Bangs McCoy

More cookies

I was in the mood for oatmeal cookies today. I do not like raisin cookies, so we made these. I added pecans and toffee bits. Voila! Oatmeal Pecan Toffee cookies. The kids liked them well enough.

1 comment September 25th, 2008

Bugs are fun

When I saw this guy in my garden today, I had a flood of memories from growing up. Several times, my mom came across a little bundle of praying mantis eggs in our yard. Together we carefully put the eggs in a large glass container and covered it with netting. I would feed them, and watch the bugs hatch and grow. We raised a bunch of praying mantis babies this way, releasing them into the yard when they were bigger. I’ve always been fascinated by these bugs - they seem so smart and aware. Their little eyes follow you around and it seems like they’re actually processing the world around them. So cool.

Another funny bug memory: One time when I was pretty little, maybe six or seven, my mom and I found a bunch of bug eggs she didn’t recognize. We gave them the same treatment. They soon hatched, and looked like tiny little green spiders. Eventually, they grew into really neat-looking, bright green katydids. These things are monsters in the garden, they eat everything, so there was no way my mom would release them. So we just kept feeding them inside and watching them. When they had been full-grown for a while, every few nights, one would disappear (there were about ten or twelve to begin with). I thought maybe they were dying and the bodies were just lost in the leaves somewhere. This kept happening until eventually we just had one giant katydid. I think my mom avoided telling me what was happening, but I figured it out, and it pretty much freaked me out. A lot of my childhood memories are pretty fuzzy, but I have very clear memories of that whole event.

Add comment September 25th, 2008

Airstream BaseCamp

This month my dad bought a camping trailer. This is kind of funny, because I never thought of him as a trailer-camping kind of guy. He has always been a tent man. I guess he’s getting old. He will be taking it when he goes to the Navajo reservation (which he does quite regularly), and is also available for us kids to borrow too.

He bought it from some place in the midwest, and arranged to pick it up in Iowa. Michael went with him on the road trip, stopping off at Mt Rushmore on the way back. They gave numerous tours of the trailer to strangers and were asked a lot of questions. Some people even followed them into parking lots just to ask about it. It is pretty unique-looking. Michael took many pictures of their trip, which can be seen here.

Add comment September 24th, 2008

Ugh, ugh, ugh

I have inherited my mom’s weak teeth, despite years of fluoride as a child, and faithful brushing and flossing. I would have liked my dad’s strong ones, but I think my brothers got them instead. So, I finally decided to stop putting off my necessary dental work. I have had temperature sensitivity in one of my lower molars for several years. It began after getting a large silver filling in that tooth. It wasn’t a huge deal, painwise. My dentist at the time (who I had been going to since I was a child) tried several things to try to resolve it, but nothing worked. Although there was no evidence of a crack on the x-ray, he said he believed that a hairline crack existed there, and recommended a root canal.

I didn’t like the sound of that, especially based on no evidence other than his hunch (especially since his previous “hunches” about this tooth had not proved correct). I chose to seek out a second opinion from a younger dentist in a more modern office. He also took an x-ray and did locate a small crack. However, he felt a root canal was extreme and unnecessary, and recommended a crown. He also said that the tooth behind it needed the same treatment. Both teeth had really big silver fillings that were expanding and contracting with temperature changes and slowly breaking what little of my real teeth was left. I procrastinated, but decided not to see my old dentist anymore.

On my most recent checkup a few weeks ago I was informed that the crack was getting worse and my tooth would likely break soon unless I did something. I also had a third problem tooth - an old silver filling that was “leaking”. I finally got on the ball, starting with a porcelain onlay (a less-invasive crown) to replace that filling. Two weeks ago I was prepped for the two porcelain crowns and have been dealing with temporaries while my crowns were being fabricated. Today I got the crowns. You know it’s not going to be good when the dentist tells his assistant, “It looks like we’re going to need the laser.”

It has not been fun, but I am looking forward to the pain going away when my gums finally heal (note to self: Pick up giant bottle of Tylenol during the next Costco run!). Kind of a bummer to have crowns at the ripe-old age of 28, but what can you do? Silver fillings suck. I still have one left on the bottom and four (!) on top. Good times!

Add comment September 22nd, 2008

My favorite temple…

Today, the Primary was in charge of Sacrament Meeting. I was in charge of helping my class of four girls, ages 4-6, speak their parts into the microphone (I also had a small part myself). The oldest girl had her own part written and prepared, and required no help. I helped the younger three by whispering their short part into their ear, which they repeated.

Rees also had a part, and he did great. I helped him write it, but it was mostly him. He practiced a little, and had no problem reading his part into the microphone:

My favorite temple is the Salt Lake temple. I like to see it when my family goes into the city. I think it looks like a castle. I will learn about Jesus and listen to the prophet so I can go inside someday.

Bryan was sustained today in his new calling - Young Men President. It was pretty funny, the youth didn’t know anything was happening, so when it was announced that the current presidency was being released, the boys (and girls) all gasped and looked at each other, shocked. Then Bryan was announced as the new president, and they all breathed a sigh of relief and cast happy glances our way. The youth in our ward are big fans of Bry. He has a way with teenagers that I think is pretty uncommon.

We had my parents over for dinner - Bryan smoked some chicken. Delicious.

Add comment September 21st, 2008

Go Colts!

Today I took team photos for the Cottonwood High School volleyball team (Bryan’s dad Bob is the head coach). The location was the multi-million-dollar home of a Cottonwood supporter - a huge, utterly amazing yard with multiple waterfalls and pools. The girls are so pretty, confident, and funny too. The best pictures are on their website here.

Add comment September 19th, 2008

My favorite…

four-year-old, just before waking up from afternoon nap.

Add comment September 16th, 2008

The golf course

We had intended to go to the State Fair late this afternoon, but ended up being too tired & lazy. So we took the boys miniature golfing instead. Jamie was cranky and not really into it (see the blue ball he threw into the lovely secondary-water feature), although he did love dropping his ball directly in each hole. The place was kind of ghetto, but Rees absolutely loved it. He even got a hole-in-one with help from Bry, who somehow manages to be very good at any and all sports, regardless of how often he actually plays.

Below are a few favorite pictures. More of Rees here and a few of Jamie here.

Add comment September 13th, 2008

Where were you?

I was at home (my parents’ house), getting ready to go to work, listening to a syndicated national radio show. The show was on a significant delay. When they went to commercial break, the local DJ would give some headlines, traffic reports, etc. During one of these local updates, the DJ, sounding a little bewildered, said that reports were coming in of a serious airplane crash in downtown New York. I turned on the TV to see all the stations were reporting on the breaking news. They had live video of the tower where first crash occurred, and were speculating about what could possibly have happened. I woke up my mom and we sat and watched together. The second plane hit while we sat and watched together. I’ll never forget the reactions of the news anchors. I took my tiny b&w TV with me to Verio for work that day. It didn’t get good reception, but we didn’t have many options, since all the news websites were completely slammed and practically inaccessible. No US customers were calling that day. We had a few international calls, and each one began their call by telling us that they were so sorry about the events, and wished they didn’t have to bother us.

In lighter news, I have been seriously delinquent in picture posting. So here are some pictures of our day today. We made these cookies. The only change we made was to use half butter, half shortening. We froze the extras for later baking, as is usual around here. We also made this blueberry cake (no pictures), which we’ve been eating a lot of lately, since fresh blueberries are everywhere. Yummy.

Add comment September 11th, 2008

Fun with cows

The boys love the creek at the ranch - it entertains them for hours. We spent the morning catching frogs, feeding cows, and playing in the creek. There were two bulls that loved the kids and would come stand nearby anytime the kids were playing on the bridge over the creek.

You can see pictures of Rees here and pictures of Jamie here. Thank you to Maryanne for taking some of these as well. Here are some favorites:

1 comment September 7th, 2008