Addiction

I made some granola on Saturday for us. I made it a couple of months ago after finding a really easy recipe on the church website (providentliving.org). Apparently now the recipe isn't there now, but I will post it with my own little additions. Good thing I saved it on the computer. I added vanilla this time because it needed it before. I also added some toasted almonds, toasted unsweetened coconut chips, and dried cranberries to the recipe. I love granola cereals, and after making this, I will never buy it from the store again. It was inexpensive because I used my food storage and bought a few things from the healthfood store (the coconut and cranberries). Chris and Ben LOVE it. They eat it for snacks and dessert, not really for breakfast. I figured out that with all the ingredients, the whole concoction cost us about $3 for 12 cups instead of the $4 for 12 ounces.

Granola
2 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. water
6 T oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
10 c. rolled oats
1 T vanilla

In a pan combine the sugar, water, oil and salt. Heat until sugar is dissolved, but do not boil. Stir in vanilla. Then pour syrup over oats and stir until well coated. Add a little more rolled oats if the texture seems too moist. Place in pans or sheets about 1/2-inch deep. Bake at 425 degrees, 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Bake 15 minutes longer if you want it crunchier. Makes 11 cups. Store in an airtight container.

Lion King

Ben went to Phoenix yesterday with the band to see The Lion King at the Gammage Theatre. He was very excited. They were planning on going out to eat and going to the mall. Ben was very excited about that because I never take him to the mall. Hate shopping. Anyway, he called at about 10:30 to tell us that they were barely leaving Phoenix. Great! Chris slept on the couch while I listened to an audio book and made hot chocolate mix. He came home and went straight to bed. This morning he showed me his program and ticket and told me all about the show. He purchased a Simba keychain. He loves keychains! This was Ben's first Broadway experience, and he said he would go again to see The Lion King. He had so much fun.

January 12 - 18

Chris just got home from the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show. (I'll post some pictures soon). He went with Derek this year, and they always have a great time together. He had been gone since Wednesday. My mom and Stan were here from Monday to Thursday morning, and Amanda came on Friday and will leave tomorrow. We had a nice time with my mom and Stan. They took us out to eat on Monday. On Tuesday, Chris had class, so we just hung out and watched American Idol. I took them out to the bowling alley on Wednesday.
My first class was on Thursday. My teacher never emailed me about what books I needed, so I left extra early to be able to stop by the bookstore then look for my class. The bookstore didn't have my book. The class was so different from my first experience with a graduate class. One guy introduced himself then introduced everyone in the class to me before the teacher arrived. Everyone was friendly. The teacher arrived and wanted to have class at her home. Cool. Then, I don't have to walk across campus by myself after 9 pm. I followed some other classmates to her home. I am excited about the class and the things I am going to learn. The teacher is excited about the topic which rubs off on all the students. We got out of class late, and I still had to drive home and pick Ben up at his Grandma Cookie's. It was a long drive.
Amanda and I have been hanging out talking and watching movies that Chris won't watch with me, like most period films.
Right now, we are watching football. I fell asleep during the Cardinals game. I'm glad they won. In our household, the most important game is the one on right now, the Steelers. I hope they win.

Wookiee Cookies

Ben has been on this cooking kick. Yesterday, he wanted to make some French toast from one of our Star Wars cookbooks called Oola la French toast. He did pretty well. I have been trying to encourage him to cook because I feel it's important for boys to learn to be able to survive on their own on other things besides mac and cheese and hot dogs. After church, Ben continued his Star Wars themed food and made some Yoda soda consisting of lemon-lime soda with lime sherbet. He's already drank 2 glasses. Now he's in the kitchen making Wookiee Cookies. I don't know if I should hide the cookbooks or just let him do his thing. I guess whatever makes him happy. I better go because the oven's ready...

2008

I thought I should start a family update blog for friends and family that I don't see very often, and also for myself to keep track of our own doings. This past year has been very event-filled, and I thought I'd start off with that.

January:

• Chris and Ben went to the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show in Anaheim. Chris and Ben went alone because I had school the same week. I started my final semester for my Bachelors. I took American Literature, Creative Writing, World Literature in Memoir, and Grammar. Yeah!
• Chris was made a Lieutenant on the fire department.

May: I graduated from UA on the 15th. It was nice to be finished with a degree, especially when it has taken so long.

June:

• Ben spent his days swimming at the pool for swim team which is only one month in the summer.
• My mom got married on the 7th. She had been dating Stan for what seems like years. He was an old boyfriend that she was engaged to while she was at BYU, and because of a misunderstanding (and no cell phones or email) they lost contact. They are now living in Freeland, Washington. They are planning on moving back to Arizona when Stan retires from the Washington Ferry System in 4.5 years.
• We went to Winkelman, Arizona for the annual VFFA (Volunteer Fire Fighters of Arizona) conference. It was so hot, like at least 110. It's a really bad time of year to have outside activities in Arizona. Chris had been president for almost four years, and they voted in a new one. I was kind of relieved because our local fire department takes up a lot of his time, and this added on top of it was just too much.

July: We drove to Washington to visit my mom and transport her piano. Chris moves pianos with his business, so it made sense for us to take it up there for her. We also transported a lot of her other things. After our first day of driving, we were supposed to stay in Flagstaff. We didn't have a reservation, and BB King was in town. Flagstaff was packed with people, so we had to stay at this nasty motel on the edge of town. We wore flip flops in the shower. We drove to Provo the next day and stayed the night there. Then, we stopped for a couple of hours in SLC. We used to live there and love the sites in downtown Salt Lake. Plus, I needed a couple of hours at the Family History Center. Our last night on the road, we stayed in Oregon somewhere. We got to Mukilteo, Washinton to take the ferry to Whidbey Island where my mom and Stan lives late at night. When we got to my mom's new home, Stan was asleep and my mom was still on the other side of the water. Derek was there the first couple of days we were there to help Chris unload my mom's grand. While he was there, we went to the Boeing factory. That was amazing! While we were in Washington, we went to Pike Place Market a couple of times. I couldn't get enough of the fresh fish and the bakeries. Yikes. We went to Fort Casey - a abandoned WWII army base with a lighthouse. It was neat. You could explore all the tunnels and rooms. Stan told us to take a flashlight to see where we were going. Ben LOVED it. We went to Deception Pass which totally freaked me out. I didn't realize how scared of heights I was. It's beautiful though; I would go back again. Chris loved buying fresh cherries on the side of the road. We missed the blackberries being in season by a week or two. Stan's neighbor brought crab over for us that he had caught that day. It was so good, and what a wonderful experience. Chris loves that kind of stuff. We drove home through California. We saw the evidence of the terrible forest fires in northern California. Horrible. We stopped north of LA at a fruit stand and bought melons we'd never heard of. It was a long trip, but I was so glad to be home when we got there.

August:

Ben started middle school. I cried that morning. Junior high was the worst time of my whole life, and I didn't want it to be crappy for Ben. He signed up for football. He was totally excited to play.

• I started taking my first graduate class as a non-degree seeking student. I got into an American Literature class, focusing on the Romance (like Don Quixote) and how it affected American novels. We read a lot of books I'd never heard of.
  

September:

• Ben sprained his good ankle. (Yes there is a bad ankle.) He was unable to play without a doctor's note. He had to go to a foot specialist because of his flat-footedness which is the cause of his ankle trouble. I felt like a bad mother because I never noticed.
• I took the GRE at the beginning of the month because I am trying to get into grad school.

October:

• Ben was ordained into the Aaronic Priesthood. I can't believe he is so old, and that he's going to Young Men's. Anyway, my mom and Stan came from Washington, Bek came with her kids and Amanda, and Derek came. It was nice to have the family together. Bek stayed up at the cabin on the mountain, and we went to see her there.
• It was also Fair weekend, not my favorite time of year because Chris has to spend the whole time down there at a booth for the store (Thursday through Sunday). I don't see him if I don't go and hang out at the Fair. One of the best parts of the Fair is the green chili burros that the Catholic church sells. They weren't there which made a lot of people upset. (They're really good.) The church decided to sell them at their church, so I went and bought more than a dozen.
  

November:

• I took the GRE Subject Test which didn't stress me out as much as the GRE did. It was fun studying and remembering the literature that I would have to know for the test. I was really glad that the test was given in Thatcher. It was nice to get up and drive 10 minutes instead of 2 hours to Tucson.
• We spent Thanksgiving at Jean's (Chris' mom), and because I had been ill, I didn't get to make anything which I love doing and don't get to do much since I started school.

December:

• Chris was made captain on the fire department.
• Chris' brother wanted us to go to Disneyland with the whole Murphy Clan for Christmas. All we needed to pay for was our tickets in and gas to get there. I had never gone before. I know strange, but I never had a desire to go because I'm not really big on rides, etc. Anyway, we had a wonderful time. I think I liked the Indiana Jones ride the best. And I don't think we'll ever forget being stranded on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for almost an hour. We had a great time. We also went to Hollywood Blvd. and Newport Beach in between our two Disney days. It was nice to go to the beach although it was SO cold. We went to eat at the Crab Cooker where Chris used to go eat when his family would vacation in Newport.