I HEART Dark Chocolate

Today, I asked myself, “What do I like more than dark chocolate?

Hmmmm. Other than my family, not much. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE dark chocolate…in any form.

Dark chocolate candies



Dark chocolate fudge sauce



Dark chocolate covered pretzels



Dark chocolate fondue



Dark chocolate baths – okay, not that crazy!



I read that a little dark chocolate each day may be therapeutic. I’m glad that something I love so much is therapeutic. Right now I’m off dark chocolate for two reasons:
1) the Resolutionary Challenge
2) there’s a slight chance that they contribute to migraines

On March 31, the Challenge ends. By March 31, my health tests will be complete. On April 1, I’m looking for dark chocolate!

"Dad Day" 2011

January 29, 2011--the 6th anniversary of Bill’s death—the kids call it “Dad Day.” We usually go to the Sugar Plum to have breakfast at Bill’s favorite dive followed by a visit to the cemetery. This year it fell on Sunday, so we didn’t go to the “Plum” and decided dinner together would be a great substitute.

Among Bill’s ultra favorite dinner meals were lasagna, meatloaf, and crab. I didn’t plan ahead very well this year. First, I invited Ed for dinner but, alas, he had another commitment. Then, in checking the pantry for dinner fixings, I discovered the cupboard was bare because I didn’t get to go to the supermarket on Saturday (see the Granite Bay post). After talking with Mandy this afternoon, we decided to make Bill’s favorite breakfast for dinner: orange juice, pancake sandwiches, breakfast meat, and fruit.

After a trip to the cemetery, Alex cooked pancakes. I cooked sausages, made a fruit salad, and fried eggs. Omi made hot chocolate and set the table. The 47’s came over, Sarah said the prayer, and we enjoyed a scrumptious “Dad Day” meal.

Where the time has gone? Six years and it still feels like yesterday. I ask myself if I will feel this way every year…

I am blessed with the knowledge of the plan of salvation and so grateful that Bill and I took steps to create an eternal family.

Saturday in Granite Bay

Usually, Saturdays are work days at home. Today, because my boss couldn’t go, I attended a Technology Conference at Granite Bay High School in Roseville. Conferences are usually a mix of really good and really bad workshops. In fact, I brought my iPad with me in case there were long boring breaks or uninteresting workshops. NOT today!

I arrived early enough to check in, eat a bagel, drink my requisite water, and peruse the workshop list. While checking in, I noticed a special three-hour workshop to enhance curriculum by creating relevant content activities for iPads that students would use in the classroom. The hitch was that you had to bring your own iPad and pay an extra fee. I had my iPad, so I paid the fee.

The dynamic, entertaining keynote speaker was the Executive Director of Computer-Using Educators (CUE). That was followed by y first workshop, where I learned ways to maximize the use of our document readers. In my second workshop, I learned o set up “blended” classroom training where students attend school only three days and do online study and assignments the other two days.

Lunch consisted of a yummy taco salad bar, and I met, sat and chatted with a principal from Yuba City.

By far, my third workshop, the iPad workshop was the favorite. I sat by a great classmate in the iPad class who taught me additional things about my iPad. The three-hour workshop was worth every minute and every penny. No one even wanted to take a break!

The day went by fast because I was thoroughly engaged in the sessions, I was served great food, and I met new people,

To finish off a great day, I met Mark and Theresa in Roseville for a quick dinner before heading home. Fun!

What Did We Do BG?

I am having a hard time remembering how I researched things before Google (BG). We used to have a set of encyclopedias and used them a lot. Published in 1984, the information was old as soon as we purchased it. Annual update books were expensive and cumbersome.

Enter Google (after several other search engines paved the way) and research became instant. No opening a book. No having to take it to a photocopier to get a print. No purchasing of annual updates.

My mom doesn't use a computer, doesn't know computer terminology, doesn't even know the concept behind a computer, let alone the internet. However, sometimes when I come home from work, she will ask me about something and often says, "Let's look it up on Google." I love the "Let's" part. So, "we" do and find more interesting information than we can read in a night.

Since I use Google at least once each day, I learn about all the fun trivia Google sometimes posts instead of its logo. Today is the 125th anniversary of the largest snowflake. Hilarious!


I love Google!

Who Needs a Name Brand?

In 2004, I called my brother, Bart, on Thanksgiving Eve. He was shopping at CompUSA and told me that they were having a killer of a sale. So, I sped to our local store and he was right. One of the items on sale was a Protron DVD player for only $19.99. The player was a nice slim design, had a ton of features, and was "progressive scan," whatever that means.

Could a DVD player that cheap be any good? Whoever heard of Protron???? I hesitated for a nanosecond and then asked a salesperson what the limit for purchase was. He said that there was no limit.......whaaaat? Although slightly worried that CompUSA was trying to dump a bad product, I bought four of them. We gave one to my dad; one to Mandy and Mark; we kept one; and brought one to a Christmas party with a couple of DVD's attached where it was "stolen" over and over and over.

Protron is a little hard to say and we always laughed about the name. When getting ready to watch a DVD, P r o t r o n displays all the way across the screen until the DVD is inserted. It's funny.

I am one of several movie-holics in my family, so our DVD player takes a LOT of abuse. On Monday evening, after over SEVEN years of faithful service, the Protron bit the dust. Sad.

Bacon

I love bacon. Who doesn't? The saltiness, the crunchiness....yum! Bacon and eggs, BLT's, bacon tots, spaghetti carbonara.....double yum! Today I saw a picture of bacon and my mind immediately went back to 1970. One Friday night, after playing cards at a former sister-in-law's house, we were hungry. She said she'd make a quick breakfast for us before we left. Out came the bacon, eggs, and a cast iron skillet. She quickly fried the bacon until it was crispy. Then, shockingly, she didn't clean out the pan to cook the eggs. Instead, she cracked each egg directly into the bacon grease and began spooning the hot grease over each egg, cooking the eggs on both sides at the same time. Whaaaat?

I had never seen such a thing. She toasted the bread and soon we were ready to eat. It was the most delicious breakfast I'd ever eaten. I can almost feel my arteries clogging up thinking back about that time.

Good Night and Good Luck

If you haven't seen this movie, about Edward R. Murrow, it is an interesting film done by George Clooney. Shot in black and white on 16mm film, it makes you feel like the entire thing is real and not a recreation of that era or radio, television, and reporting.

Check it out on Netflix.

Good night......and Good Luck!

What's Up with These Migraines?

Yet another migraine today. I'm starting to feel like a hypochondriac. Migraines are really disruptive. Today I missed a breakfast with friends and a fun wedding. And, it’s hard to do the 30-minute required daily exercise of the Resolutionary Challenge.

The only upside is that I was forced to take it really easy today. When I felt better, I read most of this:



I’m wondering if there a connection between my horrible sinus congestion and my migraines. Will be asking the allergist on Friday.

Ugh!

Monday

Tuesday

Friday

Okay, that's ENOUGH!

All in a Day's Work

In a 24-hour period:

• Student expelled
• Student expelled
• Student expelled

Sad!

Bye. Bye, Bear!

30 years ago, Bonnie and I would hit practically every Christmas boutique in Concord and Walnut Creek. The problem was that we couldn't afford most of it. At one boutique, we saw the cutest bear tree topper, but it might as well have cost a million dollars. The next best thing was to take a really good mental picture of it and with some inexpensive things and a lot of hot glue, re-create it. For almost 20 years, this little bear sat upon the top of our tree and the kids loved it. This year, I decided to do some real purging of old Christmas ornaments and, because my kids are FULLY grown and the topper was falling apart, this made the list. Norma no longer does the annual ornament/decor "burning," so I had to throw it into the garbage, but not before I took a picture of it for posterity(???).

Thanks for the years of fun, Bear!

We Are the Champions.....

No WE are not. I am! We Leals (Andy, Beth, Mandy, Mark, Alex, and I) participate in fantasy football. Our league is called the Extreme Croquet League and Mandy is the manager. Each year, we choose a date in August when we can all get on our respective laptops and computers to draft our teams in a frenzied, online, activity. Here are a couple of pictures from a prior year's draft:

Each year's winner is taken out to dinner paid for by the rest of the league (by the way, this has never happened). However, a coveted trophy is given to the winner and that person gets to keep the trophy until the next football season produces a new winner. We are actually on our third trophy because the first two broke. This is what the latest one looks like:

We started the league in 2005, so have six years of fantasy football behind us.

The winners so far include

2005 - Mark Romney

2006 - Beth Leal

2007 - Mandy Romney

2008 - Mandy Romney

2009 - Beth Leal

2010 - Beth Leal

2011 - Me, I mean I; it is I! I'm the winner this year! Yippee! I get the trophy.

I want to thank my great team:

Tom Brady

Adrian Peterson

Ray Rice

Gregg Jennings

Larry Fitzgerald

Percy Harvin

Jimmy Graham

John Kasay

NYJ Defense

and my bench backups: BenRoethlisberger, Jeremy Maclin, Jermichael Finley, Robbie Gould, and the NO Saints Defense

I'm going to love displaying the trophy! AND, I'm going to insist on dinner this year, too!

Dinner and a Movie

Alex is in Utah to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday. After we dropped him off at the airport, Mom and I decided we didn't want to cook, so drove to Walnut Creek to see about dinner and a movie.

First, Walnut Creek is just fun! Second, there are hundreds of good places to eat. We decided to eat at Cheesecake Factory because it is directly across from the movie theatre. The waiter suggested the Chicken Bellagio and said that not one of his patrons has ever said that they didn't love it. Picture this stack:
-Basil pasta
-Parmesan cheese sauce (light)
-Pounded (flat) chicken breast
-Prosciutto
-Arugula salad
It is seriously a stacked meal in a platter big enough for two and, as promised, was absolutely delicious!

We then walked to the theatre and saw the great Meryl Streep in:




Busy day, fun evening, and still met all of my Challenge goals. Yippee!

Resolutionary Challenge

So, here is the daily Challenge list:

1. Exercise for 30 minutes
2. Drink 48oz of water
3. 2 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fruits
4. No unhealthy food or drink (soda, coffee, "bad" fast food or snacks, etc.)
5. No sweets, candies, chocolates, etc.
6. No eating after dinner, or 8pm (whichever is later)
7. Read 15 minutes of scripture or other spiritual text
8. Devote 15 minutes to accomplishing a written personal goal
9. Go out of your way to help someone else
10. Write a journal entry (of any length)

2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are pretty easy for me. The rest...not so much.

Wish me luck!

Waiting for Sunday...

I'm getting older.
I'm out of shape.
I'm a workaholic.
I'm a night owl.

I, like my friend, Lanette, want to be around for my grandkids...

When I was in Seattle last week, Mandy told me about an annual activity in which many of her friends participate called the "Resolutionary Challenge."

The premise is to create or recommit to good habits by achieving a set of goals each day for 12 weeks. There is a competitive component to it as each goal is worth a point for 10 points per day, 70 points per week, a total of 840 points for the 12-week challenge. And, there are prizes at the end; what's not to love about that?



Being somewhat competitive and a bit of a gambler, I joined the challenge.

When I received the list of goals and finding out that Sundays, Valentine's Day, and my birthday were free days, I thought, "easy peasy!"

I just completed day 3 and I am counting the hours until Sunday! Yikes.

Two-and-a-half-Years? No Way!

What happened to the past 2 1/2 years? More important, what actually HAPPENED during those past 2 1/2 years? Starting with the last blog post, here's a recap:

June 2009 - Keuning Family Reunion aboard a Carnival cruise ship to the Bahamas.

August 2009 - Sarah Katherine was born to Andy and Beth in Concord, California.

September 2009 - Sietze(Sy, Dad, Papa, Opa) passed away in Mariposa, California.

It was interesting to note that Aronson Edward was born in December 2005 and a month later, his Papa, Edward William passed away. Four years later, Sarah Katherine was born in August and a month later, her greatgrandfather/Opa, Sietze passed away.

September 2009 - Ilse (Mom, Oma, Omi) moved from Mariposa to Ceemar Ct.

October - December 2009 - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas

January 2010 - I bought a house.

January through June 2010 - with help from special family and friends, lots was accomplished on "the money pit."

May 2010 - Holland trip with Mom.

June 2010 - Greyson Merlin was born to Mandy and Mark in Everett, Washington.

July 2010 - Andy, Beth, Aron, Will, and Sarah moved to 47.

September 2010 - Labor Day in Mariposa (Annual Fair)

December 2010 - Friend, Jon Aikele passed away unexpectedly.

January 2011 - I turned 60!!!!!! What??????

February 2011 - Leal Family trip to Disneyland (it was not "the happiest place on earth" for Cohen Romney...

March 2011 - busiest schedule ever for WC Stake YW Presidency (Stacey, Lisa, Joann, me), Mandy came to visit (and attend Heather's wedding).

April through July - A big blur of events: Easter, Seattle trip, Rucker Lake pre-trip, Opera with Mom, Girls Camp planning, and more.

August 2011 - Girls Camp - Rucker Lake, Alex 1/4 century old (what????), one of my BFF's moved half way across the country, road trip with Bonnie.

September 2011 - Labor Day in Mariposa, road trip with Alex and Andy to Rexburg, Alex starts school at BYU-I.

October 2011 - Seattle (Amanda and Tim wedding), completed 28 quiet book pages!

November 2011 - Thanksgiving in Mariposa

December 2011 - Breakfast with friends, primary baptism, dental appointment, bi-annual plumbing problem, Andy birthday, Aron birthday, Broadway Plaza ornaments and Starbucks, service dinner, annual friend luncheon, slept through Christmas (sick), trip to Seattle.

Phew, that was a fast 2 1/2 years!

Happy 2012, everyone!