Congratulations Jane Mykleby!
Happy Thursday!
Well ... the company I interviewed for still hasn't called about the job. I did find out, however, that another person got the job. I'm totally fine about it ... not sad, not mad, not really anything ... because in reality, I don't want the job just now. I worried about telling a new employer that I had a vacation planned right after being hired and then a family reunion in two weeks, as well as taking some time off for some surgery. I decided two weeks ago to pursue the speaker's circuit so my goal is to build a website and get that up and running! Wow ... I'm excited for the possibilities!
Back to the cook book! Please encourage those you know to e-mail me their recipes, photo, and bio soon. Those of you who have sent your recipes have been entered into the free pass for the U Stamp with Dawn and Friends website. The drawing will be held tomorrow and I'll notify you of the winner. I received some marvelous recipes ... some for workshop night treats and others for fast and easy dinner meals. Here's my question: Would you rather have a hard-bound cookbook that would cost you more money, or a spiral bound soft cover for less money?
Here's a marvelous gem to think about for this Happy Thursday:
"President Gordon B. Hinckley believed in the healing power of service. After the death of his wife, he provided a great example to the Church in the way he immersed himself in work and in serving others. It is told that President Hinckley remarked to one woman who had recently lost her husband, 'Work will cure your grief. Serve others.'"Those are profound words. As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness."President Lorenzo Snow expressed a similar thought: 'When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and find somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go to him and find out what the trouble is, then try to remove it with the wisdom which the Lord bestows upon you; and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, you feel light, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and everything seems illuminated' (in Conference Report, Apr. 1899, 2–3). "In today's world of pop psychology, junk TV, and feel-good self-help manuals, this advice may seem counterintuitive. We are sometimes told that the answer to our ills is to look inward, to indulge ourselves, to spend first and pay later, and to satisfy our own desires even at the expense of those around us. While there are times when it is prudent to look first to our own needs, in the long run it doesn't lead to lasting happiness."Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Happiness, Your Heritage," Ensign, Nov. 2008, 119–20
Isn't it wonderful being a woman? We have been born with the natural ability to want to help and serve others. May you brighten someone's load today while serving them and your load will become lighter!
Free Pass to UStamp With Dawn and Friends!
I get to give away one-free pass to UStamp with Dawn and Friends. Here's the rule to be eligible. Since I'm in the process of designing a cookbook for the busy demonstrator, you need to submit your recipe in order to be entered into a drawing for the free pass! It's as easy as that! You are welcome and encouraged to submit more than one recipe. I need you to also include a picture of you, along with a short bio about yourself. Please send the recipe as a word document and your picture as a Jpeg file, color or black and white is fine. Please e-mail me at sumatragal@gmail.com before the end of this week to be eligible for the drawing.
I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day with family and friends. Lynn and I drove to Logan which is 90 miles north of Salt Lake to visit the graves of his parents. It was a lovely drive and a beautiful day. The cemetary was gorgeous. I haven't been to Logan for a few years so it was great re-visiting the place where we first lived as a young married couple. We both wish that we could retire and move to Logan or Wellsville. It's such a beautiful small town nestled in a valley between mountains.
We heard from Reese, our youngest who is at Boot Camp. He's surviving but said that it's really hard. (They haven't even started the hard part yet! This past week has been paper work and stuff.) He said that he's already submissive and willing to do all that is asked of him, but there are others in his unit who haven't quite learned that, so they all get 'smoked' when someone doesn't comply. He said that the only thing you can do while standing at attention is to breathe and blink. Some gal in his unit proceeded to apply chapstick to her lips and was taken out of line to do squats for 20 minutes. Reese said she was pulling faces at the drill sargeant behind his back. (She won't last long!) But he's happy and doing well even though it's very humid.
I've got a great recipe to share with you. It's fast and easy and delicious! I'm going to include it in our book. It comes from Paula Deen's May magazine.
Turkey Pot Pie Pasta - Makes 4 - 6 servings
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
1 pound turkey cutlets, cut in bite sized pieces
4 tablspoons butter, divided
2 cups chicken broth
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
1/c cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 (16-ounce) package angel hair pasta, cooked according to package directions and kept warm.
In a shallow dish, combine 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Dredge turkey cutlets in flour mixture.
In a large nonstick skiller, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium high heat. Add turkey, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes per side, or until lightly browned, in batches, if necessary. Remove from pan; set aside, and keep warm.
Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in skillet over medium heat. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons flour until mixture is smooth. Cook for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Gradually whisk in chicken broth. Stir in vegetables; cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Stir in sour cream, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add turkey cutlets to creamed mixture and serve over hot cooked pasta.
Enjoy! Let me know how you like it!
When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day....!
I had a wonderful phone call from a lovely demonstrator who offered me a wonderful opportunity, of which I'll let her give out the great news! I'm excited ... I have so many fun things in the works.
Right before I left to go to lunch with Jaron, Lori, Lori B., Christa, and Leslie I received some more great news! This is something I've been working on for several months. It doesn't have anything to do with a job ... it's personal. When it comes to fruition I'll share everything!
Lunch was fabulous because of the great company. We laughed and there were even some tears shed. I introduced Leslie to my straw trick. Some day I may share on You Tube ... perhaps NOT! Every time I think about it, I laugh! I know ... I'm crude!
Then I went over to the home office of Stampin' Up! to pick up a few things. It was wonderful driving back to the building, and the best part of all was being able to park in Visitor Parking, which is close to the front door! I had a wonderful visit with several of my friends. As I drove away from the building I thought, "Nothing has changed! I'm not sad, I'm not mad ... I still have the same friends that I had before I left. The only thing that has changed is that I don't work at that building anymore."
I wanted to share some beautiful cards that I've received recently from Shannon West, Lisa Pope, Carrie Cudney, Cindy Major, Patty Bennett, Ngaire Anderson, Connie Milazzo, and Elizabeth Reeve. Once again, I took pictures of them lying flat and I deleted those too and I'm too lazy to go take new ones, so these will suffice.
He's in the Army Now!
If he passes his basic training he'll go on to advanced training at Fort Eustis, Virginia.
Thanks for Your Support!
My Angels!
I remembered a talk that Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland gave titled, "The Ministry of Angels" which gave me great comfort. Let me share:
"I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. Nor will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man (or woman of child) upon the face thereof to be saved. On occassions, global, or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal. May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude for, the Lord's promise as contained in one of President Monson's favorite scriptures: 'I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, ... my Spirit shall be in your heart, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up'. In the process of praying for those angels to attend us, may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves-with a kind word, a strong arm, a declaration of faith and the covenant wherewith we have covenanted. Perhaps then we can be emissaries sent from God."
Having my pity party, while snacking on some chocolate chips, and drowning my sorrows in Wife Swap, the telephone rang. It was my son Ryan calling to see how I was doing. My angel ... always checking in daily to make sure that I'm o.k. How I needed that phone call and to hear his sweet voice of concern.
Shortly after Ryan called, Lori, my bestest bud called to see how I was doing. You can't tell me that they weren't inspired to call when they did. Lori has a gift to sense when she is needed. It makes me emotional just thinking about all the times at work how she always could sense when someone needed a listening ear and a word of encouragement. How I miss not seeing her every day. My heart is so full of gratitude for her!
Life in Sumatra, Montana!
My Dad and his four brothers purchased a large, spread of land in eastern Montana. Literally, it was thousands of acres. In fact the spread was so large you could stand on a hill and as far as the eye could see in any direction, was our property. We raised cattle, sheep, and horses on the ranch. The nearest large city was Billings, Montana, which was 150 miles east of the ranch. We did our major shopping there. There were smaller little towns like Melstone and Roundup that we could go to purchase small things. But if we needed major medical help it was 150 miles away. Of course there was a vet closer for the animals than a much needed people doctor!
Eastern Montana is rather barren. Not a lot of trees, just rolling hills, sagebrush, prickly pear, rattelesnakes, and antelope. Dad and his brothers took their little families to live on the ranch which was about 10 miles off the main highway. Sumatra consisted of a few homes, a post office with the only phone in town, a gas station, a church, and a couple of old hotels, one of which had been converted into the school house, and used as a Sunday meeting place for our church services.
Even though I'm not 60 years old, yet, it's amazing to tell people that I lived during a time where we had no TV, radio, or telephone. And, we generated our own electricity. In our first home we didn't have in-door plumbing, but used chamber pots which were kept under our beds, and of course the out-house. And yes ... the Sears catalog did come in handy when tissue paper wasn't handy! My least favorite chore was emptying those pots! I shudder to this day when I envision carrying that pot up the stairs and out the door, praying that nothing should spill.
School was unique. As I mentioned, our school was an old converted hotel. The downstairs had a gym and a kitchen where we ate our lunch. The middle part was the elementary and junior high. It consisted of two class rooms. One had grades 1-5 in it. And the other class room had grades 6-8 in it. The upstairs was for the highschool kids. I remember well, those old, dark, squeaky wood floors and how we would have to have drinking water brought into the school because the water in the town wasn't fit to drink. I'm not sure why... We had great wells out on the ranch and plenty of wonderful water to drink!
Going to school in the wintertime was an experience. We had a pickup truck with iron bars that ran across the back of the bed of the truck which held a canvas tarp in place. Yes, I know ... it really does sound like Little House on the Prairie. The little kids got to ride up front in the cab of the truck when it was soooo cold, and the rest of us had to brave the back. Keep in mind that winters in eastern Montana are frigid. Sometimes the weather would be 60 degrees below zero with drifts of snow covering fences and climbing half way up a power pole. To keep us from freezing our mothers would heat cinderblocks or bricks in the stove and then wrap them in gunny sacks for us to place our feet on in the back of the pickup. Then at the end of school, the cook would re-heat our bricks for us to use on the ride home.
I remember watching TV for the first time. My aunt and uncle purchased one in Billings and brought it out to the ranch. The only problem was ... there was only one channel and very poor reception. We thought it was marvelous as we made out the characters through the fuzzy, snowy picture, and watched the Mickey Mouse show. The audio was terrific. The antenna had tin foil on it and someone was in charge of touching the ears just so, so, and holding their arms high in the air, just so, so, so we could get a semi-decent picture.
We never did have telephone service. If there was an emergency we could go to the post office and have the post mistress let us use the phone.
Well ... I could go on and on about life in Montana. It was wonderful. I lived there until 9 years of age and then we moved to California.
Time is passing quickly this morning and I have grocery shopping to do today and a little bit of house cleaning. And, I think I'll play with my Big Shot too.
Food, Fun, Family, and the Great Salt Lake Bake!
All of a sudden Lindsey gets this strange look on her face and says, "Is that small canister salt?" "Yes", I reply. "Well, I just put salt on the Blueberry French Toast!", she said, with a sick look on her face. "Oh, perhaps you didn't ... maybe you used the sugar instead," I reassured her. The oven timer beeped and we took the beautiful Blueberry French Toast out of the oven. It smelled divine. But just in case Lindsey used salt instead of sugar, we sprinkled a generous amount of sugar over the top before tasting. I volunteered to be the first taste tester. Gingerly I scooped my spoon into the warm crusty concoction and put it into my mouth. I immediately tasted the warm pecans and juicy blueberrys and then the salt hit my taste buds. Oooooh Eeeeee .... salty! I asked Lindsey, "How much salt did you put in this?" She replied, "Oh ... only 4 Tablespoons!" I tried to console her with my words of hope by saying, "It's really good if you can just ignore the salt!" Needless to say, we had a good laugh and one less entree for the morning.
Here's the recipe. Just make sure to use sugar instead of salt.
Blueberry French Toast Bake
Yummy ... Laurel made the fruit pizza. It was delish! And Lindsey made a wonderful Quiche with fresh mushrooms and artichoke hearts. I made the pie crust and Camie made Sweet Sunrise for the drink. Divine!
Shannon surprised me with one of the most wonderful gifts I've ever received! I've been admiring her Jasmine sandals for weeks and wanted a pair just like hers, but they were too pricey for my budget. Yep ... she bought them for me and delivered them with a big hug and a kiss. I still can't believe I'm the proud owner of these gorgeous sandals. I wanted to sleep in them, they are soooo comfortable and beautiful! Thanks, Shanny ... I love you!
She also delivered some wonderful gifts from one of the most generous, sweet, and caring people I've ever met, Ngaire from Australia. Ngaire sent me some Australian candy and the sweetest children's book which was made in Australia. Ngaire doesn't know this, but I adore children's books. Hugs and kisses sent to you too, Ngaire!
A few of you have wanted to know what's happening in the world of job hunting. As you all know I had a job interview last week. I will hear from them sometime this week. I would love working for the company. So, I'll keep you posted when I hear.
Got a busy day today ... Relief Society Enrichment this morning and a meeting tonight.
Have a wonderful Tuesday! Love to you all!!!
Wow ... What a Day!
Had a great day! Got up early this morning and went to the church welfare square to help bottle strawberry jam. The services that we provide touch people all over the world. It's quite a system. I can't remember how many thousands of bottles of jam we put up today, but it was a lot. I should have taken my camera. I thought about it too late. You would have died laughing looking at me in my hair net and white lab coat and blue rubber gloves! My job was to take the empty glass jars off the pallet jacks, empty them upside down, right them again and place them on a spinner that automatically puts them onto a conveyer belt where they're taken into the sanitizer. I even got to operate the pallet jack and lower and raise the lift. I felt pretty sweet about that. I was feeling pretty cocky until I accidentally swung my arm around and knocked off about 4 jars onto the cement floor. Yes, of course they shattered! Yes ... I was embarrassed. A cute little German worker said, "In Germany, it means good luck if you break a glass!" I said hopefully I won't break anymore ... and I didn't!
After loading thousands of bottles, I traded places with a cute little gal and made boxes and then put the little divider things inside for the strawberry jam to be packed. That was easy. I was taller than she, so it was easier for me.
After working for 4 hours I drove and picked up my grandaughter and tended her for the rest of the afternoon while her Mom went to see the baby doctor. We're getting a new one in November! Since we've been having sooo much fun she decided to sleep over, and my youngest daughter Lindsey is here for a sleep over too. Lindsey organized a mother's day brunch for all of us mothers and she's the master baker in the family so she wanted to be here so she can get an early start on the fixins. We're going to have a fun sleep-over.
More later .... Happy Mothers Day to all of you!
I SURVIVED!
Other than getting up early, cutting my own hair, giving myself a manicure and a pedicure, ironing my clothes and putting on the ritz, I haven't done a dang thing. I think the interview kinda took some of the oomph outa me. I'm tired!
Our dear, sweet Lori just accepted a position teaching the 6th grade. She's a wonderful teacher and I'm happy for those little kids that are getting her for their teacher. Geez, I miss her! That was one of the best parts of my job at Stampin' Up! ... getting to sit in between her and Jaron. Sometimes they would call each other on the phone, while they were at their desks, because they couldn't see over me to carry on their conversation. They're both kinda small people. :)
And that Jaron ... who can make me laugh more than him? He's going to have an offer at a company shortly. Let's hope we both get snatched up quickly. I just wish that Lori and Jaron and I could be working together!
If you want to see the great watercolor technique that Patty Bennett taught, click on her link on the right side of my blog page. You won't have to go back too far to watch it. I'll get out my camera to see if I can video tape it and post it on my blog too. But you're right, I embossed the image in white and then did a wash with ink refills, let it dry just a little, and then came back in with darker colors around the edges and in the center.
Hmmm ... I'm feeling like workiing in the yard. Perhaps I should go pull some weeds, but cute, little Paula Deen is calling to me. I loooove watching her cook! Isn't she delightful? And her recipes are fabulous. I promise I'll post the chicken and biscuit and gravy recipe. But like I mentioned last night, it's a heart attack wating to happen. I don't make it often because I have to watch my weight, you know! I'm getting it out there, so I can watch it!! Hahahaha!
Later, baby!
A Little Bit of Stampin' Always Clears Away the Blues!
Out of the Mouths of Babes!
(keep in mind it's DINNER prayer)
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this food.
Please help us grow healthy and strong.
Bless Brayden and BrieAnn that they will be safe (aunt and uncle missionaries).
Bless Daddy that he will be safe at work.
Bless Tay that she will be safe at school tomorrow, and me too.
Please bless all of the animals in the whole world.
Bless us that we won't get the swine flu.
Bless all of the people in the world who don't have swine flu, that they won't get it.
Please bless everyone that has the swine flu, that they will get better.
And we say these things.....
Just Another Monday!
It just dawned on me that this is the first time in 36 years that I've been alone, by myself, during the day. I've always had either a husband or children with me. I don't think Dieter counts as a body! It's strange being alone.
It's been a nice 2 1/2 weeks. I feel like I've been on vacation. I'm rested, refreshed, and now ready to go back to work. Well ... maybe after getting my yard in shape and some dining room curtains made. I bought some fabric a few months ago and haven't had the time to sew them up. Now I do!
I'm still waiting to hear about my interview. In the mean time, I do have a little job to do some transcribing and then some voice recordings for the phone system. I've been gone from Franklin Covey for almost 9 years and when you call the Franklin office, you'll still hear my voice.
Had a pretty laid back weekend. It rained or should I say poured all day Saturday, and rained on and off yesterday. If the lawn dries out some I may go mow. I really need to do some weeding too.
Picked up my other two pairs of glasses. You could say that I love glasses as much as I love shoes and purses. I now am the proud owner of 5 pairs of designer glasses. It would have been 6 pair, but my favorite pink ones were in my purse that was stolen. BOOOO! I still have hope that one day a package will show up in the mail and it will be my purse. Wouldn't that be soooo neat?
Well -- best get to work. Make it a great Monday!