Busy Week

Well this has been a very busy week for our family. We finally got pool passes (Thanks to Emery city for their scholarship program). The kids start swimming lessons today, but now back to the past week. Needless to say the children and Lillie have spent considerable time at the pool. All are coping well with their various stages of sunburn. This was also Lillie's first week after finishing her Summer math class (she got an A in college algebra y'all). And I was asked to make chili for the Aurora Plains Academy chili cook-off. I made some good chili and then prayed that I wouldn't win. The winner got the privilege of preparing 10+ gallons for the Mitchell Stampede Rodeo chili cook-off as the APA entry. Well my luck is holding and the Lord may have been trying to teach me to make plans more carefully because I was the lucky winner. My prize was that I got to spend all day Saturday cooking the 80 lbs. of chicken needed for the chili. and Then I spent half the day Sunday putting it together and babysitting it. We had fun but didn't place. My friends from work said that we had the best chili. By the way, I used to keep recipes like this secret but if you're interested in a spicy but not to spicy chicken chili I'll post the recipe. It's really easy to make and everyone that has dared to try it has really liked it, well except me, it's a bit spicy for my taste but I can eat it without problems. I almost forgot for our 16Th anniversary (last Thursday) Lillie took my bike to the shop and had the shifter cable fixed. This posed a problem as the only way to get it home is in her minivan and she and all of the kids were at a Branch activity. Jim begged to be allowed to ride the bike home. There were two main problems with this 1) I haven't ridden my bike yet since it has needed repair the entire time I have owned it (I got it second hand from a friend who is fanatic about bikes, it's a Burley recumbent.) and 2) it was 25 miles to home. Long story short Jim completed the trip in about 2.5 hours which isn't a bad time considering that he has never ridden a recumbent, the longest bike ride he has done in the last 10 months has been 5 miles, and he didn't know how the shifter worked so he did the whole thing in low gear. Just one more thing, By this time next year Jim should be an Eagle scout. He needs 3 merit badges and his project. He is finishing his time for life right now. He lost six months in the move because our Branch is so small that it does not have it's own Scout troop. We worked out a deal with another troop in the stake to enroll our boys (both of them). As counselor to the young men's president I was given the assignment of assistant scoutmaster to the other ward's troop. Well I guess this has gone on long enough we'll report the outcomes and post pictures later.

You know you live in a small town when...

You know you live in a small (wonderful) town, when...
the mailman (regie)sees one of the older patrons drive up on his golf cart and then Reggie meets him on the sidewalk with his mail.

way to go reggie

FOOD!!!!

I have experienced two wonderful new foods while in South Dakota and want to share them with you:

Burrito Smores:
Small tortillas
Peanut butter I used creamy, but I think crunchy would be good too.
Mini Marshmellows
Chocolate Chips/ m&m/s work too.
coals

spread some p.b. on the smore- down the middle or half or cover the whole thing, how much p.b. do you like. sprinkle on a hand ful of marshmellows then some choc.
wrap up like a burrito and then wrap in foil. place on coals for 2-3 minutes(not too long or it will burn). Open and eat.

Walking Tacos.: I found this one at the ball park
scissors
A snack size bag of chips, the ball park uses nacho dorritos, at home we also use cool ranch dorritos or fritos.
Taco meat
Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Sour Cream
salsa

In your hand smush the chips so that it feels like more bite size bits, turn on side and cut off the side 1/4" of bag, add meat cheese and what ever other toppings you like. serve with a fork. I think an adult serving is two. but this is really good.

propane tank

We have a propane tank in our backyard that holds our propane that heats our house in the winter. One day I saw a bird go in the little hole and after a while it came back out I went over and found a birds nest.

Jims Cake

Jim decorated his birthday cake. And wanted to share it with you.

Softball

Softball

Katie and Janet are playing softball here in Emery. They are doing very good and getting better. Katie likes to take her PINK bat to the games to use. "Power in Pink". Poppie and Nana got to gowith us to two of their games, which was fun.

At the tournament for their age group, they won first place.