And the winner is...

The Chocolate Cheese Cake by Chris! We started the awards ceremony with the Star Wars fan fair song playing in the background and gave honorable mention to all the great treats! Then the winner was announced and everyone was surprisingly civil. Frankly, Grant is so relieved that it wasn't Jack! Yes that hunk of a man can cook and boy how! Lucky us, we'll be having that again. The recipe will be coming as promised, sometime between SWAT shooting practice and DUI work. But here are some out takes from our summer fun in the mean time. (the broken plate is courtesy of Jango who has gotten big enough to bring down lots of food now days)

Just to wet your appetite

We wanted to clarify the contest for our loyal fans. No this wasn't eaten all at once (keep up runners)! This was an ongoing contest that we started back in May. With Dad's crazy cop schedule we usually have family home evenings on Tuesdays or whenever we had an undisturbed night (Are we ever really undisturbed?). This was the motivation to have Family Home Evening every week, and except for the week we were camping, (we didn't count the s'mores) we had FHE all summer long. So, yes we ate all that sugar, along with helpful Uncle Sam, a very undeserving dog and other willing family, but not at the same time. Each person planned their treat ahead of time so the ingredients were included in the weekly grocery trip and then they made the creation them selves (or as much as they could). The boasting, scheming, planning, dreaming, and eating went on all summer long and it was a great summer! After careful counting of comments and e-mails, counts and recounts, chads and maybe some bribbery, we finally have the winner. But you'll have to wait till tonight when we present the beautiful trophy seen above at Family Home Evening! (8ish AZ Time)

Summer Desert Dessert Contest!

Please Vote!

This summer, as motivation for Family Home Evenings, we started a simple dessert contest.
(We don't condone the evils of sugar, but you can't judge a 'Best Spiritual Lesson' contest.)
We've tried to keep each dessert anonymous but its hard to leave out the creator on some of these. Please be as unbiased as possible when voting. We understand the difficulties in voting on a dessert without tasting them, so as an added incentive, the winner of this year's contest will post their recipe on this blog. Happy Voting! Here are the summer's entries in no particular order. Please post your ballot in comments or at chrisandjenny@hotmail.com.

Volcano Cake. Chocolate Bunt cake with chocolate peanut butter drizzle. Topped with oreo's , and filled with a milk and Dry Ice explosion.

Hawaiian Shaved Ice. Made with fresh mango's and Pineapple and a tropical punch kick.

Mint Brownies. Rich Chocolate mint brownie with a layer of mint in the middle. (Actual photo was deleted...)

Chocolate Cheese Cake. Layers of Chocolate cake sandwiching a layer of Cheesecake, and fudge icing in between to hold it all together.

Rainbow Cake. White cake with sprinkles, topped with rainbow sorbet. (If you like rainbows and butterflies...) As American as Apple Pie. Apple Pie and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. (What's better than apple pie?- jars of apple pie filling that you can use any time you want!)Sugar cookies. These cookies are shaped like tools because this builder believe desserts build a strong family. (sound like a primary theme?) Flag Cake. Even more American than Apple Pie and topped with this summer's freshest fruit.

Home Made Ice Cream. Homemade vanilla with M & Ms, Snickers, Chocolate and caramel laced in.
Cereal. A favorite night time treat for a busy day, and perfect to enjoy in front of Discovery's Shark Week.
Good luck and happy voting!

... if you hate them that much, why not drive a plane into their house?

I recently bought a 'new' stove off craigslist, and+ met a very cantankerous man. (Love craigslist by the way!) As we were preparing to load my beautiful stove into my brothers truck, our small talk lead into how he hated 'wetbacks'! I was so offended that he even used that term. Hello! I thought we'd all learned how stupid racism is. I told him about my great hispanic neighbors, trying to put emphasis on hispanic in case his little brain had never heard the proper word. He didn't get it! What an idiot! I wanted to drop the oven then, but we'd already made the deal and had traded cash. I wish I could have been more brave, and refused to deal with such a bigot!
It remined me of a man I met at a bus stop in Brooklyn after 9/11 who went off on Islaims. He was so sure that we shouldn't let imigrants into our wonderful country, and then I mentioned how all of my ancesters came from another country. He proudly told of his ancesters who came from Poland. (Oh, no wonder... Kidding! No more Polish jokes) Wheres the logic if we're all imigrants and yet we should hate the next generation coming in. Argh!
Hate is so stupid! I HATE people who HATE people! wait... i mean...um... Just don't hate people until you get to know them, then it's ok! :)

The happiest poisoning I have ever had

OK, so it's the only poisoning I have ever had and really since I'm not a doctor, I can't even be sure of that. But this had all the symptoms of food poisoning and I had it fierce! You don't want details. I lay on the floor most of the day, because I didn't have the strength to get back in bed and Mackay was happier (read: quieter) if I was close to him. While I laid there I couldn't help but remark to my self that this was one of the best sicknesses I'd ever had.
It's summer so I didn't need to get the kids from the bus stop, I had the means to call my daycare client and call in a sick day, I have a son who can make French Toast for dinner, and I had no obligations what so ever that couldn't wait a day. I didn't have to go down to a well to fetch water, I had a toilet in my very own Master bedroom. I lay on a nice carpet in air conditioning comfort and I had a trustworthy doctor as back-up in case this was more than I could handle. I even had a puppy who came and laid beside me to keep me company. I had a good husband who took the kids swimming for a while so I could sleep and good kids who played on their own (even in the middle of no TV week).
I know, so I'm making you all jealous about how good my life is but really, in between pukes- I knew I had it easy.

Laverne's

I don't know about every woman, but I know a lot of us have beauty secrets, things we do to feel beautiful. One of mine is eye brow waxing, and I try to stay up on that as much as possible, to avoid looking like Bert from Sesame Street. I just feel framed better when I get that done. There is a nail place on Lindsay Road in Mesa, AZ that my sister introduced me to that is inexpensive, and close. And with their strong Vietnamese accents, always fun to go to. Today I noticed a sign in the window that announced they are closed on Sundays. When I asked Laverne about it, she told me that the store was in a Mormon area and that they were very quite on Sundays, so no point. I asked her if she lived in that Mormon neighborhood, No. I asked if she had ever been to those Mormon's church, No. She told me she had been raised Catholic by her Catholic parents who were converted in Vietnam, but that she was a 'lazy' Catholic. I mentioned that now that she didn't work on Sundays she had time to go to church, but our time was up and the conversation ended.
Homework for readers:
If you ever want to get your nails done, or eyebrows waxed (or mustache, I wont tell), go to Laverne's. She does great pedicures I hear and I'm hoping to go there on a date some Saturday with my husband, he's on his feet just as much as I and would really enjoy it! Ask her about church. Who knows were it will go. And any establishment that honors the sabbath should be blessed with business the rest of the week, especially from those Mormons! I'll tell you what I find out in 6 weeks when I go back for my eyebrow waxing.

Fear & Faith on a Friday

What a fiasco! What a treat!
Last Friday while getting gas, I noticed an old woman sitting in a car with an obvious flat tire. With my kids safely in the A/Ced van, I walked over and asked her if she needed any help. She pointed in an obscure direction and said her husband was calling someone. In the opposite direction, an old man stood at a payphone trying to punch numbers for a call. Must be a match! So I gingerly approached him, fearful that I might give him a heart attack if I startled him. He was indeed the 'husband' but wasn't getting anywhere on the phone so I offered my cell phone to him. After he had called for help, he asked if I would take his sick wife home. "...the heat, you know." So I helped his wife into the van, a little surprised he trusted a stranger with his sweetheart. He gave me vague directions and told me "she gets mixed up sometimes..." Okay... While driving home, she asked me "Are you a Mormon girl?" Well I haven't been a 'girl' for many years but I answered her "Yes!" She had guessed as much. She had a good Mormon friend, she said. When I dropped her off at home and helped her inside, I noticed several Air force decorations and asked about them. Her husband, Gene Cavanaugh was a Paratrooper in WWII and dropped into the Battle of the Bulge! So cool! And I got to meet him!
I laugh at my fear of approaching them and wonder at his fear of jumping into Belgium to fight Germans in what became the biggest and bloodiest battle that American forces experienced in World War II. How easy it seems now to trust your wife to a Mormon girl after trusting your life to God and then jumping out of a plane.
I'm still geeking out about the experience. How lucky am I to help someone who fought for my freedom. I think if I'd had my camera on me I would have asked for a picture. Probably better that I don't carry my camera with me!