The age old question

I never thought about this as a kid.

I mean, it was always there for me, every night, without question.

I would never even imagine that it would be missing.

But this week, I feel like I want to scream every time I hear the words:

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Lately I've been saying, "I don't know . . ."

I teach from 3-7 three days a week. If I don't plan for dinner in the morning, it is too late by 2 in the afternoon to get it started. And usually in the morning I'm trying to do something else. Then there is the problem of getting it in and out of the oven during teaching time without burning it or under cooking it.

Yes, I know about the crockpot. But after awhile, everything starts to taste the same when it is cooked in the crockpot. It gets this . . . "I've been cooking for the past 10 hours" flavor.

Some nights I resort to this:

Then I remembered that I had this!:

MMMmmmmmm. . . . . . .

Our family reluctantly tried this recently. DH was planning on a 3 day backpacking trip and needed some food to go with it. Ah, this was the perfect solution! However, once it is opened it must be eaten within 1 week. So DH portioned out his servings for backpacking, and Ems and I planned to eat it at pretty much every meal for the next week. But hey, at least I can answer that age-old question!

Pass the tums please.

Heavy Loads

**Anyone else having trouble with post options? My posts are not posting when I schedule them. Just wondering. **

DH and I are trying to get ready for a potential backpacking trip when we go to Utah.

I say potential because I'm not sure which may go out first -- his back or my hip.

At any rate, we are thinking positive and are beginning our training.

We decided to go early on this morning because it was expected to reach 95 degrees. Some of you may think that's a bit chilly, but when you add humidity to it, it becomes quite unbearable.

So we headed out early, the two of us, backpacks on and a smile on our faces.

Here the lovely stretch of road lies before us. This is where we live, people. It looks like this all around us. Cool, huh? It's nice to have a trail right out our front door.

It was a nice walk. But by the end I was ready to be done. You can tell by my forced smile.

4 miles, yippeee!!

What do you think?

I need your opinion.

I have an indoor project I'm working on. We are replacing our carpet with new (yeah!) this summer and I have decided that I also want to tile behind the stove. Here is the stove:

Very plain and boring. We have it on a tile platform now, but we want to replace that and also tile behind it. So here are some choices:
Tile choice #1 (The big one and the ones across the bottom:

This is a slate look.

Ok, tile #2

A little lighter in color, no?
And tile #3 - I was looking at the big one, but I'm open to suggestions.

I'm not very good at matching colors and seeing what looks best. I know that some of you are . . . :-) So please share your opinion!

Finishing up Walkways

Here are some pictures of our sidewalks getting put in. They look great!

Watching this come down the driveway was scary! They decided to stop before getting on the pavement. Thoughtful of them.

Concrete had to be brought in by wheelbarrow

Spreading it out

Smoothing it up

First step completed!

Putting the stamp on. They sprinkled a charcoal colored powder on the concrete before they put the stamp on. You can see the dust from the powder flying up.

Ta Da!

They are coming back to clean up and shellac it. They they will be finished!

A Benchmark

It has been 365 days since this boy

entered the MTC.

Only 365 more days to go.

I miss this.

My new love

Ems saw the start of this post and said "uh oh".

I have been busy since February working on this:

Preparing this scrapbook has been a labor of love for son #1, and I have learned a lot about his mission as a result. However, do you know how difficult it is to scrapbook about an event when you were not there?

It is hard. I look forward to his input on the journaling side of things

Here is a sneak peak, son #1! But you will have to come home to see the rest:

True confession time: I really don't like scrapbooking. I get overwhelmed by all the little doodads and I HATE the mess it creates. Then when you put it all away, you don't want to get it all back out just to do one more page. I also hate those moments when you are staring at a blank page and you just can't figure out what the layout should be.

On to the theme of this post--my new love. Take a look at this:

Here is a peak inside:

I purchased Adobe Elements about a year ago, along with a nice new camera. At first I was as overwhelmed by it as I am when I scrapbook. But with a little time and a little practice I got better at using it. And then we had a digital scrapbook class at church.

BAM! I was hooked. No mess, free downloadable materials and ideas, and a place that will print and then ship for free (there's that word again!) My kind of hobby!

I already have ideas for the next book. . .

Walkway Update

The boys came today and started working. They are so efficient. In just a few hours all this was accomplished:

oooh, la la

(that's DH feet, he thought I was taking a picture of him, hehe)

(you can see Em's feet too - my family is picture crazy!)

Concrete is scheduled to be poured on Wednesday, yipee!

Projects . . . more projects

So, let me tell you a bit about what is happening in our household this summer.

There is something about the warm summer wind that urges me to do things. Household type things. Home improvement type things. I can feel DH rolling his eyes about now. He knows that I start the projects, but he usually has to finish them. I am the inspiration behind his elbow grease.

Case in point . .

My walkways.

I have been eyeballing my walkway to my house for some time now. They looked good in their time . . . and that only lasted about two years. Snow and ice really take its toll on walkways.

We felt so clever when we put them in. I'm sure my kiddos remember this because they were helping us do it. We purchased a concrete stamp, some bags of concrete and some sand. None of us had ever worked with concrete before, but hey. . . we could do it! Plus we were on a strict budget. We couldn't afford to pay anyone to do it.

The first walkway went well. It looked nice! We were proud. The stamp created a little stone type look. We filled it in with a mix that went in the joints.

We admired it from near and far. It did look good.

After awhile the mix that went in the joints started to decay. Rapidly. Little ants made homes and weeds grew in the joints. Our little stones started to sink deep or rise up, depending on where the resident mole would travel.

This winter, as I was shoveling, I realized our pathway was so uneven that it could be a danger to my little students as they came to lessons. Something had to be done.

So I called a local concrete guy, who also happens to be a neighbor and a former piano family, and had him come over to bid on some new walkways. When I recovered from the sticker shock, he said the magic words that got me, "You know, you could save $500 if you pulled these walkways out yourself."

SOLD!!

Well, actually I did think about it for a minute, then I signed him up. Miss Ems and I started the project. Here is a before picture, which I always forget to do until it is nearly the after:

And the after:

Here's my helper:



She benefits too. Look at those muscles!

Keep watching for a follow up to the NEW and IMPROVED walkways!

Youth Conference

I have been very occupied this week with Youth Conference.

It is over now, and I PROMISE I will put some more blog stuff up. Right now I just need to sleep.

I just have to say that the youth of today, the ones who are trying to live the gospel, are the most awesome kids ever. They are truly a shining light in these dark times.

It gives me hope for the future.

Some silliness for your Sabbath

In the aftermath of the open house, we just couldn't resist. *Updated version!*

Open House

It is a Midwest tradition when one graduates from high school, that a big party is thrown for the graduate. When we moved out here we thought that was a rather strange practice. I mean, what's the big deal? Well, that's not entirely true. It is a big deal, but some of the open houses we have seen have been like wedding receptions. We vowed we would not succumb.

But we did anyway. So here are some events from Ems open house. I really wanted her to do a recital, followed by a reception. She really wanted to have a party. So we combined the two and printed on her open house invitations that she would be singing songs throughout the evening, a la Pride and Prejudice style. Here she is about to sing:

A view of the guests (there were more on the deck):

It was really fun to provide entertainment for the party!
We had cake:

Emily was given the job to stab, er, cut the cake:

Good friends abounded:

And the hot spot was the chocolate fountain:

We had a display area:

It was a good night, mostly because we got to spend time with good friends. Thanks to everyone for coming!

Graduation Day

After a whirlwind week, about to be followed by another whirlwind week, here are the events from today. Wow. I can't believe my baby is graduated. Here is her America's Top Model pose:

It is hard to tell from this picture but it was freezing outside! We are impatiently waiting for summer. It hasn't arrived yet. I am sure it will come in one night and it will be 90 degrees by next week.

Here is proud papa:

And mama:

And the official shaking of hands after receiving the diploma:

Congrats little daughter!