6/5/2011

Dear Family,

It has been a few weeks since I wrote a letter.  The last three weeks of school feel like getting caught in an interminable dust-devil.  I think I managed to remember more things than I forgot, so we’ll have to count that as a success.  The first hurdle was Alex’s science fair project.  We were right on schedule to get it all finished, but the #%&*!@# grass sat there for 10 days before deciding to sprout!  Alex was testing out different types of water on drought-resistant grass.  He was surprised to discover that bermuda grass grows with ANY type of water that you throw on it, even salt water and soapy, dirty water from the sink.  I guess there are advantages to growing weeds and calling it your lawn. I think all of these science lessons are sinking in because as soon as we got his results written down, he sat down down and drew plans for a waste-water collection system that he and his dad could build and use to water our grass.  We proudly glued his design on our display board, even though a few parts of it were a little “difficult” to read. =)

Ryan’s Kindergarten graduation was the next hurdle.  The kids were cute, and the program started out just fine, it just had about 500 too many songs included in it.  Both Josh and I had difficulty not hearing Mr. Incredible, “He is moving from the 4th grade to the 5th.....” Ryan had a wonderful year.  His teacher was just right.  She teaches kindergarten in about the same way that I parent, so Ryan did just fine.  I was worried about him getting a saccharine- sweet teacher and wondering why his mom was such a meanie.  

My end of year teacher gifts turned out quite well.  I got a crafting bug and decided that rather than another gift card, I would make something for the teachers to use in their classrooms.  I made a couple of wall plaques with some teacher-related sayings on them.  (I was surprised to discover how familiar the smell of Mod Podge was.  I can still remember the Rembrandt calendar pages that my Mom Mod Podged for our family room when I was a little girl.) We had to say goodbye to Mrs. Fatka.  She’s going back to Iowa.  I can’t blame her.  I am amazed she’s lasted this long with the rest of her family half-way across the country.  I certainly hope that things turn out well for her.  She’s been an incredible teacher and a real force for good in Alex’s life.  We went in to say goodbye and all three of us were bawling by the time we left. 

Jillian has been sheer comedy all week long.  While the boys were gone on the Father’s and Son’s outing, she and I went shopping.  She found a pink leotard and tutu that she couldn’t live without.  The next morning when we were headed to the library, she came down wearing the pink ballerina suit and her Bob the Builder baseball cap.   I think that sums her up pretty well right now.  She loves dancing, light saber fights, Polly Pockets, and Lightning McQueen.  This week she started recognizing letters on street signs and stores as we drive around.  Everywhere we go she’ll suddenly yell out, “Look! a B!” (or an I or a J or whatever she recognizes). She’s also discovered the joy of Beatrix Potter this week.  I think she’s already got Peter Rabbit memorized and she’s well on the way with The Tale of Two Bad Mice.  Some things never lose their magic. 

Josh and I will be heading out with the kids from our ward on the “Pioneer Trek” this week.  It will be a pleasant change to be able to be together while he’s fulfilling his duties.  The kids can’t wait to get us out the door because Grandma Debbie is coming.  Jillian keeps asking when Monday will be.  I fully expect her to see her grandma come in, and turn around and say, “It’s time for you to leave, Mom!”  

Alan has been putting together some reading material for me while I’m on the pioneer trek.  He has done a ton of family history research over the last few years and he’s going to share some of the fruit of it with me.  I can’t wait to read and learn what he’s prepared.  It will be nice to have some time to contemplate and to “turn my heart to my fathers.”

Today it was about 105 degrees.  It’s not supposed to stay that hot.  I hope not for the sake of the pioneer trekkers, and for Debbie.  She’s coming here from the new Arctic Zone of Salt Lake City.  Their temperatures are just barely getting up into the 60’s this year.  We’re not even getting down to 60 at night anymore.  I hope the temperature difference will not be too shocking.  

I got back on the bandwagon with my running this week.  I fell down the stairs and broke my toes a couple of months back and could barely walk on them, let alone run.  (There will be nothing said here about the boy who left his sleeping bag sitting on the stairs!) I started running regularly again about three weeks ago.  It’s amazing how fast you lose whatever stamina you have built up.  The last three weeks have been challenging.  But yesterday, I was suddenly feeling the love again. I got up at the crack of dawn to avoid the heat, and ran a little over 4 miles without a hitch.  It was nice to finish and know that I could have kept going for another 4 and been just fine.  

Yesterday I was the little Red Hen.  I went to the Superstition Ranch market.  It is something like a farmer’s market, or “produce heaven,” as my friend Kelly says.  I came home  with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apricots, peaches, plums, apples, dates, eggplant, asparagus, green beans, and jicama, all for about $30.  So yesterday I made 4 batches of jam and a batch of apricot-pineapple pancake syrup.  Now I have to make some bread because there’s no reason to have all this jam and no hot bread to eat it on.  

We’re looking forward to a few weeks away from the heat and with the cousins.  We’re abandoning Josh for a few weeks, but it won’t really matter because he’ll be at scout camp and girls’ camp most of the time anyway.  

Well, Thhhaat’s All Folks!  Have a great week.

Cheryl

Going back to bed!

Well, since today is the end of the world, its no use cleaning my floors or bathrooms.  I am hereby going back to bed.  See you all on the other side!

Stealing from Chelsey

My cousin Chelsey has a blog tradition she calls the Friday Five.  I love it! So call it inspiration, aspiration, or plagarism...but in any guise I'm about to steal her idea and use it myself.  Five things on Friday: things that make me laugh, think, cry, grateful, or things that make you go... YUM!  So, here's my first Friday Five:

1) I heard this on NPR this morning as came home from taking the boys to school.  I bawled all the way home.  Follow the link and click on the tab at the top to listen to the story from Storycorps:
Storycorps, 5/20/2011

2) A quote from Julie Beck.  This has really given me a push in the right direction this week.  I've had a great week being a mom thanks to some timely advice and encouragement.

Sister Beck said that as “guardians of hearth and home,” women “have responsibility for the hearts and souls” of Heavenly Father’s children. 

“They are given this powerful and influential leadership role,” she said. “The female responsibility of being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend … is all about nurturing, teaching, and influencing. These are non-negotiable responsibilities. We can’t delegate them. We can accept them and live them. These are things we understood before we were born, and we can’t negotiate with the Lord whether they’re part of His plan. These are our responsibilities.”

3) Tostitos Artisan Recipies Fire-Roasted Chipotle chips.  Tuesday night was the Best Taco Salad ever!  

4) Jennie and Trever Plastow brought a bag of fresh peaches from their tree over this week.  I know they were taking good care of their Bishop, but what they don't know is that fresh peaches are my very favorite fruit in the entire universe. I've had peaches on my cereal every morning.  Thank you Plastows, you made my whole week sweeter!

5) Photos of the International Beard and Mustache growing competition! Need I say more? Here's the link:

Fabulous Facial Hair 

New Recipe

Well, I decided that since food is one of the things that our family loves and I love to cook, once in a while I should add a recipe or two to the blog.  This was a great success that I made up last week.  Since going out to the Olive Garden restaurant a few weeks ago, Alex has developed a love affair with Alfredo sauce.  Knowing that this was not a very healthy obsession, I started thinking about making him something he can still love, but won't kill him before he's 18.  I also found some ground chicken breast at the grocery store and wanted to make something with it.  This is what I came up with.  Yes, it has butter and cream in it, but not a ton considering how many people you can serve with this huge bowl of pasta.  It probably doesn't qualify as health food, but may be a better option than a big plateful of "heart attack!"

Linguine with Chicken Meatballs

Meatballs:

2 slices bread

1/2 c. milk

1lb. ground chicken breast

1 egg

1 T. lemon juice (1 packet powdered lemon)

1/2 t. dried basil

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/4 t. nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Tomato paste based glaze (1 T. tomato paste, olive oil, etc.)

Preheat to 400 degrees. Soak the bread slices in the milk for about 5 minutes.  Squeeze as much milk as you can out of the bread and discard it.  Break up the bread slices.  Add all other ingredients and mix gently.  Use the small scoop to place meatballs on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Brush the tops gently with a tomato paste-based glaze.  It gives them some color because the meatballs don’t brown at all.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Let sit for 10 minutes before using.

12 oz. linguine, cooked to package directions

3 T. butter

4 big handfuls of spinach

1 lg. can artichoke hearts, chopped (not the marinated kind)

1/4 c. heavy cream

Asaigo cheese, grated

salt and pepper to taste

Toss the cooked pasta with the butter.  Add the spinach while it’s hot.  Cover for a few minutes to let the spinach wilt.  Add the artichokes and meatballs and mix gently.  Drizzle with the cream, sprinkle with cheese and season to taste.  Toss and serve!

Ironman!

9 May, 2011

Dear Family,

To begin this letter, I must rectify a great wrong done this weekend.  So here it goes:

“Greg Staker, 41, husband, father of six beautiful daughters, and physician from Roosevelt, Utah.......YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!”

When Greg finished, he finished with a group and he didn’t get his own announcement.  Even then, when they said his name, they said “Stacker.” (losers) It was amazing to be there to see him finish.  I’m so glad we made the trip.  Greg raced his first Ironman on what is generally acknowledged to be the most difficult Ironman course in the world.  He  finished faster than he anticipated and managed to walk off the course under his own power.  Although I’m pretty sure that if Sadie (his three-year-old) hadn’t have been there holding his hand, he might have fallen over.  

I’m also pretty sure that this is something that Alex won’t forget.  He was starry-eyed as he helped push Greg’s bike back to the car and was showing off the grease marks on his legs like they were trophies.  I guess I’m one to talk, I’m bursting my stays so much you’d think I’d run the race.  Well Greg, we’ve seen you run an Ironman.  Although, if you want to go to Kona.....Josh has never been to Hawaii!  We’d be thrilled to be there, too!!

We got to take Ken and Alison’s girls with us this weekend.  Other than some funny looks from people when I walked into places leading six children, it was a privilege to have them along.  It actually made the trip a lot easier to have Sydney and Cami as helpers and to have Maddy to keep Alex and Ryan entertained.  We had a little glimpse of what having teenagers is like. We learned “how to Dougie” and that often a non-responsive teenager means, “Wait a second, I’m texting!” The girls were delightful.  It think it was good for the boys to be with just Madelyn for a while. I’m not sure that they get to spend enough time with their girly cousins! 

It was very nice to be with me Mum for a wee bit on Mothers’ Day.  It was actually a great Mothers’ Day.  I got to see my own mother, which doesn’t happen very often, and I didn’t go to church!  But then there was that 8-hour car ride, hmmm.  I had some very deep thoughts this weekend.  My dear friend Cindy lost her mother Thursday evening.  Pat Greene was an exceptional woman who truly earned the title “Mother.”  She spent her whole life dedicated to being a mother and grandmother, raising her children and her children’s children with grace and patience.  She was ever optimistic, kind, and loving despite facing enough challenges to bring a lesser woman to despair. Her example deepens my own commitment to my family.  

This was a great week for me to have Mothers’ Day because my little Jilly has been a complete joy to parent this week.  She comes up and gives hugs spontaneously and says, “I love you Mommy, you’re my best friend.”  She has taken to picking flowers and bringing them to me and to Josh as love offerings.  She puts them in her little teacups filled with water and leaves them on nightstands, desks, counters, and even on the washer and dryer. She loves to dance.  She puts her arms up and twirls around to show you “her ballet.”  She just seems to skip and trip lightly wherever she goes.  Somehow the baby is all gone and the little girl is getting bigger every day.  We’ve had lots of fun playing with Polly Pockets, reading Peter Rabbit, and having tea parties this week. The only way she would sleep in our motel room was curled up right next to me.  It was a pleasure, even though it made for some sleepless nights. I know I’ll need to remember these moments for the times when instead of telling me how much she loves me she wants to tell me how much she loathes me.  

We had parent-teacher conferences this week.  Ryan’s teacher simply says, “Ryan is perfect.  He’s exceeding expectations in everything. I’ve noticed a lot of leadership ability in him and if it’s okay with you I’ll work on helping him develop that over then next few months.”  She doesn’t understand why this statement makes me break out into weeping!  Alex’s teacher assures me that Alex remains an enjoyable boy, but is there anything I can do to help him understand that using his pencils and erasers as machine guns during math is quite distracting to the entire class?  He continues to make progress.  Half of Alex’s battle will be confidence.  He’s really good at math, but he just doesn’t think he is, so instead of taking the lead when they’re working in pairs, he listens to the other student tell him how to do the problems incorrectly.  His teacher tells me she pairs Alex with the kids who need help in math, but instead of leading out, he sits back and goes with the flow.  Somehow, I need a way to tell him, “Son, you ROCK at math!” in a way he will believe.

We are looking forward to the last few weeks of school, if I survive the science fair that is.  Josh and I are supposed to be tagging along on the Pioneer Trek at the beginning of June.  Although the jury may still be out on whether they will allow me to go, given my reputation as an inveterate rule-breaker!  Debbie is going to come down to be with our kids.  The kids and I are then planning on abandoning our Daddy to a future of corn-dogs and frozen pizza and spending some serious time in Salt Lake.  We are looking forward to seeing our families again and “gettin’ out of Dodge” while it’s super hot.  We look forward to seeing Jackson and Parker again, and we should be in town the same time as Sunny and the girls before they go to Texas.  Yahoo!!!  

Happy Day to All!!!

Cheryl

  

Oldies but goodies

My Mom has been sending some of the photos from the recently digitalized Staker family photo archives  over email.  These are just couple of my favorites.  I especially like Greg's pants in the bottom photo.  When Ken mentioned how lovely they were she said, "You can laugh all you want, Ken, but we probably just patched them up and handed them down to you!" I can't tell you how many times I've wished they still made Tuff-Skins for Alex!

1 May, 2011

Dear Family,

Well, I intended to write a letter today, but here it is 10 pm and I’m just getting started.  How about a small letter? The best news of the week, however, just barely happened so I don’t feel like I’m too late.  Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead!!! I’m not sure it’s really cool to cheer when someone dies, and I’m not sure that it actually makes the world any safer or any better, but it sure feels good to know that they finally got Osama bin Laden.  It’s interesting when I look back to see how much is different and how much of our every day has changed due to one evil mastermind.  I’m sure there will be a fascinating book about the whole chase before too long.  It ought to make for good reading.  What blows my mind is that he still had a wife living with him while he was on the run.  Bet that was a load of fun.  

The other news of the week is that we have traded in our car.  I’m kind of sad because I loved my 4Runner, but we thought that we’d better trade up while the car still had some value.  I don’t think we were too far away from hitting the intensive car repair phase.  So I am now the driver of a great big, gas guzzling, “Mormon assault vehicle” that seats 8.  Somehow I don’t feel quite as green as I did last week!  

The kiddos are thriving.  Alex is still loving swimming.  He was excited to finally have placed in the butterfly in his last swim meet.  It was really amazing to watch him.  His first 25m were absolutely perfect.  He just runs into trouble when he touches the wall.  The turns and the first few strokes out are a little rough.  I have to keep reminding myself of two things:  he’s nine years old; and he’s already a way better swimmer than I am.  I’m glad he’s found something he loves to keep him active.  He’s growing like a weed and eating like a horse.  

Ryan has made great strides in his reading.  He feels like he’s won the lotto because I finally let him start reading the “Magic Tree House” books.  I can’t stand them because the woman who writes them has no more idea of how to write a complete sentence than fly to the moon.  I make the kids point out the sentence fragments as we go!  They do help the little ones get excited about reading though, and they help them learn to read independently.  

The boys recently had their very first music recital.  Alex has been playing the cello and Ryan the violin for about 4 months now.  Alex played “Ode to Joy,” and the boys played a fiddle tune called “Boil them Cabbage Down” together.  All would have gone well, except that Ryan was nervous and his fingering was off, so they played the rhythm very well together, it just sounded terrible because they were out of tune.  Oh, well, the pictures are still cute.  

Jillian is very cute and loving, and also very naughty.  She loves to be “helpful” so I have to keep an eye on her all the time.  A few weeks ago she “helped” me by wiping off the bathroom counter.  However, she did it while I was in the shower and she left the sink plugged and the water running.  I didn’t notice till about 25 minutes later, but we have learned that the tile contractors did a very nice job of grouting between the tile and the baseboards in the kids’ bathroom.  Other than a puddle to clean up, there wasn’t any real damage.  Once in a while she’ll run up and throw her arms around me and say, “Mom, you’re my best friend!” Somehow it makes all the messes and the clutter seem a lot less important.

I must be tired because I can’t think of anything interesting that Josh and I are doing right now.  What terribly boring people we are!  In a way, I guess boring must be a sign that all is well.  We are looking forward to watching Uncle Greg finish his Iron Man next weekend in St. George.  I am looking forward to a few days away and to skipping out on church on Mother’s Day.  It’s never been my favorite Sunday.  Somehow it always involves guilt and several renditions of “Love at Home,” two things I just can’t tolerate.

Easter seems like a long time ago now.  I’m having to sit down and close my eyes to remember what a great weekend it was.  Somehow, the tank seemed to go from full to empty pretty quickly this week.  I think maybe we’d better go back and do it again next weekend!  

Love to All,

Cheryl

Back to the Blogosphere

Today, I deleted my facebook account.  I've had too many friends losing too many things that are valuable because of facebook: privacy, time, and marriages.  Unfortunately for all of you, that means I need somewhere to splatter the drivel that backs up in my brain and needs to be published!  So, I'm back to blogging.  I'm looking forward to it.  Maybe someday my blog will be as entertaining as Kither's!