Free Speech

"He's harmless. Back in the '60s he was part of the free speech movement at Berkeley. I think he did a little too much LDS." ~ Captain Kirk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

-Nelson Mandela

"People wonder what we do for our women. I'll tell you what we do. We get out of their way and look with wonder at what they're accomplishing." President Gordon B. Hinckley

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey … delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

President Gordon B. Hinkley

Some people are like slinkies. Not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

Check out Freerice.com. It is the coolest site! It tests your knowledge of English, Chemistry and Math and with each correct answer, rice is donated to the poor. It is so much fun but so addicting.  

I take my chocolate black please.

--------

Chocolate Mug Cake....This is a real recipe

3 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 Coffee Mug

4 tablespoons flour (that's plain flour, not self-rising)

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired or just eat it out of the mug with a spoon.

PS:
We made this for Young Women one night and the girls LOVED it! It's so cool to watch the cake rise out of the mug.

One banana, two...

Banana-Cream Cheesecake

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix, divided
4 eggs, divided
3 Tbsp. oil
2/3 cup packed brown sugar, divided
2 bananas, sliced
2 pkg (8 oz each) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped topping

Heat oven to 300 F. Reserve 1 cup dry cake mix. Mix remaining cake mix with 1 egg, oil and 1/3 cup brown sugar with mixer. (Mixture will be crumbly) Press into bottom and 1 inch up sides of greased 13X9-inch baking pan; top with bananas.
Beat cream cheese and remaining sugar with mixer. Add reserved cake mix, remaining eggs and lemon juice; beat 1 minute. Blend in milk. (Batter will be thin) Pour into crust.
Bake 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 4 hours. Top with Cool Whip. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Kraft Food and Family Fall 2008

I made this recently and everyone loved it. Next time I make this, I think I will try some variations like chocolate cake mix instead of white or even sliced strawberries instead of bananas with a lemon or chocolate cake mix.
What a great recipe (and a great size) to take to a pot-luck!

Matthew the Great aka Special K

When Matthew played football, the players gave each other nicknames. Some kind of male bonding rite of passage? Maybe a teenage attempt to escape the bondage of the name his parents bestowed upon him? Go figure. The story is: Matthew's friend Jordan (aka "Sunshine") came up with the nickname "Special K" in a burst of inspiration at football practice. Matthew tells me that it is "SpecialK" with no space in between but my age prevents me from deleting the space. Oh, and those that don't call him Special K call him Matt. Not Matthew--Matt. I'm told that only his mother calls him Matthew. WOO-HOO, I'm special! He says I'm little-yellow-bus-special but hey, I'll take it.

I know I have said it before but really, how hard is it to say Keliipuleole?

I found Matthew's nickname intriguing because when William played on Pop Warner, they nicknamed him "Kellogg." You know what that means don't you? With a "Special K" and a "Kellogg" I hope I don't have a...
get ready...
wait for it...
drum roll please,
"cereal" killer in the family...
Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitress...

With his two older brothers out of the picture, my handsome Matthew is now the leader of the general population in our insane asylum. I remind him to use his power for good and not evil, but like many other alien teenagers out there, he can hear an incoming text on his cell phone from two rooms away but can't hear a word I say when I stand right next to him. I tell him important things too like, take out the trash, empty the dishwasher, mow the lawn...Strange how he can hear with perfect clarity words like money, mall, shopping, Howie's, video games or a $20 bill falling in a forest with no one around...

Now I can admit that I listen to my kids occasionally and when William told me about a website that can play music completely in the genre that you specify, I decided to check it out.

It's so cool! I have Nickleback radio, Aerosmith radio and Rush radio. Groups that are similar on my Nickleback radio---Staind, Puddle of Mudd, Creed, Evanescence, Papa Roach---or Rush radio----Boston, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen---play continuously with no commercials or talk radio! The website also lists the history of the band if you want to check it out.

I can remember a time when I knew the album, the artist, the year the song came out but now, since I know what music I like but I suffer from CRS (can't remember stuff--I cleaned it up for you), I need to rely on things like this. I'm a serious head-banger at heart (right now I am listening to Pain from Three Days Grace followed by Better Than Me from Hinder) but with an eclectic taste in music.
Check out my playlist on this blog! Multiple personalities could be a logical explanation.

http://pandora.com

"I get by with a little help from my friends"

One of my favorite "5-minute" friends, the Great and Fabulous Karen Baker, sent me this e-mail and I love it! Who needs mushy, girly friendship e-mails? Heck no! Give it to me straight up and promise me that you will always be my alibi...

The definition of true friendship with none of that sissy, mushy, cutesy, girly stuff
Are you tired of those sissy 'friendship' poems that always sound good, but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship. You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card - Just the stone cold truth of great friendship.

1. When you are sad -- I will help you plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.
4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.
5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.
6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.
7. When you are sick -- Stay away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.
8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

This is my oath .... I pledge it to the end 'Why?' you may ask; 'because you are my friend'.

Remember:
A friend will help you move.
A really good friend will help you move a body. Let me know if I ever need to bring a shovel and a truck...

Who is your "5-minute" friend? That friend is the one person who would drop everything to move Heaven and Earth to be at your side in 5 minutes. I hope you have one.

Welcome to Roswell Earthlings

We have had the usual controlled chaos here. On August 5th, we left Matthew home in charge of Samuel and the dogs (remember what happened LAST time we left the dogs with someone?) and drove William to New Mexico Military Institute, or NMMI as the cool people call it. It was supposed to take about 13 hours to drive there but with typical Keliipuleole luck, we had a tire blow out on the freeway and had to stay overnight in a sleazy Motel 6 adding 9 hours onto our travel time and spending over $600 buying four new tires, plus the motel stay. And, I think the front desk clerk at Motel 6 thought I was a hooker. Obviously, not a very profitable one since I really don't think there is much of a market for bitter-over-40-fat-and-saggy-football-mom hookers!

BUT, that's another story for another time...Okay, this is not really us.

Why, do you ask, did we buy 4 new tires when only one blew out?

Good question. 14 months ago I bought 4 new tires from Moreno Valley Goodyear, at the cost of $579, and have had two blow outs and one continually-flat-defective tire in the last two months. Using my college math I came up with 3 out of 4 tires gone "bad". Freaky. I went back to Goodyear after the first blow out (it's always on the freeway, going 70, in the fast lane, with kids in the car) and Goodyear charged me $87 to buy a new tire. WHAT? Why did I buy the road hazard protection plan? How did that save me any money? It must be all that estrogen clouding my tiny girl brain because THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!

Alan's theory is that since my Astro takes an odd-size tire, the tires Goodyear sold me were probably old. I heard that one of those expose-evening-news show actually did a piece on old tires that blow out because they have begun to disintegrate. Our tires didn't just pop and slowly go flat, they EXPLODED and shredded. They didn't blow out because they had a nail or shrapnel or even flotsam and jetsam embedded in it, the tire exploded through the sidewall. Scary. The shredded tire looked like a scarf for the Michelin tire mascot! And really, maybe one blow-out we could blame on fate, but TWO?

My tire that continually went flat? The Goodyear employee said, as he couldn't look me in the eyes, that it was a defective valve stem. Very rare, he added. Right. If you believe that, I have some great swamp-land in Florida for sale if you are interested...Oh, and the tire should be replaced at a nominal cost of $87...

SO-we bought new tires from Cathedral City Firestone who put on all four in 40 minutes! Wow! Now, there could be the remote possibility they might have been moving at the speed of light since I was really honest and open about being ready to break down and cry right there at the front desk. Men don't do well with an almost-hysterical woman who is supposed to be in New Mexico at a parents orientation for her baby's first college experience who all ready bought 4 new tires a year ago and had two separate blow outs on the freeway endangering her children not to mention her husband who had to change said tires as the semi's roared past...sorry. Got carried away there.

By the way, the auto mechanics are completely right. Don't ever hit the brakes when your tire explodes on the freeway going 70mph in the fast lane at midnight trying to get 3 lanes over to the other side safely through the speeding semi's with your husband yelling at you on how to drive...oops, I did it again.

Needless to say, our guardian angel is working overtime and she is exhausted!

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We made PB and J sandwiches in the car, ate way to much junk food, drank too much soda and listened to William's CD over and over (Viva La Vida by Coldplay) as the miles rolled by. Alan would be happy to never ever listen to that CD again but I love it!

The week before, William and his friends played Viva La Vida when I drove them down to Escondido to play paintball. That CD will always remind me of William and his friends singing at the top of their voices to the title song, Viva La Vida. We adults forget that life is an adventure and I think that sometimes we need to be reminded by the youth that it's good just to be alive.

Front gate of NMMI

NMMI is in Roswell, New Mexico, home of UFO's and aliens. Many people don't believe in extra-terrestrials but, as you can tell from the picture below, they are here and they are among us! Can you tell which aliens are from our planet and which ones are just visiting?


We went to a McDonalds which had a space ship theme and to the local Super Wal-Mart for our $5 tourist alien t-shirts. I got the same look from the Roswell locals as I was snapping pictures at Wal-Mart that we Californians give to the tourists here when they see palm trees and Disneyland! Of course, I played it off and pretended I couldn't speak English...

Beautiful Lea and gorgeous Alana at the McDonalds in Blythe

Our trip back was quiet--safely driving on four new tires--with only Alan, Alana and I to talk to each other. (Coldplay was there too, over and over and over...) We drove straight through to California, leaving New Mexico around 7pm and arriving in Blythe about 8:30am. Lee, Maribel and our beautiful, smart and perfect granddaughter Lea, live in Blythe so we called and met for breakfast at McDonalds. Fabulous air conditioning! (It's been years since I've eaten at a McDonalds and then I go and eat there twice in one week...Go figure. I LOVE those fish fillet sandwiches. .)

William can have contact with the outside world in 21 days. I know I will be his first phone call because he loves me the most and misses me more than anyone...and wants his cell phone mailed back to him.

"One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand"
Viva la Vida Coldplay

Coldplay video of Viva la Vida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5TNK-TvIcI

Beautiful, Beautiful Boy (s)

Look how much my handsome boys have grown! Lee, Samuel, Matthew and William. I blinked and they grew up.

Beautiful Boy, John Lennon

Close your eyes,
Have no fear,
The monsters gone,
He's on the run and your daddy's here,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,

Before you go to sleep,
Say a little prayer,
Every day in every way,
It's getting better and better,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,

Out on the ocean sailing away,
I can hardly wait,
To see you to come of age,
But I guess we'll both,
Just have to be patient,
Yes it's a long way to go,
But in the meantime,

Before you cross the street,
Take my hand,
Life is just what happens to you,
While your busy making other plans,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy....

The song in it's entirety :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_imwld_WzI

Where there's a Will...

This picture is taken in Kentucky when William went to the Army Leadership Training Course. Alan loves this picture of William because he is in his ACU's (Army Combat Uniform) and filthy-dirty. I think it's because of the really BIG gun William is holding...



Don't you just LOVE this picture? I want to blow it up, mat it, frame it, hang it in the living room for everyone to see...What a chick-magnet he is! It's a good thing he has his father's good looks.



The Unit theme song. Fitting for my Army son.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAUrLf03iBA&feature=related

I have heard of people who have only one child left in the family. The bathroom is always clean, the remote is right where you left it, the sink doesn't overflow with dishes, the laundry is only done once a week instead of daily... I even heard that you grow to LIKE it! Personally, I thought it was only in fairy tales and after raising five children forever, I can't imagine having order instead of chaos in this house. You mean, the toilet paper is full, I won't find toothpaste trails on the counter, hair gel on the mirror, empty containers in the fridge, half full glasses of juice hanging around? Really, is it possible?

Let's cut to the chase---WHO is there to blame if there aren't any children around?

Who cares about Waldo, Where's William?

William has been gone one whole week now. Lucky for us, he was able to take his cell phone with him. Not-so-lucky for William, HIS FATHER (please note, NOT THE MAMA) calls and texts him OFTEN.Too often. I mean, really. Give the kid some breathing room! Geez, next thing I know, Alan will be crying in the hallways at Church with his friends hugging him, hoarding all the chocolate...Good grief.

So, needless to say, I have taken appropriate action and Alan has lost the use of his cell phone until he can learn to control himself. Besides, isn't it supposed to be THE MOTHER who has a hard time letting go? HAHAHA

Our William spent five days in New Mexico at NMMI training for the LTC program before leaving for Fort Knox, Kentucky. ( We spent hours shopping for all his supplies, spent two days getting him ready, went to Wal Mart at midnight, packed his suitcase and when he got to New Mexico the only feedback I get from him is "Mom. You didn't pack any shorts for me!" Man, tough audience.) The cool thing about the program is they continually update pictures of the training and Alan has been stalking the site since William arrived in Kentucky searching the pictures in a grid pattern looking for a sign, any sign, of our son.

I was so sure I saw part of William's leg and the side view of his head--with his whole ear!-- in one picture and got so excited! (Seriously, we had long, heated conversations, debating on whether or not it was William. We REALLY need a life.) I am proud to say that in the most recent posting of pictures from Kentucky, we found an ACTUAL full-body shot of my baby although I'm sad to say, he is proudly holding a REALLY BIG gun. Yea, yeah, yea. I know he joined the ARMY but can't we all just get along?

We have posted the link below for everyone to visit. William is E Company, 1/46 Infantry. Click on Photo Gallery, E 1/46. Click on Basic Rifle Marksmanship then go to slide #4. There's my baby right smack in the middle of the group! Obviously, he's the good-looking one in the hat and cammies...

IF by chance, you spot my incredible, tall, handsome son in another slide, LET ME KNOW. I have to enjoy all this now, because when William comes home and finds out I am spotlighting him and singing his praises, I am a dead woman.

www.usaac.army.mil/acce/ltc_videos.html

President of the Tam Fan Club

My fabulous friend Tamarah, has more talent in her little finger than I have in my mammoth-sized body. She is a mother of three, former Relief Society President and all-around good guy who is service oriented, kind and smart! Tam also is very creative and has put her talent to good use sewing burp rags (Brags) and pillow covers.
check out the link below to view her creativity!

bragsragsboutique.etsy.com
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_1&listing_id=12715551

No child left behind...this year

We have had a lot of changes this week and you know how well I deal with change!! There is not a carb or chocolate bar in sight that I have not eaten and conquered. I have resorted to drinking to dull the pain and am now up to (at least) three Diet Cokes a day. Soon I will need a self-help group (local of course, with the price of gas).

It is not going well for the Mother in the family, but the children are handling things just fine, thank you very much, since the inmates run this insane asylum!

Last week, my Samuel promoted from the fifth grade. He is no longer in elementary school; he is now a sixth grader, a young man in middle school. He received an award from the Rotary Club, “Student of the Year," for Ramona Elementary, one of only two children to receive it in the entire fifth grade. His name will be placed on a plaque in the halls of Ramona Elementary School for time and all eternity or until the massive budget cuts have the teachers burning anything for heat in the winter.

We have had four boys go through elementary school, Cub Scouts, Pop Warner, Little League.... Alan coached Williams’s team for Basketball, Matthews’s team for Baseball. I even coached Alana's soccer team one, and only one, year. There have been countless Blue and Gold dinners, Pack Meetings, PTA fundraisers, field trips, book fairs, Popsicles...Where did the time go?

Poor Alana. I am going to smother her with attention in a futile attempt to record every last shred of her childhood. There may be a need for an intervention.

William graduated from Valley View High School on Wednesday, June 11th, the same day Samuel promoted. Our son was stoic, grim even. William did not want to walk or have us come to his graduation and yet, after the ceremony, he had a grin from ear to ear. Wow. That dental work paid off. I haven't seen that big a smile on his face since he discovered girls! My mother sent leis from Hawaii, which he refused to wear before the ceremony, but happily wore after in his euphoria. Of course, they completely butchered our last name when it was William’s turn to walk and collect his diploma. I mean, really. How hard is it to say Keliipuleole?

I finished this semester with four A’s and one C. (Damn that math, I should have given it the attention it deserved.) Combine Finals, one promotion and one graduation and that equals one psycho Mama! (See, I can do math!) Then, to complicate things even further, William left for college on Father’s Day. He flew to New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) for five days and then to Leadership Training in Fort Knox for five weeks. My baby! My 6’1” 18-year-old handsome baby has left the building. Smiling too, I might add.

Life goes on here in the Keliipuleole household but sometimes I just want to hit the pause button to slow it down and take it all in. The batteries must be dead in my remote because it’s not working! Oh well, Carpe Diem!

This summer I will take more classes (Biology!) in the pursuit of becoming a real-live grown-up, Matthew and Sam will go to Hawaii for two weeks (Sam for Explorations at Kamehameha, Matthew for fun) and all summer Matthew will train for football for his junior year. Alana (our social butterfly) will still practice TaeKwonDo and Minor Fields of Study (she is a Black Belt in TaeKwonDo and a Yellow/white belt in JuJitsu and Yellow belt in HanMuDo), go to Girl Scouts and Achievement days for Church. If college doesn’t pan out, maybe I can put my experience as Alana’s chauffer to good use!

Aloha,

LeAnne, Alan, William, Matthew, Samuel, Alana (Rex, Rocky and Jack, too)

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. ~Fr. Alfred D'Souza

Rocky Road Fudge and a large Diet Coke, please

Easy Creamy Rocky Road Fudge

1-4 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 package (10.5 oz) mini marshmallows

Line 8 X 8 baking pan with foil. Lightly grease foil with butter. In a 4-quart saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. Add chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and crunchy peanut butter. Stir until almost completely melted. Turn off heat, continue stirring until completely melted. Add marshmallows, stir until covered evenly. Pour into lined, greased pan. Spread evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours. Invert fudge onto cutting board, remove foil. Turn fudge top side up. Cut into 36 small pieces or 12 large pieces. Store in refrigerator.


Great for PMS!! Serve with a large Diet Coke so the calories balance out...LOL

Haole Brownies

When Kalani attended Kamehameha Schools, one of his favorite desserts was Haole Brownies, named by the students for its light color. For those of you who aren't local or local at heart, check out the definition for haole at:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/haole.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haole

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups brown sugar (packed)
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 sticks (10 oz.) butter or margarine
1 level tablespoon baking powder (double acting)
4 cups all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
1-1/2 cups diced walnuts

Directions:

Cream together brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, butter (or margarine) and baking powder.

Add and mix all-purpose flour until incorporated. Add and mix eggs until creamy. Add diced walnuts.

Mix on low with paddle for 30 seconds if using KitchenAid-style mixer. If not available, then mix with wooden spoon to incorporate, but if mixing by hand, add eggs before the flour. (A hand held mixer may not be powerful enough for this heavy batter, but try if you like.) DO NOT OVERBEAT!

Scrape down sides of bowl and then mix on medium speed for 2 minutes or by spoon for 5 minutes.

Grease two 13" x 9" x 2" pans and preheat oven to 375-400 degrees. (Note: If pan sizes are different, pour batter to a maximum of 3/4 of an inch deep.)

Divide mix evenly into pans and place on bottom rack and bake. Brownies will rise gradually for about 25 minutes and then flatten.

Wait for 3 minutes after they have flattened completely, then remove from oven and place on rack to cool.

When warm to the touch, cut to desired size.

From:

Kaleoolakaikahikinaokala Halau Cookbook,

Kamehameha Schools Food Svcs. Dept.

No dinner...but free movies

Give 1 FREE month of Netflix! Offer ends June 15th.

You know we have no life, right? Well, even if we had one, we couldn't afford to take all of us out at the same time. Our conversations would go something like this:
Everybody gets two french fries and one bite from this .99 hamburger, guys. Share the soda! It's all gone? OK, well you just have an ice cube then. This is fun right? Who got the penny change? OK, give it to me and we will save for college. (Actually, when the kids were small, that's what we would do. Sad. Sad and pathetic.) LOL

Seriously, our family loves movies. I mean, if we don't watch TV then we have to talk to each other, right? LOL So, we tried Netflix, liked it and more importantly, haven't had any problems. The price is reasonable, the selection is great and they even carry LDS movies! Currently I have about 394 movies on my queue, from television series to LDS movies to cartoons to anime to new releases. I get three movies at a time and it only takes a day or two to get movies from them.

I even did something stupid and Netflix helped me out. I bought a Diet Coke at Blockbuster and saw Charlie Wilson's War was out for rent, (great movie by the way) so I rented it and went home. Later, I went on-line to see what was coming next from Netflix and saw that Charlie Wilson's War was en route to my mailbox. So, I called Netflix, admitted that I was a complete idiot, told them what happened and they very kindly sent me another DVD right away and told me to mail Charlie back as soon as it arrived. I was impressed. She was pleasant, she laughed at my jokes and I had a new movie two days later.

It looks like a win-win for both of us if you want to try Netflix. You get a free month and I get another rental.
BUT, No worries if you are not interested. I'm interested and I will be watching Crossing Jordan Season 1 from Netflix and that's fine with me.

LeAnne

Bun in the oven...Cinnamon Bun, that is

I am so EXCITED!! I found a new stove/oven at a garage sale today, at a price I thought was reasonable, so I BOUGHT IT!!
I HAVE AN OVEN THAT WORKS!! Even the burners on the stove light up when you turn it on!! An added bonus; it's clean!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!

I know you can barely contain your excitement for me but, THERE IS MORE.

I bought the oven BUT:
A) I didn't know how to unhook the oven and rehook it up at home (I had visions of a gas leak, then we would all die and the police and fire dept. would see what a mess we live in and declare our sad-and-pathetic home a Weapon of Mass Destruction)
AND
B) I needed a truck to bring it home.
SO, I hit the Ward list and called everybody that I hadn't offended and still spoke to me.

Lucky for me, and probably unlucky for him, Kris Danielson answered the phone and DROPPED EVERYTHING to help me out. (HOW could he say no? I was on a 'manic high' babbling things like, "a new stove, burners that light, A NEW STOVE, A NEW OVEN, I CAN MAKE COOKIES AGAIN! It's been six months without an oven, Kris. SIX MONTHS!" He was probably too scared to say no...)

Kris came over and picked up Matthew, they went to pick up the stove, brought it home AND hooked it up for me!
He even saw the nasty-call-the-health-dept mess when we pulled the old stove out and didn't say a word. WOW.

Ladies, chivalry is NOT dead. It is alive and well and Shauna married him!
Needless to say, I will accept all cookie orders as long as you say 'YOU ROCK!' to Kris Danielson. LOL

It has been a VERY LONG six months without an oven. Thanks, Kris. YOU ROCK!
LeAnne