It's official

It is apparently, painfully, exceedingly obvious today that I am the mother of a two-year-old boy. Imagine my surprise when I awoke to find my lovely white baby grand piano covered in green crayon. Yes, I would be hyperventilating just writing this, except for the existence of Magic Erasers. (anyone else feel like they should own stock in those things?) Thank goodness the keys were covered, because it would have been a much bigger pain to have to clean those off. Anyway, it came off just fine and my baby (meaning the piano) is no worse for the wear. Oh, and did I mention he also got the white bookcases, too? Yes, I'm calm now, and I didn't even yell or swear or anything.
Things I wonder about--what are those Magic Erasers made of, anyway? How do kids ALWAYS find crayons even when you think they are all put away? How can such a little bundle of cuteness make such big messes??
I feel a park outing coming on later to release some excess energy in the boy...

Oh, FYI-the picture above is Elvis' piano, not mine. :)

Emotional Roller Coaster--wanna ride?

So, yesterday was an emotional day. Then again, what day isn't for me lately? I cried. I was talking to DH and just started crying! My kids noticed, of course. Sweet G said, "It's ok mom, sometimes I cry when I talk to dad, too, and I don't know why." Then Blondie piped up with, "So it's really dad's fault." (haha!) I told them I didn't really know why I was crying, I just was. The same reason there is a can of Easy Cheese on my bed-side table, but we don't need to go into that one, people. :)
I'll just say, I'm probably going to be crying the whole month of December so if you see me crying, it's ok, I'm fine, it's just the Christmas season getting to me through my amped hormone levels. Yeah, I played through some of the Christmas songs in the Children's Songbook this morning, and couldn't even sing them, I was all choked up! I thought, oh boy, I better get some waterproof eye makeup or I am going to look like one big disaster all month!! It's funny, I'm glad I can laugh at myself, even as I'm crying, and I'll just try to be grateful I don't puke my guts out or anything like that when I'm pregnant. Good times, good times.

Boutique on Sat!

Hey everybody, I know a lot of you (like me) love a good boutique, so here's one you should definitely plan on coming to. The linky thing is here on my sidebar for the Shop Chic Boutique. It's only this Saturday, from 8 to 4. I will be selling my wooden signs and blocks, and I know Supercoolmom will be there selling her super-hero capes. There will be much, much more.... so come! Come get ideas for your own crafts, and come buy some of mine. (did I just say that?) heehee No really, even if you don't buy any of my crafts it will still be lots of fun. ;)
Speaking of, I need to price everything. That is the part I hate doing. I don't know what to charge for these things!! Any suggestions? Anyone? Beuller?

OK, here's a totally random thing to add to this post. I read this little tip earlier today, and it seems so great I'm going to put it here. On one of the blogs I frequent, this gal mentioned that when her kids get coughs they are really bad, especially at night. I know I can relate to this; probably a lot of us can. She said that when kids get these awful night-time coughs, put Vicks on their feet with socks and let them sleep like that. The Vicks helps keep the cough in check ALL NIGHT. I've always been interested in reflexology and such, and know there are a lot of pressure points in the feet for all over the body, so this seems to make sense. She brought up that point, too. I am SOOOOOO going to try this with our next cough!

Anyway, back on subject, come to the boutique! It'll be fun. See you!

Party TONITE!

Woohoo!! Scentsy party, tonite, my place! Oh yeah. And don't forget some yummy snacks. Oh yeah. And just visiting and having fun. Come on over!!

More crafts

Check out my Salsa Crafts blog. I posted a few new things today!

I'm havin' a party! (and u r invited)

I am hosting a Scentsy party this Thursday at my house from 6:30 - 8:30, come and go. If you haven't heard of them before, Scentsy is a flameless scented candle that is awesome! It gets hot enough to scent your house but not hot enough to burn your kids should they get into it somehow. I love scented candles, especially around the holidays. If you love them too, or want a great gift idea, come on over! We will be having some yummy treats, and just hanging out and talking and smelling candles!
I have lots of friends and family (hey cousins!) that I wrote invitations for, but lost most of them. I have emailed everyone I have addresses for, but that isn't everyone on my list. I'll try to make some phone calls, but in case I miss someone, please know that you ARE invited and I WANT you to come. Also, if you can't come but want to order something you can do that too. And if you don't think you can buy anything but just want to come see and hang and snack, you can do that too!! The more, the merrier! I hope to see ya Thursday!

AWESOME Green Bean Casserole Recipe

I was at Trader Joe's last night, and they were giving samples of their green bean casserole. I HAD to get the recipe because it was sooooooooo good! Now, I like a good green bean casserole anyway, but my friend who was with me doesn't, and she even thought this was fabulous. The beans were still a little crisp, nothing soggy, and oh-so flavorful!! I'm posting the recipe here so I don't lose it, and to share it with all of ya'll. (notes written on small paper scraps and used envelopes don't usually last very long with me...)
Now, they used all TJ ingredients, of course. I would just substitute what you have but if possible their stuff is so good that I would get it.

Here it is:
Saute 1 12 oz. pkg. bacon, cut into little pieces (it was a flavored bacon, like smoked something-or-0ther) with about 1 cup diced white onion.
Add 1 (1.5 lb) pkg. frozen green beans (they used their skinny french green beans that I LOVE)
and 1 lb pkg. frozen roasted corn (she said it HAD to be roasted corn, not just regular corn)
Simmer those together for a little bit to heat through, but don't sog the beans.
Then add 1 8 oz. tub of onion and chive cream cheese (you can use Rondele too, same type thing)
Add some chicken broth, just enough to make it creamy (the cream cheese is very thick so you need to add the liquid to make it nice and creamy and saucy)
Sprinkle with fried onions just before serving so they don't get soggy in the mixture.
The sample that I tried had been sitting for a while in the skillet, so the onions weren't very crispy anymore, but it was still great.

YUMMY!!! And pretty easy, too. This recipe serves a good 10 people (according to the sample lady). Or it would serve me on a hungry day for lunch...

Halloween

We DID dress up for Halloween, I just realized I hadn't posted any pictures yet. Here they are, all the kiddos in their costumes:

Teeny Bopper created her own costume of "whatever". She was a conglomeration of many fun things.

Sweet G was Jane from Pride and Prejudice. We did her hair in a bun with the braids coming from the sides. She was absolutely gorgeous, and got many compliments on how beautiful she was.

Blondie was a pirate, ye scurvy dogs!

Little Miss was a little lady bug, cute as can be.

And Dr. Destructo was a clown. He would ONLY wear the wig for trick-or-treating. He wouldn't wear it before for pictures, ONLY during the actual events of the night. The second we came in from all the fun, off came the wig!

Mom was a tired pregnant lady and dad was a biker. Yeah, we didn't dress up. :)

It was a great evening and the kids had a blast. Now we just have to hide the candy long enough for them to forget about it, and then throw it out! :) Until next year...

Chicken Noodle Surprise

I had to go through my pantry the other day to make something good for dinner. We decided on soup, and it actually came out really good! The girls wanted me to write down the recipe so we could make it again sometime, so I am putting it here for later use. :) BTW, of course we had to name it and it has been officially donned "Chicken Noodle Surprise".

Ingredients:

chicken broth

1 packet onion soup mix (I know, this is not the best thing but it totally made the soup!)

a couple of diced, raw chicken breasts

bag of frozen vegetables

Cook these all together until the chicken is done.

Add some egg noodles and a can of great northern beans.

All done!

Bon Appetit!

Have you seen these?

Go HERE to see these cool candlesticks they make out of your profile! This is one of those great gifts you could get for the "person that has everything". We all know at least one of those, right? How cool is this! A decoration and conversation piece in one. I just thought this was too cool. Am I right?

It's decided

Well, America has chosen a new president. Not my choice, I must admit. But it's done, and now as my DH has said we need to be respectful of our new president and most definitely need to pray for him. I thought McCain gave a stand-up speech last night and I most earnestly hope we see more of Sarah Palin in the future.
Personally, my consolation of having Obama as our new president is that he is coming into very hard times and I don't think he is up to the challenge of helping our country out of it. Then his supporters will see his inexperience shining through and wish we had made a different choice. I also hope that the Republican party will actually return to it's root values. Maybe this will shake up Washington politicians enough to see that Americans want a real Republican party, a CONSERVATIVE Republican party, and our leaders will start acting that way. We can only hope...
On the up-side, the state elections came out pretty well! Most of the propositions went the way we wanted, and even in California their Prop. 8 is passing!!! I am shocked in a good way for that one. I wonder what gay couples that are already married will end up doing? Will they recognize the marriages that have already taken place, or call them null and void? Hmmmmm...
Well, President Packer told us in our Regional Conference this last weekend that "drastic change" was coming and we'd better be doing all the things to prepare that we've been counseled to do. And more importantly, he told us not to fear. Not to let our children or teenagers fear. That we can still have happy families as long as we are doing the best we can and are prepared. Not fearing may be my challenge; I need to work on my faith and I have commited to myself to improve on my personal prayers and scripture reading. And to make sure that our family doesn't miss our morning devotionals with prayer and scriptures. Also, my goal is to attend the Temple more often on my own and with my hubby.
And when all is said and done, I'm so grateful to live in this country where we are able to elect leaders without bloodshed or tyranny trying to take over. (which is one reason for the war we are in, besides to squelch terrorism and protect OUR own country, we are trying to help Iraq set up a more diplomatic/democratic government as well. That's my view of it, in case anyone was wondering. :)
So, there we have it. President Obama is taking charge in a couple of months, our Congress AND House of Representatives are both majority Democrat, and we just have to hope and pray that no Republican Supreme Court judges retire during the next four years or we are truly sunk.
Wait, let me try to be more optimistic.
My family is going to pray like crazy for our new leaders and try to do the best we can to follow the counsel of our church leaders and let me just say, I thank God that we have a true and living Prophet guiding our church today. I would feel so lost without the counsel coming to us from Heavenly Father through our Prophet. I know that President Monson is a prophet of God and that he speaks the will of the Lord to us today. We are blessed to have the scriptures and counsel of past prophets, yes. Definitely. BUT, even more blessed are we to have continuing revelation and be able to hear specific counsel for us at this time in our lives. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I feel the truth of it with my whole soul, and if anyone reading this wants to know more about it, feel free to ask me any questions or visit www.Mormon.org.

That's it for now. :) I'm sure I'll have more to say on the subject later.

Homemade laundry soap!

My friend Shauna and I were watching 17 and counting the other day. You know, the show about the Duggar family that has 17 kids and one on the way. It's a great show. Anyway, they made homemade laundry soap and showed the cost saving of using that soap versus buying laundry detergent. It gave me a bit of a blast-from-the-past, because in my cloth diapering days (mainly with Blondie-she was completely cloth diapered, but my first 3 kids all wore cloth diapers at one time or another. Then I got tired.) :) Anyway, I made laundry soap during that time and recognized it as basically the same recipe. Well, we thought with the financial bind we are in right now, saving money wherever possible would be helpful. So we decided to use the Duggar recipe and make laundry soap. It came out just right! Just like I remember, too. It is suuuuuper easy, and even with the start-up cost of buying a new 5 gallon bucket to keep it in, it was cheaper than buying less than half the amount of detergent than we made at Costco. Cool! The consistency was described as that of egg-drop soup, and it really is! You can see it in my hand:


The smell is actually quite pleasant, kind of lemony but you can add essential oils for different scents. I think I want to try peppermint or lavender first...
Here is the Duggar's recipe:

TIPS FOR LAUNDRY SOAP: We use Fels-Naptha bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can normally be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- 1/4 Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

(recipe copied from duggarfamily.com)

We found all the ingredients at Food City, but the Borax was slightly cheaper at Walmart. Not enough to make a separate trip just to get it, though. We are planning a trip to IKEA next week to get a smaller container to hold about one or two gallons so we can scent smaller amounts at a time. Until then, I'll just dip it out of the bucket and use 1/8 cup (for my front loader) and add 1/8 cup of water into the dispenser with it. If my calculations came out right, it costs about one cent (or a little less) per load. Not too shabby!!

14 years ago today...

We were just beginning what have been the best years of my life. Happy anniversary, sweetie!! I looooOOOOOooooove you!!!