I have a working computer (laptop)

Hooray, I am back in business to blog. The sad thing is that all the fun pics I wanted to post of our fun adventures in the past few months were lost when our computers hard drive crashed. We just found this out a few days ago and that it is not very possible to retrive our data from it. I was thinking about what was on there and I realized it was pretty much my life. All the baby pics, music and documents from the past 5 years. At least i had printed some and posted some on here. We had not made a back up, so I am strongly suggesting to you all to back up your computers regularly, like every month. We learned a big lesson the hard way. I hope i will be able to do better at keeping up with my blog now and move on from here. Besides the bad computer luck, great things are happening for us. Budd got a great job that starts next week with a company called Comp Health out of Salt Lake. He will be a Physician recruiter. It is the kind of job he was really hoping for so we feel blessed. I am also able to work 4 hours a week teaching art for a homeschool group co op. Then meet once a week all together to take specialized classes like art. I am really ejoying it and feel so blessed that they found me. I am able to teach all ages 3-17 so it is great. I just turned 30 last week
The kids are darling as ever. Brinlee is in a little community school in our neighborhood. There are 7 kids and all the Moms take turns teaching. The great thing is that all the moms have degrees in teaching different subjects. I teach the art of course. We have it 2 times a week for 30 min. The School meets 3 times a week for 3 hours. Moms choose what they would like to teach and it is very hands on. This week was all about anatomy and Brinlee made a full size body of herself with a heart, lungs, stomach, and intestines sticking out. It was great. The kids also have music for 30 min each week and they have Spanish every day for 45 min. Brinlee is loving it and learning so much. It is great to live in such a great neigborhood.
Spencer is being the true boy that he is. He loves swords more than anything. It is fun having more time with him alone while Brinlee is at school. We also go on field trips each week with the school and Spencer gets to come. Today we went to the Police station and the kids really liked it. They even got kid badges.
We have 2 teenagers living with us right now. My 18 yr old bro Quinn and a 15 yr old from Japan named Shun. They keep me on my toes and a little crazy, but even amongst all my craziness I feel truly blessed and i know that the Lord truly loves us.

Technical Difficulties at our house

Ok, I havent posted forever, but i am going to use the excuse of the technical difficulties at our house, instead of my just not doing it. You see, we have had two teenage boys (my brother Quinn, a senior and Shun, and 15 yr old Japanese exchange student) move in with us 3 weeks ago and so we decided to move the computer from downstairs to the main family room. Plus we had to clear the downstairs office out so that they could have bedrooms. All in all it has been going well with them, but on the the computer stuff. When we moved the computer we couldn't get the internet to work. We tried a wireless adapter and that worked once and then kept failing. We also had our laptop crash on us right before all this. We dont know what is going on, but one day the keyboard stopped, then the mouse, so we cannot do anything with it. All my photos and my photo download program are on the laptop, so i have also been sad to not have my recent photos. This has caused me not to want to blog also. So when we do get things working, I will have many things to show, like my first mural that i just did for the little preschool and some neigborhood ladies and i are doing next year. We are very excited about it.

Fried Zucchini

I saw this recipe on Good Day Utah yesterday and decided to try it tonight and it was really good. It is always hard to find new ways to prepare all the zucchini from the garden so if you have a lot of zucchini give this a try.

Prep by cutting zucchini in 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup flour in a bowl
2 eggs whipped with a fork in a bowl
Put many Ritz type crackers(I used generic brand) in a baggie and use rolling pin to crush until fine. You can use any cracker you want, i also tried French fried onions.
Put cracker crumbs into a bowl.

Heat frying pan to med heat and melt 1/4 cup butter and about 2 Tbls of Olive oil, it helps the butter not burn. Turn heat down to med low.

Dip zucchini slice in flour first, thin coating on both sides, then dip in egg and then dip in cracker and grab some to pour on top.
Set in the pan
Continue with as many pieces that will fit into the pan.
Now here is the secret. While cooking on one side sprinkle upside with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and lemon pepper.
Let cook until brown on the bottom. I didn't watch my time, maybe 3 min each side. I used tongs to flip them. Then sprinkle with seasonings on other side and let is brown. Place on a plate lined with a paper towel and wa la, yummy yummy.

I also did it with some salmon tonight and it was scrumptious.

I have to say the I was actually quite proud of myself for trying it out. I am not one to try out things i see on TV, but this sounded good and it was defiantly worth it. Too bad Budd missed out (He is gone to Scout camp all week) I think he would have loved it. I will have to make some for him when he get back.

Snuggling earling in the morning

One of my favorite parts of the day is first thing in the morning when my kids come in and get in bed with me. They have been doing that a lot lately and this morning it was Spencer who came first and he was being so cute. I love to just snuggle him and squeeze him. It is in that moment with our faces right next to one another, looking into his big brown eyes, that the world stands still, all my worries are gone and nothing else matters It is so precious. We do this thing all the time where we say, "Guess what?" and the kids respond "what?" and then we say, "I love you". This morning Spencer asked me "Guess What" and I responded "what" of course and then he said "I love you" with a big smile and then started laughing as I grabbed him and started to tickle him. A few minutes later he whispered to me "Let's play paper, rock, scissors" I didn't even know he had heard of that. He told me he learned from grandpa. So we played as he made the cutest little scissors with the wrong fingers. These are the moments that keep me going and make life worth living. Children are a gift.

Oakcrest 50th Bday

Oakcrest is a girls camp for girls age 12-14 that i worked at the summer of 1999. I was a counselor and each week I had 8-12 girls in my group. Oakcrest is kinda like an outdoor EFY. We did all kinda of activities all day like playing sports, archery, zipline, hiking, arts and crafts, playing in the river and lots of singing and being silly. We also went on an over night hike each week (it rained almost every time) where we had to build our own latrine, and make our own dutch oven meals. It was exhausting, dirty and amazing. It was probably the greatest job I have ever had. The greatest part was that we were able to have little devotionals with our girls each night and share spiritual thoughts. Whatever I felt i needed to share with them i would. THe spirit of that place is so incredible. I truly felt the lord carrying me and helping me all summer. I also was able to work with the most amazing people. All of the counselors created such a strong bond over that summer and we are still friends. It is so great when you can see someone that you haven't seen for a long time and it is like no time has past. That is what it is like with these women that i worked with. Wow. I know that they want the best for me and would do anything for me and i would do the same for them.
A few of us got together for Oakcrests 50th birthday celebration and drove up together. It is about 30 min south east of Park City. It is so beautiful. It was so great to see everyone. We would be walking around and remembering the good times there and then we would run into another person we knew and we would all throw our arms up and hug everyone. They had a presentation and a photo video of all the years. There was even a lady there that worked there 50 years ago. We sang songs and reminisced. It was a really neat night. I love Oakcrest. It is my dream to create a similar place someday and i hope that it will happen.
The pics are 1) Other counselors and I front of a cabin 2) Me posing for the sunset and my friends husband jumping in the pic, classic! 3) a beautiful sunset just before we left. isn't it amazing.

4th of July

I am back tracking to the 4th. We started the day by handing out flyers for our business in the Ogden parade. Garrett and Ruth were so kind to come down from Logan to help us out. THen we all headed down to American Fork. It is a tradition for my family to meet ever 4th at the park near my Grandma Nilsson's house. We always have a lunch together of fried chicken and all kinds of sides. The best part is the homemade rootbeer. The dry ice slush that is left after the rootbeer is gone is always a hit. We talk for a while and then the waterfight starts. My uncle brings all kinds of water guns and squirt bottles for the kids. It is a lot of fun. Then we also always play frisbee golf around the park. It is a great time. After that fun we hung out at Grandmas for a while so we could talk out of the heat and then we took the kids to Kung Fu Panda. It was a fun show. On our drive home we were lucky enough to be able to pull off the freeway and watch the Thanksgiving point fireworks. We didnt get home until after 11pm and we were exhausted but what a great day. I am so grateful for this country and our freedom.
These pics are of the water fight, us watching fireworks and the kids with my brother Quinn that is going to start living with us.

What a crazy week

Last week was crazy and i am so happy we made it through. I taught an art camp Tues, Wed and Thurs and this one had two sessions. One was 10am-12 and the other was 1pm-3pm. In the morning i had 8 kids that were from 4-8yrs old. In the afternoon I had kids that were from 8-12 yrs old. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of projects. I think some of the favorites were tie dye, paper mache and coil pots made of model magic. It was great, but i do have to say that i don't know if i was do two sessions in a day again. It was very exhausting to me. I couldn't believe how much it wore me out. We also had my Dad here on wed to help us start to finish our downstairs bathroom. So we listened to some banging and hammering that day. To add to the craziness, I also had one of my close high school friends, Megan, stop by on wed during my one hour break since it was the only time we could see each other. It was great to see her and i am so glad we at least had a few minutes to catch up. Then Thurs night after I had fished art classes and rested a little, I cleaned the house and prepared our guest room for a Japanese lady and her 4 yr old son who arrived and are staying with us for 3 weeks. They are very nice and both speak English very well. Luckily my mom, and lifesaver, was here the whole time to help me stay sane and to watch the kids while i taught. She is great and i always love having her here. I couldnt have made it through the week without her. Thanks Mom.
What a great week!!
Pic of Tie Dying and the kids playing bubbles with Daiki the Japanese boy staying with us. They have become good friends