All State Chorus - AMAZING!!

So the big news this weekend was getting to see Maddie here in Rapid City -- and the performance of the All State Chorus and Orchestra. There were more than 900 students in the choir... and nearly 400 more the the Orchestra. It was an incredible evening of music. They were GREAT, by any standard... and the fact that they were all high school students... even more amazing!
Maddie was in town from Thursday night through Sunday morning... but her only real free time was Saturday afternoon. The kids and I met her at the hotel, and took her and friend Lindy to the mall for a few hours of "retail therepy."

This is Maddie and I at Enigma, having supper after the performance. It was fun to get dressed up all fancy-schmancy... the dress code for the All-State concert was Black Tie... so all the girls looked GREAT in their formals. Mom and Dad, Dirk and I joined Maddie and the group from Castlewood for supper at 10:00 p.m. Can you say "REALLY need a babysitter??" Yes, the kids stayed home with dear friend Katie for the evening.


I thought I wasn't going to be able to wake up Sunday morning, but as soon as the kids were up, it was "day as usual" for the household! Unfortunately, Anika had a moment of "flu" just after we got to church this morning... the rest of our Sunday plans were cancelled in favor of staying home and napping. Actually, it turned out to be the best plan for ALL of us!

FAMILY UPDATES:
Dirk: getting ready to go hunting Wednesday - Saturday this week. Can you believe, it's an actual vacation for him? We are getting the new camper packed
and ready to go... he is cleaning guns, working on ammo... anything is better than re-siding the storage shed! (actually, he is probably going to try to "rip" into that this weekend too, if he shoots his deer and two turkeys before the weekend is up!)

Thor: just finished session one of swim lessons. He "graduated" from Pollywogs to Guppies the first day of lessons, and after 5 more weeks, he almost graduated up again. He will get in 6 more weeks of lessons on Friday afternoons -- and then jump right into a new sport... hocky! He is really excited to start on the hocky league -- it's a "house" league (can you believe other 7 year olds are on travelling hockey teams?). I'm just looking forward to watching him learn to skate!

Anika: Also just finished session one of swim lessons and improved greatly as a Pike. She still needs to work on letting her whole face get in the water. But it won't be long and she'll be moving up to the "Eel" class too. She also just finished a session of Preschool Character Builders at the YMCA. It was a great class, for two hours each Thursday morning -- gave me a little time to run errands, etc. and only have to keep track of Liv and myself! For the 2nd session this fall she is going to do a Science class on Thursdays.


Liv: almost 7 months old? Can you believe it. She was 16+ pounds at her last check up, and doing very well. She did have a short time of being slightly constipated (I'm sure she'll look back on this and be so glad I've shared this with the world)... but now we know she just can't do a lot of rice cereal... oatmeal is much better for her!


Nancy: Life is back to a calm, regular routine. I'm "out" everyday, at least to get Thor at school... but I do try to plan around my "town days" and get all my errands done on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm thinking ahead to Christmas... brainstorming ideas for a Kids Program at church... and other holiday odds and ends...

We have a NEW camper!!

Yes, it's official... we are camper owners AGAIN. After 5 years of window shopping, and saying this Play-Mor camper was our "dream" camper for "someday"... we finally bit the bullet and got one for ourselves.

It's been a LOT of fun to purchase this camper. Not that I'm trying to compare, but we felt like the whole process buying the first camper was like major surgery... we were fighting and pulling every inch of the way. With this camper, every step along the way was so EASY... it was almost a God thing... (well, probably NOT almost... probably, certainly a God thing!!).


Anyway -- we have it home, and have started to pack the cupboards and storage areas with all the stuff we HEAVED out of the old camper after it was totaled. Dirk got everything worth saving out of the old camper after the hail -- but it didn't get much further than our garage floor.
Now everything is back in it's place, neat and orderly!! I have to say, my favorite feature so far is the toilet and the shower... and of course the sink, with hot and cold running water!! I sound like a pioneer experiencing indoor plumbing for the first time!!

The only bitter sweet moment was knowing we really didn't have a since night free to be able to take the camper out this fall, at least as the whole family. We did try the heater out, and it works great... so the guys will enjoy a comfy hunting abode in November... but that will be just for Dirk and Justin, for this first camping adventure. Maybe the kids and I will join them for an afternoon lunch or something??


Needless to say, we'll all be counting the weeks to spring, when we can take the camper out for it's first Official Morrison family camping adventure!!

This was one BUSY week....

Let me give you a quick run down...
1. Sunday, Setember 30th - the official beginning of our new year of Kids Ministry at Dove. I planned a partially catered dinner of BBQed beef brisket (from the Texas State Line) and scalloped potatoes (me)... enough for our whole church family. We asked everyone else to bring salads and desserts. It turned out very well, having a cozy afternoon in the fellowship hall -- and more meat that anyone could or should eat!
It was also Zion Lutheran School's 50th Anniversary -- with a huge celebration at the school and potluck dinner after the morning service. With the event at Dove, it just didn't work out to be a part of the Zion celebration at all.... what a bummer! It seems like when we are busy, there are usualy two or more things we could/should be doing at the SAME time??

2. On Tuesday I had to be ready to be the guest speaker at MOPS, on the topic of quick and healthy meals. I had 6 different meals planned to demonstrate and cook during the 2 hour meeting... letting everyone taste as we cooked. It's always a really fun morning... but lots of prep work ahead of time, I don't want to waste time cutting 60 carrots, onions and potatoes ... so I tried to have most of that done ahead of time.
It was fun for me too -- I always love to cook, and sharing some of my ideas of what it takes to make a good meal is fun... I mostly try to help moms 'lighten up' about following recipes exactly... but to make them personalized, the way thier family would like to eat it... and of course, help out with nutritional information too.
We made Sweet Potato Biscuts, Honey Butter, Chicken Pot Pie, Campfire Stew (Mom Moeller's recipe), Wild Rice Soup, Cashew Chicken and an Italian Antipasto Platter (appitezer tray).

3. On Thurday, Friday and Saturday I worked on the 200 cheesecakes I had contracted to do for a local wedding (cupcake size). They were less work in some ways, becuase I didn't have to do the family decoration, or worry about stacking towers of cakes.... but on the other hand I had to piddle around with 200 of those little cupcakes!! All it all, they turned out (hopefully the wedding party liked them too)... and were deliverd by noon on Saturday!

Now I'm feeling much more FREE and ready to tackle quite a few NORMAL weeks, with no extra projects... that is .... after I finish one last project .... speaking for MOPS in Spearfish! No cooking this time, just a regular guest speaker!

The one highlight of my week was getting to spend the money I made making the cupcake wedding cakes... I "finished" out my silverware service (now for 12 place settings)... the Fjord Design, Kristen pattern. I can only get it at the House of Scandinavia here in town... or on the internet. The local shop owners are very local-minded, and I love to support thier business. We came in with cash in hand on Saturday afternoon, and she still gave us a great deal anyway -- taking 15 percent of the normal price, even though there isn't supposed to be a sale going on! How sweet she is! Now I REALLY want to go back and buy from here every time!
Here is a pic of the silverward (from the internet).... still my favorite, after 10 years of looking!


Let me just give you