So much to tell...

Last week was such a wild week! Hubby and I flew to LA on Tuesday, his suit in hand, excited about James and Ashley's wedding. James took us to his home immediately and then we went to Brian's. Brian spent the afternoon, coloring and cutting my hair as he was heading to Las Vegas to do makeup for a Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit promotion. I am always to pleased when he cuts my hair.
The Wednesday, Brian's friend Cliff who does wardrobe for commercials, movies, etc. went with me shopping for a wedding dress. It wasn't too hard to find but does anything look good one a woman who needs to lose about 50 pounds? I don't know what the photos will look like and am anxious to see. As we walked through the Grove I noticed a TV commercial was being record for the Cooking Channel. After checking out the set closely, I saw the commercial was with Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis, which was quite exciting to see. No, I didn't take a photo!
That evening the bride's family, who had arrived from Taiwan and James, Ardmore and I had dinner together at a Marina Del Ray restaurant and got to know each other a bit. The next day we were up at 7 to pick up the flowers in the wholesale flower district and then off to the church to decorate.We had a great time and were so hungry when James brought us two very large pizzas from Costco the they were devoured in minutes. The nicest thing was that the balloons were still good when we got to the reception on Friday evening!

We were exhausted when we finally arrive home but content, everything was decorated except for a few last minute things that would be done by volunteers the next day. A big thank you goes out to those volunteers, their last minute touches added wonders to what was done on Thursday.

I picked Brian up at the airport on Friday at 8:30am. That morning, he styled my and Michelle's hair and did our makeup, then he was off to the temple apartment to do Ashley's hair and makeup. She was a beautiful bride!
We went to the temple for the wedding at about 12:30. The wedding was family only so it included Ashley's parents and brother, and Ardmore and I. It was such a beautiful experience.

Here is a photo of them when they came out following the wedding. Ashley and James looked so happy. I believe she will be very good for him and visa versa.

The reception was held at the Rowland Heights stake following rush hour traffic and the Gps we set to not take the freeway. It took us a "little longer" that expected but all went well. The evening went by way too soon with about 200 attending the reception. One of the highlights for Ardmore was seeing an buddy that he went to Alaska with when they were both 19.
















It was a late night when we finally got to bed, 12:30 am and then we had to drop off the rental car and catch the Allegiant plane to Fargo. 4:15 am came way to soon and boy did the bed ever look inviting when we arrived home!

Wasting time

I am really wasting time right now. I have been spending the day working on the exhibit signage for the Women in Military exhibit but right now I am watching Throw Down with Bobby Flay and writing on the blog.It is so seldom one see Bobby Flay lose in a Throw Down but this time he lost to a "Waffle King"! Now I wish I noticed where the Waffle King was worked.

Things have really come together with our Women in Military program. I am amazed at how things are working out. The women meet last Monday and we hammered out the program and the luncheon. We also decided to do two movies. We will show Farewell to Arms on Tuesday, March 9th and South Pacific on Tuesday the 16th at 7 pm. I was so surprised to see how well they came in on the projector. We had some problems with our laptop and county came up with one that will do what we need. We have also found several good things to place on the SMART board to tell about Woman's History Month and Women in Military. I am getting excited. Lots to do though and now I am going to be gone for several days.

STS was in on Friday and did their thing. They took down exhibit things, put away the other exhibit things and just did a great job helping us come together. What would we do without our STS crew? Our crew chief is very personable and always does a competent job at whatever they tackle.

Will we escape the snow is the question? We fly out on Tuesday and there is talk of snow for the next two days. It was suppose to snow today too, but that hasn't happened. Can we have a few prayers from our friends that it doesn't snow so we will have safe driving when we head to Fargo?




Flying to our son's wedding Tuesday!

Bed by 8

Winter in Minnesota allows for so many things. When it is dark at 6 one can feel ok about going to bed at 8. That has been the case for the past three days. But you know what happens when you go to bed that early, you wake up at 1:30, 2:30 or 3:30 raring to go because you now have had 5.5 hours of sleep. That is my story.

I have been on a licorice kick. Usave has this wonderful licorice, the package says Australian Style Gourmet Black Liquorice, it really is packaged in Perham Minnesota. Don't ask me why the deception, but it did catch my eye the first time I saw it and have been hooked ever since. About twice a year for two to three weeks I will purchase a couple of bags, then I have my fill and move on to another candy or not.

Avatar is now showing in Roseau. I really want to see it a second time but don't know if I will. I asked a friend but she has no desire and my hubby wouldn't even think of going to any movie, much less this one.

One my memories from my high school days is attending movies at the Tacora Theater in Aurora with my girl friends. This was a given every Saturday or Sunday night. We saw such movies as Oklahoma, Singing in the Rain, and many other musicals. Then there were the scary movies like The Blog, the Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, like The Birds or Psyco. Movie stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Kirk Douglas were the ones to see, and, of course, the Elvis movies. Good thing we have NetFlix to order the favorites on, and many are available on demand, how great can that be!

We are getting close to getting everything ready to install for the upcoming exhibit. Hopefully we will make sense of this year's exhibit. So much to do all the time and so little time to do it in!

And then there is the wedding. I am so looking forward to the day.

Weekend retreat

Whereas work last week had been challenging, the weekend was reviving.

Working four days a week has its rewards, I took Friday off, started to reading the book Becoming Olivia in earnest, went swimming at AmericInn in the afternoon, and attended Bridget's 14U hockey game.

Saturday I decided to finally take those two very dead bananas that had been haunting me on the corner and look for a banana bread recipe. I found the best one in the Roseau County Historical Society 75 Anniversary cookbook. The recipe by Audrey Bergan really is so delicious. I added some additional fruit to the recipe and voila, the best bread I had ever made came out of the oven! Thanks Audrey! I will look for a few more of your recipes.


The recipe:
Banana Bread by Audrey Bergan (and me)

1/2 cup butter or margarine (I use butter)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/2 cup cultured sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts, I used walnuts
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup cranraisins
1/2 cup dates, chopped

We do things a little differently here:
Preheat oven to 350 and spray 2 medium bread pans with Pam.
Place the raisins and cranraisins together in a 1 cup water and microwave about 1 minute and drain. Do the same to the date only nuke for 30 seconds.

Cream butter and sugar, eggs, banana and vanilla. Add cultured cream, then flour, salt and soda. Mix in the raisins, cranraisins, dates and nuts. Divide between the two pans and back about 35 to 45 minutes. Check often.

This was breakfast all by itself with some peanut butter on it!

This along with Becoming Olivia and the second series of the DVD a Garden of Herbs made my weekend very enjoyable. Oh, if one could always find contentment so easy.

I hear from James and Ashley, that the wedding plans may change. The San Diego Temple is going to start putting up scaffolding on the 8th. What a bummer! I wish they would have been told when they arranged their date with the temple.