Halloween 2011

Going for a walk...

There is a bike path that I have driven past many times and wondered where it went. Today, I fed my little girlies breakfast and we got out the bikes and the stroller and drug Lisa and baby along with us. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

We walked about 1 1/2 miles (girls complaining all the way about WHY we were doing this and how tired they were and how hot it was...you know the drill) before we even found the beginning of the path. Once we did however, the little ladies seemed to be rejuevenated and took off on their own down the paved path along a raging river! It was shady (and therefore a little cooler, thank goodness) and wove its way along back yards that line the river banks. It turned out to be a beautiful walk/ride that they are determined to take their father back to maybe tonight.

We finally decided to head back home. I'm not sure how far we went but we were gone for 2+ hours. I had to have a nap this afternoon! It also reminded me of a quaint little tune "Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked and walked and walked and walked....and walked". Next time, I think we will drive to the trail head and just enjoy the bike path as it was intended!

Healthy Eating and Recipes

A friend of mine recently started a cooking blog for healthier eating options. I have tried several of her recipes and LOVE them Here is the link to Emilee's blog. Check it out today! Try the Carribean Jerk Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans. It is one of my absolute favorites. I have made it twice. Fair warning though: it is quite spicy and I had to scale way back on the Carribean Spice (even half of the amount called for was too spicy for my kids!). Her lettuce wraps are to die for too. And....I'm off to the kitchen. All this talking about food is making me hungry! Happy eating!

Tin Foil Dinner Cooking Tips

Tin Foil Dinners are a fun and delicious way to cook when camping and after doing a lot of research on the internet, I learned a few things:

Tin Foil Dinner Cooking Tips:

* Use heavy duty foil. That way you don't have to worry about your packet ripping open before it is finished cooking. I like to double layer mine, even with heavy duty foil

*Use cooking spray (like Pam) on the foil before you put the food in. It helps your food to not stick to the packet.

*Add a little fat to the packet-oil or butter. Really adds to the flavor. Toss raw veggies (like potato slices) in a little oil to help them not stick together and brown.

*Place meat on the bottom, as it takes the longest to cook. You can add some high-moisture vegetables like onion or tomato to the meat to keep the meat from drying out and add some more flavor. Mix slices of onion right into your meat.

*Be sure to use a thin slice of raw meat (like hamburger) to ensure doneness and not having to cook it too long. Ham slices and stew meat are a nice change too.

*You can use canned vegetables if you want to speed up your cook time. Just beware: they can sometimes be a little overcooked and tend to be mushier than fresh, raw veggies.

*Onion soup mix is a great flavor additive!

*Don't be afraid to experiment. Sweet potatoes, fresh green beans, etc. are wonderful cooked this way!

Cake Batter Truffles

My cute daughter, Stacy, made these the other day and brought some over. We made awfully quick work of them! They are pretty yummy and taste just like cake batter, which is always a favorite of the kids! She got the recipe from Landee on her blog where she gives credit to two other sources. Give them a try! They are yummy. (Just for your information, I made the cookie batter truffles from Landee's blog but we all preferred these!)

Cake Batter Truffles

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 yellow cake mix

1 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. salt

about 1/4 cup milk

hand mix:

2 T. sprinkles

white dipping chocolate

Beat together sugar and butter. Add remaining ingredients, adding milk in slowly until you reach desired dough-like consistency. Mix in sprinkles by hand. Roll into balls and place on wax paper lined cookie sheet and chill for at least 15 minutes.

Melt dipping chocolate and dip batter balls in. Put back on wax paper and top with more sprinkles if desired. Keep refrigerated. Makes approx. 30 truffles.

Keeping Hydrated

I have always heard that drinking plenty of water is essential to good health and especially weight loss. I don't mind drinking water.....I just know that I don't EVER get as much as I should. The teacher of the pump class that I attend says that you should drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water each day. I have good intentions....sometimes I even start the day out doing pretty well, but I get busy and simply forget. Well, no more! I just read about a fantastic idea, and just had to share.

Set your timer for 1 hour. Each time the timer goes off, you drink an 8 oz. glass of water. Not too hard, right? The only problem for me so far is remembering why the timer is buzzing!! That old age and memory thing~!! I am hoping this will be the beginning of a beautiful habit for me. Good timing, too with summer (supposedly) coming any day and needing to keep hydrated in the hot summer sun. Here's to hydrating and re-hydrating!

New Grandbaby Camryn

Camryn Alexis Melvin was born on Wednesday, June 8, 2011. She weighs 7 lbs. 8.3 oz. and is very cute! Momma Lisa and baby are doing well!

I was there for the birth and it was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced! What a miracle new life is. She is perfect in every way and is such a sweet little thing. She has a very husky, deep voice and is not afraid to let us know what she wants. Welcome little one!

Ribbon Flowers

Ok-disclaimer....these pictures are terrible! My camera is having issues. Thank goodness I bought the extended warranty. But for today....just try to imagine!!

The other day, I was wandering through a local craft store looking for a fun idea for an embellishment. There were the cutest ribbon flowers there and I decided it was a great idea to use up some ribbon scraps. My camera has been having issues, so these are terrible photos-but these flowers are pretty cute!

You will need:

4 pieces of ribbon (approx. 4 1/2 inches long-depending on size of flowers desired-I used 2 different coordinating ribbons)
1 7 mm brad (or button, etc. for center of flower)
small hole punch
adhesive-either the 714 or some glue dots

1. On the wrong side of each piece of the ribbon, put a length of glue or glue dot

2. Fold each ribbon into a circle, overlapping slightly and adhere (right sides out)

3. Using more adhesive, and making sure seams are hidden, make an X with 2 ribbon circles.

4. Repeat with other 2 pieces of ribbon.
5. WIth one more bit of adhesive, put 2 ribbon X's together, forming a flower.
6. With small hole punch, punch through all layers of ribbon and secure with 7 mm brad (making the center of the flower).

New Pink Glider

Look at these fun little critters!! I am so excited. Now THIS is a scrapbooking tool. What a fun color. For each tape glider that 3M sells, they are donating $1.20 to the "Susan G. Komen Search for the Cure Foundation" for breast cancer research. This glider is essentially the same as the ATG 714 (the red one) and uses the same 1/4 " tape. 2 free rolls of acid free ATG 908 gold are included in every box. Great price too at $29.95. Get yours today!!

Back to School

Here is a picture of Lisa and Rory home for the weekend....it just happened to be Lisa's birthday weekend. School starts for them both in St. George at Dixie State on August 23rd.

All of the other kids are all officially back to school as of yesterday, August 25th. This little cutie (granddaughter Marisa) starts into kindergarten this year! Fun times!!

Another One Leaves the Nest

This is our beautiful daughter Lisa who left for greener pastures this past Saturday. She has moved to St. George where she will work for the summer and start college in the fall. I had a hard time saying good-bye to her. I am excited for her to begin this new phase of life, but feeling very melancholy about the whole situation. Maybe because she was my baby for so long....maybe because after having 4 older siblings preceed her in moving out, I realize what it really means when a child moves away from home (and how it is never the same again)...and maybe just because in the past few months especially, we have become very close and I am going to miss my little buddy. Good luck Lisa...we all miss you terribly! Love you!

Grandkids are the Greatest

Look at these darling babies!! Oh, being a grandma is the greatest thing ever! Dylan, Marisa and Cambria.

Sisters' Weekend and 2nd 5K Race

I have the most adorable husband in the world! He just kept the kids for me for 3 whole days, while I went off to play with some of my favorite people...my little sisters. We have been holing up in a hotel room (not too far away from home!) for the past couple of days. We attended our church's "Women's Conference" at BYU where we went to classes on how to be less critical, how to evaluate our lives and re-set our priorities, how to have more meaningful prayers, improve our marriages and be better parents. I have been going every spring for the past 5 years and I come home re-charged and motivated to improve my life! Wish me luck!! I could use some improvement!

Wednesday was my sister Nancy's birthday and so we celebrated with dinner and a movie. Thursday night we attended a concert, Friday we ate out again (seems to be a favorite past time) and hung out in the hot tub. We also ATE and ATE and ATE....stuff like BYU's famous mint brownies with walnuts, and chocolate covered cinnamon bears (my favorite!).

This morning, however, there was no junk food in sight! We got up at 6:30 AM to get ready to run in the Provo City Half Marathon and 5K. It was so cold! About 41 degrees...and part way (I'm guessing about 3/4 of a mile into the 5K) it began to rain/snow/hail on us. When we got to the finish line we were soaking wet and pretty chilly. Magelby's had a french toast breakfast that they provided for all the runners and as we stood in the park, in the rain and the cold, waiting for the results to be announced....it started to snow/rain a little bit harder.

This was a first race for 2 of my sisters and 1 in particular was excited to find out her time and to see if she may have placed in her age group. Some of us (ok, mostly me) didn't really care to hang out in the rain to find out how I had done (there were hundreds of people who ran the 5K and what are the odds???)...and just wanted to head back to the hotel and that delicious hot tub. Since she wasn't ready to leave for the hotel without knowing the results...we decided to wait it out in the car where at least we could get out of the rain/snow and turn a heater on. About half an hour later, she came back to the car with a big smile and a medal around her neck!! She won 3rd place in her age group. Wahoo!

End of story? NO! She had a medal in her pocket for me! I also placed 3rd in my age group! I guess I don't deserve the medal, for not sticking it out in the rain to claim it...but it made being cold ALMOST worth it. And ultimately after about an hour in the hot tub, our body temperatures returned to normal and we feel like real people again! Maybe next time we ought to try a 10K!

THEY HAVE BEEN SHIPPED!!

Got an email from 3M today.....they have finally shipped our order! ATG 714's will be here on Friday! If you have placed an order, you will be served first come, first served! Should be a busy weekend!!! Thanks for your patience.

Julie

Earthquake in Chile and Missionaries

This is a picture of my neice Alyssa who is serving a mission in Bruin, Chile which is close to Santiago. This is her description of what they experienced that morning:

"The earthquake hit pretty hard, but we didn't have nearly as much damage as surrounding cities... The morning it happened (about 3 am our time) we ran out of the house (if you can call if running, it was almost impossible) to the open ground in front and huddled together until the earthquake passed. Luckily nothing happened. We didn't have water or electricity for a while, but the sisters we live with took care of us and gave us candles, and we have a large reserve of water (mission rules). We had a hard time going back to sleep. We keep having tremors and we wake up every time a car passes by because it sounds like another tremor coming.

In areas where the earthquake hit the hardest, people are robbing the stores, and because of that the police are guarding ours pretty heavily. It took us an hour to get out of the lines."

After the earthquake there last week, they were told to "store as much" as they could. When their mission president came by to check on them and they showed him their supply he laughed at them and took a picture for them to send home with their weekly letters. Very obedient girls!

They still have water and electricity and things are beginning to get back to normal there. Although, they have had several tremors throughout the week and she said that they are being told to stay inside, only going out with permission and to appointments that were previously set. They are also to dress in "preparation day" clothes (which means pants and tennis shoes instead of the normal dresses). They are going to be taking supplies and food to nearby places where there is more loss and damage.

Because of the magnitude of the earthquake, the earth's axis has actually shifted....making the days shorter. Interesting food for thought.

3M Backorder Update

3M is saying that applicators should ship out 3/10. Keep your fingers crossed. George (our buddy at 3M) said they are having trouble getting one of the components of the "guns" --thus the nationwide backorder! Will keep you posted.

Julie

3M Backorder

I am so frustrated I could scream!! I went to place our regular monthly order from 3M only to find out that 2 of our 3 top selling items are back-ordered. We pulled some strings and called in some favors and got 30 of the 714 applicators shipped to us. They arrived today....I have coincidentally 30 orders to get out by tomorrow morning.

Then it looks like it may be like pulling teeth to get the rest of our order before March! We are bugging everyone we know how to bug to see if it will help and have several 3M employees working on our behalf to try to find some for us....helps to have connections, I guess. We'll keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed. ;)

My First 5K-November 21, 2009

At a service project a couple of months ago, a friend and I started talking about running. She told me how she had run a couple of 5k's and was thinking about training for a half marathon. I expressed a little interest in doing a race myself (5k) and she asked if I wanted to join her that very weekend in a high school swim team fund raiser 1m/5k race. I told her to let me know details and I would decide. That was on Wednesday.

On Friday evening, I still had not heard from her and the race was Saturday morning, so I assumed she had decided not to race. I got up on Saturday morning and did my normal routine which consisted of strength training for about 45 minutes, followed by running on the treadmill for about 15 minutes.

I had just come upstairs from working out when the phone rang. It was her. She said she had tried to reach me a day or two previous, then had seen the weather report and figured it would be too yucky to want to participate. So she gave up on the idea. When she woke up on Saturday morning, the weather looked ok and she decided to go for it.

I told her about my just finishing working out...to which she replied that it was great to follow strength training with some cardio and it would be good for me!!!! So, like a fool, I consented!

It was interesting. I finished in 33:17 minutes (which I didn't think was horrible, especially considering my workout an hour before!), and came in 5th in my age group and only 1 minute (almost exactly) behind my friend. I wonder how I would do without exhausting myself first!

Trip to Disney World and Cruise to W. Carribean

This December was my parents 50th wedding anniversary! So we talked them into taking a two week vacation with us and my sister Sue and her hubby. We stayed in a condo in Florida and did the whole Disney World thing for a week, then left for a week long cruise to the Western Carribean. It was sooooooo much fun! I love cruising. I am ready to go again!

Bathroom Remodel

What a nightmare! We decided to re-do our Master Bathroom and also our Main Bathroom. These pictures are my impatience waiting for someone to come and do some demolition. I finally took a hammer and went at the tile. It was a lot of hard work, but it got the ball rolling!!

We have had extra floor supports put in (they were on 24 inch centers!!! now they are 12), new plywood subfloor, rebuilt the shower/tub area, refinished the cabinets, had the walls re-textured and painted. Tomorrow the marble company comes for the final measure and next week the tile guy will be here. Saturday I have someone coming to measure for new blinds. Then we replace the toilet and the cabinets and hang a new mirror and voila! Time to move on to the Main bath.... :( Can't wait to be done though!