Rod's View

Rod works on airplanes.

Small-ish ones.

For teaching people to fly.

He just sent me a picture.



This is his new flashlight

(a Christmas gift)

inside the floor of an aircraft

he has been working on today.

Tight quarters!

Good thing he's a Trim Healthy Man!

Greek Yogurt

How is it that I am SO busy

but have nothing to talk about.

LOL

Well, I didn't take pictures,

but I DID make some awesome

Greek Yogurt yesterday.

I bought a gallon of skim milk at Sams.

It was a little over $3.

(I don't remember exactly)

I used me favorite recipe from my

favorite slow cooker site

www.crockpot365.blogspot.com

I doubled it.

Used my 6 quart crockpot.

Poured all the milk in.

It just fit.

Turned it on low and set a timer for 2.5 hours.

When the time went off I walked by and

unplugged the crockpot.

Reset the timer for 3 hours.

(I started when I got home at 4:30,

so at 7 and reset it for 10)

At 10:00 I took the lid off,

dipped out a 4 cup measuring cup

of the milk and whisked in all my

left over yogurt. (maybe 1/2 c)

(store bought Greek 0% fat)

Added 2 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin.

Whisked it all back into the big crock.

Put the lid back on and wrapped

a big bath towel around it all.

(except it wasn't a towel, it was

one of those cheap not flannel blankets

you buy at Walgreens for $4)

Went to bed.

The next day after work,

(essentially 17 hours later)

I took the wrap off,

got two collanders,

laid a piece of t-shirt in each,

and poured half the yogurt

into each collander.

I had them sitting on a large

cottage cheese tub

to catch the whey because my

chickens LOVE it.

But if you don't have chickens,

just let it drain down the sink.

It will make your garberator smell clean.

And I heard the other day

that pouring it in the toilet

and leaving it overnight,

the next morning you wake to a

sparkling clean toilet bowl!!!!

I'm going to give that a try.

We have well water with lots of iron in it.

Ugh.

(It can also be used as an astringent on your face)

(But that's a little "crunchy" for me...)

Anyhow, a couple of hours later,

the yogurt was SUPER thick.

Almost the consistency of soft

cream cheese!

Thicker even than sour cream!

And TASTY!

Really good tang.

(I honestly have NO idea how much later it was)

(Time flies when you're having fun...)

It's made from skim, so there is no fat.

I could have added vanilla and sweetener

at the same time I added the gelatin,

but wanted this batch plain.

SUPER EASY!

And the best part.

We go through quite a bit of Greek Yogurt.

I pay $6-ish for a tub.

I paid $3-ish for the milk and got enough to

nearly fill 2 yogurt tubs.

SCORE!

My Husband Is Famous

Lookie here!

My husband is the

DONOR OF THE MONTH!

Meet Rodney, December’s Donor of the Month!
Rodney began donating with us in May 2014. His favorite part about donating is that it allows him to read and take it easy during his donation process twice a week. In addition to his laid back, sweet personality, Rodney actively follows our Twitter page and spends his time promoting our business and goals. When asked why Rodney donates his response was that after researching the benefits of donating plasma he decided he wanted to c...ontribute to a good cause. Some of Rodney's favorite things about Biotest are our friendly staff and the daily promotions that give him a chance to earn some extra spending money.

Rodney is currently an aircraft mechanic at F.I.T. Aviation which is a part of the F.I.T. Flight School. Everyone at Biotest Plasma Center appreciate your commitment to donating with us, Rodney! We can’t thank you enough for your life-saving plasma! Your donations help to better our world and your insight helps to improve our center in the ultimate goal of making each donation as comfortable and pleasant as possible!

See More

Nifty, eh?

(This selfie earns him an extra $5 every now and again...)


Our Roof Is Tops!

10 years ago,

On New Years Day

a group of men

(the Elders Quorum from our old ward)

showed up and spent the day

putting a new roof on our house.

This year

On New Years Day

Rod spent the day

(and the previous week)

TRYING to replace the

flat roof on our patio.

But it kept raining!

And raining!

And raining!

We FINALLY got some good weather.

And some help.

Scott, Jim, Kyle and Rod

spent several days

tearing off the old roof

and putting up new plywood,

layers of tar paper

and a special paper

and shingles

and stuff.

(I don't do ladders, so I'm

a little fuzzy on the details...)

It was leaking onto the patio right outside

our pretty french doors.

But also leaking into the tack room

right above the chest freezer.

Rod was hoping to just do some patching.

But it turned out to be a "thing" and

required LOTS and LOTS of work.

*and $$$

It was a little worse than we thought.

Thankfully the guys got good weather

and had the tools and time they needed.

It went from all torn up

to fancy tar paper stuff

To beautiful shingle roll stuff.

(those are technical words...)

New edges to keep the water off.

And finally nice finishing fascia.

(right, Rod?)

It POURED all day yesterday.

Rod was back on the ladder with his

flashlight and worried face.

NOT A DRIP!!!!!

MY HERO!

Soni

Today is Soni's birthday!

This past October, Kyle and I went to visit.

And didn't take a SINGLE picture!

I can't believe it!

(Well, I CAN!)

I stole this one from her facebook page.

Isn't she gorgeous?

I'll be this is what she looks like today!

They got snow for Christmas!

And she (and her darling husband)

love to play in it.

(Sounds like work to this Florida girl...)

I so enjoyed getting to spend some time

with her for a couple of days.

We've always had lots in common,

but as we age, it's surprising to see

the connections are still there.

She's STILL got way better taste

and style

and class.

I'll never get there.

But I have a fantastic role model to follow.

Happy Birthday Soni!

I love you!!!



Grandma Hanna

There was sort of a recurring theme

this year for Christmas.

That theme was Grandma Hanna.

Mom sent me a wonderful surprise.

Yes, it's upside down, but it hangs on
a pin, so when you look down,
you can tell the time!

This was Grandma's watch

some 40 years ago.

It came with it's own story!

Dear Collette:

This little watch has an interesting history.  It

belonged to Grandma Hanna in the 1970's.

Later in the '90's she decided it was a neat item

 and she'd like to wear it again, so she took it to a 

jeweler in Butte for a new battery.

He very kindly suggested 

"Let's just wind it up!"

Hope you enjoy having it.

Love,

Mom

Isn't that a great story?

Unfortunately, simply winding doesn't

seem to do the trick anymore,

so I'll be taking it to a watch repair

to see if they can get it working again.

I'd LOVE to wear it when I teach!

Meanwhile,

I wanted to send something special

to Mom and each of my sisters.

I was looking in my cabinet and

spied just the thing!

Some of Grandma's recipe cards!

In her handwriting.

And obviously well loved.

I went through and found 4 that

were written on matching little cards.

(Not that it mattered, since I

was sending them to 4 different houses)

Then I found 4 little black frames

and some dark grey paper to

mount them on.

I think they turned out cute!

(Rod scanned them for me,

so some day I might make

a complete set for MY kitchen!)

On top of being a fun gift,

they cleared up a mystery!

Mom KNEW she had Grandma's recipe box.

She had looked EVERYWHERE!

Who had snagged it?

I've got it!

I've even featured it in a couple of blog posts.

I LOVE it!

(But I didn't snag it, Mom gave it to 

me when we were both packing to leave Tucson.)

A year or so ago I took out 

Grandma's recipe cards

and now it is chock full of the recipes

that I use for my family.

It sits in a place of honor on my

kitchen counter.

I use it daily.

I think Grandma would approve.

LOVE YOU GRANDMA!

MKMESMYL

Saturday morning I was driving up the interstate

to run all my weekly errands.

There was an out of state car in front of me.

His license plate read:

MKMESMYL

Took a minute to figure out it

said "Make Me Smile"

And of course, it made me smile.

LOL

I've thought about it a bunch today.

There are LOTS of little things

that make me smile on a daily basis.

Like just now, I was posting

medical payments.

A man just paid a $34.65 bill

using check #3465.

Couldn't do THAT twice!

(although I do see it once in awhile.)

(I post an average of 600 checks each day

so stuff sometimes happens...)

And then I opened another envelope

and a bunch of Christmas glitter

fell out!

Not enough to make a mess.

Just enough to make me smile.

SMILE today!

We are all supposed to start exercising

for the New Year.

They say smiling uses a bunch of muscles.

So there you go!