Who Likes Chili?

Last Friday was our annual Elders Quorum Chili Cook off. We have had this for several years now... David has made some form of chili for most of these years, with last year his meat being his pulled pork. This year he did a ground meat. Well, as you can see from the picture below the judges (4 Elder Missionaries, or 2 companionships however you see that) voted his chili this year as "The Best Overall Chili." 

Anyone who participated received the Red handled spatula. (We have some of these and love them because they are able to handle the "hot" temps...) The ladle was part of the "Best" award. We don't have a ladle with the drainage ability, so now we do!

David's Award

Who else enjoyed the warm weekend? We had 68 degrees here in Ohio. That was not expected. We thought we were going to have mid-50's and cloudy. All I can say is that it was a wonderful day for a Baptism! A great day for a drive too!

Geckos

Plural... We have two geckos. David spent some Christmas money on a second gecko. Baby (or Junior because it is younger than Star) is 5 or 6 weeks younger than Star. We kept them separated for a couple of months to make sure Jr was healthy and to get them close to the same size (larger geckos dominate smaller ones.) We placed them in the same habitat a little over a week ago now. They are getting along pretty good now.

This first picture they are now sharing their cave space. They do the occasional jump when the other steps on them or touches, but they are getting more used to that.

You can see Star (on the right with the stronger yellow coloring) is relaxed. The right front leg is flopped down and back. And yes, Star has lost coloring. We did not know this would happen, but we hear this is normal. We liked the strong coloring... and miss it.

Jr was turning around so I got a shot of him (or her) looking out one side of the cave.

We are hoping we get to keep them in the same habitat. We shall see.

Beards

For those of you farther away and not seen David in the last few months, this was a picture taken a couple of weeks ago. He has been sporting a beard. This was suggested by yours truly. He had never grown one, and he finally caved. He got it jump-started on a week he had to work, so no shaving was required for church that weekend. After that, he kept it trimmed.

Unfortunately he had to shave it off for his season. (Working the sprays at work, the masks have a better seal when he is clean shaven.)

So, he is back to his prior self. But, the truth of the matter is:

He enjoyed his beard more than he thought he would!

Been a While

David typed this up back in February of 2011. Then it was never posted. I thought that it would be good to show that David thinks of the blog on occasion. The following is from David.


Well I know that there hasn't been anything posted over the last 2 months. I am not usually the one to post on the blog but here we go. Sherri had stopped playing on Facebook so she could have time to keep up on the Blog, but now she is into playing the XBox. Maybe we shouldn't have gotten one, but for me it is either the Xbox or the computer. I just haven't had any time to play that much over the last couple of weeks.

I am now in my busy season at work and am working 6 days a week. I also have been doing a little work on the side. I started making beef jerky, mainly for myself, and I let a couple of people at work try it. Now I am selling quit a bit at work. Over the last few weeks I have purchase about 75lbs of beef roast and have made it all into jerky. By far they like the hot jerky that I make and only a few like the teriyaki. Sometimes it is all I can do to keep up with the amount that people want. Next I would like to try smoking it, but I need a different setup on my smoker and probably a larger smoker. Right now it would definitely be a benefit to have a larger dehydrator.

Pictures of Star

Good lighting of Star

Good head angle of Star

So they are both of "Star" hiding by "his" rock. The first has the better lighting by far! We like the green on his head, and how the black waves on his back not just lined.

David has yet to officially figure out what specific branch of the family he belongs to, but we think he may be part Tangerine or part Emerine, or part of both.

We will find out about the sex in another 5 months or so. For now "he" is the pro-noun we use.

Final naming also has yet to occur. Nick names of Star and Twitch are both concurrent. David prefers Twitch because of the tail twitching JUST prior to the attach at meal time. Sherri is holding to Star because of coloring. I even have suggested White Star, but David is semi-rejecting it because that is the name of a poinsettia. "Green Star?" (because of the eyes instead of the tail.) "Huh." Needless to say, many names have been offered and most have been rejected.

He is fattening up now too. Star has been growing, and his tail is fattening (where geckos hold body fat.) We have officially survived our first shedding too. Not in one piece like we hear it can occur, but we will hopefully get there.

Too long!!!

It has been TOOOO long. I have been thinking about this recently and thought I should be on here more.

David is busy today with a Boy Scout Merit Badge Midway today. Quiet time at the house (other than the music going on...) I was a little good with getting some laundry done, but not as good as I should have been. I read too much on a new book in the house. Not much good it does me, as the series has not been completed and they are in the middle of what could be a long wait (as in multiple books) for the final installment.

David did finally convince me to get a pet. We now have a leopard gecko. As soon as we get pictures on the computer I will post some.

Betsy & Richard Baer

In my life I found I had “Other Mothers.” The Moms of friends who I went to school with, or was interacting with so much they became my other Mom. Frequently these women knew how our group of friends called any Mom in vicinity “Mom” no matter whose mother they were. Betsy was like that for me only before I knew how to express it. She was an older sister, mom, confidant, and friend.

Betsy and Rich had many four-legged children they adopted when a good home was needed. Amy (Labrador) and Lucy (small poodle/mix) were my companions on walks and in sharing their love when I was in my early teenage years.

I am going to miss one of my angels. I was blessed to have known Betsy as my neighbor, who became my surrogate home away from home. I could go there whenever I wanted or needed to. We lived next door for only 3 years, but my feelings are quite keen as I think of this wonderful woman who is no longer in pain. Betsy suffered from MS for 37 years. She had a wonderfully loving husband, Rich, who was the love of her life.

Betsy and Rich are among the best people. Just prior to our wedding, Betsy and Rich had been talking about when I get married and how they wanted to be there. Low and behold, I had met David and we were planning our wedding. They were there. Rich took our wedding pictures.

Betsy, my angel, enjoy the new body! (I believe in resurrected bodies made whole.) You will be missed here. Rich, we love you and are praying for your peace and comfort.