Somethings Never Change - Somethings Do

Well - as you can see from these two photos - somethings never change! You may recognize one of the photos from when Logan was 18 months old and appeared in a Nike ad. The other photo is from this week's Church News and an article on Homecoming Spectacular at BYU. The Young Ambassadors performed in the show. Maybe someday Logan will learn to close his mouth when he has his picture taken!

Fortunately somethings do change -Cali played in the Powder Puff Football came this week! Never thought I'd be watching my daughter play football! The seniors played the juniors and the seniors won. They will play the seniors of Sunset - their rival high school.

Fortunately she cleans up pretty good and she looked beautiful for her date to Homecoming. It was a pretty crazy afternoon. The gal who usually does Cali's hair for dances wasn't available so Cali figured she could do it herself. Well it wasn't working out too well and Cali was panicking a little so I called our neighbor, and the YW President in our ward to see if she could come over and help. Tina tried her best but it just wasn't working so as Cali's date and his parents were pulling up in front of the house Cali was dunking her head into the tub to start over - we were just a little stressed. Jim kept everyone entertained downstairs while Cali pulled it together upstairs and got her hair done and makeup on in 15 minutes! We got pictures taken and got them out the door to dinner. While upstairs Tessa was having her own hair crisis!!

Let's just say it was a pretty stressful hour or so!! But both girls ended up looking beautiful and they had a great time. Tessa went with a group of her freshman girl friends. They had dinner at her friend Jenny's house and then went to the dance together.

Cali and her date had dinner at Nona Emila's - when they walked in there were our neighbors the Balzers and the Adams. Olivia had fun walking by the table and checking up on Cali and her date. They had a great time at the dance and then went over to someone's house afterwards to hang out.

Having TWO girls getting ready for Homecoming at the same time was a little more than I bargained for!!

It was a fun Homecoming week - Monday was "the Office" day so Cali wore one of Jim's ties to work with a white shirt. Both girls dressed in red and blue for spirit day. We all went to the Homecoming game Friday night. I supervised the Krispy Kreme sales. Westview ended up winning 32 -12 against Aloha.

I spent a lot of time this week getting my new blog up and running - if you haven't checked it out please do so - http://www.ahomebasedmom.com/.

We enjoyed the weekend and watching Conference. Grandma and Grandpa Best joined us on Sunday - we watched and ate - enjoying homemade cinnamon rolls, pot roast, tomato tart, corn on the cob, home made bread (If you like Macaroni Grill - this recipe is for the bread they serve at the restaurant) and yummy Snickers cookies .(these are SO good - I'll have to share the recipe!) While watching we were able to get all of Cali's faceless dolls stuffed and stitched up - all 50 of them. Now we just need to finish up their little hospital gowns. Now I just need to get her costume for the play done - it's due tomorrow and I just got it cut out!

Boy Update: Clark took a date to see Shayla's show this week- Thoroughly Modern Millie. Both boys went up to Salt Lake to the Priesthood session on Saturday night - had a little fender bender on the way home. Fortunately no one was hurt and it wasn't their car!

Tip of the Week

So -this is what you do when your teenage daughter's friend leaves a t-shirt covered in wet paint (a Thespian bonding activity) in the back seat of her car and then your teenage daughter (who shall remain nameless) throws her nice winter coat in the backseat, forgetting the t-shirt with wet paint is there, right on top of the shirt!!

You get on the internet and google - paint removal from fabric - and viola you get the answer -HAIRSPRAY! So I gave it a try and half a can of hairspray later the majority of the paint is out of the coat and it is still wearable - yeah!! You never know when this piece of info may come in handy!

Frankenstein Comes a Knocking!

Well, we can all sleep better this week - Cali has a date to homecoming!! All week long her friends kept telling her - you're going to get asked, you're going to get asked. But Friday arrived and still no date...mom was getting worried! Homecoming was only a week away. Saturday came and still no date. And then - Saturday night 10:00 p.m. and the door bell rang and there standing at our door was a full size cut out of Frankenstein! He had a sign that said Homecoming? and then a sign around his neck that said "Frank Ben Stein" We all screamed - not because there was a full size Frankenstein at the door but because CALI HAD A DATE TO HOMECOMING!! A cute boy from school - Ben Neal. Of course my creative brain went into overdrive to come up with a way to respond to his invite. Now in the olden days we would just have picked up the phone and asked ' Hey do you want to go to Homecoming" and then answered with a simple yes or no. But that is not the way they do it nowadays - it is an event, a production!


Well as I lay in bed Saturday night - the idea came - we needed to make a Bride of Frankenstein cake with a sign that said "Frankly, I'd love to go to Homecoming with you." Well thanks to the internet we found a picture of a Bride of Frankenstein cake and with a few contributions from the neighbors (black gel frosting, black food coloring and two bolts for the side of the head) and after several hours of making a HUGE mess in the kitchen tonight we had one - Jim thought it looked like a cat but then he had never heard of the Bride of Frankenstein - WHERE HAS HE BEEN?!?!?

Cali and Tessa are off making the delivery to Ben's house right now. I think I am more relieved than she is!


We got the old sewing machine humming again this week. We got Cali's homecoming dress "modestified" with a cute little black satin jacket. We've also been sewing the dolls for Cali's faceless doll honors project. She is making 50 faceless dolls. The doctors give these to children having surgery and actually draw on the body of the doll to show them where they are going to operate. Tbey have cute little hospital gowns on them too. Thanks to Grandma Wilkes, Aunt Tamara and a couple of people in the ward she had enough money to buy the fabric and stuffing she needed. Several sisters in the ward donated fabric. Grandma Best has help cut the fabric out and she has been busy clipping and turning the dolls right side out after I sew them. Cali and her class of Laurels spent one activity night stuffing the dolls so we are making good progress on the project.


Cali also brought home her costume for the school play - all I have to do is make a vest for her so that will be easy. She is a little girl named Leslie who has funny braids (think Pippi Longstocking) and can only read upside down so she stands on her head occasionally durng the show. It should be a fun show. She keeps busy with rehearsals every day after school.


We overdosed on doctor's appointments this week - all three of us girls had dental appointments (no cavities, yeah), I went to the orthodontist and had my yearly check up with my OBGYN - fun, fun!. The girls were suppose to go in for some immunizations too but I postponed that until next week - enough doctors already!!


I have spent a lot of time this week getting my "business blog" set up - it is entitled "a homebased mom" It is a blog for women who have home based direct sales businesses. I am having a lot of fun with it - I will share tips and ideas for balancing home and a business as well as sharing fun recipes, cooking ideas and book recommendations and other homebased ideas . I have had a lot of fun setting it up but it has been a lot of work. I am using Word Press which is a much more complicated system than the one I do this blog on - it is all written in html (computer geek language) which I don't understand at all. I have been taking a Blog course and the first lesson they teach you is that if you can't figure it out quickly - don't spend much time on it - but hire someone to do it for you. So I went onto Craig's List here in Portland to find someone to help me get the blog set up. I got the name of a guy and we emailed a few times and I set up a time to meet him in a coffee shop across town - a little out of my comfort zone but figured we'd be in a public place, in broad daylight. Well, he turned out to be a great, laid-off computer geek who was willing to help me for $10.00 an hour. After we were done I paid him $20 an hour because he was worth it!


I plan on "unveiling" my new blog tomorrow so will send along the link to you - please feel free to share it with any of your friends who may find it helpful. Especially any women you know who run home based business!


Tessa's week was school -dance - school - dance repeat!


Jim flew to Colorado on Monday and then flew onto Idaho Falls and got home late Thursday evening. He missed Back to School night at the high school so I got to go by myself. I made it to most of each girl's classes and met most of the teachers. I sat through the wrong AP Psychology class though - wrong room - oh well!


Cali and I attended the General RS broadcast on Saturday night. They invited all the graduating Laurels and had a really nice presentation for them - introduced them and gave them each a personalized crystal bracelet. It was very sweet.



Boy Update: I guess Logan's picture is in this week's Church News (ours doesn't come until Wednesday) so be sure and check it out if you get it! Shayla's show (Thoroughly Modern Millie) opened this weekend so her parents were in town. Logan went to dinner with them before the show (just he and the parents) and out for dessert after (with Shayla too!)


Clark is getting this dating thing down and had two dates this week (3 originally but one rescheduled for next week)- one was a double date with Logan and Shayla. After which he and a group of mission companions drove to SLC for an all night Halo party. Clark assured me the were going to get it out of their system and this would not be a frequent occurance!




Recipe of the week. I have become somewhat addicted to food blogs -there are a lot of them. I came across this recipe on one this week - They are so yummy and the recipe makes a ton!! Cali took a plate full to her Thespian Mixer Party Saturday night and we delivered plates to Grandma and Grandpa Best and some friends and there were PLENTY for us!

If you like lemon (David you are going to love these) you will absolutely LOVE these cookies. Grandpa Best has already asked me to make more!






Lemon Drop Cookies

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup butter/shortening ( I used 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup butter flavored shortening)
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon extract
4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. soda
1 1 /2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
finely chopped zest of 1 lmeon
6 oz. package crushed lemon drops ( I found them in the bulk food section of Winco) I used lemon drops - NOT lemon heads.
2 cups powdered sugar
juice of a lemon


Preheat ove to 350. Cream sugar and shortening in mixer with paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add eggs and flavoring and blend well. Sift dry ingredients and gradually add to wet mixture. Add lemon zest and crushed lemon drops (I did it in mini food processor so they were really fine) Roll in balls (Iused my small cookie scoop from Pampered Chef) Flatten with a fork. Bake on parchment paper for 10-12 minutes. Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice to make a glaze. Cook 1-2 minutes. Brush with glaze.