North Shore

Isn't this a great picture?!

Papa and Andrew at Snowbird

Thompsons' Turkey Day in Washington!

I know it seems a little early to be talking about Thanksgiving in August, but we wanted to invite y'all to our place for some turkey and pumpkin pie (and lots of other yummy things!) this year. Brothers, sisters, kids, grandmas and grandpas and aunts, uncles, cousins, are invited too. The more the merrier! Stay awhile and see Seattle too!

We hope you can come!

Releif Society "Hand"out

I taught a Relief Society lesson a few weeks ago. The lesson was Pres. Uchtdorf's conference talk from April 2010, Sunday morning: "You Are My Hands" It is such a great talk and I love to listen to Pres. Uchtdorf talk. So I made a movie of him giving his conference talk. I watched it and read it a few times, picked about 4 places that would be a good place to stop the movie and talk about what he just said, ask a question, and hear answers from the Relief Society sisters. I handed out the questions before the lesson so that everyone would have a chance to thick about their question. The lesson went really well. Just the right amount of time. So many of the sister contributed to the lesson. It was GREAT! You of course couldn't do this a lot. But i think every now and then it would be good.

I decided for the handout I would make hand sugar cookies put into little bags tied with a ribbon and a tag.

I seem to have a few problems with making sugar cookie dough. So after the dough was made and had rested in the fridge for the appropriate time. I made a test cookie, and baked it off. Well, it spread all over the cookie sheet and did not look like a hand, maybe a baseball glove but not a hand. So I put all the dough back in the bowl and add 1 cup of flour and mixed it well and put back into the fridge. For the most part the cookies all worked after that.

I found my hand cookie cutter at Orson H. Gigys in Salt Lake. I love that store. I go there when I have to make a wedding cake. I had seen the wall o cookie cutters so I was hopeful. I was rewarded for the drive to this fun store.

Here are some hands all cut out ready to go on to the pan. I baked up about 60 or so cookies only one finger broke off. So I was happy about that. After they cooled completly it was time to pipe and flood.
Summer is much better at this piping and flooding than I am. I free handed the hearts, no really I did. You say they look perfect, you are soooooo nice. I just picked some that turned out ok. Then I flooded the the hearts. A side note here DO NOT ADD FLAVORS LIKE VANILLA TO THE ROYAL ICING. IT WILL NEVER SET UP ALL THE WAY. Just something to keep in mind. :D

Then I piped the hand and flooded the hands. They turned out ok. It is pretty hard to out line the hands with the royal icing. Then you have to thin the royal icing out so that it will flood the cookie. I put the thinned icing in a bottle with a pointed lid (these bottles are usually used for catsup and mayo) instead of using the pastry bag and tip. This worked really well.

One of the stories that Pres. Uchtdorf told of a women that compared herself to a used $20.00 bill. This looks pretty real don't you think?

The other side is a quote from his talk. "I often picture Him with hands outstrected reaching out to comfort, heal, bless, and love. As we emulate His perfect example, our hands can become His Hands, our eyes, His eyes, our Heart His Heart." Pres. Uchtdorf Ensign May 2010

Then I put all of the cookies in a big basket. I passed the cookies out half way through the lesson, and told the sisters to think of five ways their hands could be His hands as they ate the cookie.

It is always good to get out of your comfort zone and teach. I don't like it, but it is good for me.

When you look at your hand think of 5 ways that your hands can become His hands.

Northridge High School

What do you think of when you think of when you hear Northridge High School? Some of you think of graduation, some think of special teachers, others think of dinner theatre, musicals, dances, friends, classes, grades, wrestling, and extra rolls for lunch.

This is a Chatelaines picture when Danny performed with this group. Summer and Jenny also sang in Chates. Summer was in Excalibur too. Summer, Justin, Jenny, and Danny sang in A Cappella. Kody was in Men's choir and wrestling.

I have those same memories too. But I have other memories. I was the PTSA President at Northridge for two years. I helped choir students with fund raisers-mostly hot cocoa. I wonder how many cans of hot cocoa I gave out?

Went to 2 almost 3 full seasons worth of wrestling matches, went to 14 years of choir concerts (at least 4 per year plus at least 10 Exchatilation concerts). Decorated the stage for Christmas and sometime help take it all down.

I cooked all of the the dinners one year for Dinner Theatre in the lunchroom kitchen. I also did decorations, sets and costumes for 3 dinner theatres. I decorated sets for 5 or 6 shows, worked on costumes for 3 shows, did make-up for all of those shows (My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof, Music Man, Lil Abner, Miracle on 34th Street, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, 42nd Street, and the King and I). I helped with Thoroughly Modern Milly. I was an usher for Le Mes and did a pre-show luncheon for Beauty and the Beast.

I was a chaperon 3 times; Nashville, Tennessee and Anaheim, CA twice.

I planned 7 choir trips; 2 to Seattle WA; 1 to Manhattan, New York; 1 to San Francisco, CA; 1 to Anaheim CA; 1 to San Diego, CA; and 1 to Los Angeles, CA. The San Francisco trip included the band and orchestra.

I made DVD's for 5 of the 7 choir trips.

I prepared luncheons for 3 or 4 State competition for the judges, road countless buses to choir concerts and Elementary Christmas tours, organized 7 years worth of volunteers for the choir department.

I helped with 4 graduation all night parties, helped with a few tailgate parties and sidewalk decorating for Homecoming.

Kevin and I even chaperoned Prom one year.

I know Northridge High Schools school song better than I know my own high school song.

I am not listing all of these activities to brag about myself. I am listing them because they were all wonderful things, incredible memories, that I got to do to help my amazing children while they where in high school. Some of the things I did even though none of my children where involved. But I wanted to help make Northridge a better place for my students and for all students that attend school there. But doing these things where a blessing for me, more than I helped anyone there. I learned so much, and did so many things that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do if I hadn't volunteered.

Today I delivered the DVD's to A Cappella choir of our choir trip to Los Angeles, CA. I am done! This feels so strange, in a few weeks I will start thinking about our next choir trip and then remember that I am not doing that anymore. It is a bitter sweet feeling. I will miss the choir director, Lindsey Snarr Partridge, I will miss the students, I will miss the planning and organizing. Most of all I will miss the blessings that come from helping others and doing service.

So I will always have many fond memories of Northridge High School. It will always be my high school. I hope you have good memories too.