General Women's Conference in Salt Lake City

  Eight of us traveled together to Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon.  I went with three of my friends that live in my ward: Kristin Wayment, Sue Ellen Warmouth, and Christina Johnson.  We went to dinner at the Old Spagetti Factory at Trolley Square and then went to our hotel.

  Just before I left for my trip, Mark's ammo supply arrived.  Unbelievable.

  The four girls (daughters) who went with us; Emma (18), Lily(10), Rebecca (10), and Jenness (16).  This picture was taken just as we were leaving the hotel to take the 2 older girls to the Salt Palace for the Comic Convention.

  We shopped for hours at IKEA and ate lunch.  I thought this bed was cute, and would have it for my grandkids, if I had lots of money, and Katie's bedroom was empty.  It sure is fun shopping with friends and getting ideas from them.

  Sue Ellen has painful knee problems, so we waited at the Conference Center while the other 6 went to park the car.  It took a really long time  and they had a really hard time trying to find a place to park.  In no time at all, I had secured the 8 tickets we needed to get into the Conference Center.  The host by the corner coached me,  He said just stand here and hold up how my fingers you need tickets for and it worked.  Then we waited in the sun in 90 degrees for the others to arrive.

  The Conference was inspiring and I'm so thankful and happy I was able to be there.  All 21,000 seats in the Conference Center were filled.

 

President Uchtdorf gave a wonderful talk.  I can hardly wait to reread it and study it.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865637696/President-Uchtdorf-A-summer-with-Great-Aunt-Rose.html

It's already been published.  I hope you will take time to read it.  The story is about a girl named Ava.

  Temple Square after the Conference.

  Not so great selfie on Temple Square.

  And then when I got home at 1am Sunday morning, this box was sitting in my entry.  Unbelievable again!  Mark bought a huge gun safe, 59 inches tall to put in our bedroom.  And then when I went in our bedroom, he had moved my full length mirror behind our door and put the stupid safe there!  grrrrrrrr.

Mufasa, Lost and Found

I was amazed to see how long it has been since I had put anything on this blog.
On Saturday we returned from a friends house BBQ and discovered that Mufasa was missing. 

We spent a lot of time searching for him.  On Sunday morning I was supposed to go to the cabin with Mark and Betty, but I refused to leave without Mufasa being found. So instead I attended church and bore my testimony in Relief Society (I didn't mention the cat).  It was fast sunday and so I fasted and prayed for Mufasa's return.  I posted about my missing cat on Facebook, Craig's List, and Nextdoor.  On Monday morning I had designed a Lost Cat Flyer and was getting ready to print some when my friend Barbara Winder called me.  We have a "Nextdoor" Skyline-Eagle-Rock Group of neighbors and she had received an e-mail about my lost cat. Another blessing, because I didn't use a lot of printer ink to print flyers.   So Mufasa was missing from Saturday about 5pm until Monday morning at 11am. It was amazing how far up in a huge tree he was since his front feet are declawed.  He was up in the tree 25 to 30 feet.

 I'm so glad to have him back.  He ate briefly and had a long exhausted looking sleep. I've kept their leashes on them since he returned so they can easily be stopped from running out the door. (I think Mufasa escaped from the  house to the garage when one of our four interns went out to get food from the refrigerator, then went out the garage window, and then excaped from the chain link fenced back yard.
My Nextdoor post:
Found in the Neighborhood                                                              

Vicky Van Sickle from Skyline-Eagle Rock

         

This Neighborhood site really works! Thanks to a great neighborhood, I have my dear little declawed cat back! I live on Blue Ridge Circle, a friend who (who lives on Oma Jean Dr. ) saw my posting about a lost cat. She had sent her son to feed a neighbor's cat who lives on Harold Dr. and her son heard a cat up in a tree meowing loudly. She called me and I rushed over. A man (who lives on Blue ... View more Camas Court) heard me talking to my cat and said he would climb the tree for me and get him down. Many thanks to all those who helped rescue my cat.

Shared with Skyline-Eagle Rock in Lost & Found

Salt Lake Business Trip

Monday           January 6, 2014
Mark and I left home this morning at 6:15am.  I stayed up all night trying to get things done around the house and work on my scout stuff, since we just got back home Saturday night.

We arrived at the Grand America Hotel at 10am and Mark checked in at the Registration table.  The hotel is fabulous, but of course I was drawn to these beautiful flowers in the entrance.  And they smelled wonderful!

  After registering they directed us to a "store" they had set up special for everyone attending filled with the brand Cariloha that makes bamboo items.

  The conference is sponsored by Energy Solutions.  I'm excited to go the things that they are including the spouses in.

 I was really happy with our hotel room since our room is actually across the street at Little America Hotel.

  But when I found myself taking so many pictures, and being so excited over just a hotel room......I realized it's been far too long since I've been in a hotel.  But this is such a huge bathroom; complete with a fridge, scale, etc.

  This room is the size of 3 regular hotel rooms.  I like it.

 Since Mark and his co-worker Dan Haley left at noon to go on a tour of the Energy Solutions Clive Disposal Site, which included lunch, I headed over to Crown Burger.  I went there for the first time last September with some friends.  It was as yummy as I remembered.  The crown burger actually has more pastrami than hamburger, and this is the junior burger :)

 

6:00pm  The Opening Reception.  WOW, it was amazing.  The meeting room in the hotel is grand and beautiful.  But the food was totally out of this world, absolutely delicious, and exquisite.  The servers carried the food on their shoulders and walked around offering the most delicious foods to everyone.  It was like a scene from a movie, it was so cool. I wish I could remember all the fancy names; Cilantro Lime Shrimp Tostada, some kind of large shrimp with a dip, and all kinds of totally awesome Hor d'oeuvres.

 

 I wore levi's, so I was underdressed.  I tried to get a picture of the huge mirrors in the fancy public bathroom and reflected back to each other into eternity.

 I could not get a good picture of the inner court of the hotel.

 

After the first hour, the College football National Championship game between Auburn and Florida State began and and they set up buffet and dessert tables.

On the dessert table was: Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee (my favorite), Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Cherry Chocolate Tulips (totally awesome), and Mudslide Cookies (delicious).

I totally understand why my son, who is a successful business man would have trouble with his weight if he gets to attend many meeting like this one.  I loved being in a room with so many intelligent men in suits.

 TUESDAY

A picture of Mark on our way to Breakfast at the Grand America Hotel. It was a normal breakfast with fresh squeezed Orange Juice, sliced fruit, eggs, bacon, etc.

 The inner court of the Grand America Hotel.

 The lobby of the Grand America Hotel where those beautiful fresh flowers make the whole area fragrant.

 

 

Halloween 2013

I made my traditional sloppy joes and warm cider with cinnamon sticks.  Years ago I made this when my kids when out trick or treating so they could eat, drink, warm up, and head back out for more trick or treating.  I would just keep it warm on the stove.

I added some fun and good meatball spiders this year.

This is as dressed up I got for Halloween.

  Since I don't have kids at home, I had time to go to this presentation about a man who rode his bike from Idaho Falls to Alaska!  It was very inspiring.  I would like to do something like this. 

 

I only had 52 trick or treaters come to our house this year.  That's half as many as we had 10 years ago.  I think the media is making parents overly cautious and paranoid nowdays. 

I didn't have any grandchildren come to my house trick or treating.

Christmas Dinner 2012

Mark and I spent Christmas Day without any of our children up at the cabin in Island Park.  Uncle Charlie was there from Texas, and for the first time, an INL intern student was with us during the holidays from France.

I cooked a nice dinner for us: Including my homemade rolls which my family loved to have for holiday meals.  I made some at Ben's house and they were the worst rolls I've ever made, it was awful since it was for a Christmas Party.  I felt really bad.  This is how the dough looks when it raises properly:

  The rolls raise a second time after the dough has been rolled and cut.Francisco and Mark

 The rolls turned out great!

 The finished product.

Las Vegas Trip

I am lucky to have a husband that wanted to take me with him on his busines trip.  I needed a break from my busy "retired" daily schedule. 
SUNDAY
Mark and I left on Sunday at 8am.  Our first stop was at Primary Children's Hospital to visit our granddaughter Ava who is in NICU. 

Amber and her other newborn, Ivy, arrived soon after.  She is staying with a friend out in South Salt Lake City.  Mark was unusually patient about spending some time with Amber and then going out to eat with Amber.  We ended up spending 4 1/2 hours in Salt Lake City.

 It was 4pm by the time we got back on the highway to Las Vegas.  It was 9:40pm by the time we finally got to our hotel room at the Cannery. 

We love the location of our room on the 1st floor.  The pool is right outside our room, so the ice machine, and the fitness room is just down the hall.
MONDAY
I spent a couple hours this morning in the Fitness center exercising and watching the movie "2012".  I never did get to see the end of the movie.  Mark and I went to lunch at the Victory Cafe inside our hotel.  We both had the fish special.
2pm  Mark had arranged a meeting with 6 other men from all over the country.  They met for just a couple of hours.

Then Mark and I drove to Chip Swarze's home.  It should of only taken us 25 minutes, but it took us us a lot longer.  The traffic in Las Vegas is terrible.  We spent a great evening with Chip, his wife Cheryl, and 4 of their children: Sarah (one of my special Cedar Badge kids), Aaron (17), Janessa (16), and Emma.  Chip (I first met him at Boy Scout Wood Badge and later served as an advisor with him in Cedar Badge).  I admire Chip, he is an awesome LDS father.  Chip barbacued hamburgers for us and then we all played Apples to Apples until 9pm.  It was a great evening.

TUESDAY

7AM Mark left to drive to his training with Dan from Idaho Falls.  I slept in.  This is the view from our room.

 

Mark has lost contact with a friend who lives in Las Vegas.  That is the tough thing about people not having phone land lines anymore.  So I drove to the address that Mark believes they live at.  And then when I arrived, I found that is was in a gated community.  A lady driving in let me come in and I left a note on their door.  I stopped at Wal Mart to buy a new battery for my Fit Bit, the first battery lasted from December 28, 2012.  Then I shopped for swim suits at Ross', and got Mark some pants and shorts at Big 5 sports.  I enjoyed a yummy jamba juice with added protein. 

 

Back at the hotel I went for a swim.  Mark came out in his new swim suit, with his boots, tall white socks, and a button down shirt on.  On my, that's why I don't need him with me to buy him clothes.  I'll try again tomorrow because the pants were all too small, and he needs something besides those huge boots.  I made him put back on his tattered blue jeans before we left for dinner.  We drove down to the strip with Dan Haley and we went to dinner at Bubba's Shrimp Company.  My pasta penne with grilled shrimp was absolutely delicious. 

 

Then we walked around the entire Miracle Mile Mall, and stopped to buy some frozen yogurt.  We left at 8:30 and drove back in heavy traffic to the hotel. 

 

10:00pm  Mark was talking on the phone to Amber for a long time about her sick babies and where she is going to live for the next few months when I left to go see the movie, "Oz, the great and powerful".  It was an interesting idea about how the Wizard came to be in the Land of Oz.  I was the only person in the theatre that holds 141 people.  That was a first for me.  When I got back to the hotel room, Mark was just getting ready for bed.  They had a lot of homework to do from their training.  I felt bad that I had wanted to walk around the Miracle Mall and that it took so much time.

WEDNESDAY

The week has been flying by.  I feel lucky to be in 70 degree weather while it is 44 degrees back home.

March 6th

I'm posting more pictures than usual so I can share my trip with Mark, who stayed home to work. Wednesday, March 6th. It snowed a heavy wet snow during the night so the kids were excited to go outside to play. Tommy wanted to pull Whitney on the tubing sled, but found it too difficult by himself.