this is me on my first day of the semester Kristy packed me a lunch and dropped me off at school ha ha it was so nice. everything is going good i miss you guys and below is a video of me doing a running back flip of Kristy's roof enjoy love dickSunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
It's so tasty, too!
This is SO good and SO EASY! You guys will love it. I've been serving it with peas and the pesto sauce tastes good on those, too.
Pesto-Coated Baked Chicken
2-3 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
1/4 c + 1 T prepared pesto
1 1/2 tsp sour cream
1 1/2 tsp mayonnaise
1 T shredded Parmesan (but I ended up using about 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella)
1 T pine nuts (used more of these too)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a shallow baking dish. Combine pesto, sour cream, and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Brush over chicken. Sprinkle with cheese and pine nuts. Bake 10-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Pesto-Coated Baked Chicken
2-3 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
1/4 c + 1 T prepared pesto
1 1/2 tsp sour cream
1 1/2 tsp mayonnaise
1 T shredded Parmesan (but I ended up using about 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella)
1 T pine nuts (used more of these too)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a shallow baking dish. Combine pesto, sour cream, and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Brush over chicken. Sprinkle with cheese and pine nuts. Bake 10-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Dog Food
I think this site would be good for posting memories of Mom. I'd like to see us all do that.
When I was little, I was prone to daydreaming. In elementary and Sunday school, my mind would often be wandering and I would find myself not paying attention to what was being taught. Well, when Mom would take me grocery-shopping with her at Hughes (remember Hughes in Huntington Harbor?), I would wait and stare out the window while she paid for the groceries. Right below the window is where they kept the dog food bags. There I would be, standing right in front of them, staring out the window. Mom would tease me EVERY TIME we went to the store. She'd say, "Katherine, why are you staring at the dog food?" "Katherine, do you want me to buy you some dog food? If you want to eat dog food, I'll get it for you." "You like dog food?! GROSS!" Though I didn't think so at the time, it was hilarious.
You go.
When I was little, I was prone to daydreaming. In elementary and Sunday school, my mind would often be wandering and I would find myself not paying attention to what was being taught. Well, when Mom would take me grocery-shopping with her at Hughes (remember Hughes in Huntington Harbor?), I would wait and stare out the window while she paid for the groceries. Right below the window is where they kept the dog food bags. There I would be, standing right in front of them, staring out the window. Mom would tease me EVERY TIME we went to the store. She'd say, "Katherine, why are you staring at the dog food?" "Katherine, do you want me to buy you some dog food? If you want to eat dog food, I'll get it for you." "You like dog food?! GROSS!" Though I didn't think so at the time, it was hilarious.
You go.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
THIS IS REFERRING TO THE BOOK I HAVE TOLD YOU ABOUT. DAD
My daughter-in-law was killed by lightening 15 months ago while climbing the Grand Tetons. She left behind two babies, a boy almost two and a girl who had her fourth birthday the week before. Many have given theories and tried to explain this tragedy. None of them are very comforting. The hardest part is knowing that these two little ones will never be physically loved and held by her again. They are too little to grieve, yet they really do miss their mommy. I have to say that she was the best mother, spent every minute with these kids and loved them and giggled with them and was patient and good. She put a whole lot of living and loving in the short time she was here on earth. Her death was tragic, sudden, and doesn't make sense. But then, I realize that I only have a mortal point of view. My son and his friends placed a memorial on the mountain that said, "Touched by God." That is the most comforting statement of all.
A book that gives us great comfort is The Message by Lance Richardson, who just happened to live in my son's ward. He died a few months after Erica. I've come to believe his promise that our loved ones who have died are still very close to us. I think that they are our guardian angels. My daughter said the one thing that made the most sense, "These two little ones must have a challenging life ahead of them if Erica can help them more as a spiritual mother than as a mortal mother."
My son's faith has remained unshaken. He is living a good life with a new wife, who is wonderful to my grandchildren. My question now is, How much do we keep Erica's memory alive? Or is better for the kids to get on with a new life? Is it okay to teach them that their mom will always be close by? My inclination is to grieve forever; the pain doesn't seem to lessen with time. I hurt so much for them. But I think the very young kids are more resilient than the adults. They are able to get on with life in a happy, positive way. I just want to love them and be there for them as only a grandma can. – Grandma Packer, Rigby, ID
You sound like a wonderful grandmother, and I’m so glad the children, and your son, are surrounded by so much love. I believe the best approach is to help your children keep Erica’s memory alive all that you can. She has not ceased to exist; she has only gone ahead of them. It’s certainly okay to teach them that their mom is still close by; what a comfort, in fact. Maybe they could celebrate her birthday each year, look through scrapbooks and pay tribute. Bringing her up now and again, in a loving way (“Oh, you have the same gorgeous singing voice your mom had!” “I wonder what your mom would do in this situation; she was always so wise…”) is both healthy and needed. This won’t prevent them from loving their new step-mom; but will cement all their bonds of love.
NOTE: I THINK THAT THE COMMENT ABOUT A CHALLENGING LIFE REFERS TO THE AGE OF THE KIDS. THIS SHOULD BE A HUGE COMFORT TO ALL OF US.
YOU ALL KNOW YOUR MOM. JUST TRY TO IMAGINE HOW YOUR MOM WILL WANT TO HELP YOU.
I WILL TELL YOU WHEN I AM IN THE TEMPLE I FEEL THE CLOSEST TO HER. IN FACT WHEN I AM THERE EVERYTHING FEELS ALRIGHT.
LOVE YOU
DAD
A book that gives us great comfort is The Message by Lance Richardson, who just happened to live in my son's ward. He died a few months after Erica. I've come to believe his promise that our loved ones who have died are still very close to us. I think that they are our guardian angels. My daughter said the one thing that made the most sense, "These two little ones must have a challenging life ahead of them if Erica can help them more as a spiritual mother than as a mortal mother."
My son's faith has remained unshaken. He is living a good life with a new wife, who is wonderful to my grandchildren. My question now is, How much do we keep Erica's memory alive? Or is better for the kids to get on with a new life? Is it okay to teach them that their mom will always be close by? My inclination is to grieve forever; the pain doesn't seem to lessen with time. I hurt so much for them. But I think the very young kids are more resilient than the adults. They are able to get on with life in a happy, positive way. I just want to love them and be there for them as only a grandma can. – Grandma Packer, Rigby, ID
You sound like a wonderful grandmother, and I’m so glad the children, and your son, are surrounded by so much love. I believe the best approach is to help your children keep Erica’s memory alive all that you can. She has not ceased to exist; she has only gone ahead of them. It’s certainly okay to teach them that their mom is still close by; what a comfort, in fact. Maybe they could celebrate her birthday each year, look through scrapbooks and pay tribute. Bringing her up now and again, in a loving way (“Oh, you have the same gorgeous singing voice your mom had!” “I wonder what your mom would do in this situation; she was always so wise…”) is both healthy and needed. This won’t prevent them from loving their new step-mom; but will cement all their bonds of love.
NOTE: I THINK THAT THE COMMENT ABOUT A CHALLENGING LIFE REFERS TO THE AGE OF THE KIDS. THIS SHOULD BE A HUGE COMFORT TO ALL OF US.
YOU ALL KNOW YOUR MOM. JUST TRY TO IMAGINE HOW YOUR MOM WILL WANT TO HELP YOU.
I WILL TELL YOU WHEN I AM IN THE TEMPLE I FEEL THE CLOSEST TO HER. IN FACT WHEN I AM THERE EVERYTHING FEELS ALRIGHT.
LOVE YOU
DAD
Friday, September 21, 2007
Tony Snow's testimony
Wayne sent this to Dad and I and I thought I'd post it here. I'm pretty frustrated today because I found out Bobby will actually not have tomorrow or Sunday off, but has to work both days, and I miss my husband and I was looking forward to having him home with us. When life gets a little frustrating, it is tempting to start feeling sorry for myself, so I'm glad that when I got an extra couple of minutes (2 minutes is really all I'm going to get this afternoon. Franny is screaming for me as I write this), I'm glad I was able to read this. I especially like his third point: that God relishes surprise. And though we prefer when our lives go smoothly, our greatest growth comes from how we deal with these trials. I love you all very much. I'm glad this just sort of fell into my lap this afternoon, because I'm not doing a great job of seeking this kind of comfort out on my own. Miss you.
Beautiful testimony by Tony Snow
This is an outstanding testimony from Tony Snow, President Bush's Press Secretary, and his fight with cancer. Commentator and broadcaster Tony Snow announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush Administration in April 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23, 2007, Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced the cancer had recurred, with tumors found in his abdomen-, leading to surgery in April, followed by more chemotherapy. Snow went back to work in the White House Briefing Room on May 30, but has resigned since, "for economic reasons," and to pursue "other interests."
------------------------------
"Blessings arrive in unexpected packages, - in my case, cancer. Those of us with potentially fatal diseases - and there are millions in America today - find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence "What It All Means", Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.
The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the "why" questions : Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.
I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is- a plain and in disputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.
But despite this -, or because of it-, God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.
Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your h ead swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere. To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life,- and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many non believing hearts- an intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live-fully, richly, exuberantly -no matter how their days may be numbered.
Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease, smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see, - but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension- and yet don't. By His love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap an d stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not
experience otherwise.
'You Have Been Called' Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet; a loved one holds your hand at the side. "It's cancer," the healer announces.
The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter-, and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our "normal time."
There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived-; an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tinny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.
The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.
There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue -, for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.
Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.
We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us, -that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us partway there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave affliction often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people's worries and fears.
'Learning How to Live'. Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of love.
I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago and saw the sting of cancer take him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was an humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. "I'm going to try to beat [this cancer]," he told me several months before he died. "But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side."
His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity -, filled with life and love we cannot comprehend -, and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.
Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?
When our faith flags, he throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it.
It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up, - to speak of us!
This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense. We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.
What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and everyone of us who believe, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place, - in the hollow of God's hand."
End
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Franny and Sophie
Here's some cute pictures of the girls. Here's Franny the first day she did potty-training at school and the other one was from earlier that morning. I looked up and Soph was trying to push Franny in the doll stroller! Sophie's hair is always in her eyes like this. It's driving me nuts because she won't leave any barrettes in her hair!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHERINE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR KATHERINE....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
GO (literally) FRANCIS!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
GO (literally) FRANCIS!!!!!!
Happy Birthday!!!!
Hey Kath! Happy Birthday!!! You are almost 30 years old. Man you are old, haha that's me getting you back for the whilte lightning comment haha. Jk I hope you are having a great birthday!!! I wish we could celebrate your birthday with you. I love you so much!!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Happy Birthday Katherine!!! (tomorrow)
Happy birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. happy Birthday drea Katherinnneeee. Happy Birthday to youuuuu. I love you fool. I hopee your birthday is bomb. bomber then bomb actually. You deserve it. I'll be calling you today!!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Katherine and Bobby's new house
Here's the front of our house. I made this video so you could see where we live. We miss you all and we can't wait for Thanksgiving. Love you! Sorry the video is such poor-quality. I just used my piece of crap digital camera. Which sucks. Hey- you know what I want for my birthday? For all of you to post something on this blog. That would be so bomb.dsoihf
Hi Family
I think this blog will serve our family better. Thanks to Katherine for all her caring and work. We would like to use this site to help us stay close and to help us focus on our goal: To live our lives so that we can be together as a family forever. I have asked all of you to be aware of your Mom's influence in your lives. I promise you that your Mom is involved with each one of us. She is very interested in our well being and will be able to help and influence us. Probably more than she could do if she were with us in mortality. Marianne Linford told me that Elder Richard G. Scott (who lives in their ward and lost his wife) always wonders why so many think that the departed are not with us. Therefore the theme of this blog is the promises made to Marianne in her patricarchal blessing regarding each one of you:
......"I BLESS YOU WITH THE POWER OF DISCERNMENT IN THE RAISING OF YOUR CHILDREN IN BOTH SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL MATTERS. WITH THIS POWER YOU WILL ALWAYS KNOW WHEN THEY ARE TROUBLED AND IN NEED OF YOUR HELP, AND THUS WILL BE ABLE TO BE WITH THEM DURING THE MOST CRITICAL TIMES IN THEIR LIVES TO HELP THEM MAKE THE RIGHT DECSIONS."
......"I BLESS YOU WITH THE POWER OF DISCERNMENT IN THE RAISING OF YOUR CHILDREN IN BOTH SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL MATTERS. WITH THIS POWER YOU WILL ALWAYS KNOW WHEN THEY ARE TROUBLED AND IN NEED OF YOUR HELP, AND THUS WILL BE ABLE TO BE WITH THEM DURING THE MOST CRITICAL TIMES IN THEIR LIVES TO HELP THEM MAKE THE RIGHT DECSIONS."
Thursday, September 13, 2007
under my umbrella
Hey family!
I worked all day on this header so I hope you like it. I thought "You can stand under my umbrella" would be a nice theme for our blog since the reason we have it so we can be a support to one another, but I'm not sure if it's the best idea. I happened to see the music video today and it is pretty gross. I welcome anyone's suggestions on better titles. I love you guys and I hope you all use the blog. Please tell me if you need help.
Kath
I worked all day on this header so I hope you like it. I thought "You can stand under my umbrella" would be a nice theme for our blog since the reason we have it so we can be a support to one another, but I'm not sure if it's the best idea. I happened to see the music video today and it is pretty gross. I welcome anyone's suggestions on better titles. I love you guys and I hope you all use the blog. Please tell me if you need help.
Kath
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