General Women's Conference

Now that Angela is back, we celebrated by going to the General Women's Conference as a family!

We match the choir

So close to the front!

Look who's photobombing in the background! (Elder Holland)

I loved the music at the session- it was incredible. If you missed it (or if you didn't watch last night because you are male) you should watch it here.


Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Family Pictures

Since Angela's back and there's been two new additions to the family, it was time for another family picture session. My aunt and uncle were gracious enough to take the pictures for us at the Utah State Capital. Here were some of the pics I thought were fun:

cascade of faces

Everybody hug!

Can you believe these next ones were taken towards the end of our 1.5 hour photo shoot? Our smiles don't even show the strain. 

women in the front

"the kids"

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

She's Back!!

No one does a welcome home quite like my mom

Angela had been traveling for over 24 hours and was a little hazy

We did a batman family theme so she could easily identify us out of the crowds of families waiting for their missionaries

It seems like she's been gone forever! We're so happy to have her home again.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

FHE Activity Idea

I got the idea for this activity from this picture

Have you ever played Mad Lib? It's a game where you write a story but leave blanks throughout and then have another person fill in the blanks to create a hilarious rendition. For example, you ask the other person for a noun, verb, adverb, common phrase, color, measurement, etc to fill in the corresponding blanks on the page. For FHE, Matt and I wrote portions of our "love story" and then had the other person randomly suggest words for the blanks. It turned out great! My favorite sentence from the night was "your lips reminded me of lips."


Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Celestial Cindy

Almost a year ago, I did a tribute post to my lifelong pet and friend, Cindy. I was sad, but at peace today, as we laid Cindy to rest. Since I don't want to repeat anything I've already written so eloquently (again, see tribute post), I'll just share some additional thoughts from today.

I was torn when I was informed that Cindy would have to be euthanized. She's always been invincible--17 years without any lasting health problems. So it was hard to believe that this time, she wouldn't make it. She's always been such a constant in my life--from elementary school to grad school.  It was so sad to think I would no longer see her in that white wicker chair on the porch. She wouldn't be there to greet me every time I came home. She wouldn't be hanging around the garage, waiting for a warm car to pull in or for willing arms to pick her up. She wouldn't be scratching at the door, meowing loudly at night for her food. She wouldn't be following us around the yard, wanting to be the center of attention.
There would just be her earthly possessions left: food dishes, a litter box, and small bed. Empty. How would she feel knowing that this was her last night, her last nap, her last neck scratching session before she died? It was devastating to imagine.

But as we visited the vet for the last time today, I felt we were doing the right thing. Although we knew she was sick, we didn't realize how bad it was--she had cancer on the left side of her mouth. Because of this, she hadn't been eating and ultimately weighed as much as a kitten (4 pounds). The cancer would have spread or she would have starved to death within the next few weeks/ months. It was so hard to see her suffering, and especially feel every single bone in her body as I stroked her for the last time. Even though her body was just a shadow of what it used to be, it was hard to let her go, because she always had a fighting spirit. She hissed as they gave her a shot, just as she always did when we visited the vet. Then she slowly drooped into eternal sleep. The left side of her face was swollen from the cancer, but otherwise she looked completely normal.

I didn't cry as much as I had expected today, maybe because of the peace I felt knowing that Cindy was no longer in pain. I still brought a hand towel to use, since I knew I would just be blowing my way through a box of tissues. My dad picked out the perfect grave site between the strawberry bushes in the backyard- where Cindy would always wait for unsuspecting and rather stupid sparrows. When I was nine, my great-grandmother sent me this painting for my birthday:

I couldn't think of a better memorial. I also know that Cindy was in the best of hands these last few years of her life. She went from being my cat to my dad's. He did everything possible to keep her alive and healthy, even going as far to carry her inside at night when she was too tired and crushing up her food so it would be easier to eat. He gave a beautiful eulogy and prayer at our small funeral service. Up to the end, he was her protector, and treated her with more tenderness than anyone I've ever seen.

Although I wish it would have lasted longer, I'm so grateful for the 17 years Cindy spent with us. My dad stated it best: "she was my favorite cat."

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Peach Season

Our landlady has a peach tree in the backyard, so we've been getting a lot of free peaches recently (which we love). Since Matt and I can only eat a couple ripe peaches a day, we've come up with a few ways to use them:

Peach Cobbler (compliments of my cousin, Cami)

The Peach Cobbler recipe is something that we adjust based on the size of the pan, but generally speaking, for a normal 13x8 cake pan:

• 2 cans of peaches (or enough fresh peaches to fill the pan) 
• 1 box of yellow cake mix 
• 1 cube of butter (I like to use less fat so we tried to reduce the amount of butter to 1/2 cube) 

If canned, drain peaches. Fill cake pan with about two layers of peaches, cover with cake mix and top with butter (we grated the butter so it would cover the pan more evenly). Cook for 45 minutes at 375 degrees. As a side note, I've also done these in a steam oven instead of a regular oven. The crust comes out moister and you can use even less butter.

Peach Ice Cream (click here for the original recipe)

We doubled the ingredients, yielding about 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream:

• 6 cups sliced peeled peaches (To easily peel ripe peaches, place in boiling water for 30 seconds. Then move to ice water, where they can cool off. Once you can handle them, pinch the skin with your fingers and you should be able to pull it right off.)
• 2 cups half-and-half (equivalent to a small carton of half and half)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup whole vitamin D milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Blend the peaches until they are a fine pulp. Mix in with remaining ingredients (we used the pulse button of the blender to mix the rest of the ingredients). Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice cream machine and follow the instructions. We have the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, which requires you to freeze the freezer can for a day beforehand. Then you just pull it out of the freezer right before you make the ice cream and it takes about 20 minutes. 


What's your favorite peach recipe?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah 

New President at BYU

My Thoughts from President Worthen's Inauguration:

I think it's awesome that our new president is a BYU Law alumni and former dean of the law school! It was so neat that the inauguration medallion has a picture of the law school with Y mountain in the background. While I realize that this doesn't make the law school any more important than main campus, it's nice to feel more integrated. I greatly appreciated President Worthen's remarks- as he promised, they were brief, but compelling.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Ogden Temple Open House

We had a great time at the last day of the Ogden Temple Open House. Having been to the Ogden temple before construction started back in 2010, the transformation was so surreal to me. Mostly the outside (I no longer felt like I was in Provo- since the temples were identical), although the inside was equally beautiful. I love going to temple open houses, and feel so blessed to be in Utah where I have been to several: Bountiful, Draper, Oquirrh Mountain, and now Ogden. I look forward to the Payson and Provo City Center open houses within the next year or so.

Model Pose

On a personal note, my dress selections are dwindling--I'm officially wearing maternity shorts/pants. I'm still holding out on some of my tops, though. Baby boy seems to have popped out significantly in the past week or so. Luckily you can't really tell from the pictures, since I did my best not to stand sideways.

Rhetorically, 

Rebekah