Holy Hail Storm

Wow.  Said to be one of the most horrendous storm systems in 4 decades, Knoxville got off fairly easy.  I want to document this because I'm pretty sure I'll never experience anything like it again.  4 major systems came through yesterday evening, 2 of which produced HEAVY hail.  The whole family was hunkered in the basement listening/watching our house get pummeled with hail.  It sounded like our house was being hit by a million large rocks.  The little kids were very nervous during the hail, you had to yell to be heard.  They are very scared of tornadoes and ask about them a lot, so it made them very anxious to be under a tornado watch for so long.  Trey and Allie were excited, texting and on facebook.  Finally, after over an hour we told Tanner, Connor and Sydney they could sleep in the basement together, while the rest of us went  upstairs to examine the damage.  Our van was outside and dented up, gutters and window trim dented and one window (the outer pane) broken.  Very lucky.  With the noise, I would have thought all the windows were broken.  Watching the news this morning to see how bad surrounding states were hit was humbling.

easter egg hunt

Who doesn't love an easter egg hunt?  And who doesn't love to take silly pictures?  Even the teenagers don't want to miss out on this family tradition.  

Say yes to the 19 dresses

Allie doesn't like to shop, unless it is for athletic wear.  So when she needed some new church clothes I headed out alone and got a little carried away.  I was in and out of 5 stores and just bought everything that I thought she might consider not-too-frilly, was comfortable (knit is a good thing), and on sale.  I was surprised that I found so many I thought she might like and just kept buying, knowing I'd be bringing most of them back.  Little did I know that I had actually purchased 19 dresses by the time I was done.  Allie's worst nightmare was about to happen.....trying on clothes.

The first 7 out of 10 she tried on she liked, amazing!!  She tried on the dresses in a record 2 sessions, equally amazing.  The final "thumbs up" count was 10 out of the 19.  I was pretty impressed with myself.  I think I should be a personal shopper.  To find 10 dresses that Allie actually really likes is pretty much a miracle.  I think we've narrowed it down to 7 that she's keeping, and I'm thrilled.  Great bargains (one dress was only $11) and a dressed up daughter!

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                          

Salsa

We have a new tradition.  It revolves around food..what a surprise.  We started making salsa.  All the time. The Cruzes make salsa often when we get together to play games and we love it, except for 1 ingredient...avocado.  We finally decided to follow Scott's lead and create our perfect salsa with everything we like in it.  As long as you have the few main ingredients you can throw whatever else you have on hand and it turns out yummy!  Tomatoes, pineapple, mango, any type of onion, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, green, red, yellow pepper, a dash of salt, a teaspoon of sugar.  I'm anxious to create a non-fruity corn and black bean salsa next.

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                  

Nourishment

For a few years Allie and I have had the tradition of making cinnamon rolls the night of the Priesthood session for Sunday morning.  I don't know why, but tasty food just seems to go with conference weekend to me.  We added conference quiche in the last year to give us some salty with the sweet.  This year Allie was doing her lifeguard certification so I didn't have my baking buddy that night.  Instead I made scones for the first time with the new scone pan Julie gave me for my birthday.  YUM!  They were a hit!  I love conference weekend where I am spiritually and physically nourished (:  A few of my of my favorite conference quotes:   "If you've been offended, do a lot of forgiving and a little repenting." - Elder Packer,  "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words." = Pres. Uchtdorf

Storms

So, east Tennessee is known for having some pretty awesome thunderstorms.  Last night we had a powerful storm that lasted about 5 hours of heavy rain, strong winds and thunder and lightening.  Nothing too out of the ordinary.

The next morning we woke up to find one of the glass panels in our sideboard shattered.  We assume it's related to the storm somehow, as it appeared to happen after we all went to bed.  WEIRD.  Another water related accident?

I'm old

So I recently turned 41.  For about the last year I have noticed that I was having to squint and hold small print a little further back to be able to read it.  I would think "Why is everything looking so blurry and hard to read?  I'm waaay to young to need reading glasses."  Complete denial.  A couple of friends took me out for a birthday lunch and as I was struggling to read what they had written in a card in the dim lighting, I finally said, "oh well I'll read it at home."  My seasoned friend said "here, try these" and handed me her reading glasses.  I burst out laughing with surprise and excitement as I could actually read the words, clearly!!  It's a miracle!  Why had I not gotten some of these a long time ago??  All those nights of reading in bed, squinting in the dim lighting...Needless to say, when I left the restaurant I went straight to the store to pick up a pair for myself.  Even though I feel old.  It's worth it.