Shauna6pack

Read Frank's letter here!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. You're like a good piece of cheese. You get better every day.

I love you, I love you, I love YOU!

My sister Katie has been battling brain cancer and it's effects for nearly 16 years. Over the last year she had suffered a stroke and had been going downhill for some time. Over the course of the last week she had fallen a number of times, to the point where my sister, her care-giver, had made her wear a bike helmet.

Yesterday Katie was sitting at the kitchen table while my sister went to fix her 1 year-old's hair. Janis heard the crash and found Katie behind the table. She had fallen and hit her head on the windowsill so hard, she cracked the tile. She was unresponsive so Janis called 911. They took her to the U, but she never regained consciousness. The doctors said she had excessive swelling on the brain, but it wasn't caused by the fall. Rather, the fall was a result of the swelling.

She had a living will that stipulated she not receive any life-saving measures, although there was nothing that could have been done anyway. We all gathered and with my parents on speaker phone from Spain, she was given a blessing. She passed peacefully at 8 p.m.

My parents are being released from their mission and they'll be home Tuesday. We are planning the funeral for Friday. As I sat there, watching her transition from this world to the next, I kept thinking how grateful I am for eternal families and the blessings of the temple.

Read Frank's latest letter here!

I was going through some picture files today and I came across some photos saginaw_annie took for a school assignment. She had to take some pictures using the bulb setting on the camera. She held the shutter open while the models took their position. Then I shined the flashlight on them. While the shutter was still open, I turned off the flashlight and they took a new position. I then turned the flashlight back on. Then Annie let the shutter close. Here are two of the pictures we took using this method... The first I call The Competitive Spirit. The second she called Sisterly Love.

On Friday I took the girls to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. I learned from the movie they showed before the open house that the word oquirrh was an Indian word meaning light. Oquirrh Mountains were perhaps named because of the way the morning light hits them.



It was a much different experience than when we went to the Draper Temple Open House in January.

First, it was WAY more crowded, and thus far less reverent. We were shoulder to shoulder, the whole way through the temple. It was so crowded that they didn't let us stop as we made our way from room to room. But it is a lovely place and the spirit there is strong. I keep stressing to my children what a blessing it is to be able to have so many temples so close and to not get jaded to the experience because we've had TWO open houses in less than a year. This really is a rare opportunity.




I mention the crowding not to complain about it, but rather to remark that the temple is full, a very good thing. It is wonderful that at 10:30 in the morning on a Friday, there were enough people interested in seeing the temple that it was full to capacity.

Try this INCREDIBLE PASTA SALAD. It is the best recipe. Let me know what you think of it!

Read Frank's latest letter here!

When my parents went on their mission, they leased their car to us. We will return it in sparking condition when they return in November. In the meantime, we are making sure it sees Utah and all it's wonders. Sort of like Flat Stanley, we like to take a picture of the Pilot whenever we take it on an "explore". Last week it was a the Spiral Jetty, up beyond Promontory, last year it was at the volcano east of Filmore and before that was up Spanish Fork Canyon, panning for gold. Today it is east of Heber in the Unitas.

We got to ford a stream to get here. It was the BEST!

Almost 20 years ago I cut this recipe out of a magazine and I've made it ever since. But lately I've had trouble keeping track of the recipe. Today I couldn't find it. I searched the web to no avail and actually called Lowry's to see if they had it. They didn't. In a fit, I tore apart my recipe book and I FOUND IT! So now I am posting it here so I will always have it. Try it. 20 years can't be THAT wrong. Oh yeah, it is NOT low-sodium.

3 T vegetable oil
1 t season-all
½ t minced garlic
⅛ cayenne pepper
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs cut into chunks
1 medium carrot jullienned
1 green pepper cut into chunks
1 red pepper cut into chunks
1 c sliced mushrooms
½ lb spaghetti
1 t season-all

In medium bowl, blend first four ingredients. Add chicken, carrot and peppers. Toss to coat. Cover, marinate in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain. In large heated skillet, combine chicken and vegetable mixture; stir-fry until chicken is no longer pink and vegetables are tender-crisp. Add mushrooms; stir-fry 1 minute. Add spaghetti and Season-All. Toss to mix. Heat through. Garnish as desired (I use parsley from my garden).

I'm just catching up on past letters... read it here!

Armed with my camera And tripod, we set off for the Ford family dinner and fireworks at Eaglewood golf course in NSL. Unfortunately I didn't bring extra batteries. But here's some of the pictures I got before the batteries died, and some from our 4th of July fun at Grandma Kay's. The pictures of H, Scout and N were done with my new fish eye lens which is a blast to use.

H was chosen to play in the city's All-star game. She was so excited! She made a run (oops, I forgot to take a picture of it) and hit an incredible hit in left field. Unfortunately the girl in the outfield caught it. No one was more surprised than that girls. She looked at the ball in her mit incredulously. It was awesome.

They lost, unfortunately. Machine pitch is crappy if it is set wrong. But here's some pictures...

Getting ready for the pitch...


Strike... can you see the ball on the ground behind the catcher? And let's play where's the C's? Can you see Scout, N and Dilbert in the stands behind the catcher? Don't they look rivited?



In the outfield... She played RF for one inning and shortstop the others.

Our Primary had a quarterly activity this 4th of July. We put the kids in the Layton City 4th of July Parade. The Activity Day Girls and the Cubs decorated the float. It was cute and the kids had a great time.

Frank's latest letter is HERE!!

Read all about it here!!!