Tender Mercies of the Lord

Our family was the recipient of a miracle this week. My Grandma Johnson, who recently lost her husband to cancer, fell ill. After some tests, we were told she had pancreatic cancer and had a few weeks to a few months to live. I can not tell you what emotional pain that brought us. More tests were ordered, and we began to prepare for the worst.

Last Sunday, we all decided to fast for G'ma. Around dinner time my brother Reed and his wife Jamie brought their kids over to my parents house for Sunday dinner. They had told their kids about G'ma's, or as they call her "tutu"'s, condition. My eight year old nephew came down stairs to sit by me on the couch.

"Aunt Megan, guess what."
"What, Ethan?"
"My tutu has cancer, just like Papa did. We fasted and prayed for her today so she will get better and not die like papa did."
"That's wonderful Ethan. I know Heavenly Father will hear our prayers and bless Tutu."
"I know."
The faith of a child is humbling.

On Thursday, my mom and all of her siblings met in Houston to be with their mother as she underwent more tests. Thursday afternoon I received a text from my mother...
"Amazing answer to prayers!! It is not pancreatic cancer it is lymphoma which is highly treatable. Yeah!"

"Faith is a principal of action and of power." -- Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Now our prayers are that Tutu will be healed.

Not Your Ordinary Talent

I love examples of people taking their talents and excelling at them -- whatever they may be. Check out these amazing girls, with super duper talent. They are 4th-8th graders from Ohio, they are called The Firecrackers. The video takes about 7 minutes, but it just gets better and better until the end. This performance takes place at my dad old Alma Mater -- the US Naval Academy.

A Moment of Silence

One of the things I distinctly remember from September 11, 2001, was the silence that prevailed everywhere I went that day. From leaving my house after watching the tragedy unfold on the TV and the silence that filled my car as I tried to absorb what I had just seen. To the silence that filled the empty BYU Anthropology Department as I sat with Evie in front of an old TV in our lobby. To the day of silence in the sky as planes across the country were grounded in fear. And to the silence as people across the country bowed their heads in sorrow and respect for the thousands of lives which were tragically cut short that day.

There are no words that can adequately console, depict, or convey the emotions of that day. Silence is our response. A moment of silence to pray, reflect, appreciate, and love.

Yesterday, I witnessed the silence at the Tempe Town Lakes 9/11 Memorial -- 1 flag for each person lost to the terrorist attack of 9/11. On each flag was a card with a person's name, age, location of death, and a bit about them. Last year there was a picture of the person. Pictures don't tell you much about the life of an individual. This year's cards, made each person more real.

Like Raymond R. York...


Raymond R. York

Age: 45

Raymond R. York spent nearly two decades fighting blazes and loving the New York Fire Department when a shoulder injury 18 months ago forced him into light duty.But on Tuesday he learned of the attack from a television crew that was doing a story on the Fire Zone, he jumped onto a nearby fire truck and headed downtown. After traffic held him up, he hitched a ride on an ambulance and reached the Fire Departments command post at the Trade Center.

Lest we forget that there were children who were killed in this terrorist attack, flags representing children had teddy bears placed with them. This bear was for 3 year old Dana Falkenber who was on AA Flight 77 with her sister and parents.
There are hundreds, and hundreds more who have left family members behind. In remembering the tragedy as a whole let us not forget the individuals. Each one had a story, a story which tragically ended on 9/11/01.

For each and every one of them, and their family members, I offer up this moment of silence.

The longest work day ever

Today was the longest work day ever in recorded history. It went by soooooooo slowly and seemed to stretch on f-o-r-e-v-e-r! You know those days when you didn't actually finish any one thing, just seemed to tackle a bunch of little tasks.

Fortunately someone took pity on me and brought in some cookies from Costco around 3pm. They were a life saver. After two of them I was able to go back to work, slightly revived.

It's amazing what chocolate chips can do for a person.

A Plethora of Perfectly Palate Pleasing Peaches

64 lbs of peaches. That's what I had to work with this morning. It made for a daunting but delicious task. So with a day off of work for Labor Day, I rolled up my sleeves -- or in this case busted out the extra fans cause I knew it was going to be steamy -- and got to work.
The set-up...It pays to be organized.











I had to peel all the peaches. First you cut an "x" in the bottom of each peach. Then you boil them for about 3-4 minutes.











Then you put the peach in to an ice bath.











After that, the skin just slips right off of them.











I love the vibrant color of the peeled peaches. Next, to make the jam, I mashed them all up.












The mashed up fruit went into a pot with cinnamon, pectin, lemon juice, and more sugar than any human should consume in a lifetime.












Then it all got boiled together for a little while. After it was done cooking, I poured the jam into sterilized jars.

















Then I sealed them up with a steam bath. I used my Grandma Schaub's steamer. Rather than sealing the jars by putting them into boiling water, there is this nifty steamer thing that sits on your burner. It does the exact same job but with 1/4 the amount of water. You can kind of see it in the right side of this picture (it's the silver dome). I've already put dibs on it.












So here is the final fruits of my labor. Today I made....
Peach-Cinnamon Jam

















Sinfully sweet peach syrup. Can you just imagine this luscious syrup on some peacan waffles, or peach pancakes with cool-whip or poured over vanilla ice cream. The possibilities are endless!

















We also made 3 Peach pies, and peachsauce (like cinnamon applesauce only with peaches). I also ended up freezing a couple gallon bags of just plain sliced peaches and even left a half of flat of peaches alone, for consumption all by themselves. It all turned out absolutely perfect. I love peaches. And I'll be spreading the joy in the next few days.

I'll post the recipes on my food blog....later.

PS -- A HUGE thank you goes out to Susan who helped me peel, photograph, and pie.

Slowman's Ironman

I'm getting back into training. I fell of the wagon for about a month. But I'm still planning on doing the Thanksgiving Day Sprint Triatholon and so it's back to work I go. It would seem that I'm not alone. A sister in my RS just mentioned that several ladies in our RS wanted to participate in what she calls the "Lazyman's Ironman". It essentially consists of doing all three evens in an ironman, with the regular distances of an ironman, only you do it over a 30-day period. This didn't sound like "lazyman's" anything to me. So instead I'm calling it the Slowman's Ironman.

Anyway, you're all welcome to join me. You have 30-days to complete the "Ironman" race. You simply track each day that you do something, the distance that you did. We were given a like checksheet to mark off our progress. Being the anal-excel-obsessed person that I am, I created my own tracker on excel with formulas and everything. Here it is and you're welcome to use it:
Slowman's Ironman Tracker

You don't have to do something everyday, but unless you want to be doing "death-bed-repentance" the last week, and trying your best to complete a real ironman, I'd suggest setting up a schedule and being regular. Right now, I'm sticking to 4 days a week. As I get closer to race time, I'll bump it up to 5 days a week.

So, join me! Anyone can do it, honestly!

From tri family racing

Priceless

Soup Kitchen - Priceless


Recently Michelle Obama went to serve food to the homeless at a government funded soup kitchen.

Cost of a bowl of soup at homeless shelter: $0.00
Having Michelle Obama serve you soup: $0.00
Snapping a picture of a homeless person who is receiving a government funded meal while taking a picture of the First Lady using his $400 Blackberry cell phone: Priceless

Once again, our tax dollars, under this President's administration, at work.

Life Happens

So life has been happening. That's my excuse for not posting in a while. I'll be sure to take some time out to smell the roses and update my blog real soon. Don't think I forgot about you...it's just that life happened. I hope it's happening for you too.