Home again, Home again.

Well, last night we pulled the ultimate all-nighter. We checked out of our condo in Depoe, Bay at 12:00pm and then decided to go do some sight-seeing since it was finally a nice day. We went to check out the tallest lighthouse in Oregon, Yaquina bay, Reagan thought it was the bees knees.

It was our brilliant, idea to head south to avoid all of the crazy storms and weather in Portland and get home to Utah. Unfortuately, because we did not investigate to find out where the storms actually were... we had to back-track back to the north to avoid the storm in the south, central mountains. That put us just a teensy bit behind schedule. We began our trip at about 2:30pm and got home to Utah this morning at 6:00am. A few hiccups in the trip added an extra 2 hours to the already super-long drive. But guess what! We made it! Dan drove the entire way and stayed awake too! I made it to Tremonton and then "rested my eyes" for about 30 minutes. I was very impressed with my staying-awake skills. But now, a few hours later after returning to my satin sheeted bed. I am glad to be home and ready to take stock of the last 11 days. It was really a Christmas vacation for the books!

On your mark, get set, celebrate!

Talk about squeezing in all the fun possible! We have really been trying. We just wrapped up a super fun weekend with friends, and are heading into "crazy week" this is like dead week before finals, you know when you try to cram everything in before the exams. Well, this is my dead week.

We are heading to Oregon, my home state, to celebrate Christmas this year. Who is there? you might be wondering. If you mean family, no one. If you mean old and great friends, tons! thanks to Facebook I have found them. We are going to have some serious Harward family fun. See my old stomping grounds and spend some quality time by the coast and enjoy our daughterswithout crazy pressure. But to get there.... ahhhh! Crazy week!

Every night we are booked with fun dates with friends and family. We are really trying to squeeze in all the holiday fun we can, and get all the work done too. Here is a sample of my to do list.

• I have to pack and wrap all of the Christmas gifts, some decorations and other fun things,
• attend 2 school holiday parties,
• make some more neighbor gifts, for those unexpected deliveries,
• get the car lubed,
• buy snow chains,
• buy Dan's presents,
• get MY presents,
• find things to do in OR
• tell everyone in OR we are coming,
• figure out how to use our new Garmin so we don't get lost,
• and I am sure there is something I am forgetting.

I am hoping I can hang on until Friday when I will have 12 hours of road time to read my latest book, The English Patient. Hopefully Dan won't want to talk much on the trip.

We've got ourselves a winner here!

Yesterday was round two in the Mountain Green Elementary Storytelling festival competition. An Reagan was one of the 2 winners in the 1st grade level!

It was a very exciting day and fun to see her do well, and feel proud of herself. She entered this competition after much pressure and persuasion from her mother, and look! it paid off!

last year we went to the festival and I fell in love with it. After each of the storytellers finished I kept thinking to myself, "I could do that." and I really wanted to! I haven't been that excited about something that I wanted to do purely for myself for a long time. But Like everything else, I gave up thinking about it.

So, I am basically fulfilling my dream to be a professional storyteller through my 6 year old daughter. So far, I am a winner! is this another perk of having kids? Do we really get to take credit for their achievements? In my defense, I did choose the perfect story for her to tell, and I did coach her on the best way to perform the actions and when to inflect her voice. Does that count for anything?

7 down 1 to go...

Remember the butter... My fridge overfloweth from the blessing of the butter. The only way I know to use butter is to make cookies- which I love-

So picture it, a, entire lazy Friday spent making cookie dough. I have spent the last 5 hours making cookies. What!? you may say how do you spend 5 hours making cookies. I made 5 batches of cookies, shaped and froze the dough for future use. Each batch made about 35 cookies, so that is roughly 175 cookies. Wahhhoooo! Drop by any time, I'll bake up some cookies for you!
My cookie selections included:
Lemon Iced Ginger cookies, Black and white cookies (favorite), Soft oatmeal raisin, and Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This has been my 5 degrees of milk experiment enjoy!

1. Cows make milk (Which is delicious)
2. Cream comes from milk (very scientific)
3. Butter comes from cream (which I made)
4. Cookies are made with butter (which I made)
5. Cookies are eaten with milk! (which is delicious)

So there you have it! I have come full circle with the cream that found its way into my fridge so long ago.

I still have 1 more pound of butter...

Christmas Cards

I really like to send out Cards and every year I ask for addresses. So, if you can read this, I would love your address! would you please email it to me, so i can do my part in wasting our natural resources this holiday season. I saw an article that said we should not use wrapping paper this year.... hmm okay, then what? suggestions. I am always looking for ways to go a little green. you know like khaki or olive. I do bring in my own grocery bags. go me!