I have survived!

Well, I survived another book deadline! I look frazzled and have probably gained about 10 pounds in the last month from all these desserts. I wouldn't have had this problem if I hadn't procrastinated working on this book for several months.

I won't tell you how high the dirty laundry is piled in my laundry room or how high clean unfolded laundry is piled on my guest bed. I won't admit to how black the water was when I finally got down on my hands and knees to scrub my downstairs tile. I hate to admit that I have 579 unopened email messages in just one of my email accounts. And you should see my stack of unopened mail.

There are times that I would just love to be able to hire a maid, but I've done it in the past and know how much it costs. So, here I go playing catch up!

The worst part is that I asked my editor how long I had to finalize the book before it heads to the printer. The Answer: TWO WEEKS!!!

So, tomorrow I'm back to work finalizing the last16 recipes! And teaching the 16 and 17 year old girls how to manage money tomorrow night at church! I'm sure there are others more qualified than I to teach this than I, but I'll do my best! I'll bring some treats to make up for my deficiency! :-)

I Love General Conference

I always love General Conference weekend. The only thing that could have made it better would be seeing it in the Conference Center in person! There were so many good talks given. Elder Scott made me cry when he talked about his wife and two young children who had passed away. How I wish we had a temple here in Tucson. Before I had kids and lived in Provo, I went once a week. It made such a huge difference in my life. I need to get up to Mesa more often.

I also loved what Elder Hales said on personal finance. It made him seem so real to me. I felt a little guilty for our buying the new living room set this week. It really wasn't a necessity, and even though we didn't go into debt for it, the $1,000 could have gone to pay off a little extra on the house. We are trying so hard to pay off our house in a total of 12 years verses the average 30 years that it takes. We really want to be able to go on lots of missions when we get older. We figure we can start saving for that once the house is paid off.

The best part of conference is feeling the spirit that it brings into our home. I love it. I'm excited to hear the talks tomorrow!

What's Most Important

Yesterday we went to Sara Matson's baptism. I was again reminded of the sacredness of this saving ordinance. I had a song come to my mind and it hasn't left. I felt I should share it with all of you. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir does an amazing job singing this one.

We do what we do because we love our Savior Jesus Christ and want to be like him. Enjoy the song "This Is The Christ".



1. They heard His voice, a voice so mild.
It pierced them through and made their souls to quake.
They saw Him come, a man in white,
The Savior, who had suffered for their sake.
They felt the wounds in hands and side,
And each could testify:

Chorus:
This is the Christ.
This is the Christ, the holy Son of God,
Our Savior, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.
This is the Christ, the Healer of our souls,
Who ransomed us with love divine.

2. I read His words, the words He prayed
While bearing sorrow in Gethsemane.
I feel His love, the price He paid.
How many drops of blood were spilled for me?
With Saints of old in joyful cry
I too can testify:

Words: James E. Faust, b. 1920, and Jan Pinborough, b. 1954
Music: Michael Finlinson Moody, b. 1941

For Better Or For Worse

My good friend, Jenny Garcia, emailed me this cartoon strip. Lynn Johnston nailed this one to a T!! I just had to share!

For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston

Quick Update on My Crazy Life

It's been a whirlwind since we got back to reality! I did get the kids suitcases unpacked but mine is still on my living room floor! I still have items from the trip that need to come in from the car. I just keep reminding myself that I just have to survive until April 5th when my rough draft is due!

Here are all the things I've done this week:
1. Baked, cooked, tried, and retried 17+ recipes for the upcoming pudding book.
2. Filmed a coupon segment at Fry's for KOLD that will air in May. Thursday
3. Took 5 different treats to Pack Meeting on Thursday night.
4. Laundry
5. 2 Parent Teacher Meetings
6. Shopping for ingredients
7. Took treat to Teacher Luncheon
8. Delivered Treats to neighbors.
9. Kept my Savvy Savings Blog up to date
10. Worked, Worked, Worked
11. Answered a ton of emails
12. Had a phone publicity conference this morning for upcoming media in California and a possible Satellite tour in the fall for 101 Things To Do With Meatballs.
13. Helped Devan come up with a costume for the Wright Brothers book report.
14. Took kids to the library and book fair.

Not to mention tending to the needs of 1 spouse and 4 kids 10 and under! Homework, lunches, etc... No wonder I'm so tired each night!

Our Spring Break Adventure

I'm in the middle of hitting another book deadline. My newest book will be titled 101 Things To Do With Pudding. As of Sunday I have 90 recipes entered with 7 ideas that I still have to fill in. I'm still missing 4 recipes. Any one have any great recipes calling for a box of pudding?

The rough draft is due on April 5^th. Deadlines can be all consuming. I wish I would have worked a little harder earlier, so that I wouldn't have the need to be making 3-5 recipes a day for the next week or so.

With the deadline hanging over my head, we decided to still take the kids up to Utah and Idaho for Spring Break. I knew I had at least 30 hours in the car to type in all my tried recipes and recipes that I still need to finalize. I seriously had a two inch stack of recipes that I typed into our laptop computer. It actually forced me to work on it. I couldn't procrastinate. I had to get it done.

We left to drive up to Utah on Thursday the 12^th. We drove all day to get from Marana to Pleasant Grove. We were able to get tickets to attend the Draper Utah temple open house for Friday March 13^th. I was suppose to have a book signing on Saturday, so I had scheduled to do a cooking segment on KSL's Studio 5 program on Friday to announce it. The book signing didn't get scheduled in time to get books transported, so I just did a promotion of my newest released cookbook, 101 Things To Do With Meatballs. We showed 3 easy ways to “Dress Up” meatballs. I shared the Magnificent Meatballs, Ginger Ale Meatballs, and Maple Meatballs recipes. We showed how to make the maple meatballs on air and talked everyone through the easiness of the 2 other finished recipes. The meatballs were a hit. The crew and anchors devoured all 3 recipes! They were a huge hit.

After the show, we packed up and picked up our friend, Tina Stephens, who we had not seen for 6 years. She went with us to my mom's condo where we met up with my aunt Kathy and uncle Bob who were visiting from Illinois. We all headed over to my aunt's hotel in Provo to go swimming. My brother, Derek, met us there to swim with the kids. After swimming, we had pizza at my mom and dad's place. Then, Derek, Valerie, my mom, Tina, and our family headed up to Draper for the open house.

We try to take our kids to as many open houses as we can. They have been to the Nauvoo Illinois, California Redlands, Rexburg Idaho, and now Draper Utah temple open houses. Our kids love the temple. And I am amazed at what they remember from the other open houses. They love the mirrors in the sealing rooms! The whole way up and back, the kids pointed out the temples that dot the landscape in Utah and Idaho-St. George, Provo, Mt. Timpanogus, Draper, Jordan River, Salt Lake, Bountiful, Idaho Falls, and Rexburg.

It was neat to go through the temple with our friend Tina. Tina has been learning more and more about our church over the last few years. She loved the temple and had some questions that she had in her mind answered while we were there. The spirit is so strong in the temple. There is so much peace there. I was grateful that Tina and our children could feel why we love to go to the temple.

On Saturday, Ivan and I hit the amazing case lot food storage sale at Maceys. We were concerned that we wouldn't have room to bring the kids home after we started trying to arrange the buckets of flour and oat and bags of sugar and rice. I wish we could have bought more. Ivan helped my mom replacing burnt out lights on vehicles and getting my brother Troy's car listed on Craigslist.

Later, we picked up Scotty Catt, our old home teacher who is going to BYU and teaching at the Missionary Training Center. We all met up with Jenny and Peggy Boshard to climb the Y. The kids were so excited to find snow along the path up to the Y. I, miraculously, made it to the top of the Y. It was quite the trek! After the hike, we all went to Cafe Rio for dinner. I wish we had Cafe Rio in Tucson!

Sunday, we slept in and went to my mom's ward at 11 a.m.. After church, we headed up Provo Canyon up past Sundance and Aspen Grove to a huge meadow of snow! We built a snow man and played in the snow. It was so much fun! We headed back down the mountain in time to have dinner with my parents and grandma.

On Monday, we took the kids to the church distribution center in Salt Lake to get Devan and Elizabeth their own scriptures. We got Spencer a small Book of Mormon with his own name on it as well. The kids were so excited to get their own scriptures. Elizabeth and Devan read their scriptures all the way up to Rexburg. The kids were happy to see there was a little snow left in Rexburg.

We got to Ivan's parents' home in time to have a great Family Home Evening with Grandma and Grandpa and Ivan's cousin Nathan's family. We had fun visit. We went over Nathan's house to see their food storage room. For those who have seen my little room, imagine one 4-5 times the size. It was pretty amazing!

On Tuesday, we spent the day with Ivan's parents. Lizzie and I went to get our hair done by my talented niece, Netti Holdaway who works at Mystic in Rexburg. Lizzie got a cute hair cut, and I got my hair cut and permed. Then, Liz and I checked out the Scrapbook store next to the hair saloon. I went to the store to pick up ingredients, so I could try 3 recipes while we were there in Rexburg. We took one of the ideas to a family dinner at Ivan's brother Sid's house in Hamer. After dinner, we went to see our nephew, Christian, receive his eagle scout award! 7 of the 9 children that Ivan's parents had were there with their families! It was so great to see everyone and to be able to take part in such an important event in one of our nephew's lives.

On Wednesday, we went up to check out the new BYU-Idaho bookstore and to sign my cookbooks there. They are always so excited when I come to sign books there. They were one of the first 2 stores to sell my self-published cake mix book when no one knew who I was. They have been one of my biggest supporters over the years! After signing books, Ivan and I headed to the cafeteria in the Manwaring Center to meet up with Aaron Van Horne who served as a missionary in Marana a little over 2 years ago. It was great to see and eat lunch with him. Then, we headed up to the Ricks Building to visit our friends who Ivan knew from his year as visiting faculty at BYU-I. It was great to see the few we were able to see.

I also finished the 2 other trial recipes while there at Ivan's mom's house on Wednesday. Around 6 p.m., we took out kids to Ivan's sister Debra's house. She watched the kids so I could go to Jamie Ashcraft's bread class. She did a great job teaching how to make bread! I learned something new from her class. If you spray your hands and counter with cooking spray, you don't have to worry about having the dough stick to your fingers! The stickiness is the part I hate about making bread. With this new trick, I'll be doing it a little more often! Ivan hung out with Nathan and his boys while we were in the class. The kids had a blast playing with their cousin Cameron while we were gone.

On Thursday morning, Ivan and I got up @ 4:40 a.m.. We wanted to be in the 6 a.m. Session at the Rexburg temple. It was neat to walk into the temple and to see so many familiar faces from Sugar City. We saw at least 6 people that we knew there at the temple. I love going to the temple where ever we are. I hope someday we can have our own temple in Tucson. I love that they swipe your temple recommends how when you go to the temple. Now, they can track who is actually using the temples. If they note lots of visits from people in the Tucson area maybe we will be able to get our own small temple someday!

After the temple, we came back and started to pack the car. Ivan and the boys went out to help grandpa knock down a fence line that he no longer needs. The boys had so much fun and I was even able to finish knocking out one of the planks! There was still some snow in the field. There was a good pile of snow the size of the 25 ton snow pile they brought into Gladden Farms at Christmas. I can't imagine how much snow they get there in a given winter. After cutting up some of the wood, we headed down to Utah to my parent's home. My dad made his specialty- Chicken and Dumplings- for dinner. Derek and his wife Valerie came over. I ran over to Maceys and picked up ingredients to make 3 more recipes. We made all three and sampled 2 of them. The third had to be frozen.

On Friday, we made a quick stop at the Quilted Bear-one of my all time favorite stores in Utah! Spencer was in desperate need of a zipper tie and they sell them for $8 there. It's a good thing that we had no extra room in the car, because there were lots of cute decorations calling my name! But, I got only what I needed and left. We headed south to meet up with Ivan's brother Ben's family to go camping at the Red Cliffs campground just north of St. George.

We loved camping when we lived in Utah, but the huge number of rattlesnakes scares me from camping in Tucson. The Red Cliffs campground has to be one of the best that I've seen. It was absolutely beautiful. The kids had so much fun climbing up the cliffs and crevasses of the mountain. Emma just wanted to go. For a 2 year old, she is quite the hiker! She has no fear and loves to explore. She had so much fun! So, did the other kids. Ben made an incredible Dutch oven Bacon Cheesy Potatoes. The kids had fun roasting hot dogs and marshmallows for Smores. It was fun to sit by the fire again!

In the morning, we had breakfast burritos, pancakes, and hot chocolate. Ben is quite the proficient outdoor chef! After breakfast we hiked the Red Cliffs trail to the water pools. It was a beautiful hike. The water level was higher than normal which added to the adventure. After the hike, we packed up and headed back to Ben and Ang's home in Hurricane. Our kids had so much fun playing with their cousins and hanging out at their house. That night we stayed up late and watched the movie, Fireproof, with Ben and Ang! What an uplifting movie! It's a must see for every married couple!

Sunday we packed up and enjoyed an amazing breakfast with Ben and Ang's family before we hit the road. We usually go to church with them and then take off, but their church didn't start until 1 p.m.. So, we started driving. I wrote this post while driving home. We stopped to grab a bite to eat in Kingman, AZ and it was 43 degrees outside at 2 p.m.. I had the kids wearing cool clothing today, so they were freezing!! We were excited to see 70 degree weather when we hit Phoenix!

So, tomorrow we are back to work. I've got 23 recipes to try this week. If you live close to us and want to sample, please let me know!!!

Winter Coats and Food Storage

I love Utah in March! I know everyone else here is anxious for it to warm up, but we are grateful for the small patches of remaining snow and the chance to wear our winter coats for the second time this winter!

It's so beautiful here! I love the snow capped mountains. I love being able to wear sweaters! We're getting ready to hike the Y in Provo with Scotty Catt, whose going to BYU. Then, we are heading to Cafe Rio! Both are things you can't find in Tucson.

Another thing you can't find in Arizona- a 45-pound bucket of white/red wheat for $18.99 (Reg. 46.29)! Maceys is having their caselot sale and they are basically losing money on this deal. If you live in Utah and need wheat, RUN to Maceys and get this before it's gone! They also have their sugar 50 lbs for 18.99 and 50 lbs of flour for 12.99. They have 20 lb bags of rice for 9.99. Plus their powdered milk, eggs, and butter products are also on this sale. We hope we have room in the car for the kids on the way back! :-) We are going to have to drive the truck route home verses crossing Hoover Dam. I can just see the Homeland Security people making us open the cans and bags to make sure that is what we are actually carrying if we went via the Dam.