Big Brother

I guess it’s time to update. We had an exceptionally boring weekend this weekend, which was actually pretty nice as we have been so busy the last few weeks.

Mom and dad got home from Idaho late Friday night, I was actually getting a bit worried, I hate that there is no cell phone reception up there, and we were expecting them home in the late afternoon, I was trying to figure at precisely what point I was going to go into panic mode if they weren't home (I like to prioritize my mental breakdowns, it makes them easier to manage). I spent the whole drive home arranging the “plan” of action if they weren’t in the driveway by the time I got home, but luckily that had pulled in about 10 minutes before I had. Mom had hurt her wrist throwing a shovel up on the roof to Uncle Marlin, and was on her way to Instacare (and wouldn’t let me take her), and dad went over with Clint to give Kayla a blessing as she had a high fever, so we didn’t have a lot of time to talk, and we headed home.

Saturday, Rob went on what is becoming his weekly marathon hike, and Jakey and I spent the morning perfecting our singing & choreography to ‘I Don’t Dance” (this will be the only time that I admit that I know the words to most of the songs from this show) from High School Musical 2, Jake was already doing some pretty impressive flippy moves from his one gymnastics class although he’s a bit disappointed that he can’t do a hand stand yet. We then headed out to do a little grocery shopping, and rented (big shocker, we’ve seen it 6 times now) ‘High School Musical 2”, to watch. Jake told me he can’t decide if he wants to be Troy, Chad or Ryan when he gets into High School. I actually really enjoy High School Musical, the big show when I was a kid was Grease, and really this has a much better message for kids overall so in a world of increasing scariness, it’s nice to have a popular show for kids that is sweet, and fun. Jake loves it, and aiming for being Troy, Chad or Ryan in High School is much better than aiming to be Danny, Kenikie, Sandy, or Rizzo if you ask me.

While Jake watched the movie I worked on another RR recipe, this time Chicken with a balsamic cream sauce. It was really easy, and good, a lot like a Chicken Stroganoff. I also found a recipe for “Esther’s Orange Marmalade Cake” that I was dying to try. Esther is a character in one of my new favorite fictional series, the “Mitford” series by Jan Karon. If you haven’t read it, do, it follows the adventures of Rector Father Tim in the small southern town of Mitford. There are 7 novels in the series, and if you like novels with a lot of character development, and people that you feel are friends by the end, check this one out, I keep thinking of character in this series as if they are old friends, and I'm going to be sad when I've finished it. I’ve been listening to the books on tape on my commute to and from work. I started at the end of November, and have now gone through the first three books, they are quite long, each book on cassette has been about 15-22 hours each (I’m on the waiting list for the audio book 4 at the library, apparently I’m not the only Mitford fan). Anyway, a character Esther Bolick makes this town famous cake that figures prominently in the series, and I've thought that an "Orange Marmalade Cake" sounded great (I LOVE Orange cakes). I was delighted to see that a chef had put together a recipe based on the novel. The cake was as good as I imagined it would be from the book although I have a really hard time making a good yellow cake from scratch, so if I did it again I think I would just use an orange cake mix. It was fun to blend the book with real life.

Sunday was church again, and we ended up with all the young men and young women in our class the 12-18 year olds again, luckily I inherited mom's fear of not having enough food, so I had brought plenty of treats. I was sad to learn from the bishop that they are pulling three of the boys that graduate this year for a temple prep class, and then they will be in young adults after so they are out of our class permanently (although I admit that I was a bit pleased at how sad they were to go from our class, I'm glad to know they enjoy our Sunday School class, even if I do have to bribe them). I really enjoy working with this age group much more than I had anticipated, so I will really miss having them, they are great young men. Sunday afternoon, Rob went on another hike, and I broke out the new cookbook again, and made Black Bean Soup, w/Southwestern Monte Cristo sandwiches. Again another great recipe, I’m really enjoying this cookbook, it’s fun to get out of the rut of making the same pot roast or pork loin and potatoes that I usually do for dinners.

Josh called in the afternoon to say that he was still in Provo for his dance seminar, and would be coming in late Sunday (actually early Monday morning). Cindy and the kids (Josh and Camille, Aaron is still living in China) are moving to St. Louis, and Josh is driving there but enrolled to do a seminar for the Lindy Hop in Provo. For those not familiar, the Lindy Hop was a fusion dance that developed in the 20’s along with jazz which combines African dance moves along with jazz, tap, and Charleston, and was popular until the 40’s and then has resurged in popularity in the last 20-25 years. Josh is really into the dancing (and is very good), and this weekend they had people that do Lindy Hop in Provo from all over the world. The danced for up to 13 hours a day, Sunday the dance went until 3:00 in the morning, so Josh was pretty late getting in to Kaysville. He’s going to stay with us for a few days before driving to St. Louis.

Jake is absolutely thrilled to have his big brother staying with us, and has been showing him off to all his friends, and following him around copying everything he does, which Josh (thankfully he's had a good sense of humor about it) has found pretty entertaining. Jake had to eat with Josh last night, and sit right next to him to watch Sponge Bob, and was ecstatic when Josh said we would go with him to watch his swimming lesson last night. When Josh came home and put on his P.J. pants last night, Jake had to run in and put on P.J. pants as well. I worked from home yesterday afternoon (big storm that was very scary to drive in), and Jake was excitedly planning the week. He asked me if I thought Josh would like to go bowling with him because he thought 20 year olds probably like to bowl just like 5 year olds, and was excited when Josh accepted his proposal for a bowling date. It looks like I lost my little buddy for the week, although he still needed mommy to rock him to sleep last night. When Collin came over this morning to play the first thing Jake said before Collin even got his coat of was “my brother is here staying with us, he’s sleeping in the other room so we have to be a little quiet, he's 20 and his big, but he's my brother, and he knows how to drive a car all by himself”. Big brother’s are the best!!!

I guess that’s about all going on with the Cranes.

Oh forgot cheesy song lyrics for this post, let’s see, I think I’ll go with “I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me.” Luckily I’ve been to both me, and to paradise (speaking of paradise, Ryan and Jen I hope you are having fun in Hawaii!!!) and paradise wins, hands down.