Let's just skip the apologies and get on to the pictures!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm behind.   Enjoy the photos:

Kate at the all-city 4th grade Hershey Track Meet:

 Sabrina and I went and stayed through most of the meet.  We saw Kate do all her events.  

Sabrina slathered on a new layer of sun block every time she was feeling too hot (much of the time.  It was a toasty sort of day).  Kate had a groupie who followed her everywhere.  Sabrina had fun rolling down the short hills with him while waiting for Kate to finish her standing long-jump.

Kate's long jump distance (which I don't recall right now) was longer than she is tall!  I am particularly fond of this bizarre pose she flashed while setting off in the 100 meter semi-finals.

She came in 5th in her heat (of 6) but she had a great time.  Can you see the grin on her face?!

Sabrina got to perform in kindergarten plays from her class.  You may be able to tell she is a penguin.  She was rather hyper and didn't focus like she usually does, but she loved doing it.

I absolutely love our "little" city library.  It used to be little.  Very little.  But several months ago our new library opened (which I know i've mentioned here before) and we LOVE it!  This was an activity I took the girls to.  It was a class for children about reading music!  See how BIG the room is?  Before the move all activities were shoved into the little slip of breathing room in the children's book section, or in an under-construction classroom-type room in the city hall area of the old building.  This new one has good spaces for all sorts of classes and activities without interrupting normal library-type quietude.

Rice Krispy Boys

Rice Krispy Boys

written and illustrated by Sabrina Southern

5/2012, age 6

Rice Krispy Boys

One day, Snap and Pop went outside to eat breakfast

and Pop said “Where is Krackel?”  

“He told me he...”

“was going to Rice Krispy Land!”

Pop said “Not without us he won’t!”

“Wait, that’s his airplane”

"Let’s go!”  

“Wait, we need to get packed”  

“come on, Why don’t we...”

“ say hi!”  

“But how will we say hi all the way up there?”

“Follow Me!”

(image of a jet pack)

 “Oh, we are going to get jet packs!”

(jet pack store)

“Hi.”  

“Hi.” 

(they buy a jet pack and put it on)

 (They fly up to Krackel’s airplane)

(All three friends arrive at Rice Krispy Land where everything is made of Rice Krispy Treats!) 

No More Kindergarten

 Last Friday was Sabrina's last day of kindergarten classes.  This morning she had her end of year testing with her teacher.  So now she is officially done.  

As usual, I'm torn.  I'm delighted with how much she has grown and developed; amazed at all her new skills and abilities.  She does math problems quickly in her head and is reading well above grade level (as usual for our girls.  I see my littlest baby growing up.  Bittersweet for sure.  After her testing she got two movie passes to Spanish 8 theaters and a certificate for a free kids meal at Brick Oven.  So I got a gift card Michael had earned at work to Brick Oven and we went out for a Sabrina & Mommy lunch.

(cut up lasagna does look quite awful in the "cartoony" setting, lol)

I showed Sabrina the pictures of her at her start of year testing and she chose to wear the same jumper.  Now days it has to be paired with leggings.  She has grown so much!

Congratulations darlin' for successfully navigating the introduction to class work, homework, school friendships, and riding the bus.  You've been a delight to everyone around you.

Happy Birthday dear Kitties

April 6th was Ginger and Sierra's first birthday.  They are now technically cats rather than kittens.  Awww, getting so grown up!  So I'll indulge in some pictures of the kitties on this blog as well as their own.

I've done some work on curtains and that sort of thing in the master bath and master bedroom.  You can see how Ginger was trying to help me :)

For the kitties' birthday we got them some Fancy Feast cat food which they really enjoyed.  The birthday hats... they didn't enjoy quite so much, of course.

Ginger especially was delighted about the new kitty teaser wand.  She couldn't wait to get it out of the bag.  In the picture below she is trying to steal it out of the grocery bag the day before their birthday.  I had to wrap it up and hide it when she wasn't looking so it could wait until their actual birthday.

Ever since I replaced the heavy wood blinds with these pretty curtains the kitties have loved spending time in the bathroom.  With the 4 windows they like to slip behind the curtains to watch the world go by.

April Fools!

April Fool's Day landed on a Sunday this year.  It was even Conference Sunday!  I prepared a couple of little sillies that slipped into our conference goodies.  This one was the most fun :)  I bought 5 little individual-ish sized cans of peaches and when nobody else was in the kitchen I opened each from the bottom without letting the can opener completely remove the metal circle.  Then I dumped the peaches into a separate bowl and carefully rinsed and dried the cans.  After they were well dried I filled them first with a little "April Fools" note (so it would be seen first upon opening it) then some Easter Peeps and Sour Patch jelly beans and hot glued the bottom back into place.  I used the peaches in a nice spiced peach cobbler :)
I also made a "pitcher of punch" which was actually jello.  Both simple, low energy, and not mean in any way.  My kind of "tricks".

It wouldn't be a Utah spring if there weren't any opportunities to take photos of blossoms covered with snow.

Here is some utter miscellany.  Sabrina likes to take pictures on my phone.  The strange fishy-face self-portraits are quite common, as you can imagine from these two examples.  The one of me was taken by Sabrina while I was working on a project for Lizzie's class in the workroom at school.  The top right picture mostly looks like a messy room, but really its a picture of my three girls just home from school each crashed within spitting distance of me with a book apiece.  Bottom center is a rather gross picture, but it is Kate's first sewing injury.  She was using the sewing machine and accidentally hit the pedal, sending the needle through the side of her (stained from paint) finger.  And my girls in hats?  They're just cute.

About a month ago we finally got our heating and air conditioning system replaced.  Last summer was beastly hot since our A/C unit was mostly dead and highly inefficient with what it was capable of doing anyway.  We had a nice heat pump put in.  Our bills are already significantly less expensive and our house is considerably  more comfortable.  With some adjustments in our air returns, which were apparently not well done, the air flow through the house is TONS better.  And the new system will let us set heat and cool settings which is pretty awesome.  So we can set it so if the house goes below 68* the heater kicks in and warms it to that point.  If the house heats above 74* then the air conditioning kicks in to cool it to that point. No more forgetting to switch between heat and cool in the spring and fall when the temperature changes so much between day and night :)  Yes, I love my hvac system in all sorts of silly ways.

Sabrina took these stellar photos of an assembly at school where I helped out the ukulele club.  Lizzie also got to demonstrate her mad jumproping skills she learned in Jump Club.

Cosmo the BYU mascot was at another assembly I went to (so Sabrina could see because it was in the morning before she goes to school).  Lizzie did her animal report on zebras and got to create a habitat complete with a painted clay zebra.  She realized later that she had forgotten to add the black bristly mane.  It's still pretty cute though.  The picture of Sabrina is from the teddy bear tea party.  She invited Daddy to go with her.  I went for Kate's and Lizzie's, but Daddy got to go this time.

7 Minute Fried Rice

Yes, I'm going to do a "boring" recipe post.  Because I made this today and it was fabulous.  Since I made it up as I went I want to get it written down so I don't forget!  (I wrote the recipe in standard format at the end of my ramblings.)

Round about lunch time today I was poking around for something to eat and got a hankering for rice.  BUT I didn't have the time to wait for "real" rice to cook.  So here's what happened:

In my 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup I measured 1 cup water and 1 cup minute rice.  I'm not usually a fan of Minute Rice as I don't care for the texture.  I bought a little box of it for a "treat" for my rice-loving-Lizzie.  I think this worked well because fried rice usually starts with cold cooked rice so the texture is a little different anyway.  Maybe Minute Rice has texture like reheated rice?  hmmm...

While the rice and water cooked in the microwave for 5 minutes I chopped up some ham (I had some leftover slices in the freezer left over from Easter).  Then I pulled some green onions out of the window arrangement (best tip ever: keep your green onions in a vase of water in your kitchen instead of forgotten in a plastic bag in the crisper.  I keep mine in pretty square bud vase.  Some of them have been there for several weeks now and they still look and taste fabulous!) and snipped them up.  I also pulled a partial bag of frozen peas out of the freezer.

While the rice is still cooking I heated up a skillet and added just a touch of oil.  I tossed in the ham chunks and got them feeling good about life while the rice finished up.  Once the microwave was done I poured the rice into the pan, added a couple handfuls of frozen peas, the sliced green onions, a spoonful of minced garlic (I keep a bottle of pre-minced garlic in the fridge.  It's fabulous to have on hand for quick dishes like this.), and some seasoning -- a bit of sesame oil and a healthy dose of soy sauce.  Once the mixture was nicely heated through (which takes about 20 seconds beyond the time it takes to drop things in there) I cleared a clean spot in the middle of the pan and cracked two eggs in.  Scramble them up in the middle there, then mix it all together.  Ta da!

In case you don't really want to read all my rambling, here's a simpler form of the recipe:  all measurements are approximate except the rice and water which you can change however you want as long as the measurements are equal.  I didn't measure anything else.  This is really a how-you-like-it sort of recipe.  If you can get mixed frozen peas and carrots that would up the nutritional value, though of course I avoid carrots like the plague ;)


7 Minute Fried Rice


1 cup Minute Rice, dry
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup chopped ham
2 green onions, minced
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. soy sauce -- really  just start with a little and add until it suits your liking.
2 eggs


In a microwave safe container combine rice and water.  Microwave on High for 5 minutes or until water is all absorbed by rice.  With one minute remaining for the rice, heat a medium sized frying pan on the stove.  Add oil.  Add ham and heat through slightly.  Add finished rice, peas, onions and garlic.  Stir together.  Add sesame oil and soy sauce to taste.  Mix to combine.  Crack eggs into a small bowl and whisk slightly (I didn't do this, but it would have been a good idea).  Create a well in the center of the rice mixture.  Pour eggs in the well and cook until done (scrambled eggs).  Stir all together.  Done!

Easter 2012

 It's high time I catch up pictures before I have to do another photo dump for the whole month!

Without further ado, here is Easter:

(waiting to run outside at Grandpa and Grandma's house for the cousin Easter Egg hunt)

The weather was gorgeous this year.

The following day the Easter Bunny  happened by our house while we were gone to church.  The girls enjoyed gathering eggs in their fancy dresses, though they had to remember to lift the hem so they didn't trip.

Later that afternoon we finally got to dye eggs.  (I accidentally left a full dozen boiled eggs out over night and had to toss them, so this was take-2 of the coloring fun.)

I had intended to light three candles this Easter in memory of three children (Benjamin, Emma, and a friend's child who had passed away just recently) who we know will someday be resurrected because of what happened all those years ago on Easter.  (I forgot.  But we did talk about the resurrection and these children in particular.)