our next reunion at their home. This time Quinn will be there and it will be complete.

This video clip is of singing one of our favorite songs from Girls Camp.

Dilly Beans

Since you are in the pickling mood from making your dill pickles, here is a great recipe for Dilly Beans. This recipe comes from Carolyn Jenkins, who was like a second mom to me growing up. Melodie and I would sit and eat these by the jarful when we were in high school. I make these and everyone who tastes them loves them.

DILLY BEANS
yield: 7 to 8 pints

Green Beans, whole 4 lbs.
Crushed red hot pepper - 1/4 tsp. per pint jar
Mustard Seed - 1/2 tsp. per pint jar
Dill Seed - 1/2 tsp per pint jar
Garlic- 1 clove per pint jar

Vinegar: 5 cups
Water: 5 cups
Pickling Salt: 1/2 cup

1. Wash beans, drain, trim stems and cut into lengths to fill pint jars. You want these to be all approximately the same height. You will have extra pieces from the trimming so set them aside in a bowl and I will tell you what you can do with them in a little bit.

2. Wash your wide mouth pint jars in hot water. After they are clean leave them in a sink filled with hot water. You want your jars to be hot when you pack the beans in. Another way you can do this is wash them in the dishwasher and then let them sit in the hot drying cycle of the dishwasher until you are ready to pack the beans in.

3. Fill the jars with your beans. To get the most in the jar you want them to be standing straight up and down.

4. In each jar add your red pepper, mustard see, dill seed and garlic.

5. Combine vinegar, water, salt and heat to boiling. Pour boiling liquid over beans, filling to 1/2 inch from the top of the jar.

6. Put your lids and bands on.

7. Get a large water bath canner and process in boiling water for 5 minutes. Let me explain how to do this:

A water bath canner is different than a pressure canner. A pressure canner MUST be used for all meats and vegetables. EXCEPT for pickled vegetables and most tomato recipes. The vinegar and salt in the pickling recipes acts as a preservative. And tomatoes are naturally acidic. A water bath canner is essentially a large pot with a rack on the bottom. You can get them at bi-mart pretty inexpensively and it should come with the rack inside. Once you have one you can use it for making jams, jellies, tomatoes, salsa, peaches, pears and have them sitting on your shelf ready to eat anytime.



Fill your canning pot with water about 2/3 of the way full. Let it come to a boil and gently lower your jars of beans into the boiling water. If they don't all fit you will have to do them in batches. They cannot be stacked on top of one another. Your boiling water will stop once you add the jars of beans and then once it comes back to a boil start timing it. It needs to boil for 5 minutes. This is so it will be safe to sit on your shelf and look pretty and everyone can be so impressed with your culinary skills. No need to refrigerate these bad boys.

8. Remove jars and set on a wire rack to cool.

9. Let sit for 6 weeks until pickled. You are welcome to try these before 6 weeks. They may taste great. If they do let me know. My recipe doesn't say anything actually about waiting but I know that most pickled recipes like this do have you wait. So I do. But like i said, if you are too impatient to wait and they end up tasting great then I want to know about it too.

So about those little pieces of green beans I mentioned I would help you with? Well, throw those in a half pint jar and halve the amount of spices to go in with them. Pour your water, vinegar, salt mixture over the top just like the other jars and process the same. I call these DILLY PIECES and throw them in my potato salad. YUM, YUM.

Dill Pickles

Here is the recipe for the BEST DILL PICKLES EVER according to me. One thing to note about this recipe, because of the amount of vinegar/water ratio these are supposed to be stored in the refrigerator, not a shelf. However, my mom said she kept hers on the shelf and they were just fine. I tasted them and I didn't die or puke. In fact, I claimed them to be the best dill pickles ever. My mom is a Master Food Presever (there really is such a thing) and if she would keep them on a shelf then I would. But you can't quote her on that because she is a Master Food Preserver and it would be against everything she knows to be holy and true if you quoted her on something that wasn't absolutely according to the food preservation bible.

DILL PICKLES

What you need:



Pickling cucumbers (I had 7 lbs), distilled white vinegar, fresh dill, whole red chilies, garlic cloves, pickling salt and grape leaves.

You also need to have quart jars (think one lb. cucumbers per jar) and rings and lids for these jars. Do yourself a favor and use wide mouth jars and lids. They are so much easier for cramming resistent cukes.

Did you guess what my secret ingredient is? Grape leaves. Yep, picked from the vine and washed. You don't want to make this without. If you have to then use alum instead but I'm telling you they will not be as good.

1. Wash and clean your cucumbers.
2. Wash your quart size jars in hot water and set aside.
3. Pack each jar with 1 grape leaf, 1 small red pepper, one small clove of garlic. (If your cloves of garlic are really big just cut in half) and one sprig of dill. If the heads of your fresh dill are really big, tear them in half. Like this:

4. Trim off the blossom end of each cucumber. I like to trim both ends so I did. You can do that too if you like. My mom, the Master Food Preserver, says it isn't necessary but sometimes I just can't tell which end is the blossom end so I just trimmed both ends off all of them to make it fair for all pickles involved.

5. Pack your jars with cucumbers. Cram them in there.
6. Add a second sprig of dill on top.

7. In a large pot, for each jar you have packed, mix:

1/2 cup vinegar
1 Tablespoon pickling salt
1 1/2 cups water

8. Bring to a boil and pour into packed jars.
9. Place lid and screw bands on lids.
10. Put large baking sheet in a 200 degree oven.
11. Place quart jars, standing up, on baking sheet and let sit on a 200 degree oven for one hour.
12. Remove from the oven and let cool on wire rack.

Most pickle recipes require the pickles to sit for 6-8 weeks in order to complete the "pickling" process. This recipe however is ready to eat the next day. It has to do with putting them in the oven for that hour.

13. Store jars in the refrigerator.

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

I want to let everyone who reads my blog know about a great event that's being held on September 6th. On this day many women, men and their families will be walking to bring awareness to violent crimes against women. Not too long ago my dear friend, Rochelle, was a victim of rape and survived. She is one of the 2% of women who actually see the inside of a court room and win. Hearing her story is inspiring and I hope that you can dig a little in your pockets and help her reach her goal of raising $2000 by September 6th. If we all give a little we can do a lot!

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.
The point? Awareness!
"There is an old saying: "You can't really understand another person's experience until you've walked a mile in their shoes." Walk a Mile in Her Shoes asks men to literally walk one mile in women's high-heeled shoes. It's not easy walking in these shoes, but it's fun and it gets the community to talk about something that's really difficult to talk about: gender relations and sexual violence.

Violence does not just affect women. It affects the men who care about them, their families, their friends, their coworkers, and their communities.
Sexual violence is epidemic. Some of the statistics: Every two minute someone in America is raped. One in six American women are victims of sexual assault.That means someone you know, someone you care about, has been or may become the victim of sexual violence. It may be your mother, your sister, your friend, your girlfriend, your wife, your coworker, or your daughter."