THEY SAY IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! (duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh)

Thank-you! For the texts, phone calls, cards, blog post (Katie) and gifts yesterday. I have the best family and friends in the whole world.

Yeah so, yesterday was my big B-Day. It was a fabulous day. Since I had a dress rehearsal in the evening Olen took me out for lunch and then shopping! Two of my favorite things - eating and buying new stuff for me! We went to the Cheesecake Factory (yumm-o!) for lunch. We should have looked at the picture the waitress took of us before leaving such a big grateful tip. Oh well. You get the idea.

Porter wrote me little notes to copy the love notes Olen left around the house for me to read through out the day. And at rehearsal Olen texted our good buddy, Brent, and asked him to have the cast sing to me. I was lifted up on their shoulders and sang to by like a hundred people. I know, right? Awesome. Yeah, you never get too old to love that.

So thanks again, for making me feel so special on my humble day of birth.

P.S. It's Opening Night!!!

So I'm a couple days behind (I blame the play) but better late than never, right?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR CHRISSY-POO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

My big bro, Chris, had a birthday on Sunday, June 22nd and I wanted to dedicate this post to him.

Some of my favorite things about Christopher:

*Since we're only one year and four days apart we've always been able to tell people we're really twins. This always worked, except for when I had a growth spurt and was a good six inches taller than he was for like a year. He caught up eventually. Good thing.

*He always let me tag along with him and his friends.

*He has mad camera skills and I get to have some of his pictures in my house.

*He's a good listener and advice giver.

*He never made any of us five sisters surrounding him feel like he wished we were really brothers. Like, he was never too girly to let us paint his toe nails. Well, it took all four sisters to sit on him and I had to paint really really fast, but it did happen. And he kept them painted too. But that might have been because we hid the nail polish remover. I'm not sure.

*He married a freak-awesome girl.

*I get to call him brother and best friend.

Here's me and Chris throughout the ages:

I love you, Bud.




OK, so this post isn't totally about Chris. But as long as I have the attention of the grandparents in the audience - check this out.

Aubrey...
London...

Huh? Huh? Do you see it? I found the picture of Aubrey and at first I thought it was London! So, maybe it's just a mom thing. Or maybe it's just that it's super late right now. But still, crazy alike, right?

The General Lee and Brecken Lee

.... UPDATE!

Well, just to finish what I've started; here is the latest in the General Lee transformation saga.

We went to Tucson, AZ over the weekend to deliver the interior parts of the car that Olen repaired and re-dyed (they turned out so sweet) and to see the car once before it is hauled to Atlanta, Georgia this weekend for the 30th Anniversary "Dukes of Hazzard" Fest. Man, you should have seen the look of sheer delight on his face when we drove up to Jeff's house, (Oh, and Porter was excited, too).

Porter getting inside the 'General' for the first time and giving me a mean "Hee-Yaw!". He told his Aunt Arlissa this morning on the phone that he was going to go see "his Charger and probably take it out for some jumps".
Well, no jumps, but he did get to go for a ride and honk the horn. That seemed worth it right there.

Port couldn't keep his hands off the paint job. He kept saying "Wooowww".


I'll never forgive myself for forgetting my 'Daisy Duke' cut-offs at home. Darn it.


Yes. There's that famous "cool dude" pose from Porter and Olen with the permanent grin. These were two happy Duke Boys.



__________________________________________________________________
Here's the other Lee. Brecken Lee Lines (sorry, Lisa, if I misspelled). This is the beautiful daughter and first child of H.A. alumni and bff, Lisa Aldred Lines. She was born on Friday, June 20th. London wouldn't stop kissing her head. But can you blame her? So adorable.






In other news, the play (7 Brides 7 Brothers) is finally showing this weekend. It's been so much fun and I've had a blast doing it, but man, what a source of time-suckage! I will be so happy once it's done and I can tuck my kids in bed again. Even though I will miss Porter singing "Bless my beautiful hide..." around the house.
Well, if you're in the area, come and see and make it all worth while. And make sure you give a loud hollar for "Martha's Mother"!

"It's a sleep over NOT a slumber party, mom!"

Porter had his first 'sleep over' yesterday (well, his first non-Auntie or Uncle sleep over). Mason (our cousin) came over and the boys had a total blast.

Mason started out on the mattress on the floor, but when I went to check on the boys they were both in Porter's bed.

They're doing some kind of "cool dude" sign. I was told I'm "too old to know the sign". Whatever.



They swam three times, ate seven Popsicles each, watched three movies and went to the park twice. And I never once heard "Mom, I'm bored. What can I do?". It was great.

The Best Father's Day Ever

Happy Father's Day!

Well, I don't know about you but I had the best Father's Day ever. Before I tell the rest of that story, please allow me to brag about the wonderful Fathers in my life.

I must start with Olen first; but the fathers to follow are in no particular order.

Well, Olen is superb. He takes the trash out every day, unloads the dishwasher before leaving for work and I get a foot rub every night and never have to ask. Oh whoops. I'm suppose to be focusing on the fatherly stuff today. OK, those were freebies.

Olen changes diapers, gives baths, reads bed-time stories, plays Tickle Time and always knows when I've had a bad day and takes over without skipping a beat. He really earned that tie this year. Thanks Sugar, I love you and I couldn't do this without you. (True story: Olen went to Canada for two weeks while training with FibreNew and I was left a single mother for fourteen full days - I almost had a nervous breakdown. Well, I did have one. But it was smallish and who needs details.)

Next up: My Daddio.

He is the coolest dad on the block, and he's been there for me since day one.

Among my dad's many talents is his gift for art. My dad is an amazing artist; he's been using his talents to make me look better than I really am for as long as I can remember. He would come to my classes in elementary school and do drawing demonstrations (this made me the coolest girl in school for one day), his campaign posters won me three elections, and his arrangements of my past and present business cards always get a "This is a fantastic card!" response. He's never too busy to come to a concert or race, have a talk or sit and watch cartoons with us. Daddy, I love you and I want to be just like you when I grow up. I'm working on it...

This is Billy Ray. Olen's dad. He is a masterful story teller. I could listen to the same story told a hundred times (and maybe have) because Billy Ray has such an ability for making you feel important; like you are some one worth telling his stories to.

My husband is one of the hardest and true workers I know and that's 100% because he's Billy Ray's boy. Thanks, Dad, for teaching your sons the value of good work. I hope you can take it easy now, knowing that your good works have paid off. We love you.

Now for the rest of the Best Father's Day Ever...

So, our ward doesn't get out of church until 5:00 pm, and we don't get home till 5:30. Trying to visit both sides of our family (and knowing it costs about $20.00 in gas just to drive to said families in town) just didn't add up for what could only be a three hour visit. So I devised a brilliant plan! The plan was to go first thing to my parent's 9 o'clock ward then stay at their house and give the kids naps, take a nap and just chill out until it was time to visit Olen's family for dinner. Great plan, right?! Well we were running a little late for church (two road closures on the way to town!) so we sneaked into Sacrament Meeting and sat in the back. We see Darcy and Nathan and say 'Hey' and then my mom comes in and sits in front of us and we say 'Hey' to her. Then I see a blond-haired girl get up and walk out. It makes me think of Katie (my sister who moved to La Verkin, Ut three weeks ago) and then I start wondering how her Sunday was going and thinking how she is away this Father's Day. Then another blond-haired girl gets up to leave holding a blond-haired baby boy. I think this one looks like Katie holding Ogden. Then the blond-haired girl turns and looks straight at me in my back row. Yikes! It is Katie! I grab my mom's arm and ask, "Is Katie here?!" She looks at me all sneaky-like and says "Yes". Then I pass London off and high-tail it out of there as fast as I could go in heels (which wasn't very fast, Olen informed me). Needless to say I had a little mascara-meltdown in the foyer of my parent's ward building. But who cares, cuz Katie was in town.

She and her hubby, Jacob, decided on a whim to come down to AZ just for the sake of Father's Day. They arrived late Saturday night and showed up on my parent's doorstep Sunday morning to surprise everyone - except Chris and Katie who are always a step ahead.

SO it was the most beautiful day at church because my Granma Sue and Granpa "Eddie" plus an aunt and some uncles and cousins are all in the same ward. The rest of the day was spent catching up on time apart, being lazy and eating.

How could a day go wrong that way?!

Then we headed out for Olen's family's Father's Day dinner and monthly FHE in the evening. We didn't stay very long, though. Olen was such a sweet heart and knew how much I wanted to stay with my sister as long as I could that he took me back over to my mom's house to spend a few more minutes and to say good bye.

And that's the whole story of the best Father's Day I've ever had. Oh, did I mention I didn't even bake or cook anything - ha! What a day!

Here are some pictures of this fabulous day:

Girls made bracelets.

Boys took naps.

This is what a mom and a dad, twelve kids, one daughter-in-law, three sons-in-law and seven grand kids look like enjoying some Bar-B-Q on Father's Day.

Daddio loving his singing card. I'm bummed I couldn't find my camera to take pictures at the Olen's folk's house this night. It was a good time, too.

(I even warned him twice that I was really taking a picture...)

Thanks, Jake, for making the drive today. I know it wasn't for me, but it sure made my day...

OK, Pal. Blog ya later!

Potato Bread (take two)

I know it's a silly thing to keep obsessing about, but I make bread at least three times a week, so finding a good recipe has been on my mind lately. I like to give some away and Porter eats four pieces of toast every morning and London will eat anything with peanut butter on it. That adds up to a lot of home made goodness right there.

So my search for the perfect bread recipe continued - and I really was only searching for a recipe that would also help me use up my stash of potato pearls. After searching and experimenting I think I've found it. Since I don't want to lead anyone astray with my last recipe (really, don't use it. It was wierd.); I thought I'd share my great recipe find. This one is so good, you may want to get yourself some potato pearls just to make it. Or come over to my house and you can have some of mine.

Potato Bread

2 T sugar

4 t salt

2 T yeast

8 c flour

1/2 c water

1 1/2 c mashed potatoes (if using instant spuds, have made before adding)

1 1/2 c milk

1/4 butter

2 eggs

1. Combine sugar, salt, yeast and 1 1/2 cups flour in mixer.

2. In a 2-qt. saucepan mix water, spuds, milk and butter. Stir over low heat until 120 to 130 degrees F.

3. With mixer on low speed, slowly beat liquid into dry ingredients just till blended. Add eggs one at a time.

4. On medium speed beat 2 minutes more, scraping sides of bowl. Add 1 cup flour to make a thick batter.

5. Beat 2 minutes more and add one more cup of flour.

6. Add 3 cups flour, one cup at a time, to make soft dough.

7. Turn dough on to floured surface and knead for 10 minutes adding 1 1/2 cups flour to make a firm dough. (I let my mixer do the kneading.)

8. Let rise in a buttered bowl till doubled in size or for about an hour.

9. Punch down and turn dough on to floured surface. Divide in half and let rest for 15 minutes.

10. Form into loaves and let rise 30 to 60 minutes more. Brush tops with milk.

11. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Makes 2 loaves.

Aren't they purty?

Ok. I think I can finally rest now. I promise you won't hear any more about potato pearls or bread from me again. Maybe. At least not the pearls.

Shaving Cream + Nana = FUN

My mom has the best ideas. Whether this idea was an original or she heard of it somewhere else; she gets all the credit. One hot day when we were all little she brought out a can of shaving cream and let us go crazy with it in the back yard. That tradition lives on still. My kids love it and so do I. Thanks Mom.

When we wanted more shaving cream, my mom ran in and grabbed my dad's and brother's cans! So thanks to you too, guys.

Here's how the fun looks:

YOU'RE IT!

Too late! You already read the title of my post and now you are officially "tagged"! So read through my 8 Lesser Known Facts and then off you go to write down your own.

I was tagged by a bloggalious friend and now I've tagged you,

dear reader. Betchya didn't know that I had short red hair starting after high school up until I moved home from Flagstaff. We had been married for two years and Porter was just one and I decided to go dark. Olen met me with this hair style and assumed it was my natural color because I colored my eye brows to match. I liked the red, but it was hard to upkeep. I'm digging my dark hair now.

I am a huge fan of 'The Office'. I chose this picture of Dwight because I think he is misunderstood. He is really a sweet guy and smart and dedicated and has a freak awesome cousin Mose. Dear cousin Mose...

I actually like country music! Crazy, but true. Olen built the house for the production manager of KNIX and so she gave him a 'thank-you' present by taking us to see Brad Paisley and Sara Evans. We got front row seats and then got to meet them both after the show. As you can see London was there, too. The lady we went with was so worried that we were too close to the speakers and they were hurting my baby's hearing. So she made me hold a souvenir t-shirt over my tummy the whole time. Small price to pay to meet one of my favorite singer/song writers. Oh, and London's hearing is perfect.

Now how's this for crazy. I was Prom Queen. Honest. Class of 1999 Prom Queen. Don't I look dreamy? I went with one of my best friends, Ammon. It was a blast.We partied like it was, well, 1999.

I heart Jack Black. Huge.

Around a year ago I needed a hobby and so I took up running. I found out I love it. I try to go every day I can. Here's me and my gal Katie at a 5K last August and me and my friend Kristen at the 2007 10K Turkey Trot. It's a great hobby. Nothing to buy except a good pair of shoes, couple of tops and bottoms. Then you're off.



This is how I knew I loved Olen. We were dating and I saw this picture of a two-year-old Olen at his parent's house and thought "Our kids are going to be so cute." I never ever thought that before about any guy! The best part is, I was right. And isn't he a cutie?! You wanna pinch those cheeks, I know you do.



And lastly, I am a Monet lover to the death. Ever since I was too young to know much about art, I've loved his paintings. So peaceful and calming. Maybe it's all the cobalt blue. This piece is my favorite because a) sunflowers are my most favorite flower in all the world and b) yellow is my favorite color. If we have another daughter she will be named Monet. You better not steal that, (unless you're not related to me then I might forgive you in time). We had to use up the name London first because that's where Olen served the Good ol' Mish; but for sure next time. Then I will at last have my very own Monet.

Tah-Dah! There they are, 8 Lesser Known Facts. Mystery solved. Now go do yours.

So did I mention that I'm in a play?
Yup, our happy town is puttn' on a show!

I'm totally jazzed about it and would like to invite anyone and everyone to come.

It's going to be great! We've got a wonderful cast chalk-full of talent and excitement. Gather up all your family and friends and be there for the fun. Date night. Group date night. Just-get-out-of-the-house-and-see-a-super-show night.

I'm doing my part (get it? "part") and spreading the news.

Here are the details:

This link will take you straight to the Preforming Arts website where you can order your tickets. Get 'em before they're gone!
http://www.qcpac.com/ct.htm

(There's even a Monday night show - perfect FHE material!)

"Oh, babe. I love this car."

Olen's exact words when these pictures came over on his cell.

Potato Head..I mean..Bread

See the middle row, the one that has all the cans with the tan labels? Those are potato pearls. I hate potato pearls. Or any kind of instant potato. They're just not right. (KFC excluded; those are magic potatoes.) But why do I have so many? I have no idea. So I went on a quest to turn my lemons into lemonade. (Which is to say: my potato pearls into something better than potato pearls.)

I found a recipe to turn this stuff:
Into this stuff:

But here's the reason for this post; I don't really like the recipe. It tastes like bread, actually, but it's really light and spongy. Even when I used my coarser ground wheat flour. So maybe that's just a trait of potato bread? Well, knowing what clever readers drop by my little Land of Blog, I thought I would ask if anyone has a better recipe than I.

Here's the one I've got:

2 c mashed potato

1 T quick-rising dry yeast

1 T sugar

1/2 c melted butter

2 large eggs

5 - 6 c bread flour

Transfer mashed potato into mixing bowl and cool till 105 to 115 degrees. Whisk in yeast, sugar and salt. Whisk in butter, then eggs. Add enough flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, to form smooth and sticky dough, stirring vigorously.

Butter large bowl. Transfer dough to bowl, turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm area until doubled in volume.

Bake at 400 degrees until golden, about 25 minutes.

So, drop me a line and let me know if you've got something better. I've got to use this stuff up one way or another and sooner or later.

I'll even bring you some bread - or a can of potato pearls.

Muchas gracias.