very busy week

I only have 1 photo for this week...which somehow makes it feel that the week almost isn't worth blogging about. But, it was a good and busy week.

Ryan, Michael, Jason, Eric, Elder Chamberlain, Travis, and Hannah

Above is a photo from Sunday the 19th. It was Elder Chamberlain's last day in the mission field, so he came over for picture taking. On a side note...I took about 6 photos and apparently Eric doesn't know how to keep his eyes open, so this was the best I could get. Sorry Eric. I hope Elder Chamberlain got better photos.

We went to Reno on Monday and Hannah got braces. Her mouth has been very sore all week. We went dress/skirt shopping afterward for Hannah...came home with jeans and tops. :P Her first bracket came unglued Monday night. Luckily we don't have to travel to Reno to have it fixed--we just have to wait a few  weeks for the orthodontist to come to Fallon. By the way, Dr. Little has the best staff. I really love them all.

Anyway, I went to the Relief Society meeting this week where we had a great demo and a hands-on session of card making. Tuesday and Wednesday I subbed at the Junior High. In my almost 5 years of subbing, I have never encountered such a group of talkers. But, they were good kids (mostly). But I went through a lot of cough drops trying to keep my throat from hurting.

Thursday I drove to Twin Falls, Idaho for "Intervention" that night at Heidi's house. Terra drove with me, though I returned home on Friday alone since Terra and the others (Jennifer, DonNell, and Cherilee) were continuing on to Rexburg for the swing dancing competition. Heidi took us out to dinner and we stayed up late talking. It all ended too soon, but it was great while it lasted.

Since I was in Idaho, I missed the New Beginnings program on Thursday at church for Hannah and the other Young Women. :(

Glen and his NHS kids had a dodgeball tournament on Friday night. Ryan's team came in second. Travis, Jason, and Eric were also on his team. Way to go.

Saturday was a full day for all. I volunteered at Bountiful Baskets first thing in the morning. I really love the basic baskets (50% fruits and 50% vegetables), though I don't know that I'm as happy with the extra vegetable packs you can order. I hear the bread is wonderful, so I might try that next time.

Glen and Alex drove up to Carroll summit for the Klondike Derby, where the boy scouts camp in the snow. They had all sorts of stations. Glen was in charge of the signal mirror station. Alex gave the experience 2 thumbs up (but of course he didn't have to sleep there).

A little later in the morning, Eric, Ryan, Hannah, and I were picking up trash at the dump for a Grad Night fund raiser. There was a lot of plastic stuck in the thorny bushes. But we survived. And though there was still trash to be picked up, it looked so much better. The dump pays groups to come do this because the EPA levies hefty fines if the trash is blown out of the basic area and into the desert.

I then dropped the kids off to be part of the Holt's moving crew. They will still be close, but not in our church ward anymore. :(

After Glen and Alex came home, we went to clean the church because it was our turn to help. The Oldfields were there too. It didn't take too long.

Saturday night was topped of with me keeping my feet up, and Glen and the teenagers going to the church dance.

Sunday I lost Nicole as my counselor in the Primary and gained Christy. I am so excited to have Christy, but that doesn't lessen the sadness of losing Nicole. What a fabulous example and inspiration she and Rayanne (my other counselor) have been to me. I don't know what I'd do without good counselors.

During the week were also the usuals: swim practice, play practice, piano (though not as much practice in that area as I would like), school, and for me and Glen time for genealogy. Glen continues to work on his recent break through of John Felter Smith.

I continue to hunt down missing ancestors. I found 2 great-great Uncles that were unknown (by me, at any rate) up till now...I'm guessing they were born and died in-between census years, so until the their Ohio birth records were put online, I didn't know about them. Now I need to see if I can find their death records. I like finding missing children. I like "gathering" families. I also found problems...like was Nellie really 55 when she had Antone? It's possible. Sigh. It is such a blessing to have so many genealogical records available online.

chores, valentine's, snow, 5K run, and not so many projects

Chores:
I have tried a few methods over the years of getting the kids to do their part. A few months ago I tried giving each child one of the 5 FlyLady chores for the week, and I took the 5th chore. That worked for about 2 weeks. I decided that part of the problem was that the chores were constantly changing and it made it harder to accomplish since just about everything needed an explanation of how I wanted it done.

We are now back to a simple 4 job rotation: sweep and dust living areas, sweep and mop (using our new steam shark) dining room and kitchen, vacuuming (with our new Bissell vacuum) the office and hallway, and cleaning the back bathroom. This is week 3, but it's working...maybe mainly just because I'm not planning on giving up and giving in this time. I spent too much time in December and January cleaning and organizing to let the house fall to pot again.

Alex and the Shark

Valentine's:
Glen and I usually don't give gifts or do anything special for our anniversary or for Valentine's day, though the last few years we have been going out to eat for our anniversary. We certainly don't do flowers and gifts. So, in the picture below, can you figure out what Glen did for me for Valentine's Day this year? He cleaned off his side of the dresser (and cleaned off his nightstand) and is planning on keeping it cleaned off. I LOVE it. I'm so excited not to see a pile of papers first thing when I enter my room. Best gift ever. Thanks Hon.

Snow:
We had our first "big" snow early Wednesday morning. It's only the 3rd time snow has stuck this winter and the other 2 times there was still plenty of grass showing through. Of course, this big snow was mostly gone in less than 24 hours. But it was still nice and we are grateful for the blessing of the moisture in our area.

I wasn't in time to get a photo of Eric face-first in the snow, but he made a snow angel

President's Day 5K Run:
Hannah had signed up to run in today's President's Day 5K run/walk weeks ago. This morning it was decided that Ryan and Alex would join her--decided after they should have already been there signing up. It was cold, but not terribly so. I think they had a good time.

Hannah and Alex stretching and getting ready

Ryan ready for the competition with his man eating hat

Ryan, Alex, and Hannah ready to run

Looks like Ryan is having a good time

Our friend and piano teacher Michelle

Alex ran the whole 5K and didn't walk any of it

Hannah and her friend Emma

Nate, Tiffany, Hannah, Emma, Adam, and Ryan

Projects:
Not too many postable projects this week as I spent a lot of my free time working on genealogy...continuing to follow up on the break-through I made last weekend (see here if interested). But Glen did make vegetarian burgers. I know Hannah loved them. I thought they were OK. I love cumin, but apparently not in my black bean and mushroom burgers. It was served on English muffins with sour cream and salsa.

My other project was to make my own body wash. I have dry skin and thought it was worth a try. I grated 1 bar of Dove soap and melted it into 2 cups of water. Looks like milk, doesn't it? When it cools, it thickens. I have to say it's OK, but I prefer Oil of Olay body wash.

finished product

Stamping:
Last night was stamping at Michelle's. Always a highlight of my month. It was my turn to host the party and I wound up with $65 worth of freebies. I mostly ordered supplies like paper and ink pads, but I still can't wait to play with it all. The other 3 ladies used the Big Shot embossing/die cut machine with their projects. I made a Pull Up Treat Sleeve I found on the internet (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/pull_treats/)

Becky's card

Toni's card

Michelle's card

My pull up treat sleeve

good week

more dress up, projects, and the moon

OK, sad to say that I don't have a picture of Hannah as Mary Jane from Spiderman, but I do have Hannah and Ryan from Friday's green and white day:

And Hannah on her way to today's basketball game honoring Liz Archuleta, who is recovering from a stroke she suffered while she and Hannah were trying out for basketball last fall:

Her face says Liz on the left side

And some projects, mostly found on Pinterest:

Sewing a 6" strip of elastic in the back of your jeans to help end "the gap" that I always have:

Putting your frosting in plastic wrap, twisting the ends, putting it in a frosting bag and snipping off the extra plastic worked like a DREAM (no mess in getting the frosting in the bag and no real mess to clean up afterwards). Thanks for pinning it Jennifer so I could find it.

Cutting off the top of a salt canister to use with a mason jar:

And on Wednesday night I was driving Eric, Ryan, and Hannah home from town at almost 7 pm. The sky was pretty dark and then all of a sudden I notice a weird yellow line in the sky...it took me a moment to realize it was the moon rising above the Stillwater mountains. We were headed east the entire time and so I got to watch the entire moon make its appearance. It was breathtaking as the moon was full that night. The moon cleared the mountains just when I was 1 mile from home and had to head north.

I took a picture as soon as I got home, but of course it had lost that ephemeral quality of being half-hidden by the mountains, and my camera really doesn't like to focus on such things (and I don't know how to make it), so this photo really doesn't mean much, but it's a reminder to me of the amazing things in nature that surround us if we just have the opportunity to see them.

Yep. It's a good life.

dress up days at the high school and a cover contest

It's dress up week at the high school. Yesterday it was cartoon hero day. Hannah the red head went as a cartoon red head: Blossom of the Powerpuff Girls:

Blossom:

It was quite the ordeal...Hannah altered a white skirt and then we dyed it using food coloring and vinegar. I thought she did a great job.

Today's dress-up theme dealt with villians. What red-headed villians do you know? Syndrome from the Incredibles was the villian of choice:

Hannah before putting on her mask

It's amazing what a little clear gelatin in hot water will do when you apply it to your hair.

Tomorrow's theme is comic book heroes. She has her chosen red head. I hope to get a picture tomorrow of Hannah as Mary Jane (Spiderman's girlfriend). It will be less dramatic without jello in her hair, but still will be fun.

And in other fun news, do you remember me posting almost 3 years ago about my roommate, Laura, from my sophomore year at BYU? How her children were in a singing competition on CBS? (click here for the post and the link to the song) Well, they (The Lorentzens) just won a Perez Hilton "Can You Sing" Cover Contest with the following video of them singing the Jason Mraz song "I Won't Give Up." They really did a fantastic job:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yda2j6hWBjU&feature=share

Perez Hilton's blog announcing the winners:
http://perezhilton.com/2012-02-02-perez-hilton-can-you-sing-cover-competition-jason-mraz-i-wont-give-up-winners

Pretty neat, huh?

news, Anti-Procrastination Day, and more of the same

Eric and I went to the Nevada caucus this morning and cast our votes...and then left. Seems we missed 4 members of the family being elected to go the next round in the process. There were only 12 people in our district around at the end...and 8 were related to us (or was it 9 and 13? I don't know since I wasn't there). So we had a good voting block (bloc?) going on. Alan, Michael, Gary, and Becky are the 4 lucky ones. And it's not that they all really wanted the job...they just weren't too sure that the others would represent us the way we would want them to. Glen will be sorry he missed it.

Glen missed it because he was at an acting competition in Reno today (and yesterday) and at a play in Virginia City tonight.

Found out that Ryan made "Student of the Month" at the high school. Pre-season swim practice has started up 3 days a week.

Hannah has decided not to be on the track team after all. Though now she wonders what she is going to do with all her free time.

Alex made the 5th grade A Honor Roll at his school with only a handful of other students. Way to go, Alex!

Andrew continues to sound like he's having a blast at school. The 4:30 am custodial job seems to be working well for him. He has a calling in his new ward. He's the 2nd counselor in the Sunday School presidency. It sounds like that might mainly mean he's "on call" to sub in Sunday School if they need him to. He keeps a busy social life. One wonders how he manages to fit in all his school work. But I'm sure he does.

Can't think of any other real happenings for the week, though, for me, yesterday was:

ANTI-PROCRASTION DAY 

I don't know if the title truly fits what it was, but that's what I kept calling it. I made a list of about 24 things that needed doing--most of which I had been procrastinating...and some of them (like calling about getting Hannah braces) have been on the list for at least a year. Some had been on the list for only a few months (I was only 5 months overdue for my annual check-up and finally called the doctor's office and set up an appointment...it wasn't until later that I realized I didn't pick the best day for it, but I guess I won't reschedule as it took me 5 months to get this far in the process). So I worked like a fiend all day and managed to tackle everything, though some things still need a follow-up (like Hannah's braces). But it sure felt great.

I've heard it said that the first thing you should do each day is the thing you dread the most. We tend to put off things we don't want to do and then they hang over our heads all day (or week, or month). There is such a sense of a burden being lifted when you just tackle what you are dreading and get it over with. I hope to do less procrastinating in the future.

OK. Here's another round of crafts and organizing:

Put paper in a picture frame and use it with a dry erase marker

having all your hangers the same color seems less messy

I know the above idea seems a little silly. I found the idea on-line and since I had enough white hangers, I tried it and it really does seem to make the closet feel more organized. The shirts on the left are the boys' church shirts, so they didn't get white hangers.

pounds to lose in the left jar, pounds lost in the right jar

Although in the above case, each stone represents 1/2 pound, since that is the increment my scale does. And I've had to put back some stones since I took this picture. :P

homemade nutella in an old nutella jar

The verdict...homemade nutella was OK. I followed the recipe exactly, but I think the hazelnuts were over-baked and my version wasn't as smooth and creamy as the store-bought nutella. The ingredients are hazelnuts, powdered sugar, cocoa, oil, and vanilla. Simple enough, but for the hassle and cost (I don't know that making your own saves money unless you find a good deal on hazelnuts), I think we'll just buy it, but the homemade version was pretty good. I got the recipe from here:
http://www.sugoodsweets.com/blog/2005/12/nutella/

labeled baskets in the freezer helps keep things findable (meats, fruits, vegs, nuts)

But the name only shows up when the camera flash goes off

Another idea I saw etches the names of the spice onto the jar. Since I buy most of my spices from bulk bins and reuse the old jars, the labels are getting tattered. I thought this would be a great idea. The cumin is the only jar I've done so far, and I think it's the glass type, but it didsn't etch well. The flash made the word stand out, but when the jar is on the shelf, you can't read it. I will try different jars.

Can't wait to see what this next week will bring.