Operation "Organize My House"

Ok so a couple weeks ago we decided to have a yard sale to try and get rid of all the stuff that we don't need or want anymore. The yard sale went well but good enough. So now I have a garage filled with stuff that was once in totes or boxes, so I need to have another garage sale again and then I am just going to have to try to sale it on craigslist and Palouse ads and the rest of the JUNK that I don't want to try and sale is going to be going to Goodwill.

Now unfortunately my sister in law has to move back to Oregon because she just couldn't find a job here in Idaho (for those of you that are new readers she currently lives in the apartment that is in our basement) I really hate that she has to do this because well I will miss her but that also means I now have 2 more bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and kitchen that I can try and start organizing all of my STUFF. I will get to set up an art area, video game area, play area and I will now have my own room with my sewing and scrap booking stuff set up in and not in totes anymore and still have a guest bedroom.

Yesterday I cleaned the utility closet which was filled with a garbage bag of plastic balls, tons of plastic bags, vacuum, shampooer, broom, mop, games, dog and cat stuff Oh it was just a huge mess in such a little closet.

Next I tackled the closet next to the laundry room which again everything was just kinda thrown in there, it had everything from bills, kids school work, envelopes, kitchen stuff, decorations from Easter, bubble stuff, chalk and rain boots. Now I sadly have a problem I can not get rid of any of my kids school work it all goes into manila envelopes and the grade and year is wrote on it and it goes in a tote. But I did organize everything else nicely.

Today I tackled our pantry and I almost wish I hadn't because now it looks like we have no food. It was a horrible mess no organization at all but now all the canned foods are all lined up, noodles in one place, cereal in one place and so on.

Tomorrow I am tackling the kitchen cupboards. I will get pictures on here as soon as I can get my camera to upload to the computer.Also while I am trying to organize my house and life really I am trying to lose 14 pounds by July 30th so far I have lost 5.1 pounds and tomorrow is my week 3 weigh in hopefully it's more than last week.

Monday Madness

Hey everyone thanks so much for stopping by my blog, I can't wait to check out yours. I love blog hopping.

Summer Fun in the Sun

We have been having some beautiful weather here FINALLY. My kids and I are taking full advantage of it too. I have been cooking dinner on the BBQ almost every night, the kids have been playing in their pools.

We have been enjoying Coach Pitch games in the sun, mowing the yard, weeding the garden and strawberry beds, taking hikes and playing at parks.

I LOVE THE SUN!!!!!!!

Weekend Wind Down Week #1

For the rest of the summer I am going to be participating in this fun little blog hop/giveaway.



Here is how it works:

If you've never linked up for the Weekend Wind Down before, here's how you can join in the fun:

• Become a follower of both hosts
• Write your blog post on the theme or copy and paste the question listed. Make sure the “Weekend Wind Down” Button is visible somewhere in the post
• Link up your “Weekend Wind Down” post using the McLinky on Sat. or Sun. You will only need to link up once to be seen on all the Blog Hops. (Please link to your actual “Weekend Wind Down” post, NOT your main blog page)

So when you link up, not only do you get to blog hop around and meet, comment, & follow other blogs (and get new followers for yourself)... but you also get an entry into the giveaway contest at the end of the summer... win/win for everyone!!

For the "13 Weekends of Summer", each weekend that you link up is an entry into the giveaways at the end of the summer.  After the last weekend in summer (weekend #13- Sept. 18/19), we will draw 2 random winners for the giveaway prizes (we'll be revealing them soon...)!  Read full giveaway rules.
Without further ado, here's the question for weekend #1:

Are you going to, or did you already, take a summer vacation this year... to where?

My Answer: We actually are not really taking a summer vacation this year, we plan on going down to Oregon a few times and we have to go down to California for my grandma's funeral so I think that is going to be vacation enough for us this year.

Now it's you turn: Head on over to this BLOG to participate. 

Living Vital Youthful Lives, All Our Lives: My DNA Testing Is Complete!

Living Vital Youthful Lives, All Our Lives: My DNA Testing Is Complete!: "The 4 week wait for my DNA test to be completed was agonizing. I watched my mail daily and finally the test results arrived. So I will sha..."

My husband vs 1.5 Pound Hamburger

First of all we watch Man vs Food all the time so the other day Adam (from Man vs Food) had to eat a giant hamburger and I was joking with my husband when I said I am going to make a huge burger one of these days for you and he was like ya right. Well today it was the perfect day for a BBQ so I decided I would do it. For the bun I had to try and squish 4 buns to together to form the bottom and top. And I threw his 1.5 pound burger on the grill and away it cooked. I went to flip it and it tried falling apart but luckily didn't.

About 30 minutes later it was done and ready for him to enjoy, he wasn't home from work yet so I got to get it all put together before he walked in the door. You should have seen my daughters face when I showed her his burger it was like shock and she said "Holy Cow" He walks in and sees what is on his plate and said "OH MY GOSH"

And then the challenge was on. Needless to say the burger WON, he still has 1/4 of the hamburger left but he did say he was nice and juicy. So, maybe I should open up my own restaurant with Gigantic burgers and see if ADAM would come and visit huh????

Friday Blog Hops

Here are some of the Friday Blog Hops I participate in.


















Once again I am trying to get some more followers to my blog and this is the way. As always if you follow me I will follow you back. Stay awhile and look around.

Check out this BLOG too, its all about being healthy.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Right before school was over the kids school sent home letters to buy movie tickets at a discounted price to go and see 8 different movies this summer with your kids. So I of course jumped on the chance it was $5.00 for 8 tickets to various movie, the first being Percy Jackson.


Synopsis: It's the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson's Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they're not happy: Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy's mother. As Percy finds himself caught between angry and battling gods, he and his friends embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy's mom, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves. Written by 20th Century Fox

My thoughts: Now I had only seen previews of this movie a few times and knew it was something I was going to be leery about taking my kids too but when I seen it on the list of movies I figured it couldn't be that bad (right). So I decided to take my 7 year old. We got to the movie theater and going inside was a huge line of what looked like kindergartners so again I was like ok this is going to be ok. Not to long into the movie she starts covering her eyes, and asking when its going to be over and so on. She continues to watch just covering her eyes when something gets a little too scary for her. The movie I thought was awesome I loved it (except Medusa) I love reading mythology as it is so it was right up my alley but I think that it was not appropriate for kids their ages and there was some cussing as well which I again don't think is appropriate for kids. I am thinking that my daughter who is almost 10 might of enjoyed it but just be leery before you let your kids watch this movie.


Next week Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Anyone seen this movie before?????



All opinions are 100% mine.

Strawberry Shortcut

 Does this look good?? It is, my daughter and I made it the other night and boy was it good. Go ahead try it.

What You Need!

1-1/2 qt. (6 cups) strawberries, sliced

1/4 cup  sugar

1 pkg. (12 oz.) prepared pound cake, cut into 12 slices

1 tub  (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

Make It!

TOSS strawberries with sugar; let stand 10 min. or until sugar is dissolved.
MEANWHILE, cut each slice of pound cake in half horizontally. Place 1 cake piece on each of 12 dessert plates.
SPOON about 1/4 cup of the strawberries over each cake piece; top with 2 Tbsp. of the whipped topping. Repeat layers.

Hasbro Game Night

Thanks to Houseparty.com I was selected to host a Hasbro Game Night. So a couple of weeks ago I received this box filled with:
The new Trivial Pursuit-Bet you know it (in stores soon)
Taboo
Catch Phrase-electronic edition
4 boxes of various Triscuits
2 boxes of Wheat Thins
Hershey pieces
$5.00 off coupons

On Friday Night we had our little Hasbro Game Night and let me tell you after playing Trivial Pursuit I just feel like I need to go back to school, the questions were really fun but some were kinda hard. We had a blast anyways. Thank you House Party for this opportunity.

I received a free party kit from HouseParty.com so I could do an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own. No monetary compensation was received.

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Today is Father's Day and we woke up this morning and my daughter was jumping all over the place waiting to give her dad the things she had made him for Father's Day. She made him a award saying he was the greatest Dad in the world, some coupons good for various things, a wooden picture frame she made at gymnastics camp, and a I Love Dad plaque she made at the local building supply Dad's day event. And she also knew what I got him and she couldn't wait to get that to him either. I got him a pair of camo sunglasses because he always complains about not having an extra pair and I got him an iPhone.

Then she fixed him breakfast.

Next we are going to be going to Lewiston, ID to try out a new restaurant my friend told me about called Timber Creek Grill Buffet. So, basically its your everyday buffet but they serve you all you can eat steak made to order and I thought Wes would really enjoy that.

What are you doing to celebrate Father's Day with your DAD in your life??

Toffee Poke Cake

Last night my daughter and I made the most amazing cake ever it called Toffee Poke Cake. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

---

• 1 pkg (18-1/4 oz) chocolate cake mix
• 1 jar (17 oz.) butterscotch-caramel ice cream topping 
• 1 carton (12 oz) frozen whipped topping,thawed 
• 3 Heath candy bars (1.4 oz ea),chopped 

How to make it

---

• Prepare and bake cake according to pkg. directions using a greased 13x9" baking pan. Cool on wire rack.
• Using handle of wooden spoon,pole holes in cake. Pour 3/4c caramel topping into holes. Spoon remaining caramel over cake. Top with whipped topping
• Sprinkle with candy. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

U*neaks

I just learned about these shoes that are so cute over at my friend Leslie's Blog and you can change what they look like everyday, they are called U*neaks. I am hopefully going to win her giveaway so I can get a pair for one of the girls and then I will probably purchase another pair too. Thanks for telling me about these Leslie.

Hermie & Friends-Who is in Charge Anyway? DVD *Review*

Lesson in Growing Up With God

DVD Description-

Meet the Garden gang before they grew up!

Sitting around a camp fire on a beautiful star-lit night, the garden gang is talking about their favorite memories. Antonio recounts the Garden Olympics, but admits he was a scrawny kid-ant whose parents did not think he would ever amount to much. Flo confesses she used to be shy and introverted. Turns out all Hermie and Friends’ adventures are made possible by the things that happened to them as kids. And it’s also clear that God has had a plan for all of the garden characters right from the start – as long as they had the sense to listen and follow God’s message. Includes new and previous animation.

My Thoughts-

The day we received this in the mail we were actually getting ready to take a drive about an hour away so it worked out perfect because the DVD is about 60 minutes long. I popped it in the DVD player and my 7 year old started watching it. It is such a cute movie and has such a good message for kids. The characters are so cute they remind me of A Bug's Life and the movie itself reminds me of Veggie Tales but I would much rather watch little talking bugs than vegetables any day.  When the movie was over my daughter wanted to watch it again so I said what the heck go ahead. This movie teaches the kids that everyone was created for a reason and no one is alike. There are 13 other DVD's in the collection and I can't wait to get them. I would recommend this to anyone who has kids and wants them to watch shows with morals instead of the stuff that is on TV these days.

My Daughters Thoughts-I liked it, it was really funny.

Monday Marketing

Hello Monday!!! Hi everyone who is stopping by for the Monday blog hops and also thanks so much for choosing my blog to stop by from the huge lists.

And always if you follow me I will follow you. Also check out this blog it is filled with healthy tips HERE

Weekend

I had such an awesome weekend, it felt relaxing and yet it wasn't.

Saturday-We got up and went to the local Farmer's Market so we could get some more plants for our garden and then we headed to Old Navy to get some of their $2 tank tops, you just can't beat that price and of course they have a limit so luckily I brought my husband along and he too could purchase his limit. Then we headed to this little town about an hour away from us called Elk River, ID to see the Giant Cedar Tree and we were expecting a hike but it was not to our disappointment. This town is so small and in the middle of nowhere. After the tree sightseeing we headed to the general store which I had read had amazing huckleberry ice cream. We ended up getting chocolate huckleberry ice cream and it was pretty amazing.

Sunday-I decided that I needed to get all my boxes gone through so we could have a garage sale the next weekend or I guess a yard sale because my husband will not let me use HIS garage. So we filled the front room with boxes that needed to be gone through and finished that pretty quickly. Then my daughter had her first riding lessons on the horse Tess that we are boarding and this horse was amazing, you literally don't need reins to ride her she knows when to walk, stop, turn all by the pressure from your feet. We also starting filling up the swimming pool which is huge so I am sure its going to take days and before we could start we spent about 2 hours leveling a spot for it. Then we had an amazing BBQ cooked by me of course and by the end of the day I looked like a tomato I am so sun burnt. So needless to say today I am feeling the pain. I don't know what I was thinking putting on tanning lotion before being in the sun all day.

Friday Follow June 11

It's Friday which means time to try and get more people to our blogs and time to find some interesting blogs that I might enjoy reading.

Thanks to everyone who stops by today as always if you follow me I will follow you.

Mini-Vacation

Last week on Thursday we picked the kids up from school (it was their last day) and headed straight for Oregon. I had been waiting the whole week for that day to come because I knew on Friday that meant a mini-vacation for me. I really needed it too, I have had the worst couple of weeks.

Friday we headed to Sisters, Oregon where we stay in a cabin at Eagle Crest that my husbands grandma owns. We try and do this once a year, just girls and hopefully no kids (I know that may sound mean to some of you but it is so relaxing). Now this cabin is like my dream home all logs and knotty pine, a hot tub and its on a golf course. We got there around 5 and soon after arriving hopped in the hot tub with some drinks of course.

Saturday-We went to Sisters and did some shopping which is always super fun and I can always find some moose, bear or elk stuff and of course they have all my log furniture there. By Saturday afternoon I started missing Jaedyn super bad this was the first time I had ever left her for this long, I was just trying to stay busy. We played golf on the putt putt course and we also played a game called Chicken Foot (dominoes) that grandma taught us.It was super fun we usually play Mexican train so it nice to change it up a bit. We were laughing so hard the object is to not get very many points and by the end of one of the games we were all above 120 which is so bad.And of course more Hot tub relaxation.

Sunday-Time to head home, I woke up this morning so sad I just could not wait to see my baby girl and my other girls. It seemed like we were never going to be getting home, it was one stop after another and going by so slow all I could think about was Jaedyn and how she probably didn't remember me anymore and how she wasn't going to care that I was gone now anyways. We finally made it home and guess what My baby girl gave me kisses, it was such a relief.

Relaxed most of Monday and then headed back to Idaho Tuesday.

THE WINNER IS........

Congratulation to.......THE GOSFAM

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: 79 Result: 7

The Gosfam said...

I follow on Networked Blogs: Gosfam 

May 26, 2010 5:07 PM

 

 

They will have 48 Hours to claim their prize or a new winner will be chosen. Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway.

I Am Hutterite Book *Review*

 

This book is a true story about a woman's life and journey in the Hutterite Religion. 

About the book:

A Fascinating journey into the heart and culture of a reclusive religious community.

I Am Hutterite takes readers into the hidden heart of the little-known Hutterite colony in southern Manitoba where author Mary-Ann Kirkby spent her childhood. When she was ten years old her parents packed up their seven children and a handful of possessions and left the security of the colony to start a new life. Overnight they were thrust into a world they didn't understand, a world that did not understand them.
Before she left the colony Mary-Ann had never tasted macaroni and cheese or ridden a bike. She had never heard of Walt Disney or rock-and-roll. She was forced to reinvent herself, denying her heritage to fit in with her peers. With great humor, Kirkby describes how she adapted to popular culture; and with raw honesty her family's deep sense of loss for their community. More than a history lesson, I Am Hutterite is a powerful tale of retracing steps and understanding how our beginnings often define us.
Controversial and acclaimed by the Hutterite community, Kirkby's book unveils the rich history and traditions of her people, giving us a rare and intimate portrait of an extraordinary way of life.

My Thoughts: When I chose to do this review I actually thought it was going to be a book about her being trapped in this colony and not being able to leave, which in all honesty I would have really enjoyed. When I started reading this book I was intrigued to learn about a new religion I had never heard about I have always loved hearing or reading about other heritages other than my own. I actually had talked to my husbands grandpa and grandma about the book and they had both heard of it and even knew someone that had delivered a tractor to a colony in Canada, so that was really interesting to find out.I must admit it was a really slow moving book. She talks about all the family problems and also how the colony works. I just could never really get into the book and therefore don't have a lot to say about it, other than I can not recommend it to anyone else, it might be a good book to read if you had to do some kind of report on a religion or something but other than that there is just not enough substance for me. I would not be able to live as they did back then, I love cooking dinner myself and having family dinners. I also could not follow their dress codes either.

I actually did some research on the internet after I finished this book and came across a few Hutterite blogs, and by reading them their colony or religion sounds nothing like this book does.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

New Button

I have a new button for my blog



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Great Grandma

So as some of you know my great grandma Ila Mae Mead passed away at the age of 88 last week. I have not really been able to type anything until now (maybe anyways) without losing it about her but I just wanted to tell about some really amazing memories I have about her (ok crying now). First of all not very many people I know can actually say they have a great great grandma or even a great grandma. My kids are very fortunate enough to be able to meet and love their great great grandma.

I remember when I used to go over and spend the night at her house and play dress up with all her high heels and jewelry.

I remember when I would spend the night at her house and sleep in her bed with her and she would tell bedtime stories like the 3 bears.

I remember waking up and always smelling bacon that she had cooked to be crumbled up in the oatmeal.

I remember coloring in coloring books at her house that she keep for years, actually she still has one that I had colored in from 1991, I seen it last time I was at her house and my kids have colored in it now.

I remember going to her house in the summer and playing badminton in the backyard.

I remember when she would takes us for drives up in the mountains and tell us stories about her and grandpa hunting and things they would find.

I remember that her house was always spotless and always had that very clean smell to it, so clean you could eat off the floor (even until she passed away her house was clean and she cleaned it)

I remember her yard always being so beautiful and perfect. I remember thinking that I hope when I get old I can still get out there with a push mower and mow my yard.

I remember the first time she met each of my kids and held them for the first time.

I will always and forever remember the special bond she had with Lyndze. They just totally connected. She would always push her around on her walker and Lyndze was willing to help her do whatever she needed.

I will always and forever remember all the great times with YOU.  I LOVE YOU GRANDMA