My Daughter

Our daughter, Kj moved out of the state of Utah a few years ago.  I could not believe that she was going to move so far away.  I remembered how I felt when she just moved 30 miles away from West Jordan to Provo.   That day as I was headed back home after moving her things, I sobbed the entire way and probably should not have even been driving.  

She graduated from Utah Valley University with a degree in Elementary Education and taught second grade for one year.  She was a great teacher and everyone at the school loved her, but she stopped teaching after that first year and brought sweet, adorable Jayden into our lives.

I thought being a grandma to one amazing grandson was the best, but being a grandma to two amazing grandsons was even better.  

Then, Mark graduated from BYU and they moved to Cleveland, then Kansas City, then Bakersfield (where Carter was born), then Los Angeles.

They have been in Los Angeles for about two years now and it looks like they will stay there for a few more years, at least.  She LOVES living in California.

I will admit that I like having her live in California a lot better than Cleveland (since it is closer), but it still just tears at my heart every time I have to drop them off at the airport after their visits.  One of the perks of Mark’s job for three years was that they were able to fly to see us at no cost and were able to fly us to visit them.  So, we saw them every few months. 

At the end of June, Mark took a new position with the company because his 3 year contract ended in the division that he had been working in.   When he told me about the process of finding this new position with the same company, I felt pretty proud of him because he has done so well with them and had impressed so many corporate officers that three divisions were going back and forth between each other trying to decide where his talents would best be focused.  Instead of vying for him to work for their division, they were all trying to make sure that Mark worked in the best possible place where his skills and potential could be met.  He truly is a very smart and talented guy.

Kj is a good wife to him and supports him in every way.  He is really lucky to be married to her! 

I feel like my relationship with her has always been a good one.  There were a few times, of course, that we both frustrated each other, but 99% of the time, we get along and are pretty good friends.  When she was younger, we would joke about having ESP because we seemed to be thinking the same things at the same time.

She has grown into a beautiful, successful, talented, amazing, awesome woman.  She is the best mother that her kids could ask for.  I find myself wishing I had been as good of a mother as she is and wishing that I had devoted myself to motherhood in the way that she has.  She is constantly trying to better herself and it baffles me because she is so terrific, just as she is. 

I love talking to her on the phone and texting back and forth, but I will admit that I miss her like crazy and just typing those words brings me to tears.

Now that Mark has his new position, I don’t know how often we will get to see them.  He does not have travel perks anymore.  When I took them to the airport this last time (at the end of June) I almost couldn’t handle it.  Besides the fact that I had a day ahead of me that was already making me want to cry, knowing that they were gone again saddened my heart immensely.    Even though I knew that I was very likely going to go to California at the end of August, I hved no idea when they will be coming back to Utah. 

I do have to admit that having a visit in May and a visit in June was a good way for them to use up the last of their flying privileges and I loved every minute of their time with us.

In May we celebrated Jayden’s birthday, went to the zoo, went to Fat Cat’s, and played, played, played with all of the grandkids.

Super Heroes at Jayden's Super Hero Birthday Party

Fat Cats Mini Golf

Fat Cats Bowling

Fat Cats Breadsticks!

Jayden's chalkboard drawing of all of the grandkids

The Zoo

Brexton's last T-ball Game

Dinner at Chuck-a-Rama with Tyler

In June we played, played, played, swam, went fishing, went to splah pads, and went to the zoo again.  The kids couldn’t get enough of each other!

Gotta have some slip n slide time!

Kj and Tass just love to talk

And then we had some pool time!

At the park

Fishing!

We found some snow for the California boys to play in

Throwing snowballs at Grandma

I was just waiting for him to fall in the lake

Splash Pad!

Feeding Giraffes!

I couldn't resist adding this pic of one of the new lion cubs

We even got Tyler to go to the zoo with us

July 1st Fireworks

Good Things

One of the local, daily TV shows called Good Things Utah put out a request for pizza recipes.  When I heard about it, I thought, "I should send them my Sticky Chicken Pizza recipe!"

So, I did.

In the back of my mind, I wondered if I might be asked to come on the show and make the pizza, but I didn't really think they would be interested in me since I don't have a business and I am not a professional blogger.  Usually, those are the two types of people that they feature on their program.

Right after I emailed them the recipe, I received a reply asking me to be on the show to demonstrate how to make the pizza.  I wondered what I had gotten myself into!  But, I have done a few things in the last two years that have given me more self-confidence and thought this was something that I should try to do.

On June 30, 2016, I was on Good Things Utah for four and half minutes showing how to make Sticky Chicken Pizza.

I went a little crazy in the few weeks before I was scheduled to appear.  I made the pizza four times and even wrote a script for myself to memorize.  People have commented that I seem to be shy.  I guess I am.  When I am around people that I don't know, my communication brain cells stop being useful and I get tongue-tied and can't figure out what to say.  So, usually, it is easier for me to just not say anything at all. But, I thought about how to present the recipe over and over again, especially when I was laying in bed at night trying to go to sleep.  I may have suffered from a lack of sleep because of it!

I also bought new pizza pans, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a plate for displaying a piece of pizza, a lot of Frank's Red Hot Sauce and brown sugar, little bowls for all of the ingredients, and a new shirt to wear.  Kj happened to be here visiting from California and she "interviewed" me as if she were one of the hosts of the show.  I think that helped quite a bit.   We had a joke about "hot summer pizza!"  from one of our practice sessions.

I had a great support team that day.  Jer and Hunter Man watched all the kiddos while Kj and Tass went to the TV station with me.  I couldn't have done it without them there. They kept me from getting too nervous before the show started. We laughed a lot as they helped me set up and we tried to figure out what we were supposed to do.

The weird thing was that when we arrived at the studio, we were taken to the kitchen area by the TV station's receptionist and then, we were totally on our own. Camera operators, directors, and producers all knew that we were there, but nobody paid very much attention to us.   I would have thought that a production assistant type person would have been there to give tips and pointers on how best to go about getting ready for the presentation, but there wasn't anybody like that.  If we hadn't practiced and if I hadn't seen many, many episodes of this show, I wouldn't have had any idea of what to do.

Once we had set everything up the best that we could, we started getting silly and taking pictures.

These two would make amazing news anchors!

Not bad for a 50 year old grandma!

Finally, I was told that Nicea would be the host for the cooking segment and that she would come and talk to me for a couple of minutes before the segment started at 9:30 a.m.

I hadn't really planned on focusing on making the pizza dough because it is really the sauce that makes this pizza so fabulous.  When Nicea started making notes about the segment, it seemed like she wanted me to spend a minute explaining how I make my own pizza crust.  That kind of threw me off, but I just had to follow her lead and answer her questions about the crust and then start showing how to make the sauce and the rest of the pizza when the cameras started filming.


I think it went okay.  There are things I would change now that I look back on it and have watched the segment a few times.  But, it was great when Nicea asked, "When you create a new recipe, how do you know if it is good or not?"  My answer was, "If I like it!"  She laughed.   It made me happy when she pointed out that Kj and Tass must like my cooking, too.  I was glad that they got some recognition for being there.

As the segment ended, Nicea had Reagan come into the shot so that she could taste the "magic of TV" pizza.  They both acted like it was delicious and one of the best things they had ever tasted. Then, during the commercial, their announcer Brian came over to get a piece, too and took a video of himself with his phone.

And then my 4 and a half minutes of fame was over.  (Well, really, I had about one day of fame.  Kj posted the pictures on Facebook and Tassie posted the link to the segment, so a lot of our friends saw it and gave nice feedback to me)!

It was fun.  I probably wouldn't ever volunteer to do it again.

But, then again, you never know!

Here is a link to the episode and a link to a Facebook live post, too.

http://www.good4utah.com/good-things-utah/gtu-recipes/sticky-chicken-pizza?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Good_Things_Utah

https://www.facebook.com/abc4briancarlson/videos/1120582201335268/?pnref=story

(if you copy and paste the links into your brower, they will take you to the video).