Being a YW leader isn't for sissies.....

Gotta get those YW to YW camp. That means fundraisers! We made over 600 of these for Valentines Day - very successful by the way - but that's another story for another day. And since this isn't Idaho where YW camp cost all of $40.00, we needed another fundraiser because in California it costs $175.00!

One thing we did learn though is that tying a fundraiser with a holiday seemed to work very well.

So, with Father's Day approaching, we were inspired! You know those giant chocolate chip cookies you see at Mrs. Field's in the mall???

We decided to give two options of how the card would read. Happy Father's Day kind of limits it to buying one for your father only, but if we had another card that read "Thinking of You", you could buy one for your uncle, grampa, neighbor - the possibilities are endless!!

And it was a good idea, because of the 60 cards (and cookies!) we are making, 13 of them are for "Thinking of You" cards. And at $10.00 a cookie, $130.00 is nothing to sneeze at!

As anyone who has been in a leadership position will tell you, you experiment first and know of the pitfalls before taking on any project more complicated than opening exercises. So today I baked. And measured. And guessed. How many cups of chocolate chips are in an 8lb. 4 oz. bag of chocolate chips? How many cups of flour are in 5 pounds of flour? 5 pounds of sugar? (It's not the same.) How about 2 pounds of brown sugar? (If you're interested, call me.) How many cookies can you get out of doubling a batch of dough that makes a 14 inch cookie when all you want are 8-10 inch cookies?

Right size, but wrong look. After experimenting around (cookie anybody? There are 5 giant chocolate chip cookies and one dozen normal cookies in my kitchen at this very moment) I came up with this one. Hopefully we will be able to duplicate it 60 more times, making it about an inch smaller, in the church ovens this Friday night with 10 eager (or maybe not so eager) YW assisting and earning their way to camp! This is what the cookie will look like inside the card. The purchaser of the card will be able to write their own sentiment.

Of course it helps a lot if you know someone that can get cardstock that is being tossed out because the information is outdated on one side.....

Only one more slight problem. We have to share the kitchen with another ward in our building. They are making tamales on Saturday morning, which is when we were going to finish up what didn't get done on Friday night. We have a lot to do Friday night, don't we!

The Roadtrip Part I

Took a roadtrip over spring break. Mighty brave of us, even if I do say so myself. There was me and Jody, Austen, Morgan, Kendall and Beck. We drove to Boise. Lots of careful researching and map-questing as to which route to take as we didn't want icy roads or snow. Also didn't want to go the Utah/Salt Lake route as that added about 4 more hours to the trip. We finally chose the route that goes through Ely (pronounced Ee-lee or so I'm told), Nevada.

Did you know that past Las Vegas, there is one stinkn' bush and one stinkin' mountain through the entire stinkin' state of Nevada?

Austen was happy with his I-Pod. Kendall and Morgan were amazing! Thanks to some wonderful planning on the part of their mom, they were entertained the entire way with their kits that had been made up for them. Did I say the entire way? The entire way. They were wonderful! And for being 20 months old, Beck was pretty darn wonderful too. The last couple of hours of the trip he reminded us fairly often that he wanted to "GHEE OW" (get out!!) of his car seat but who can blame him?

At this point, we all realized that we "Weren't in Kansas anymore Dorothy" - nor were we at a Southern California McDonalds!

While in Idaho we saw and did lots of things!

Saw some pretty amazing baseball!!

Jackman hits a sharp line drive triple straight down third!

Steeerriiiike!!!

Taylor has always towered over Austen. Taylor is still growing, since she is now taller than Gramma (So What! That isn't very tall...!) but we are all very happy to see that Austen is finally beginning to grow. Although still taller than Austen, at least she isn't towering!

A most handsome "before" picture of Easter morning. When asked if she wanted Beck's shirt tucked in, the answer was no. "It won't stay tucked in anyway, and at least this way it won't be wrinkled."

The Easter Bunny was able to successfully find where we all were. He left some pretty neat treats! (You'll notice the heart braids in Eden and Kendall's hair? Morgan and Anela also had heart braids. That's what can happen when church starts at 1:00 and your nimble fingered Aunt Jody is staying at your house!)

As wonderful as the kids were, I would not hestiate to take another roadtrip similar to this one. You start driving in the middle of the night and the 16 or so hours that it takes just fly by!! (Wanna buy some land in Florida?)

You will notice this is Road Trip Part I. Part II is coming soon to a blogspot near you!!

TOYS

Dave has a new toy. We all love this toy though, because it benefits all of us.

Dave has earned a bit of extra money through some repairs that he made. He carefully put it aside until he got enough, never once tempted to spend it because he knew exactly what he wanted! After researching Consumer Reports several times over he had to come to an agonizing decision of which one was better for our needs, which he did. He knew exactly which model he wanted.

Yesterday we went to Home Depot where they had to block off two aisles and get out the fork lift (the guy driving the fork lift got a little annoyed when he knocked over a good sized display of cans of WD40. Cans rolling all over the place...) so they could get his purchase down from the tippy most top of the shelving. Another employee had to follow the fork lift driver around waving two orange caution flags. Beep. Beep. Beep. Well, you know what it's like in Home Depot.

So he paid for it, we took it home, and here it is in all its shining glory!

Talk about priorities. Dave had slept very poorly the night before - Scout Campout - and as I was leaving for the YW Broadcast, he said, "It's a good thing I have this to put together or I would probably fall asleep if I sat down on the couch." Like there's something wrong with that! So we are anxiously awaiting for him to get home from a Scout Committee Meeting so we can break in our new BBQ. If there is enough time before the Youth Fireside tonight that is....You know how it goes.

GROWING OLDER, HUMBLY AND GRACEFULLY

Last summer, we had the opportunity to use our extra "guest room" a few times and have Makaafi's, Ellen and Pietsch's stay with us. I usually use that closet to put my out of season clothes in but decided to box up all my winter clothes instead so that our "guests" could comfortably spread out.


So I found a sturdy cardboard box, boxed them up, summer came and went and then come November I needed the long sleeves again. I couldn't find that box of clothes anywhere! I looked everywhere. Lost. I went through all the boxes in the garage. Disappeared. I asked Dave, I called Ellen - no one had a clue. Gone forever. Sob!



Finally I just gave up, figuring they had gone to Goodwill accidently with the things the Pietsch's left for Goodwill when they moved to Sweden. I mourned most for my hot pink faux suede shirt, my black and red striped silk type shirt and my hardly worn, personalized black hooded KHS/Student Accounts/Mrs. Kossub sweatshirt.



A few weeks ago when in a fit of cleaning and organizing, I pulled this big plastic tub of food storage out from under the bed to see what needed to be eaten, thrown out, etc.








So now I want to know what did I do with all the food storage that was in here and when did I make the swap??? I was totally speechless when I opened this container. I do not remember doing this one teensy bit. Sheesh!





And while we're on the subject of that bedroom.





The question was posed a while back, asking where does anyone get things these days other than on Craig's list. While Dave does browse Craig's list from time to time, and we have made a purchase from it, we are still old school and go garage sale shopping. A few weeks ago, he came running into the house on a Saturday morning and said to hop in the car and come see what I thought. So I did, and I thought like he did, and remember that bed you guys have all slept on in the "guest room"? It's looking pretty good now with its new headboard and footboard!

$20.00!!!

And no comments about the afghan. I know the colors are loud and garish, but it is hand crocheted by some dear dear Tongan women and was given to us with love. I simply can't bear to part with it. May all who sleep in this bed feel the "specialness" of this afghan. You will never be cold, that's for sure!! It weighs a ton!

Everybody Play?!?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Be a Winner!!!!
Has anyone seen this before? I saw this on my friend Andrea's blog. I thought it was a cute idea and would play along.

So, the first five of you to respond (and follow all the other rules) to this will be hooked up.Here's the rules:The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make for you!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be.

But you all know my "talents" so that might be a clue for you right there. Or maybe I'll branch out and surprise you!

So come on, sign up!

5.The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to post this same blog on their blog and leave a comment telling me they did will win something homemade by me! Let's keep the chain of love going around!!So what do you think? Sounds interesting and fun doesn't it?

It Really Works

We have the same kinds of handles on our refrigerator and ovens. They are bisque in color, as described by the manufacturer, which means they are as bad as white when it comes to keeping them clean.

The are textured, not smooth, which means that they do not wipe clean. They do not scrub clean either. They just do not come clean. Period. What were they thinking???

One wonderful blessed Saturday though, Dave called me over and said, "Watch this." With no effort at all, he performed a miracle. He cleaned those handles with:

All he did was pour a little on a rag, lightly wipe it over the handles and they are clean, brand new, out of the box looking clean!!

You won't believe this though.

You know that stuff on your stove burners that you scrape off with a razor blade because that's the only way it will come off? This stuff takes that off too! Granted, you have to let it sit on the burned on spill-over from 2 months ago for a little bit, but it WORKS!

The directions say to dilute it, but Dave, not being big on directions when he knows better, uses it straight out of the container. HE USES GLOVES THOUGH! And he's a smart man. Unless you want to remove your fingernails, I would recommend using gloves too.

Missing Life

In looking for a quote by one of my favorite people, Norman Rockwell, I found the one you see on the right. I didn't add it right away, or think about it much until, for the last three times I have walked out into our back yard, I have been bowled over by the wonderful, heavy smell of the orange blossoms, just beginning to cover our tree. If I take a picture up close and personal like this, I bet you can smell it too!

'Camon now, big huge lungs full. Isn't it great???

Then I remembered the quote I had found about a week ago an got to looking at what I am missing in my own back yard.

Like this!

We (who am I kidding - Dave) have planted these gorgeous lillies under our bedroom window. The bright bright orange against our new green walls bordered by the red brick is so pretty. I notice and re-notice them every time I go outside. Hopefully these lillies will thrive in the shade. So far all the other plants we've chosen haven't liked it there.

And, out in the sunshine....

Aren't pansies one of the best flowers around??? And this little palm tree works so well in this spot. We'll see what the chlorine does to it this summer, but for now, we are loving it!

And when I look at this, my mouth just waters. The tangerines are superb this year and it is so luxurious to walk out back, pick one and enjoy!

We love going to the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach every summer. That is where we have found all of these pieces. They are fun and whimsical and I didn't realize until just last summer that we are getting a pretty good collection. Can't wait for this summer's selection - after all - things in an odd number are more pleasing to the eye!

And last but certainly not least.... a reminder for us all!