2018

Stuff through the year:

• 3 sermons preached (the 1st one was on New Year's Eve day 2017, close enough.)
• Became a licensed Catechist in the summer & started a class in the fall.
• Trained to be a Lay Chaplain in Community of Hope.
• Continued to take communion to fellow parishioners who are homebound with Shaunna.
• Attended Bishop's Committee Meetings & Priest Search Committee Meetings. 
• Finished up year 1 of EfM (education for ministry) & started year 2.
• Trained to be an accredited EfM Mentor (so we can have an EfM class at St Mary's Church fall 2019.)
• Volunteered to be the Group Rep for my home Al Anon group (will start in January.)
• Got my first aquarium & group of fish that started the Aquarium Sagas on my birthday last January.
• Visited a Jewish Synagogue for the first time last spring.
• Helped with Peter's Retirement Party in June.
• Had Ashton & Austen visit in July. ♥
• Went camping (only during the daytime - Michael didn't like it) on Labor Day weekend.
• Went to the Aquarium with Josh, Hayley, Mercedes, Jackson, Chyann, Michael, Matthew & Steve on Labor Day weekend.
• Went to Matthew's high school graduation
• Went to Diocesan Convention in Price as a representative of SMC.
• Sent Matt off to the Navy; watched his graduation on the internet; visited with him at Christmas; sent him back to the Navy.
• Went "fishing" with Josh just about every Tuesday during the summer and fall (live fish - went to the fish stores just to hang out and visit.)
• Babysat Brynley for Amber & Rio at least once a month for many months - haven't done it lately, though, for one reason or another lately.
• Had preschool with Mercedes up until May 2018.
• Went to Jessica & Haylee's wedding. ♥
• Had a family dinner (basically a mini Thanksgiving) with Matt before he went into the military. 
• Went to Josh's for Thanksgiving.
• Had Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day & game day the day after, here at our house.
• Went to lunches with Sherry.
• Went to a Greg Laswell concert with Shaunna & Laura.
• Went to see Anne Lamott with Steve when she came to Park City last February.
• Attended Peter's funeral 2 weeks ago & helped put together a reception for family & friends of Peter & Carole's.
• Attended Anna & Marty's wedding last week.
• And am helping to plan Arlene's funeral for next Saturday.
• What am I leaving out? It was a very full year. ♥

Bar Cookies (AKA Bars)

Bar Cookies:

2 sticks melted butter
3 cups graham crackers
Mix together and pat onto the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan.

Put the following layer on top (in order):
2 cups coconut
2 cups chocolate chips
2 cans sweetened condensed milk

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Let cool completely. Yum!!

Ashlee's Berry (cream cheese & cool whip) Salad

Ashlee's Berry (cream cheese & cool whip) Salad

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 small yogurt (match to your choice of berry)
8 oz cool whip

3/4 bag of ( 8-10 oz bag ) frozen berries (or more or less as desired)

1/2 bag ( 10 oz ) white mini marshmallows (or more or less as desired)

sliced bananas

In a mixing bowl:
Cream sugar and cream cheese together. Mix in yogurt and thawed cool whip. Thaw and drain berries; fold in berries and marshmallows. 

Add bananas right before serving (they'll turn brown in the salad if left too long)

Post-processed pics of The Aquarium

In my hurry to get the photos of our weekend up on the blog, I just put up the straight out of the camera pics. Some of the pictures, though, I really wanted to play with and enhance color here, lighten and brighten there... So I've played with them a bit, and here are a few of my favorites.

♥ Melody

The Aquarium Sagas::Four Tanks for now

It's been a bit since I posted about the fish tanks. Since I posted last, I got the 15 gallon column tank back up and running (and fully cycled. Yahoo!) If you remember, the the 15g column is the one I started with.

We started with themed tanks.

This is the 20 gallon Fairy Tale tank.

It houses: 

2 powder blue dwarf gouramis

4 guppies

4 peppered cories

1 (juvenile size) bristlenose pleco

3 snails - 2 nerite & 1 gold inca

And 1 unidentified baby - I think it is a guppy.

 This is the 15 gallon Sponge Bob tank.

It houses: 

3 adult female platies & 

2 baby girl platies (born in this tank)

3 albino cory catfish

3 zebra danios

6 snails - 

1 nerite,

1 gold inca,

4 horned nerites.

3 amano shrimp

The shrimp are new since yesterday. 

Here is one peeking out from The Crabby Patty. 

This is the 29 gallon tank. It houses:

1 angelfish

3 mollies

5 sterbai cory catfish

1 bristlenose pleco

1 bolivian ram. 

And last, but not least, the 15 gallon column tank.

I got this one for my birthday, and it is where it all started.

I put it away for a while, but now it's back.

It houses:

5 guppies

3 neons (1 died today after being moved - I will get 2 more)

4 julii cory catfish (1 is a tiny little guy)

5 snails -

1 nerite

4 horned nerites. 

I have really loved this hobby a lot. It has been fun to be partners in crime with Josh. Our outings consist mainly of going to the fish store together, and it's great!

♥ Melody

Labor Day Weekend::Part 2 - The Aquarium

On Sunday, we took a trip that everyone agreed on: The Aquarium.
I know for sure that Josh and I were in heaven! Everyone else said that they liked it too.

Mercedes hung with me a lot, so she got a lot of pictures taken with the fish. 😊

The biggest issue that came up was when we went to the 4-D movie and water sprayed on Michael. From then on, Steve & I sat on the floor with him until the movie was over - yes, it would have been easier to leave the movie, but when "bad" things happen, Michael sits down and won't get up again, even if he says that he wants to leave.

On with the pictures!

♥ Melody