Something to Smile About!

My inlaws were over for dinner. My mother-in-law is suffering with
Alzheimer's. She is so cute and saying funny things all the time
that make us laugh. Don't get me wrong, we're not laughing at her,
she happens to have a cute sense of humor along with her Alzheimer's.
We finished dinner and we had these cute cupcakes for dessert. When
I placed this flower cupcake in front of her to eat, she turned to me
and said "OH!, did you grow that in your garden?"
We were caught a little off guard and had to laugh. Thanks Marvell
for making us smile.

Retreat

Last weekend our ward had it's annual RS retreat.
We had a lot of fun, playing 4 square, ping pong,
Apples to Apples, Nertz and Line Dancing. We had a lot of informative classes: photography, making your photos into a DVD, & memorable cookbooks.
It was just ONE big sleep.
(which means - no sleep)

I rode up with these cute little Young Adults!


Lori Hamblin and I taking pictures of each other during our photo class.
I'm such a bad photographer, I didn't even remember I had my camera until I had to get it for the class.

One of our favorite activities - eating the good food that was prepared for us.

In our photo class we learned that the best pictures are sometimes the spontaneous ones. I was trying to shoot these photos spontaneously - which these girls didn't like me snapping away at will.


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This is the last get together before we took a group photo. We each gave Mary Ann Hogle a picture of ourselves when we were younger. She placed them on a big poster board and we were to guess who was who. We had a lot of fun doing that. Some were really hard. This picture is when Mary Ann Hogle was telling us who was who.

I Big Thanks to our RS Presidency who worked so hard so that we could have a great Retreat, and to our Priesthood men who cooked us great food.

Mall Pretzels

"Thumbs Up" on this pretzel recipe! You won't have to go to the mall for yummy, soft pretzels, you can make them yourself!

Ingredients:
1 pkg dry yeast (about 2.25 tsp)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 c warm water
3 c all purpose flour
1 c bread flour
2 c warm water
2 Tbsp baking soda
2 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp Coarse Kosher salt
(other toppings= sugar/cinnamon, honey/butter)

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 c. warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 min. Place in a greased bowl, turn to coat the surface. cover and let rise for one hour.
Combine 2 c. warm water & baking soda in an 8" square pan.


After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces.


Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner.

Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise 15-20 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. (Mine were golden brown at 8 min)

Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with coarse salt or cinnamon sugar.

Enjoy!