The Search for Miss Direction: Utter Utah

Well they're back, as I said last night, and we're of course up and running in a thousand directions again! They were full of things to tell me about their weekend (Mikyla now owns Frozen, her world is completely) of fun in Illinois. Noah told me he was sad ("I almost cried, Mom!") to leave and can't wait to go back. Thanks to Grandpa Gary for having so much fun with them!

But it was back to school for both this morning. Got NJ to the bus, Kayla off to school and I headed home for a little bit to do some prep work on tonight's dinner and dessert I started by making Baked Stuffed Winter Squash. I'm not quite sure why (and I did research a bit to try to find out) but I found a LOT of squash recipes in my search for Utah dishes this week. Even one for squash pie and another for squash cookies! (I decided to pass on both of those...) But this one jumped out at me as a perfect dish for a Fall evening. Another dish that kept coming up time and time again was Funeral Potatoes. Funeral Potatoes are often served at after-funeral dinners in Utah apparently. I actually have made a variation of this recipe quite a few times as they are one of Grant's hands down favorites. I knew they're be no complaints about these making an appearance. Got those done and decided (between loads of laundry) that I even had enough time to prep up our dessert of Apple Snicker Salad. The writer of the recipe claims it 'must be a Utah thing', though again, I've seen lots of variations of this recipe floating around as well. It was a no brainer for me this week as I'm trying to find ways to get rid of Halloween candy :) Plus I am heading out right after dinner tonight and wanted them to have a good treat in case they finished after I left.

So I got all that done just in time to head back to Beechview where I spent the rest of my morning reading with students in Noah's class. I'm so excited that I get the chance to do this! Twice a week every other week I get to go in for awhile and listen to the kids in his class read from their current 'level' books. I can't wait to watch them all make progress! And Noah LOVES having me there and I'll soak up every minute of that while I still can, before I'm an embarrassment to him ;-)

Finished up and grabbed the Bean from school (where she was full of news about the Letter U) and we were just pulling in the driveway when she said "it's so nice out, I wish we could take Bella for a walk." Worked for me! And I let her do the walking. CUTEST THING EVER. Bella was so well behaved and Mikayla was so diligent in making sure she stayed where she was supposed to and praising her. We successfully made it around the whole loop with Mikayla on leash duty and I'm not sure which of them was more excited and pleased when we got back. Thank you God for the beautiful day and the opportunity to enjoy it!

We got back in and the Bean helped me make my last recipe for the day Twix Cheesecake Bars. These are for me to take to our MOPS meeting tomorrow (per Missy's request!) and another stab at getting rid of the Halloween candy. The consensus - YUM!

When Noah got home from school the kiddos tackled the "We've Been There State" - not much of a challenge with only four letters, but they did a great job. We sat down to dinner a little early because as I mentioned, I'm heading out tonight. I've got a Scout Leadership meeting - my first one! Wooo hooo!

Tomorrow's another busy one with MOPS in the morning, PTA Board in the afternoon and then some 'salty' experiments tomorrow night! (Can't wait for this!) So plenty more coming at you from Utah and Casa de Gatchel on Thursday! Until then,,,

Utah Fun Fact of the Day: (Mom, this one is for you, had to go look it up!) Most of the nicknames associated with Utah are related to the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, that first settled in the territory. Deseret, in The Book of Mormon is actually a honeybee. Early Mormon settlers have been described as having carried "swarms of bees" with them. This nickname commemorates the industry of the people of Utah. The beehive was adopted, in 1847, as an official emblem and represents the qualities of industry, perseverance, thrift, stability, and self-reliance, all virtues respected by the region's settlers. The beehive is the centerpiece of the Utah State Flag and the Utah State Seal.