Ward Conferences

Kirt is the Stake Sunday School President of the Elk Grove, CA Stake. Since the first of the year- except on Fast Sundays he has been involved in Ward Conferences. He has gone to other ward meetings and also had meetings with his presidency and the SS President of the ward they visit. Only one Sunday did they have to do two wards on one day. (They fed them a quick meal between the meetings). I have to go to church alone and usually I sit with a single sister (Jean), or a newly reactivated sister (Edith) or a new convert(Jamie). Jamie only has her kids with her every other weekend.
It was hard for Kirt to be released as the Gospel Doctrine SS teacher- he had been doing it for 3+ years and was looking forward to having taught 4 years and all the lessons.
I love being married to a worthy Priesthood holder who is always willing to serve the Lord where ever he is called.

A New Kitchen - A New Perspective

A family in our ward is moving. I overheard them talking to someone in a ward about the details of the day. I offered some extra boxes (I have been keeping the ones that the PC product comes in and they would be good for some big items). She told me they would still be in the ward and told me where they were moving.
The next week I asked her if they were going to a bigger house or a smaller house. They have a married daughter, a single daughter with a Masters Degree who lives elsewhere and comes to visit, and a son who is a senior in HS and will go on a mission next year. I thought I heard a few years ago that he was getting close to retirement.
I was surprised and saddened when she told me the house they were going to was a rental home because they had "lost their home". This is common phrase these days as home values drop and houses become "upside down"- that means they owe more than it is worth and also that they may be unable to make those larger payments.
Then she shared that she felt it was a combination of "the kitchen remodel" and "furlough days" that were their undoing.
My small, boring kitchen looked ever so good after that. We, too had been hit with furlough days and a loss of income because of it.

Kirt is pruning the pear tree. Our pear tree gives 3 different kinds of pears. Yum!

Friday night is date night

A few years ago, I overheard that our Stake President Jack Williams and his wife, Lisa, have a Friday night date consisting of dinner and a movie.
Kirt and I talked about it and decided that we would also do that for our date night. So, usually one of the other of us swings by and checks out a "Red Box" movie for $1.00, and then for dinner we sometimes use a coupon or go to another local fast-food venue, or sometimes I fix something special and wonderful, or sometimes we have something simple like a grilled cheese sandwich. It doesn't really matter what or where we eat, it is the time we spend together. I love my husband so much, he is so wonderful.

Tonight, we watched the movie "Secretariat" about a race horse, and had some scrambled eggs and ham on open faced cheese sandwiches on dutch crunch rolls.

Valentine's Day

On Sunday I looked around the Relief Society room and saw the many single sisters- widows, and divorced. I thought that Valentine's Day must be difficult for them so why not invite them to dinner on Monday night. I asked 7 sisters, and 6 were available to come. I told them we were having a red meal and they could bring something red if they wanted to add to the meal.
When I went home from church I started to set the table.
Kirt was in Ward conferences all day so I was alone and didn't need to fix any meals. (or so I thought, but I still fed him supper)
I put the red and white gingham table cloth (I made it when we lived in Germany) on the table, and got out the nice silverware, the china and the goblets. I wanted to have the table look very festive- like a party - but was determined to not go to the store for anything. Luckily, I found some Lindt truffle balls - wrapped in red foil - in the cupboard so was able to put one on each plate. I had bought them for a recipe for upside down molten chocolate cupcakes, I still have enough left as it was a large bag. When Kirt came home he had picked up a small heart shaped box of chocolates for each sister.

I cooked a ham- but put a glaze on it that was a mixture of cranberry sauce and orange juice. I made up a loaf of pink bread. I used one package of the Pampered Chef Beer Batter Bread Mix. It said you can use any beverage- so I used red soda- it was yummy. We had water as the main beverage but in the juice goblets we served a mixture of orange juice and fruit punch- so it was mostly red. One sister brought a red jello, and two others brought different variations of pasta with tomato sauce. For dessert there was red velvet cake and cherry cheesecake. It was a feast and we all visited and laughed for hours. We were glad that no one brought beets- but was surprised that no one brought tomatoes.

Inviting a Friend to Dinner

I went to Food Source and bought 2 large pork roasts - I also have to send food with Kirt tomorrow for his contribution to a Mexican feast- for Janie's birthday.
I did this on my lunch hour- had to make a rub with brown sugar and I used PC chipotle rub and rubbed it into the roast, put them in a pan and seared them for 15 minutes at 525 degrees.
Then I poured some orange soda over the whole roasts and turned the heat down and cooked them for a really long time. A really, really long time. It is done when you stick a fork in and the meat just shreds off.

Serve with flour tortillas, sour cream, cheese and salsa.

Invited G. M. to dinner tomorrow night. He and J. recently split up. I wanted to make something pretty tasty because he is such a chef and is always cooking for ward functions. I asked my co-worker Vanessa how to make carnitas. (she has made them and brought them in to work a few times - yum!)

Jury Duty

I was totally excited to get a jury summons for February 7th. I had to defer the last time I got called so knew I couldn't this time