3rd week of summer--Michael's mission call, cheese, scout camp, and more pinterest

Michael's mission call:

On Thursday (after an almost seemingly eternity of waiting for it to arrive), Michael gathered his family and friends around him as he opened his mission call:

Mexico Monterrey West Mission and he reports to the Provo MTC on Wednesday October 16th.

Of course, he'll be learning Spanish--he'll be the first Perazzo to speak a foreign language on his mission, though not the first to have a foreign mission (one brother went to Australia and another to England...and an uncle went to Canada).

We are very excited for him. I looked it up and he and Ryan will be about 760 miles apart.


News from Ryan's mission:
Ryan mentioned this in his email and then we got a call from the mission home--a 2nd bike has arrived in the mission field for Ryan!? We didn't send it and the bike shop says they didn't either... twilight zone time...

And speaking of Ryan, in a recent email he said that he and his trainer, Elder Silva, were going to trade places with the zone leaders this past week. Ryan said that they would be in Albany and the ZLs in Amite, but when I looked at the mission website, they have Ryan in Ponchatoula with an Elder Stucki and Elder Silva in Hammond, so the plans got changed (though the ZLs are now in Amite as planned). Can't wait to hear about it in tomorrow's email.

I noticed that Ponchatoula didn't show up on the mission's map, so here it is (it's just 47 miles from where I lived in Metairie--which is just west of New Orleans and my house was just 2 miles west of the bridge that went down the middle of Lake Ponchartrain and was 1 block from the lake):

My cheese projects: (sour cream, mozzarella, and neufchatel--light cream cheese)

My current calling at church is in the Young Women's program. I am an advisor and that means that I teach the girls on most Sundays. I've been with the 12 and 13 year old beehives, but today I am being switched to the 16 and 17 year old Laurels, so I'll be teaching Hannah!

Anyway, part of the Young Women Program is a goal setting program called Personal Progress. I am working on my award and for my project under the Knowledge area, I wanted to learn to make several different kind of cheeses. I finished the project yesterday. This week I made 2 different kinds of sour cream, some mozzarella, and some neufchatel cheese.

The short of it:
The sour cream was super easy, but the recipe that was supposed to be the thicker of the 2, came out to be the thinner of the two, but they tasted great. And both recipes are thinner than the store-bought sour cream.

The mozzarella recipe was a bit intense, and at the end it wasn't turning out like it should, so I added in steps from a different recipe (using a microwave) and finally ended up with some pretty good cheese (though I didn't add enough salt).

The neufchatel was an easy recipe, too, and it came out pretty good.

It was creamier than my first try at cream cheese, but I think I left it too wet and also it's not as smooth as store-bought. I might try whipping it. I can see me making this again, but 1 gallon of milk gave me just shy of 2 lbs of cream cheese, which is a lot. It lasts for 2 weeks in the fridge (unlike store-bought which lasts for months). You can freeze cream cheese, but it changes the texture, so it would be best to be used in a recipe after it's been frozen.

Scout camp:
Glen and Alex left at 3:45 am yesterday to go to scout camp at Camp Loll in Wyoming. This is Alex's first trip to scout camp. Hope they have a great week.

Pinterest projects: cinnamon rolls on a stick, nutella energy balls, and frozen avocados.

We started off with Hannah making cinnamon roll dough, lighting a fire in the driveway (in a barrel), and us cooking our cinnamon rolls that had been wrapped around a stick. It was good--though you did have to find the balance in between too cooked on the outside and too raw on the inside (the bane of all campers everywhere).

I found a recipe for nutella energy balls (no-bake energy bites is what they were called on Pinterest) here and we made some. Pretty tasty--though I think it needed more nutella.

And I have frozen avocado halves before and that worked well enough, but then I read that you should mash your avocados first. So I mashed some with just a little bit of lemon juice and used my small cookie scoop to make user-friendly sized balls (which scoop I also used for the nutella balls...and for when I made butter--the cookie scoop is probably one of our most used and still used wedding presents).

2nd week of summer--more projects

Ryan and his companion are swapping places with the zone leaders this week...he'll now be in Albany, Louisiana instead of Amite. So, I can't wait to hear all about that in a week. There wasn't much work in Amite and there's supposed to be a lot more in Albany. Hope so.

Anyway, I've had a wonderful, full week. Glen's been busy, too (poor thing keeps getting drafted into my plans). Some of the week's highlights:

Glen and Alex made homemade whole wheat bagels to go with the cream cheese I was making...my cream cheese wasn't creamy, however, as I forgot to leave the milk whole, but had ladled off the top layer of cream. Next time, if there is one, I'll know better. The thing is, with the cost of the mesophilic culture needed to make cream cheese, I'm almost doubling the cost of my cream cheese by making it myself...$1.39 to buy 8 oz at WinCo but $2.70 to make 10 oz at home, and if I didn't live on a dairy farm you would have to add the cost of a 1/2 gallon of milk to the $2.70. Maybe I just need to find a cheaper source of the culture.

the finished product--it was pretty good

Along with making cream cheese, I also made a small batch of mozzarella...it was edible, but I think I added too much rennet and I zapped it too long, so it was not soft. It should come out better next time.

I finished up some pinterest projects I had started last week. I've been saving old keys for years and finally made a wind chime out of them. It sounds nice, but it doesn't get any breeze as I want it inside so I can see it:

Glen cut some wood for me and I used my silhouette cutting machine to make two 4th of July projects:

I tried many times to make a version of a family tree pendant that I liked but was small enough that I would wear it. I finally gave up and had the idea to make a sun catcher, of sorts (its diameter is only  2 1/2"). I like it:

Friday June 21st was the first day of summer and the day of the longest sunlight for the year. I wanted to take advantage of it. Glen was willing to go on our morning walk a little earlier than usual so we could catch the sun rise:

sunrise just starting

We had a family get together that afternoon as Glen's sister, Teresa, and part of her family were visiting. We chatted and played games all afternoon and evening, but Glen was once again a good sport and went on a walk with me at sunset so I could catch the sun going down:

sunset

3 of Glen's siblings: Kathy, Teresa, and Alan

Grandpa, Joseph, Michael, Sarah, and visiting niece Amanda

Speaking of Michael...his mission call should come in the mail this week!!!!!

Now if Friday was all about the sun, last night and this morning was all about the moon...it was at 99.9% brightness at 4:33 am. It's called a supermoon. The following definition is from wikipedia:

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the moon's disk as seen from Earth.
because that's when the full moon occurs when it's passing closest to the earth for a whole year.

The moon was big and beautiful, but I honestly wouldn't have known it was anything different if the internet hadn't told me so.

This is the moon rising...since the sun hadn't set yet, the moon was so pale I almost missed seeing it rise--I thought it was just a cloud at first:

And this was the moon at 4:34 am--I don't know how to make my camera take good photos of the moon:

(one of the best parts of summer is when you do crazy things like get up at 4:30 am to see the moon you just tell yourself you can take a nap later)

lasagna gardening, cottage cheese, necklace pendant, camping, read-a-thon, and Father's Day

The first week of summer vacation included a little yard work...lasagna gardening is where you make layers to make good soil and not planting things that would go in lasagna.

You don't have to dig up the plants underneath, though we did. The first layer is wet newspapers or cardboard, they you layer different organic matter. We didn't follow the official layering I found in a book, but I feel it'll be close enough--newspaper, grass clippings, old compost, manure, then when Glen mowed, he added some more grass clippings. We'll have to add more compost and/or manure. Don't know yet what we'll plant there next summer, though.

newspaper layer that is wet down

grass clipping layer, also wet down

compost topped off with old manure

Making cheese was one item on last summer's to-do list that never got done. Tuesday I tried my hand at making cottage cheese. In the end, it turned out and we really liked it, but it would have been easier if I had learned from a living person or a tutorial instead of reading how to do it in a book. I don't see myself doing this often, but it was fun to give it a try. This week I want to try making cream cheese.

heating the milk to 150º and holding it for 30 minutes to pasteurize it

the final product

I loved the family tree necklaces I had seen on pinterest. I gave it a try...I like them, but they are a bit big, so I need to try and make smaller ones. You just bend and twist wire and add the birthstones of your family members.

The Young Women in our ward kind of had a last minute Book of Mormon read-a-thon where we gathered at Kara's house and took turns reading out loud from the Book of Mormon-- and snacking-- while the men and teenage boys were at a special campout. Glen had some responsibilities there taking care of some guests and as a result got to go fly fishing with them. I hope to get a photo of him with his fish from Alan (who was also there)...

Anyway, the girls did stop to get a little rest during the night and Hannah and I came home for a while. They started up again early the next morning and Hannah and I joined them again after a little bit. We finally had to end in the early afternoon when we were just a little over 3/4 of the way through. Hannah finished reading the Book of Mormon at 12:30 that night. I plan on finishing up this week. It was really wonderful.

I think it's Cheyenne, then Maddie, Adia, Amber, Ashley, and Kelly

Hannah marking her scriptures while Becky reads when Christ visits the Americas

One of my projects over the last few weeks was for my dad for Father's Day--transferring our old 8 mm home movies onto a DVD. It was not smooth sailing, but I was able to burn some DVDs and get them in the mail in time for them to arrive yesterday so my dad could open them today. The quality wasn't the best and I hope to do a little editing some day, but for now, it's good enough.

my set up for the filming

So, the first week of summer was great. This next week has some good things lined up, as well.

80 glorious days of summer vacation before us!

Congratulations to our niece Becky who graduates from CCHS tonight!

Announcement: Hannah is a senior now!

Today was the last day of school till August 26th. I don't think Alex changed that much this year as far as his face goes, but he grew several inches. You can tell by where his head hits the front door.

Alex, first day of 6th grade

Alex, 9 months later, on the last day of 6th grade

And speaking of Alex, he scored a 261 on his MAPS Math test the other day. He started the 6th grade at a 251...the high result for the end of 6th grade is a 231 or above. For an 11th grader, the score of 249 is considered high. And Alex has a 261. Way to go Alex!!!

Glen on his 1st day of his 24th year of teaching and Hannah on the first day of 11th grade

looking much the same at the end of the year

On Tuesday night we attended a barbecue that some of Glen's students put on. They are seniors and invited Glen--their theatre teacher, Mr. Fleming--their music teacher, and Mrs. Swenson--the accompanist, to the party to thank them for their influence in their lives. It was really a sweet thing to do. They cooked homemade pizzas on the grill...it was delicious!

We will really miss these students. They are so talented and just fun to be around. While we were waiting for the sun to go down enough to watch a slide show Derek had made, they sang to us (they are reading the words to the song on their phones):

Pierson, Jordyn, Spencer, Demi, Braden, Derek, Schyler, and Katie

I subbed on Monday and that was my last day for the school year. For the rest of the week, I have been getting the house ready so that when summer arrived, I'd be able to play. I have big plans and have already started on them.

I saw on pinterest where you stick magnets on the backs of old scrabble tiles and use them on the fridge. I have bought tiles several times at the thrift store, so I had plenty on hand. I made a "S M T W T F S" set for the week's menus. Then I made "NOTES" with an initial for each of us here at home...I can see that I need to add more letters as someone (Hannah?) has already been rearranging the few tiles we do have to spell words.

turn scrabble tiles into magnets for the fridge

Another idea was to take clothes pins, glue pretty paper on the front and a magnet on the back. OK, they actually glued thumbtacks on the back, but I only had 1 "regular" thumbtack, so I opted to use magnets again:

I saw on pinterest the great idea of using chalkboard paint in the pantry to make it easier to find all your items in your pantry. I had used red labels to identify my cans...but sometimes I'd rearrange where things went. Peeling off the old label and making a new one often didn't happen, so several things were mis-labeled.

As I was searching amazon.com for blackboard paint, I came across blackboard contact paper. It seemed like an easier, less messy method, so I ordered some. I used one of my punches and cut out the fancy label, then used my chalk. Super easy.

old way--the red label on the left / new way--blackboard contact paper

I can tell it's June because the day lilies are starting to bloom!

It's going to be a great summer.

Memorial Day, Dance Recital, Aces Game, Pinterest projects

Memorial Day 27 May 2013:

Every Memorial Day we meet at the local cemetery to put flowers on the graves of Glen's grandparents, great-grandparents, and a few other of Glen's relatives. This year, for the first time, we also had Adam's grave to visit.

Today (June 2nd) is one year since Adam passed away. I don't even know what to say about that. We miss you Adam. I cried a lot at Andrew's wedding a month ago and the tears were mostly because I was thinking of Adam and David and Jackie. I know he will have a chance to be married in the next life, but it still made me emotional to think that we would not have a wedding for him here.

Dad and Mom P with Beth, Glen, Alan, David, and Jackie

Grandpa and Grandma with Maddie, Megan, Michael, Alicia, Daniel, and Alex

Adding flowers to Adam's grave

 Memorial Day was also the day I picked the first strawberry from our little patch. It was small but super sweet. We've since gotten 2 handfuls more. I need to plant more plants.

Friday May 31st:

May 31st and June 1st brought us to our first ever dance recital for Hannah. Until last fall, she had never before expressed an interest in dancing. Since January she's been taking a teen/adult beginning ballet class and has really loved it. The recital was a presentation of The Red Shoes. I have to admit that I was afraid I would be bored stiff since Hannah's dance was only 3-4 minutes but the whole show was 2 1/2 hours. I'm glad to say that I was wrong and I really enjoyed the recital--the little kids numbers were adorable. Hannah's number was called "Thunder."

Chelsea, Hannah, Dustin, Erin, and Mallory

June 1st:

I have never been to a Reno Aces ballgame before. Glen and the boys have gone for Scout Night a few times. Well, Saturday night it was the Northern Nevada Dairyman's night and they (David and Alan) were kind enough to share some tickets with us to the game against the Tucson Padres. Hannah was at her recital, so it was just Glen, Alex, and me.

David (and Cowabunga and 2 others) threw out the first pitch (did you know that there are more than 1 first pitch? not going to games, I didn't know that)--and we missed it because we were running about 5 minutes late.  :(

We left during the 7th inning stretch right after singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game. At that point, the Padres were 2 runs ahead, but I needed to drive home while I was still awake. Turns out the Aces scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th and they had to have a 10th inning--where the Padres scored 2 runs and the Aces didn't. So, final score: Padres 8 and Aces 6. But it was really fun.

Cowabunga winning the tricycle race against the Aces mascot Archie (who can't be seen)

sliding into 3rd

Beth, Alex, and Glen at the game

* * * * * * *

I've been experimenting lately. I had read that if you put your bananas in a bag, they will last longer. I decided to give it a try. The first photo is from 5-16, the first day of the experiment. The second photo was taken 12 days later on 5-28. (2 of the bananas aren't in the 2nd photo because they were eaten) Anyway, as you can see, putting your bananas in a bag really lengthens the ripening time so you can buy a lot and then have them ripen at various intervals.

day 1

day 12

I recently tried 2 cleaning ideas I found on pinterest. One I really liked and one didn't work for me.

Hand soap:

The one I liked was making my own foaming hand soap. It's really rich and creamy. The pin is from:
http://www.littlehouseliving.com/homemade-foaming-hand-soap.html

The ingredients are simple:
a foaming soap bottle (reuse one you've already bought)
1 part liquid castile soap (which I ordered from amazon)
3 parts water
and, if you want, 5-10 drops of some essential oil. I used melaluca oil (tea tree oil) for its anti-microbial properties

A 32 oz bottle that costs $13.82 will make 128 oz (1 gal) of foaming soap ($.11/oz). You can buy a foaming soap refill at $4.17 for 32 oz which would be $16.68 for a gallon. So, it'll save you a little bit of money if you normally buy foaming soap refills.

However, I usually just buy regular liquid soap and make my own foaming soap refill (1 part soap to 3 parts water). Walmart has 56 oz of softsoap refill for $4.88, which will make about 224 oz of foaming refill, so that's just $.02/oz. Cheaper for sure.

But I like the castile soap recipe better. It was so thick and creamy that I was thinking of using 1 part soap to 4 parts water next time (making it $.09/oz).

Bleach alternative:

The next experiment was to make a bleach alternative for my white mattress pad covers that were covered in yellow splotches. It uses lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, and water:
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/10/a-natural-bleach-alternative.html

I can't use bleach because my well water has minerals in it that wind up putting brown spots on my laundry when I use bleach, so I thought I'd give this method a try. Though it worked for Jill, it didn't work for me. The splotches were less splotchy, but the mattress pad covers didn't get white. :(

It's not the first thing I've tried that worked for Jill that didn't work for me. The underarm stain remover that she has on her site is another example of a fail for me but not for her.

We are so excited for summer! Only 5 more school days!