My Jenga Tower will NOT fall!

This past Sunday my family and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Christmas Devotional that the First Presidency of our church puts on every year. The devotional is filled with music and inspiring CHRISTmas massages from the First Presidency. All of the talks were WONDERFUL. However, there is one that I think was meant just for ME!! It was President Uchtdorf's talk. He explained that getting ready for Christmas is like playing a Jenga game. In Jenga we take out pieces from the bottom, sometimes vital pieces to make our tower higher(better).  In order to have a "perfect" Christmas with beautifully adorned trees, impressively wrapped packages and mouth watering foods and treats we sometimes sacrifice some vital "blocks" in our lives. He said that in spite our best efforts to create the perfect Christmas something will go wrong, kids will quarrel, turkeys burn, lights go out.  He encouraged us to remember that"Christmas is really about the Christ". If we will focus on our Savior we will find the true meaning and spirit of Christmas. He explained that the best gifts to bring to Christ are obedience, a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

I am trying to change my way of thinking. I LOVE the lights, the smells, the sounds of this time of year. But I often get so wrapped up in MAKING those things happen that I become as grumpy as the Grinch and loose focus of what Christmas is really about. So I am letting some things go, especially this year after my husband having just finished chemo. This year I want my family to remember a wife/mom who spent her time smiling and laughing and singing songs of joy celebrating the birth of the One! The One who makes it ALL possible! Perspective can do a LOT for a girl. This year I have my Snowman and he is done with chemo! Our children are healthy! We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives! This is a GREAT CHRISTmas!!!Here

Here's the entire talk if ya wanna listen/watch it. :-) I've never uploaded a video, Snow here's hoping it works!

Last week of Chemo!

Today was the begining of the end...of chemo-therapy for my husband. Wooooo hoooooo! At first we thought it would not happen because his white blood cells (wbc) were to low. But, they checked them again and they were good enough to move forward with the treatment. Yeah!!! If he wasn't going to be able to start his treatment today then we would have to wait til NEXT WEEK! Which is way to close to Christmas and would've fallen right on St. Nicholas Day too. (I promise I will post all about St. Nicholas Day later) Anyway, I am extremely grateful that we are getting this part of the cancer over with.

Now I am going to brag a little bit on the very reason I can call this blog "Snow" much fun-My sweet husband, my very own Snowman. He is kind and smart. Always willing to help others. He has an amazing singing voice. He has tremendous faith in Jesus Christ. This trial in our lives has pulled us together and made us stronger. It has changed us...for the better. My Snowman is a great leader of our family, church and community. He is a wonderful father. He has had such a good attitude through all of this. We have been so blessed to be supported by such amazing people all over the country. I probably won't share a lot of posts like this, but I couldn't help feeling overwhelming love for this amazing man as I watch his very pale, very bald self sleep peacefully on the couch. This will probably be a rather rough week. Chemo-weeks usually are. He has chemo everyday. So it will probably be a while before I get back on here to show how much fun the Snow's are having, but rest assured we will be laughing in the midst of it all!

Oh yea, Shout outs to Marissa Schroedter and Sarah W. Dickey for inspiring me to manage a blog!!

See, there he is smiling while having that poison pumping into his veins. It took 4 tries before the nurses could find a good vein. Ouch!



I am smiling too. Even though I am extremely tired. Everyone is SOOO nice at the Cancer Center it's hard not to smile. :D



Brazilian Black Beans (Yummmmmm)

I am not vegan, but I have friends are so when I make this recipe I often use Vegie stock instead of a meat stock. However, you can use whatever suits your tastebuds and pocketbooks. :-) No matter how I have made it I ALWAYS get rave reviews. Yeah ME!!!

Begin soaking beans at least 4 hours before assembling.

2 cups dry black beans

31/2 cups water or stock

 2 tsp. salt

               Group A    

1 cup chopped onion3 cloves crushed garlic

1 large, chopped carrot

1 stalk chopped celery

1 cup chopped green pepper (optional)

2 tsp. curry

2 Tbs. oil

Group B

2 oranges; peeled, sectioned and seeded

1/2 cup orange juice

1 Tbs. water

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. red pepper 

1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1. Rinse the beans. Cover them with water and let them soak for several hours. Pour off excess water. Place in saucepan with 3 1/2 cups of stock. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours over very low heat. ( I put the beans and stock in the crock pot on low all night and turned it up to high whenn I woke up.)

2. Saute' group A, beginning with the onions and garlic. If necessary, add a little water to the vegetables to steam them along. Wheneverthing seems just as it should be, add saute' to the beans. Let the soup continue to simmer over lowest heat possible. (Ok, I was a little baffled with the "as it should be" part. What I took that to means is just saute' the vegies til they are aldente', but not brown) Also I add the 2 tsp. of salt at this point cuz when you add salt to beans while they are cooking it takes FOREVER for them to get soft.

3. Add group B to the soup. Give it a stir, cover and sit down for 10 minutes. Now, return to the soup, refreshed. Look at it and ask yourself if this soup suits you. Is it too thick? Add water. Do you want thicker, heartier? You can puree' some or all of it in the blender. You can make it hotter with more pepper.

I serve mine over white or brown rice. My family loves it!!!

                                                                         

I did it!!!

Well, at least I believe I did. I have started a blog! So much to learn and so many things to add, but at least I got started. For my husband's birthday I am making his favorite...Brazilian Black Beans with Brown rice. That's almost a tongue twister. I will post the recipe with some pics sometime this week. I can tell now that I am going to have a LOT of fun with this blogging thing! Maybe even SNOW much fun. Ha ha I promise I will try and refrain from over using that.