Well, the stove is clean...!!

There may be a smudge on the window, or a crumb under the table, but not under the stove! We were busy today, getting ready for an American/English brunch for A-lag tomorrow, making pancakes, french toast, fresh fruit, blueberry muffins, baked beans, tomatoes and mushrooms, quiche, scrambled eggs and bacon, ham, and pancake syrup. Yum! I threw the syrup ingredients in a large pot on the stove, and then needed to make a quick phone call and asked one of the girls if she could watch and stir the syrup while I was gone. A word to the wise, "watch and stir your own syrup!" I came back to hear her give a shriek and look at me in horror, as half the pot boiled over and ran over the stove top, down all sides and pooled onto the floor, where it proceeded to caramelize! Apparently it is necessary to stress that one must stir and watch continuously and not in intervals. I quickly turned the heat off and then just stood back and laughed. There was syrup everywhere!! Nothing that a bit of elbow grease and a bit (ok a lot!) of soap and water wouldn't fix. Fun, fun! We scrubbed everything and rescrubbed and washed the floor like 5 times because it was still sticking to our shoes afterwards! Oh yeah, we made another batch of syrup, this time with better results. Of course we had to try the "burned" pancakes with the warm syrup. Mmm. Looking forward to tomorrow! A few days ago, I went to the Forum for the second time, this time with Haike, the awesome girl that I work with, and Ruthi, her sister. It was just as amazing the second time and I got to see and hear the parts that I had missed the first time.

Haike and Ruthi Ruthi and IListening to all the stories and histories of people who had an impact on The ChurchThis is Ragne Lia, who faithfully cleaned the old Brunstad. The cool part is that I got to help a little bit in getting the Forum ready for the opening and I tried my hand at working with clay and made her face.

Of course I also had to post this picture Jenn sent me of my beautiful niece! She gets cuter every time I see her. "I can't wait to hold you, baby girl."

It was a beautiful, made-to-order day (with no rain) and this evening, after a few hours of organized games and activities, we grilled hotdogs down by the beach with the new A-lag. It was really nice to just hang out and enjoy the beautiful evening. Afterwards, we went inside to watch a film about A-lag and were exhorted to make the most of the time we have here. Quote of the day is, "Days come and days go, but I didn't realize that it was my life." Here's to living each day to the fullest, with no regrets!