A Recipe to Share

Francesca and I made these last night -- and they are quite yummy!

http://www.recipezaar.com/Easiest-Peanut-Butter-Chocolate-Cookies-Bisquick-336015

All you need is bisquick, pb, and a can of sweetened condensed milk a bit of vanilla and sugar. Of course if you have some Hershey Kisses to crown these beauties that's great too.

Okay -- had to add this one too --- I haven't made them YET -- but it looks very yummy -- a chocolate cookie with a buckeye on top!! That can't be a bad thing!!

http://jif.com/Recipes/Details.aspx?recipeID=2420

Enjoy!!

Preparations for Christmas

Our family tradition has been to shun Black Friday shopping and instead decorate our home. Last year I tried to do both, after the crowds and craziness I decided that I never had to do that again. And of course this year it turns out you were taking your life in your own hands going out on that day --- so I'm definitely sticking with our tradition.

What used to take Barry and me a couple of hours as newlyweds, is now an all day (sometimes multi-day) event. Barry preps the tree in advance, un-scrunching the branches and wrapping the lights. He's also great at lugging those totes down from the attic. Even though we've lived in this house 5 years – we seem to change it up every year. It makes it fun. This year we showcased all our Christmas books by putting them along the ledge in our foyer (will take a picture later). It's different – but I think it shows our love of books and shows how we try to focus on the spiritual side of Christmas.

By the end of weekend, all was done except the actual decoration of the tree. Barry is off on Mondays, so we spent that day outside (in majorly gusty winds) putting up lights. That's another area we change up a bit each year. For Family Home Evening we decorated the tree. It's fun to see that the kids enjoy the traditions we've established. It's the little things done the same way – like, special ornaments for each person. We even have a tradition for what goes on 2^nd to last and last. When it's all done – we finally turn on the tree lights (other room lights are off) and sing Silent Night. It sounds corny – but we love it and it truly is an important part of the whole experience for us.

Christmas has a way of sneaking up on me – but I'm glad it's here. I'm just afraid it will be gone before I'm fully in the spirit. So I'm embracing it. I want to enjoy it all, not get stressed. Remember when it seemed so long between Christmases! Well I'm trying to get that feeling back again. Savor the Season!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I don't know when I'll get the chance to sitdown and type again for a few days. And it's been a few weeks since I wrote anything. So I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving. I wrote in the YW newsletter that it would be a fun exercise to post on here 100 things I'm thankful for -- big things like my family and the gospel -- and little things like snack size ziplock bags and my favorite bubble bath. For right now that will have to be a some day maybe project -- perhaps ongoing throughout the year. I am very thankful for technology that allows me to communicate with my friends and family - in such a fun, creative and easy way across so many miles.

Wishing you and yours the best Thanksgiving Ever!!

Tori is Sweet 16

Well our teenager is now 16! Yikes!! We talked about her party for more than a year. We had lots of ideas. But all of them cost money. We tossed around the idea of a moon bounce and a carnival theme, a Roller Skating Party and I can't even remember all the rest. In the end budget became the biggest factor. We even thought about not doing a party using the money for shopping and lunch with her best buddy. But then I remembered my own 16th birthday -- and I wanted Tori to have a memorable day like I did.

Flashback: August 17th, 1983 My best buddy, Shireen, my sister, brother, Mom and Grandmother spent the whole day at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. The cherry on the top though was the concert that night: MY FAVORITE BAND!! Air Supply!! I even remember locking the keys to the car in the car. The state troopers had some fun with us, telling us that they'd have to bust out the window to get them. LOL. Memories!!

Flash Forward -11-01-08:

So we decided to have fun with a party at home -- as many friends who could come, hay bales to sit on, a make shift canopy of twinkle light, the chiminea, tons of balloons, chilli cheese dogs and chips. It came together to be a really fun evening. At first the friends from church and the friends from school were pretty separate -- but after a walk down to the playground people were mixing well --then they really had a blast playing flashlight tag. We had a really nice group of kids, gorgeous weather and it really was just a great evening.

Victoria's Homecoming

The Elections are Over! Hallelujah!!

I didn't think I'd post political stuff on this blog...but...I thought I'd share an experience I had this last week. I'm a conservative. I love talk radio. I've been following this election for two dang years!!! Well like I said, I'm a conservative - McCain was never my guy -- Mitt Romney was. So even though I don't like the outcome of the election and Obama's extreme liberalism scares the daylights right out me, I can't say I'm crying for McCain. Especially since his campaign workers seem determined to further wreck the republican party.

Okay, so what was my experience...well I got to be a poll worker for the first time ever. It was pretty neat. I didn't work in my own district, but down in Dover. Here's what I found so interesting though. In Delaware, election workers must be registered to a party and so you have half and half from each party. The republican workers followed the rules...we didn't talk politics on the premises. The democrats were pretty vocal in their "hope".

Considering the racial make-up of the district, I expected that when we posted the results on the door at the end of the night that it would be overwhelmingly for Obama. But surprisingly, of the 1000 votes cast (that's about 50% turn out) there was only about a 60 vote difference between the two. Delaware-wide though it went about 60% for Obama. My job was to pull signature cards, so I had to find 500 cards and then refile 500 cards. Once you're there (6 am) you can't leave until it's all over (no leaving for lunch or dinner, just breaks to eat what you packed) --we were out of there by 8:30pm. It was a long day -- super busy until noon but then it was just steady -- no after-work rush, we are all a little stunned because other districts were slammed all day.

Two last points:

1. I think we need to seriously reform the whole electoral college thing. I am actually for a popular election -- no college. But if not that, then let it be proportional to the popular vote -- no more winner-take-all states. It may have served a purpose way back in the day. But in this information age -- anyone who wants to be educated about the candidates has ample opportunity to get that education. It would certainly allievate this perception that there's a landside or a mandate from the people when truly we're more 50-50 in our decisions.

2. I was happy for the African American community. They now have this wonderful example of someone who has overcome a lot of things people would generally say are disadvantages. I was even happy for the people I worked with that day -- even though we didn't know the outcome for any other polling place but ours, they were gracious in their excitement. Do I think he's a good answer for ALL of America --nope. But his election does say something about how far we've come as a nation.

This last Monday we had a great time together. We were all scheduled to have our teeth cleaned. So that meant we were going to have to take the girls out of school early – but we combined the chore of going to the dentist with something really fun. We went to Fifer Orchards for their corn maze.

We had a map and Tori acted as our navigator. She did a great job. We made it through the maze in 23 minutes with very little back tracking. They had six stations within the maze with interesting bee facts. We found them all!
They also had a great slide, a soy bean sandbox and a John Deere trike course. As much fun as we had in the maze, the slide was a huge hit and probably the girls’ favorite activity.
On the way to the dentist’s office, we talked about the maze and likened it to our lives. We talked about how difficult the maze would have been if we didn’t have the map, how easily we could have been completely turned around and lost. Then the analogy continued that the map was like the scriptures. We had a really nice discussion. Family Home Evening on the road. We all agreed that it was a lot of fun and a great object lesson.
Our friends, the Menasco family, had us over a few weeks ago for family home evening and we were introduced to their tradition of each family member sharing a compliment for each family member. We decided to adopt the same idea in our family. I got many compliments that night for planning that activity!

Time Out for Women

On Saturday, I was able to go to Time Out for Women in Philadelphia. It was the 2nd time I’d had the opportunity to attend one of these events. It was really nice. Kind of a Mom’s mini-version of EFY. It had wonderful music and inspirational speakers.
www.deseretbook.com/time-out/ ( I hope this link works -- deseret seemed to be having problems when I tried to test it -- but maybe they take it down on Sundays)

I highly recommend it. If you have the opportunity, Go! Our ward had sixteen sisters attend. It was great to be there with the husbands at home holding down the forts, and just enjoy sister time!

My favorite quote was from the book The Uses of Adversity by Carlfred Broderick: The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain. It is resource in event of pain, and when that pain comes (and it will come because we came here on earth to have pain among other things), when it comes, rejoice that you have resource to deal with your pain." This book is actually a talk Brother Broderick gave -- I haven't read the whole talk yet -- but I found it online here:http://rusch.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/the-uses-of-adversity.pdf So I'll save you the price of the book! Enjoy!

General Conference

Sorry to have missed a week of blogging. Last Sunday was the end of Conference weekend. For my friends who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, twice a year our church comes together via television, satellite, and the internet in a worldwide broadcast. I love conference! Funny but when I was kid I dreaded it – it was too long and boring! Even though we only attended the Sunday sessions. We watch the Saturday and Sunday sessions now and with satellite television we get watch from the comfort of our home. I love BYUtv all through the year – but especially on conference weekends.
This conference was especially exciting because President Monson announced the building of five new temples. Temples are special places of worship for members of our church. A new temple is to be built in Philadelphia!! That will be our temple district. It cuts our travel time by half. It will be a smaller, vertical temple like Manhattan’s. It’s currently a parking lot, I got to see the sight on Saturday when I was in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is an interesting city that I’m looking forward to exploring. The temple site is only a couple of blocks from a kind of scary neighborhood. It will be interesting to watch the influence of the temple change that neighborhood.

Manhattan Temple

When we lived in Alaska the temple was seven hours away in Anchorage. But we were grateful that we could drive there, since we were overseas before that flying was our only option. When we moved to Delaware we were thrilled to be just two hours from the Washington DC temple. Barry and I still love the DC temple – it was the one of our youth, our first temple experiences and so beautiful!

Washington DC Temple

I’ll post a picture of the Philly temple just as soon as one is released. It’s hard to believe it will only be an hour away (traffic permitting)!! It is an amazing evidence of the growth of the church in this area and the faith of the members worldwide. We're so happy to have a part in it.

Crabbing

Well I missed a Sunday. I had a good reason though -- we had a Youth Fireside that we were heavily involved with and just weren't home much on Sunday.

Our week was a good one. For Family Home Evening last week we went crabbing. It was a lot of fun. We only had about a half hour of sunlight but in that time we were able to catch 2 crabs. The most exciting time is not just when you pull up the rope and see that crab. It's the delicate little dance you do getting that crab out of the trap without getting pinched. Our trip wasn't completely planned out - so those little crabs had to ride home in a grocery bag. We had even more fun once they were in the kitchen - and skittering around in the sink. Frankie (a huge crab lover!) was kind of freaking out. It was a fun scared though -- and she did help her dad eat those two little crabs.

Oops, where did Sunday go?

I went on the net to research a software question and the time just got away from me. So I thought I'd just post a quick note to say, we're all doing well. It's been a gorgeous week, very fall-like. I'm ready to put away the fans and window AC units. But I know that will bring on a heat wave, so we'll just walk around them for another week or so.

This weekend was race weekend in Dover. That's always exciting. Barry got to go in June and last fall all four of us went. It was a lot of fun. I have never seen so many tattoos or men without shirts. You would think that half naked men was a good thing, but no must of those guys REALLY needed those shirts – especially to cover up all those tattoos. Barry wasn't offered any free tickets this time around so we watched the race from the comfort of our own couch. One bonus was that Thelma and Chip (our fabulous next door neighbors) invited us over to share a bushel of crabs. They were the first we'd had all season and they were delicious – what a treat!

This picture is from last September. Barry's favorite driver is Jeff Gordon, Tori likes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Frankie likes who her dad likes, and I like whoever is winning and seems like a nice guy – especially if they're an underdog (and Jeff Gordon).

It takes three weeks to form or break a habit...

...or so the saying goes. But I'm not sure if that counts for a once a week habit. So maybe after 21 weeks of posting I'll have it down! I'm starting to really look forward to this time of the week though - and that goes a long way towards committing to a habit.

So this week flew by -- but then again don't they all. Most of the week was beautiful but on Thursday it got really cloudy. Usually not a big deal - except that Francesca is part of a group of church friends who formed a Young Naturalists Club and this weekend was their camp out. So all day Friday I watched weather.com and contemplated whether to gather the camping things or NOT. When it started raining here I threw in the towel. Camping in the rain is one thing, but setting up in the rain is really not fun! Francesca was heartbroken. This camping trip was just me and her- since Barry has to work on Saturdays - and Tori said thanks, but no thanks. The kids are quite a bit younger than she is. Anyway, we promised to set up the tent in the back yard and sleep out there Saturday night. About 8:30 I went outside to see if Francesca was ready to get in the tent for the night -- she asked me if we HAVE to sleep outside. Well you know I jumped on that, "No sweetheart, we don't have to sleep out here -- we'll just keep the tent up a couple of days to play in it." Yipee!! A 2nd reprieve from sleeping on the ground. I was especially relieved since the rain had turned everything so muggy and sticky. Today was really hot and humid -- bring on the fall weather please!

One consolation about missing the trip was that we could participate in Barry's work picnic. And this year they had a moon bounce. Since most of the employees are older, there aren't many kids. Victoria, Francesca and Whitney had the whole thing to themselves. Whitney is 17 and her family and ours are in the same ward at church, her dad is Barry's boss.

They had a great time even if the pics aren't great (taken on Tori's cell) you can still tell their having fun!

Tropical Storm Hanna

Well, we had Tropical Storm Hanna pass over us yesterday. We had been watching the new broadcasts pretty closely, knowing it was coming. Friday night we took in the fichus tree and took down the hanging baskets. The rain didn't have us worried but wind definitely concerns us. We have a big tree in the back yard that leans right over our garage. The poor thing is pretty old and brittle. So big, bad wind storms make us a little nervous.

The girls and I had decided that the storm would make for a perfect pajama day, watching movies after chores. So we were all snugged in - poor Barry had to work until the early afternoon. The broadcasters had said that's when the brunt of the storm would hit. But all in all it was a lot more hype than storm. Other parts of our area were harder hit, but we were spared. We got about 3 inches of rain. Rain we really really needed. The wind never materialized - it gusted every now and then - but in the end we've certainly had more intense thunderstorms than this tropical storm ever was.

It seems strange to say, but I was disappointed. I was all set to watch nature's fury. I'm disappointed until I think of that tree crashing down on the garage! I'm certainly not hoping for an honest to goodness hurricane to hit us either. The most impressive part of this storm was the weather maps.

Today there wasn't a cloud in the sky - gorgeous almost fall weather. What a difference a day makes!

Hey! I updated some pictures!

Follow the link on the right to our scrapwow page. I added a couple of scrapbooks. I hope you enjoy them.

Turning over a new leaf

I am going to try to take a shorter Sunday nap (my favorite time of the week!) to keep in touch with our friends and family. Today I wrote a long overdue newsletter - with probably outdated email addresses -- so if you didn't get yours (or would like one) just let me know. My plan is to take a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon to digitally scrapbook, write in this blog, or send out a newsletter. I want you all to know what's going on with us, share pictures and generally feel more connected to our friends and family -- an area I have neglected greatly in the last year. So add us to your favorites - check back here every week or two - and stay in touch with us!
Love you!!
P.S. - The picture turn was a mistake -- but since it matches my title I'm keeping it!

Coming Soon - the Delaware Babers News

We've been terrible about sharing pictures and updates -- I think it's been a year! But the Sturgills, and Lima Babers have inspired us to try this cool website. So hopefully soon you'll see and hear more from us. I keep thinking I'm going to time block a few hours a week and treat the time as though I'm doing our family history - but so far it hasn't happened. So pray for us -- that I'll finally get all my ducks in a row and start corresponding with our extended family once more.
Kathleen