I am Grateful for Good People Who Listen & ACT on "Feelings"

This is Nurse Ashley, who saved John's life.  She left work late 2 weeks ago, went home a different way than she normally does, stopped when she saw the firetrucks at the accident, and she was the one who ran into the woods to John's car and intubated him, stayed with him while they worked for 20 minutes to extract him from the car (after they took care of 2 other cars).  Amazing fact that she works in Shock Trauma where they brought John.  She knew exactly what to do to help him on site.

How do you thank someone enough for doing such an amazing thing?

This is Nurse Asley & her husband.  She is holding the pink potholder I crocheted at the hospital & a Book of Mormon from me.  Friday morning John got a 10-11 on Glasgow Coma Scale.  Two weeks ago he was a 3 when they brought him in.  Still working on communicating by nods, gestures and guesses.

Miracles are happening.  His life was spared, and he is progressing rapidly, surprising the staff.  I am struggling to balance positive faith/hope against worry and reality/plans for future (while trying really hard to not freak out over medical bills).

On the way home from the hospital and after the good news that John is moving to REHAB already, I got a text offer for dinner.  It included fresh raspberry pie with ice cream, and yummy mini individual quiche and deconstructed guacamole salad (black beans, tomatoes, yellow peppers, avocado-chopped, not smashed, onions with 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup lime juice & lime zest, salt, pepper to taste, cayenne if you want).  Carolyn stayed for dinner, ate with us, which was perfect.

We have been blessed.

Pie Night Royalty

I have a sister who is the Pie Queen!  Nobody I have met makes quite as good of pies as Laurajane.  Delicious crust, wonderful fillings, and points for quantity.  Although Roxie's favorite was a cheesecake pie Uncle John made, Sam and I loved Laura's blueberry Uncle Blen pie, and John and I loved the amazing PECAN pie, lots of pecans!  10 pies, 2 bacon broccoli quiches that we ate with dinner, chocolate chip bar cookies and Aunt Luanna's fudge shack walnut maple fudge (very, very popular among boy-cousins).

Queen Laurajane (her hair is half way down her back again, grows fast! And Randy lost 60 lbs since March not eating sugar) made a sugar-free pumpkin that was perfect and a sugar-free cherry, too.  Gracious host, serving everyone before they sat down to enjoy pie.  They have a perfect party house, lots of open space and comfortable for chatting.  I was sobered thinking of their short stay on east coast is ending...they won't be here next Thanksgiving season.  Maybe we will have an Easter Pie Night???

Earlier that day Roxie had state choir auditions (this is her new warm favorite coat).  And yes, not one, but three books to take to read in the car, so she could finish one and move on to the next...

John made serious salad.  In a tupperware bowl exactly like ours.  We retrieved a missing salad fork!  Funny how things can go from house to house!

Brother John has groovy socks.

Zoe cracked us up with her attention to ME, the non-dog petter.  She would come and creep up into my lap.

Wished I had gotten a photo of Sam playing with cousin Dallin.  They were funny to watch!  And the NARWHALE challenge game!  They were so funny, this group of cousins cheering each other on.

Pie Night:  a dinner before Thanksgiving where you gather and just eat pie!  Mom told us about the family tradition someone had started so they could eat with family, and friends, and have the pie be a separate meal to enjoy, not just when you are stuffed with turkey and stuffing on Thanksgiving day.  We have had various iterations through the years, even held it on a local church level (when I was YW pres and John was YM president it was a youth activity a couple of years in a row, organized by us).

Laura is famous as Pie Queen for the Thanksgiving year we gathered in Cranberry with a pie per person---28 pies?  Crazy fun wonderful good memories.

Pie

I am thankful for PIE!

We had PIE MORNING (instead of traditional Pie Night) after daily seminary on Friday.

Cooking is a Manly Art

I left the camera in the car overnight, so it is still foggy-lens-ish. This is not me playing with the soft-focus.

This morning I have already worked for an hour, lining up test-sites, filling out paper-work. I need to drive downtown to the office soon. John & Jen are coming up later this afternoon for turkey dinner. So I am teaching my John (as opposed to my brother JohnB) how to cook one in my absence from the kitchen.

I think I need to give more opportunities for the men in my life to learn to do things without me--they are discovering their cooking talents when it is left up to them to do the meals. I believe it is a learned skill, one in which practice and time in the kitchen makes a big difference. I know some amazing cooks who have kids who don't know how to make anything because the parent did all the work, didn't pass on the skills or the opportunities to learn by experience.

I'm guilty. It is easier to do it myself, faster, less messy.

But it is not too late.

Roxie and Sam both got measuring spoons for Christmas with a promise of lessons.

Last night when I got home from my quilting meeting we ate the most perfect LEMON MERINGUE PIE to celebrate my birthday (a day late)! I'll admit here that I took a spoonful taste of it before I had left for work, it looked so good! Bro.Jones can cook! Our friend also made me PEANUT BUTTER MERINGUE PIE! I should have let John put candles in it, because I realized later that I really, really missed them singing "Tis love brings us here" part of the song.