Thanks for a great morning...

There's a big fire in the Valley, so we're staying in the house all day to breathe cleaner air.  It's been nice to have some quiet time at home.  I spent the last two hours catching up on all my friend's blogs!  I've seen more photos, read more stories, and seen more recipes than I have in months.  I feel like I've spent the morning with friends even though I've barely spoken to anyone (except the occasional "Daddy, can you fix this?" plea).

So, thanks for a great day.  Look out...I left lots of comments everywhere! :-)

Waking up to the smell of smoke...

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At about 4:30am on Saturday I awoke to the strong smell of smoke. The winds are blowing really hard this weekend, so we're all on edge anyway. I immediately went to the LATimes.com site and found this story and the map above. As you can see, we're not really in any danger right now, but the smoke and smell is awful. I suspect soccer and other events will be cancelled today and we'll spend the day in the house reading and playing games.

Happy Birthday, Tater Tot

We had a wonderful time celebrating Tater's Sixth Birthday this week.  Chuck E Cheese's and home for presents.  His "friend party" is next week.

The Marching 100

I spent the weekend in Indiana for the Christian Business Faculty Association meeting and to see some old friends. The conference was good and time in Bloomington with CBC & BCW was even better. On Saturday we went to the IU/Wisconsin game. The first half was close, but it was COLD! The second half we didn't really watch, but chose to go visit some friends in the (warm) luxury box.
The game highlight was definitely the Marching 100.  Final score...55-20.

Tiny's Donut Show

Yesterday we made the delicious 500-calorie Apple Strudel.  Before doing so, we watched several YouTube videos about how to prepare Apple Strudel.  Madison loved the shows, and as soon as we had a few minutes she asked if I would help her with something.  So, here is the beginning of the next "Rachel Ray"...

Tater's Theme

We had just seen Rocky 2 a few days earlier when I spied Tater performing this original composition on the stairwell...

Apple Strudel - DELICIOUS!

We had a big "Root Beer & Apple Strudel Festival" today at church as a fundraiser for the youth group's trip to San Felipe.  Well, after 48-straight hours of Halloween parties, birthday parties, and sleepovers, Kids #1 & 2 were too pooped to go.  But I had already bought all the stuff to make the strudel (the recipe is here).  I did make one change though... I soaked the raisins in Bourbon and microwaved the bourbon & Raisins for about a minute to soak up all the juice.

Holy-moly!  It's so good.  The only problem?  As you can see from the recipe...500 calories a slice!