THE WEEK OF: August 19th - August 25th
BYU Education Week
On Sunday, August 19
th, I had put Vaughn down for a nap, and was trying to rest. I got up to check on Vaughn after about 20 minutes, like I usually do, and he wasn't in his room. I started combing the house for him. I was pretty sure he wasn't able to open doors, but you never know with this kid. I couldn't find him anywhere, and then I started to panic. What if he had gotten outside? So I ran outside and checked all around our yard, but still no Vaughn. I came back in the house and thought I would look again. I finally wound up in Vaughn's room again, and I heard a little giggle. Then I realized it was coming from his closet! So I said, "Vaughn? You're in big trouble Mister!" Then he came out of his closet with a big grin on his face. He had pulled a fast one on his old mom! What a stinker! So now whenever I can't find Vaughn, the first place I look is in his closet!
The next day, Monday August 20
th, Brian's parents and I continued our dry-pack adventure we had started the Friday before. If you're wondering what "dry-pack" is, it's a form of canning. We checked out a special
canner from a local cannery, purchased cans and lids and packets that remove oxygen from inside the cans when they're sealed, and canned wheat, hot cocoa mix and powdered milk. Then on Monday we did more wheat, a powdered fruit drink, oats, more powdered milk and white beans. It was quite the operation! At this cannery they even have nice labels you can buy that tell what it is you're canning and the date it was canned. You can see Dad
Higginson and me in this photo. Dad is operating the
canner and I am filling the cans with the dry food product. Once the cans were filled, I wiped off the rims, added an oxygen-removing packet to each can, put the lids on, and then Dad sealed the cans. We got to where we were pretty efficient!
Here is what the cans of dried beans looked like before they had the packet added and they were sealed. When I look at this I see many many meals, and Brian sees (or should I say hears?) a lot of gas! Maybe I should also invest in a year's supply of
Beano!
I convinced Amy to get some stuff canned, and she decided to get stocked up on oats, and I think hot cocoa, but don't quote me on that. I think we did about 72 #10 cans in just oats that day. I can't remember how many cans we did, but as a rough guess, I'll say it was over 350 cans of stuff.
Tuesday, August 21st was a very happy day for me. Brian was supposed to arrive home that day, and Education Week started at Brigham Young University! Brian's father agreed to watch Vaughn that morning while Brian's mother and I went to attend some classes. Classes were in the morning from around 8:00 am until noon, and went from Tuesday through Friday. It was a perfect schedule for me, because of little Vaughn. I was so excited to go because there are hundreds of classes to choose from, and so much to learn! And I got to spend time with Brian's mother! Here's me and Mom
Higginson after a class.
That evening after Brian got home from his trip, we went to a wedding reception for my very dear friend Devin
Thetford. She and I went to school together up at Ricks College in
Rexburg, Idaho, before it was turned into a 4-year institution and renamed Brigham Young University Idaho. We were in choir together and enjoyed many wonderful experiences together. She is one of the nicest and most genuine women you will ever meet. She has a very kind heart and a loving personality. You can't help but feel good when you're around her.
Vaughn stuck right by his daddy the entire night. We was so excited to have Brian home! I was so grateful he got home safely, especially after Brian told me that he was almost killed coming home. He had been changing a tire on the side of the road and a semi swerved off the road and came right at him and his brother Robert. Brian said it came within less than one foot of him, and he was crouching on the ground. I don't know how he wasn't pulled under the semi and killed. Well, actually I do. It was divine intervention. I had specifically prayed for his safety that morning and my prayers were answered. Thank heaven for prayer! And thank heaven Brian came home in one piece! It was hard to be without my best friend for a week. I can't even bear to think what a lifetime without him would be like. It's times like these that really make you stop and think how fragile life really is, and what is really important....family. We can't take money or houses or any possessions with us when we die. But we can be reunited with our families and live with them again. I hope we can all take a moment each day and tell our husband, wife, child, parents and siblings just how much we appreciate and love them. Find a moment to write a thank you note, or to give an extra hug. Always tell them you love them!
Here's a better picture of me and Devin. I also wanted you to see her dress, which was so gorgeous! At her reception they had a live jazz band, since her husband is an incredible jazz musician. I've never really liked jazz music, but when I heard the band play that evening, I found I really enjoyed it. I guess you just have to hear it played the right way. Devin is an excellent musician herself, so they make quite a pair! It was so good to see her so happy. That meant the world to me.
On Wednesday, August 22
nd in the evening I went over to Laura's to help her move. I had no idea how much work she had been up against. I guess her roommates had moved out and left her with most of the cleaning. She was overloaded and overworked, and I don't know how she didn't just shut down. The poor girl! I think that's why she's making such a pleasant face in this picture! We got a good amount done, and then made a run to 7-Eleven for some
Slurpees.
Slurpees are a necessity on a day like that one!
On Thursday, Mom
Higginson and I ran into Aunt
Denae while we were at Education Week. She is Mom's sister-in-law. Aunt
Denae is a wonderful woman. Even though she struggles with some pretty severe health problems, she goes to Education Week and stays all day! She just can't get enough of it! She is such a nice lady, and someone I really respect. She just keeps going no matter what. She always has a big smile on her face, and the most pleasant demeanor. That's not something I can say about myself! I am so grateful for people like her. She is such an example to me!
On Thursday I also harvested a lot of vegetables from our garden. Here are some zucchini and potatoes. (To give you an idea of how big the zucchini were, the largest potatoes there were about 7 or 8 inches long).
These are Anaheim, Bell and Jalapeno peppers I harvested from the garden that day. When I kept up with the watering, the peppers grew like crazy! It's a good thing we like salsa so much!
I do have to
brag about these tomatoes, since last year we only got 3 TOTAL! I think there were about 80 tomatoes here, and that was from one picking session! We were very blessed this year to have a lot of good tomatoes!
I can't remember if these were the rest of the onions, but here's some onions from the garden too! It just amazes me that with jut a tiny seed or bulb, some sunlight and some water, that wonderful things can grow right out of the earth! It might sound a little odd, but when I'm gardening, I find it very easy to think about Heavenly Father and our Savior. I focus on the fact that we really are totally dependant on them for all we have, even for our very lives. I also focus on all the miracles around me. Being able to grow food is one of those miracles in my opinion. If you've ever watched a fast-motion recording of a seed germinating and growing into a plant, it is quite an amazing thing to watch.
No, this isn't our squash! But I wish I could claim it! This squash belongs to our neighbors the
Houstons. This picture doesn't really do it justice. The angle must have been weird. It actually looked a lot bigger than that! But I thought it was pretty amazing all the same. And besides, doesn't Brian look handsome?!?
This picture shows what it really looked like. Can you believe the size of that squash? The
Houstons found it hanging between their back fence and a building next to their house. Klein had a heck of a time lifting it up over the fence. That sucker weighed a ton!
Friday was our last day of classes. I enjoyed the class I took on homemaking skills and organization. I like to think I'm a pretty organized person, but after a quick evaluation, I realized I really wasn't in a lot of areas. The lady that taught the class was named Daryl
Hoole. She was amazing! She was 73 years old, but didn't look a day over 40! When she told the class how old she was, you could hear an audible gasp. It was pretty funny. But she had some great advice for stay-at-home mothers. To the left is a shot of one of the buildings where we took a class. I love the fact that the
BYU campus is right next to the mountains. It makes everything seem so cozy.
During one of our classes together, the fire alarm went off, so everyone had to file out of the buildings for a few minutes until things were taken care of. Just in those few minutes it seemed like there were at least 500 people that walked by. During Education Week, thousands and thousands of people come to
BYU. It's quite an event.
I just have to mention here that during education week, Brian took the mornings off work so that I could attend classes. I was so grateful to him for that! I had an absolute blast, and I really learned a lot in a short amount of time. My favorite class had to be the religion class I took about Jesus and women in the New Testament. It really gave insight into how the Savior treated women, and the bold statements he made in word and in deed, that shattered social barriers and biases against women during His day. It was a very eye-opening experience. And the class was so popular that they had to move it into an auditorium to fit all the people. I bet there were about 1,500 people in that class.
With the end of Education Week came mixed emotions. I was grateful to be able to get back home and put to use the things I had learned, especially the home organization skills. But I was also sad that my time with Mom
Higginson had ended. So we decided to make it a special day, and we had lunch together after classes. It took me quite a while to decide what I wanted. Luckily Mom
Higginson found a great deal at an Italian restaurant. We got a lot of food for a great price, and we really enjoyed ourselves!
My sister Laura thinks it's hilarious that Brian and I take pictures of the food we eat. But we really enjoy
reliving the experience, since we don't usually go out to eat. Like right now, I'm looking at this food and I can almost taste it. I can remember how crisp the salad was, and how creamy the white sauce was..... Okay, I might be going a little too far. Anyway, we got chicken parmesan, linguine, a white sauce over the top, a breadstick, a side salad and a drink for about $5.60 or something. I thought that was a pretty good deal!
We were pretty tired from Education week, but we couldn't resist Amy'd invitation to come and make salsa. I just want to point out that in this picture I look 15 pounds heavier than in the one where Mom and I are eating lunch together...and they were taken the same day! Yikes! Oh well. Back to bottling. We were so glad that Mom came and bottled with us, so we could include her in our weird antics. We all had a great time!
I put a lot more cilantro in my salsa because Brian and I LOVE cilantro. It made the salsa look so much more colorful, and it tasted a lot better to me. If Brian had his way, the salsa would be half cilantro. I might be bold enough to try that sometime!
I don't know exactly how much salsa we made, but I think we each got to take home around 16 pints, or 8 quarts. Pretty good I'd say!
Now this is probably one of the funnier things I've seen Amy do. I hate sweet pickles, but for some reason, I think home-bottled pickled beets are good. I tasted them for the first time this year, and I liked them. So I told Amy I would bring some over for her to taste. She was excited to have another bottling option for her beets. So, even though she also hates sweet pickles, she decided to try some of my pickled beets. Here's her initial bite!
This is too funny! Amy was trying to be polite and keep a pleasant look on her face, but she couldn't help herself. Her absolute disgust came shining through and I have to say, I was laughing so hard! I think she even wound up spitting out the piece of pickled beet! Amy is such a hoot, and a great sport!!!
In the end, Amy decided against bottling pickled beets. Surprise, surprise! But before you think my pickled beets were bad, just remember that they are an acquired taste. And, my Momma says they are the best she's ever had! Isn't it sad that I feel like I have to defend my beets?
What a week! I truly enjoyed Education Week with Mom Higginson, and I hope to be able to make it a yearly tradition. I would recommend it to anyone! And thanks again to Brian and Dad Higginson for making it possible for me to attend!
Here's one for the road.....
(Vaughn had just woken up from a nap!)
Love, Lisa
The Higginson Family Reunion is something we look forward to every year. Brian's extended family is extremely close, so these reunions make for a LOT of fun! This reunion is for Brian's father's side of the family. He had eight kids in his family, so there are a lot of people that attend. In the picture up above, we are just waiting to get started. We rented out a park pavilion this year and then a church building as well.
After getting started, we went ahead with the auction. As I explained in an earlier blog entry, family members donate items to the auction, and then the proceeds of the auction go towards the next family reunion. This year we raised just over $1,000.00! Pretty great, huh? I can't remember if we had lunch first and then the races, but since I had no picture of lunch, we'll just move right on to the races. By the way, at the auction we bid on and won a little girl's swimming suit that Brian's sister Linda had made, and it was ADORABLE!!!!
We always start out with the youngest kids. It is so fun to watch these little kids race towards their parents with great big smiles on their faces! To the right are me and Vaughn. I'm trying desperatedly to encourage him to run, and he did a great job. I don't think he quite understood exactly what he was supposed to do at first, but in the end, and especially once he saw Brian, he ran pretty fast. All the kids got a little treat when they finished. Vaughn really enjoyed that!
Brian was so proud of Vaughn for finishing the race. He carried him around for quite a while telling him what a great job he did! I'm so glad that Brian and Vaughn share such a good realtionship!
After the little kiddie races comes the older kid races. I think these go up to age 10 or 12. Then come the teenage boys and teenage girls races. And then after that are the adult races.
This was a pretty bad picture, but you can see Brian smack dab in the middle wearing plaid shorts and a blue shirt. I tried desperately to record the race, but the camera kept going haywire and I barely missed Brian winning the race! Darn it! I was very proud of him! The Higginson men really take these races seriously, so it was quite a big thing for Brian to win! That's my man!
Brian's niece Lindsey Edwards wasn't interested in racing, but she did build a fantastic boat out of leaves and twigs. If you look in her left hand very closely you can see it. Isn't she amazing?!
Here is a little flower doll that another one of the nieces made, but I can't remember who did it!!!! If anyone remembers please let me know. Isn't it great?!?! These kids are so creative!
After the races, we all filed into the church building we had rented, and we held the family talent show. Here's Brian's cousin Spencer singing a song with his two boys Luke and Benjamin. It was awesome! The song begins with "Hey there Delilah I've got something more to say to you..." I can't remember it all, but they did a great job!
Here are some of the young girls in the family singing a Primary song for their grandparents. It was such a touching experience to hear these girls singing, and knowing they had practiced just for this occasion.
Here is Brian's sister Amy in the middle of singing the song SHE WROTE! She is a very good composer, and she has been writing a lot of songs lately. She also happens to be an excellent singer, so it's great to hear her sing the songs she composes. Brian's sister Julie sings backup or duets with Amy as well, and she is also an excellent singer!
And what do you know, here's Julie! Here she is singing Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro. It is not an easy song to sing, and Julie did a fantastic job!!! If you've never heard Julie sing, then you're missing out on something pretty special. Julie is one of the better singers I've ever had the opportunity to hear. The entire audience was in awe when she was finished. And a lot of the grandkids were turned to their parents and said, "WOW!"
We had several piano pieces played during the talent show. I played The Maple Leaf Rag, but we didn't get any photos of it. Above is Brian's cousin Lisa's daughter Caroline Richardson, playing the theme from The Man From Snowy River. It was a great performance!
Brian's cousin Jeffrey created a medley of hymns and was asked to play it for the talent show. He did a wonderful job and played it all from memory. We were very touched by the arrangement, and it was the perfect ending to a wonderful talent show!
This is a shot of most of the people who were watching the talent show. It was quite a crowd! After the talent show, we had a few minutes to hear from and about members of the family who had served or were currently serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is the name of our church. It was neat to hear about their experiences and listen to their testimonies.
Now it is a VERY FUN tradition to have a game of dodge ball after the reunion is over. It's for anyone who dares to stay and play against Brian's brother David who you can barely see in the top middle. He is partially sitting up and getting ready to throw the ball. This is a different kind of dodge ball, and it's too hard to explain, so just take me at my word that it is a blast to play! After dodge ball the reunion officially ended, and we all had ice cream sandwiches as we headed home!
