Happy Chinese New Year

For activity days this week we learned about the Chinese New Year which is coming up in February. We learned a little bit about the traditions and symbols and then we painted lanterns. The girls had fun dabbing on the paint to make the blossoms and then we added the branches later with a Black Sharpie. It was really fun and easy too.

After they made their lanterns, they developed their talent of eating with chop sticks. I served them all a small helping of Chow Mein and they went at it. It was very fun.

A New Wok = Delicious Chinese Food

I have entered the world of Chinese cooking! My wonderful family gave me a Wok for Christmas. When they asked me what I wanted and I said a Wok, the kids looked at me very strangely. Then they asked me why I wanted a walk for Christmas, couldn’t I just go on a walk any time I wanted. So I explained what a Wok is and they were very excited since they LOVE Chinese food and now maybe I would make it for them at home.

After I got my wok, I went to the library and checked out a ton of Chinese cookbooks. I went through them and took about half of them back and kept my 6 or 7 favorites. Then I had to find some ingredients. The grocery store has some things but I couldn’t find everything. So I began the search for a Chinese grocery store and found one in Sandy. It’s called Super China Market.

When I walked into that store I entered a whole other world. Everyone was Chinese, everything was written in Chinese, and everyone spoke Chinese. It was actually very fun although I did feel a little conspicuous. I wandered up and down the aisles looking at everything. It was definitely not set up like a good old American Supermarket. It felt much more like I was in a foreign country. Lots of the packages had both Chinese and English writing which was helpful and I just kind of passed by things that only had packages written in Chinese. I did find a couple of great utensils to use with my wok and I found every ingredient I needed including canned bamboo shoots and Moo Shoo wrappers. Awesome!!

Then the cooking began. Oh…. first I had to season my new wok. Every cookbook talked about this and how important it is so that the food tastes good and the wok lasts forever. So I did that and then I was ready to cook. My first attempt was chow mein. That is a very hard recipe to find. Out of all the cookbooks I checked I only found one book with a recipe for chow mein. Yet it said it is one of the most popular dishes here in America and in China. Maybe it’s like spaghetti and everyone just knows how to make it. Anyway, it turned out delicious and everyone loved it.

My next attempt was wontons. I used pork in mine and they were fantastic. Once again everyone loved them. Then I made Stir Fried Beef and Snow Peas. Yum. Adam wasn’t too fond of the snow peas but he liked the beef.

This is just the beginning. I can’t wait to try my next recipe which is the Moo Shoo pork.

2 Thumbs Up for "The Blind Side"

I highly recommend this movie. I rarely recommend movies because it seems like even if they have one good message, there are several bad ones along with it. David and I saw it last night and it is excellent!!

We Love To Ski!!

In honor of Martin Luther King day, we decided to go skiing. Poor David had to work but we had a great time and we are sure glad we have a good husband and dad who makes it all possible. It snowed off and on all day which made it perfect. Good snow, few people... we had a great time. Joshua, Hayden (a friend), Tanner, and Rachel were always off skiing harder runs than Rebecca and Adam so I only have pictures of the younger kids. I got to go on Saturday with just Rachel and Joshua and we did all sorts of fun things including moguls which I haven't done for 20 years. And you could tell since I ended up sliding down on my back, head first. It was so funny I couldn't stop laughing. Anyway, come join us next time on the slopes.

Adam with his "cool" helmet. He says it is the coolest one in the whole world.

Rebecca enjoying our lunch break.

Rebecca and Adam all bundled up and having a blast.

One of the beautiful things about skiing is that it uses every ounce of energy!!

Dreams of Traveling

I saw this on a friend's blog and wanted to do one myself. I love traveling and have dreams of going to every state in the U.S. as well as all the countries I can get to. I also happen to love maps so the 2 maps below are fun, fun. The red shows the states and countries that I have visited. It looks like I still have a lot of the world left to explore. Maybe my next country will be Peru with David? We'll see.

visited 41 states (82%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or website vertaling duits?


visited 25 states (11.1%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Like this? try: Mapped Web

Cool contest I found to win free groceries for a year

"One of my favorite websites. It's the only way I can keep track of everyone's activities plus my own "To Do" Lists!!"

Hey, I just entered this contest on Cozi.com to win free groceries for a year. All you have to do is put in your email address.

Even if you don’t enter, please click the link to help me win. (I get an extra entry for telling you.) Thanks!

View >>

Meet Tanner's Ex-Mole

Tanner had a mole removed a few months ago. Nothing major, just a little scrape off. I didn't think much of it since Joshua has also had some moles removed from his back. Then I received a call from his doctor while I was in Hawaii. That's never good. It turns out that the biopsy wasn't clean. His big mole was sent to 4 pathologists including a top expert in New York. Nobody was willing to say it WAS NOT cancer for sure. Every single one looked at it and said it probably wasn't but they couldn't be sure. Therefore, Tanner went in yesterday to have the whole area cut out to be sure they had gotten it all. Either way, this should be the end of it except for semi-annual monitoring of his other moles. And to think all this was caused by a silly mole. The cut goes straight down his back right over his spine between his shoulder blades.

Adam Finally Got a Birthday Party

I finally got around to having a little birthday party for Adam. He invited 3 friends and we went to Chuck E. Cheese's on a Tuesday around noon. It was a great time because very few people were there. They all loved it and in addition to pizza and cupcakes, they got to play lots of fun arcade games and win prizes. Adam was thrilled.

Rebecca, Skyler, Rachel, Bracken, Josh, and Adam

I gave the boys little goody bags before they went home. One of the things in those bags were silly glasses with noses. Later in the afternoon, I got this picture of Josh, Adam and Skyler. I think it is hilarious!

Rebecca Got Braces

Rebecca got braces! She's had them for about a week and a half now. They hurt at first, or course, but they are fine now and she kind of likes having them. I guess she knows they are helping get rid of all those spaces between her teeth. Isn't she cute?

This is the Vice Principal Speaking

When the man on the phone said that to me, my stomach got a little knot in it. He said, "Hi Mrs. Powell. This is so-and-so, the vice principal at Crescent View Middle School. I have Tanner here in my office with me."

So at this point I know I'm either going to get chewed out for taking Tanner out of school for 3 days to go to Hawaii and I didn't inform the school or else Tanner is in big trouble for something else he's done. I paused and said, "OK."

He said, "He just came from his class with a Gold Award...... that's a good thing!"

Whew. I said, "Oh good, for a minute I thought Tanner was in big trouble."

It turned out that they were having a good laugh pretending that he WAS in trouble. Actually it was an award that his teacher gave him for doing an outstanding job in his class and going above and beyond the call of duty. He got a candy bar and a soda plus his name goes in a drawing for a big prize at the end of the year.

Tanner, I'm proud of you! And I better only get those kind of phone calls from school :)

Happy New Year's

We had a great last day of the year 2009. We got up early and headed up to the mountains to do some skiing and it was a perfect day. It took Adam one fall to figure out he wasn't going to break his leg and then he did great! The first time he fell, he looked up at me and said, "I almost thought I broke my femur, but I didn't!" We had a great time.

We got home just in time to welcome my 2 brothers and their families plus a few of their friends for dinner and a New Year's Eve celebration. We had chili and rolls and lots of other yummy snacks. It's now time to start my new year's resolutions and eat less and better.

Anyway, we ate, played games, and did some fireworks at midnight. And 2010 has begun!

Becky and Derek know how to celebrate!

I realized after we took this picture that Rachel, Adam and Rebecca were all downstairs so they aren't in the picture, but they definitely celebrated with us.

We were so glad everyone could come and thank them for the food they brought too.