Screaming Deal

Wow, when I'm back - I'm back! Three posts in one day. Are you sick of me yet?

Anyway, I couldn't go to bed without sharing the screaming deal to be had at Albertsons (this is for Colorado, check your local ads to see if it is going on in a store near you). They are doing a buy 10 items get $5 in register rewards promotion. Some of the items included in the deal are Yoplait yogurt and Progresso soup. The amazing thing is the yogurt is 10 for $5 which calculates to FREE after you get the register rewards! The soup is 10 for 10 making it 50 cents each after the rewards. A great price on an easy food storage item.

There is even a sweetener to the deal! For you coupon clippers, or even those of you who aren't among those of us crazy enough to subscribe to the paper only so you can get the coupons every Sunday, Boodle.com has coupons for 50 cents off 6 yogurts and 55 cents off 2 soups (you can print two of each). Slap those together and get a total of 6 yogurts and 4 soups for about 40 cents (before taxes and factoring in $5 rewards on next purchase, and don't swear by my math here). You can do this multiple times (even without coupons its a steal) but you have to be sure to break each transaction to get the rewards.

Now I call that a screaming deal!

Intimidated by Food Storage

Another project I have been researching but haven't yet dove into yet is Food Storage. My mother has been on a food storage rampage and I have let her know that I want a detailed report of what she has been doing. Hopefully it will be posted in a week or so. Until then I have been doing some research on various blogs and websites.

The LDS Church's stance on food storage has been adjusted in the past few years. Their recommendations can be found on the Provident Living Website. The focus has changed to families having a three month supply of food within the home, bare minimum.

Personally this is less intimidating than having a full year of food storage, especially in the limited amount of space in my apartment. But still, three months is a lot of food and it takes a lot planning.

How have you approached this HUGE challenge?
What meals do you have included in your three month plan?
How are you organizing and rotating your supply?

There are a few blogs that I have found to be helpful as I ponder these questions.

I have found Blog Totally Ready to have a lot of helpful information. The host has posted, since January 08, every week a break down of "Seven Steps" to take each week to gather your 72 hour and three month supply as well as make various other preparations around your home. Some of these steps are so simple, especially when broken down. She really opens up you eyes to things that would be helpful in being prepared for an emergency. A lot of information and advice to be had on her site.

Another blog that my mother pointed out to me is Everyday Food Storage. This gal focuses on how to make using your food storage a part of everyday life. She has many recipes and demonstrations.

Food Storage Made Easy is a website that has taken steps to break down the food storage process and make it more manageable while educating you on the hows and whys. They have a spread sheet available for download to help you plan and calculate your three month supply.

Lastly, the website Simply Living Smart seems to have a plethora of information (much of which I haven't digested yet). They also break the process down and help you understand what you need to do and why.

Now are you like me and feel like a deer in the headlights?

I'm really feeling the need and the pressure to get this all started (and done).
Any suggestions, feelings, experiences, words of encouragement, etc would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, also I'm in the market for a WHEAT GRINDER. What kind do you use? Do you love it; any problems; how often do you use it; etc?

I promise... I'm still alive!

This morning I got a call from my sister-in-law checking to see if I was still alive and well. My mother and sister have also commented on my absence from the blog world. I'm sorry! Thank you to all my faithful readers (aka family and friends) that have been checking in on me just to be disappointed to find nothing new.

So the question is what have I been up to in my absence?

Well, I posted earlier (I guess its been a few weeks) about how fall brings on the project bug. I have been busy doing a plethora of projects (just about everything except cleaning my house, which is in shambles). Unfortunately none of them are completed YET! I will give you a sneak peak into what I have been working on though.

There are the makings of a scarecrow. I have been searching for a few weeks now for a flannel shirt at a garage sale and have still come up empty handed. We'll give it one more week and then I will have to head to the thrift store.

I finally picked up my Babbett afghan again. It was my project rampage of last fall but it never got all pieced together. I am about a third of the way through putting all the squares together...finally! I'm really excited with the way it is turning out.

I had a cell phone scare a couple weeks ago when my battery completely died. I was afraid I had lost all the phone numbers in it. That would be a sad day! So I put together our own personal phone book. It includes our ward list, my cell phone numbers, our address and our own personal numbers too, as well as our doctors. Handy for those emergencies when my brain might not be working.

I've started my holiday planning. The last couple of years I have used a cheap composition book and glued paper on the front and put tab dividers down the side. This year I have been very loosely following the suggestions from a blog called One Hundred Days to Christmas. I have included in my binder a calendar for the rest of the year, project lists, shopping lists, menus, gift lists for ideas and what I have and how much I've spent, etc. This is working not only for Christmas but Halloween and Thanksgiving too in addition to the three family birthdays that also fall in that window.

I have started my Christmas shopping. I have some things I've found at garage sales and the consignment store in town and I am filling in the rest by shopping on the Internet. There are deals to be had! I am so addicted to searching around for the best price and reading the reviews and figuring out if I can get free shipping or not. Elijah is pretty much done but I am stumped on what to get Sam (especially from Santa). What do you get a two year old that isn't crazy about any one thing and has all his brother's toys to play with?? Any suggestions? Anyway, one of the things I have lined up for them are the crayon rolls that Skip to My Lou does a great tutorial for (she is doing a bunch of links to homemade Christmas gift ideas. A great blog to look at!). I found the fabric for mine at Walmart and got it all for under $2.00 (with enough to make two and about enough to make at least one more). I picked up the crayons when they were super cheap at the beginning of the school year.

I've also still been working on the Ami Animals, though they have been back burner-ed as of late. I have an elephant in the works with plans for more!

There is one more thing I've got my hands in currently, but I can't share it here, too many ears! Lets just say I'm enjoying the whole homemade Christmas thing. There are a lot of amazing ideas out there. I'll post some links to my favorite toy stores and blogs with ideas soon.

So there you have it!

What projects are you working on? Have you even started thinking about Christmas? I'd love to hear!

Flannel Board Stories from the Friend

The amazing woman from Chocolate on my Cranium has put together a list of all the black and white flannel board stories that the church has printed in the Friend magazine over the years. They are stories from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Church History. She has even gone one step further and colored them using a computer program. All you have to do is save, print, cut them out, laminate, and use. (She also has a link to the original black and white ones on LDS.org)

I've been coloring some of these stories myself when I come across them on the lds website. To have them all collected into one place is SO helpful! They make great visuals for kiddos when doing Family Home Evening (FHE). I put a little square of magnet tape on the back and then they stick on a small cookie sheet I use as my "flannel board" (not all cookie sheets are magnetic!).

I'll be adding her link to my sidebar for future (and likely repeated) use.

What do you do/use to help teach your children the scripture stories?

I HATE WoW

For those of you lucky enough to not know what that is: WoW stands for World of Warcraft. It is a rpg (role playing game) you play online.

And I HATE it.

"Arr Arrrr"

Ahoy there maties!


For those of you land lovers that haven't a clue, today is the official Talk Like a Pirate Day. (Ideally, we'll see if it actually happens) We will be celebrating by pulling out your Chips AHOY cookies and sitting down to a great game of Pirates Cove while watching Pirates of the Carribean to get ideas on how to actually talk like a pirate.

Meanwhile to get you in the mood here are some pirate jokes: I'll put the answers in the comments, click the link for some more amusing jokes

1)How do pirates know that they are pirates?

2)Why does it take pirates so long to learn the alphabet?

3) Why is pirating addictive?

Shout Out: Just Another Hang Up

There is a sister in my ward that makes the most amazing totes. She sells them on her blog and also does regular give-aways. Head over to her blog and check out her latest give-away as well as all her other amazing bags. I love her color choices for the Retro Fall Flowers Tote. You have until midnight Sunday night to enter.

No hedging around it...

They're just so CUTE!

Christina received her birthday package today so I am now able to share pictures of the hedgehog and cupcake I made last week. Again I'm very happy with the way they turned out and it was extra fun to be able to give them away.

Happy birthday, Christina! I love you and miss you tons!

Elijah's Art

I got a roll of art paper at Target in their dollar section. The boys enjoyed doing big murals with their watercolors. The above picture is Elijah's of our family and a rainbow.
This is a picture of our living room. Complete with rug (big red rectangle bottom right), couch bottom left, table and chairs middle-left, Lamps top-right, TV and DVD cabinet middle-right, buffet top-middle, and tall bookshelf along the left edge.

This is a birthday card he did for his great-grandma with balloons on the front.

The inside has his self portrait along with

a detailed rainbow. Elijah is really going through a rainbow phase. He loves to draw them and loves to sing his original (every time it's different) "rainbow song"

Because he loves me

Friday, probably while I was sitting down and writing my post about how much I love Fall, Josh was at Costco loading up again on cheese and groceries. He ended up coming home with the most beautiful bouquet of Fall flowers. He said he got them because he loves me and because he knows how much I love Fall. Goodness, he was right on cue. There even was a red gerbera daisy in the bunch, my favorite. I love that man so much! We got to spend the entire day together on Saturday. Some friends of ours came up with the idea for us to caravan down to the Denver Temple, find a park nearby and take turns watching the kids while the others did a session. We got out early, making it to Denver a little after 9 am (I sacrificed garage saleing to go. Well worth the sacrifice but I was teased all the way home by all the garage sale signs posted up). The kids were such troopers throughout the long day and it was a gorgeous day to spend outside. Josh and I greatly enjoyed being able to go to the temple together. We don't make it there often enough. We realized it has been a really long time since we had been to the Denver Temple and we enjoyed the beauty of that building and the spirit inside. Apparently we aren't the only ones to have this idea. We came across multiple families doing the switch at the same park. It was a great day of service, family, and the beautiful outdoors.

For the LOVE of...

I have come to the conclusion that Fall is my favorite season, followed closely by Spring but Fall has pulled out on top. I love waking up the crisp air and the earthly smell while I am wrapped up warm in my covers. I love the cooler weather, the warm-not hot- sunshine in the afternoon, the change of the colors in nature around me, and the change in menu. I love making chili and being able to smell it all day without worrying about heating up the house. I love the soups and breads that come with cooler weather too. I love pulling out my sweaters and digging out my socks (yes, I do sometimes wear them with my crocs depending on the weather. Though lately my footwear has branched out a bit). I love the decorations and planning that come with the season. Pulling out my leaf garlands and purchasing pumpkins, figuring out what Elijah is going to settle on for his Halloween costume, starting the Christmas shopping lists and research. MMM... I love it all.

Another thing I've noticed over the last week or so that the cooler weather has been setting in, that the urge to do projects has been setting in too. Fall is my major crafting season (not sure why, it would be busy enough without all the extra projects). I love digging out my yarn and fabric remnants, surfing around on hundreds of blogs dreaming of what I can make. I've got the ideas flowing so beware... there will be posts to come to share the crafting madness that has infected me.


To start- today I found a cute pumpkin pattern that I just had to try. My fabric was a garage sale find from a few months ago and it worked perfectly for this cute little pumpkin. Granted I fudged and cursed my long underused sewing machine but I'm quite pleased with the finished project (though I'm thinking it will be a one and only). Sam fed my ego by giving a big "Oh" when he woke up from his nap and noticed it. Here's to the first Fall decoration of the year to grace my table.

FALL letters came together on this website

Doodle Doodle Doodle

I caught some pictures of Sammy doodling on our Aquadoodle. If you have a toddler I highly recomend these toys! Especially if they love to doodle on countless papers (and walls, tables etc.) I have found a couple extra doodle mats at garage sales for quarters and picked up a few extra pens at the store. oh so worth it! Sam has started dragging out the bin I keep them in, breaking it open himself, unfolding the mats and then getting to work. He assumes the cutest position. I was excited to catch it on "film" (that saying doesn't quite work anymore with digital, does it?)

Blue's Clues

Those of you that spend any time around Sam know that he is crazy about the show Blue's Clues. He calls it "ooose ooose" and does the double hand motion on either side of his face like they do in the movie. He begs for it first thing when he wakes up. If anyone happens to turn on the tv, Sam zones in and begs (with big puppy dog tears) for Blue's Clues. For awhile we were surviving on two vhs tapes I got a couple years ago at garage sales (a total of four episodes). It soon became apparent we would need something new before I went totally nuts. Thank goodness for grand ol' Walmart. I found the perfect DVD with four more episodes for $5.00- my lifesaver! And even better it was an Alphabet focused one. Perfect for Sam who is crazy for letters and Elijah is interested too.

Blue's Clues has carried over into the boys playing too. Sam and Elijah both latched onto a sole Elmo notebook that happened to be perfect for sliding a crayon through the rings which necessitated the buying of new notebooks to keep down the fighting. Sam loves his! He carries it around and calls it is "bo'book". He is constantly doodling in it. I often find him at our little art table or on his tummy on the floor talking to himself as he does his intricate little doodles on most every page in the notebook.

One of the episodes talks about writing messages and Elijah has taken paper and written/colored his own messages for family and friends. Yet another episode has Joe and Blue writing labels for various things around the house. This was our project for the past week (Elijah initiated). We cut paper into strips and Elijah had me write down words for him to copy onto the strips and then tape up around the house. He worked so hard on them and it was great practice for his letter writing (the strips help restrict his large, take over the world letters). Sammy of course wanted in on the action and has quite a few of his own strips with doodles on them. Only a couple labels actually made it up around the house. I think this week we will try and do some more.

It is so much fun to see my kids excited about something and learning along the way.

new Knobs

I mentioned earlier that I had found some new knobs for my garage sale buffet on eBay. I ended up winning them and yesterday Josh put them on. I am very pleased with the way they turned out even though they are smaller than I thought they would be. They worked well for both my drawers and my doors because the oval backing can be turned horizontal or vertical. I thought about spray painting them a darker color but now that they are on I like them the way they are.

Yay for a finished project

Family History Friday: GenDisasters Website

I came across this cool website a few weeks ago. It is a database that collects information about various disasters that have happend in the United States (and Canada) throughout history. The events are not necessarily major ones that make it into the history books, but ones that affected everyday people, even our ancestors. Many of them are gleaned from newspapers and other odd sources. You can search by state, disaster, or browse by year. It is also set up so you can comment and add information to an entry. I think it is so interesting to go through and read how they described the disaster and the people involved.

Take a look and see what sparks your interest.

Lion Ami

Yesterday was my first afternoon alone with Elijah at school and Sammy taking his nap (Josh has been home the last three school days either sick and/or working). It was nice to have some quite productive time to myself. I used the time to finally finish my little lion. I'm very happy with the way he turned out and excited to start another animal project.

Today I ran out to a few garage sales. It was slim pickings due largely to the colder weather but I was able to find a few things for Christmas, a Blue's Clues cake pan (heaven sent!), and gobs of yarn. The lady was selling it 4 balls/skeens for a dollar. I went nuts and grab 12 just imagining the cute little ami's I could make with it. I'm tempted to go back and get more!

Last night I was searching to see what free patterns I could come up with for more ami's. Some of the patterns had Josh and I laughing, they were so ridiculous.

Here are a few of the links that I found. Some are cute patterns that caught my eye, others are link lists of their own.

Ami List

Amigurumi a great list of free patterns

Celestine Crochet cool ball toy

Chicken

Holiday Penguin

Bunny in a dress

Snowman

Donut pin cushion

Butterflies

Another trip down Animal Lane

On Labor Day we went to the Zoo with our friends Ashley, Kelsey, and Quinn along with about everyone else in the Denver area. I've NEVER seen the parking that bad and we have been going for years, multiple times a year. Luckily the zoo is huge and once you got it you didn't feel too overly crowded.

Josh took the day off and was able to join us, which was a great treat. Our first stop is almost always the elephants and we caught them eating their lunch. (Wouldn't that picture make a great advertisement? I've found the zoo is a great place to buy hats for the boys. Especially if you are a member and get 20% off at the gift shop.)

Because Josh was with us we were able to go in Birdworld and see all of the birds up close and personal. I don't usually go in there when I'm alone because they don't allow strollers and Sam is just now getting to where he would walk it alone. Sam absolutely loved it! He was looking around everywhere, pointing at all the birds and doing his intonation (not really words) "there it is" or "right there" while pointing at whatever he found.

One bird (I didn't catch it's name) we noticed had monster long toes. So long that he was walking on his own feet. I also enjoyed watching the Inca Terns laughing and cackling to themselves in the corner of the exhibit.

The zoo has had a few additions since we were there last. They adopted a new young sea lion named Nick and had a new baby Zebra named Elliot.

The random fact I learned this trip was about the long horn cattle from Africa. Apparently there is blood flow through their horns that they use to regualate their body temperature. The blood goes up through them warm and comes back into the body cooler, bringing down their core temperature. Cool huh!

County Fair

For park days last month we went to the county fair for "kids day"as a group of friends with our mass of kids. Elijah and Sam enjoyed looking at the animals. They had massive pigs, darling munchie goats (I really liked the angora goats with long curly hair), and quite a few freshly shorn sheep. Many of the sheep were wearing "coats". I'm not really sure why but some of them looked rather ridiculous, especially the pair pictured.

We couldn't go to the fair without doing the rides. A few of the ride operators were a little confused as to how much the fare was supposed to be so we got on a couple of the kid ones for half price. SWEET! Sam wasn't quite sure what to think of it all but Elijah had a roaring good time.

Primary Songs

In the last few months Elijah has started singing a lot of songs that he would never sing before. Up until now he would always just blurt out a line or two of the song without much melody. But lately he has be singing the entire thing for many songs including many primary songs that he has been learning in church. This is my public thank you to Kelly for doing an amazing job teaching the kids the primary songs. Elijah is picking them up and singing them at home all the time.

Sunday's we call or webcam our parents. That is prime time for Elijah to show off his singing skills. He always puts on a show for the grandparents. I caught him on video singing on the phone to grandma a few weeks ago (and totally forgot I had the video until yesterday). Here it is for all to enjoy Elijah's sweet singing voice.

I am a Child of God

I Love to See the Temple

More Ami's from Ana Paula Rimoli

My cousin emailed me and point out that the author of the Ami Crochet book I posted about earlier has a blog and an etsy shop. Ana Rimoli has many more pattern's for sale in her shop including some adorable dolls (one dressed as a pirate). She also has a few free patterns posted on her blog including a darling little mouse.





I better get busy!