Happy Easter!

We took a quick trip to Utah! We left Thursday morning. My cousin Melissa got married in the Manti temple Friday morning. The above picture was the view from the bed in our room at the Temple View Lodge! Nice little place! The sky at sunset was gorgeous!!!
We drove around that night trying to get a good picture of the temple. It was a full moon and we wanted to get a picture with the moon behind the temple, but the moon was behind the heavy blanket of clouds!!!

Still an awesome picture!

Melissa & Devin Wallace!!! Woo Hoo!

I got to see my great-nephews and great-niece at the reception. This is me and Ares! He loves me! Since the first time I met him, he's always smiling with me!!!! It's a gift!

Eddie loves this picture!!!

This is Tessa! Don't you just love the shoes! They are so cute!!! Always bows in her hair? well around her head! She is getting gorgeous red hair!!! She's so cute!!! That's my nephew David holding her. Love his shirt and tie!!!

This is the adorable Adam! He is so much fun! He can recite the entire book, "Where The Wild Things Are!" I'm impressed with how good he is when he sees us, cuz we really don't get to see each other that often, but he always says, Hi Dee! and if not in a car will even give me a hug!! How cute is that!!!!

We are so exhausted from this quick trip. We drove all the way home from Orem yesterday and started working on Easter dinner! We had 4 missionaries and Patricia, Elizabeth and Adam over for dinner. Great meal!!! Elizabeth brough dry ice so we made homemade root beer! DELICIOUS! Ham, potato salad, baked beans, yummy salad and rolls!

I'm tired now and I'm going to bed!!!!

Oh yes,! Thursday the 9th of April...Candace had a little girl! woo hoo! More info when I get it!

Yes, we are alive!

Sorry, it's been too long since we've updated! Today we have lots of pictures!

I took this picture a few weeks ago. We had a couple really pretty days. It obviously had just rained, because the sky was blue, not brown! This is our front yard view. Some days you can't see the mountains, but this day you could. Before the houses were built across the street, we had an even better view. At least there isn't a house right across from us, so when the flood control district fills up, we even have lake front property!

This is the avocado tree. We trimmed it almost 3 years ago. It never stopped producing. It has the best tasting fruit on it. Creamiest avocados you've ever eaten! DELICIOUS! There are still lots of avocados on the top branches. We have to wait until they fall themselves...too high to reach to pick. I think they taste better when they fall off the tree themselves!!!

The roses are blooming! This is the "big stick" rose Eddie planted last year. He likes them cuz they look like the Big Stick Popsicles! They are very pretty.

A fuzzy shot of another big stick rose!

The red roses are blooming too.

They look really velvety, even without the blurry pictures!

We have been working a lot in the back yard. Trying to get a garden in. We probably should have started a couple months ago, but better late than never. We have a lemon "bush" that was growing sideways! Eddie decided to cut off most of the bush and see if a branch that was growing straight up would continue to grow up instead of out. We'll see. Eddie actually wants to get rid of the bush, but I want to wait and see if it survives it's "pruning!"

The bush has been producing the best lemons these last few years. I'm sure it's Eddie's watering that has made them extremely juicy and the peels really thin. They're great to use in cooking and lemonade and making the garbage disposal smell good!

We also took out the red hibiscus. It has been infected with white flies for a few years, so we decided to remove it and eventually we'll buy some new hibiscus for the yard.

We also have this tree that planted and grew itself! Don't know what it is besides annoying! We've attempted to get rid of it several times, but obviously not very well and it was a very hardy tree.
Eddie took the chain saw to it!

This is what it looked like before the stump was removed.

The Missionaries came over and helped dig out the roots and remove grass and get the soil ready for planting! They've been very helpful. They live around the corner and we are always feeding them. They like to come over and do "service!"

They got the root out!

This is out under the avocado tree, next to the garage. My mom said she wants flowers out there. We've been planning this for a couple of years. Eddie went out a few weeks ago and finally got it ready for planting. We're going to grow impatiens! They like the shade!

We also got 3 new citrus trees. A mandarin, a Valencia naval orange and a seeless lime!

Eddie planted them! He doesn't like gardening or farming!

He just LOVES ME!

Here are the new citrus trees and the plot he made next to the sidewalk for my herb garden!

Here are the herbs I finally planted. We're calling it our Scarborough Fair garden. Yes, we have Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme! I planted them that way on purpose, so I could remember what they were. We also have Sweet Basil, Cilantro, Chives, Purple Sage and some sweet onions!
This is a photo taken this weekend during conference of our 3 sleeping people. Eddie actually had just woken up, but my Mom and Zena are still sleeping! We had a great weekend. Lots of family and friends, good food and of course great speakers!
So that's our update! I'll try and keep you posted. At least I'll have garden pictures to post!!

A Financial Fast!

I'm borrowing this idea from Totally Ready. It's a great blog! And a great idea! This is their blog today:

A financial fast for the next month.
Now, that is a great idea. What do we really need? How much do we really spend, and on what? Let’s find out. Here are the rules:

1. You will agree to the following guidelines for two weeks.
2. You will keep a journal and record all the items you wanted to purchase but did not.
3. You will eat all meals at home or brown bag at work.
4. You will pay all bills as they come due.
5. You will only purchase food and toiletries at the grocery store, nothing else.
6. If there is something you absolutely need, besides food or medicine, you will barter or trade for it.

That’s it. Please take the challenge. You can do it. At the end of the two weeks we will share what we have learned. Get that notebook out and get ready to keep a record of what you are doing over the next two weeks. Let’s get going today!

I challenge anyone who reads our blog to try this Financial fast for 2 weeks. I'm planning to start my fast on April 1st when the taxes skyrocket in California!!!!

For other great ideas check out the Totally Ready Blog!
http://blog.totallyready.com/

Join the Rebel Alliance

The week in Review!

This is Eddie cleaning and fixing the freezer last Saturday.
He is so handy to have!
The freezer is clean and working well again!

Yes, I made mac 'n cheese again. I think it had too much cheese this time. Eddie said it was perfect!

Our sad moment of the week! Elder Wilkins finished his mission and went home to Arizona. Elder Choi was transfered to Pickering Ward. We could see him at Stake functions! We will miss them both!

I tag anyone who reads this!

Okay, I read this on someone else's blog and decided it might be fun, so eveyone who reads this needs to do it too on their blog.

Go to whatever files you keep your pictures in. Click on the 6th file and the 6th picture and then blog about it!

Here's mine:

This photo was taken on Sept. 18, 2005. It's in my sister's backyard in Orem, UT. They were having a party for my nephew, Danny who had gotten married the month before in Vegas and was shortly reporting for a year of fun in Iraq. Eddie was already in Utah and I drove up for the party and invited him to come with me. The day before (Sept. 17, 2005) is when we decided to give this relationship-thingy a whirl. From my point-of-view, this day was pretty fun. I had never brought anyone to a family party. We were holding hands and everything. Everyone was tripping out on us. It was pretty hilarious. Eddie's memories of the day are not as cheery, but in time all wounds will heal!

Not my favorite picture! oh well!

Homemade Pizza

Yes, tonight for dinner we had homemade pizza. I found the dough and sauce recipe on-line. It turned out pretty good. I'm afraid of yeast, so I get nervous when I make something with it. I'm getting pretty good at it though. I need to work on keeping my dough thick. I tend to roll everything out too thin. The ends of the pizza hung over the side, so I filled the ends with lots of mozzarella cheese and turned the dough over and had stuffed ends!!!

Pizza Dough:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F

3. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Cover with your favorite sauce and toppings and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Pizza Sauce

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 tsp ground oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground paprika
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
½ tsp basil
¼ black pepper
DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, Mix together tomato sauce and tomato paste until smooth. Stir in all the other ingredients

I also threw in Italian seasoning.

I used a ton of mozzarella cheese and some grated parmesan too. I had the mini pepperonis. Eddie loves it!!!

11 California Spanish Missions in 5 Days

It started in Ventura at Mission San Buenaventura.
1.

The above shot was from the courtyard.

The one under from outside walking up the sidewalk to the mission.

Next, Mission Santa Barbara. 2.

They don't call it the Queen of the Missions for nothing.

3. La Purisima Concepcion Mission

This is a State Park. It was pretty cool. Lots of animals!

4. Mission Santa Ines

It's right next to Solvang! Who knew?!

5. Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa

6. Mission Carmel

Also known as San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo

7. Mission San Juan Bautista

This mission is right next to the San Andreas Fault!

8. Mission Santa Cruz

9. Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad
This mission had just finished mass when we got there.
10. San Antonio de Padua

We almost missed this one. It's on the grounds of Fort Hunter Liggett, an active military base.

11. San Miguel Arcangel

This one was the last one on our trip.

It received major damage in the 2003 earthquake. There wasn't much to see at this one!