A couple new recipes I've tried

I got this recipe from the Schwan Man and tried it tonight and we liked it. You have probably made some variation of it many times. It looks like the one in the picture on the blog.

Mexican Chicken Salad

Prep time: 20 minutes
Servings: 6

1 - 2.8oz fried onions (optional)
4 cups romaine lettuce, rinsed and torn
2 cups corn
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onions
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 - 15 oz black beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups diced chicken breast meat
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup ranch dressing
3/4 cup BBQ sauce

1. Mix ranch dressing and BBQ sauce. Set aside

2. Mix prepared corn and chicken with all remaining ingredients except Fried Onions

3. Pour prepared ranch and BBQ dressing over salad mixture and toss.

4. Top with French fried onions before serving.

I've wanted a plain white scratch cake recipe for a long time and found this one in my mother's recipes that I'm supposed to be typing for everyone. I was very happy with it especially the next day.

Plain Cake
3 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
vanilla (It didn't say how much, I used 2 tsp)
Sift flour first then put flour, sugar, salt, baking powder in the sifter and sift into a bowl.
Add the milk, eggs shortening and vanilla. Mix all together and bake in moderate oven. I'm assuming that means about 350 degrees.

Highlights from Seattle

Justin and I had a fun time playing outside while Joseph was at school, we went on a walk, played baseball, had a picnic and wrote notes to Mom and Dad with sidewalk chalk which the rain washed away before they got to see them.

Joseph in front of his school. He is in kindergarten and it was so fun to see his classroom and meet his teacher. His favorite subject right now is PE, which he informed me is short for physical education.

One of our walks around the block. Justin keeps right up on his scooter but likes to make a lot of stops to look at bugs, pet the bunny (made of porcelain) and pick up trash. So cute! Joseph was quite patient about it though.

Joseph taking flowers to his teacher on teacher appreciation day.

Darren needed to make a business trip to NYC and it was my good fortune to be ask to watch the boys while he and Jill made the trip. I enjoyed the drive last Saturday, the traffic wasn't as bad as I had expected and I listened to a story on CD that LeAnn let me borrow so that made it fun.

Joseph and Justin were so good and easy to care for, we had a great time together and Jill had made great notes to help me get where I needed to be with them, school, church, etc. so we had things to keep us busy. They have such huge imaginations, it was fun to watch and listen to the things they came up with. Joseph and I played school while Justin took naps, we went to the library, McDonalds, played games, cars, baseball and read lots of stories.

It was quite a shock Saturday evening when I turned on the TV after the boys were in bed and saw the story about the failed car bomb in Time Square. Jill had just sent a photo of her standing in that spot a few hours earlier so I was a little stressed when they didn't answer my text. They were there to see it all happen but were tucked in bed safe in sound by the time I heard about it. Thankfully it failed!

I love those boys!

Bruce is good to support my little jaunts and I appreciate that so much and love to get home to him especially this time since it was our 34th anniversary which is unbelievable to me.

April has been good!

As usual, my pictures aren't moving where I want them to so I'll just be happy with this. Bruce had a good birthday and loved hearing from all his friends and family. It is a big birthday month for us with seven family members celebrating and we loved talking to all of them. Happy birthday, Dad, Jason, Bethany, Connie, Jill, Kevin, and Melanie. We love you! We had a great time in Roseburg with Brad watching Shayanna participate in the Miss Douglas County Outstanding Teen Pageant. She was the youngest of 18 contestants and we were so proud of her. She choreographed her own dance for her talent and it was amazing!

The question she was asked was, "who is your hero and why." She answered, "I'd have to say my hero is my MOM because she has been through a lot in her young life and has worked hard to over come those trials." I loved that.

I've enjoyed the tulips so much, these purple ones are my favorite and look so great next to the lilacs but I have to remind myself to go out in the back yard to see them.

The red ones are amazing again this year.

These cream colored ones were a surprise for me from Bruce this year and I love them so much and appreciate all his hard work to make the yard beautiful for me to enjoy.

Can't wait to see what is next, life is good on Janus Court.

Spring Break

Speed scrabble after Michael's great lesson for FHE

Grandma Williams loves Wendys food so we had a picnic in her room. Marc hasn't been to Beaver since he was ten so it was fun for him to be there and take Connie and the kids to meet his family. Marc, Emily, Carly, Jennifer, Valerie, Andrea and Camrie.
Cute bunny ears Valerie:)

I always look forward to visiting family during Spring Break and this year it felt like a good time to visit my mom in Beaver, Utah. I was lucky and other people in my family had the same idea so I got to see them too, which was so great!

I spent three days with Jenni and Michael and that was so fun for me to see what goes on in their lives there in Provo. They spoiled me rotten to say the least! I went to church with them and was amazed at their ward, I have never seen so many young married couples in one place in my life, since then the ward has been split. I got to see the office where Jenni works and meet the Doctor and other people she spends her day with, no wonder she LOVES her job, they were all so nice and it's fun to hear them express how much they appreciate her. Darren happened to be in town on business so we met him twice, once with Jill's family for a delicious dinner and once on campus. I hadn't seen him since Thanksgiving so that was a treat.

I spent three days in Beaver with my mom, my sister and her family and I just love them all to pieces and enjoyed every minute of it. Marc, Connie, Kellen and Caleb were visiting Emily and Steve in Las Vegas for Spring Break so they all drove to Beaver for a day which made Jenni and I very happy.

The weather went from sunny, no jacket, on Sunday to snow on Friday and everything in between but I enjoyed it all including a snow ball fight with Kellen, Easton and Caleb and was grateful for the chance to see my mom, age 92, doing so well and to be with my family. Thanks to all for making it such a wonderful week, I am so grateful.

Springtime in the Northwest!!

I love how this picture makes it look like these are our daffodils but I must give credit where credit is due, they are Warner and LeAnn's. But I LOVE them.

These are only two of the bushes LeAnn and I pass every morning on our walk, which is in the pitch dark again thanks to day light savings time but hey, it's still light out now and it's 7:30 pm so I'm not complaining. It gets better and better from now until the end of May. I feel like a huge burden has been lifted. Spring...a tender mercy!!

Quick recap of a wonderful week

Warner and LeAnn came over and took some adorable photos of the kids, just look at those faces. Caleb didn't feel well but he tried to be happy.

The reason for the whole visit was the wedding of Em's life long friend, Colleen Millegan to Jason

Hiebenthal. Isn't she beautiful? We were blessed with two sunny days so the boys could play outside.

The kids loved playing with their cousins and got along really well.

We made good use of the Mitchell's tramp

I love this picture of Carly showing her teeth and she does this little pose all the time between crawling and sitting. She makes some really cute faces wrinkling up her nose at you if she doesn't really know you, she adjusted to all of us quickly though and is a very happy baby at 7 months.

It was so great to spend time getting to know her. She looks a lot like Emily did in this particular picture.

We sure appreciated everyone making the trip, Jill for driving all that way alone with the boys and I was amazed at how Emily got through security at the airport with two kids, backpacks, a stroller, car seat, etc and Marc and family coming down for the day on Saturday. Such fun and just the winter break we needed.

ZHU ZHU and ZOO Pets

Do you know about ZHU ZHU pets? I didn't until Kylie and Karmen brought theirs to share last week. I guess they were all the rage at Christmas time but I didn't hear about them and I think they are adorable, for rodents that is. I decided to get one for Kellen and Caleb since we were going to visit and they were a big hit. Kellen got right to work making a cage for his out of a shoe box, putting toy food in and a water dish and Caleb copied everything Kellen did and they slept right by their bed. It was great fun, their names are Brian and Alex.

We had a great day at the Portland Zoo and at Kellen's basket ball game, he was the MVP for sure. All the animals were out enjoying the sunshine and the elephants but on a great show. The baby's name is Sam and the boys love going back to see how much he has grown from time to time. We love you guys and thanks so much for the fun visit.

Steve, I hope you can forgive me but I think Easton, Joseph and Justin really need a ZHU ZHU pet.