Mystery...

First, I had a gnat (aka fruit fly) invasion 3 weeks ago. Finally, after many bottles of apple cider vinegar and lemon juice that problem is gone.

Today....

I used my downstairs bathroom, only to count at least a dozen full size flies buzzing around. In ONE bathroom. I didn't notice a fly problem in the rest of the house, but they are apparantly multiplying and replenishing in the downstairs bathroom.

I'm completely baffled.... any ideas?

Any suggestions on how to get rid of them all quickly and efficiently?

I'm thinking "bug bomb"..... Home Depot here I come!

April, part 2

Part two of our April adventures:

Elise and I snuck away for lunch and a pedicure...The night before the big "run" the adults went to Joe's for some great BBQ... kinda like a "protien load"....

On Saturday morning, the big boys ran in the Pat Tillman Run - Taylor beat both of the men and was rubbing it in all day!

We all went to watch Eric's Ian's car in the pinewood derby. The car qualified to come back in the afternoon for the Stake Competition, in which we didn't do so well...

We played at the park, we had dinner with Don and Tiffany (and family) and we stayed up late talking and watching the Office. Eric and Alan went to the Phoenix International Raceway (affectionately known as Redneck Alley) to watch Eric's first ever Nascar race.

On Monday, when our guests went home, we ran errands and then took naps on the couch! We can't wait for family to come again!

The End.

Where Did April Go?

The month flew by faster than I could download pics to my computer....

We did enjoy a trip to the drive in to see Monsters vs. Aliens with friends....
Megan had her final piano recital - a movie themed night where all the students played songs from well known movies. Megan played two pieces from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Taylor gave us a special treat and played Raider's March on his trumpet. Megan's teacher, Robin, played two songs I love - one from Pride & Prejudice (Kiera Knightly) and one Twilight (Bella's Lullaby.)We also drained our pool and filled it back up again with clean, fresh water. What an ordeal this turned into...Eric took the scouts on a campout and they got snowed on! Everyone came back in one piece with no hypothermia or frostbite, thankfully!Easter Sunday - this is basically the ONLY picture I have... the easter bunny left candy eggs inside the house and it was so messy, I was embarrased to take pictures. The kids did look great, though.Later that week, Elise, Alan, Kate and Matt came to visit.... we took them here.

Taylor endures the ribbing from the aunts and uncles very well. (He might even secretly like the attention....)

The prarie dogs are back! We got great animal viewing this trip... prarie dogs, javalinas, lots of snakes, scorpions, hummingbirds, river otters, and beavers. We did miss out on the coyotes and butterflies, though.

Stay tuned for part 2 of April's activities... tomorrow is stake conference, so I should have time to blog and take a nap! Can't wait!

Oh, the Things you can Freeze...

A few weeks ago, I bought one of those jumbo tubs of Red Vines for a girls night movie date at my house. I'm not sure what came over me, but that night after I'd consummed way too much licorice, I sat in my kitchen trying to decide what to do with the rest of the tub.

These were the options as I saw them:

1. Eat it all as fast as possible before it hardens, even if I gain 10 pounds in the process. Hard licorice is of the devil, IMHO.

OR

2. Avoid making myself sick on licorice and let it get stale, hard and then throw $5 of licorice away within 3 days.

Neither of these options was very good....

Then I wondered... does this stuff freeze? I've been experimenting with freezing different foods lately, and this was definately worthy of a freezer experiment.

So I bagged up the remaining licorice into 4 different quart size bags, sucked as much air out of them as possible (using a straw), and popped them into the freezer. Yesterday I rented movies from Redbox and had a licorice craving. Time to see if my experiment worked. I grabbed out one of the four bags of licorice and put it out on the counter to thaw. Guess what....

It tasted just as fresh as it did the day I bought it!!!! Success!!!

In a tribute to my freezer, here is a list of varying foods that I've successfully frozen... you'd be suprised what can be frozen and still taste great.

1. licorice (and all manner of halloween/easter candy)

2. cheese (all types, sliced, block and shredded)

3. milk (this is not something I like to do because thawing out is a pain.)

4. fresh tortellini (uncooked)

5. Cooked spaghetti

6. butter, margarine (cubes and tubs)

7. cinnamon rolls

8. deli meat or pepperoni (bought in 5 lb. bags at Sam's Club)

9. tortillas (discovered this one by accident....)

10. sauces (put them in ziploc bags, lay them flat and freeze!)

11. soups (put leftover soup in ziploc bag, lay flat... you get the idea....)

12. and Taylor's personal favorite - frozen cookie dough balls (ready to bake)

And here's one tip I have to share for the freezer... I've been doing this for a while and it works great. When you buy ground beef, chicken tenders or whatever in bulk and you separate them into zip loc bags for the freezer, squish all the meat to lay as flat as possible in the bag. Then get out as much air as possible when you zip them shut. Ideally, when you put them in the freezer, they should be flat and can be stacked several bags high. This cuts wasted space in your freezer and also it cuts freezer burn inside the bag.

As you can imagine, we go through a lot of quart freezer bags around here. What great and unique things have you kept in the freezer??? Inquiring Minds Want to KNOW!

The Glass is Half Full

I was planning to post about our guests visit over the last few days, but I can't remember where I stashed my camera... it's not in the usual hot spots, so blogging about that will have to wait until it magically appears...

If your kids are going to get sick in the night, this is the best case senario... (given that they aren't old enough to make it to the toilet yet and spare the sheets.... because that is the best case senario for middle of the night puking....)

You might be a little suprised if you woke up in the morning and found a sleeping toddler in your bed that had dried "crusties" all over his shirt... the pj shirt that had been put straight from the dryer onto his body the night before right before bed...

You'd be even more suprised when 20 minutes later your 8 year old tells you there is vomit in their bathroom sink....

... and then some more on the carpet leading from said toddler's bed to the bathroom sink....

...upon further investigation, you would discover a pile of vomit in said bed...

... and then realized that said toddler, (all in the middle of the night), vomited in his bed, ran to the bathroom, leaving a trail of vomit behind him and then finished the job in the bathroom sink. Not as good as the toilet, but hey, it's better than running to my bed to finish the job, right?

... and then, decided that mommy's bed was the best place to be, so he climed into our bed somewhere around 3-4 a.m. and fell asleep with his feet near my face and his face near my feet.

...when I woke up, suprised that said toddler was still sleeping (late for him) and trying to figure out what was the dried crusty stuff all over his shirt and also floating around in my sheets.... this was all happening when Ian made the "discovery"....

So, yes, my toddler barfed in his bed in the middle of the night, but hey, I still got a full night's sleep out of the deal. And, I got to cancel any appointments and errands today and just stay home and hang out with my guy in our pj's.... (he did take a bath first)... who hasn't had to puke again, so that's a great way to spend a sick day, right?

And, on a completely unrelated topic, if you ever thought that the Wii isn't a valid form of exercise, you have never done the Boxing Training for 20 minutes. I did it yesterday and every muscle in my torso area hurts today. So props to Nintendo for making a video game that gives out sore muscles!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

This week has been chock full of things like draining our pool and refilling it for this swim season. Oh, and pulling out a winter-ful of weeds... We've also been working on Ian's car for the Pinewood Derby on Saturday. And most importantly... we've been preparing for the arrival of these two cuties!!!

If I ever doubted that they would arrive safely (which I don't...), I would have no worries now. All my kids, including Brayden have been praying earnestly for a week to guarantee Kate and Matt's safe arrival. I'm just hoping this blasted wind dies down before they arrive tonight!

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

Whether or not you share my faith, I hope you will take a couple mintues to watch this powerful video. It's a wonderful testament of the core of our beliefs: the birth, life, atonement, death and ressurection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Happy Easter Everyone!

Movie Trivia Quiz - LDS Edition

Every year for Easter, I buy a DVD for my kids easter baskets. I try to make sure the movies have some tie to religion... whether it's an LDS comedy, a video produced by our Church, or another faith based organization. Disney movies don't qualify for this list. Over the last few years, we've really built up a good collection.

Some we've only watched once or twice, but others get watched time and time again. Here are some of my favorite quotes from movies we watch on Sunday... no prize today, just the satisfaction of a job well done... share your guesses in the comment box and enjoy!!!

1. "You're not just an RM, you're an LDS RM, who's trained at the MTC who became a DL a ZL, and an AP, who was promised long ago by his bishop through a PPI after BYC that someday he'd be the EQP. I smell GA! "

2. "As much as I love being insulted by you, I think you'll be happier at a table for one. "

3. "About the girl. If you truly value this girl you must wisely show it. Caring for her with stolen goods would not demonstrate true worth. No, love is a most costly commodity. The more you are willing to pay, the more valuable the prize. The question is, are you willing to pay the price ?"

4. "Any process you are going through will get tougher before it gets easier. That's what make learning a gift. Even though pain is your teacher. "

5. "Leave the gun. Take the granola."

6. "We'll practice our religion in it's pure form for now. When the Saints come around, we'll be there."

7. "But it's not "Book of Mormons", it's "Books of Mormon"! Okay?"

8. "If you think we are finishing the month on a note like that, you are sorely mistaken!"

9. "There is a connection between heaven and earth. Finding that connection gives meaning to everything, including death. Losing that connection makes everything lose meaning, including life."

10. "Why do the gods torment me with such reckless, inconsiderate, blasphemous sons?"

The Decade we are Embarrassed of...

Last week when I went to the library with Brayden to check out our weekly selection of Thomas videos, I scanned the video rack as I always do looking for something fun the whole family can enjoy. This trip I stumbled across an old favorite from my childhood (not Eric's)....

Big Trouble in Little China!

Did you ever see this movie? Did you like it? I remember liking it... enough that I thought my kids would enjoy it.

So, we're on the couch and I'm remembering a scene that might scare the younger kids... so I tell Ian to close his eyes and as he's peeking through his fingers, he says to me,

"Mom, this is soooo 80's...." (with that exasperated tone in his voice...)

And so for the rest of the movie, whenever a fake monster would jump out, we'd all say, "it's so 80's, huh, Ian?!?" and laugh and laugh and laugh at how bad the special effects were. And they were BAD!!!!

But it was entertaining to watch and I wondered how we grew up in the 80's... it seemed cool then, but I look back on most of the 80's and wonder...

How did we ever survive before CGI?

Rut

Do you ever have blogging ruts? I'm in one right now. Sometimes I have 2-3 great post ideas every day... not that I share them all with you, but the ideas are always there.

Right now, I got nothin'... but I'm not mad about it or anything. I've been spending plenty of time getting my house cleaned and catching up on church duties this week, which has been really productive, but not really blogworthy news, know what I mean? I've run countless errands that have been put off and put off, and then put off some more... and I even used my 30% off coupon for Kohl's yesterday and bought two new church outfits for myself... something I haven't done it a LONG time.

I found out that our pool needs to be drained... like NOW. And then refilled, resalted and rechemicaled (is that a word?). So, I'll need to budget in a time next week to rent the $35 pump and drain my pool. Maybe I should take bets on how much it costs to put about 10,000 gallons of water into my pool. Next's months water bill will be exciting, to say the least! I'm a bit nervous to find out how much all the salt and chemicals are going to cost when it's all said and done... but we are already a year overdue on this chore, so it must be done.

Tonight we are headed to the drive-in to see Monsters vs. Aliens. Looks totally dumb to me, but the kids are excited and I love the drive-in. When we go with 3-4 other families, it's a totally social experience and it's such cheap entertainment. $20 for my whole family and we can legally smuggle in as many snacks and drinks as we want. I guess it's not smuggling if they encourage it though? It is windy outside today, so I'm expecting it to be a cold and windy night. We'll bring lots of extra blankets! Maybe I'll even try to bring some hot chocolate.... I might even get the World's Greatest Mom for that move... my kids LOVE hot chocolate and I never make it for them.

I am very excited for General Conference this weekend. I plan to dedicate myself to scrapbooking our Maui vacation during conference. I find that if I have something mindless to do, I can really listen well and concentrate. I started scrapbooking Maui just after christmas and have hit a wall. I just never seem to be able to budget in enough time to work on it. I'm planning to make some real headway tomorrow. Speaking of conference, I LOVE this... click here to read it again and be prepared to laugh your you-know-what off!

Cell Phone Drama

Do you ever feel like there's too much drama in life? This last week has been drama filled and I'm soooo DONE with it. I can't really post about any of it, but let me just share one tidbit I've discovered in the last week....

Texting is of the DEVIL!

Teens will text things to each other that they would NEVER say to each other in person. They will text each other horrible, mean and catty things because they don't have to see the other person's face when the message comes through. Teens will text things that are suggestive and inappropriate because they aren't really "with" that person and it all seems so harmless and silly. I've been appalled at some of the texting activity I've been privy to this week. Are we raising a whole generation of kids who won't know how to communicate with each other when they are in their 20's? They also won't know how to spell or type correctly either... another pet peeve I have with texting.

How do we get this under control before we have a whole generation of adults who are absolutely socially inept and clueless? Your thoughts????