Blog Busters

Saturday was another beautiful and sunny day.


The way to the hot tub at night.


The way to the hot tub during the day.


Katie enjoying the morning sun reading her book.

Steve enjoying the indoors watching Ironman 2.

Heather and Maya enjoying the hot tub.

Sacred mommy-daughter moment

Rod, Alex and Carsen busting my blog attempts.

Boys coming up for air.

Still blog busters at work by not showing their faces.

The beautiful scenery to the mountains and valley from the cabin.

Rod enjoying BYU game on Saturday afternoon.

Katie and the boys watching the game.

Garden of Eden

We woke up to a beautiful day with gorgeous views. Our plan was to do the following:

Nothing, then nothing, and after that nothing. That sounds like a perfect plan.


Katie's brother's cabin in Eden. It is a gorgeous cabin and we are so happy to spend the whole entire weekend here doing...nothing.


As it turned out, Rod took the boys golfing to a nearby golf course, so Katie and I went for a nice morning/afternoon walk around the valley. There is no bad view here.


Katie and I enjoying our leisurely walk. I think we walked about 3 miles. It was a lovely clear day with temperatures in the 70s.


Two beautiful horses enjoying their afternoon. These ones didn't poop while we walked by, like the other ones.


The white speck in the pond is two swans.

So what we ended up doing today was:

Breakfast
Quick run to get some peach rings and Diet Coke for Rod
Walk
Sitting outside in the sun.
Sitting in the hot tub for a couple of hours with Katie
Dinner
Movies/games

Just a perfect first day. I think I will finish it up with a book. Tomorrow the plan is as it was this morning. A whole lot of nothing.

Where There is Smoke, There is Fire

Last night we drove to our friends' cabin up in Pineview Reservoir. This was going to be a long weekend for us that was filled with nothing but pure relaxation. Of course we arrived during my birthday, so we had to celebrate it with a nice dinner and cake and ice cream. I had told Katie that if she will bring the candles, I will bring the cake. She also wanted to make dinner so before we could eat the cake, we had to have dinner.

After dinner, the candle lighting started. All 47 of them. The results were:

-I was little chilly so I was able to warm up by the fire.
-by the time the last candle was lit, the first ones had burned down
-the frosting melted off the cake.
-the candle wax covered the frosting.


That's a nice fire to warm up by.


Ready to blow out the candles before they burn everything.


Too many candles...


Seriously? I am behind the smoke.


Katie, Carsen, Rod and Alex enjoying their Magelby's chocolate cake.

Happy birthday to me!

Breakfast Trilogy on my Birthday

I am turning 47 today (holy crap!). I sometimes wonder how I got to be so old. I must have blinked because I don't have any other explanation. This morning I woke up to two beautiful men voices singing happy birthday (in Finnish) to me while they were carrying a breakfast tray, gifts and a card to me. I propped myself up in the bed and marveled about the birthday bounty. It was a trilogy.

1) Poached egg with apple walnut smoked cheddar (ohhh, so good)
2) Thrice cooked oatmeal (it was cooked in the microwave in 10 second increments 3 times, hence the "thrice", says Rod) This was very good.
3) Salt-brined French Toast. This was no good. There is a little glass jar by the stove that I brought from Paris last year. I keep "Real Salt" in this jar with a little spoon in it. Rod thought it was cinnamon sugar because the salt has little specks in it. Rod went back to the kitchen and cooked up a new batch of French Toast and that time it was excellent and so yummy.

Rod said that he thought he was this amazing chef on my birthday morning, but now he has become just another blog entry. That is super funny. Do I live my life from blog entry to blog entry? Not sure. Anyway, the breakfast was so good and the boys were so thoughtful. I loved my birthday morning.


Breakfast trilogy and my two new books: Ken Follett "Fall of Giants" and Vince Flynn's "American Assassin". Happy reading to me.


Eventhough I sent Rod my birthday wish list, of course I had to do a little of my own shopping. So, I bought a new purse and a new "whatchamacallit" knitted tunic type of thing.


My mom sent me 2 books that I wanted and a surprise scarf. Ilkka Remes "Shokkiaalto" and Pirjo Tuominen's "Mariaana, Vantaan Tytär".

Thank you all for a wonderful birthday.

And start saving your money for the Bora Bora trip in 3 years. You are all invited.

Birthday Luncheon with My Old Friend

Yes, Nancy is my old friend. She is turning 69 tomorrow and I have known her for 20 years. We share a birthday, which happens to be tomorrow, 10/14. Ever since we worked together at the BYU Health Center in 1991-1996, and every year since, we have celebrated our birthdays together. Usually we go to lunch but one year we went to California for a long weekend, which was super fun. This was when Nancy was still working and was in good health. Nowadays it is a different story. She is in poor health and can barely walk. I love this woman, and we don't just share a birthday, we share a lasting friendship.


Nancy matched the decor of La Jolla Groves (lemon yellow and white).


Great friends having a lunch together. Happy birthday to US!

Bonfire at the Kofford's

We went to the Koffords on Saturday night to make some Smores. It was a fun get-together with lots of laughter and Smores.


Koffords' firepit


Not sure what Alex and Hunter were doing.


Two baldies: Rod and Quinn preparing their Smores for roasting.

While we adults were outside chatting and eating, the kids were inside baking. What?


Alex and Hunter made chocolate cupcakes and here is the result. They were really yummy.

Carson also got in the action. That's really pretty, Hunter.

Hunter and Alex showing off their baking talents.

Hunter, Kennedy and Alex enjoying their cupcakes. Funny kids. Fun night. Great friends.

10 years on 10/9/10

I should have been smarter to think through the start of my employment at Sybase . I should have had a vision that maybe, just maybe, I would still be here in 2010 when I would be celebrating my 10-year anniversary. And what would be a better date to celebrate that momentous occasion than 10/10/10. Nope, I wasn't smart enough. And now, I will celebrate my 10 years here the day before.


My 10-year proof.


I got to choose my 10-year anniversary gift from a list of many potential gifts. I settled on this 90-piece flatware set. If I'm still here in 10 more years, I get to choose a park bench. Yay!


This 56K modem is a proof that I have been here a while. It is still sitting on my bookshelf reminding me and others that I am a fixture of this establishment.

Artwork that Alex created when I started here 10 years ago. According to this artwork, Rod still had hair back then. And obviously I wore my hair like Princess Leia.

The whiteboard in my office still shows Alex's artwork from the years past. If you didn't know, our family lives under a perpetual rainbow. I don't dare wipe the board clean.

Cheers to me for being such a valiant employee of Sybase...now SAP (Sybase was purchased by SAP in July). My director congratulated me by saying: "I'm not sure wishing another 10 years is in order since sudden, shameful wealth would be preferable in my way of thinking." I hope his wishes come through in my case.

60 Hats - Not So

The Humanitarian Center wanted more hats this fall. Like last fall, I went quickly to work to make as many hats as possible. I made a goal for myself to knit 60 hats by December 1. I made 15 different hats and was ready to just keep knitting until I received an email yesterday that the Humanitarian Center doesn't want more hats but scarves instead. I'm flexible. I can adjust. Rather than knitting circles, I can knit straight, long 5 foot long scarves.

These are the hats I donated to the Humanitarian Center so far. Stay tuned for the scarves. Do I dare make a goal for myself? How about 20 scarves? That's a good goal.

First Snow of the Season

Timpanogos Mountain this morning. Soon the snow will be at our door step. UGH!

Pathetic Game-Fun Visit

On Friday afternoon we drove to Logan to see BYU play football against Utah State Aggies. We had high hopes for the team, but we were sorely disappointed with the outcome. Another loss for BYU. The best part of the evening was the nice visit we had with Liz and Brad. They got us the tickets and saved us seats in the stadium (eventhough we were sitting in the middle of Aggie fans). Thanks guys for the lovely evening. Sorry we couldn't stay longer.