Secret Recipes...your opinions please

A couple weeks back, I had a few friends over for lunch and swimming. And when I mean lunch, I mean, bring-something-REALLY-good-to-eat lunch. I'm a foodie, and like to share the experience. Anyway, I made a recipe from allrecipes.com called
Carol's Chicken Salad, pretty dang yummy, but really, most chicken salad's are.
Heidi V. made super yummy Parkerhouse Rolls, and I asked for the recipe, of course, she agreed to get it to me. We all got to talking, and discovered that some people are not really "recipe share-ers". I have a recipe that is a old family favorite, English Toffee. Aunt Violet used to make it at home and sell it, and so we were forbidden to keep it secret. I have shared my 'secret' with dozens. Besides, I am pretty sure mine will still be the better(wink). Unless one of them ends up as a English Toffee millionaire, I think its cool.
I think it's kind of rude to not share a recipe, especially if you are sharing the actual dish.....WHAT DO YOU THINK???

We went on vacation up to Lakeside in the White Mountains this last week and had a ton of fun! We had never been up to the Pinetop area, if you haven't gone yet, go! It takes about 4 1/2 hours from Vail, and is so beautiful.
We rented a house in the woods to accomodate our family, Shayne's dad and his wife, and Shayne's brother and his family. We ate and ate and ate, this trip should have been called "Meat-a-palooza". Shish kebobs, tri-tip, pork chops, dutch oven, woo-eee, my belly is still in recovery! We had a great time hanging out on the back deck, swinging in the hammock, playing horseshoes, and fishing in one of the several lakes around the area. Out of all of us, not one fish was caught, but everyone AROUND us was bringing 'em in, bummer. I have to say, I wasn't too bummed, I'm just not a fish eater. Drew insisted on looking like a fisherman, and so he stood and held the pole and the tacklebox, hey, he LOOKED the part!
One day, as we were about to go out fishing, Veronica (shayne's stepmom) caught a glimse of a bear out in the backyard. Needless to say, we all freaked out, ran into the house and watched as it lumbered through the backyard. I'd like to have gotten a picture from HIS viewpoint, 9 crazy people with their noses pressed up against the back windows. (Drew ran for the safely of the loft)
Here are some pics from out little adventure...

Grasshopper Brownies

I made these yummy brownies for Andrea W.'s baby shower, and some of ya'll asked for the recipe...

Grasshopper Mint Brownies-SHar's Bosch Kitchen Center in Gilbert

3c sugar
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 c melted butter
6 eggs
2 1/4 c flour
2 t vanilla
3/4 t salt
Combine all ingredients, and mix until creamy . Prepare a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or grease it, and pour in. Bake at 350 or until toothpick comes out clean.
Mint Frosting
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 t peppermint oil or extract
green food coloring
1/2 c butter
2 T corn syrup
1 t vanilla
(I found that it was too thick, so I added a little bit of milk)
Chocolate Frosting
1 lb. powdered sugar
2/3 c unsweetened cocoa
1/3 t salt
1/4 t vanilla
7 T butter
1/3 c boiling water
Combine the ingredients for each frosting, seperately. Frost brownies with mint frosting, and freeze for 10 min. Then, frost with the chocoloate frosting. Chill, cut and enjoy.

Pool Fun

Summer at our house means POOL TIME! It is one of the very first things that Drew asks about when he wakes up, when we can start swimming. This last week we had friends over for swimming fun and lunch. I really enjoy watching the boys "being boys" and getting all that energy out! And of course, you gotta have Mermaid Barbie's floating around, too. This means I have to lifeguard constantly, making sure that all objects are moving happily about in the pool.
But I enjoy every minute of it!

It Aint' Pretty

My walking partner, Laura, is away on vacation, and so....I guess that means I can be on vacation from exercise, right? Ugh! I decided after I wolfed down a ball of cookie dough, that I oughta get out there and move it some.
Here's the deal, though. The picture of exercise we see on TV, say on a Kashi commecial, is that of a cute girl, ponytail waving, in a perfectly matched outfit, striding through the neighborhood. Cue happy music, and blue birds. Let me paint you a picture...
-I am pretty sure I have two different socks on
- I am sporting a kind of fanny-pack contraption that holds my phone, Ipod and water
-I am wearing a painting shirt, yeah, It has three different color paint splats
-I blew a snot rocket when no one was looking, sssshhhhh.....
-I have a 'grey water' situation under my bra and in my pants, I sweat a lot!
-I look a little crazy, because I forgot my lip Vaseline, so..... no, weird guy I just passed, I did not lick my lips to flirt with you...
-I am on the 15 second run, 20 minute cool-down program. Yup, I ran 15 seconds, and I took a while to recover.

But, I must say, the sunset was beautiful, and I love listening to my Ipod, and just imagine myself as 'Alex' in Flashdance, complete with leotard...."and she dance's like she's never danced before"...

Baptism

Ryan(shayne's brother, Charlie (dad) and Shayne

two very happy missionaries!

This past week, I had procrastinated and needed to hem Shayne's white pants. As I sat down to hem them, I thought about hurrying up, just doing a straight stitch hem, and getting the job done quick. A thought came to mind "Good, Better, or Best?". Dallin H. Oaks, a leader in our church gave a talk in a bi-annual churchwide meeting about doing our best. Because I know how to do a proper hem, I happily did the best job, knowing the good work that these pants would do.

Well, those pants DID do a wonderful work this last weekend. Shayne was able to baptize his dad a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He said it was awesome, and I am sure that his heart was just swelling with joy as he was able to baptize and confirm his very own dad. We are so excited for him, and his wife Veronica, who was baptized a couple months ago. I know when we chose the right, we can have a kind of happiness that is beyond compare!

I have got a traveling case of the Heebie-Jeebies!

Okay, so I know we live in the desert, so it shouldn't be suprising to see one of these here rattlesnakes just mosey-ing across the road. But it is a super-mondo big deal when I just dropped my kid off just a half a mile away!
The other day, the kids found a GIANT brown recluse in the pantry. "Mom there is a spider in the pantry, come down quick!" I came down, and what the freakin' heck! This spider was HUGE, the body was like 1". I am so scared of them, our neighbor, Kyle, almost lost his leg because of a brown recluse bite. I usually spray bugs with Windex, but this jerk of a spider crawled into one of my sweet Jordan's innocent DC shoes, UGH! I had to transport said shoe outside with tongs, and bang it on the table so I could smash it.
When we lived in Idaho, and I was laying in bed, I felt something on my arm, and flung my arm. When I turned on the light, to my horror, it was a hobo spider, the brown recluse' cousin. On the Heebie-Jeebie scale, a ten for sure!
I have recently spied black widows at the perimeter of the house. The best time to spray them is at sunset, when they come out of the cracks. I sware I could her them screaming when I spray them, possible? or is just the heebie-jeebies talking?!
You can't drive around Vail without a major case of the HJ's. I am not sure which is grosser, a real snake crossing the road, or one of the gazillion dead, smushed ones. Bleh!!!!! Do I think lizards are fun and cute? no way. Ladybugs even register at the bottom of the scale for me...
I grew up in Los Angeles County. I had never seen rabbits, snakes, or for goodness sakes, wild pigs.....ever! We just had to steer clear of the crazy guy with mayonaise in his hair that used to bike around the block everyday!

And now I have a case of the phantom heebie-jeebies just writing this!