Life goes on!

This is a photo of Lynette during her "Jumpstart for Arts" program that the City of Plano puts on every year.


Well, we have survived one week of school and seminary and are into the next! Elaine is adjusting to public school, but it is hard for her to wake up for seminary and keep going all day. She doesn't get home until 5:00, and then two times a week, she has ballet soon after. Last week, she didn't go to one ballet class because she was too tired and had too much homework. I hope she gets used to it soon—ballet class is too expensive to miss all the time!

If I had to guess, I'd say her favorite classes are ASL and art, and her least favorite is Algebra! She is also taking a drill team class that will fulfill her PE requirements, but she doesn't want to audition for Drill Team. She did go to the first football game of the season and had a great time.

Lynette and Rachel sort of started school last week. I was sick with the flu all week, so I didn't do a lot of active teaching, but I did have Lynette's all planned out, so she was able to do most of it on her own. Rachel and I started yesterday. She is anxious to learn this year, however, she still has a very short attention span. We were reading some history stories yesterday, and she kept asking me if there wasn't an activity to do instead of read! :-)

James' schedule is rather long this semester. He goes straight from seminary to the train station in order to get to his 8:00 class, and he doesn't get home until about 5:00. He seems to be enjoying his classes, for the most part. He really likes his calculus teacher.

It seems strange to me to only have two kids home all day. And my built-in babysitter is gone now, so I am back to taking them with me if I have to go somewhere! Technically, I could leave Lynette home, but she doesn't like to be left.

BYU

Well, classes start for me again tomorrow. I'll be taking two Computer Science classes, a Math class (linear algebra, if that means anything to you), a New Testament class (second half of the NT), a Civilization class (not the game, unfortunately), and a Ballroom Dance class. I may actually have only one roommate this semester--I had another, an exchange student from Korea, for a couple of days, but then he swapped out into an empty one-person bedroom here in Wyview, so now it's just myself and a guy named Andrew Lutes. So I may have this bedroom all to myself. I'm certainly not complaining about that.

Sams visit

Sam visited with us between semesters.
August 2009 We went to Flint’s on the 3rd for a baby shower for Jenine. Jenine received a lot of nice presents. We stayed overnight and went to the BYU Art Museum on Tuesday before returning home. We stopped a Verlin’s and found that he was in an Assisted Living Center. He developed pneumonia and was in the hospital for two weeks before being moved to the Assisted Living Center; they do not know how long he will spend there yet. It was Verlin’s 86th birthday.

We went to flint on the 13th to pick up Sam. We picked up Sam from Flint’s on the 14th to bring him to Logan for the break between semesters at BYU. Before leaving for Logan Flint took us for a ride in his boat on Utah Lake. The water was a bit choppy by we enjoyed the ride as you can see from the pictures we took. In the afternoon we got back to Logan in time to take Sam to the last of the Summer Music program at the tabernacle. The program was made up of the best presentations given throughout the summer program and features a real variety of music. I think Sam even enjoyed it. On Saturday we took Sam to see the presentation of the meeting of the rails at Promontory Point Utah and then by ATK Thiokol to see the rocket Engines and where I used to work. It’s been 45 years since Ruth and I had been to either location. Needless to say things have changed since our last visit.

King Tut and Gen-Con

We had a fun short family vacation at the end of last week. We went up to Indianapolis and saw the king Tut exhibit at the Indianapolis Children's museum. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the exhibit, but there were some really neat artifacts to see. We have been playing my glyphs game of late, so we were even able to recognize some of the heiroglyphs.

After visiting the Tut exhibit we went to Gen-Con. We had a lot of fun looking at the booths and trying out new games in the board game library. On Saturday, Mariana, Isaac, and I went in costume and participated in a very funny event called the Killer Breakfast with Tracy Hickman. (He is a famous LDS author of the Dragonlance series of books) Mom watched and took pictures.
We also participated in a Live-Action Role Playing (LARP) event called True Dungeon. It is kind of like Dungeons and Dragons but with life-sized props and puzzles to figure out. Our group managed to survive the adventure by the skin of our teeth, and each of us was able to help the group out at one point in the adventure. Isaac figured out a tricky puzzle lock. Mariana fired a nerf crossbow and hit a button that opened a door for us. And I found the "magical" amulet we were looking for.

Now it is time to return to Seminary and School tomorrow.

My baby is 19

We celebrated Creed's birthday on Sunday. We had a big dinner with quite a few of his friends. They made short work of 23 pounds of barbacued ribs. One of his friends got his mission call to Chile last week and he reports to the MTC before Creed. Creed wishes he could leave sooner, but I am going to enjoy all the time I can with him before he goes, whether he likes it or not. I know Anette feels the same way.

We went to Flint' for Jenine's baby shower last Monday and on the way home we stopped a Verlin and Roma's, they get more visually impaired every time we visit. Roma met us and informed us that Verlin was in an Assisted Living Center. He developed pneumonia and was in the hospital for two weeks before being moved to the Assisted Living Center; they do not know how long he will spend there yet.

Every time we visit it just reminds me that I'm only 12 years behind him.
It was Verlin's 86th birthday.

Dad

Fish recipes

I hope I am not too late with these recipes.

Trout Almondine

8 to 12 trout fillets
Evaporated milk
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil

Dip fillets in milk. Add salt and pepper to flour. Remove fillets from milk as needed and dip in flour, shaking off excess flour. In an electric skillet at 375 degrees, fry fillets until golden brown in the butter and oil. It only takes three or four minutes per side. Do a few at a time, and as cooked place on a warm platter or cookie sheet and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve. You can use regular milk, but the evaporated milk gives the fillets a darker, golden brown color.


SAUCE:
1 c. butter
1/2 c. almonds, sliced
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp flour

Prepare sauce by melting butter and lightly browning almonds in butter. Add flour, lemon juice, Worcestershire, salt. Mix and heat well. Just before serving, pour some sauce over trout and serve remaining sauce separately.




Fried fish (works best on any firm, white fish like cod, bass, bluegill, crappie, etc.)

8 to 12 fillets
Evaporated milk
1 c. flour
1 c. bread brumbs
3 tbsp Mcormick Seasonall
1/2 c. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil

Add butter and oil to skillet and heat to 375 degrees. Mix flour, bread crumbs and seasonall. Dip fillets in milk, roll in flour/crumb mixture, then place in hot skillet. Cook about four minutes per side until deep golden brown.