I shaved my bed sheets!

A year or so ago I found high thread count bed sheets for great prices for Matt and I! We'd always wanted to try higher quality bed sheets but I'm too thrifty and won't pay a high price. Living near a Ross store changed that! We love them. For some reason, a higher thread count makes softer sheets, which of course, is cozier.

Over time my calloused feet rubs the threads creating little balls on the sheets, eventually making the sheets scratchy instead of soft. Last night I decided to try something I'd heard about for sweaters with this problem. I took my razor and I shaved my sheets. No shaving creme needed! It worked marvelously! I can hardly believe it was so easy. A few years ago I purchased one of those fancy shavers for sweaters and it did absolutely nothing so I had given up. But using a regular old razor did the trick. I had to clean the fuzz out of the razor every few strokes, but that is no big deal. Sweaters and sweatshirts, watch out, here I come! In the meantime, I really should get a pedicure.

A Recycled Christmas

Do you ever feel like you've overdone Christmas' past? When you clean out closets, do find Christmas toys from the previous year that is rarely played with? Besides these usual dilemmas, Matt and I have decided that we need to simplify our lives and spend less money during the holidays. We've also decided we'd like to be able to do Christmas for my sister's family since they have been unemployed much of the year.

Every year about this time I go through the kids rooms and dejunk, taking out all the toys that are broken, incomplete, or no longer played with. Doing so creates space for whatever might arrive Christmas morning! The kids then thank me profusely when they get home from school and realize their rooms are spotless. This year I'm feeling the need to make some changes in the usual procedure.

As I deep clean, I have been finding lots of things that are in excellent condition but are not being used. Often times I find myself thinking that a certain member of the family might enjoy that item. In wanting to keep costs down this Christmas, I'm thinking this might be the way to do it. There will still be plenty of gifts under the tree, nice ones at that, and things that have gone unused will finally be loved and appreciated. Here's an example. Zack bought a fedora (cool hat) off ebay and it's too small for him. Elijah loves the hat but doesn't get to wear it because it is Zack's hat. If Zack were to "recycle" this hat as a gift to Elijah, Eli would be SO excited and the hat would be worn all the time. Another recycle gift idea that has crossed my mind is the snare drum Zack got for Christmas last year. He was so excited about it that he saved his money and bought a drum set, which, of course, already had a snare. So there's an extra snare drum sitting around unused. If Zack were to "recycle" the unused snare drum, one of the little boys would be thrilled to pieces to get it.

Some people may think this regifting idea is rude. Don't worry, you're not likely on the list of people to be receiving "recycled" gifts from us anyway! In the meantime, as we deep clean bedrooms, closets, and garages, there's so much to go around it's almost ridiculous. I'll still have to figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff not being used. If it were spring or summer or early fall, I'd have a HUGE yard sale. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, I'm a day late and a dollar short... as always.

Yorkshire Pudding

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day! Mostly because Matt gets up with me to prepare it. Although we're not very awake or talkative, it is quality time together. If it was just me, we'd be having cold cereal for breakfast every day and breakfast for dinner on occasion. Thanks to Jaymie, one of my Tooele neighbors, I have this delicious recipe for Yorkshire Pudding. Depending on where you're from, the name might be different. I believe they're also called Popovers. I always make a double batch because the leftovers are great for snacking on later, and they're healthier than a lot of other snacks the kids might create or get ahold of!

Yorkshire Pudding:

1 cup milk

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pans WELL! Fill cups only 2/3rds full. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from pans immediately or the bottom of the yorkshire puddings will burn.

These can be eaten plain, or they can be topped with anything you can imagine! Each member of our family likes something different on their yorkshire pudding: maple syrup, peanut butter, jam, butter, etc.

This recipe can also be used as the outer portion of eclairs! They're SO easy to make. The funnest part is turning on the oven light and watching them rise taller and taller during the last couple minutes of baking. If you don't have time to cook in the morning, try these as an after school snack!

Easy Guacamole!

My dear friend Timi gave me this recipe and we make it ALL the time. If we have company over, it is instantly devoured. You're gonna love it, too!

You will need:

Premade salsa

ripe avacados

For small avacados, mix half a cup of salsa per avacado. With large avacados, mix one cup of salsa per avacado. Just squish the avacados like ripe bananas and mix it in with the salsa.

I buy my avacados at Costco so they're larger than others I've bought at other grocery stores. It's common for avacados to not be ripe when you buy them. If you leave them on the counter with a bunch of bananas, the gas released from the bananas as they ripen will help ripen the avacados within a couple days!

On tour with the Ricks College Chamber Orchestra

Just the title of this blog dates me now that Ricks College is BYU-Idaho! I played clarinet from 5th grade all the way through college. In college I took private lessons and branched out a little bit by learning to play the soprano clarinet (a smaller one) for the orchestra, and the bass clarinet for the chamber orchestra.

The Chamber Orchestra members were "special." They were the best players of their instrument and with the exception of string instruments and percussion instruments, there was only one of each of the band instruments. All of these players were music majors. I was not a music major and not the best in my instrument; therefore, I was shocked when I was invited to be in the Chamber Orchestra....if I would play the bass clarinet. Ah, but of course! It wasn't as easy a transition as one might think. But that is another can of worms.

In the spring of 1994, the Chamber Orchestra went on tour across Idaho, into Oregon, then down into California. Our first stop was a suburb of Boise on a Sunday evening. We weren't doing a full performance here, but since the members hosted us, the plan was to do a fireside for us.

On the bus on the way to Boise, I was sitting next to an old boyfriend, who was a percussionist. I fell asleep. I'm a VERY sound sleeper and apparently missed out on quite a bit of conversation while sleeping. The percussion professor walked the bus in search of someone to lead all the students in a choir for the fireside. Tim informed the professor that I at the time was the choir director in our ward and volunteered me, the not so "special" one, to lead all of the music majors in a hymn that we, of course, would rearrange. So when I woke up, I was informed that the decision had been made and I was to lead them all in song. YIKES!

Lucky for me the professor told me exactly what he wanted done with the hymn. We were to sing "All Creatures of Our God and King" at least twice as fast as we sing it in church. The men would sing the first verse, the women the second. Then on the third verse we sang acapella with the first stanza in a round (only once) but the first group would hold the note while the second group caught up; after which, we would break into four part harmony. I know this is hard to imagine by just reading a description, but listening to a group of music majors singing it was absolutely awesome! I have a couple awesome choir memories and this is one of them.

I really don't remember the rest of the tour all that well, except that my ex boyfriend followed me around San Fransisco "to keep me safe" since I didn't want to stick with the group at Pier 39. I wasn't thrilled about it, but whatever. I remember buying chocolate at Giradelli Square and buying a huge ice cream sundae at an ice cream parlor. My two favorite foods!

The heaviest thing on my mind during this trip was my missionary. Matt was serving in the Arcadia, California mission in L. A. and I was going crazy realizing that I would only be four inches away....according to the map. Yah, I knew it was several hours away still, but we were both in California!!! Silly, I know, but nobody compared to my missionary.

I made an awesome friend while playing clarinet at Ricks College, and that was Elinda! Elinda, if I've incorrectly remembered any details from this trip, please feel free to let me know and I'll correct them in my post!

The mysterious pole

We moved into this house in the middle of the coldest and harshest winter Utah has seen in over a decade. It was so bad, I wasn't sure if we actually had neighbors. I'm pretty sure everyone was in a deep state of hybernation. I would have much rather been hybernating than moving that winter. UGH. I cringe just thinking about it.

That spring, a pole that is mounted on a thick metal plate appeared just over our property line in the front yard. Matt and I were looking down the street, probably watching the kids walk to the bus stop when we both recognized there was something different about our view. We decided to wait it out and see if someone came to claim the pole. No one. About two weeks later, we rolled it to the back yard and I ordered a tetherball off ebay to attach to the top of the pole! My boys were ecstatic. But the mystery continued. We had no idea where the pole came from or why it appeared in our yard.

Occasionally I have to replace the tetherball. They don't seem to survive the weather well. Recently Elijah begged me to buy a new ball so we got on ebay and ordered another. I commented once again on oddity of the pole appearing in our yard in the first place, but how much joy it has brought for Elijah. He finally told me, "I know who gave us the pole. The guy next door asked me if we wanted it and I told him yes." So apparently, it was never a mystery as to who gave us the pole. Just that Matt and I didn't find out about it until just a couple weeks ago!

Meanwhile, we have some tetherball monsters in this house. Elijah is determined to be the best tetherball player at school. The only kids that can beat him are the REALLY tall ones. Eli is pretty darn tall for his age, so with all the practice he gets in at home, plus his height, he's one of the best tetherball players around! That boy is seriously competitive!

Cat-astrophy

As you may have already read from previous blog posts. We're trying to catch all the mice that have mysteriously appeared in the house. After deciding to not use glue traps, we switched over to the old reliable mouse traps and have managed to catch six mice. YUCK! But I've carefully placed a couple glue traps in locations where we tend to have a lot of spiders. Glue traps are great for catching spiders!

One of these glue traps was sitting under a decorative table, behind the couch in the TV room. I probably should have placed this glue trap more under the couch, but at the time, I didn't think I needed to worry about it. Weeks have gone by, I forgot the glue trap was even there. Matt was sitting on the other side of the couch, computer in lap, working on his contract work while watching TV with me. I was sitting at the craft table quite close to where the forgotten glue trap sat...when all of a sudden, Gracy came flying out from behind the couch.

Now when a cat is startled or scared, it runs pretty darn fast and disappears. They're fast creatures. But Gracy was frantically flailing and flying through the room causing quite the ruckus. At first I couldn't figure it out. By this time, she hit the kitchen floor and I understood what had happened. Gracy stepped on the glue trap and it was stuck to her foot. She would lift her foot higher than usual while running AND trying to get it off all at the same time. These glue traps are about 4 x 6 inches, so they're not small, especially not when attached to a cat's foot. So with every step of that foot, the glue trap smacked the floor. Gracy was running around everywhere frantically trying to get away from it to no avail. I'm up and chasing her by this time hollering, "Catch the cat, somebody catch the cat!"

Zack and Sara had been doing homework quietly and the little boys had already been sent to bed. It took them a moment to figure out that something was not right with Gracy and we all pursued, giggling as we chased her. It took us a minute to corner her so we could catch her and then Sara carefully removed the glue trap. I'm surprised Gracy didn't have a heart attack. Stuck to a glue trap, then chased by her people must have been absolutely terrifying. And yet, the situation was quite the comedy act and brought bouts of laughter for all!