Ode to Ty

Happy Birthday to the newest member of our family

TYSON LOWDER

Thanks, Tyson, for putting up with us

For being game to do ANYTHING we might do

For graciously including us in your plans

And most of all, for loving our daughter

Have a wonderful birthday!

Our Weekend

We are back from a busy weekend. It was great to see Em in concert. The quality of musical performance was superb. She enjoyed meeting new friends and singing her heart out.

We are all pretty tired today and sad too by the death of Pres. Hinckley.

While we were there DH and I decided to visit the zoo.

It was cold out, but it was fun to see all the animals.

Birds of all kinds

No bears or lions, but tigers, oh my!

On the Road

Hey all . . .

We (dh and me) are getting ready to go to Grand Rapids for Em's Honors Choir weekend. She is there already and we are spending the night there and will watch her perform tomorrow. The kids always do such a good job and she just loves the experience.

I will post when we get back and show some pics!

Update on closet

I thought I should update y'all on the closet situation and not leave you hanging. I KNOW you are all just dying to find out the final result . . .

After mulling it over, thinking about spending a moderate amount of $ to get something better, but not what I really want, I decided to splurge and get what I really wanted in the first place. So in about a month's time I will have some custom cabinets installed. Of course I had to have DH (dear hubby) approval first, but when succinctly explained by me my reasons for desiring what I wanted he readily agreed. WOW! (that was easy, but don't tell him that)

So look for the updated photos in about a month!

Pete and Repeat

I woke up this morning and guess what I saw??? No really, can you guess what I saw outside my window . . . . again?
Yes, we have snow again. And no school again. This time we got a lot!
But we Michiganders are tough. We can handle this! We are so hardy that we don't even need coats. Heck, we can wear our summer clothes!

(she is wearing shorts and flip flops--can't quite see those!)

And, we can even get a tan! Well, sort of, through the clouds. . . .

sigh . . . Here's hoping for an early spring . . .

Squeaky Clean

All my dear relatives have been posting great recipes on their blogs with wonderful pictures. I have a new kind of recipe--laundry soap. Yum Yum!

Dear hubby has been suffering from skin ailments the last few years and I was prompted to try different laundry detergents to try and help him. The internet--the source of most wisdom--has some great recipes and I decided to try my hand at it this afternoon. Here are the basic ingredients:

I grated the bar soap in my Cuisinart. It looks almost good enough to eat!


Finally, I mixed it together with the other ingredients, found a jar and here it is. Ta da!


It smells nice, although taking too deep of smells is not a good idea. My sinuses are feeling like they got a good cleaning.

I have also switched to a new fabric softener: Vinegar. It works great, and no, your clothes do not smell like salad dressing! Once it dries there is no smell.

Great for the environment and cheap too! Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. By the way, here are the ingredients:
1 bar Fels Naptha soap (I know, I didn't know what it was either, but it should be either in the laundry aisle or bath aisle)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda)
1/4 cup oxi-clean (optional)

Use 1 tbsp for light loads, 2 tbsps for heavy loads

I'll let you know how it works!

The Dog Days of January

I woke up this morning and realized, "I live in a boring town". Now I am sure that you have all thought that at one time or another about my little piece of heaven, but for me it was a sudden thought, like a bolt of lightening. Even the dog is bored.

For example, I got up this week, looked out the window and said, "Hmm, it's snowing." Next day, "Hmm, it's snowing." Next day, "Hmm, snowing again." Today, though it was "Hmmm, snowing and windy."

What is there to do in a small town in the dead of winter? We do enjoy some winter sports, the ones that don't drain our pocketbook. X-country skiing has been pretty good, until my boot created a blister on my heel that took a week to heal. Plus, how fun is skiing when it is 8 degrees outside?

So I content myself with the inner workings of my home. I try not to watch TV. I have read almost all the works of Narnia. Why didn't I know about those when I was a kid? I have been blogging more than ever. Computers can make life much more enjoyable when there is nothing better to do.

And please don't think that I must not be busy enough. Au contraire!! I have A MILLION things that need to be done. I just don't want to do them today. Maybe later. Maybe in February.

I am addicted to house shows. You know the ones—Flip That House, Flip This House (two different shows, really!), Clean House, Dress My Nest, etc., etc.

My favorites are the ones that go into a really messy house and make it fabulous. I love seeing someone else’s abode looking worse than my own. It gives me some kind of perverse satisfaction (“see Rog, you could be living in that! Aren’t you a lucky guy? I'll do the dishes later . . .”) But it does weird things to me. I get this urge, like an itch, to go through all my closets and throw everything out. Why do I keep all this clutter anyway?

Well, I have been eyeballing my kitchen closet for months now. It is a thorn in my side—it looks like a bedroom closet in a dining room. Well, it was a closet in a kids room about 8 years ago when we remodeled, and it looks out of place. At the risk of embarrassing myself and getting on one of those shows myself, here it is. And I think I am the only family member who remembers to close the doors. Heaven forbid someone should see that!! When we have company that’s the first place I check—its like having someone see you in your underwear when your messy closets are open!

So I had some cabinets makers in here to give me some ideas and write me up a quote to make it look more like a hutch and less like a closet. After I got over my shock and could breathe again I decided to scale back and do something else that will still be fabulous but affordable. I will post the finished picture—stay tuned!

Say Cheese!

This Christmas we decided that we were going to splurge and get a family portrait taken at a REAL studio, not Wal-mart or JC Penney. The last time we went to Wal-Mart the photographer tried really hard to get all 6 of us to fit into a studio meant for a 6 month old. As a result, the pictures were close ups of us from the neck up. We looked like floating heads. Half of Ad's head was cut off in every picture.

So, deciding to spend the equivalent of a round trip ticket to the Orient, we went with all the family over Christmas break, dressed in our matching blues (I won't tell you how many days it took for us to decide to wear that!) and had some pictures taken.

It's been so long for me--of course I was thinking that I could take the proofs home and copy them to get what I wanted. Ha! The photographic industry is way ahead of me. We got a sample booklet of grainy photos to look at (they don't scan well), a CD with the pictures on them (can't copy those!) and a website (those were interesting, in one we looked like we all had the same left eye, can't print those off).

Then comes the fun part--which ones to choose? Ok, we can't pick the one with me on the end because it makes me look fat. E's hair is messy in a few, can't pick those. Ad looks like he is drugged in another, that won't do. And, dad, well as Ad puts it "looks evil in that picture, mom!"

And what's with the leaning they ask you to do? In one we look like we are ready to leap out of our seats, or struggling to stand during an earthquake.

Well, I still haven't figured out which ones to choose, but there are some that are outstanding. Yep, that' s a good one.

Maybe next time I'll just fly Jen out--are you up for it Jen?

Just when I'm feelin' smart . . .

Technology and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it when it works and I understand it, which is, on average, about 10% of the time.

This week our stake is doing roadshows, and, as part of the stake, I volunteered to record all the music for the practicing portion. I used to be able to do it with cassettes, but I do have all the technology to burn CDs, and I thought, "Why not. What better time to figure out how to use all this great stuff I have!"






Well, long story short, after HOURS (and I mean hours) of hair pulling, teeth gritting, muttered expletives (mild ones, of course!) under my breath, I have finally finished my CDs--12 songs, 3 copies of each!

Now, if I can just remember how to play them when the time comes. . . .

Gettin' jiggy with it

Last year for Christmas we received the "Trans-Siberan Orchestra" cd, you know, the music on the commercial with the house and the flashing Christmas lights? My girls decided to rock on and dance to the music.

The next day Mari complained of a whip-lash effect on her neck. They were doing some pretty serious head shaking. Cool looking hair, though, eh?


Today I decided to try my hand at baking a crusty bread loaf. Roger and I have been interested in different types of European-type loaves, and gave this one a shot. Here is the end result:












The only ingredients are flour, salt, yeast and water.

Here's Adam's reaction:















I think he likes it. Now we are off to get his passport and prepare the missionary papers!