Being in the Right Place, At the Right Time!

Okay, I have been really trying to get my storage rooms cleaned up, inventoried, and stocked up this summer. There's been a couple of things I've been wondering what to do about.....

#1 I have way too many empty canning jars taking up way too much space. I've been wondering what to fill them with. I shouldn't have any empty jars. Hmmmm....

#2 I have about 3 huge, growing all over the place, concord grape plants in my backyard. I really didn't know what to do with them. I didn't want to make jam, I just figured by the time I got the skin off and them seeded it would be a big mess and I just didn't want to mess with it. Do I pull them out and get rid of them? Seemed like such a waste to just pull them all out. What to do????

So Saturday was a RS service project to tie quilts for the humanitarian center. I almost forgot to even go. Sister Thalman called me to remind me, I was glad. It would make for a pretty busy day, quilts in the morning, bridal shower at noon, and women's conference in the evening. But I wanted to go, so I did. While I was there, some one mentioned that they had been calling all over looking for concord grapes to bottle juice. I mentioned that I had some, but didn't know what to do with them. There were a few sisters who had done grape juice in different ways, so I listened to all of them and decided to give it a try. I picked the easiest way, and I didn't have to go buy anything.

I did 11 quarts that night! Sunday we tried some, mixing it with different juices, cranberry, white grape and 7up. It was yummy!!


So today, I finished them. I did 28 more quarts today. That's 36 quarts that are now full and not empty, and my grapes didn't go to waste. I don't think I will pull them up after all!!

If I had not gone to Relief Society on Saturday to serve, I would not have had help in solving these two concerns!!

Gotta love RS!!

Freeze Volleyball

Monday Night for Family Home Evening, it was Beth's turn for activity...She took us outside for some freeze volleyball.

This is where we play volleyball to music and when the music stops we have to freeze. If we don't then we have to switch sides.

You can imagine how it is to try to play volleyball when the players range from 46 to 1. We do the best we can in situations like this! The kids end up all over the yard.

The fun part of the evening was watching the kids sing and dance around the yard. I don't usually get to see the older kids dance, sometimes a little bit of swing. I'm guessing this was the kind of dancing they probably do at school and church dances. Ben even did some break dancing!

What fun!!

Ben's Birthday!

Ben turned 17 years old yesterday!

And he didn't get any presents????

Well, I asked him what he wanted and he really couldn't come up with anything worth buying. We would suggest things and he would say, yeah, I guess. Why would I go buy some thing that he's not even sure he wants?

We sang to him practically all day! All the different Primary Birthday Songs, including the regular Happy Birthday one.

On his way out the door to school, I told him Happy Birthday again. As he stood on my side porch to go to school, he asked if he could stay home from school. I said sure, if you don't have anything you can't miss. The look on his face told me that answer was the farthest from his mind. All of a sudden he was thinking, "what classes do I have, what's going on today?" He still had to take Beth to school, so while he did that he figured out that he didn't have to be there, so he came home. When he came back through the door, he was like a little boy Christmas morning. It was kind of fun to watch him. Then the decision of what to do...He was thinking he wanted to go to sleep, but he was already awake. It was kind of funny because all he really did was sit and play with the little girls and watched two Barbie movies with them!

Melanie took him to lunch, he hung out on the computer a little bit checking out wii games, looking for something for his birthday. Then he went to a Private showing at the movie theatre of the Star Wars Clone Wars Animated movie. He wanted to see it and really didn't care about going alone. Boy he was as alone as he could be, he was the only one in the theatre!

He came home and we ate pizza and then he went to our stake YM/YW Volleyball tournament. They played single elimination (winners playing winners) until they had only one winner. Our Ward team won first place! Go Team!!

He came home and had Triple Chocolate Cake, with Triple Chocolate Icing and Ice Cream. I'm not sure how late he stayed up, or what he did, because I was already in bed with a book and fell asleep.

We're still working on what to get him for his birthday. I think Doug has him talked into some indoor/outdoor mini dueling remote control helicopters. They can fly around the house and shoot each other with lasers. Fun, Fun!

Jack-O-Lantern Smiles!!

Kimberly just recently lost another tooth and wanted me to take a picture of her Jack-O-Lantern Smile, So here goes...

Of course Aaron wanted his too!!

Since this one is so short, I thought I would tack onto the bottom this cute picture of Aaron. Every morning when he is finally ready for school, he presents himself to me for inspection...

This is his stance.... Kind of like a model, he puts his hands on his hips, throws out that one shoulder, and puts his foot in front.

I LOVE IT!! You Are So Cute, Aaron!!

Bethanie's Pics

Bethanie sure loves to take pictures of herself!

Here she is just having a blast on my front lawn with her best friend, Lauren and her two little sisters!

Isn't she Cute!!??

Shawn Turned 21!

Sunday was Shawn's 21st Birthday!


It's kind of hard to believe, my baby is 21 years old, but here he is, big as life!!


We haven't been getting along very well, lately, so I wasn't sure if he would come, but he did!!

He came over after church and I made him his requested dinner,

He asked for Chicken Cordon Blue, mashed potatoes, corn and watermelon. Yum! (That request kind of surprised me, I expected him to say something like Enchilada Casserole.)

Afterwards, he opened presents...pots and pans, and

mac and cheese, tomato soup, and of course Ramen! (I thought I was brilliant to think of the food. When money is tight, you start to appreciate things like free food! I was laying in my bed wondering if I had done enough for his birthday. Wishing I could think of something else to get him that would help him. Then the inspiration hit me...Why not give him some of his favorite food!? So I did, I think it was a hit!)

I also got him some bus tokens, a Brave's card (some good deals- buy one, get one free, etc.- on restaurants here in Bountiful, that can be used over and over for a year), books, & candy.


Ben was funny because he was looking over his "booty" and Ben wasn't so sure he wanted to "grow up" because Shawn didn't get anything "fun"!

I made him his favorite cake, Carrot Cake, but also made brownies for those that don't like carrot cake. It turned out most people took a little bit of both! We had 4 kinds of ice cream, too. So it turned out to be huge plates of cake and ice cream. I should save that for another post!

All in all, it was a good day. It was good to see him on his special day!!

"A Daily Scoop"

I have been spending an incredible amount of time at this blog reading all about this woman's experience losing her daughter! I know that sounds morbid or something, but she is truly amazing! Her insights, her grief, her testimony. It is even more incredible to read the comments people from all over the world have left and how they have been touched by her amazing way with words and testimony. I put her link on my favorite blog lists. She truly has helped me to see things differently and to appreciate my role as a mother and a daughter of God.

I encourage you to go and see for yourself, but beware it's easy to get sucked in and spend hours reading through the posts and comments, but it's definitately worth it!

"Daddy, Do You Have Time?"

Tiffany can be so cute sometimes...

A few weeks ago Doug and I decided we wanted a ceiling fan in our room. We went to Lowes and found one we liked. While we were there they had a cute little pink one on clearance. I decided I wanted to put one in the girls room as well eventually, so we might as well get this one since it was on clearance. Well, from the moment Tiffany saw it, she fell in love and wanted it in her room.

Dad got ours up and it works great, we love it. Then only a couple of days later the weather turned cooler and we didn't even use it for a couple more days. Tiffany kept asking her Dad if he was going to put hers in her room. He kept telling her, when he had time, he would. One day she asked again, will you put the fan in my room. He said sure, picked up the whole box and started to walk into her room. Boy, she saw right through that one, right away, before he even got down the hall. She told him no, not just in my room, on the ceiling. He was going to just put the box in her room, as requested.

She wouldn't say anything for a few days, then out of the blue, she would ask, Daddy, do you have time? No, not right now. Then a couple of weeks ago, Daddy pulls into the drive way from work. Tiffany comes out onto the porch as he is getting out of the car, Daddy, do you have time? He smiled at her and said I think I'll have time tomorrow! And sure enough that Saturday he put her fan in her room! She loves it!

Thank you, Daddy!!