When You Name Your Child ...

...Nixon, have you been secretly planning his first student council campaign since birth?

You'll have to ask Geoffrey! You're Welcome parents of Park City Middle Schooler's for educating your children about a great American president. Because not a single one of your kids understood these campaign posters and Nixon has had to explain it over and over:

Geoffrey also wanted to take a picture of Nixon with a dog and have a "Checkers is Not a Bribe" poster. Even Nixon thought that was too much. Unfortunately, the school has a policy against any kind of button, or shirt, or handout. Too bad, because we wanted to make some of these:

or maybe:

Tuesday is the day for the big speech and election. Nixon is deciding between two different speech styles. Poor kid - our sense of humor in this house is so warped! Do you think he should try a Michael - carry the music in and throw out cliche's, or a Dwight - pound his fists and yell a lot? (this clip of Michael misses the best part - the beginning where he carries in the CD player)

Yea Conference!

When Geoffrey coaches hockey or baseball, whenever a kid comes off the ice, he tells them something they did good and something they can work on to improve. That's how I always feel about conference - there's always a few messages that make me say "Yea, I'm on the right track there" and a few that make me say "OK, I should be working on that a little harder!" I love conference!

This was the first time Nixon could go to Priesthood, and we had tickets for Geoffrey and Nixon for priesthood and for all of us Sunday morning. We stayed downtown in Salt Lake and had a GREAT time! It rained all weekend, but nice steady rain, no miserable downpours. It was so fun to walk everywhere and just hang out. While the men were at priesthood, Easton and I went to Deseret Book Ladies Night, then we walked to the Capital Theater to pick Sara up from dance, then we all met for dinner.

We might have had too much fun. We had to be up pretty early Sunday - by the time we got into our seats and listened to the choir practice for Music and the Spoken Word, we were all pretty tired. So the lights dim - Music and the Spoken Word starts and about 25 minutes later I wake up to see my WHOLE FAMILY asleep. Not subtle-nod-the-head asleep, but sprawled out on their chairs, probably snoring asleep! Nice! Well, I let them all sleep 5 more minutes before I woke them up for the start of conference. It was a great weekend!

You say Tomato ...I say Yummmmmm

I am so lucky to work with some of the most TALENTED ladies ever in my calling - I love them! Valine is capable of doing all things - sewing, scrapbooking, card making, quilting - she excels at everything, but it is her culinary skills I am most in awe of. I have not yet mastered cookies at this elevation - you should see the BREAD she makes!

To get to the yummy part ...she has raised a daughter as talented as she. This recipe came from the kitchen of Camille. I splurged on heirloom tomatoes at farmer's market. They were so sweet I didn't need to add any sugar to this recipe at all!

Tomato Bisque Soup

6-8 Roma Tomatoes (or any kind)

2 cans Tomato soup (10 1/2 ox. cans)

1 cup Chicken Stock ( I use homemade stock from my freezer)

1/2 cup beef stock (or canned beef consomme')

1 small bunch fresh basil

1/2 cup sugar (you might use more or less)

1 1/2 cups cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Roast tomatoes in oven at 375 degrees until tops begin to blacken (about 1-1 1/2 hours). To roast the tomatoes cut them open and place them cut side up in a 9x13 pan. Drizzle olive oil on top with salt and pepper.

In a large pot combine tomato soup, chicken stock and beef stock. Take the tomatoes from the oven and place three or four in a blender with some liquid. Puree until smooth. Repeat with remaining tomatoes and liquid. Add puree to pot and let simmer on medium heat (do not boil). Add sugar until mixture is slightly sweet, then add cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The recipe didn't say when to add the basil - I added it at the sugar step. I also had a few purple peppers from the market - I roasted and pureed those with the tomatoes. I topped with fresh Parmesan cheese and homemade croutons (chunks of sourdough bread; shake in bag with melted butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese - bake in oven until crispy).

If you're in a nice mood - make your hubby's favorite desert while the tomatoes are roasting:

Soup weather is here! Do you have a favorite?

Remember that One Time at Band Camp?

Picture the first day of band/orchestra for the year. 40 eager students each about to make a decision that puts them on the path to greatness, musical genius, or possibly the path to nerd-dom, marching band and band camp.

Teacher (aka, adult who missed the first path and landed smack in the middle of the second): "Today we will choose instruments."

5th Graders: "Yea! We're so cool! We're in the 5th grade!"

Teacher: "Here are some small, inexpensive instruments that will be easy to carry to school and affordable for your parents. Plus, 90 % of you will choose these small instruments and I will never know which one of you is screwing up the songs we are playing. Here are some enormous instruments that are hard to handle, hard to play, hard to take care of, hard to transport back and forth to school, and super expensive for your parents. Only one or two of you will choose these instruments and I will always know when you are screwing up and constantly single you out in class for being off beat or playing a wrong note."

95 % of 5th Graders: "I choose small, cheap, and easy!"

Nixon and Easton (arms straining in the air, faces red from maxium exertion to be noticed by teacher): "I choose tuba/bass! There is noooo place in our tiny house for something that big. What could possibly make our 5th grade year even longer? Oh wait! This continues into the 6th grade?! When school is even further away and this will be tons harder for our parents to manage?! Sign us up!"

And that is the possible story of how we arrived here. The blog post where I can say ...

Introducing the next ...

Just like ...

Wants to play like ...

OK, I could not think of one famous tuba or bass player to finish those sentences with. I guess that means we're on the path to anonymous greatness. (I swear these pictures do not even begin to show how much bigger than my kids these things really are!)