The Spirit is the Same in Any Language

Yesterday my new visiting teachers came.  One has been my neighbor for years, and I was actually her visiting teacher for a few years.  The other one is a sweet little lady who speaks Spanish, and some English.  She gave the message from conference in Spanish, and I am happy to say that I could pick out quite a bit of it.  My Portuguese is very rusty, and it is different than Spanish, but I could understand a lot of what she said.  What was even more clear though was her testimony and her sweet spirit.  I could feel it even if I couldn't understand every word.  It was actually a really cool thing.


I have recently starting cooking more and more things in the crockpot.  It just works out better.  I can fix food when I have time during the day, instead of trying to make dinner when a million other things are going on after school is over.  I tried this recipe for Chicken and Dumplings, and I really liked it.
4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons of butter
1 (10.75 oz) can of cream of chicken soup
1 (10.75 oz) can of cream of celery soup
3 1/2 cups of chicken broth
1 onion, finely diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
Chicken boullion seasoning or cube
salt & pepper
*As for the dumplings… Use 1  package of refrigerated Grands biscuit dough, torn into pieces.
1. EXCLUDING THE BISCUITS put all ingredients in…
2. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours.
3. About an hour (give or take) before serving, remove chicken and pull into pieces and return to the soup mixture, place the torn biscuit dough in and cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center.
I have made this twice now, and the first time it was way too salty for my liking.  So the second time I used a lower sodium chicken broth (it wasn't salt free, just 33% less salt or something like that) and I did not add any extra salt.  I liked it much better without the extra salt. I guess it just depends how salty you like things.

Many were cold, but few were frozen

The boys with our neighbor at the game

Driving home from the BYU game late last night, I heard Mark Lyons make this comment.  It made me laugh, but it was also after midnight.  BYU's final home game didn't start until 8:15 pm.  Yes it was late, yes it was cold, but it wasn't awful.  We layered up, had blankets, and even had toe warmers for our shoes thanks to Tony.  We won the game in decisive fashion 42-7.  It was over really at half time.  This has been an interesting season.  Not what many expected, frustrating at times, but at the end of the day when all is said and done, it is still fun for me.  I love watching those kids out there loving what they do.  Nothing better than watching a receiver lay out to catch a pass, watching a running back carry what seemed like the whole defense another few yards, watching the QB duck a defender then throw a perfect strike to the open receiver for the touchdown, watching a hit that is so hard that you can hear it in the stands, or see the opposing teams QB get hit so hard that he fumbles the ball. I saw all that and more in the game last night. Yes I am a die hard who just loves the game, even if I am tired today because of it.

Thanksgiving is this week-how did it come so fast?  Love, LOVE, LOVE this time of year.

1 Of The 101 Reasons I Could Never Be A Doctor

Nasty isn't it?

Jared has been dealing with an infected ingrown toenail for awhile now.  We took him to the doctor they put him on antibiotics, and a regimen of soaking the infected toe and applying antibiotic ointment to it.  It got a lot better, but has never really cleared up.  His toe was still red and tender to the touch.  So yesterday I took him to a podiatrist who went to work on his toe.  As he was numbing Jared's toe, and I could see my amazingly brave son flinch, I could hardly stand to watch.  Oh, it is so hard for me to let other people inflict pain on my children, even though I know it is necessary!  Then the doctor basically cut away part of his toenail and removed the huge piece that had grown into the skin.  I'll spare you the rest of the gory details, because they make me sick, which is why I could never be a doctor.  I have never really considered myself wimpy, I can handle shots, I watched while a doctor pulled dead skin away from my ankle after an injury when I was little, I have even had five children (ok so maybe I am a little wimpy-I had epidurals with all of them)-but when it comes to watching it on other people especially my children, well...I would rather not.