The Coast

Andrew and Matt had fun in the ocean. I yelled for Andrew to get out of the water because he didn't have dry clothes to change into. He didn't hear me yelling like a fishwife, but he heard the whistle of his dad.

Almond Citrus Muffins

Almond Citrus Muffins~ these are the muffins we had at the Peerless Hotel for breakfast in Ashland, OR this week when we went to visit Grandpa Bob.
I am a little slow getting this to you. Like I said, you can replace the Almond extract and orange zest with most anything like 1 cup of blue berries or the zest of one lemon and a tablespoon of poppy seeds...

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 Tablespoon Almond extract
The zest from one medium orange

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups
or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder.
Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough
milk to fill the cup. Add the vanilla, almond extract and orange zest
to the bowl. Mix this with flour mixture.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven.

Sea Hag

We went to the coast, Depot Bay and did some whale watching. We bought salt water taffy, found shells on the beach and took pictures of the natives. We ate lunch for Bruce's birthday at Mo's and had delicious clam chowder. The sea hag is the one in the middle, Ben.

OMSI

We went to OMSI and they had a Leonardo Da Vinci display. They showed a lot of inventions, art, military, music and scientific ideas he had. The hands on displays for children were mirror image writing, designing your own city, and rebuilding a bridge. We got a great copy of the Mama Lisa.

Luke in Columbia

The pictures are from the baptism and the conference. The one with me and my companion, and the short missionary in between is a three generation photo. Me, my trainer and my trainers trainer. The other is of our entire zone, and then the picture of the baptism. The black man is from Nigeria and only speaks English, I got to translate for him at the baptism. His friends are interested in the gospel and they don´t speak Spanish either, so I could end up teaching in English!

Images of Emily

They put a picture of my "fabric and buttons creation" in The Observer. If you go to www.lagrandeobserver.com you can read the article. I didn't see the pictures. There were five pictures in the printed article. The article is called "Images of Emily", March 14, 2009.

Slide show

This is our new TV cabinet and DVD and video storage holder. It was in my friend's garage and she was taking it to the dump. I like the wood look. Bruce wants to replace the wire on the front. What would you replace it with? We are taking suggestions.

This is a January lap quilt in blues and purples I made with a flannel backing. It is nice and warm. The second blankie is fleece we made in Enrichment meeting. You use two 1 1/2 yd pieces of fleece and tie the ends together. We finished it in one evening and Andrew uses it. I reckon I will have to make the little darling his own blakie with basketballs and soccer balls.

Estate sale

Ernie, Andrew and I went to an Estate sale on Saturday. I found a La Grande High school 1960's cheerleader outfit(blue/white), half a dozen sheer scarves for the '50's, a nice red and white muumuu, a short pale blue muumuu,and a skunk hood, (they said they would call me when they find the rest of the child costume, I left them my card). Andrew got a Monopoly game (1961) and a short wooden wack bonk stick in the free box. Ernie didn't find anything. The sale was next to KFC. We had a flat tire. Ernie called Les Schwab and a handsome young man came and replaced the tire for us in the KFC parking lot. That was a yard sale bonding experience!

Mt. Emily art gallery Opening

The Art Gallery Opening

They did an award presentation and then started the show. The award was at 5pm and we were told to be there at 5:30pm. The award presentation didn't take as long as they thought. So we were late.
The batiks were beautiful. I remember I did batiks in High School.
There was another quilted wall hanging with tall trees that was well done, very neat and precise. (Debbie Rogers)
There were two black and white photographs called: ‘one with glasses’ and ‘one without of Mt. Emily’. That was funny. You had to read the title to get it. Bruce said does this look blurry to you? I told him yes, dear, read the title and look at the next picture.
Another lady did a collage of Mt. Emily pictures in an 8 x 10 frame. I coulda made one of those:)
There was a 4-H banner with Mt. Emily in the background. (By Sheri Nantz, a lot of work)
Another woman did the four seasons with Mt. Emily. Three of seasons had snow. No, just kidding, we do have 4 seasons here.
The sculpture was a wooden dinner plate with carved utensils called “Dinner on Mt. Emily”. The plate was in the shape of Oregon. Hmmm not what I expected, maybe the wood was from Mt. Emily.
There was a framed poem about Emily and when we arrived a lady was reading her story about Mt. Emily.
There were about 50 people there. Knew some names and faces. It is a different crowd for us.
It was an interesting show with a variety of art forms. Ruth Davenport, the organizer of the exhibit said two more galleries in town want to do the exhibit. The other two galleries are in the old library that is a new art center and a new place that is opening that will be in the tall, 2 story building that was Lester Realty. It may be awhile before I can display my quilted watercolor in our home. We forgot the camera so will take a picture later. It is 18 x 24 inches and titled “Stars Over Emily” How’s that for hoity toity?
Most of the food was gone when we got there. Andrew had part of a sandwich and 2 pieces of cake. Bruce had crackers and cheese. Nancy, my friend, had some fruit dipped in chocolates. I came home and made stir fry.
A friend that works at EOU said this show should be better than a previous one that had all naked ladies... Maybe we should do ‘Nudes on Emily’...

Luke is in Columbia!

This is Medellin, Columbia, the drug cartel of the world where Luke is serving his mission. He says not to freak out. It isn't bad where they are and they stay away from the drug areas. He is still smiling. Click on the picture and it gets bigger and you have a better idea of what it looks like.

Shamrock Table Runner

Are we ready for St. Paddy's day or what? Actually I will add one more block as it looks too short for the table. It was easy to do with 9 inch blocks and a shamrock pattern I downloaded off the internet. I did a machine edge around the shamrocks and we will wash it and the edges will fray up. The original on Etsy was on old jeans, butt being the frugal person I am I gave all our old jeans away and purchased this denim like fabric at Wally World.

Klondike Derby

Once a year the Scouts go up into the mountains and "sleep" in snow shelters and "have fun" competing in scout skills in the snow. Actually, the kids do sleep and have fun. The adults? That is another tale. Andrew turned 12 on the day of the Klondike. For snow shelters they dug snow caves in 8 feet of hard pack. One father/son pair built an igloo. At its base it was 10 feet across. The snow was deep enough for the kids to climb up on the outhouse.