Recipe for Ruth (and anyone else who thinks it sounds good)

Chicken Mango Salad

Ingredients:
11 oz. canned white corn, drained
15 oz. black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 c. chopped red and/or green pepper
1/2 avocado, chopped
1/2 med. cucumber, cubed
1 med. tomato, diced
1 mango, chopped
1 T. olive oil
4 tsp. rice wine vinegar

chicken breasts (2-4 depending on size)
soy sauce or teriyaki sauce

4 oz. Monterrey jack cheese, grated
tortilla chips
lettuce, chopped
ranch dressing (poppyseed is also good)

Directions:
Marinate chicken breasts in soy sauce or teriyaki sauce. Mix first nine ingredients in a large bowl to make the salsa, then refrigerate. Grill or broil chicken, then cut into strips. Serve salsa over tortilla chips, lettuce, and strips of grilled chicken breast. Top with grated cheese and ranch dressing. Also good as a salad without the chicken.

Number Of Servings:4-6


***And if you have any great family-friendly summer recipes, please share!***

Out of it

I am so out of this blogging thing right now. It's not that I want to be, but summer happened with all it's craziness, and I just haven't had much chance to put life into words lately. So how about a few pictures now that I finally have my camera software re-installed:

Ryan played coach pitch baseball this year

Dallin before haircut

Dallin after haircut

Packer-Seegmiller marshmallow gun fight (thanks Uncle Enoch!)

Happy Birthday America!

Fun

Flags

Food

Family

Flowers

Fourth!

Family Camping Trip

"Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool?"

How firm a foundation?

I'd rather be blogging about something else, but this is the issue that has been consuming our lives this week. Anyone ever had to repair a cracked foundation? We knew we had a small but long crack that leaked water into the laundry room if we put the sprinklers too close to the house, but the laundry room is unfinished and there is a drain in the floor, so we hadn't worried about it too much (other than keeping the sprinklers at a safe distance). At some point while we were in Idaho for four days, the tubing up to the swamp cooler on the roof popped off and watered the back lawn for who knows how long, flooding not just the laundry room but parts of the bathroom and bedroom too. (Note to selves and anyone else with a swamp cooler--turn the water to the swamp cooler OFF! if you are going to be out of the house for any extended period of time.) Turns out we have at least two cracks that let all that water in. I sucked a couple gallons of water out of the bedroom carpet with my steam cleaner before deciding just to rip it out completely. We had planned to replace it at some point anyway. Now we are debating the merits of digging out the foundation from the outside and patching with an asphalt emulsion ourselves vs. hiring a foundation repair company to fill the cracks from the inside with polyurethane for $865. At least the estimate was free. Anyone have any expertise, experience, or suggestions on this one? And once the leaks are taken care of, then we have to replace the carpet and some drywall, plus we are considering remodeling the bathroom while we're at it. As long as we are taking on home improvement projects, we might as well, right? So much for starting on our garage this summer.

"A good guy"

Our trip to Idaho was long, but good. We survived the long drive thanks to Cyndi, my friend and lifesaver, who kindly lent us her portable DVD player. Ours died a few months ago. The kids can make the three hour drive to Cedar without it, but the seven hours to Boise would have been ug-ly.

Grandpa Jo's funeral was really nice, a fitting tribute to a good man. Jeff's uncle did a great job with his life sketch, telling some stories and interesting things about Grandpa that I didn't really know, such as how he took pride in his yard and garden, saved lots of things he thought could be useful and often found uses for them, and could fix almost anything. He wasn't ever rich or famous, wasn't a war hero, but he loved his family and always did nice things for them. As Uncle Mark said, he was just "a good guy." I remember Jeff's mom bringing Grandpa and Grandma Jo to visit me in our little basement apartment on University Avenue in Provo about a year-and-a-half after we were married. Jeff had been gone to ROTC Advanced Camp at Fort Lewis, Washington for a long six weeks and was about to come home. I told Grandpa and Grandma Jo about my plans to surprise him with a night in Park City after I picked him up from the airport. Grandpa Jo pulled a twenty dollar bill out of his wallet and gave it to me, with instructions to use it to do something fun with Jeff. That was such a sweet gesture that sticks out in my memory when I think of him. After the dedication of the grave, I took a minute to remind my Ryan that his middle name is Grandpa Jo's name, and that I hope he will grow up to be a good guy like Grandpa Jo was.

We had a nice visit with aunts and uncles and lots of cousins. Every single member of Jeff's mom's family was there. It was a little chaotic, but still so fun to be all together. I am grateful for God's plan of happiness, a plan that makes funerals joyous family reunions rather than mournful tragedies, because we know that through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we will be with our loved ones in the next life. What a comfort.

While there, I also got to visit with Obara Shimai, one of my Japanese missionary companions, and her family. We went to church with them, and then had dinner at their home afterwards. Her husband was also in my mission, and they have four cute children now. We've stayed in touch over the years, but it was fun to see them again after so long. Kiyomi is the Primary president in their ward, and since I'm also in Primary, I sat in on their Singing Time and Sharing Time. I got a couple ideas for our ward, plus it was fun to see her in action again--her mannerisms and her love for and dedication to the Gospel. I felt a little bit like Alma, happy to know she is still my sister in the Lord. (And now it came to pass that as Alma was journeying from the land of Gideon southward, away to the land of Manti, behold, to his astonishment, he met with the sons of Mosiah journeying towards the land of Zarahemla. Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord... Alma 17:1-2).

Hectic

I don't even know where to start catching up, so I guess I'll just jump in. I learned a couple things from our busy, busy June. First, don't sign the kids up for the 9:30 a.m. class of the first session of swimming lessons. It was just too chilly. Most days after lessons I had to send someone into the boys' locker room to get Adam and Ryan out of the warm showers. And we made hot cocoa several times to warm us up when we got home--in June! The second session went a little better--summer finally showed up for real, and I changed their lessons to the 11:50 a.m. class. Second, don't sign up for swimming lessons before baseball is over. We did swimming lessons every morning and baseball almost every night and tried to squeeze the rest of life in between. Swimming lessons ended two weeks ago, and baseball finally ended last Wednesday. Phew.

I thought maybe we could stop running, but it hasn't happened. We spent four days in Cedar and Glendale, visiting with my family and catching "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. The kids loved playing with their cousins and Jeff and I enjoyed a little down time. We caught the new Indiana Jones movie one night after the kids were in bed. It was fun and we were glad we saw it on the big screen. Jeff was a good sport to watch nine kids by himself one day while my sister and sister-in-law and I took a break to do lunch and a little shopping. The Slip-n-Slide helped! My mom provided the Shakespeare tickets. She wanted Adam and Ryan to see their first play, so we opted for a comedy. It was a little slow and not as impressive as some other Shakespeare productions I've seen, but the comic fool (Brian Vaughn) and his dog made them laugh, so they weren't too bored. I think they'll be willing to go again in the future, but we'll try to find a more exciting play to keep their interest. Of course the highlight of their weekend was the marshmallow gun fight--thanks Uncle Enoch! (I'll post photos when I get my camera software re-installed.)

I got unpacked and got the laundry done just in time to turn around and go to Jeff's parents for the 4th of July weekend. We had a great barbecue and fireworks with extended family. It's really been a blessing to be close enough to spend time with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins again. While there though, we learned that Jeff's Grandpa Jo had slipped into a coma in Idaho. He passed away yesterday morning. We will miss him, but congestive heart failure had made his quality of life so poor for so long that his passing was a blessing. Again, I'm glad we are close enough that traveling to his funeral this weekend won't be difficult, but we're off and running--again. I have this faint hope that my life will slow down when the kids go back to school in August. Whatever happened to slow, relaxing "summertime and the living is easy"?!