March/April Smorgasbord

The word smorgasbord can refer to an actual buffet meal of various hot and cold dishes OR it can simply mean "an extensive array or variety". THIS blog post is kind of a smorgasord . . . a little of this and a little of that. Feel free to pick and choose what looks the most digestible and leave the rest.
You may ask how I know what the word smorgasbord means. I looked it up in the dictionary, of course. It's a Swedish word that literally translated means "sandwich table". I have a fascination with words . . . their meanings, origins, pronunciations, etc. I suppose this is why I enjoy playing scrabble and other crossword type games. At least up until tonight.
My son, Steve, introduced me to the seductive world of "Words with Friends" a scrabble like game that you play online. Since Steve and his wife Kalli both have "i-Touch" iPods, as do I, we keep games going with each other all the time. One game can last for days, depending on how busy you are. You just check your i-Touch every so often to see if your opponent has put a new word on the "board". Both Steve and Kalli have been crushing me pretty much every game, with one or two exceptions (see first two photos, below). Another son, Scott, suggested that I use an word-finding program called WEG (win every game), as he believed that Steve and Kalli were probably already doing so (which they vehemently deny). Anyway, we finally came to an agreement that we could all use word-finders and have been doing so for awhile.
Steve is Deluxe 247, I'm Sandi-pooh (which I probably shouldn't admit) and Kalli Jo is, well, kallijo.

In the photo below, I've carelessly cut off the word "arsenite" which was my bomb, my beautiful scrabble word of the century, bagging me 74 points! Tonight Steve upped the ante and used some kind of turbo-charged word finder that guarantees you the most points that you can possibly get with every move, hence the word "touzle" which netted him 121 points!
One hundred and twenty-one points!!!! Does anyone in the known world even know what this word means? I had to know so I looked it up in the scrabble dictionary. It's just another form of the word "tousle" as in to tousle someone's hair. That just doesn't seem deserving of 121 points to me. I'm feeling very bitter about this. We've agreed to stop using word-finders and to only use the scrabble dictionary. I fully expect him to cheat, however! If you wish to see what kind of an unsavory character I'm dealing with, I refer you to Steve and Kalli's blog which is listed with the blogs of my family and friends. Check out "Mustache March". That's all I have to say about that.

Speaking of electronic devices, I made the most wonderful discovery about my cell phone a couple of weeks ago. So I was over at my neighbors, the Smoots, chatting away with Laura Smoot and her daughter Shayla. Somehow, we got on the topic of cell phones and texting and I was complaining that the predictive text on my phone was completely antiquated and that it often spit out words that weren't the ones that I needed and that there was no way to change the word except to get out of predictive texting and painstakingly spell the word out one letter at a time! (My kids can all just push the star key and get any number of words to pop up but that doesn't work on my phone.) Anyway, Shayla says to me, "Have you tried using the down-key on the arrow pad"? What? The down-key? I happened to have my phone with me at that very moment in my apron pocket. With trembling hands I pulled it out and tried it on the word that's the most annoying of all to me . . . "non" instead of the more obvious word "mom". Could it really be . . . it worked! One toggle down and there was the word "mom". Joy! It's changed my life. I've only owned this phone for like, SIX YEARS! What else don't I know about it? Maybe it has the capacity to do my taxes. Probably not. Shayla, my young technologically savvy friend . . . I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The rest of this post is bits and pieces from March and April . . .

This photo was taken by Sister Annie Hale. It's a shot of the Winter Quarter's temple which is in her mission.

The Sister on the left is Sister Gingrich, Annie's first companion and trainer. Annie calls her Mama Gingrich and says she's a great missionary and mentor. For more on Sister Hale, I post her letters on a Facebook group called Letters from Sister Annie Hale (or something like that).

Lucy, with her dad and mom, both of whom she obviously adores. Watch out Laura and Jordan . . . I know she seems sweet and innocent now but someday she'll be grown up and be shellacking you at scrabble!

Scott's 27th birthday on March 15th (yes . . . the Ides of March). Pictured here with his lovely wife, Rachel.

Check out this birthday cake . . . all aglow.

While shopping for Scott's birthday dinner, I managed to let a large, eight dollar balloon fly into the sky, and then replaced it with another large, eight dollar balloon which ended up coming loose from it's ribbon and flying up to the highest point of my vaulted living room ceiling. Also, I was unloading groceries and while carrying a four pack of root beer (in glass bottles) the bottom of the carton bearing said four pack of root beer gave way, exploding into at least six million pieces all over my garage floor. Six million shards of brown glass mixed with approx. 1 quart of sticky root beer. Beware the Ides of March!

Lovely little yellow crocuses, those sweet harbingers of spring. They're presently as dead as doornails under about a foot of snow. Oh dear . . . I'm afraid that I'm still feeling very bitter about the whole "touzled" thing.

Here's something to be truly excited about! Synthia Smoot is home from her mission in Uruguay. I really missed that girl and have to admit that I'm feeling insanely jealous of Sharm and Laura getting their Sister missionary back! Welcome home, Synthia. Laura and Lucy and I took a Saturday afternoon drive out to Antelope Island. We drove to the Fielding Ranch out there and walked around the old buildings. I love Antelope Island. Beautiful views of the mountains to the east. It was sunny, but very cold that day so we didn't stay long.

I love conference week-end and I especially love it when it coincides with Easter. This past week-end, we did our traditional egg-dying party,

culminating with a big egg hunt. Scott did this great frog egg using different buckets of dye and a clear wax crayon. An egg decorating master. I love curling up in my living room and listening to the words of the prophets and leaders of the church.

The only problem with watching conference in the comfort of my own home is that sometimes I get too comfortable . . .

And end up missing a talk or two. My kids are always quick to get photographic documentation. . . I believe I have Rachel to thank for the photo below. Gotta love that triple chin thing that I've got going! I think that Brent is drooling on the couch. Erin, myself and Laura heading out for the traditional girl's night out while the guys attend General Priesthood meeting. Cafe Trio in Salt Lake. Yum. I had some cream of cauliflower and zucchini soup that I'm still dreaming about as well as a roasted beet, arugula, shaved fennel and goat cheese salad. It was absolutely delicious . . . oh yes it was, Jordan!

Easter baskets, all around! Brent loves to hide the baskets in very out of the way places, and then he gives everyone an insanely hard scripture clue to "help" them. It takes them forever to find the baskets and Brent just savors every minute of it. I know it frustrates them but they just keep coming back for more!

So today, the weather was just unbelievable. Clear this morning, lightning and thunder and large hailstones as the day went on, driving rain in the afternoon and now it's just snowing like crazy. There's supposed to be a foot of snow in the benches by tomorrow morning. I think there's already about half of that out there right now!

Thus endeth the smorgasbord. I hope you found something to your taste. Til next time!