. . . casting call . . .

. . . i was talking the other day
with my cute former neighbor,
when she remarked off-handedly,
"i grew up on wisteria lane . . . and you . . ."
{she said, pointing at me}
". . . are bree" . . .. . . which made me laugh hysterically . . .
. . . until i took the quiz and i was bree . . .
. . . {hopefully minus the crazy kids, etc.} . . .
. . . actually, we had a really big laugh
deciding which of our neighbors
would play the other roles . . .
. . . so, which housewife are you? . . .

. . . even harder to believe . . .

. . . is the fact that
twenty-eight years ago today,
i became a mom . . .. . . happy birthday to
amber leigh romney hansen . . .
. . . you are a hero to me ~
it's a privelege & blessing
to be your mom . . .

left to right: halleigh anne~ 5 years old
amber & chris
addison leigh~ 6 years old
tate william~ 2 years old
{not pictured} tagg christan~ 4 months old
{this is how beautiful amber looks

just two months before giving birth}

. . . go halleigh ~ it's your birthday . . .

. . . i'm not sure how or when it happened . . .
. . . but somehow this little munchkin . . .

. . . is turning five today . . .

. . . happy, happy birthday halleigh anne . . .

. . . time to celebrate . . .

. . . stuph from steph . . .
. . . is one year old today . . .

. . . party amongst yourselves . . .

. . . ah, fall . . .

. . . that time of year when
you crave a big pot of soup . . .
. . . the kind that warms you
from the inside out . . .
. . . that time of year when
the new crop of apples
hits the produce stands . . .
. . . all juicy and crisp . . .
. . . that time of year when
the leaves change from
the green of summer
to the fiery reds and rich golds of autumn . . .
. . . then you wake up
and realize that, wait . . .
. . . hold the phone . . .
. . . you live in arizona . . .
. . . where september = more of the same . . .
. . . so the best thing to do is
have another pool party . . .
. . . remember when the words
"pool party"
were music to your ears? . . .
. . . when you didn't cringe
at the very thought of
donning a bathing suit? . . .
. . . when you could
go down the slide
100 times in a row . . .
. . . forward . . .
. . . then backward . . .
. . . and it never got old? . . .
. . . when you spent
quality time with cousins . . .
. . . and it really didn't matter
what your hair looked like? . . .
. . . or if your plans
for a fantastic tan
never really did pan out? . . .
. . . when a cool dip was
just the ticket
on a really hot afternoon? . . .
. . . and the big people
were there just for you? . . .
. . . for piggy back rides and
tossing you miles into the air? . . .
. . . and, oops! . . .
. . . i guess big people
can have fun, too . . .
. . . remember when
wedgies
were no problem? . . .
. . . i love september . . .
. . . fall will be here soon enough . . .
. . . say, early january . . .
. . . posted especially for amanda . . .

. . . the next day . . .

. . . okay, i'll admit it . . .
. . . my attitude isn't always super positive . . .
. . . but for today, at least, i •l•o•v•e• everyone . . .
. . . fyi: i have never questioned my feelings for dear friends involved here . . .
. . . my "big" day was over the top . . .
. . . from finding my front door,
first thing in the morning,
decorated with a gigantic bow
and fifty {i counted} hearts {must be a BIG door} . . .
. . . to this adorable
hand~crafted birthday banner {in the background} . . .
. . . and {up close} . . .
. . . and these sentimental lollipops ~
each decorated with its own flower collar . . .
. . . good friends dug deep to think up
fifty things to love about me . . .
. . . check out these amazing roses ~
yes, there are fifty of them . . .
. . . i usually end up reading
"old people" birthday cards
while i wait at the car wash . . .
. . . no reason to do that in the future . . .
. . . because they were all addressed to
me
yesterday . . .
. . . some even included antique photos . . .
. . . {i am NOT pictured on the card in the middle} . . .
. . . many, many thanks to
family, friends, neighbors,
children and
my great husband . . .
. . . you all make me so happy . . .
. . . love you lots! . . .
. . . here's to the next fifty years . . .

. . . half a century . . .

. . . fifty is a really big number . . .
. . . for my really big day,
my sweet daughters,
sons-in-law,
and husband
wrote "poetry" for me . . .
. . . you know those kind of poems
~ i believe they're called acrostic ~
where you write the letters of your name
down the left hand side of the page
and then write something
about the person
beginning with each letter? . . .

. . . everyone was a good sport
{honestly, who'd want to write about me?}
and participated . . .
. . . they were given exactly three minutes
to compose their
deepest and most heartfelt thoughts . . .
. . . amanda collected and shuffled them . . .
. . . then, as she read them
i was instructed to guess
who had written what . . .
. . . it was pretty easy,
since each person was SO amused
at his/her own cleverness,
they couldn't stop laughing . . .
. . . some of my favorites
~ in no particular order ~
and not necessarily true . . .

S ~ super, stylish, sewing genius
T ~ tearful in regard to Drew, the bees knees, toes polished
E ~ expert, elegant decorator, elite blogger
P ~ phanny packs, phlowers, pretty awesome cinnamon bread
H ~ humorous, has leftovers!, halloween ~ not her favorite
A ~ amber/amanda/amelia/andrew's mommy, awesome gardener
N ~ never wears PJs in public, nifty, no nonsense
I ~ is my fave MIL, incredible Christmas decor, independent
E ~ every time i'm over~house is clean, excellent stroganoff

. . . i thought everyone's ideas had been shared,
but amanda started reading yet another . . .
. . . she had even gotten
elder drew to participate via email . . .
. . . my laughter turned to tears
{see "T" above}
as i listened to his contributions,
which may not seem as funny to you
as they were to me
{i'll try to explain where necessary}

S ~ says i'm the cutest boy at porter elementary [he was]
T ~ tunnle, carple {check spelling, but that's funny} [i have it]
E ~ egg pan [he made scrambled eggs every morning and never washed the pan]
P ~ phiddle pharting around [his favorite phrase of mine]
H ~ hunts for key changes [i point them out during Wilberg arrangements of MoTab numbers]
A ~ ANDREW DAVIS ROMNEY!
N ~ as in nancy [it's hard to spell romney over the phone - "m as in mary, n as in nancy"]
I ~ i'll be home in 18ish months
E ~ excellent {insert uplifting noun here}

. . . he's a funny/weird boy
and i'm so glad he was included
in the festivities . . .
. . . in a bonus email yesterday,
drew said, "happy birthday, mama . . .
. . . your birthday is mexican independence day
and people are going to party so hard tonight . . .
. . . they party the day before
so that they can be hung over
on the day that they don't have to work . . ."
. . . i'd like to thank all of mexico
for celebrating right along with me . . .

. . . in other news, i wanted to include actual photos of these literary masterpieces,
but i'm working on a new computer here and
i have no idea whatsoever how to get my photos from there to here
{my dear son-in-law spent the better part of his weekend
setting up everything "new computer"-related for me,
but i still have plenty of questions. HELP, BRENT!!!!}

. . . magic . . .

. . . to tell you the truth . . .
. . . sometimes i'm kind of puzzled . . .
. . . like, for instance . . .
. . . how in the world . . .
. . . does this ↓ . . .
. . . turn into this ↓ . . .
. . . it's kind of magical, really . . .
. . . but, i'm no houdini or anything . . .
. . . so, i'll show you how it's done . . .
. . . c'mon . . .
. . . start with these pieces . . .
. . .rectangles, big squares and little squares . . .
. . . all cut to specification . . .
. . . if you have almost enough
of a fabric you really love . . .
{and who wouldn't love this paisley?
i'm kind of obsessed with it}
. . . but not quite . . .
. . . i totally believe in piecing scraps . . .
. . . notice this square is made of
four separate pieces . . .
p.s. this square is 2 7/8 inches on all four sides
{you can tell i paid attention in
mr. steiner's geometry class
my sophomore year at MHS ~
that's where i learned that
a square is the same length
on all four sides and
all angles are right angles}
. . . anyhow . . .
. . . start with the sixteen big squares . . .
. . . and just like that . . .
. . . bibbidy~bobbidy~boo . . .
. . . don't blink . . .
{someday i might take that antique masking tape off my machine}
. . . you end up with these ↓ . . .
. . . see, it really is kind of tricky . . .
. . . then one little square gets attached
to a magic triangle square . . .
. . . then another triangle square
gets added to the other end . . .
. . . making a . . .
{ready for this?}
. . . trapezoid shape out of
the small floral fabric . . .
. . . impressive, no? . . .
. . . then add a paisley rectangle
to each trapezoid . . .
. . . and another trapezoid on the other side . . .
. . . and abra cadabra . . .
. . . there you have it . . .
. . . i call this block
"laying down spools
and
standing up spools" . . .
. . . or "can you spot the spinning pinwheel?" . . .
. . . but real quilt people call it
"borrow and lend" . . .
. . . what do they know? . . .
. . . here are some other scrappy versions . . .
. . . i've gotta get these finished . . .
. . . i need to start on some
baby bedding
very soon . . .
{fyi . . . i'm pretty good at jigsaw puzzles}
{oh, and tetris, too}

. . . i remember . . .

. . . knock knock . . .
. . . who's there? . . .
. . . 9/11 . . .
. . . 9/11 who? . . .
. . . you said you'd never forget . . .

. . . i heard that "joke" on the radio this morning
and it got me thinking . . .

i remember:

• waking my family that morning just in time to watch on the morning news as the second tower was hit
• feeling like i'd been slugged in the stomach
• a lovely evening spent dining with great family and friends at the "windows on the world" restaurant two years earlier
• thinking, "oh my goodness, drew was there less than a month ago" on his national boy scout jamboree trip
• panicking because my brother worked in one of the towers {i was unaware that his offices had recently moved to rockefeller center, thank heaven}
• the summer of 1993 visiting that brother at his then world trade center office and walking to lunch past the site of the recent garage car bombing, which was still surrounded by yellow warning tape
• driving 16 hours to fort collins, colorado to attend our newly married daughter's wedding open house - our flight, along with all others, had been grounded
• listening to the car radio - non-stop - for any news of why? who? how could this have happened?
• immediately buying and flying an american flag daily for a long time

. . . i hope i never forget . . .

. . . j•e•l•l•o . . .

. . . sometimes i like to tell myself that
i
could have a food/cooking blog . . .
. . . lots of people do. . .
. . . many are pros . . .
. . . but some cute people i know
have one, too . . .
. . . it seems like all you need to do is:

• choose a recipe
• tell people how to make it
• take appetizing photos along the way

. . . i decided to give it a try . . .
. . . it started like this: ring, ring . . .
. . . "hi, stephanie?
it's our ward's turn to
serve dinner
at the homeless shelter
this sunday.
can you make a
strawberry pretzel jello?"
"sure. not a problem.
happy to help" . . .
. . . honestly, though,
who makes only
one jello salad
at a time? . . .
. . . this is a personality trait i inherited from my mother
who whipped up a quadruple batch of baked beans
{a mere twenty pounds}
for our family dinner recently
which was attended by eleven adults,
nine children, and two babies ~
we now know that one batch
would have been more than enough . . .
. . . i, therefore, determined that
i would make
four batches of this dessert:

• one for said homeless shelter dinner
• two for family dinner
• one {with no crust} for cute niece with celiac disease
  

. . . anyhow . . .
. . . strawberry pretzel jello is really yummy . . .
. . . but i hardly ever make it . . .
. . . you all have the recipe
{or just google it} . . .
. . . i'll quickly go over the basics . . .
. . . start with a crust of:

• crushed pretzels
• sugar, and
• melted butter

. . . bake and let cool . . .

. . . if surprisingly
nice-looking fresh strawberries
are available,
i suggest using them . . .
. . . if not, frozen berries will do . . .
. . . fresh berries need to be
washed and hulled . . .

. . . then sliced . . .

. . . mix jello with boiling water . . .
. . . stir to dissolve completely . . .
. . . add ice cubes . . .
. . . stir until melted . . .
. . . carefully add jello
to sliced strawberries . . .

. . . beat room temperature cream cheese
with sugar . . .
. . . fold in whipped topping . . .
. . . spread over cooled pretzel crust . . .
. . . the entire crust . . .

. . . please make sure
the cream filling
goes all the way
to the edges of the pan . . .
. . . what you are trying to do
is form a seal
between the crust and the jello . . .
. . . imagine cream cheese caulking,
if you will {or don't} . . .

. . . carefully pour
jello/strawberry mixture
over the creamy filling . . .
. . . and, voila! . . .
. . . strawberry pretzel jello times four . . .
. . . but, alas . . .
. . . do you see what i see? . . .
. . . look at jello number two
{count from the bottom of the picture} . . .

. . . does this help? . . .

. . . upon closer inspection of the recipe,
i discovered that i left out
a VERY important step which is:
you need to refrigerate
the jello/strawberry mixture
until partially set
before it becomes
the top layer of this salad . . .
. . . so, my helpful tip of the day is this:
read the fine print and
don't skip any steps
when following a recipe . . .
. . . by the way,
this photo represents
only the beginning of
what turned into a
full-scaled gelatin disaster . . .
. . . within minutes, ALL of the jello
had seeped underneath
the cream cheese filling . . .
. . . this makes for a soggy pretzel crust . . .
. . . and that, my friends,
is why i will not be
hosting a food/cooking blog . . .
{that, and the fact that
i would certainly need a better camera . . .
my pictures=not good}

. . . five/nineteen . . .

. . . yes, you read that right . . .
. . . drew is now out of the "twenty"s
and down to the"teen"s
of months remaining to serve . . .
. . . yesterday, i received this lovely photo . . .

. . . then another came shortly afterward titled
"crap i didn't mean to
send that last one,
but that is a building
that always
makes me think of mom" . . .
. . . such a thoughtful boy . . .
. . . it's easy to see why
i miss him so much . . .


• . . . update . . . i'm a little surprised
that drew was reminded of me
by this building . . .
{kayola . . . in regard to your question
"is it the pink or the stripes?"
the answer is yes}
. . . actually . . . it should have
made him think of
his sister amanda
who was responsible for
this awesome paint job . . .
. . . in her upstairs bedroom,
which has only recently been repainted . . .