Canvas Photos

I found out about a great canvas company from a friend. They can do any size you want and the quality seems really good. I've been wanting to get our family photos enlarged and up on the wall, so I decided to try them in canvas. The company I used is Art-tec Prints. Their prices are the best I've found. It did take awhile - I think it was 3 weeks before they shipped my order, but that also could have been because of the large sizes I was ordering. I ordered the two side pictures 20x16 and the middle family picture 20x24. I like how they turned out. (For some reason, my camera isn't taking great pictures right now. They pictures on my wall look much better than this picture makes them look.)

Jury Duty Update

It's been awhile since I posted anything. I ended up not having to go in for jury duty, which is a good thing since I forgot to call in two of the nights. I did call in the next morning, but by that time I would have been really late if I'd had to go.

Bret also got selected for jury duty. It was rather funny that his letter came the day I was complaining about being selected a second time. The strange thing is that his was for Salt Lake City courts. We don't live in the city boundaries so we're not sure how he qualified for that. Regardless, they sent him the letter and then the postcard. On Sunday I was looking for a paper and found his postcard on my desk. His week was to start the next day. Since he was at a meeting I called for him. He was lucky enough to be selected to show up at court the next day. I'm sooo glad I found that postcard - I would hate to find out if they really fine you or put you in jail if you don't show up.

He arrived at 8:30 a.m. and they didn't let him leave until 6:15 p.m. He was one of four selected to stay and be on the jury. The other three were women and decided that he had to be the jury foreman. He hasn't told me much about the case - I don't know if they aren't supposed to or if just doesn't go into the details. It was a drunk driving case and they did find the defendant guilty. He doesn't know what the sentencing will be. I was getting a little nervous since we had tickets to The Forgotten Carols that night and I didn't know when they would let him leave.

Now he's off the hook for 2 years - at least from SL city. I guess the county court can still call him if they want to.

I really didn't sit down to write about jury duty. Oh well, I'll post this one and then do another later with the pictures I wanted to put up on the blog.

Jury Duty - part 2

So a month or two ago, I received a letter telling me I had to fill out a form online to qualify for jury duty (with the threat of penalties or jail time if I didn't comply). I filled out the form and qualified - hooray for me. I received a nice yellow summons postcard for the first week of November. I did my civic duty by making sure I had a babysitter lined up each day and calling in after five each evening to see if I had to go to the court house the next day. I think it would be interesting to serve on a jury, but it would also be a hassle trying to find someone to watch my kids and do carpools and such. I was a little relieved when Friday rolled around and my number hadn't been selected. Ok, more than a little relieved. So you can imagine my shock, disbelief, and consternation at finding ANOTHER jury summons in my mailbox for next week. Yep, the week of Thanksgiving. I wonder if they just keep sending these things until they get you into the court room. If I do get lucky and have to go downtown to the court building, they will pay me very generously - $18.50 for the entire day. I can't wait.

Sour Cream, Anyone?

I promise - he was only out of my line of vision for two minutes. I had just got his breakfast for him, and then sat down to the computer. Next thing I know he's climbing into my lap and stinks. It was a smell I couldn't identify readily (sour cream isn't on my top ten list of reasons kids might smell). I asked him what smelled and he grabbed my hand and walked me over to this lovely site. He's taken the pint of sour cream out of the fridge, a large spoon out of the drawer and a canister of punch mix out of the cupboard. He then decided to fill the empty canister with the sour cream. I don't know why - he won't tell me. (He only has about 4 words and is generally a VERY quiet and stealthy kid).

At least this mess was easier to clean up than the one Anna got into with the punch canisters. I was in the hospital the day after Andrew was born. Bret came to pick me up and mentioned that Anna had made a little mess in the kitchen right before they left to come and get me. She had opened 8-10 of the crystal light like containers and mixed them up on the floor.



Andrew did do one cute thing this morning. When he got up and saw the snow he was so excited. He ran and got my camera, took off the lens cap, raised the flash and started trying to take pictures through the window. I turned on the camera and showed him where to push and he took about 15 pictures of the snow outside. He then turned the camera over to see the pictures he'd just taken. I better go, he just ran out of the kitchen and I'd rather not have another major mess today.

Yummy Recipes

I love fall. I've decided it's my favorite season. The leaves are so beautiful, it's the perfect temperature, and there are some great fall recipes out there. Here are a few I've tried lately.

This is our favorite sweet potato casserole recipe. I usually double the recipe, but keep the margarine at 1/2 cup, and put it in a 9x13 glass pan.





Pumpkin Bread

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teas. pumpkin pie spice (see below)
1 teas. baking soda
1 teas. baking powder
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup apple or orange juice

Mix together. Put into a sprayed (Pam) loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 40-45 min. Makes one loaf.

I didn't have any pumpkin pie spice so I looked online and found this recipe for it.

1. Measure 1 teaspoon of cinnamon into a small bowl or cup.
2. Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger.
3. Add 1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice or ground cloves.
4. Add 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
5. Stir to blend.
6. Makes 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.

(Note: There isn't any oil in the recipe so the texture of the bread may seem different, but it tasted great.)

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

• 3 pound(s) butternut squash (1 big one), peeled, seeded and diced into 1-inch cubes
• 2 medium onion(s), peeled and quartered
• 29 oz canned chicken broth
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste
• 1/8 tsp black pepper, or to taste
• 1/4 cup(s) fat-free sour cream

• Combine squash, onion, and chicken broth and simmer for about 30 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes.
  
  
• Puree soup in blender- I used a hand held bamix type mixer. Add curry. Season to taste with salt and pepper; garnish with sour cream and scallions if desired.

I also found a recipe online that suggested nutmeg and cinnamon instead of curry, so I'm going to try that next time.

Pumpkin Spice Cake Mix Cookie

• 1 spice cake mix
• 1/2 large size canned pumpkin
• 1/2 (12 ounce) bag mini chocolate chips

1. Mix the dry cake mix and the pumpkin together until moist.
2. Add the chocolate chips.
   
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

(I don't like spice cake so I used a white cake mix and it turned out great).

Stories in Hand Class

I thought some of you might be interested in this free online class from Jessica Sprague. I haven't taken a class from her before, but they look really good. This one will focus on a way to write and keep track of our stories/memories as they happen. Here's the information:

Disneyland

We're back! We had a wonderful time in California this past week. I would love to show you lots and lots of pictures, but I took over 700 photos, so you'll have to wait until the scrapbook comes out. :) Here are a few photos.

California Adventure

I just had to include this picture.

I could write pages and pages about the trip, but for now I'll sign off. I need to get back to the reality of laundry, cooking, cleaning, homework, and piano lessons. Hope you are all doing well!

On Our Way...

I have to do another post because I can't stand the site of that spider. I figure if I write a long enough post and add a picture or two, I won't have to look at it again.

First, check out my mom and dad's blog if you haven't yet. They went on a fun trip and wrote about it on their blog.



We are on our way to Disneyland tomorrow. Hooray! I'll write about it when we get back. Aaron shared a great website with me called RideMax. You plug in what day you'll be in the park and which rides you want to go on, and it plans out your day to minimize waiting in line. It uses data from years past to guess how busy the park will be. We are going to Disney for 3 days, the beach for one day, and I'm not sure what we'll do on Sunday.

Lovely Spiders

So here's a picture (from the internet) of the lovely spider I found in my laundry basket yesterday. The laundry basket with clean clothes in it that had been sitting on my bedroom floor for three days. (I know most of you out there probably put your laundry away as soon as it's finished, but I'm doing 9-10 loads of laundry a week people. I hardly get one weeks laundry done before it's Monday and time to start the next weeks.)


Back to the spider. I had just hung up a pair of pants and turned around to pick up the next pair and found a black widow on them. I'm usually ok with bugs, snakes, and creepy crawly things, but I draw the line at black widows in my house! I didn't want to squish it because it was HUGE so I took the chicken way out and caught it in a mason jar. Those spiders are so freaky looking. You just know they're evil by looking at them. I had the heebie jeebies for the next few minutes, so I called MeLynda. She has a great exterminator that she has come every fall so she called him and set up appointments for both of us.

The exterminator just came by and treated the inside and outside of the house. I've never had an exterminator before. I usually just deal with those unwanted creatures, but this is war.

Anna followed the man from room to room with a running commentary and tour of our house. I ran downstairs to move some more stuff away from the walls. As Dan came down stairs he informed me of some of the things Anna had told him. One conversation went like this, "My mom's name is Jody, but you can call her honey." He told Anna that he'd just stick with "Jody". Nice.

Hooray!

I just found out I won an online contest. I haven't really done much paper scrapping lately and I haven't made cards in ages, but it's always fun to win. :) Here's a picture of the prize.

So if you get a super cute card for Halloween from me, you can thank the Scrap N' Art eZine team! Actually, with the way things are going it will probably be next Halloween before I get any cards made!

Onto another matter... I didn't want to devote a whole post to this, so I'll just mention it. Andrew couldn't stand to see all those big juicy tomatoes just sitting on the counter. It wasn't too long until he figured out how fun it is to throw those big juicy tomatoes on the floor and watch them explode. Anna thought it was hilarious. I knew I was in trouble when I heard them both laughing maniacally. I put both kids into time out for that one, but they didn't seem to mind. They just moved the mess making into their rooms while I scrubbed tomato guts off the kitchen floor.

Garden Fun

I know it's shocking that I'm writing again so soon, but I wanted to share these pictures. One of the kids favorite activity lately is going out to the garden to pick the produce. They love it! The neighbor kids even come over every other day to help. The last time Robin was here she begged to take home some squash and zucchini. I had to call her mom and ask if it would be ok - I know some people dread being given zucchini this time of year. Anyway, here is what these two kids came up with today.


I'm sure you can tell what most of it is, but I'm going to list it anyway. Left to right - Anaheim peppers, green and red peppers, yellow squash, onions, zucchini, green beans, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Hooray for gardens!

We started out with a yard full of 3 feet high weeds. The previous owners had let the back yard go to weed a few years back. Bret spent hundreds of hours out there weeding, mulching, plowing, and getting the ground ready. When it came time to plant, we all helped out. We let each of the kids choose one plant at the store. Anna and Addison each chose a strawberry plant, Sarah chose a Mr. Stripey tomato plant (which grew to be HUGE - 8 feet tall), and I'll have to ask Jenna what she chose. I'm always amazed at the difference a summer makes with a garden. Here are the kids in the bean plant rows.

Well, my time is up. Anna is calling for me to come and get Andrew - he's dumping my camera case. I'll have to detail a few of his escapades another day. He's a busy kid.

Soccer Kids

You might think from this picture that Anna loved soccer, but you would be wrong. I think she liked getting her picture taken more than anything else. This has been quite a soccer season. Anna decided at the first game that she hated soccer and she has let us know that at every practice and game since. I've started telling her she never has to play soccer again, after she finishes this season. The little blond next to her in the picture lives across the street from us. Robin is a year older and a head shorter than Anna. Robin is really aggressive and loves playing soccer and we thought Anna would like to play with her. Not so. I did get a cute picture that looks like Anna's about to kick the ball, but it's just creative photo taking. She's pretty careful to not let the ball touch her. She's had once or twice when she couldn't get out of the way and the ball did actually touch her, but those times are rare.


Most of the time she's either on the sidelines, or being encouraged by her coach to stay on the soccer field for more than two minutes.

Addison on the other hand, loves soccer. He's playing with the neighbor boy from across the street. He and Alex are the best on the team, actually I think they are the only ones on the team that have played soccer before. Alex's dad is the coach and Bret is the assistant coach. It's been a frustrating season for them since they have so many kids who haven't played before. A few parents decided it would be easier to have younger siblings play with the older kids and only have one team to worry about, so they have 2 five year old kids on the 1st-2nd grade team. Most of their games have ended up 12-1 which is pretty discouraging.


That's it for the soccer info. I had no idea how hard it was for you bloggers out there to keep posting week after week. I sit at my computer and stare wondering what to write. I'll sign off until I can think of something interesting to post...

"DOZENS of Prayers!"

I wanted to share something funny that happened at church on Sunday. I'm now in primary and teach the 4 year old class, but not Anna's class. The theme during sharing time on Sunday was prayers. The woman doing sharing time told stories about having her prayers answered when she lost something as a little girl, then she called 3 kids up who she had asked ahead of the meeting to share a story about prayers being answered. They also told stories about losing something, praying and finding it. The woman then asked if anyone else wanted to come up and share an experience they'd had with prayer. One of Addison's friends, Sammie, got up and was close to crying. He said, "I lost my two dogs a few weeks ago. They were my favorite stuffed animals. I looked and looked for them. I have said DOZENS of prayers and I STILL haven't found them. My prayers weren't answered. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Two of the women were trying to reassure him to keep praying and have faith. I was trying hard not to burst out laughing. But it only took a moment for me to realize how often I feel like Sammie. I probably haven't said dozens of prayers, but there are definitely times when we each feel like our prayers aren't answered, or at least not answered as quickly or in the manner we would like them to be.

I've been smiling all week each time I think about him. I'll let you know if he finds the dogs.

It's sad when your own child doesn't recognize you...

Last week I got a haircut. In June Jenna donated 10 inches of her hair to Locks of Love and I decided I wanted to follow in her footsteps. I wanted to be sure my hair was long enough so I waited for a couple of months. My cousin MeLynda recommended a place called Visions and I really liked the gal there that cut my hair. I told her to take off enough for the Locks of Love and then cut it however she wanted to. She was very thorough and spent an hour on my hair. I'm happy with the results, even if it was a little difficult to get used to.


The reason I wanted to write about this was to tell of a funny/sad thing that happened with Andrew after my haircut. That evening I took him with us to Sarah's back to school night. He was so difficult. He whined and cried the entire night. Finally when we got to the van he started screaming and throwing a terrible tantrum. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. He's usually a pretty even tempered child. He screamed out of control all the way to my parent's home. After we got there I got him out of the car and he ran to my mom and jumped into her arms. He was immediately happy and grinning. I told her I didn't know what was going on and that he had been screaming for the last 30 minutes. Sarah jokingly replied that he didn't know who I was with my new haircut. My mom asked him, "Where's Mama?" He did this "I don't know" action and looked all over. His eyes passed right over me as he kept looking and not finding "mama". It was so sad for me. My mom thought it was pretty funny. It took him a day or two to warm up to me but I think he realizes I'm "mama" now.

Andrew's "I don't know" pose.

In other news, the kids started back to school last week on Monday. They are enjoying it and I'm a little relieved to start back into our school year routine. Sarah started middle school and is in 7th grade. I really like this middle school and the teachers we've met there so far. Jenna is in 4th grade and according to a few different neighbors, she has the best teacher in the school. Addison is in 2nd grade and seems to also have a great teacher. Anna starts preschool tomorrow at Miss Margaret's school in our old WJ neighborhood. We are going to do that for the two months until her preschool at the local high school starts at the end of October.

First Day of School

The last thing I wanted to mention was that my parents are now officially English professors in China. They will be there for 10 months teaching at the university. The arrived safely and are trying to get their tiny apartment set up. I believe it's 400 sq. ft. total. They are living in a coastal resort type town on the Yellow Sea across from Korea. Here's where it is on the map.


I think they will really enjoy it there. I'll add some pictures once they are able to send them to us. I'm not sure how to end this blog entry. I've come close to putting "Take care," or "Love, Jody". Funny. I guess I'll just end it now.

Hooray - Thanks Nicole!

How cool is this!!! Nicole from digi-designs created this cool background design and blog header for me. Isn't she amazing! She designed this digital scrapbooking kit called "Serenity" that I loved and then used it on my blog. You can click on her links to download the kit for free. She's currently giving away an awesome Disney kit that would be great for making a photobook of a vacation to Disneyland. Check out her site.

The last time we went to Disneyland was 5 years ago. I've wanted to go back every fall, but something always came up. Well this past January we told the kids that if we could read the Book of Mormon by October, we would go to Disneyland. Then at Stake Conference in February our Stake President challenged every family to read the Book of Mormon by the next conference in September. We decided to take his challenge and it's been going great. We got a little behind this past month with being out of town so we are only just starting 3rd Nephi, but I think we can make our goal. We better since I just ordered the airline, hotel, and Disneyland tickets online. We got nonstop flights on Delta for $954 total (for 6). I was surprised to find the tickets into Disneyland for 3 days cost more than the airfare. Crazy! I'm excited about the hotel we found. It's nothing spectacular, just rated as a "value" hotel, but it has 2 rooms with one of the rooms having bunk beds. It's 3 blocks from the park and has a free continental breakfast each day. Come with us if you can - the more the merrier!

What Accent Do You Have?

I've told a few people about this quiz that lets you know what type of accent you have. I finally found the link. Here it is:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Can anyone tell me how to make the link have different words instead of showing the entire web address?

Thanks!

1930's Wife?

Here's a funny test - 1930's Marital Scale. I was reading a blog and the woman was telling what a poor 1930's wife she would make. She included the link so I decided to take the test to see where I scored. I don't know whether to be proud or embarrased by this score:


1930s Marital Scale
90
As a 1930s wife,
I amVery Superior



Here's the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.magatsu.net/maritaltest/

I'm still trying to figure out this blog stuff so I hope this link works.

Daddy Book

Well, it's about time! I just finished Bret's Father's Day gift. I had a few projects in line ahead of this one - at least that's my excuse for why he's getting his gift 2 months late. I found this template online for the daddy book, but then had a difficult time finding the chipboard to make it. I finally found a set of 6 pieces with the metal rings, but they weren't the size of the template. After resizing the template, I created the pages in photoshop and then printed them on my home printer. The next step was to cut out the pictures and chipboard. The exacto knife was a little hard to get used to and the mod podge made a mess - but I love the finished result. Here are some pictures of how it turned out.

Getting Started

This whole blogging thing seems a little overwhelming to me, but I guess I am going to jump in and try to figure it out anyway. My parents are on their way to China in 3 weeks to teach English for 10 months and I think a blog will be a great way to share pictures and information with them. Now I just need to figure out how to make the blog look pretty. I'll be playing around with it over the next few days and I'd love any help I can get from those of you who actually know what they are doing in blog-land. First up - I'm going to try and get a family photo onto the blog.