Be My Valentine, Puh-leese!

Last night I was listening to some of my favorite songs on my playlist and I was thinking why they were so appealing to me.  I thought I would make a few small lists and share them with you.  Indulge me, since it's Valentine's Day in just two days.

My Favorite love songs from when I was just a young little whippersnapper romantique.

1. More – Bobby Darin – It wasn’t until years later that I realized that Bobby Darin made this song popular and not the Lennon Sisters (or Lemon sisters, as I thought they were called.  You have to realize how young I was).  I loved this song and I think I wore out the Lawrence Welk record version featuring the Lennon Sisters singing it. I think I got a crush on the Lennon sisters too – they were cute and they wore cool dresses, and I pretended that I was the youngest sister, Janet.  Janet is the one on the right front.  Doesn't she look cute?

2. Happy Together – the Turtles – I did not get a crush on the Turtles, not even one of them.

3. This Guy’s in Love withYou. Herb Alpert – Julie and I used to go down to the Polar King and play this over and over on the jukebox. I think we were about 10 and 11.

4.  Maria - And somewhere between 3rd and 8th grade there was West Side Story.  Shirley gave us a record and AA played it all the time.  I liked some of the songs but I loved Maria, Tonight, and There's a Place for Us.  My gosh, I almost wished my name was Maria.  That or Gloria, I was torn.
4. Love’s Theme – When I was a junior in high school this song was very popular and I loved it. Still do. This was the song we did our dance to at the Jr. Prom.  I have to say, I had one cute dress, not a date, but cute dress.  I'm over not having a date for prom . . sort of . . well, kind of . . . not really.  I know, I’m dorky.  That's probably why I didn't have a date for prom.  That and the big ever giving zit on my chin from February to April of 1974.   I'm not bitter. 

So, if you're wondering what these songs sound like,  they are the first ones on my playlist now. Click play and enjoy!

Favorite books from when I was a teenager and had romantic ideas.

I won't tell you what they are, but you will know from the pictures and I think you will laugh over some of them.
I read this book for the first time in the summer between eighth and ninth grade. It took me all summer – I had to keep renewing the book.

   I read this in the summer between ninth and tenth grade. Never read it again. Don't you think these two had an unhealthy relationship?  I'd say Heathcliff was just a little too obsessed with Cathy, wouldn’t you say?

 I remember the first time I read this book in ninth grade. I screamed when Darcy proposed to Elizabeth; it was so unexpected. Mom came into my bedroom to ask what I was screaming about and I said, “He told her he ardently loved her!” It’s an annual read.  I like this part in the movie, even though it doesn't take place in the book; it should.  What's wrong with Jane Austen that she didn't think to put a swimming scene in?

 I Read this one in tenth grade and it was the start of my love of Georgette Heyer novels. Her books are
the best!  I read this one once in a while now.  I know this one isn't hard because the name is on the book.  My original copy looked just like this one. Now I have it on my ipad and it goes everywhere I go.

 5. I I know - another title on the front, but can you remember his name?  Her name was Stacy.  I love the scarf he's wearing around his neck.   Oh, how I wish I had that Janet Daily calendar. I don’t read Janet Dailys anymore, and if I did, I wouldn't admit it here on my blog.

 Most Unexpected Valentines Gifts

1 A bag of Fruit and Nut bars for the whole family from Lizzy. Was she trying to tell us something?
2. Baskin and Robbins ice cream Sundae from Lizzy – it had a sucker in it. Very cool.

4. A package of chocolate candy sent from mom and dad sometime in the 1990’s. It was so sweet.
5. And my gift last year from Alan.  Our conversation about about it went a little like this.  He was in Ethiopia.
  Alan:  Hello, Happy Valentine's Day!
  Me:    Hello, Happy Valentine's Day to you.
  Alan:  Did you get my Valentine's Day present yet? 
  Me:  Uh, I don't know.  Did you send something?
  Alan:  Yes, a carpet steam cleaner, did it get there yet?
  Me:   Why yes, I did get it.  Oh my!

                                                         

Nothing says I love you quite like a Hoover!

My favorite memories of Valentines Day

Mom had a beautiful Valentine’s candy box and a few times she made fudge, penuche, and divinity (mom’s divinity never turned out), and cookies to put in it for daddy. I loved that box, it was satin pink and had golden glitter on in that said, “Be Mine.” I didn’t really know what to think of mom giving dad such a romantic gift.

I loved kicking Valentines. It was fun to get valentines at school, but the best part of the day was when we got home from school and began delivering our valentines in the neighborhood. It was so fun to deliver them and run away like crazy hoping we wouldn’t get caught. It was especially exciting when we would hear a kick at our door and we would run to answer the door and find a pile of envelopes or maybe a plate of beautiful heart-shaped cookies. I loved catching the deliverers. Funny story about kicking Valentines below.

 One year, I think this would have been around 1970 when I was in seventh grade and too old for kicking Valentines, Julie talked me into delivering a trick Valentine to Mack Wilberg. So embarrassing! She said it would be fun, but I knew it wouldn’t be and only went along with it because she begged me. We tied a string to the Valentine, placed it on his doorstep, and then hid behind the cement wall in front of his house. Then we realized someone had to kick the door. She talked me into doing that too, and all I really wanted to do was run home. So I kicked the door and ran to the hiding place. When Mack came out he didn’t see the Valentine and unknowingly stepped on it, so when Julie pulled on the string it broke. I was ready to give up, but she talked me into trying again. Could Julie have had a crush on Mack without me knowing? She retied the string and kicked on the door. Mack again came to the door and this time Julie pulled the Valentine and he followed it and found us. Julie jumped up and ran home to her house, without saying anything to Mack or me and I sat on the gravel looking really stupid. That’s what happens when you don’t have a good exit plan. Yeah Mack, well Happy Stupid Valentines Day!

Planning a surprise trip to Castle Dale from Logan on Valentines Day 1986 when Morgan was just one and a half. I had baked special cookies for everyone in the family and was going to frost them and write everyone’s name on them. I had to go upstairs for some reason and left Morgan with the cookies on the table. When I got back downstairs I found, to my dismay, that she had broken every single one of the big heart cookies in half. So I scolded her good, and sent her upstairs to play while I made and baked more cookies. In her defense, she was only one and she had no idea what she had done wrong. After awhile I decided to go upstairs and see why she was so quiet. There she was standing on the bathroom vanity looking in the mirror and smearing her lips with my red lipstick. She was so funny and cute, I had to take a picture. Big smile for Mom! Well, we got the cookies made and safely packed and we traveled to Castle Dale. We put Morgan and the cookies out on the front porch and rang the doorbell and hid off to the side. Soon the door was answered by Mom and she was surprised and so happy to see her little granddaughter out on the porch delivering Valentines. Everyone was happy to see the cookies, but Morgan was the best Valentine that day.

And now for something completely yummy! Mom’s Strawberry Jello Cake recipe.

Set oven at 350
Ingredients:
1 pkg white cake mix
3 Tbs. flour – ¼ cup flour
1 small box strawberry jello – not the sugar free
Mix these together well in a large bowl or your kitchen aid mixer, and then add ;
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup water
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup fresh or frozen strawberries. Drain if using frozen.  Let them thaw and then drain any juice.

 Mix together 30 seconds on low, then 2 -3 minutes on medium speed. Your batter should look something like this - pink and fluffy.

 And this:  thick and battery looking.  This makes a pretty moist cake with the additional oil, egg and strawberries.

If you haven't done this before, do it now.  Go buy two heart cake pans!  JK.  Pour batter into greased 9 X13 rectangle pan, or two round cake pans. If using layer cake pans, use waxed paper in bottom of pan, and then grease and flour the waxed paper before pouring in batter. 

 Divide the batter evenly between the pans if using two pans.

 Bake for 27 - 30 minutes.  I baked mine for 30 minutes EXACTLY and look how EXACTLY perfect they turned out. While the cake is baking, make the frosting. 

Frosting Ingredients: 
1/4 cup butter or margarine - softened
1-2 Tbl. milk
1 box of powdered sugar or a bag - you won't use it all
½ cup strawberries cut up – can use frozen.

Start with 1/4 cup softened butter or margarine.  In med. sized bowl beat the butter till smooth and creamy looking.  Add about 1 Tbl. of milk or cream.  Add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time turning off the mixer when you add the sugar, otherwise you will get a sugar cloud developing in your kitchen and your grandaughters will start coughing.  Add in about 1/4 cup of strawberries.  Add more powdered sugar, then more strawberries until you get the frosting to be the consistency you like.  Mine was a little thin, and I only used half of it.  If you make it thick you can really pile it on.  Mom's original recipe called for 1 sq of butter, and no milk, but that made a ton of frosting. You do what you think is best for you.

 This was after I let them cool in the pans for about 45 minutes and then took them out. 

 Cut the rounded top off one of the cakes so that the other layer will sit safely on top and won't break. 
Then find a beautiful cake plate like mine and center the cake on top.  Spread some frosting on top all the way out to the edges.  Then place on the second layer.  You can see how runny my frosting was. 

 Then frost the second layer making sure you get the sides covered completely, or do whatever you want to do at this point.  I Let Lily and Leah take over . 

 Lily was very into her heart sprinkles and she kept wanting to stick her finger into that cake, but somehow we made it through the whole process without that happening.  See the bowl of frosting off to the right?  She did keep sticking her fingers into that.

 Leah  wanted to be in the middle of things, but at the same time she was very sick.  We kept telling her to cover her mouth when she coughed, but she did cough on the cake several times. 

 And here it is! Such a beautiful cake for my Valentines.

 We didn't wait very long before we cut it and served some up.  We couldn't wait 'til Monday.

And that is Grandma Jorgensen's  very rich and yummy strawberry-jello valentine cake. 

Indulge yourselves and make it for Valentine's Day.

Arizona in January - Everyone should do this!

Alan and I flew out of IF on Monday and arrived just two hours later in sunny perfect weather Arizona.  It is lovely here and I wanted to just stop and bask in the sun.  On the flight down, my seat was on the left side of the plane and I watched out the window for geograpy, roads and towns that were familiar to me.  The first thing I recognized was Bear Lake, and then Strawberry and Deer Creek reservoirs.  I watched for and saw state highway 6 disappearing off to the east and down Price canyon.  BTW, we flew right over Billy's mountain.  I was sad to see that CastleValley had no snow and then I saw right below us Joe's Valley reservoir looking beautiful and very frozen and snowy, and Castle Dale ,Orangeville and the Power plant off in the distance.  The wedge was huge and the desert was so cool looking.   


This is how the Swell looked, except we were father away.



Castle Dale and Orangeville were not green like in this picture and we were up higher.

As we flew farther south I could see the definite line of the San Rafael Swell and then we came to the Henry Mtns. and after that more desert and Lake Powell, I didn't realize how extensive the lake is.  I think I even saw that huge monolith, Shiprock, off in the desert.  Pretty soon I didn't recognize anything and so I just watched out the window because it was so interesting to see how the earth was so different from

Idaho to Arizona.   Russell picked us up at the William Field airport, very close to Mesa - only a ten minute drive back to his place.  It was so nice to walk out into the beautiful AR weather and no jackets. 

Alan and I met Craig and Julie on Tuesday at the Mesa Temple to go through a session. 



It's been nice to fire up the grill, pick grapefruits every morning, go for walks every day, and even go swimming. Miles came over on friday morning from ASU to spend the weekend with us.  That evening we were invited to Gene and June Osborne's home for dinner.  They are Russell's neighbors through the backyard. 

 

Gene and June Osborne and their cat, Candy.  Candy loves to sit with Gene when he plays the organ.


 They are really sweet and we had a great dinner.  During dinner, June had been talking about their church (Methodist) and how her daughter had played a concert their for them, so I just assumed that Gene played church music too.  I asked him if he would play for us, and he was quick to say yes.  We all settled down in the living room to listen and all the sudden the rhythms came on and I was instantly transported to the mid 60's Saturday night and the Lawrence Welk "champagne music", only not quite so good.  I just barely kept from laughing when I looked at Alan.  Miles was a good sport and kept a straight face all the way through the entertainment.  He played quite a selection of songs including Calcutta, Yellow Bird, Has Anybody Seen my Gal, Begin the Begine, and Moon River.  I think the only song he forgot to play was Baby Elephant Walk.  

Wunnerful, Wunnerful!

 On Saturday, we went up I-17 to Julie and Craig's home for a visit.  It was good to see them after six months.  Their boys are really growing - tall! They have a beautiful new home and are in a great neighborhood.  We had fun going to Lake Pleasant, a drive of about 12 miles from their home.  The lake was beautiful, the weather was great and it was fun to be with them and the boys.  

There were many sailboats out on the water - it looked so fun.

Miles, Grandpa, and Craig in front of the visitor's center at Lake Pleasant.

Looking at Lake Pleasant

Inside the visitor's center they had some displays, one of which was of scorpions.  There was a black flashlight and we shone it on the scorpions to make them visible.  Cool, huh?

Julie was stung by a scorpion one night in her bed.  She put her hand and arm under her pillow and was stung, but thought it was feathers from her pillow, so she went to pull the feather out of the pillow and was stung again.  She suddenly realized that something was stinging her and pulled up the pillow and found a scorpion.  She said it was like a bad bee sting.  Scorpion stings are worse for children and old people.  She said it caused some numbing and tingling in her arm and hand.  We also saw a tarantula in the next box over. 
When we left the loake we drove back down to Julie and Craig's and on the way we saw several hot air balloons sailing around in the area. 

We went to church this afternoon -  at the Senior's branch.  I think it is the only one like it in the church.  Alan and I were the youngest people there.  We were so obviously out of place, but the meetings were great and the speakers were RMs from the Phillipines and Panama - a Senior couple.  Sunday school was good "Living Waters" and then the 5th Sunday lesson was given by a local seminary teacher and was one of the best lessons about teaching the gospel I've ever heard.  I was so impressed - I think it was almost the highlight of the week.  So glad we went to church today.  

So we're off to California tomorrow to see Camille, Jack, and Alex and maybe Claire and some family in San Diego as well.  We're having fun and not missing the snow and cold, but we are missing Morgan, Leah, Lily and Andrew.  

We'll see you next week in Idaho.  

 

Snowday at the Farm!

Today Morgan had to go to the pinewood derby, so she brought the girls over tp spend some time at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Alan was out shoveling the walks and I decided we should make a snowman while he was outside to help.  Leah and Lily were easy to get ready, and excited to go out and play in the snow.

We had our handy snowman kit (thanks to AA) and decided to build him where we were able to get to him a little easier, which was out in front of the fence.  In the yard the snow was too deep and we would have spent a lot of time wallowing and floundering in the snow for it to be fun.  I thought the snow would be just right for rolling, but it hadn't melted enough and wouldn't pack,  So, Leah and I worked and worked packing the snow onto one of my round trellis thingys, and pretty soon we got the form of the snowman going.  Morgan came home from the derby just in time to help.  Alan packed a head together and soon we had a handsome snowman.  We pounded in the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons and gave him the hat off my head and a pair of little cross-country skis and poles, and Voila, just like that we had Frosty the Snowman!

That sure was fun, but the girls also did a little sledding with their super sliding sleds and the disk.  That's Andrew doing the trial run.  Hopefully, Morgan has some pics of the girls going down the hils.  Leah even caught some serious air on one run.  We all laughed.  They sure are troopers.

 Fast and Crazy,  they loved it and were always ready to go again, but after awhile we had to stop and have some hot cocoa inside to get our hands and tootsies warm again. 

And then there were rice krispy treats! It was sooooo good, Lily almost fainted from the sheer yumminess. 

 But she didn't.

                                                      "Do I have chocolate on my face?"
                                            "Yes, Madamoiselle, but only on the lower half."

                            Alan's job today was to take down all the "Cwismas Wights."

 Then it was outside again to try out the tunnel their dad had made for them.  Kind of a snow tunnel slide combo.  I so dislike the word combo.  Do you remember that AA?
                                                                        Down she goes!

                                                                      And out the other end. 
                                                                                Lily's turn!

Having a slide with their mom.

You know how after awhile too much fun makes you irritable?  Well, they had had too much fun. 

And to quote Leah, "Looks like sombody needs to have a nap!"

So Long, Farewell, Auf weidersehen,  Adieu!  The Schauerhamer girls had to go home, because they were worn out.  Too much fun today!

See you tomorrow, Frosty!