Lauren's Twelve!

Lauren turned twelve on July 24th. She got kidnappped and taken to breakfast in her PJs by some friends, she played with her presents, got her ears pierced, got her hair cut, and went to SPAC to see the NYC Ballet. What a birthday. The next day she had a friends birthday party. They played twister on a giant twister board, decorated little cakes, ate ice cream pie, opened presents, and played Apples to Apples.



Then on Sunday Grandma B., and her Aunt, Uncle, and cousins came over to celebrate with Lauren's favorite dinner - scrambled eggs, sausage, blueberry muffins, hash browns, and OJ. Her Aunt brought a cake that was decorated with half for Lauren and half for Rob, as it was his birthday that day. They each blew out half of the candles.

New Bedroom Furniture!

Today we got new bedroom furniture. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. There were times when I didn't think it would ever happen. It totally changes the look of our room - in a good way.

Fireworks at the Empire State Plaza

The ward had a 4th of July pancake breakfast outside today. It was fun. There was also a hot air balloon there taking people up about 30 feet. That was fun. Lauren and Glen rode their bikes over. I had food to take and Jared can't ride his bike right now so I drove us over. After that we went and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the Scotia Cinema. It was just what you expected, which made it fun. After that we went home and grilled ribs and potatoes on the BBQ. It was yummy. Then we went to the Empire State Plaza to see the fireworks. We've never actually been to the plaza for fireworks before. Once long ago we watched them from across the river, but that's not the same. Brian Adams was the act before the fireworks. I really only recognized one song and it was really LOUD! The fireworks were the best we've seen in NY. Usually we go to Clifton Park or Scotia for fireworks. They do about half of what the Empire State Plaza does. It was a lot of fun, and we managed to be at the front of the crowd leaving so getting to the car and getting home weren't too bad. It was a fun, relaxing 4th of July.

Jared has surgery

Yesterday at 5:45 a.m. Jared and I left for Ellis Hospital-McClellan Campus to have arthroscopic surgery done on his wrist. He had some torn cartilage that had been causing problems for about 9 months now. First it's wait to see if it fixes itself. No - then call primary care physician. Wait weeks for appointment. Told to try 3 Advil 3 times a day for a month (stomach eaten away). Doesn't fix problem. Sent for imaging. Inconclusive. Sent to orthopedist, suggests physical therapy. Two months of that, no better. Back to orthopedist, sent for imagine where they inject dye into site. Yes, something is wrong. Will surgery fix it? Do we want to try to wait it out? Decide to do surgery because it's not getting better on its own. At this point it's almost tennis season. Ask orthopedist if it matters at this point if he has surgery after tennis. He says "No". After tennis it's the end of school and he needs right hand to write for finals. Decide to schedule surgery right after school ends. Get an appointment on July 3rd, changes to July 1st, and finally settles on July 2nd (unfortunately we were supposed to meet a good family friend getting home from a mission on the 2nd - Oh well, what can we do). Who would ever have thought that something that happened last August would finally get fixed the next July. He'd supposed to be in the bandage until July 9th, then probably in a splint. And then we hope it's truly fixed!

Strawberry Ice Cream

Last night for FHE we had Helen and Suzanne & kids over for a BBQ. Afterwards we got ready to to freeze homemade strawberry ice cream. But...just when the freezer started turning our power went out. What a delima - do we wait and see if it comes back on soon, or do we go to Suzanne's house to freeze it? After a call to the power company and an estimate of four hours before we'd have power we headed to Suzanne's. It was done about 8:45p.m. So we had our FHE lesson while we ate the ice cream. We haven't made homemade ice cream in years. It was delicious!

Ice Cream
from Helen Brooksby

5 c. blended strawberries or peaches
juice of 1 lemon
3 c. sugar
4 separated eggs
pinch of salt
1 qt. 2% milk or whole milk
1/2 pt. heavy cream
2 tsp. vanilla
2 drops red food coloring (if needed)

Blend 5 c. berries, 2 c. sugar, and lemon juice and set aside. Beat egg shites and salt until stiff. Add 1/2 c. sugar. Beat until it looks like meringue. Beat egg yolks with 1/2 c. sugar until llight yellow. Put fruit in. Fold in yolks. Fold in meringue. Add milk, cream, and coloring. Freeze.

Note: strawberry-banana tastes great!

Graduation Weekend

We've spent most of the weekend going to graduation parties. Jared's been to some; Lauren and I have been to some; Glen and I; and Glen, Lauren, and I have been to some. I don't think Jared came to any of the ones the rest of the family went to. I guess he's getting old enough to know kids that are graduating this year and wanted to go to their parties. We also attended a piano/flute recital which was great. Erin called and told us that she and Justin have signed a contract on an apartment in Logan. They're excited, it's a fourplex and theirs is a basement apartment, but it's only half way underground - so there are still windows, etc. Cousin Jennifer went with them to Logan to visit one of her friends. They're driving her back to SLC today. Some really exciting news is that Glen and I are getting bedroom funiture. After 23 years of marriage to finally have furniture is really exciting!

First Letter from Brett in Birmingham

Well today is P-day and well I'm both excited and still exhausted, as you might expect. I think I may still be 4 hours behind instead of the 7 I was behind by. Today we are mailing from the library because that is the closest place where we can use computers. It's about a half mile away. The library its self is very, very old, as you might have guessed. The city I'm in is Birmingham and it is one of the largest cities I have ever lived in. It is not the size of New York City at all, but it is still a sight to see. The homes are all really old and you have both the posh and the really poor. There are all sorts of people here. We have the largest population of Pakistanis in the world outside of Pakistan. Then there are the Polish people, there are loads of Polish here and most of them still don't speak English very well so it is hard when you go tracting to tract into them and share a message with them. Then we have Hungarians, Romanians and all sorts of Muslim people and there are even a few African Jamaicans and then you have the other original English people. As you might be able to tell there is a lot of diversity! It's a big melting pot because there is a little bit of everything. Oh, and the people here in England love Americans! They think it is so cool to meet Americans and they think you know all the famous people like 50 cent and other people like that, so basically they idolize you. Then the icing on th cake is I said I'm from New York and their eyes just widen and they think oh, New York City. They have no concept of an upper state even being there, all they can think of is the city. It's kinda cool. I try and explain it to them but they just cannot get it. Well the food here is good. I already have a dinner appointment (D.A.) where we had chicken tika marsala, or however you say that. It was my First D.A. since being here. I still have yet to have fish and chips, but the members here are very quick to offer you squash, sweets and biscuits. Ok, ok - I know your wondering what's with the Squash. It's a sort of juice they have here that is better than any other juice I have ever had in my life. It's very concentrated so you pour in 1/10 of this concentrated juice and then 9/10 water, or aqua as they say here. A lot of things over here contain aqua not water....go figure. Anyway the language is different. The Brummies have a very thick accent and sometimes it is hard to understand them. Often I just have to look at my companion and ask him what they just said. My companion has been out for 18 months and has spent half of his mission in Wales. He is very good. We still have to look at the map seeing as how he was only in the area 2 weeks previous to me being here. But we manage to find our way around this big city. He is from Indiana and is a really hard worker! By the way, I don't think that I will be spending any money on a bike right now because one of the members said he will give me a bike for free, which is very nice of him!
Well I have to go soon because we have to get back. I have a Safari Park adventure to go to with some of the members right now!!! I'm excited! It's in Dudley. By the way, on Sunday we confirmed a recent baptism. We also have a baptism set for the 4th of July. We just committed her to a baptismal date yesterday after we finished teaching her!!! We hope to have 2 more next week!
Things are going very well here. I love England even though I'm very tired all the time. I think I'll make it!!!
Glad to hear your all doing well there. I love you and miss you.
Love,
Elder Brett Brooksby