Tonight for dinner I wanted to try something new. And I am also still dragging from the heat induced force-myself-to-eat thing that happens from July to September. Many a day passes and I realize that the yogurt I had for breakfast is the only thing that I have eaten.

Back to the real story at hand...

I hit pintrest, hoping that one of the hundreds of recipes that I had pinned would catch my eye and I would actually have the desire to  (a) cook and further heat my house and (b) eat. 
I found this  recipe for a Mexican casserole: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-chicken-casserole-10000000223124/

The picture looks awesome...but I read through the ingedients and it sounded more blah than it looked. There were a few things in the recipe that I liked the idea of and as I sat and looked at the picture that I wanted to eat in deep culinary thought, I realized what it was that made me what to eat it. So I  left my computer screen and started to kitchen-sink what I wanted for dinner. (BTW, yes I meant to use kitchen-sink as a verb. Have you ever heard of kitchen sink cooking? Its where people throw all kinds of stuff into a recipe that isn't called for. It's supposed to be slang for "they threw everything in but the kitchen sink..." Now do you get my joke?! Good. Moving on.)

My first thought was to start cooking some quinoa, but when I glanced at the time and saw that the spouse was going to be landing at the Payne house, hungry and wanting instant food in 20 minutes, I decided on the left over rice that was in the fridge instead, next time I will do quinoa.  So I moved on to starting some  (about 1 pound) boneless-skinless chicken breast cooking in chicken broth and a can of green chiles.  Then I grabbed a jar of the enchilada sauce that I canned a few weeks ago and stirred about 1/2 the jar into the 2 cups of rice that I had. I heated it in a pan to get the flavor in it a little better. Put that into a greased 9x9 oven safe dish and then topped it with a few handfuls of crushed tortilla chips.  Once the chicken was done I shredded it and added to the chicken as many of the green chiles that it cooked in as I could get out of the broth  plus about 1/4 cup of the broth. Threw that into the pan that I heated the rice in and melted 1/2 a brick of cream cheese with it. Then put that over the rice/chips that were in the casserole dish.  Topped that with more crushed tortilla chips, grated cheese and chopped tomatoes. It went into my oven for about 20 minutes st 350*

I was at this point a little nervous for my kitchen-sink Mexican casserole. 

 Maybe because I am still trying to recover from the horrible chocolate cupcakes that I made yesterday- recipe found on pintrest- that had to be turned into cakeballs to not call the whole thing a bust.

The spouse got home and the kids started grazing, so it was go time- I had to serve it, good or not. Anderson- the pickiest of any eater alive, looked at it and said "No Way! I said I wanted noodles with butter and cheese, not this...this...whatever it is. I'm not eating it." It's his typical response to anything that is not noodles with butter and cheese on them. But I am that mom that makes my kids eat things that I cook and then they have to wait for a bedtime before they can eat anything else, and that's just a small snack, so they learn to eat what is given to them.
Forks picked at the food and then went into mouths and the score board read 10's all the way around. EVERYONE loved it.
I had to snap a quick picture before it was devoured in round 2.

What am I saying here? Unpin the Mexican casserole that is on your pinboard and
repin this one.

You can thank me later.
WIth  chocolate. :)

I've been a bit of a slacker about sharing recipes and so to make up for it I have decided that I will now share 3 that I have just made and LOVED with you all.

You want to hear about them, right?

I know you would rather taste them, and you are always welcome to stop on over and grab some if you see that I have posted that I just made {whatever} and it is divivne, hop in your car/truck/scooter or just run over. Treats are always better when shared with friends. And I'm the type of person who loves to make a treat, I will eat 1 or 2 servings and then I usually get the craving for a different something and make a new thing. Needless to say I ALWAYS have treats laying around at my house.
Where was I....Oh, Yeah! Recipes!!

Recipe #1
Fresh Lemonade (really its citrus-ade because its not just lemons)

8 (total) lemons, limes or oranges- any combination
1 1/2 cups  sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water

This is the key to good lemonade,I did  a lot of research on this to find the secret to good lemonade last night between the hours of 8:50 and 8:52. Google is fast:
Make a sugar syrup. To do so you heat the sugar and water to a boil, then cool it. This very evenly distributes the sugar flavor instead of letting it sink to the bottom. So do that first thing in the morning and stick it in your fridge to let it cool. About the time that you are wanting to serve the lemonade, squeeze the citrus fruits of your choice. Reserve some of the pulp if you like that kind of lemonade, if not remove it with the seeds. Pour into a large pitcher, add  the chilled sugar syrup and then add enough water to the mixture to make 2 quarts. Feel like getting wild?!? Add some raspberries or stawberries or mango! If you smash the added wildness in the bottom of your glass before pouring in the lemonade, it will mix very nicely together.
ENJOY!!

Recipe #B  I totally did that on purpose to annoy my sister who (I hope) reads this.

Angel food bread pudding.

-Let me explain: I am a sucker for the reduced for quick sale rack at the bakery, except the donuts- NEVER buy day old donuts. So the other day there was angel food cake for 99 cents, we had just gotten some awesome peaches from my sister in law, so for dessert one night we had just that. With whipped cream on top. It rocked. But then I made jam with the rest of the peaches and I had 3/4 of a cake left over. So I Googled angel food cake bread pudding and came up with some whack jobs ginger/lemon/raisen/pecan angel food bread pudding. Did not sound good at all. Except the lemon part- that was intriging. So I looked at the basics of his recipe and got my gear going. This is what I came up with:

Cubed, day old angel food cake (about 4 cups total)
1 cup of milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Zest of one whole lemon

(OOOOH! Add poppy seeds! I didn't  but it would be awesome!)

Pour cubed cake into a greased square pan, in another bowl mix together the other ingredients and pour over cake, making sure to get all the cake wet. I had to smoosh some pieces down to get enough egg mixture on them so that they wouldn't  get toasty burned. Cook for 20-30 minutes at 350* until the center no longer looks runny.

I think making a creme anglaise sauce (another day- its very complicated cooking that would take a long time to explain)  and pouring it on top, sprinking a few dried cranberries on there could possibly win me....what cooking awards are out there?! Look it up and tell me so I can start prepping my acceptance speech. But yeah, its really, really good. Come share it with me before its gone. :)


Okay, recipe # Last  (again, annoying the sister. hehehe)

Get ready people...this one is monumental:

But first,  theres a story.

Hey! Don't skip my story and scroll down to get the recipe. To get my goods, you hear my ramble. Its the rule. That I just made up.

So my kids go through phases of loving bananas and hating bananas. The phase goes something like they love them in the store and ask for them whenever we are there and then hate them when they are home and refuse to eat them. So I am always finding myself with browning bananas on my counters. I sneak them into muffins and make this really good creamy banana bread that has a caramel crunch topping on it, I've tried covering them with chocolate and freezing them- all but 2 are still in my freezer waiting to be eaten...and I ate the 2.  
I was in the mood for something new, so I googled again and saw a recipe for double chocolate banana bread. It won.  But, you know me, I could not leave well enough alone: I changed it- for the better of course. This is the result:


Chocolate peanut butter banana bread (imagine a chocolate peanut butter frozen banana...in bread version)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 1/4 c mashed banana (lets be honest, no one measures the smashed banana- use the 2 or 3 that are on your counter and call it good)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup peanut butter baking chips (you know, like chocolate chips, but peanut buter)

Mix the sugar, eggs, oil  and banana until well mixed and add the other ingredients, fold the peanut butter chips into the mixed batter and pour it into a large greased loaf pan. Bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes. 
Let it cool a little bit and then pop it out of the loaf pan and enjoy.
Here's my little tip of the day too: If you use a plastic knife to cut it, it doesn't gum it all up and make a mess. It works for brownies and cake too.
Your welcome! :)
Now that you ahve my weeks creations you can go and do as I did- ignore your mommy chores and bake away, then eat and drink to your hearts delight. As you sit in what is likely to be a very messy kitchen. And house. Cause you ignored your chores.

Yeah, it happened something like that for me.

But it was worth it.

Yesterday in primary we talked of the importance of having good friends and being a good friend to your friends. We watched a very touching message from President Hinkley about a lesson that he learned as a boy. The three times that I watched it while preparing shaing time, I cried, and both times that we watched it at primary today I cried. Maybe its because I really miss President Hinkley, the kind demeanor and soft, gentle, soothing voice that he had. I dearly love that man. Don't get me wrong, I love President Monson just as much; but there is something about the prophet that was presiding while you grew your own testimony that is special to every individual. 
You can watch the video, and I bet you will cry too. If not, something is wrong with you. You should get it checked out.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naqX9iYE0V0  (that's the link) After watching the video the spirit was very overwhelming and the kids and I were so into talking more about friends. I love when that happens. :)
So I was trying to teach the adorable primary kids about good qualities that a friend should have and that they should be to their own friends. We spelled out the word friend with those qualities.   Forgiving, respects your standards, inspires you to be Christ like, Example for you to follow, nice and kind to everyone, and dependable. We were pulling silver dollars with these key elements out of a work boot for our activity. They dug it.
I came home from my little spiritual high and just had to text my BFF and tell her how much I cherished her. We had a very giggley and touching text conversation and it made my little spiritual high all that much better. And then I began thinking of all these fantastic people that I am surrounded by who are such great examples of all those things that a friend should be. So without naming names (which really if you want the credit I will tag you, or whatever) I really wanted  to tell those people that I really love having them in my life and that you do it for me.  You are the hope at the end of the tunnel and on days when I want to sit in bed and watch Grey's all day and fall apart and not get back up- you are who keeps me going. And even if you are not mentioned specifically, the list is just so long that its hard to remember everyone. But you are there too, promise.

Everyone has that best friend who knows everything about them. Knows so much that you would be in serious trouble if they ever crossed  you. That friend that you never argue with, that you can finish each others sentences, that  you don't even have to ask where you want to go eat just what time. That friend that you gitty when you see that they are calling or texting just because its a releif in the day to day to hear their voice. That friend who knows when you have reached your limit and just steps in to help. That friend who rearranges birthday parties so that your kids can come and who will take off work and rearrange schedules when you are most in need. The only person that you want to talk to when you are in your darkest hour. The person that will show up and help hold your daughter down while she is screaming for her life while getting her teeth fixed. Some how, we have tricked our children into being the best of friends so its fun all around whenever we all get together. I have the best of the best of the best of that friend. There is not a day that goes by, a joke that is not told, a touching moment that passes that I do not think of this friend. She is my rock. She is the one that will help me burry the body and be my aliby if that need ever comes. She and I are like peas and carrots.  You are the whip to my cream. The peanut butter to my jelly. The ice cream to my cone. I simply cannot go through a single day without you.

Without this person's influence and understanding and example for me to follow, I would not be the person that I am today. She welcomed me into her home and trusted me with her 4 beautiful children every day, she and her family coaxed my  shrinking violet of a testimony into the unwavering faith that I have today. She showed me the patient and loving way to raise my children. She took me under her wing and kept many, many secrets for as long as I needed her to. She shared recipes, advise and a place to sit and relax, helped us get into our home and is always looking out for my best interest. Her now grown children are one of very few trusted babysitters for my little ones and they have grown to be remarkable people who I admire so much that I chose to name my baby girl after. I will never forget the day that I was sitting in the foyer at church and over hearing her husband bear his testmony about how much they loved having me in their home and watching their kids. It has impacted my life so greatly and made me want to live up to the person that they saw in me.  You mean more to me and my family and my children than I could ever express and I don't think I will ever ve able to repay all the things that you have done for me. Ever.

I have a fantastic friend who stood and stands by my side and diligently serves with me every Sunday and takes on all this stuff that I really have no idea what it is and whose children I LOVE so much and adore that her chubby little one adores me so much. She brought me a huge divine chocolate cake the day after my dad passed away and it was just the thing that I needed, she is always willing to take on my 3 monsters at the drop of a dime, and loves me even though she knows way too many of my faults. She is such a great example for me to follow.

I have this oher friend that serves with me too, she has a rock of a testimony. Is so incredibly devoted and inspirational to me and so inspiring to watch her work with all the kids in primary. She makes me tear up and get tingly every time that I hear her sing with this voice that the MoTab is regretting not taking. Sh eand my daughter have this little love affair going on that she is just adorable about too. She is this lovely, fantastic, strong person who I am so privelaged to serve with and get to know, she is totally irreplacable and as modest as she is about it, I think she knows. I love co-presidenting primary with you.

This other friend that I have is the one that I owe my marriage to. Her cute little boys really enjoyed when I came to babysit and their mom had this feeling that I needed to meet her brother. He liked the idea so much that he quit his job in Florida and drove out here- homeless and jobless for the chance on a blind date. Good thing that it was a good date...for me. She has been this incredible sister in law who listens to my every gripe about marriage and parenting and shares millions of scrapbook ideas with me. Before our lives became too busy I loved our weekly lunch dates and watching our kids play together. She takes on my kids, even when they scream for hours on end, and lets me vent to her when she is in her busiest times.

My other friend who  has been so understanding and uplifting and empathetic to my every need. She told me once on a very bad day that her mom used to always tell her that never once did the scriptures say "and it came to stay" It always said "and it came to pass" This will get better, this will be over, all I have to do is endure. It has changed my outlook on every trial that has confronted me.

I have a friend who never tells me no when I need a last minute helper in primary or in life, who always has her eye out for people's disposable furniture that I either turn into income or turn into treasures in my house.

I have MULTIPLE friends who's blog entries are the highlight of my day and I try to be just half the writer that they are

 I have friends since childhood who remind me of things that we used to do that make me smile and gitty thinking about all the adventures and camping trips and late nights we shared.

I have friends that pick up my slack and get things done for me when they can see that I am not going to have a chance to do it myself.  When I turn around to ask them to ring the bell for priamry- they have already done it.

Friends that will never call me on my limits and let me bring dinner to everyone and anyone, no matter how bad the reviews were last time. 

Friends that will still be my friend even after I call them to primary to teach nursery or worse- sunbeams.

Friends that call me when there is a sale on scrapbook paper.

Friends that tell me when the donuts are hot at Macey's.

Friends who tell me that Walmart just put all their clearance down to $1 for kids clothes and will even pick out the cream of the crop and pay for them so I don't have to leave my house.

Friends that like my status on Facebook just so I know they care.

My best of friends who I call sisters and Mom that like me even when I claim to only have 2 sisters and 3 half sisiters because I only like them half the time. :)

I have friends.

Friends that are forgiving and respect my standards and inspire me to be Christ like and are examples for me to follow and are nice and kind to everyone and dependable.

I have great friends.

Thanks guys.  Really- T.H.A.N.K.S.

A few days ago i got a call from a friend of mine who said that there was a really nice desk that someone had put on the grassy area of her neighborhood and put a paper on it that said "free." She immediately thought of me because she knows I love refinishing furniture and selling it, and me- always up for a new project- jumped on it.
I made my exhausted husband jump in the truck with me and 5 kids (we were watching my niece and nephew) and we drove over and we  were trash diggers. Or more oppertunists.
We  found this on the grassy patches of Blackhorse:

(To clarify this is a little bit after we picked it up off the grass. I already cut the top off, cut it down 5 inches and reattatched the top in this picture.)

We saw it and and Kevin was a little reluctant to take it. He thought it was a "throw away desk" and thats why it was free. I saw a great find. He though there was no way that I could resell it, and I said maybe we could use it for a desk in our room, because he had been asking me to look around for a cheap one to put up there so  he could work in our room when things got too loud downstairs. THEN he wanted it.
I had to do some quick rearranging of my room and the livingroom, moved the "yellow barn cabinet" upstairs and move the ottoman that I built downstairs- ten year olds can be very helpful with this kind of thing, complainy, but helpful. Then Kevin helped me move the desk up stairs. The spot that I wanted to put it in has a pretty low vaulted ceiling and the desk was 5 inches too tall to fit against the wall. Kevin suggested that we cut the top shelf on an angle so it fit like a built in. I did not like the idea- and really, there are not too many ideas that he pitches about home decor that I do like. I wanted to cut off the top, cut 5 inches from the shelves and reattatch the top. Something told me that if I didn't act quick then Kevin would do me the service of ruining the desk with his idea. So I got started on it pretty quick the next day.
Jig saw, measuring tape and sharpie marker in hand I altered the free desk to fit it where I wanted it. Worked out perfect, fits exactly where I wanted it to. 

But it was still ugly.
So I sat in my bed a stared at it for a good long time and tried to vision it in various different colors of paint that I already had in my stockpile. I was determined to keep this project as free as I could, so I was only going to use things that I had on hand.
Peafowl blue was screaming at me, so I gave in and stared painting.  An hour later 2 coats was on and drying and I again sat in my bed and stared at it trying to vision what else it needed to make it beautiful.
Glazing. And cute little knobs on the single drawer- the ones that I snagged at Hobby Lobby a few months ago when they had them for 50% off.  So I did. And I loved it. And I left it alone for the night. Even got thusbands approal that it was no longer a throw away desk.
The next morning I stared at it while everyone was sleeping and absoutely hated the old, boring office chair that was pushed under it.

See, ugly. I was determined to recover it. So I searched online to see if anyone had tried such a crazy thing and found that a lot of people hate those ugly office chairs as much as I do. I read step by steps and then I recovered mine. It was pretty easy. Unscrew the seat and the back, pop off the plastic backing on the back of the chair, lay the fabric right side down on the floor, place the back on it, cut the fabric about 4 inches bigger, stretch and staple it to the back working in opposite directions, press the plastic back on, and re attatch it to the chair base. same scenario for the seat of the chair. Easy, peasy.
And look how nice it looks!!

I liked it. And then as I sat on my bed and stared at it again, I wanted to tie the fabric from the chair into the desk a little better, and I needed some better storage too. So I turned my left over fabric and the .97 cent storage boxes that I bought for the desk into much cuter storage boxes with  little spray adhesive and hot glue. Then I put them up on the shelve and declared my project done, and done. I also declared the desk that my husband asked for into my new sewing desk. :) He had no faith in the desk, so why should it be his?
 I let him use it when he needs to. For a fee.
Here it is, the throw-away-I'm-keeping-it-forever-desk:

Desk cost: free
Paint cost: Left over from a refinshed chair, so free
Knobs: already had them for a previous cost of $2 each
Fabric to recover shair and boxes: $10.00
Storage boxes:$4.00
TOTAL: $18.00
Pretty cheap for the way it turned out!

But really, thanks to whoever decided that they no longer wanted this desk. I love it.
And, no you cannot have it back.

So for the past, I dunno- feels like a month or so, I have been moving and rearranging and remodeling and decorating and exhuasting myself for the sole purpose of having baby girl out of my room.
For those who have never been to my house, this was the hang up: We have a 3 bedroom house but one bedroom is downstairs and we use it for our office and the other 2 are upstairs- the boys have one and we have the master along with Kenaley- its a pretty big room so it worked for the time that we needed it to, but she is 2.5 and we (mostly me) were really wanting our own space, not to mention the kids had toys in every room of the house and no matter how hard I tried it was just a lost cause to keep it clean.

So one morning while I was doing the weekly scrub down of the house I started day dreaming of what it would be like to actually have our own room and came up with a plan to compress all my craft stuff that was in the office into the closet and move Kevin's desk and office into the livingroom, move the boys downstairs into the office, move Kenaley accross the hall to what was the boys room and then I would, infact, have my own room (well, with Kevin, but I kinda like him so I don't mind sharing with him). I pitched it to Kevin and he said that I could try it, but he had 2 stipulations: I had to start by compressing all my stuff first (smart man considering that I had 2 desks and the entire closet for storage for my many, many  hobbies) and that he could not help because he had 4 projects that he was working on and he could not pull off any of them to help me. 
So I more seriously thought it through, and came up with a plan of attack.
First I ahd to get every project done that I was working on that could not be put on hold for a while because I knew that once I started I would be able to last in a state of chaos for about 4 days MAX.
So day one was getting all other projects, including laundry completely done (I have a habit of washing...few days later folding...putting away when the kids complain that there are no more unders for them- I'm sure I'm not alone in this)  but I was motivated- my end picture was my own room.
Day 2/3: Rip into compressing my stuff. Empty the entire office closet- it's 12 feet long people- recognize. Decide what I wanted, what I needed, what was garbage, what I could sell. The sell pile was huge, the need/want pile was smaller than I thought it would be, and lets just say that the garbage can was emptied 9 times by noon. I got everything out, pulled out all the shelving, moved my work table all the way over to one side of the closet installed a new (passed along) cabinet with a counter top and started the very hard task of fitting everything back into the closet.  I lost one entire desk and all its storage space, plus 3 shelves in the cabinet of the wall unit I built. It was very long, methodical and daunting, but I succeeded! And was left with this:

BTW: My old desk is now for sale. Its a gem, 2 big cabinets with shelves, 2 deep drawers and one shallow drawer. ALL SOLID OAK. And it was designed and built by this guy that I happen to think is the worlds best desk maker...among other things.  $250.

I am still waiting to get a few more organizers that I bought Walmart out of, but you get the point of it, right? And sorry about the mess...its shared space with a 10 year old and 7 year old and they have not yet gotten the point of "it enters the clost space, it belongs to me. And I really enjoy melting legos down to make plastic flower magnets." :)

Day 4: Move Kevin and all his glory (this was really going to say a much more colorful word, but I held my tongue) out of the office and into the livingroom. I just happened to wake up at 5 am this morning and Kevin had not started his work day yet, so he actually helped me move some of this stuff. Logan woke up at 6ish and he was motivated and helpful, but when we were taking Kevin's desk apart he walked right behind it at the wrong moment an i fell onto his foot leaving him injured, heavily medicated and whimpering on the couch for the rest of  the morning. Kevin's huge desk was out, but the mess was ever present and he was off to work. So I cleaned and took down shelving and cabinets that was mounted to the wall, and tried to put his desk mess back the way  he had it.

Day 5: (2 days past the point of liking this project) Move the boys downstairs. This was easier than I thought because at this point 2 little boys were very motivated to be downstairs and have the Xbox in their room. (eeeek!!!)  Couple hours and it was done. VERY messy and unorganized but the bedroom upstairs was empty. 
It also gave me time to paint what was an army green room into a pink girly room. I told the boys whoever finished first- me painting or them cleaning and putting everything away- was the one that got to sleep don there for the first night. They thought I was serious.  Did I mention that 3 coats of the palest pink does not really cover up army green, but running out of paint and not wanting to go buy more when I wasn't really pleased with the way it looked was not in the cards for me, so I called it good enough and ended for the day.

Day 6:  Sunday. A day of rest

Ummmm. You've met me right?? I don't rest. Like, ever. So I sinned. But I went to church first, so we're even, right?

Move Kenaley out. Disassemble crib and store it because Kena had a matching full size bed for her room that we were going to get out- finally.   Move solid wood bed out of the shed in the back of my 200 foot long yard, carry it up my stairs with out killing myself (it tried to), remember where I stored the screws to put her bed together, put the bed together with out killing myself (again,it tried to), and move her mammoth dresser with a hutch and her armoire out of my room. After getting them in her room, I realized that they were too tall to fit into the room's low vaulted ceilings and I had to remove the legs on both of them to get them to fit. It was crowded but it all fit in there. So did her kitchen, table, and toy shelf.

Now there were toys in bedrooms and no where else- oh, happy day.  It was about 10 pm at this point and all 3 kids were still up, my back was in protest and was trying to figure out how to split open my skin, crawl out and find a kinder owner, so I stopped and crashed. Hard.

Day 7: Decorate the girl room. First project that I wanted to do was to cut out silhouettes of the Disney princesses in white paper, mount them to the color that the princess is most known for, frame them in white and hang them on her wall. It ended up to be a much bigger project than I thought it was, so it took all day, but turned out very cute.
SEE!!

BTW, yes my daughter knows who all of them are just by their silhouetes. Iam so proud. :)
Then there was this quilt that I had thought of about 6 months ago, bought the fabric for and let is sit in a pile of projects to do when the time came.

And it came. So on day 8, I sewed all day to complete the top of this old blue jean and pink and yellow quilt.

Then the next day I quilted it and finished the edges.

Then I had this thought that I wanted to extend the bookshelf that was above the window in her room so it cased the window in and wanted to paint it white instead of the walnut finish that was on it.

Then (we are into day 9,10, 11 and 12 by now, but I am sure your bored of that part. So am I.)  I wanted to get a few more things to put on her wall but I really did not want a cartoon look, so I decided that she needed a "mirror, mirrror on the wall" and she needed to be her own princess. And I finally decided on curtains that I liked- made those. And made a little throw pillow for her bed.
 And I also comissioned his guy that I happened to sleep with to cut me out the Disneyland castle in metal, rust it and hang it on her wall. It is the only thing that is yet to be done. Mostly because it is not my project. It would have been done if I knew how to operate a plasma cutting machine. (I am reading the manual. Might get done with it before he gets it done)

But for most part the princess bedroom is done.
SEE!!

Its really hard to see but her wall says: Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Kenaley...

Also, really hard to see but the frame around the mirror says: Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all?

These matched her crib set, but I love the colors, and I didn't want to change them, so I left them alone.

After I got all done with the girl room, I had this sparcely furnished room that was all my own. So I started thinking of things things that I wanted to do in MY room. I decided that I wanted an ottoman- a big one that was more of a chaise lounger instead of an ottoman. It could serve 2 purposes: Something to fill my empty room and a place for sick kids to sleep now that there was no more crib matress to throw on my bathroom floor for them. So I designed and built  this:

It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but its growing on me.
Oh, and it opens for storage too. Kinda handy.

Then I decided that I needed new sconces for my wall, since we had to remove them when the lanterns broke apart and we needed the extra 9 inches that they stuck out to fir Kenaley's dressers. So I learned how to wire lights and did it. They turned out nice, goes with the beachy feel that I am going for. I stold the nightstand from my boys who couldn't fit it in their room anyways and it matched my room way better than theirs.

Did I mention that I designed and built that bed mysef?
Ya, about a year ago. Love it!

The boys room fits snugly downstairs and  they are loving it. Even got their army green wall when I realized that I threw away or lost the brown that it used to be and needed to do some serious touch up, so it got a fresh coat of army green. 
And they are sharing the space nicely with me. Or I am sharing the space nicely with them. Potatoes, potahtoes...

Yes, that is a real army helemt, and (dismantled) grenade and 50 cal. bullet and ammo box on the shelf, and an official army duffle bag hanging from the rod too. I'm a cool mom who gets the real stuff.








I'm not going to show you the now livingroom/office, because frankly- its a mess and I can't get Kevin to clean off the desk top. But I can handle a messy desk top much better than I can toys all over the place and sharing a room with my daughter.

I am really tired of moving, cleaning, painting, decorating, organizing and everything else that went along with it. But so happy with the result.


Sadly, though- I feel like I need a new something to do now.
I'm kinda bored...

Due to the exceptionally hot Utah July weather, we have decided that it is far too hot to further heat our house by cooking in the hottest part of the dayso instead we are have our big meal at lunch time. Its a recent descion and so far it seems to be working well. The kids are eating better in the afternoon than they normally do at dinner time and then around dinner we have a small meal and snacks.
I am liking this a lot.
So on day 1 of this descion, I got up earlier than the kids did, which is pretty common in the summer itme. I went out to water my garden and found that my 5th zuchinni of the season was one that hid behind the plant and grew much larger than I usually like them, so I decided that in the early hours of the day, it was perfectly acceptable to bake a cake. The carrot/apple/zuchinni cake that I have made before that is divine beyond words. Pretty sure I have shared the recipe on facebook- but if I get enough requests I can share it here too.
So my "garden harvest cake" is cooking, and breakfast needs to get going, too- waffles. I never use a mix or buy frozen. Waffles are only ever made from scratch and are the most requested breakfast in our house. I get those going and then remember that Kenaley got out a bag of marshmallows and  ate just a few, but now that the bag is opened they need to be used or they will be junk, so I started a batch of rice crispy treats as well.
The time is creeping towards 8  in the morning and kids should start wandering down all puffy faced and rested. :)
I get the bake fest wrapped up and get going on cleaning my house; something that I find tortorous in the evening but relaxing in the morning (I know, I am really strange.) Round about 11 I stareted cooking our dinner/lunch that day was fried rice, cream cheese wontons and Japanese vegetables. Its always a hit with the munchkins. Needless to say we had plenty to snack on for the afternoon.
The next morning I decided that bananas on my counter had hit their peak ripeness stage and I made them into bread, and the pizza crust that was in my fridge needed to become cheese sticks.
 Here in lied my dilema: I love cheese sticks but I am VERY particular about the dip that I eat them with. It has to be restaurant quality ranch, and I am on my no spend week of the month, so I could not run down to my favorite pizza joint and buy some. I hit pintrest and found a recipe that claimed to be BYU  ranch, but it made like 2 1/2 gallons. I didn't want or need that much of a resipe that I didn't know if it was even good, so I did some quick math in my head, altered it a little and gave it a try.
It made about 5 cups of ranch.
Its almost gone.
 And so is anything and everything that can be dipped or poured on with it.
Its that good.
So I decided that it was worthy of a share.
(Super long story to get the recipe, sorry about that. I haven't had much interaction with adults this week. Or last. I need a friend to visit.  But I have WAY too many projects going on and I really want to finish, so I will just ramble on over here. Make you listen to my long, boring story to get a recipe.)

Fresh Ranch
1 cup Mayonaise
1 cup buttermilk (if you want to have a thinner dressing style and not dip,  then add a little more)
3/4  cup sour cream
splash of lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp parsley flakes
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dill weed.
Mix it all together and allow to sit in the fridge for 2 hours before eating. The longer it sits, the better it is.

It doesn't have a classic ranch taste, its a little bit zippier than ranch, but very, very good.

So stock up on vegetables, breads, salad and whatever else you like ranch on and try some for yourself. We had a new bag of baby carrots, 1.5 cucmbers, a head of brocoli, and a bag of salad that was eaten in 2 days. Plus we had quasadillas for dinner and they were dipped in the ranch too And I am pretty sure that I saw Logan just dipping his finger in and li.  

I hope you enjoy it as much as we have. :)

We are big on the breakfast over here in our part of the woods. Logan's fave is Brekfast bagel sandwiches Bagel-egg-cheese-bacon-bagel. In that order. Anderson is leaning toward pancakes today but the last time I made them he just picked at them. Mine and Kenaley's is waffles- must be my recipe and I only like them with butter and whipped cream, fruit if I have it; Kena prefers them plain, in hand while walking- she just has too much to do to sit still and eat.  Kevin has many favorites- he likes- no loves- everything that I make for breakfast. Love that man.
The other day I had a coupon for Yoplait Yogurt and bought 16 cups. I am on this new kick of couponing, if I am not making money I need to save it. And this particular coupon was for 50 cents off of 8. If I bought it on Tuesday then Walmart doubled the coupon to one dollar off so I got 16 cups of yogurt for $11. Not too shabby. But we were getting kind of tired of it and we needed to dress it up a little. I LOVE yogurt with fresh fruit and granola so I went on  the search for an easy granola recipe that I had all the ingredients for at my house. It was only 8 in the morning and I had not yet showered, so I was not about to leave my house to go anywhere.  I came across one that sounded good enough and with a few tweeks I knew that it was the one for me. After making it, trying it, having all 5 people in my house rave over it and then getting out of the shower an hour later and seeing that it had all been eaten, I decided that it was worthy of sharing.

Easy and quick granola:
1 stick of butter or margarine
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of water
1/4 tsp of salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups of oats
2 cups of rice crispy cereal
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup of dried fruit of your choosing
1/2 cup of nuts or seeds of your choosing

Take the first 5 ingredients and place them into a small pot, boil for 3-4 minutes on medium heat. Add all other ingredients into a large bowl and stir to combine. Pour 1/2 the hot butter mixture over the oat mixture, stir until well combined and then pour in the other half and stir. Make sure that all the oat mixture is coated with the butter mixture. Spread evenly on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375* for 5 minutes, stir and break up any clumps then bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and stir again to break up any clumps then allow to cool for about 20 minute. Store in a air tight container or ziplock bag. 

I made our first batch with cranberries and sunflower seeds . We ate it  with vanilla yogurt, fresh peaches- they were on sale too, and the granola on top. It was divine. Made it again a few days later and did cranberries (it was the only dried fruit I had besides mangoes and that just didn't sound good to me) and pecans. It was just as good but the kids don't like nuts. I have been eating it with fresh blueberries and differnt flavors of yogurt that are still hanging around. 
 
Let me know how yours turns out and if you liked it. :)

Kenaley did this all by herself a few mornings ago. She decided that her babies needed to play outside and look for "bur-flies" with her. It was too adorable not to photograph. 
She has decided that she is the mini-mommy of the house and demands and bosses her 2 brothers all day long. And they listen to her better than they listen to me.
Go figure.

That's all. Just the kids. I told you so.

Since I was a little kid I have wanted to go firefly hunting. It sounded so magical and so exciting to go chasing after these little flying lights in the sky, trap one (momentarily) in a jar and gaze at it flickering. But I have lived here in Utah for the majority of my life and this dry, hot state is not a habitat for fireflies.  I grew up and just resolveed that I would have to travel to a state that was populated with these awesome little bugs and take my own kids to catch them. I added it to my bucket list.
Yesterday, completely out of the blue while I was helping at a youth 10K run a friend of mine told me that there is a field that is covered in them and that I just had to go see it. I am sure that this friend had no idea that this was on my bucket list. I almost didn't believe that it was true. I have never heard of fireflies in Utah. So when I got home I googled it and came up with a news story about the  recent phenomenon. 
I.
Had.
To.
Go.
TONIGHT!!

I managed to keep it a secret from the kids and the spouse only telling them that we were going to do something that I have wanted to do since I was a little kid and it was going to be one of the best nights of their life.  A little over the top? I also may have mentioned that I was so excited to do this top secret thing that I may just cry with excitement. There's the over the top for you. :) We owed our kids a hike to the Grotto for getting some yard work done with us and when we were on our way back down the canyon I told them the exciting thing that we were going to do. Their excitememnt level was melanchally at best, but I had a smile ear to ear.

I was so excited and at about 8:45 we decided to go and find this mysterious field that seemed to be the home for these fireflies. We only had vague directions and had to call the friend that originally told us about it and confirm that we were in the right spot. We sat in our car and watched the sunset and listened to the the boys fight in the backseat.

And starred through our windshield at this field of grass hoping to see a flickering, floating light...

A few other cars started parking right by us, passengers got out and started wandering into the field, so as not to be the last at the party we got out and joined them.

We walked about 30 feet into the filed and the magic happened....
A flicker flew right in front of us!!
2 little boys quickly chased after it and 1 older boy caught it- bare handed!
We stared at the flickering little bug that peacefully stayed on Logan's hand almost as if to say "yeah, I'm awesome...you can stare at me."  after about 30 seconds he took off and flew, flickering into the night.
Now they were excited.
Logan said: "THIS IS EPIC!!!"
It seriously was.
We looked out into the field and the 2 surrounding fileds that had horses and llamas in them and saw this...

All of those tiny little glowing dust specs are fireflies. There were hundreds of them! The fun began!

Okay, so now you are wondering how and where you can go so you can cross this off your bucket list too, right?
WHAT?! Its not on your bucket list?! Well, it should be. Shame on you. It is fantastically magical.

A few guide lines before I give away the secret:
This is someone's PERSONAL property. The farmer is kind enough to open his gates and allow the public to experience the magic. So be respectful and responsible when you go there.
There are lots of people that live near by, so as much as you want to scream with excitement, try to refrian.
These little firelflies are here and no one knows why or how or how long they will be here. It is a true phenomenon. So catch them, capture them on film and release them. The ones that we put in a jar, we released- except on that accidentally had a wing torn off by a very remourseful 6 year old. He is living in a very cozy rehabilitation center on my kitchen counter.
These bugs are very dosile. They will let you hold them and pick them right off of the grass. Be just as gentle to them.
Keep in mind that fireflies are nocturnal. The time that we started seeing them was at about 9:30. Little ones will be up very late at night (mine were not in bead until 11 and I heard them talking about how "epic" it was for another good 30 minutes.) Your ittle ones will be up very late the night that you take them.

So as long as you PROMISE to follow the guidelines I will share the location:

From Main Street in Spanish Fork head South. You will get to Volunteer Drive (where the new gas station/Wendy's and the Wiggy Wash are, and if you turn right then you get to the sports park) the next left that is after that light is where you will turn left, it is immediately after the light so pay attention. The street is called South Lane. You will drive down that street for a little over a mile and on the North side of the road you will see a whitish (it was dark when I was driving, sorry) house and just after that you will see a field with Llama and horses in it. On the South side of the street is an area that you can park (looks like it is a recent addition of road base) The magical field is just East of the horse/Llama field and when I was there, the gate to access it was open, and there is a little access path (large anough to get a tractor through it) to get to walk to the field. If you come to the part in the road where two road join you have gone a tiny bit too far. Back up about 50 yards.  The fireflies like the taller grass more than the cut grass, so look where the horses and Llama are and to the field that is just North of the cut field.

Go have an awesome time!!  You won't regret keeping your little ones up. :)

In honor of this sweet little face not having an accident for going on 48 hours now, including a trip to Walmart where she actually told me she needed to go and ACTUALLY did need to go and actually went on a toilet!! Which she had not done yet because she thinks toilets are scary and she will surely fall in. We are using the dreaded potty chair. Something I swore I would never do, but my petite little girl is all of 26 pounds soaking wet, my strapping lads were 31 and 34 pounds when they potty trained and could handle the toilet; she can not. And frankly, I am doing whatever it takes to be rid of diapers.)

Nuff rambling on.

In honor of Princess relieving me of my stalker duties, I have time to blog a little bit. And I have decided to share a little project that I made over the weekend. In the late night hours when everyone was sleeping and I can breathe, and my creative juices allow them selves a little more than making octopus-hot-dog-lunches.

Saturday night it dawned on me that I had to face 3 hours of church with a child on the edge of potty training and taking a potty chair, while very tempting, just didn't fly with the over all feeling that church was going for. I had purchased a foldable seat that fits onto a regular toilet and was planning on bringing that. But then I thought: I will have to bring the entire church bag with me each time we attempt to go during church or walk out toting my very obvious toilet set. Again, not so much the feeling church is going for. So I thought I would make a little tote to fit it in. Something that is very similar to a diaper tote. The time that this thought entered my waking creative brain was pushing 10 pm. Kids were sleeping, stores were closing, so I needed to use stuff that I had on hand.
I rumaged through my fabric stash and found my old, ripped jeans that someday will become a quilt, and thought- why not?? So the wheels started turning and usually when they start turning the hands start cutting too- be it paper, ribbon, food, or fabric. Wheels trun... hands cut.

And this is what they cut this time.

A size 6  pair of levis. The right leg, including the zipper. About 12 inches down the leg. Make sure that you aren't cutting the bottom of the pockets, becuase then extra little storage pockets would also be lost.  
Before cutting the jeans, make sure that whatever you want to fit in there will infact fit. My size 6 (kids size)  semed to fit what I wanted in there, but after getting it sewed together, it was snug. I was really glad that I had the zipper to give me a little extra room to jam my goods in there.

After you get it cut, flip in inside out and sew the bottom hem with a zig-zag stitch to give it a little extra strength. I went over mine twice just to be sure it was strong. Oh, and when you are sewing jeans, remember that the hems are very thick and your machine will likely stall, or needles will break. I find that when I am sewing the hem section, turning the wheel by hand very slowly while wiggling the fabric a little gets the job done.  But more likely than not, you will break a needle on the hem.

Then you are going to sew up your zipper area. This is where my needle broke. And poked me in the eye.
I took a break and ate some ice cream at this point to recover from the eye trauma.
It was Blue Bunny Chocolate with Salted Caramel. You can go and get some if you want. I will wait. :)
Upon returning I found that what worked better was to unzip the zipper and sew just the outside sems together. It also makes it possible that you can unzip the tote when its complete and allow for a larger opening at the top.  Zig-zag it again. You will need to continue sewing down the inside seam on the jeans until you have the whole side together to make the tote side. I followed my seam , but then when I flipped it righside out, it was a funny shape on that side; so then I flipped it inside out again and sewed a straight line down crossing over the seam so my tote would me staight.  Save your self the time and just sew a staight lne down the side.
Then, with the inside of the zipper, there will be a little section that has unsewn denim at the waist band. I just zig-zagged that too so I wouldn't have a freying problem. 

Once your done sewing flip it rightside out and you will have something that looks like this.
Its fully functional and could be left just like this, if that is all the energy, creativity, time or patience that you have. You could stick whatever you made it for in there and be good to go.

But you know me. I cannot leave well enough alone.

So I started decking it out.

I wanted a strap, just a short one. So I ripped 2 strips of this left over coral fabric that I had, each strip about 2 inches wide, laced it through the belt loops, centered my excess at the zipper and then stuck a little hot glue on the back sides of the belt loops so it wouldn't bunch up then tied a knot at the end of the pieces where it met at the button so I had the excess where I wanted to open the button and zipper. My 2 strips were just shy  of remnant ege to remnant edge of my fabric. So probably about 35 inched long. It leaves me a stap about 8 inches long
 Then I wanted to bling the back pocket.

To make the big white flower, I cut 5 circles. The size of your cirlce will be the size of your finished flower, so if you want a large flower- cut a large circle. One at a time, fold the circles in half, I like to overlap mine just a little bit- about 1/2 an inch so you get the look of a layered flower, with the printed side of the fabric out, and hand sew a straight stitch- baste size- on the folded seam. String each circle on the same piece of thread without cutting or knotting the thread. Once each circle is on the thread, pull the tread tight and  make a stitch to join the two end cirlces together. I don't have much luck knotting the thread to finish it off, because the thread usually loosens a little bit and doesn't give me the look I'm after. So I just put a dot of hot glue on the back side and with the thread as tight as I want it, I bury the thread in the glue, wait a bit for the glue to cool, holding the thread tight the whole time. When you can let go of the thread and it stays put, you can clip the excess thread. Finish the flower off with a button, or bling, or whatever you want. I layered 2 buttons together on mine, threaded embroidery thread through the eyes of the button to give it a finished look then glued the buttons to the flower.
 
To make the smaller coral flower I ripped a piece of fabric about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide then just basted along one side, tightened my thread, joined my two ends together with a stitch and glued my thread down. Then finished the center  with  a button, you can use what ever you want to. 
The other bling on the pocket is a large button with a smaller flower button  nested inside it.
I hot glued all the pretties onto the edge of the back pocket, made a few felt leaves and glued those where I liked them. Then I flipped the tote over.

 The three rose looking felt flowers are made by cutting a circle out of felt (you can use fabris too) then you cut a spiral into the felt leaving about a dime size circle in the middle.  If you want a big flower, you will need to cut a large circle, and leave a larger circle in the center too. I cut  these cirlces about the size of the base of a  baby bottle and my finished flower is a little larger than a silver dollar. I have made circles about the size of a  cereal bowl  and come up with finished flowers about as wide as a drinking glass.  Your finished flower is usually about 1/3 smaller than your original circle. The width of your spiral will be the hieght of your flower. Starting with the outside of the spiral roll it up, kind of loose, but not loose enough that its unwinding as you roll it. Once it wound up, cover the  entire center circle with hot glue and press the wound up spiral into the glue, work quick and spread it out a little to your liking before the glue dries. Give it a little tug and make sure that you got glue on the whole base so you rose doesn't come apart.
I grouped my flowers together, added some felt leaves and hot glued it to the pocket corner. Then I just used layered button again to line the edge of the pocket.
I liked the way mine looked at this point and called it quits.

Plus it was 1 in the morning and I had an 8 am meeting to get to.

My tote is big enough tha it fits a foldable toddler toilet seat and a Huggies travel wipe box,  I can fit an emergency pull up in the back pocket, and a travel size hand sanitizer in the front pocket. I have to unbutton and unzip the top to get the toilet seat out, just because its a  little bit too wide, but if you are using this for a diaper tote, you could easily fit a few diapers and a wipe box in there.
If I were to do it again, I would use a larger size of pants. I think for my purpose I would go for a size 10 in kids. The boys just haven't grown out of or trashed a pair of them yet, so 6 is what I had to use.

Thats all for me tonight.

I know I still owe you a recipe for reesses peanut butter cup cake balls. I didn't forget. But my adorable 2 year old is getting sleepy and this is when I get my snuggle time with her.  The recipe will have to be another day.

So the