Title

Monday, April 4, 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

I forgot to tell the most important thing in last week’s letter—Eric passed his second out of four CPA tests!  We are so proud of him.  He’ll take the third one at the end of May.

Last Monday I read on “The Jungle” by Clive Cussler until I got too sleepy, so I took a nap.  When I got up, I had four missionaries here.  The two Spanish speaking missionaries had come over.  They were playing pool and ping pong.  I continued to read on my Kindle.  Later that evening my two missionaries came in and visited a while before we all went to bed.

Trish woke me up to go to breakfast with her and Dan & Tonia and two of their kids.  We had lunch for breakfast.  The bluebonnets are starting to bloom along the freeway between Tin Top and Bethel roads.  We won’t have many this year due to lack of rain.  I stopped by Walmart on my way home and bought stuff for Chicken Tortilla Soup and then came home and made it for supper.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

4 regular or 2 large cans diced RoTel

1 can RoTel chili base

2 cans Chopped Green Chili Peppers

2 large cans crushed or diced Tomatoes

1 or 2 cans Black Beans

1 can Corn

5 cooked and diced Chicken breasts

1 diced large Onion

          Add everything to a BIG pot and simmer.  Don’t drain any of the cans.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream (optional) or a slice of Avocado (optional) or shredded cheddar cheese (optional) and with Tortilla Chips (optional).

         

When the missionaries came home for lunch on Tuesday, there were three of them.    We had a tag-a-long for about four days due to his companion going to a large training meeting for four days in Hurst.  He is usually in Granbury and has been to our house before.  He is Elder Campbell from Hemet, California.  Anyway, I read on my book until I was sleepy, took a nap, and then read until time for supper.  We all ate, I cleaned up the kitchen, and then I finished reading my book.  Wow!  It was good.  I’m going to have to read more Clive Cussler books.  I read “Sahara” a couple years ago and really liked it also.  Then I vacuumed all the tile floors.  When I finished, I started reading “Scumble” by Ingrid Law.  I went to bed around 8:30.

Even though I went to bed early on Tuesday, it was sure hard to get up on Wednesday.  But I did—it was temple day.  Bob called me to let me know that he would be home later that day.  He had had a great visit with Grandma and had gotten a lot accomplished.  I picked up Sharon and Marsha.  We had a very enlightening day at the temple.  We ate at Logan’s Steakhouse again this week when we got back to Weatherford.  Bob wasn’t home when I got home, but he had been.  I wanted to go to bed because I was so tired, but it was just too early.  Bob got home around 9.  We stayed up talking until after 11.

I slept in on Thursday morning then messed around on my computer while Bob worked in his office.  I talked with Dorias, Stephenie, and Bonnie.  Later that afternoon we had fresh asparagus from our garden.  Bob left a little later to drive to Dallas to teach his SMU class and I read on my Kindle and watered the orchard and the raised beds.  Dan & Tonia and the kids came over that evening and brought me updated pictures of the kids.  It had been a while!  We had a nice visit.  I read on my book “Scumbled” until I finished it at 1:30 that next morning.  Then I discovered that it was actually the second book and that I should have read “Savvy” first.  Oh, well.  I’m reading it now.  During the day, the cold front that had plagued us for four days—moved on.

We slept in on April Fool’s Day.  You cannot believe what all that Stephenie and Dorias did to their kids.  I thought about doing some of it to my missionaries, but decided against it. Check out their blogs at www.esfamily.blogspot.com and www.mdswensen.blogspot.com.  I watered some more outside.  That took most of the day.  In the meantime, I read in my Kindle on “Savvy”.  Boy it would have been nice to have read that first instead of reading the second book first.  It would have made a lot more sense.  I did take a break while Bob and I went grocery shopping.  When we got home, I fixed supper for the four missionaries and us.  Elder Berghout and Elder Stanworth cleaned up the kitchen for me afterwards.  They are such good kids.  I finished “Savvy” around 11:30 and then went to bed. 

Bob got up way before me and left to go teach his SMU class on Saturday.  I got up at 8.  I met Charles, Amber & Sadie at a car fixin place on North Main then I took them to breakfast with me.  We met Trish, Marilyn, and Dan & Tonia and their four kids at IHOP.  Afterwards we went out to Dan’s new house so that Charles & Amber could see it.  They should be sheet rocking it this week.  We visited with Trish a little and then came on home.  We watched “Tangled” and then I let Charles take my car to go pick up Amber’s car.  Her a/c hadn’t been working—it ended up just being a filter that needed replaced.  We watched the second session of General Conference.  I really liked Boyd K. Packard’s talk. Michael came over at the end of that session.  Then we all went to Logan’s Steakhouse for supper.  Bob met us there.  Afterwards, we picked up Katie & Madison at Dan’s old house and then came on home.  Bob, Michael & Charles met Dan & Robbie at the Stake Center for the General Priesthood Meeting.  Amber went shopping and I stayed home and watched Sadie, Katie and Madison.  There wasn’t much to do to watch them—just listen to if one of them got hurt.  They play really well together.  I started reading a book on my Kindle called “Uglies” by Scott Westerfeld and Rodrigo Corral.  Dorias suggested it.  Amber got home around 8:30.  Bob and the four boys went to Braum’s after Priesthood Meeting for ice cream—a tradition in our family.  When they got home, Charles, Amber and Sadie went home back to Jacksboro.  They dropped Katie and Madison off at Dan’s house on the way.  Michael left a little later to go back home to Benbrook.  Karen and Megan are in Indiana for a few weeks while Karen takes care of her Grandma while her parents are on vacation.

Yesterday we watched both sessions of General Conference at home.  It was a really good conference.  I talked to Bonnie and Robbie and text talked to Stephenie and Cookie.  It was up to 91 here, but there was snow on the ground in SLC.  Tyler Payne came over to visit with Bob, but he was with someone else so we visited.  They will be living with his parents until November when he will be deployed.  I read on my Kindle for a while.  We had a nice long visit with the missionaries when they got home that evening.  Elder Stanworth asked me if I’d fix waffles for their zone today.  I’m a sucker so said yes.  I then mixed up my sourdough and went to bed. 

We had another cold front come in during the night.  It was lightening and thundering.  We only got a few drops of rain though.  But the wind was really up.  In fact, it knocked out our Internet for most of the day.  I went to breakfast at IHOP with Trish and the rest of the gang.  I stopped at Walmart on the way home for milk then came home, cleaned up the kitchen, and started making waffles as the 22 missionaries got here from all over the zone.  We have a new record—Elder Bues ate 5 ½ waffles.  We thought Elder Fish was going to win.  He only ate 5 and could have eaten more, but we ran out of batter before he was finished.  He said next time…….  Most of the boys usually eat 1-2 waffles.  After they left, I worked on Visiting Teaching.

Well, I’d send this on its way, but the Internet is still down.