family happenings and this weeks projects

Mom: Um, Hannah, I think you need more campaign signs up.
Hannah: Mom, I'm running unopposed.
Mom: Really? Oh, OK.
So, it looks like Hannah has it in the bag and she'll be the Junior Class Treasurer next year. Congratulations Hannah. Voting was Thursday and Friday. I guess on Monday she'll find out how she did against "none of the above."

Hannah's on the Academic Games team. They came in 1st place at their meet on Monday in Dayton.

Apparently Tuesday was National Pancake Day. Hannah invited some friends over and they all had pancakes.

Hannah and Victoria, Al with spatula in hand

We thought Ryan would be starting college at BYU-Idaho on January 7th. But it seems there is a Prospective Missionary  Program that he can go to during fall semester. There are 9 basic credits to take (including a mission prep class) and then you can take evening or online credits to go with it. He and his cousin Michael, who also has a January 7th start at BYU-I, will sign up together on the 15th. I need to mentally switch gears as I was set to have him leave in January--now I will "lose" him 4 months sooner. We are excited for the program, though. Michael and Ryan will both turn 19 during their winter semester, so this allows them to get 2 semesters under their belts before they leave on their missions.


Remember how Eric, Ryan, Hannah, and I picked up trash outside the dump as a service project? And it was very windy? I hope they made a lot of money off of us because it cost me $50 to get the sand/glass out of Eric's eye. Luckily it was in the white part, so though it hurt a bit, it didn't affect his vision.



PROJECTS:

#1
I played around at www.wordle.net  and had great fun. The blurb from wordle is that it creates "word clouds" from text you type or copy and paste in. The words will be bigger the more times it is used and then you can play with color, font, and arrangement by clicking on different buttons. So I typed in something like:

GLEN BETH Andrew Eric Ryan Hannah Alex Fallon Nevada dairylife (if they aren't connected they will show up in different spots on the project) cows BYU WNC CCHS ECBest swimming reading tennis psych

I repeated our names several times so they'd come out larger. Then I just kept hitting the rearrange and recolor buttons till I liked how our names were arranged. I printed it out:

 
I didn't save it, however, because the button to save said something about being public and with the personal info on my wordle, I didn't want to save it for others to see. It's fun to look at the art of others.

#2
I painted the bottom of the shaving cream can that Glen keeps in the shower with clear fingernail polish to keep rust rings off of my shower shelf. I'm anticipating success.

#3
Add contact saline solution or moistening eye drops to mascara when you are down to the end and it's getting thick. This will thin it out a little and allow you to keep using it for a bit. It certainly got ride of the chunks, so I'm pleased.

#4
I followed the rules for cleaning my HE washing machine from a site I like, Jillian's One Good Thing. Basically you run a hot cycle with vinegar, then another one with bleach, then you scrub out the soap/bleach dispenser and the rubber ring. No big deal. Did it really help? I guess, a little.

#5
I cleaned my dishwasher in a new way (also from Jillian's blog). I usually use Iron Out, but I saw this cheap idea online and wanted to try it out. I got the instructions from "One Good Thing"
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/how-to-clean-your-dishwasher.html#comment-form
First, run on normal wash with hottest water available with vinegar in a cup on top rack; then run it again, short cycle with a cup of baking soda in the bottom. Here are my photos:

Before getting started:

This is the dishwasher after the vinegar and baking soda cycles:

Didn't work. :( I'm guessing our well water just won't allow it to work for me like it did for Jillian.

This is the dishwasher after using Iron Out:

Ahh, much better.

#6
Made a new recipe--the Panini Caprese Strata with roasted red pepper cream sauce, which was the first runner up in a casserole competition LDS Living held. My family was not thrilled (I kind of was disappointed, too), but I think most  of it was because they didn't like the pesto? I did not use fresh mozzarella, as called for, and I did not have fresh tomatoes, but drained a can of petite diced tomatoes. But I don't think my family would have liked it anyway. Maybe if I had doubled the cheese? http://www.ldsliving.com/story/67541-food-dish-lds-living-casserole-competition-1st-runner-up-recipe

#7
I "started" some seeds this week--tomato (roma and beefsteak) and pepper (bell and jalapeños) seeds. As nothing is sprouting yet, the success of this project is still in doubt. We've started seeds before, though we haven't done it the last few years. Our plants never seem to be as hardy as the ones we buy in town. I'm trying to change that.


And, I am pleased to say, that Glen's valentine's gift to me is still in effect--our dresser top remains clean!