My House Debra

Today was Owen's special day! What a beautiful sight to see your sons and husband with other righteous priesthood holders standing together in a circle; united to give a small infant a name and a blessing. Franklin did a wonderful job and the sweet spirit of the Lord attended. We were so grateful to be able to spend time with Franklin and Sara and their beautiful family. Afterwards we all shared a meal together. We had haystacks, fruit and cookies for dessert. It was yummy.
Owen had relatives from the Poulsen family as well as Sara's family attending. Included in the picture below are: Sara's grandmother Althea, her Aunt Liz, her brother Chris and Renae, Sara's sister Brianne, Dad and I, Christian, James and of course Sara, Frank, Joy, Demi and little Owen. It was a wonderful day!! Just for remembrance sake: Owen was wearing the little outfit that Grandma Poulsen made for Frank when he was blessed. The blanket was also crocheted by Grandma Poulsen.

It has been awhile since I have participated with the orchestra at Temple Square. The problem with my ribs and my Mom's needs seemed to necessitate a small break that was needed. Next week I begin again and we have a tour that we will be doing on the weekend to St. George. I really enjoyed being there this morning with my boys. We were heading down south afterward for our little Owen's baby blessing. So we linked up with Seth so we could all go down together.

Today I started my day out early so I could take Mom to her Dr's appointment. I wasn't really quite mentally ready for what I saw when I left the house and got out into my car. Immediately when the garage door opened I was greeted by flurries of snow falling rather rapidly, but softly to the earth. I made my way over to help with Mom and had a wonderful morning with her; first at her Dr's appointment, then the bank and finally a trip to Costco. For being her first day out and about since her pneumonia, it was quite an adventure to say the least. I had planned on taking her for lunch afterward, but she was pooped and cold so I dropped her off, took her things in and headed home. Snow sometimes puts you in a day dreamy mode and so i wasn't paying enough attention and accidentally took the wrong exit for getting off at Farmington. I was a bit put out with myself for a minute until I looked up and saw such beauty around me. I decided to settle in and enjoy the detour. It didn't take long before I wanted to capture a few things on camera but I realized people were in back of me and sudden stopping in the snow would never work. So what you see here is from the car window. It was a little detour that wanted to stop for a picture.






Home Again.... on the street where I live

Seth has been studying the past week to take the Life and Health Insurance Test with the State of Utah. He will be starting a new job working in a company called American Senior Benefits this coming Monday. He really thinks he will enjoy working with the elderly. The market of those 65 and over is growing fast because of all the baby boomers coming into their retirement years. Once he decided that was the route he was going to take... he just put himself to the task of studying and in just a few days... he's accomplished what would take some people weeks to do. He passed the exam today with an overall score of 86%. You are amazing dear! Great Job!

Trees right next to Mom's house that flank the field between her Condo and the factories. Once I was just going over to visit with her and I saw this... I thought it was beautiful!

Mom was such a sweetheart. Her last couple of months have been very hard for her. She's been sick pretty much non-stop since Thanksgiving, but a few months back she decided she was going to make some tea towels for her kids. All of us got a set. All of them were embroidered by hand and she did an awesome job. As you can imagine, when you don't feel well, she really had to push to get them finished for Christmas. I'm amazed at the tenacity she has to accomplish something once she sets her mind to it. We all love our Tea Towels and are grateful to have this gift that represents so much sacrifice and caring.
Thanks MOM we love you.

I can't believe it is already the 17th of the month. Where has the time gone? Here are some pics of our visit to Midway. The little town sits in such a beautiful pastoral setting. One really nice thing. When you get into the Park City area... the sky is blue and clear and the pollution is gone. It was foggy in Midway but no mucky inversion like you see here on the Wasatch Front.








Kaylma and Warren in their home. She had just served us a warm lovely meal that she had put together. It was yummy. Especially the raspberry pear pie.

Like I said, I'm trying to improve the quality of my cooking. Seth and I are needing to go low fat these days and so this recipe came up while I was searching for ways to use cabbage:

1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 sticks of celery cut up
1 zuccini
about half of a cabbage shredded up
raw cashews (unsalted)
soy sauce
1 cup of brown rice

Optional Ingredients:
frozen peas and corn
snow peas
Herbs (basil, oregano, parsley)
4 chicken thighs
1 stick of celery
1 onion
1 clove of garlic

Directions:
cut up one onion and a stick of celery. Place into a large soup pot with some water. This will be to cook up your chicken and afterwards will be saved as a broth to make chicken soup. Do not discard Bring to boil and cook chicken. Remove from pan and let chicken cool down
Meanwhile at the same time cook up 1 cup of rice. 1/2 cup of rice to 1 cup of water and a little salt. Bring to boil then turn down on low and simmer for about 20 minutes. It will make 1 cup of rice. If you want to use this time to cook up more rice to be used at a later date that's great too.
( so now you have the chicken ready to go and the rice. ) Shred up your chicken when it cools down and have ready to mix in with the stir fry.

Cut up the onion, carrots, zucchini and garlic and stir fry in wok with a little olive oil. Be sure to cook until the onions are not crunchy or else your stir fry will taste of mainly onions.
Then add your peas/corn and celery into the mix. I use a half of bag of frozen peas and corn. Stir fry for a little while then add the cabbage. Then when the cabbage is beginning to get pretty done add the chicken and rice and soy sauce. Remember you can use any of the herbs you like as well. When you serve be sure and add the cashews to only the portion you serve up. If you have remaining stir fry... the cashews do not do well if you keep them in the mix overnight. Cashews should be a fresh and crunchy tasting part of the meal.

Enjoy. Will last for two meals for a group of 4

Grandma packed her bags and left us today. She was anxious to be back in her own little house. I called her tonight and she seems very happy and snug in her chair wrapped up in her blanket watching Lawerence Welk. She was missing the sounds of her cuckoo clock and the train going by early in the morning. We will miss her. I will be stopping by to check on her regularly in the coming weeks.

So I'm trying to work on my cooking and learn some new recipes for the new year. Here's one I've tried recently:

2 can (6 oz. each) light tuna in water
1 pkg (6 oz) Stove Top stuffing mix for chicken
1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese ( I used shredded carrot (
3/4 cup water
1 stalk of celery cut into very small thin pieces
3 T minced onion (I added this, because I love onion in almost everything)
1/3 Cup mayonnaise
2 Tb sweet pickle relish

Mix all ingredients:
Heat large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium heat
Use ice cream scoop to add approx. 1/3 cup portions to the heated skillet
Flatten into patties with a spatula. Cook 3 minutes on each side .

Makes approximately 16 to 20 patties Wonderful to eat with a salad and some fruit.

We are all so excited to have Owen in our lives. Babies bring their own special spirit into the world and once they are here we can't imagine how we ever lived our lives without them. I've had a chance to see Frank and Sara a few times now since Owen was born and each time they have a few words to say about how little sleep they are getting these days. Last weekend on Franklin's birthday they mentioned that the night before they were up every hour on the hour with their little one. They actually did look a bit exhausted. I thought of the many hours that parents sacrifice for their children. Obviously, much of what they do goes unnoticed and unrecognized by the very little ones they do it for. Today I was talking to Frank and asked about our little Owen. " So is he sleeping a little better, I asked"? Franklin responded that he was doing a little better but that there was still a lot of room for improvement. I loved his positive approach to the question. How grateful I am for families. Children truly bring new life and value into the world. They strengthen our love and commitment to one another. They affirm the goodness of life and give all of us opportunities to share in the giving and receiving of love - the love we give to them and the joy they bring to all of us. What a marvelous plan. I truly hope that I will remain faithful and committed to this wonderful plan of happiness that the Lord has designed for all us. I know that families are truly central to the Lord's eternal plan of happiness for His children. How grateful I am for my wonderful family and for the little ones that are strengthening us and increasing our joy.
PS. It's kind of funny though. When we are around little Owen he seems to be sleeping quite nicely.

This year Christmas was fast and furious and almost too much for me. The Christmas Concert was held the week before Christmas and we had guests here visiting us during that week from AZ. My sister came and Audrey's inlaws were here. We had a great time but I was huffing and puffing to keep up. Hopefully they enjoyed themselves regardless of my own deficiencies. The Concert was beautiful and most everyone that comes has such a marvelous time watching it that it makes up for everything else. So this is a picture of Mom and I with Marsha, and Dad and I leaving to go to our Christmas Banquet with the Choir.

I had no idea 30 some years ago that I was birthing a gorgeous and beautiful girl that would be absolutely "Foxy" . In case you are wondering if I'm prejudiced... just take a look at her Blog at Living Foxy.com and decide for yourself. She's all about helping others put together just the right look, as in fashion or in home decor. Check it out.

Life is a bit hectic right now. It seems to me that the stress that surrounded all the activities I had going in December have left me a bit ragged and unprepared for the newness of a New Year. We certainly can't predict when someone will get sick in our lives or even when we will have some illnesses to contend with ourselves. So today I'm sitting here in my computer room and am looking at a bunch of papers that are strewn all over the desk. I look in my family room and there are still Christmas boxes to put away and cleaning to be done. My laundry basket is full and there's really not much I can do about it. Poor me, I've had a hitch in the ribs get me down! Let me explain:
I have been so grateful that Mom can be here with me and that I can watch over her. But I was quite taken aback last week when a turn of events really caught me off guard. I was experiencing some pain in my neck and thought to myself that maybe I ought to try out a new Chiropractor that had been referred to me by a friend at Christmas time. I already think my present Chiropractor is great but my thinking was that I could go a couple of times and see how this other guy did and if I liked him better then I could maybe make a change. His rates were less and money is a big deal for us right now. Well it only took one adjustment for me to see that he will never do. Nothing short of a moment in time, a quick jerk, and a crunch, crunch, and pop my ribs were out!! I told him I really felt something move, and it wasn't comfortable. He assured me that he had just put my ribs back into place. Ha Ha!! I think he meant out of place. So my experiment with Chiropractors was to be short lived. I have been in pain ever since!! It hurts to breathe, cough, sneeze, lift anything at all and to turn over in bed is torture. There isn't hardly one thing I can do (including type on the keyboard here) that allows me to be pain free. So I'm back to my trusted Chiropractor and he's wondering what I did to myself. ( I don't have much to say. ) But I am so frustrated to think that right now, when I want to be a strength and support to my Mom; here I am dealing with my own pain. This is not supposed to be happening. The only thing I can do is do the best I can and move forward with a smile - (Oh that's one thing that doesn't affect my ribs - Great! I better take advantage of that movement) So... the New Year has begun regardless if I'm ready for it. No breath taking strides forward... just keeping on keeping on. And regardless of the pain of it all...

... Life is good, It doesn't hurt to smile!!

Christmas has come and gone. I had a breather on the Sunday after Christmas and then on Monday we knew we had to finally find out what was going on with Mom. She had already been taking antibiotics for what we thought was a sinus infection. The Doctor ( her primary care Dr. Freestone) had put her on a 2nd round because the first didn't do the trick. Now here we were at Christmas and she was on a completely new antibiotic. Poor thing. She came and enjoyed a few hours with us on Christmas morning but she wasn't well at all and it was all she could do to be with us. Now all of our activities were over and it was past time for us to buckle down and figure out what was wrong with Mom. She was able to set an appointment for Tuesday morning at 9:00. We went in to see Dr. Stock her allergy Doctor. He could see that she was suffering and decided that he better take an x-ray of her sinuses to see if they were still the problem. They were clear. So he sent us up to the hospital to run some tests. To make a long story short... she was dealing with a bad case of pneumonia. Her left lung was filled with a liter of fluid. She was admitted that day and stayed in all week. She was released to my care on Saturday. She's been here with me now for a solid week and going into the 2nd week. She is doing better but still very weak. I am so grateful that I can be here to watch over her. She is a wonderful lady and we are so grateful for her in our lives. Hopefully we can keep her health up and strong throughout the coming weeks with all this gunk in the air from the inversions. We will have to be very careful with her.
PS She has won every game of pinochle that she has played with us during this time. Looks like no matter how weak she is - her mind is still pretty sharp.