Improved upon heirloom

Corinne crossstitched this "Cats" project when she was probably in her very early teens. I was able to find a second hand frame for it back then and it has been hanging downstairs in the bathroom that Corinne used growing up. Somehow it got knocked off the wall about a year ago and the frame fell apart so it has been laying around downstairs. Well to prove that I do have a heart, rather than snap a photo of it, blog about it and throw it away.......... I took it to Joanns and had it framed in honor of my daughter Corinne who still to this day does beautiful crossstitching projects. This will go with us to our new home. The colors will fit right in. Thank you Corinne!

homemade cookies - the devil

This is not a picture of the actual cookies I made on Sunday, but I like to include pictures when I post something.

I baked 5 dozen homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on Sunday afternoon. The eating style of Fred and I differ. I graze. Take one or two cookies (actually probably four at a time) and then go back later and have about the same. Maybe three times each day. Fred sits down with the ziploc bag of cookies and eats them like crackers.

There are three cookies left and I'm letting Fred eat them tomorrow. If he doesn't eat them tonight after I've gone to bed.

See previous post first

More pictures....I don't always load pictures in the right order, but you get the gest of my posts.

This picture is of the entrance. Again, my "thinking spot" window most center front, little jack and jill bathroom windows on the right of that and then the little peekaboo windows above the entrance and on the left of that are the little windows in my laundry room. The long window at the entrance is one of two windows we have along each side of the front door. Blue Skies.....YES!

progress of our new homestead

This is our actual house under construction. The windows are in. The nice landscape in the forefront is our neighbors front yard. This angle of the house shows the very front alcove window of the room that will be my "thinking spot", then the little high windows of the jack and jill bathroom, next are the two windows of the third bedroom, and then the dining room window.

the simple joys of food

I have been putting more effort into meal preparation and care. Sundays have become my most focused meal of the week. A good Sunday meal requires a purposeful dessert. I choose to make an angel food cake served with strawberries and whip cream. Fred loves angel food cake. So I baked it last night. Fred had a piece last night before bed.

See......... He made me proud.

vacuum buddy

On Friday there was no school, no work for me. I got up and sat around not feeling too motivated. I watched several episodes of Friends and finally made myself get up to do something. I picked vacuuming. I vacuumed the kitchen and then went to change out the hose to attach the beater bar....no go. No electricity to the unit. That was the end of that. Fred looked at it and determined it was electrical. We found ourselves at Costco Saturday night. There was a Dyson rep there and we bought a new vacuum on the spot. Certainly not the way we typically roll, but it seems we aren't rolling the same way lately... So this is my new vacuum buddy. There was an alarming amount of dust and fuzz after vacuuming last night. Eewww....

My Dad

Here is my Dad. He is 87 years old. He has his own home repair business. The last several months he has had very little work. We did some brainstorming and decided it was time for him to do some actual advertising. All his work has been word of mouth. He was able to barter to get this sign work done on his truck. Isn't it Awesome! He is also putting up his own website. I hope I have some of his longevity, energy and work ethic. I need to start working on it now, if I want to catch up to him.

Need home repair? Give this guy a call!

A New Bundle of Baby Boy

Here's my Shannon. Baby is due August 4, 2012

feng shui/memory lane

I've been puttering around the house this afternoon and found this book I bought several months ago. I started leafing through it. I was reminded why I bought it. It is very insightful to what clutter can do to our home. Of course, I'm reading it in Fred's behalf. I declutter all my stuff constantly, but Fred is the master of cluttered feng shui, but he doesn't even know it.

So anyway on with my story....as I'm headed out the front door I see this little wall decoration that I made in homemaking when Corinne was probably two years old. I asked Fred what it was doing on the stairs. He said I needed to fix it. The lace on her skirt has been dangling for years. I thought to myself that I had been thinking of fixing it for years, but never bothered.

This is Corinne's first writing of her name in history. See the C O R I N N E Naughty Corinne for ruining Mommy's homemaking masterpiece!

I felt I was obligated to fix it and continue to save this little part of our history forever....even to hang it in the new house. BUT the thought came to me TAKE A PICTURE and blog it.

So here you have it. Now I can throw it away and be at peace with that decision. Sorry Corinne.

I believe in decluttering. I read in this book today that holding on to past clutter and things prevents us from moving forward with our lives. I'm totally into moving forward!

personal revelation or the feel good moment

This morning as I was driving to work and having my morning prayer in the car, I came upon a thought process that was quite revealing and comforting. Too often I hear many of us (me included) saying something to the affect that people are trying to portray how ideal their life is and hiding their miseries or challenges. That we don't want people to see our weaknesses or problems...well there may be some truth to that, but this morning part of my prayer was gratitude for people (whose blogs I follow) who post fun and happy moments of their daily life. As I read some posts sometimes I catch myself thinking "yeah so you are sharing this perfect picture, but I know your life isn't perfect".....Quite honestly how wonderful is it that as we are drudging through our day we recognize our moments of joy and fun and then want to share it with others who care. That is how we get through our day to day moments. I don't know if any of us experience a perfect day, but everyday I know there are glimpses of joy, gratitude and hope.

Thank you friends for caring enough to share your joys and not shying away from sharing to avoid making others feel bad that their life is not as perfect or fearing someone might think you are trying to prove that you are. We are all the same.

Beautiful Snow

This morning it looked like paradise outside. It was such a surprise to see the dusting of snow. Utah won't have this kind of beauty, but I have come to love the mountains and terrain of our new homestead.

Oklahoma

Saturday Fred and I went to Seattle to see the musical Oklahoma at the 5th Avenue Theatre. I told Fred we could count this day as our 33rd wedding anniversary celebration. Considering I wanted to eat at Bajios by South Center (because I love that place), I'm not really going to let this count for our anniversary. It's not fancy enough to count, but I do love their pineapple shrimp salad. I got a coupon in the mail yesterday for $20 off Monday thru Thursday on two dinners at Anthonys. Maybe we'll go there. I just love spending the day with Fred. We don't have to do anything exciting, just not stay home. That is never much fun. Too many distractions.

Progress in the kitchen

So I have become more involved in trying new recipes and putting forth more effort in the kitchen as far as food preparation goes. Someone asked why am I making this change....well it's because I have stifled myself all these years thinking "is this diet friendly? Oh there are too many fattening ingredients" etc.... Which believe it or not did serve me well until the last 8 or so years. Well I'm tired of that whole business and have adopted a new eating philosophy. I eat what I want, but not as much. Take smaller servings or share an entree with Fred when we go out. So on with my story.

This is two granny smith apples sliced with sweet onion cooking in butter. Which I proceeded to add to a sharp cheddar cheese sauce that I made, pasta & sweet chicken sausage.

This is the finished product. It calls for broiling the last 3 minutes to brown the panko crumbs, but has anyone ever broiled in one of their pyrex dishes? I don't think it's safe is it? It was a very tasty dish. Fred took two servings. I had one because I knew there were going to be chocolate chip cookies to follow!

Negative people

I am going to have to work on this behavior today. I have awaken in a depressed, frustrated, do nothing state today....thanks in part to the experience I share below.

This is a venting post. Here we go. I have been very excited about our plans for change. Building a new house, retiring for Fred and then moving to sunshine. I have felt no reservation or fear about these changes. I have felt confident and have been praying that Heavenly Father will prepare a buyer for our house. So last night I went visiting teaching to someone who I know does not have the capability of filtering her comments, but the result of the evening puts a huge damper on my dwindling joy. Comments like "I am excited for you, but I don't think I have the courage to do what you are doing with the economy and housing market. Are you going to be able to sell your home? What about social security? Oh you don't know what your financial situation is? I have to know....tsk tsk" shake the head. In my defense, I know enough about our financial situation that I feel very secure and so I've just been on the ride. I know that is not the smartest and most responsible on my part, but I know Fred is on top of it and we have enough or we wouldn't be doing this. FYI if you don't already know this.....Fred thinks, analyzes, studies, worries about everything. So if he thinks we can do this, I'm not worried.

What happened to "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". Does it help a friend if you question their already made decisions? To cast doubt and worry on a situation that is already in motion? I don't need anyone's negative vibes about what we are doing. It's a dream for us and we have something to look forward to. Just be happy and supportive.

I miss the days of visiting teaching when I had the whole day to schedule appointments and had partners that were available to come along and people to visit that actually let you come and wanted you to come. Yes notes, emails and phone calls make it so much easier, but if people won't even allow you a 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour a month to sit down together and visit, why bother? Although, as you can see that lovely experience totally backfired on me last night.

I AM SORRY IF I HAVE EVER LET MY INSENSITIVE AND BIG MOUTH SAY SOMETHING THAT HURT YOU. I never mean to do that. I really do try to temper my comments and be a source of validation or uplift.