Apple of our Eye

We picked up 13 different kinds of apples at the store yesterday, and had a taste test this afternoon. After much tasting and deliberation, the Jones family ranked favorites are:

1) Fuji (#1 choice by Hal & Teresa)
2) Cortland (#1 choice by Allie & Ty)
3) Gala (#1 choice of Courtney & Dad)

Fuji did well, making it on almost everyone's list of favorites. Granny Smith and Golden Delicious also had multiple votes. The Rome apples looked really neat because they were red inside, and the Ambrosia apples had an interesting taste. After the voting was complete, we realized that 13 apples was too many to get everyone to eat, so we pulled out the dipping caramel, and that did the trick.














We've done some other tastings recently-- we tried different kinds of cheese one day, and different types of butter (on Saltine crackers) the following week. The refrigerator is still packed with perhaps more butter than we will use in six month's time, and has an interesting smell, too.

Under the Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas! Here's a picture of Courtney helping Dan extract an airplane and other elements from his new "Diego Rescue Unit". Had a really fun Christmas, and a great time singing and visiting at Mom & Dad's the next day.

We intend to goof around and play games up through the start of the new year. Love you all!

Cool Holiday Greeting from Amy

Check out this funny Jib Jab movie that my sister Amy sent!

Dan making Christmas Cookies

Here's a photo of Dan helping his Mommy make some cookies for Allison's class at school.

Trimming the tree

I was so inspired by Mom's snowball fight video, that I decided to make one of the kids trimming the tree. Starring Tyler, Natalie, Dan, and Levi!

A Historic Post

I listen to NPR sometimes, and I get a little bit annoyed when I hear "an" used with "historic" rather than "a historic". With a name that starts with "H", I am sensitive to this because it makes it seem like "H" is not a consonant, or that it does not even exist. The linguistic rule is that a/an is used only based on the sound of the word, not the spelling.

Consider that even words that start with vowels use "a" when it sounds like they begin with a consonant-- "a used car". Why can't "a" be used consistently with "H"? Would it sound OK to say "an hotel" or "an hippopotamus"? I really don't think so.

Having lived in Britain, I know that sometimes "h" is not pronounced very strongly, so I think this is a throwback to old days. So, I think "an historic" is a bit pretentious and somewhat confusing for everyone. I say we stand up for the letter "H"!

Kilgore cemtery

I did my first full cemetery transcription, and you can find it here at Interment.net. It's named Kilgore cemetery, near Odon in Daviess County Indiana. It has a lot of Teresa's Byrer and Kilgore ancestors. We transcribed it the day after Thanksgiving, and it just took a few (chilly) hours.

How Dora the Explorer taught my toddler to lie and steal

Teresa made Christmas candy yesterday, and Dan took some off the counter and ate it while she was not looking. The funny thing was that when she asked him who took the candy, he immediately answered "Swiper," the thieving fox from Dora the Explorer TV show. Pretty funny! We always assumed that PBS kids shows were a good influence. Not quite.

Ho ho ho!

We are getting into the Christmas spirit. Here's Teresa helping Dan trim the tree. It's Dan's year to put the star on top of the tree, and we're getting ready to do that. The other tradition that we did today with surprisingly little mess was the kids all put a painted handprint on the skirt around the Christmas tree each year. They did great- it's fun to see them growing over the years.

Had a ward Christmas party last night-- it was chilly when we went in, and there was snow all over the ground when we came out.

Not sure how ambitious I'm going to be with the outside lights this year-- we have a huge pine tree in the front yard, but I'm not sure I could get any higher than the bottom half of the tree... we'll see.

Andy the Eagle

We attended an eagle court of honor for my nephew, Andy Manning, on Friday night in Odon. The ceremony was held at the Shiloh church, and I got to give him the Eagle charge. He's the son of Teresa's sister, Ann. Way to go, Andy! Good to have another Eagle in the family.

We made it back tonight from festivities in Ft. Wayne, and got to see uncle John for a little bit before we took off. Also had some good discussions around the recording session we're planning on 12/26 in Ft. Wayne at Tempel recording studio.

We drove for about 16 hours on this trip to Indiana, and it was a bit easier because we listened to a children's book on CD called "The Navigator." Courtney and Hal liked it a lot-- it involved time travel, adventure, and saving the world.

Thanksgiving on Coldwater Rd.

Having a nice Thanksgiving feast at Mom & Dad's. Enjoyed Pat's curry & raisin chip dip and Amy's pulled pork-- Yum! The kids are playing in the basement. Fun for ours to see Amy's kids after not being together for quite a while.

My pinewood derby

I made a pinewood derby for Cub Scouts. We are going to race them on a track at church. Mine is green. I am going to put a little Yoda in a slot in it. The saw broke while we were making it.

-from Tyler

...and more on the subject of caramel...

Somebody in our culinary center is definitely on a kick to have us try caramel corn in different types of dishes. This was very interesting-- sweet potatoes in caramel sauce, topped with caramel corn. Actually very good. I thought all sweet potatoes were orange, but there are many different kinds, as I learned. These were yellow.















This was one dish of many that we tried for the big Thanksgiving bash put on by the chefs. There were some traditional favorites, like turkey and cranberry sauce, and some interesting twists. We had a pumpkin soup that was very good, which had a light curry taste. One of my favorites was the sweet-spice roasted carrots. They were fresh carrot pieces baked in olive oil and a spice rub. Very nice.

They made a cool pastry cornucopia that was about 2 feet tall. The little plastic things around it were bags of candies for us. I learned the secret to a very large pastry-- chicken wire!

Dan enjoys making family night caramel apples

We love caramel apples in the Fall! This time we experimented with mini-chocolate chips.

A year with no shaving cream

I stopped using shaving cream about a year ago when it became annoyingly difficulty to transport liquids during travel. At that point, I was using my Gillette Sensor Excel razor. My thoughts were to use bar soap in hotel rooms, but that made my razor gunky. I even considered mixing up some soap lather, "pappy george style", but didn't know where to get such a thing.

So I started shaving with no shaving cream, I just used my razor and relied on the little lubrication strip at the top. I learned that it worked fine, as long as I shaved right after a warm shower.















I recently got a Gillette Fusion razor free in the mail, and it also works great with no shaving cream. I have several cans of shaving cream at home, but I am pretty confident they will not get used.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Hey everyone! It's Amy's birthday. My newly Hoosier-ized sister is another year older today.

Happy b-day!

Sam and Natalie Dance

To recognize more of our family members with dancing skillz-- here's Sam and Natalie!

Tyler football championship

Tyler's flag football team played for the city championship in the playoffs yesterday. They were runners-up in their conference. Here they are with trophies. Way to go, T-Bone!!

Pat and Amber - Disco Fever

See them in the 70's disco movie they never thought you would see. Hee hee! We're having a little bit too much fun with this :)

Culinary presentation today

Sometimes my job is interesting. I got to eat this really good dish called bacon cheeseburger mac 'n cheese, based on a dish from S'Mac restaurant in Manhattan. The weirdest things I ate today were ravioli the size of a dinner plate...














...and shrimp in carmel sauce with buttered popcorn on top. Both are dishes that our chefs have tried on recent restaurant culinary tours.

Night of the Living Democrats

This movie is so hilarious that I almost fell off my chair. The kids are great in this one, too.

The Can-can

Watch the kids do the can-can here. They really put their heart and soul into it. :)

Chili cook-off

We had the annual ward Trunk or Treat last night, including the chili cook-off. We had heard about the success in the Ft. Wayne ward with just buying Wendy's chili and putting it in a crock pot for judging. It didn't work out for us though-- we tried that and despite an exciting name like "Old-Fashioned two-step chili" we still didn't place in the top three. We'll try again next year. (Note: The "two steps" in two-step chili are #1 buy and #2 reheat in a crock pot.)















The picture is of Teresa eating our non award-winning but very delicious chili. She is holding Dan the skeleton who really enjoyed whacking people with that giant plastic bone that you see sitting on the table. Allie and Tyler were both bats, Hal was a spider web, and Courtney was a fly.

We get cheap candy through our Nestle channels, which always comes in handy this time of year. We can get cheap candy, dog food, contact lens solution, Power Bars, makeup, frozen food, hot chocolate, and Nesquik at the employee store.

Harry spent the morning at Andrew Rickoff school yesterday morning teaching 1st graders a half-day program through Junior Achievement. It's an inner-city Cleveland school with a lot of needs, but the program went pretty smoothly.

Batgirl

Sad to read this morning that the Indians lost. Seeing Allie in her new Halloween costume cheered us up.

Recipe for "Batgirl" -
1 black hoodie
black duct tape
black felt
1 black umbrella
wire cutters

Into the woods

We are loving the Fall weather. The picture is of Dan and Allie playing in the woods behind our house. The trees are changing color, and we took a long walk in the Cleveland Metroparks South Chagrin trails today. You can see some red and yellow leaves among the kids' feet in the photo.

Hal and Tyler both had football games this weekend, and Courtney spent the afternoon babysitting to try to make some money. She's short on cash after spending her life savings on a Wii.

















Teresa spent the day Saturday doing a service project with the Young Women making audio books on tape for kids to listen to in the Rainbow Babies and Children's hospital.

Harry went early Saturday morning with Courtney and Allison to the Original Pancake House. The coconut waffles were excellent, and to be recommended. The bacon was also great.
















We assume that there are not many more days left this year that we will feel like laying in the hammock, so we are making the most of the beautiful weather.

We're checking online to see how the Indians are doing tonight, but the score is 3-1 Red Sox right now in the fourth inning. Not too sure they are going to pull it out or not.

Trapeze School

Harry spent a few days in New York city this week for a meeting, and went with his work group to the New York trapeze school for some excitement during the day. The school is in Manhattan, on top of a building, and overlooks the New York skyline.














The kids were off school on Friday, and we watched eagerly to see last night how the Indians would do, but were sad to see them lose to the Red Sox last night-- oh well, hopefully they can do better in game 2.

A couple of football games for the boys today. Hal had a game earlier in the week, and made a long reception, which was great.

We had Family Home Evening Monday, and thought of Pat as we enjoyed a game of Bohnanza with the kids. It's one of the few things we can do that is enjoyed equally with the kids at their various ages, other than hide and go seek.

Hal court of honor

Here's Hal with some merit badges he earned at camp.

Tyler football

Here are some pictures of Tyler playing football. He plays center for the "Jets" in the city flag football league. Last night was his 4th game, and he won his team MVP award. Hal is into football season, also, and is a running back this year.

Primary Activity

Here's Tyler swinging in Kirtland on the grounds of the church history sites. This is near the Newell K. Whitney store. The kids attended a Primary activity day there yesterday.

Dan in pajamas

Here's Dan in his warm pajamas. He's so cuddly! No more duct tape required :)

Eagle project in the cemetery

Below is a picture of Courtney and Harry at an Eagle service project this morning for one of the young men in our ward. The project consisted of writing the names and dates from all the gravestones in a nearby cemetery. Had about 20 people attend, which was good. Weather is beautiful today.















Speaking of family history, Harry just finished entering all of Grandpa George's genealogy online, which was cause for celebration. That has been about a three month project.

Tyler had his first football game, and with a great defensive stand by both teams, it ended up in a 0-0 tie. Tyler also went with the Cubs on a bike ride this morning.

Teresa did a bit more work painting in the kitchen, and we're liking that it looks so different.

We all watched Kid Nation on Wednesday, keeping an eye out for the kids doing dangerous things on their own. We actually thought it was pretty funny, especially the kids. Tyler has it set to record for next week.

At Oprah's Studio

This is a photo outside Oprah's studio. I'm on the left, along with an associate brand manager, our marketing director, and public relations manager. The women with bags came out of the studio carrying the Komen bags that we handed out to everyone in the audience. I don't think the bags themselves will make it on air, when the episode shows next Monday.















A segment of the program was filmed in our kitchen, where we come up with new ideas for Lean Cuisine. I did not get to meet Oprah, but I did get to spend the day with Bob Greene, who is endorsing Lean Cuisine, along with a producer for the Oprah show. The segment is about how companies come up with new products and make them healthy. I got to help put the story together for what they talked about. Oprah narrated the segment, but is not in it.

We got to go back stage at the show and met with the executive producer. The show was really fun, and we got great seats. General Mills is also featured on the show, and we ended up sitting next to them and had very good seats. We got to hang around in the studio watching everyone get their makeup and rehearse their lines before the audience came in and they started taping.

Oprah seemed really nice-- even after the cameras stopped, she spent a lot of time talking to people in the audience. She found an older lady in the audience and greeted her, then had a photographer get a picture of them together.

No idea if I'll be in the studio segment, but I'm in the kitchen segment twice-- once is the back of my head, so I'm not sure if that counts. The other one is a shot of our team that lasts for about half a second-- I think that counts. Look for the blue and brown shirt if you are taping it-- that's me!! It may work better in slow motion! :)

Kitchen with orange curtains

Apple pickin' fun

We went to an apple orchard nearby yesterday and picked a lot of apples. Every kid got about a bag full, so we are not sure what to do with them all.

Hal found this apple crumble recipe this afternoon, and we are going to attempt to make it. Apples are now peeled and ready to go. We also have some green peppers from our garden that we cut up and had with lunch.















Pretty rainy day. Church was good-- the son of our former hometeacher had his mission farewell.

Harry got to go to Oprah's studio this week, and is looking forward to a segment featuring Lean Cuisine on 9/17.

Teresa went to a stake Relief Society meeting in Kirtland yesterday, and enjoyed being with the sisters. Theme was "remodeling your life". Speaking of remodeling, the kitchen remodeling is almost done. We are trying to choose between green curtains and orange-- currently leaning toward green.

Courtney got contacts on Friday, and is noticing that she can't see anything up close any more. May need to get her prescription looked at. Kids are into school full swing, and everything seems to be going well so far.

Duct Tape Dan

We were asked to demonstrate our solution to Dan's habit of removing clothes and diaper at night to mess on the carpet. Exhibit 1 shows duct tape around the diaper. Exhibit 2 shows long "footie" pajamas with duct tape around the waist. Seems to have done the trick!

Labor Day at Mom & Dad's

Had loads of fun and ate lots for Labor Day in Ft. Wayne! Good to see everyone.

First week of school

The kids started school on Tuesday, and all the kids seem to be enjoying it so far. Everybody made it to their classes successfully, and they have friends in their classes.

This picture is Dan in the spot where our sink and countertop used to be. The area right behind his head is where we removed some tile and repainted. We now have countertops and the sink in, and are continuing to make some final improvements.

Beautiful day today. We went with Tyler to clean the church this morning, and are thinking about doing some more painting with the kids today. May head to the park later.

Harry got to be on a TV segment that was being produced by the Oprah show this week. The topic is how Lean Cuisine developed their panini sandwiches. He will be in Oprah's studio in Chicago on Thursday to do a segment in her studio. We think the show will air 9/17.

Teresa is busy getting a lesson together for Young Women tomorrow, and will be talking about making good choices.

We ended up going to the Rock 'n Roll hall of fame last week, without the the kids. It was a lot of fun; couldn't really see it all in a day. Would recommend it, but not necessarily for kids. We love you all!

Aurora shores

Went to a cookout with some friends Friday night, and the kids got to play on the beach at a nearby lake and went out and got pulled on an innertube. They also did a little swimming.

We met the kids' teachers this week, and they are looking forward to school starting on Wednesday. It will be Allison's first experience with all-day school, heading into 1st grade. Courtney is going into 7th grade, Hal will be in 6th, and Tyler is a 4th grader this year.

Efforts to remodel the kitchen continue, and we have the dust to prove it.... :)

Harry is coordinating a PR event at his office-- a segment of the Oprah show will be filming here on Wednesday, showing how Lean Cuisine comes up with ideas for new products.

Teresa had a nice event with the Young Women this week, with a "Newlywed Game" format to see how well moms and daughters know each other.

Dan is now sleeping in Hal's room, and we are pleased to report no more peeing on the floor in the middle of the night. Yay!! We literally did duct tape him around his diaper one night this week to ensure compliance.

All hands on deck

The kids are painting the deck this morning. We've noticed that the falling acorns and leaves end up staining the light blue color, so we're trying red this time. Initial motivation was high on the part of the kids, but appears to be waning.

Harry was in California for three days this week touring produce processing facilities and working on ideas for new Lean Cuisine products. He's also been collecting some family history information lately.

Teresa took the kids swimming a lot this week, and removed the tile from our kitchen walls in the next phase of our kitchen remodeling. She's preparing questions now for a mother/daughter "newlywed game" activity for a combined Young Women activity next week.

Dan has removed all of his clothes and diaper for the second night in a row now, and we found him this morning out of his bed asleep and naked in front of the TV with pee all over the carpet. It seems like he's fitting into the family just great :) We may need to start going back to the one-piece pajamas for a while.

Weather has been great lately, enjoyed going over to some friends this week with the sister missionaries and had dinner outside with them on their patio.

They did it! Seven hours and three buckets of paint later... looks pretty good.

Pioneer Day Activities at Johnson Farm

Had a ward campout and pioneer day activity at Johnson Farm this weekend in Hiram. Weather was great for the festivities. Harry provided some entertainment with singing and guitar playing around the campfire Friday night, and the kids stayed up late playing in the woods. Played lots of pioneer games and had a hot dog roast for lunch on Saturday.

Three of our kids lost teeth on Friday... guess who?... and the answer is... Courtney, Hal, and Allison all lost teeth on the same day. The tooth fairy will be busy tonight because she decided not to come to the pioneer day campout.

Dan burned his thumb at the campout-- we're not sure how he did it-- maybe a lantern--but he has a little blister on the tip of his thumb. He is happier today and it does not seem to be bothering him.

Teresa has been working on remodeling the kitchen, removing a set of cabinets with Hal and has repainted the walls and ceiling. Will show some pictures when we get it all done. The kids have also helped a lot with house cleaning this week.

NYC Trip

Harry and Hal returned from their trip to New York City this morning. One picture is of Hal in front of the original Nathan's hot dog stand at Coney Island-- home of the world hot dog eating championships! You can't tell from the picture, but the line inside to buy a hot dog was unbearably long. The other photo is Harry and Hal in front of the Manhattan temple, which is also the building where the Manhattan ward meets. Hal was one of the only Primary kids there on Sunday, and there were not many youth-- mostly young couples or some older folks. Pretty building inside.

Other highlights of the trip included seeing two Broadway shows--"Wicked" and "The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee". Both were great entertainment. Saw a lot of NYC tourist sites like the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building. Had a nice time at the Natural History Museum and playing in Central Park.

Courtney and Tyler have been attending a summer creative writing camp this week, and Courtney has created several poems, including a haiku about Bubbilicious:

Bubbilicious gum,
Cracked, soft, Bubbilicius gum,
Sour, sweet, chewy, POP

Teresa took Allison and Hal to Geauga Lake last Wednesday to celebrate Allison's success with scripture story memorization this summer. The weather was hot, so a good portion of the day was spent in the water park.

Harry's work responsibilities at Nestle changed this week, with the same team and same boss, but he now oversees new product development for Lean Cuisine. He will be in Northern California next week to meet with some ingredient suppliers.