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13 hours ago
Sunday, November 22, 2009
September-November 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
We're going to the zoo...
We had a great day at the DC zoo Saturday, but apparently were a day early to miss the action... A wild deer jumped into the lions' enclosure, finally escaping with the help of zoo workers, though it had to be put down due to wounds it received from the lions. Here's a clip of the incident. Yikes! I think I'm glad I missed that one with the kids.
Meanwhile, we actually didn't take our camera. Frankly, with 7% of my brain gone to the baby, (It's true! They've done studies!) I've had a hard time keeping track of it I have since located the camera (which is good, because baby #4 is due in 9 days!) But I still don't know where the cord is to download pictures... Thank goodness Josh's laptop has a slot to insert the memory card to take the pictures off. We've had this camera since Anna was born, and the card that came with it is 16MB. Impressive, eh? It holds 23 2-megapixel pictures, as I recall. Someday it will break and we'll replace it, but until then, finding the cord would be helpful!
Anyway, we had a great time at the zoo, and I actually appreciated not having a camera and feeling compelled to use it. Our favorite exhibits were the ADHD armadillo (zipping back and forth in his cage) and a 5 week-old gazelle, "stotting" which basically looks like jumping on a trampoline - it jumps off the ground with all 4 legs at once. I've never seen anything like it, and it provided some great comic relief for all of us.
I also found our MIA sanding block, which I've been looking for so we could finish painting our free once-bright-red-bookshelf to a nice pleasing white. That's done now (pending a look-over tomorrow) which means I can finally put the videos and games on it in the basement! Hooray! We will eventually unpack all the boxes!
Oh, one more thing. Anna was looking at the toothpaste tonight and read "Cavity Protection" on the front, and her first comment was, "This is to protect cavities?" She realized quickly what it was supposed to mean, but I couldn't blame her for the first interpretation! It was pretty funny.
Have a happy Friday the 13th everyone!
Meanwhile, we actually didn't take our camera. Frankly, with 7% of my brain gone to the baby, (It's true! They've done studies!) I've had a hard time keeping track of it I have since located the camera (which is good, because baby #4 is due in 9 days!) But I still don't know where the cord is to download pictures... Thank goodness Josh's laptop has a slot to insert the memory card to take the pictures off. We've had this camera since Anna was born, and the card that came with it is 16MB. Impressive, eh? It holds 23 2-megapixel pictures, as I recall. Someday it will break and we'll replace it, but until then, finding the cord would be helpful!
Anyway, we had a great time at the zoo, and I actually appreciated not having a camera and feeling compelled to use it. Our favorite exhibits were the ADHD armadillo (zipping back and forth in his cage) and a 5 week-old gazelle, "stotting" which basically looks like jumping on a trampoline - it jumps off the ground with all 4 legs at once. I've never seen anything like it, and it provided some great comic relief for all of us.
I also found our MIA sanding block, which I've been looking for so we could finish painting our free once-bright-red-bookshelf to a nice pleasing white. That's done now (pending a look-over tomorrow) which means I can finally put the videos and games on it in the basement! Hooray! We will eventually unpack all the boxes!
Oh, one more thing. Anna was looking at the toothpaste tonight and read "Cavity Protection" on the front, and her first comment was, "This is to protect cavities?" She realized quickly what it was supposed to mean, but I couldn't blame her for the first interpretation! It was pretty funny.
Have a happy Friday the 13th everyone!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
More Halloween fun - Frankenstein cupcakes
This was a great Family Home Evening activity and refreshments!-
- 1 dozen cupcakes from your favorite recipe
- 1/2 recipe chocolate frosting
- 1/2 recipe white frosting, tinted green
- 12 large marshmallows
- peanuts
- black gel
- 2 green Tic Tac mints (wintergreen matches frosting)
Spread green frosting on marshmallows, coating the sides. Place on frosted cupcakes. Add peanuts for eyes, using black gel for the pupil and mouth. Place tictacs next to marshmallow for bolts. Top each monster head with a bit of chocolate frosting and muss with your finger or a fork.
Halloween Fun-Swamp Juice
We made the most of Family Fun magazine this month and the kids loved it. We even shared swamp juice with cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandma and grandpa when we visited for Laura's baptism. So we can enjoy it next year, here's the recipe, adjusted to our liking:- 1/2 cup small tapioca pearls
- Food coloring
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 8 gummy fish
- Apple juice or white grape juice (apple was our favorite)
- 8 gummy worms
COLOR THE EGGS: Divide the pearls, with the remaining water, between two bowls. Add 4 drops of food coloring (we used 3 drops of yellow and 1 drop of green in one bowl, and 4 drops of blue in the other) and 2 tablespoons of sugar to each bowl. Stir the mixtures, then allow them to sit uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes. When ready to serve, drain and rinse the pearls with cold water.
ASSEMBLE THE DRINK: Spoon 2 tablespoons of pearls into each glass (clear glasses for the best effect) and drop in a gummy fish. Fill the glasses with juice. Place a gummy worm around a spoon as shown.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Working by the sweat of our face pictures
Awkward patio in the front - this only gives you a taste of it. 
Playing in the sprinkler around the newly planted grass seed on Friday - our day off! (A small portion of pavers in the background.) We made blueberry muffins and had a lot of fun enjoying the hot weather while giving those grass seeds their much needed water.
The curtain rod, playing with the curtain scarves - working on that still, along with getting the fabric to customize the curtains - tomorrow! (Hooray for Jo-Ann celebrating Christopher Columbus and giving me a great sale.) 
This is a great picture (okay, the photography stinks, but the subject is telling). The orange wall shows where we will be putting a large mirror (once we can get the J-channel from a home-improvement store - we've struck out at 2 so far). We'll be mounting the medicine cabinet (recessed) in the wall on the right, and the walls are painted "ancient olive", though you can't get a great taste for the color from the picture. I moved the light fixture to the new location, but I did NOT make the gash in the wall above the medicine cabinet where the light fixture used to be. That was the previous owner's work.
Here's the happy new computer desk, firmly standing on its own, and another take at the new color. We had a great visit from Josh's sister, Elizabeth, today. She's visiting the area and is our first visitor to stop by! The kids were thrilled to have her come, and Jonathan was especially cute asking about "Aunt Elizabet".
Oh, and I got about a 3 hour nap this morning... Recovering from a long week... Thanks Josh! (I know, how is that possible with Church at 1pm? Well, I got up at 6:30am with the kids, and traded Josh at 8am or so.)
Yesterday Josh painted the kids room and we laid down carpet in there (the other segment brought from Michigan), so their room is pretty well done. Hooray! I had taken the kids out to go to the library, but we happened on a community festival instead with boothes, coloring books, candy, emergency vehicles to check out, etc. The kids and I had a great time enjoying our new community! We also made it to the library, which has EVERYTHING right about it - all my pet peeves about other libraries I've experienced are resolved here: no limit on renewals, no limit on number of items to check out, children's non-fiction is in a section apart from adult non-fiction, NO FINES! (don't ask me how they do that), and key-chain library cards. Wow, I was in heaven.
Which reminds me, the Ann Arbor library gratiously allowed me to have extended renewals on a DVD left in our DVD player and packed into storage back in June when we moved, and now that we've rediscovered it, I need to mail it back! :) I found the post office yesterday, but I suppose they're closed tomorrow celebrating Columbus in a different way than Jo-Ann... Anyway, another thing to do!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Working by the sweat of our face
So Eve's experience is supposed to be, "I will greatly bmultiply thy csorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth dchildren." But that doesn't mean she can't experience Adam's result of eating the fruit: "By the asweat of thy bface shalt thou eat bread."
Just a quick recap for myself to remember (or attempt to) the progression of our house:
Monday: Prepared dirt outside (where pavers had been removed from awkward patio in front yard) to plant grass seed. (I'd been working on moving the pavers since before we moved in on September 28. Not a fun task, and definitely a brow-sweater.) The soil prep involved getting good and dirty with the seed starter soil (I don't have gardening gloves as of yet, and it is wet dirt). The kids were also helpful digging holes and looking for treasure, including mixing up the dirt sections from under the patio. Some were really sandy, others more clay-ey. We actually planted the grass seed in the near dark as our family home evening activity. I checked it on Tuesday to make sure there was a good distribution, which amazing there was (though Jonathan's contribution of dumping a bit of seed over a stack of pavers that had been moved wasn't exactly what we were looking for).
Tuesday: Assembled computer desk top. When we moved from Utah to Michigan, the bottom part of a desk got destroyed in the move, but the top part was still great for the monitor, CPU, printer, etc., with a little cupboard to hid things too. Only problem was that the three vertical boards splayed a little (they're not connected at the bottom of the unit), and one had to be against a wall to avoid it coming apart. Anyway, I measured, remeasured, and measured again. Then drilled holes in the top unit and the desk we had from the UM distribution center ($10), screwed it together, and ta-da! It can be in the middle of the wall now, and I feel confident that it will hold together very well. Now I just need to fix a spot of veneer on the front...
Wednesday: Put up supports for curtain rods. There are three large windows one next to the other in the front room, so we will have one long rod with three sets of curtains. I did a test drill for one support and was stopped 1/2" in. Then I tried a screw, and it came out with metal shavings... I moved the hole over 1" and was just beyond whatever the metal thing was. Thankfully it was on an outside support. Getting all 4 to line up with the laser level was a fun task. I think I got it. :) I also went at the vines overtaking a bush in the corner of our yard. There's still more to do, but it got us outside on a beautiful day.
Thursday: Looked for fabric/ribbon to jazz up the curtains. No decision yet, but 2 options anyway. Laid the carpet in the basement (pad and carpet moved from our Michigan townhome). It's not stretched and tacked down, but is highly functional, and considering under it is (not so attractive) tile on concrete, it'd be a task to properly install, one which I'm not interested in right now. I also moved a bathroom light fixture over 2 feet and up a bit so we can hang a mirror (free on freecycle) in the upstairs bathroom. This involved getting wire and screw caps from Lowe's to extend the wiring far enough to reach the new location. I also had to cut a hole in the drywall (jigsaws work great) to bring the new wire through. Thankfully the old hole from the fixture will be behind the mirror. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of accomplishing that little task. I've never done electricity before (except splicing the CAT-5 cable, but that wasn't quite as exciting).
Hmm. I think that pretty much covers it. Of course among all this is the normal task of being a mom, including preparing meals, doing laundry, taking care of kids, etc. And with that, I think it's a good idea to go to bed. I'd like to add pictures to the post, so check back to see if I get there, in case you read this before they're up. :)
Just a quick recap for myself to remember (or attempt to) the progression of our house:
Monday: Prepared dirt outside (where pavers had been removed from awkward patio in front yard) to plant grass seed. (I'd been working on moving the pavers since before we moved in on September 28. Not a fun task, and definitely a brow-sweater.) The soil prep involved getting good and dirty with the seed starter soil (I don't have gardening gloves as of yet, and it is wet dirt). The kids were also helpful digging holes and looking for treasure, including mixing up the dirt sections from under the patio. Some were really sandy, others more clay-ey. We actually planted the grass seed in the near dark as our family home evening activity. I checked it on Tuesday to make sure there was a good distribution, which amazing there was (though Jonathan's contribution of dumping a bit of seed over a stack of pavers that had been moved wasn't exactly what we were looking for).
Tuesday: Assembled computer desk top. When we moved from Utah to Michigan, the bottom part of a desk got destroyed in the move, but the top part was still great for the monitor, CPU, printer, etc., with a little cupboard to hid things too. Only problem was that the three vertical boards splayed a little (they're not connected at the bottom of the unit), and one had to be against a wall to avoid it coming apart. Anyway, I measured, remeasured, and measured again. Then drilled holes in the top unit and the desk we had from the UM distribution center ($10), screwed it together, and ta-da! It can be in the middle of the wall now, and I feel confident that it will hold together very well. Now I just need to fix a spot of veneer on the front...
Wednesday: Put up supports for curtain rods. There are three large windows one next to the other in the front room, so we will have one long rod with three sets of curtains. I did a test drill for one support and was stopped 1/2" in. Then I tried a screw, and it came out with metal shavings... I moved the hole over 1" and was just beyond whatever the metal thing was. Thankfully it was on an outside support. Getting all 4 to line up with the laser level was a fun task. I think I got it. :) I also went at the vines overtaking a bush in the corner of our yard. There's still more to do, but it got us outside on a beautiful day.
Thursday: Looked for fabric/ribbon to jazz up the curtains. No decision yet, but 2 options anyway. Laid the carpet in the basement (pad and carpet moved from our Michigan townhome). It's not stretched and tacked down, but is highly functional, and considering under it is (not so attractive) tile on concrete, it'd be a task to properly install, one which I'm not interested in right now. I also moved a bathroom light fixture over 2 feet and up a bit so we can hang a mirror (free on freecycle) in the upstairs bathroom. This involved getting wire and screw caps from Lowe's to extend the wiring far enough to reach the new location. I also had to cut a hole in the drywall (jigsaws work great) to bring the new wire through. Thankfully the old hole from the fixture will be behind the mirror. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of accomplishing that little task. I've never done electricity before (except splicing the CAT-5 cable, but that wasn't quite as exciting).
Hmm. I think that pretty much covers it. Of course among all this is the normal task of being a mom, including preparing meals, doing laundry, taking care of kids, etc. And with that, I think it's a good idea to go to bed. I'd like to add pictures to the post, so check back to see if I get there, in case you read this before they're up. :)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Looking for a new credit card cash back program
This is a shout out for recommendations on a new credit card to use for their cash back program. We started with Discover, which worked well, especially when we were at BYU and they had 5% cash back on education for a quarter. We paid ahead our rent (which was listed as an education expense since it was paid to BYU) and made bank on that! And when we were in Michigan we discovered Chase Freedom, which worked great, giving us 3% cash back on our top 5 spending categories. And then we could redeem $200 worth of cash back for $250... I was a big fan of the 25% more CASH (which I can use a lot more judiciously than a gift card.) Again, it has been very good to us. But they just changed the program, taking it down to a flat 1%... I know we can do better than that! We would love to be loyal to a company, but when we start with them because of their cash back program, then they slash it down significantly, well, the draw just disappears.
So, if any of you have a card that you really like, please let me know! :)
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