Chef Matthew

Andrea, Matthew, Luke and Ashleigh came to visit us on the 19th Jan, and we sure had fun.

Sunday morning, Matthew cooked breakfast and he always makes the best bacon. It was a nice golden brown and crisp and he put it in an omlete and oh my! He is a good cook.

We went to the movies together while they were here and saw "The National Treasure" and that was enjoyable too.

Kent got Luke and Matthew to put something on the blog and they seemed to have fun doing that.

Ashleigh and grandma did some stamping together. Luke spent a lot of time on the computer. I'm going to have to corner him next time and do something with him. He is such a sweet boy with a tender spot for other people's feelings.

It was fun to see Andrea. We don't get to see her as much any more since we moved to the Springs and once and awhile we have to have an Andrea fix. She is one special gal! She sure loves her family.

We're being downsized!

In my industry, being downsized us usually a bad thing. It means that jobs are going away or that an unwelcome move is about to take place.

On the first of February, Betty and I will have a new address. We found a nice little two bedroom home not too far from where we live now. We are cleaning out closets and drawers frantically trying to determine where we can pitch or sell belongings so that we will fit in our new environment.

We have really enjoyed living in our current home and we have enjoyed the beautiful view. We decided though, that a smaller house and smaller bills would meet our needs better. We'll keep you posted.

Hello

Hi this is Luke I am in the 6th grade. Things I like are to is listen to music, skateboard, play video games, and hang out with friends. See ya!

In Bloom

This is a painting I did for my painting class at school. We got to do anything we wanted. It is a lotus that is in an awkward or out of place setting. It is in the middle of winter, and it is dry and still beautiful.

I made this for my mom for Christmas. I don't remember what the Chinese means, but the Kanji in the bottom left is my name.

I chose to use Chinese symbols because I like how elegant they look with almost anything.

I like this painting.

It's a Dog's Life!!

It really is a dog's life. I sleep all night on the softest of beds. I sleep most of the day if there is nothing that I am interested in. I don't have to go to work and I get three square meals a day without having to pay for them.

On the other side of the coin, I can't brush my own teeth and I go through these humiliating sessions when Betty dons her rubber gloves and pulls out her "doggie" toothpaste and works my mouth over. Whenever she calls me with that sweet, "puppy, puppy, puppy!, I know what is in store!

I don't get to eat at the table with the rest of the family, but I get to eat about anything that I want to eat. Sometimes they make me sit or roll over for food. Sometimes, they even put it on the end of my nose until they make some cutsie command for me to grab it. It's a pain in the tail, but it gets me some pretty good treats. Papa tried that with Casey at Christmas time, but he got what I would have liked to give him a hundred times!

I am hoping that this post will get a response from Matt, or from Prankster Wolf. Perhaps, parents can show them how to respond.

A red flannel shirt

My intention was to get Grandma Wilson out of the house for the night. She was living with me at the time and the walls were closing in on me.

I heard that there was a "singles" activity at the Family History Library and I thought it would be a good way of getting out of the apartment for an hour or two.

We got there and the library was locked up. We waited for a few minutes and then it happened. She showed up with paint in her hair and on her face. She was wearing paint smattered clothes. I remember in particular the red flannel shirt with the pocket half torn off, and I remember those beautiful blue eyes! I was smitten!!

She was going to open the library and go back to her painting. I couldn't have that happen! I had to get to know her a little better. I offered to come help her with her painting if she but stayed to help with the library. If she had known how much I hated to paint, she would never have fallen for that!

She accepted my offer. She stayed to help us with the library, and I helped her with her painting. We became good friends and then ....

Grandma promised me that she would create an entry and let you know when the earth moved for her. Harass her and make her keep her promise!!

YUM! Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Bread

Thought I'd better do some blogging today and tell a short story on Brenda and her mom. When Kent and I went to visit at Christmas time in SD, I decided one day to make supper and a pumpkin bread and some pumpkin muffins while Brenda was at work.

Using a pumpkin mix of course. I got the pumpkin bread made and put in a loaf pan and put it in the oven at 350 like it said to do. I smelled something burning after awhile and looked in the oven and the bread was cremated on the top, so I took it out of the oven and turned it over on a plate & of course the center to the bottom was raw. I thought there must be something wrong with her oven, so I put the muffins in and they baked a nice golden brown and they turned out really nice.

Brenda came home from work and saw the Pumpkin Bread and asked "What's that?" and I told her.

Graciously, she cut the burnt part off and put all the raw stuff in another pan and went to the oven and looked at it and she said "Mom, you have it on broil instead of bake". So, Brenda turned the knob to bake & put the bread in the oven and set the timer,.....the Pumpkin Bread turned out wonderful. Good thing she did what I taught when she was at home.........huh? My little Chef saved the day!!

Who is it?

Who is this? If you think you know. You might tell us something about them.

If you know who it is, then what year do you think it was taken?

Be careful what you might say. Everyone will have a turn being published in this spot.

It's official....we have an actress in the family!!

Today after school, the Children's Theatre Program that travels across the state, made a stop in Sturgis. They held auditions after school and had 107 kids try out for parts and they pick about 40 kids for the production. For the second year in a row, Aubrey made it in the production! She is so excited and we're thrilled for her. Last year when she got a part, it was such a good thing for her. She seemed to come out of a shell after that!

It will be a very hectic week. They practice anywhere from 2 hours to 4 hours after school every day this week and then the production is this Friday and Saturday night. Then, on the road the theater program goes to the next town! If you've never experienced children's theater like this, it is absolutely AMAZING what they do in such a short amount of time. It is a very professional production. The kids sing and dance and do all kinds of things that you'd never dream they'd accomplish in just 4 days of practice!!!! We'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Kids Christmas Picture

The above picture is the Christmas picture of the kids for 2007. Jeff's family gave me some copies of their photo session, but for whatever reason, the scanner that Matthew has here isn't the best in quality, so I have to tweek them! Once I figure that out, I will post more!

I hope that you enjoy this one as much as I have! Can you believe that Matthew is 15, Luke 12 and Ashleigh 6?

My computer kept locking up on me tonight, so anything that I was going to post is now out the window with frustration in my electronics! I NEED A NEW COMPUTER, but of course, that's low on the list of needs, or is it wants!?

Anyway, I love you all very much. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Also, Dad and Betty! Did you get my message about getting together this month!? I thought that I had the kids the weekend of the 26th, but it's actually the weekend of the 19th. Let me know if that weekend will work for you and I will mark it on the calendar!

Andrea

The picture above is of the kids, of course. Jeff and his girlfriend took them to get thier pictures taken just before Christmas and Jeff was kind enough to give me a few of the picutres.



Matthew has a scanner that he got from his grandfather, and in scanning these pictures the picture quality is NOT that great, so... once I figure out how to doctor the pictures enough to make the look good on the computer screen I will post more. My other pictures of the kids that were on the computer were deleted by accident, and I don't have the cheese to recover them!

:-(



Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the picture! I know I truly did and DO!!!

Modified Banner

I added a modified banner to the blog. I added some more pictures. What an ordeal!! I do this for a living, but the tools we use are so different than what we have here!

I am learning that my digital photos are very poorly organized. I haven't been able to find the pictures that I know I have. Tim, I really apologize. The only digital picture I could find of you was so dark that it wouldn't show up. I'm going to make a real effort to get a better mug shot of you!!

I would love to do a more updated banner, but I am going to have to rely on you to provide me with the pictures. You can send them to me by posting your pictures to a blog and I can pluck them from your post.

We love you,
Dad.

Doctors - Argh!!

In the last three days, I have seen as may doctors. They can be a pain.

The Cancer doctor gave me really good news. It appears that the cancer is gone. They can't guarantee it, but it seems to be completely gone. I'll be seeing him every 4 months now for a year.

I had a small lump on the palm of my hand which has been there since September. It started growing and I was a bit concerned so I went to the family Dr. He told me that the lump or cyst as he calls it is in "no man's land" because of the complexity of the hand. He sent me to a general surgeon who looked at it and told me it's in "no man's land" etc. He sent me to a hand specialist. He told me that he suspected a foreign body, probably a splinter that the body is attacking. He told me that it is causing what is called "proud flesh" and that it can be problematic in the future. I am going to have surgery on my hand on the 17th.

I have learned a valuable lesson! No more yard work for me!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope everyone has a better New Year than last year.

I have been involved with an organization called Provident People. All the people that belong to this are volunteers and they help other people order food storage items at a reasonable. Provident People works closely with the Bishop's Storage house here in the Springs. A lifetime memberhsip is $10.00. I've met a lot of interesting people.

I am excited we have started this blog so we can communicate better as a family. I think it will be fun. Hope I get better at communicating as I learn how this works.

Comments!

A Hey Dad!

I tried to post a comment and was unable to? I don't know if I did it wrong or not!

I hope you guys had a wonderful New Year's Eve! I was asleep on the couch by 10 p.m. Was awake 5 minutes before the ball dropped and went to bed after giving a New Year kiss to Richard, who was also alseep on the other couch! lol

Anyway, I wanted you to know that I got your invite and I will post a little bit about what's going with us and some pictures of the kids that Jeff and Courtney had done just before Christmas! They are cute, but also on my computer at home! lol

Talk to you guys later, and hey Dad... IT'S KEWL TEXTING YOU ON THE PHONE! You can reach me anytime you want doing that! :-)

I LOVE YOU BOTH! MUAH!

Welcome

Welcome to the Kent Vance Family blog. This is new to me and we will learn as we go. You are invited to post and to comment on the things that are posted.