Winners:
Thanks for your comments - I appreciate you taking time.
Here's the two winners for the little notebooks (I promise they are so much cuter in person)...
Arlene
Angela
Give me your addresses and I'll mail 'em or I can coordinate where to meet you.
Again, thanks you guys!
Stay tuned - I have lots of photos to share today and all this week.
Until then - one from this weekend:
Ok, so it's been established - I need medicated...and NOT with Diet Pepsi and sugar - although, what the hell would be wrong with that? REALLY!
I know I can be like a 'toot in the wind' - all over the place sometimes.
I get ideas, projects, start sentences....and NORMALLY NEVER finish them...or truthfully, I INTEND to finish them all - but something else sparks my interest or makes me head towards it and leave the current 'passion' behind....I know that about myself - honestly I recognize it....but I know of no medication (besides the above mentioned items.....)
I have recently been told by two different people that I forgot to post about ______ and I never finished showing pictures and tell ing about _______.....so I will get to those two posts, soon - I promise...
And, it got me thinking - what else have I NOT completed on this here blogarooni?! Is there something I've said I'd get to/said I'd share/ said I take photos of - and haven't?
This is going to be like a little contest....if you will leave me a comment telling me something I NEED to post about or something you've been waiting for me to finish/share - I'll enter you into a drawing for this:
I actually have two to give a way. It is a little notebook that I did make - yup, actually completed a few of them. It has fabric and then some little do-dads on it's cover.
Inside, there are 52 sheets of paper that say 'The Freakin' Never Ending To Do List'. It's set up in a weekly format. I downloaded it from HERE. So fun!
Anyway, leave me a comment and I'll draw two names and post them on Monday morning.
Until then, a couple random photos - some fun ones from lately...
Ok - so comment N O W ! Do it - you'll really help me!
Just a few photos from Halloween.
I must've overdosed on the Diet Pepsi last week because I thought it would be fun to make some MORE pretzel rods for some people in our community - like 'older' people/widows...who wouldn't get any candy or sweets for Halloween. This is one of my very favorite things to do....give people something when they aren't expecting it.
Notice Saydee's nails? She wore the same costume from last year that I so meticulously 'put together' (mostly with hot glue and safety pins - sewing isn't my gift) - we bought her eyelashes and nails and new striped tights to 'change it up a bit'. She wore some of my sisters old clogging shoes so that she 'clicked' as she walked around. Kinda fun.
Logan was Spiderman. I actually bought him a Spiderman costume last year, but he wore it out (several holes) BEFORE Halloween - so he ended up wearing another costume we had on hand. This was actually the 2nd Spiderman costume this year, but after the first one started unraveling after only a few days of wear (stinkin' Walmart) I took it back, got another one and put it away until THE DAY.
We did the trunk or treat at our church, stopped to show Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds (My mom had yummy kettle corn in cute, little bags for the kids) costumes, then back to our community to visit with some friends for a while. Home to sort candy and off to sugar dream land....S W E E T!
OH, and by the way....the "stash" I had put away for myself (I always buy the kinds I like and pick out my very favs and put them in SAFE KEEPING) is nearly gone - no wonder my belly is fatter and rumbly every night.....
Off and on over the summer, one of these...
...has shown up on my front or back porch.
Take a look at it a bit closer:
My dad says these are called "Voles".
All I know is they must not taste very good to my cats and dog, because they NEVER eat them! They just leave them for me to discover....dead.
A couple of weeks ago I counted 5 dead on the porches or in the garage - UGH! They are small and I'm not scared of them, but 5 in one shot - come on!
No kidding, the next night there was a story on the local news about these dang things - and the local county was offering a dollar a vole/mole if you brought them in dead (because there are so many causing problems in the fields, etc.).....I coulda had a 12 pack of Diet Pepsi for the ones in my yard that day!
As I've mentioned, I asked to be over teacher appreciate at both my kid's schools.
This is something I really enjoy and I find fun to do (mostly). I really do believe teachers have one of THE most important jobs in the world. I like to make sure the ones who work at my kid's schools feel appreciated for the work they do.
I've been trying to do a little something for them each month/holiday.
I found Halloween pencils and wanted to give them a treat that wasn't so traditionally Halloween-ey with the pencils. I came up with white chocolate dipped pretzel rods.
I buy my chocolate chips in 25 lb. boxes every couple of years. I keep them in my pantry in these labeled white buckets.
I read somewhere on line that if you add a bit of vegetable oil to your melting chips, it will make it smoother. I added canola oil and sure enough - much, much smoother than in the past. I added 1 T. oil to each cup of chips I melted.
I attended a local candy making class a few years back. They showed us this way for melting the chocolate - milk or white.
You line one of these pans (can't think of the technical term at the moment) with a towel, turn it on low (I was @ about 250) and I had two glass bowls going - I did a cup at a time in the small one (because it would melt faster), then I would add that to the big one once it was melted to keep the big one full for dipping.
My first test ones....the broken end rods....Steven and Logan INHALED THESE AS FAST AS THEY SET UP (they are one of Steven's very favorite).
This was the first batch I did over the weekend. It went more smoothly than I expected, but took some time. I did another batch this same size (3 bags of rods) on Monday night.
And here they are all done:
I planned to do these pretzels for the teachers and all the aides, etc., but they did take quite a while, so I opted to wash some of the little pumpkins we grew in the garden and put them in cellophane bags, tied with ribbons for the aides - if I include aides, it nearly triples my number.
It was fun to stuff them in their 'boxes' at the school and listen as they found them. It really is important to me that they know they are appreciated.
I'm not sure if I've shared this recipe on my blog or not, but here it is anyway:
I'm making this for dinner today. We'll have it over baked potatoes and a big, green salad with it.
My kids and Steven INHALE it and I've been asked for the recipe SO MANY times.
I got it from a Jodi who got it from a Jodi....now it's ALL MINE!
We served it at Saydee's school a couple of years ago for the teachers and they went wild over it!
So, please try it - I promise you'll love it!
And one last little recipe for the coming cold months:
Enjoy!
...from yesterday:
Before:
Yesterday:
We even did the playroom:
Now, the upstairs is coming along....more pictures on that later....
We survived yesterday.....all of my 'to do's' got done and pretty well, I might add, so that was a relief.
The kids and Steven were so great to cooperate and help out. It makes having lots to do and specific places to be at certain times so much easier when the kids do as you ask and don't give you any slack...same with hubby's (j/k).
So, I'm recovering from a very crazy, hectic week today - trying really hard to 'find my floors'.
Please DO NOT judge me by these photos.....if you promise not to, I will show the AFTER ones....
Now remember, you promised - no judging....I'm still trying to be a good person, just WAY OFF BALANCED in the homemaker area right now.....
It makes me sick to looks at all these, because - hell, where do I begin?! But, I will try to be hopeful and it will be fun to retake photos tomorrow of the same areas.....wish me luck.
Today will prove to be a real test for me.....
...it is THE busiest I've had for a few weeks.
Delivering community Halloween treats with invites to an activity at the church tonight.
Lunch with the principle at Saydee's school - very important to her....not so much for me.
Heading up an art project with Saydee's class (25 4th graders) - the main part of this project did NOT turn out (discovered it at 8 p.m. last night) - so we will have to improvise and THAT stresses me out - I want it to be perfect and JUST LIKE THE DANG PICTURE!!
Trying to deliver all the 60+ teacher appreciation Halloween treats. The kids don't have school on Friday and I have to be in Rexburg tomorrow morning, so today is when they have to be handed out.
I did stay up until 2 a.m. baking pumpkin bars for the refreshments at the church/community activity tonight. I need to get those frosted sometime.
Saydee needs a pumpkin carved for tomorrow and Steven and I have to be at the church at 6 p.m. tonight, so I'm hoping to have an hour after school to quick carve one.
Saydee has 10 girls coming at 11:00 a.m. on Friday morning - You seriously CANNOT walk through my upstairs OR downstairs.....I haven't vacuumed for 10 days - and that's HORRIFIC - so trying to vacuum SOMETIME TODAY - although there isn't much BARE FLOOR to vacuum - I'll just have to 'spot vacuum'.
Saydee's room truly looks like a hurricane hit it. I'd will take several hours in there, too.
Last week I hauled EVERYTHING out of my closet to try to organize it....it was laid nicely on the bed, now it's all on the floor in my bedroom in piles....
Last, but not least, there is a church/community activity tonight at the church for all adults, that I'm helping with.
I'm skipping out on setup because of the stuff at Saydee's school, but I will be there for a few hours tonight (we're sharing ideas and plans regarding a natural disaster in our area - what we should do - who's responsible for what, etc. - hopefully you all know what FREAKS we Mormons are about being prepared). Anyway, the 'treats' will hopefully be frosted and ready by then.....
Steven's been THE BEST! He can tell I need support and help and he's been great!
He worked on Sunday to get the very last of the hay baled and now they're getting equipment cleaned and put away for the winter.
We have 3 different year end projects that need completed this week for the farm. I'm hoping he'll handle one of those for me.
Good hell - it's a wonder I'm not half cocked, huh? Well, I did have 8 Diet Pepsi's yesterday...so I could be a little wound up...oh and the worst...I'm PMS AND one of the cats threw up a whole pile of worms in the garage.....nice!
Hope we ALL have a good day!
The very last day of Spud Harvest was a Sunday. We were all laying around, listening to General Conference. We decided we needed ONE LAST ROAD TRIP and quickly headed out to Mesa Falls.
We drove the Scenic Byway. This was another trip that our local paper had recommended and a road we'd never been on.
We stopped at a little trail because I had glanced out the window and thought I'd seen an old train tunnel...sure enough! Logan...
just...
simply...
LOVES...
ANYTHING...
to do...
with...
TRAINS!!!!
This little 'walk/trail' was sooo pretty!!!
These two decided they were REALLY TOUGH that afternoon...
Yea...right.
We hit the colors JUST PERFECT. Saydee and I were snapping photos left and right.
We headed to the lower falls - so pretty.
I have so many photos from the upper Mesa Falls. I'll do a separate post (when I get 2 of the 5 large projects going today at my house).....until then:
