Spring in Utah

To be honest I am not sure what happened to the last week and few days. I didn't get any walking in last week, as you can see I didn't blog either. The weather has been crazy. It blew dust everywhere and then when you couldn't see 100 yards in front of you because of all the "crap" in the air it begins to precipitate. Lots! We had rain and lot of snow. Now I know that seems a little crazy being the end of March and beginning of April, but I would like to remind everyone about this time of year and the weather in Utah. That is normal - get it? NORMAL! It seems like every year the poor little tulips on the Church campus have to recover from a beating.  So as I type this I have my cup of hot herbal tea, my sweats and sweatshirt and sock on to keep warm.

It has been fun to decorate a little for Easter and spring.  I have every intention of starting and finishing a Spring banner after the manner of one that my sister in law made.  I picked up a bunch of tulips and a couple of peter rabbit decorations.  It really makes my house feel more like home. Here are a couple of pictures from our dinner group we hosted.  These are the only two I got before the batteries in the camera went dead.

Our dinner group last Friday was fabulous. We served fresh oranges, kalamata olives and red onions over fresh mixed greens. We then had polenta with 4 seperate toppings. A mushroom cream sauce, marinara with Italian sausage, Italian flavored drip beef, and a chicken dish with currents, pine nuts and raisins. For dessert we had panna cotta with fresh berries. I had made shortbread to go with it, but I forgot about it, so it was saved for another occasion.  Which turned out to be the next day.  After we cleaned up we realized we had enough food for another dinner - so we called Ralph's brother and invited them to have dinner with us on Saturday which proved to be a good thing.    We were out of panna cotta, but had ice cream with shortbread.

Saturday Ralph spent a good part of the day helping his brother tear out his basement in preparation for a complete remodel.  Everybody was tired and hungry and they arrived.  I made the mistake of putting candy on the plates of the kids - even though it was sealed - it was too tempting and caused problems. OOPS! That is ok - we had a nice evening.  At Uncle Ralph's it is ok to have chocolate as an appetizer.

Last night my bookgroup went up the canyon for an overnighter. We stayed at a member's family cabin and enjoyed the evening. Conversation could have been better, but when someone starts talking about "womens" stuff You can't get a word in edgewise and don't even try to change the topic. Oh well, it was fun to be with them, even if all we talked about was depression, miscarriages and family life. The book that we read was called "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath. I will say it was written very well, but what a depressing book. The book we read last month was about a family affected by Viet Nam war called "After the fire a still small Voice" Not an uplifting book either. I think the book group is trying to kill me! This coming month we are reading another book about somebodies state of mind and how depressed they are.  It is a good thing I have other book that I read as well.  It was good to come home.  I missed my boys and I think they missed me.

I made an Easter card for my mother - Wednesday night at 10:00 pm so that it could go in the mail the following day.  I had to get it to the mailbox on Thursday or it wouldn't be there by Saturday.  It didn't turn out how I would have liked it to, but it works.  I love the little chick on the egg.  I borrowed the stamp from a friend (because I don't have enough of my own ), so I am not sure of the company that sells it.  The words are computer generated.  The back grounds were made with (blue) an  embossing folder, and (yellow) a flower punch.  Even though I didn't like it, it is the thought that counts.  Right?

Well that is the last week in a nutshell.  Enjoy conference and your weekend.

Ta Ta for now