Kathryn's Quilt

Five or six years ago, when my daughter Kathryn was about 14 years old, we took a block of the month club class together. We each made the block for that month and then tucked them away and forgot about them. She got engaged in September and I decided it was time to do a wedding quilt for her. I combined our blocks minus two months worth that just didn't fit in and made her this quilt. Half the blocks were sewn by her and I hired someone to do the overall quilting. I really like how it turned out considering the selection of blocks and the fact that 6 years later you cannot find any of the fabric we originally used. It is huge. Turned out to be 98 x 120 inches! If you look closely, I picked a quilting pattern with very subtle hearts here and there. I gave it to her at her bridal shower. I hope she loves it!

Christmas Projects

I"ve been working on a few Christmas projects and have finally got them done and ready to take with me to St. George. That's probably all the sewing I will get done for this Christmas, since I get to go to California to do wedding flowers twice in December and will be gone for almost two weeks total (It's gonna be great fun!) I made Ashley a dress out of Alyssa's leftover prom dress material from a couple of years ago. It's cuter than it looks in the picture. I made Stuart a plaid flannel quilt and Dad a bathrobe. I made Alyssa a coat - I actually gave her the fabric last year and finally got it sewn- so it doesn't really count for this year. Anyway, we're off to St. George in the morning and so excited to see everyone and have a great big Thanksgiving dinner with Mom and Dad and a whole bunch of our kids and grandkids and neices and nephews and all! It is going to be so fun!

Bridal Shower

I gave a bridal shower for Janelle's friend, Tasha. Since they are going to Hawaii for their honeymoon, I went with that for a theme. Everyone got a plastic lei and a Hawaiin name, and had to give up their lei to anyone who caught them not using the Hawaiin names. We played some other fun games, like purse Bingo, too.

For food, I made Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Cheese Ball with pineapple, bell peppers and cherries, Veggie tray with cucumber and bell pepper palm trees, Fruit tray, Cream puff swans, pecan sandies and Hawaiin pineapple punch. My friend made brownies and frosted pineapple bars.

I did a tropical centerpiece with Tii leaves, bird of paradise. carnations and ginger (I took a picture, but it turned out really blurry). It was a fun night.

Bibs

I found a tutorial online for these bibs and had to try them out.

Greg's Dinner

This is what Greg ate recently. It is called balut, a Filipino specialty. It is a 15-21 day old duck fetus/egg, hardboiled. He was brave enough to eat two of them. To get the full effect enlarge the picture to catch all the details like the eye, feather and foot. YUM,YUM!

Halloween Treats

Molasses Cookies wrapped in an inexpensive towel from Target.

Greg

Just got a few new pictures from Greg.

Fall Crafts

We made these last night at Relief Society.

Mini Lemon Pies

I made mini lemon pies. They tasted really good but I'm not sure I love the way they look.

The House at Pingree

This is the house with it's new coat of paint.

Grandpa's birthday cake

Happy Birthday to Grandpa....
This was Grandpa's cake when we celebrated his 81st birthday in Pingree this year. It was fun! Deanne and Jeff were there with Missy, Daniel and Stephanie, and Janelle came down from Rexburg and Dean and I had Brady and Stevie with us. Grandma and Grandpa had a houseful and their hospitality was once again wonderfully welcoming. Stevie and Danny are now happily in their second week of BYU.

Brownie Pops

75 brownie pops for a baby boy shower!

First Catering Job

We catered our first wedding reception. We made chinese chicken salad and a pasta salad. Rolls and mini lemon poppyseed muffins fruit platters and pineapple limeade in my new beverage jars. Exhausting but fun to do.

I hope you don't mind a proud mom

And I am the third missionary in President Traveller's history to stay five transfers in one area. I will NOT be transferring this transfer - and neither will my companion. I did, however, receive another new responsibility. I'll be the district leader this transfer, which should be fun. Our zone has a lot of people with baptismal dates though, and Ina is really far from other areas so going to interview their candidates will be a little bit tough on time and money. I'm really excited about it, though. Five transfers is a LONG time though. I'm still in shock - I had all the stuff I never really use packed away haha... Oops.

So... Annie was baptized on Friday, and confirmed at church on Sunday. I was asked to do both the baptism and the confirmation, so it was a great experience for me too. She is such a pure and elect person. She did, however, break down into really heavy tears the second she came up out of the water. I thought maybe she was worried or sad or something, but they turned out to be tears of joy. I honestly didn't think they were at first, but she started smiling a few minutes later. The most awkward part was that as soon as they start to close the doors to the font, Annie decided to try to go for an all-out hug in front of everyone. We forgot to warn her that the hug after the baptism is a no-go, so she went for it. Way funny, kind of awkward, and the last thing I could hear as I was leaving the font was President laughing on the other side of the doors - and then I started laughing too. But seriously, it was an extremely spiritual and beautiful baptismal service, and I feel pretty lucky I got to participate.

This week after church we had Shokujikai - something I think every American ward should definitely start doing. It is basically just a potluck lunch once a month after church ends. So good. But the special part was, we were in charge of preparing some sort of game/activity to play as a branch because the District President was coming. So we played Gospel Jeopardy, complete with Jeopardy song and blue and white construction paper board. I have never seen the members be that excited or that involved in an activity or game. It was a blast.

Other things this week... We had interviews with the President, and that was good. We also had interviews with his wife, and she told me she knew something big about the future part of my mission, but that she couldn't tell me. She was totally making fun of me, it was funny. I guess something big will happen in the next few transfers - but big to her could be anything. I guess it could have even been staying in Ina one more. President and Sister Traveller really are the best Mission President and wife any mission could have (no offense, LeeAnne, but it is true). He also talked to me about the exact date I will go home but I forgot it. Mid-to-late June or something. I'll look at a calendar sometime and tell you. It really is weird to think there are only ten months or so left. I'm becoming an old missionary. In six weeks my transfer count will be in double digits!

Good to hear everyone at home is doing well, both on the business front and the health front. I'm excited to hear the news on the property that Dad is trying to buy with Richard - is it a commercial building like a shopping center or what? I don't really know the details. It is also good to hear Intel and Apple stock are doing better. It will be interesting to see what kind of earnings Apple reports. It should be pretty impressive. I'll likely hear it from the Matsumoto Branch President, who is also an Apple nut. The good news is even though the internet is out at the house, you should be able to see the picture I sent on your phones...

I can't think of much else. Our other investigators are doing well. Kouta-kun reset his baptismal date to the end of August - meaning I might be able to baptize him as well before transfers. If all goes well, that is.

I still don't have anything I really need sent to me or anything, but I do have one weird request. Shawn McDonald is a lovely church artist who writes great music, and if you happen to find a CD of his somehow somewhere, I would appreciate it. Simply Nothing is the CD that I heard while waiting for interviews this week - I actually really liked it. Kind of has a Snow Patrol mixed with the Fray plus some Audioslave mixed in - and it is all about Christ! Sister Traveller recommended it to us. That is all really.

Well, thanks again for all the emails - it is great to hear what is happening in everyone's life. I feel kind of out of the mission loop in Ina - we are kind of the forgotten area since it is brand new and separated from everyone, so hearing news from home is really nice.

Keep hangin in there, and I'll keep hangin in here.

Love you all,
Elder Burnham

Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

Wedding Flowers

Saturday I made centerpieces for a friend who had a wedding reception for her son and his new bride in their backyard. She had wanted roses and peonies, but the peonies are out of season and would have been prohibitively priced as a special order. I found these gorgeous English roses at the flower market so they filled in nicely. Don't ya just love pink! Every shade of it!

Oh Raspberries!

We've been picking raspberries every other day for a week and a half now. Every picking yields about 7 quarts of bottled raspberries (I'm taking some to Dad, he's quite fond of them), about 30 half pints of jam and 4 or 5 quart bags of whole berries for the freezer, plus a ton to eat fresh, put on waffles or ice cream, etc. Our biggest picking was Tuesday, I'm afraid it's downhill from now on, which is fine since we're leaving for Idaho on Wednesday. They sure have produced beautifully and now we have jewels to line the shelves of our fruit room!

Celebrating 34 LONG Years (just kidding)

We made it to out 34th! Candace and Kevin took us out to dinner while they were here. The food was great (McGraths Fish House - try the Coconut Shrimp and the Halibut platter) and the company was terrific! Thanks to Alyssa who babysat the whole crew so we could go without kids (even the nursing baby stayed home!)

Father's Day Gifts

For Father's Day this year, I foil wrapped 300 caramels. Then into a box with a little paper shred.
Halfway done.
One hundred boxes to church and not a one left to bring home.

Gardening Night at Enrichment

We recently had an enrichment night on gardening. I put together a deck size herb garden in a fun stacked container. My enrichment leader planted wheat grass and we made these cute centerpieces for the tables.

Stephanie's Pioneer Day Dress

I sewed a pioneer dress for Steph's 4th grade pioneer day. She had so much fun!

Deanne and I have different versions of the chocolate mint brownie recipe so here's mine for comparison.

Chocolate Mint Brownies

 

 

Brownie:

 

            1 cup flour

            1 cup sugar

            ½ cup softened butter

            4 eggs

            1 ½ cup (16 ozs.) Hershey’s Syrup

Combine together.  Bake in greased 9 x 13 in. pan.  Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes.  Let cool.

 

 

Mint Cream Center:

 

            2 cups powdered sugar

            ½ cup softened butter

            ½-¾ teaspoon mint extract

            3 drops green food coloring

            1 tablespoon water

Mix together and frost the brownies.  Refrigerate.

 

 

Chocolate Topping:

 

            6 tablespoons butter

            1 cup Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt together.  Spread over mint layer.  Let cool slightly, then chill brownies for about one hour to set chocolate.

Beauty and the Beast

We had a wonderful time with Lance and Mandy, Janelle, and Stuart in town to see Alyssa play Belle in Beauty and the Beast the opening weekend. She did an amazing and fantastic job in the role. She had seven solos/duets and sounded awesome! This year of voice lessons has really developed her talent. She got a lot of very nice compliments and had several little girls who got pictures taken with her afterwards. She really looked the part too, after her team of stylists- Janelle, Mom, and even Caidin (who will occasionally consent to holding the curling iron after it is rolled up) get done with her. It's two or three curling irons, lots of mousse and hairspray, an hour of time equals dozens of ringlets. Our old friends, Holly Andrews and her daughter Bonnie, who is Janelle's age, came down from Olympia to see the play as well. Bonnie had seen it posted on Alyssa's Facebook page and talked her mom into a visit. We hadn't seen them since 2001, so it was a nice reunion.

If any of you can come and see it Alyssa would be absolutely thrilled to have you attend as it is truly a dream come true for her to be performing this role in this play. The entire cast is absolutely fantastic, from Mrs. Potts to Luminere and Cogsworth. The orchestra even sounds half decent! There are four shows left this week - Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night (June 4th, 5th and 6th at 7 pm, Matinee at 2 pm Saturday. We'd be happy to put you up for the night!

Apron in an Hour

This was a quick apron.  I found the tutorial online.  The pattern is an apron in an hour and it only took about that long.  The photo is a little washed out.  It is a bright pink and green.  It was fun to make.  

More Flowers

Thought I'd share a photo of a funeral arrangement I did on Friday. They ordered pink roses, with any other flowers I wanted to include. I was happy with how it turned out.

She's Here!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of a new addition to our family. Marinda and Teddy had their baby girl on Friday, May 22nd (Happy Birthday, Marianne!). She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and is named Llorelei (Yes, that is spelled with two Lls at the beginning) She is a sweetheart and we are very proud grandparents!

wedding flowers

I thought I'd post pictures of the wedding reception flowers I did yesterday for one of Janelle's good friends in our ward, Chelsie McGuire. She married Nick Blight, from Moreland ID, his mother is Mary Martin. They are a very cute couple. She wanted calla lilies, which I think are beautiful, but they are the absolutely hardest flower to work with and to work in with other flowers in my opinion. Fortunately she wanted just callas on the tables for centerpieces and at the guest book, so those were easy. We ordered them from Costco and from past experience I ordered them to arrive on Wednesday for a Saturday evening reception. They come as straight sticks, like a bundle of firewood - with a big fat rhubarb-like stem and just plain straight. They have curve, no anything - just straight long sticks. They still hadn't fully opened up by Saturday, but had started to arch slightly - but I was not very happy with them. Fortunately they let me have free range on the rest of the flowers as long as they were purple or white. Let me tell you there are many shades of purple, but no flowers are the exact color of the purple they were using. The big urn for the buffet was the most fun to do-it was at least 4 feet tall when finished. There were many adventures along the way including the urn not being waterproof and water starting to seep out at an alarming rate. You don't want to know how we got it to the church. Chelsie gave me a picture of what she wanted for the boutonnieres -two mini callas with black ribbon - they turned out nice. The corsages were two mini callas with purple freesias (they smelled so good!) and tiny lavender daisies. I didn't get a picture of those or her bouquet. That's fine with me - do you know how difficult it is to make a bundle of sticks look like a bridal bouquet? Future brides take note - if you MUST have calla lilies, pick minis! They are much easier to work with and they are very sweet! Or pick a florist who loves the big ones and knows what they are doing! That wouldn't be me! Unfortunately Janelle informed me a long time ago that she was going to have calla lilies for her wedding, so I'm hosed!