Scripture case

I'm looking for a scripture bag for Annabelle's scripture she will be getting at her Baptism in March. This is the cutest traditional one I've found. Has anyone seen any cute other ones--purse looking or traditional?

Link me please

Shower Curtain

Remember FOREVER ago when I was trying to decide on a shower curtain? Well I never did until now. THIS little number I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. I wanted a shower curtain with either gold or purple. I actually wanted one that was fully purple, but this is the best one I've found. You'd be amazed how hard it is to find a cool shower curtain. I did find a cool white ruffly one that resemebles an Anthropology one, but it was only $30. But I didn't want white. Anyhow, I'm happy because now i have a direction to go in with my bathroom. When I get it done I'll share pics.

Hey--How's Lent?

Well since you asked. It's hard. Mostly because it's a whole lifestyle change. I think the hardest part is not loading up on carbs. I actually haven't missed meat at all. It's just finding things to eat that aren't going to fatten me up.

I have actually enjoyed some of it. I made some brown rice in the rice cooker (oh yes you can) and we had Lemon Pepper White Roughy. It was delish (we are still eating fish-we're just off land animals)

Anyhow, I had some leftover in the fridge and I didn't want it to go to waste. I spotted some zucchini and I thought . . . . hmmm. So I sauteed it with olive oil and onion, added a little sea salt and fresh cracked peppper and put it on top. It was de-lish.



We also tried this recipe for Vegeterian Enchiladas. It tasted so good! Except the flour tortillas made it kind of soggy--so I might try corn next time. I also added some sauteed mushrooms in the filling.

Well I'm off to eat Pasta. It's easy and it doesn't moo, baa or cluck.

Bike Trailer

Does anyone have a bike trailer they don't want? One that hasn't rotted out in the sun like ours?

Let me know.

Michaels coupon

Does anyone have the Michaels ad from last week? The one with all of the coupons on the back? I want one from there. Let me know and I'll swing by and get it.

thanks

Me

I just thought some of you might wonder what I look like recently.

Photo taken by my photography teacher Wendy Schulz

My Mormon Mother Report Card

My Mormon Parent report card results---Big Fat F.

How does one test this?

Well by random chance like . .

When you are at the Baptism preview (the night that the Primary has with all of the 7 year old kids who will turn 8 and be baptized--to get the details on who what where when etc).

As I was saying, . . .

When you are at the Baptism Preview sitting in the FRONT row, and while the Bishop is informing kids on what they will be asked in their interview, asks your daughter, "Who is the Prophet?"

and she

points her arm straight out toward the Bishop and says:

"YOU?"

That's how you know.

For my friends who aren't Mormon, the answer is President Thomas S. Monson.

a Vegetarian Lent

We have joked before about participating in Lent. Mormons don't traditionally do that--but it has been intriguing to us for years. So on Tuesday Hyrum brought up the subject and suggested we give up soda for Lent. I told him that I don't drink much soda, so that would be too easy. So then he said, "What about meat?". Perfect. We've been trying to go meat-less (less meat not actually meatless) Anyhow so here we are. Day two and going strong.

Should be interesting. I foresee some added pounds and a lot of cheese eating.

If you have any vegetarian meals that you love. Please link me or e-mail me the recipe.

I shall keep you updated

Valentines

I just finished making the girl's valentines cards. I got pretty ambitious on Saturday and Annabelle and I made THESE salt dough hearts. At first I just did it to see how they would turn out, and turn out they did. I loved them. So I bought some paint and glitter and got them all cutesied up today. I went to SAS and bought yards and yards of ribbon to use as the necklace part (10 cents a yard. Can't beat that). So each of the girls in their classes are getting little heart necklaces on their valentines cards.




Then I had to make cards for the boys. They just get a snickers or Kit Kat stapled to theirs. Boys don't do salt dough hearts. But they do candy. The one for Snickers said, "You make me snicker valentine". And the other one was for the Kit Kats. It just said, "I think you're sweet, here's my favorite treat". I tried like mad to come up with a Kit Kat rhyme, but I got nothin.

If you're a little behind on the Valentining here is a fab website for FREE yes FREE printable Valentine cards. CHECK IT.

Patches

My girls have worn holes in so many of their jeans that I just bought in August. I was going to donate their jeans to Goodwill, but then I realized that no one else wants jeans with holes in the knees. So they just sat in my close on the floor until I figured out what to do.

Then it came to me. Patch them with fabric I already have, and add stitching.

If you want to play along here are the instructions:

*Purchase Heat n' Bond from a fabric store. (I purchased normal Heat n' Bond, but I think I'll go back and purchase the Ultra Heat n' Bond for the rest because then you don't have to sew if you don't want to). It was $1.99 a yard. So cheap!

*Got out my trusty bucket of fabric scraps. Cut out a square that was bigger than the heart shape I was going to use.

*Cut the Heat n' Bond to match the size of the fabric I just cut.

*Follow instructions on Heat n' Bond (actually confusing). But you take the piece of the heat n bond with the side that doesn't have the paper on it and stick it to the WRONG side of your fabric. Then put it on an ironing board with the paper side up (which would make the right side of the fabric against the ironing board) and iron for two seconds. And then hooray! It's stuck together like one piece of fabric.

*Take a cookie cutter (or template of some sort) and draw around it with a pencil on the paper side of the fabric piece.

*Cut it out

*Peel the paper off and stick the patch over the hole.

*Iron for 8 seconds

*Diggity Done!

*I added a stitch around with embroidery thread. Super easy.

This is what it looks like up close:




So cute huh! I love it, I'm currently patching it up around here with any of my girl's jeans I can find. I've only done hearts, but I want to try stars and squares.

So cheap! It cost me maybe $.30 to patch that.

I feel so thrifty. And crafty.

How is it?

How is it that it seems as if everywhere I turn in the blogging world, there are mothers who are dealing with HORRIBLE tragedies concerning their kids. I've been following a photographer Natalie who just lost her son. And so as I was keeping up with her blog she introduces THIS FAMILY and I am glued. I read and read and read.

I think the second one scares me the most. Because I am that mom. I walk away from the bathtub all the time. Last night I had Beck (16 months) in the bath with the 7 year old. I find her absolutely capable of watching him. But I heard her yelling for me, so I ran in, and she told me that Beck had slipped under the water, and she had her back turned toward him. Everything was fine, he was under about 1 second before she grabbed him. And she felt HORRIBLE. But that could have made me that second mother. So easily. It's not my 7 year old's responsibility to keep her brother alive. It's mine.

So read, and keep up with these mothers and I'm not sure why. And I know I'm not alone. Other people, just as glued.

I hope I learn from these. Learn to squeeze more, and play more, and spend less time on the computer.

So I'm heeding that last bit. I'm off.

Chase Blows

Can you tell by that I'm pissed by that Title. I have a credit card with Chase and they are HORRIBLE. And having called and vented to my friend, she said that Financial guru Dave Ramsey (whom I will blog about another time) said that CHASE is the WORST company for customer service.

So true. For one thing, they switched my payment due date, without notifying me. Um??? what??? But luckily I had checked it early that time. So I paid it online, which I swear I've done before. But it turns out, that my bank info that I put in didn't have the correct prefix/suffix. So the payment got rejected. So I call them up to try to figure it out and they said, well, ya, you didn't add the prefix and suffix so . . . sorry---here is a $35 fee for that being kicked back and also a $30 LATE Fee. So I told them to check my account, I have NEVER, EVER been late on a payment, and I pay my card off in full, when I use it, every month. I am a good customer, so is there something they could do.

NO they said, don't even bother talking it to a supervisor, they won't do anything either. So I started a back and forth e-mail communication through the message center to which I got the standard BULLCRAP of

"we understand the frustration you must feel" blah blah blah--PUKE.

"there is NOTHING we can do"

Um . . don't lie to me, and be patronizing. There is ALWAYS something you can do. So I asked them to shut it down. Assuming they'd send me to someone trying to save me as a customer, but they didn't. She put me on hold, then came back and said--it's closed.

The reason they didn't retain me (and I've been learning this on the talk radio) is that to them I am NOT a good customer. I cost them money, because they don't make any interest off me--I use their services for free--so I was disposable.

But I tell you this, if that day comes when I have to take out a hefty loan---say for something like purchasing a medical office--or anything of the sort.

For DAMN sure it won't be with Chase--even if they did offer a better deal.

**addition--I just checked my balance of my CLOSED and PAID IN FULL account. Balance now of $2.78 what the? So I called and she said it was due on the 2nd and I paid on the 4th so it was the interest. I wasn't thinking so I just got off the phone. Then what the?? I remembered that I paid it off on the new due date they had gave me. I paid it at the CHASE bank locally. But it didn't post for two days. Because I paid on a Saturday, it didn't post until Monday. I just called to yell, but I was on hold for so long I bailed. UGH

CHASE BLOWS!

Mad about Plaid

What the what--Walmart? Yes. Thanks to WalMart, I spent the last $20 out of our budget for January to purchase these lovely ladies.

I have always wanted a cute pair of plaid heels.

**They also have the same in gray fleck.