Holly and family come for a visit

My sister Holly came for a visit with her kids, son-in-law and grandson this past week. We don't get family visitors often so Madison and Sloane also came down to be here. We had a great time. Unfortunately this was a very warm week in Albuquerque with pretty high humidity so the evaporative coolers (Swamp Coolers) were not working well. We attempted to counter that by buying some floor fans which did help a bit.

We ate great, played tennis and in general had a good time. One of the highlights was having a watermelon seed spitting contest (using certified "Blessed by Jesus" watermelons and all the girls going for manicures. We made carmel popcorn (using Nan Cattle's marshmallow recipe) and had a good time eating it under the willow tree in the backyard. Holly learned to play Mexican Train dominos and we spent one evening playing Scum, which everyone enjoyed. Grand baby Rider entertained everyone with his cute smile and disposition. My family got to know his Dad, Brad, better and we all agreed that Ashley did a great job bringing him into the family.

Friday was Tennis day and started at 8 AM. I think we got over half of the 10 people in the house on the court that day and everyone had a good time. Holly and I finished up around 4 pm but we all rotated around. The highlight for me was watching Madison and Courtney play a pretty competive match. Mostly it was just fun watching them enjoy the game.

One of the best things about their visit was that we could all bunk up in our home with most people having beds (greatful for Madison and Sloane being willing to sleep on couches). Having everyone together just made it that much more enjoyable.

We all went to church together on Sunday and it was a great surprise to have my sister and three of her daughters along with Sloane attend the youth class I teach every fourth Sunday. They all made some good comments and the class went well.

Sunday evening, after they left, we sat around talking about how nice it is to be with family and how nice of them it was to come for a visit. We will need to make a trip to Las Vegas to spend more time with them before February.

July is over half gone!

Just an update. Sloane came down 2 weeks ago for a short visit. It was great to see her. She came to have some dental work done and to also have a treatment performed on her planter's wart. We hope both are successful. She also got her NM drivers license renewed so we know for at least that reason the trip was a success. While here she and I did some baking. We made a Chocolate Pound Cake that had great body and flavor except of the fact I used some rancid vegetable shortening which gave it an off flavor of paint. How stupid to do that! The can had been in our pantry for quite some time and the top was kind of yellowish and I just scooped up that poison and put it in our mixture. We did discuss that shortening was all kind of like Vaseline anyway so we figured it wouldn't make too much difference. Dumb! After a couple of pieces we had to throw the whole thing out before we made ourselves sick.

To make up for that fiasco we did make a carrot cake. Lochlan and I had just finished reading a book called Eat Cake about a lady that provides for her family after her husband loses his job by making cakes. The book gave recipes in the back and so we made her carrot cake recipe. It was very good. We also decided to make some pie, after studying some recipes we decided on a strawberry-rhubarb pie. We didn't want to bother with the crust and so just used the refrigerated dough you can buy in sheets at the store. It was pretty good except we did not cook it long enough and so the crust on the bottom was too doughy. Well 1 out of 3 is not bad when you have never tried the recipe before.

I bought some fresh shortening so I can make another attempt at the Chocolate pound cake but Heather says I need to wait since she doesn't want the kitchen heated up by baking until the weather cools down.

It has been in the mid and even upper 90's this past couple of weeks in July after a very mild June.

I ordered a new topband for my tennis court net. I have been sewing it up trying to extend it's life but a new topband is now in order. It arrived 3 days ago. I should get it woven on in the next couple of days.

Lochlan decided she wanted her High School graduation present early so we helped pay for part of a laptop computer which she will be able to use her Senior year of HS and then later at college. After much research we decided on the Acer Timeline model due to its exceptional battery life and also light weight. It should arrive in the next couple of days. We hope she likes it.

Attended a very special Stake Priesthood meeting last night. Instead of the typical format the stake president just opened the time up for members to share their testimonies about Fathers and their Sons. Several Father and Sons shared their love and appreciation for one another and their testimonies of the gospel. It was great when you knew the story behind some of those relationships.