Mother's Day Fun

Found this picture from Japan Probe.  Classic Engrish!

Well, I know I'm thankful for her, I'm glad someone else is too! :D

Hooray!

We got our money back!!! Yay!!!

I checked our bank account this afternoon and there it was!  I am so glad not to be $2500 lighter!!

Now I just have to reset all our automatic bills...  That might take some time...

A-Z all about Me!

Found this cool thing on another blog.  You can do it too if you want!

A - Amiable
B - Baking
C - Crazy about Derek
D - Daughter
E -  Eternal Marriage
F - Fun loving
G - Geography
H - History
I - Improving (trying to)
J - Julia Styles (my look-alike)
K - Kittens!
L - Learning
M - Making (messes, projects, food, etc.)
N - Nay, my maiden name
O - Optimistic
P - Planning
Q - Quotes (from movies, tv, and books)
R - Reading
S - Scrapbooking (digitally, PSE is my best friend)
T - Teacher
U - Unique
V - Valient
W - Wii fiend
X -Xnay on the upidstay (Did I spell that right?  I'm not 100% fluent in pig latin.)
Y - Yoga
Z - Zany

Wednesday Funnies

Just a couple of funny things this afternoon...

From a Craigslist ad:
"Seven tropical fish, one allergy eater and one goldfish; also includes tap water conditioner, fish net,fish tank cleaner and fish food. 40 Gallon tank, with cabnet stand,to good of a deal to pass up. This is a low price that you wont find in a store."

After a pause in a conversation between my mom and Derek about Japan:
"Okay Derek, go back to Japan."

Carcassone, or the best game ever!

Daryl and Kim, my brother-in-law and his wife, gave us an awesome present this year--the board game Carcassone and an expansion pack!

Probably most of you (or everyone else on the planet but me) has played this game, or at least know about it. I didn't. I vaguely remember hearing the word before, but didn't know anything about the game play.

In short, I LOVE IT! Thanks Daryl and Kim! It's a winner! I think we played it 3 times Christmas night, and then at least twice or three times since then. And I already ordered another expansion pack. I thought about giving it to Derek for his birthday, but then I realized I was buying it more because I wanted it rather than he would and got him something else...

So here's a few pictures of us playing Carcassone...

 

Derek figuring out the rules of the game.

  

Derek wondering if we'd be able to remember all 

the scoring details (there really are a lot)!

  

 Us with Willow after our first couple of games. 

(Willow was clawing my stomach trying to get 

away, I'm surprised I'm still smiling!)

  

Playing teams with my parents.

 

Thanks again Daryl and Kim!  You guys are great!

PS:  We also loved the cruise picture calendar; Willow ornament, great likeness; and mini-kitty statue!

Willow in a bag

Willow got stuck in a bag this evening and she wouldn't take a picture, so I had to take a video.   Sorry it's so dark.  When you're in our living room it really doesn't look that dark.  I guess it's just not photogenic.

On to the Willow video...

 

And please ignore my obnoxious, talking-to-Willow voice.  I swear!  I don't sound like that in real life!!!

Cruise Day 4

Nov 13th - Belize City

The day of our big excursion!  Since it was an all day thing we had to get up early and eat the buffet breakfast in the Windjammer so that we could meet our group by 7:45 am.

Oh, and before I forget, we had somewhat of a scare about this day.  On Wednesday night, during dinner, Becca told us that when they had checked on their excursion (theirs was cancelled on Wednesday and they were told to visit the excursion desk to get a refund and 50% off the next day's), the were told that our original excursion--to the Mayan ruins with a lunch--was cancelled.  We were all a little upset until Becca found another ruins excursion for about the same price and it had a river boat trip!  We just had to wait until after dinner to get it all set up. 

The most outrageous thing was that the ship didn't have a public announcement about it.  They were just going to call each room that evening to inform all those who were signed up for the ruins w/lunch.  The only problem with that was the exursion desk (where everyone would reschedule) closed at 8:30 and a lot of people wouldn't be getting back to their rooms until after dinner and the shows which would be around 10:00 or 11:00!  Meaning they would all have to reschedule early, EARLY in the morning!  But we were fortunate that Daryn and Becca were there earlier in the evening and found out about it!

Back to the story.  So we ate breakfast quickly and headed to the theater where we were told to meet.  There were a TON of people there!  I thought that they were all going to be in our group, but it turned out that there were multiple excursion groups meeting there.  They had us all meet there so we could be tendered (the water was too shallow for the cruise ship to dock, so they had speedy boats taking us back and forth from the boat to the dock) seperately from the rest of the passengers who didn't have planned excursions.

Once we got ashore, we waited with our group until our tour guide came to take us to the bus.  I was worrying a bit because we didn't have any bottled water.  It was $1.95 to get it on the boat so we didn't want to buy it there.  We found a cafe place that sold it for $1 a bottle so we bought two there hoping the tour guide would give us some as well.  It was a HOT and sunny day!!

The bus ride was great believe it or not!  It wasn't the best bus, but I was really happy to be able to see the actual country, not just the shops around the port.  That was one thing I had to get past going on a cruise.  I felt like I was cheating by visiting countries on a cruise.  It's so touristy!  So it was nice to take the bus and see things.  Plus, I got to take a nap.

Our tour guide was great, but had one flaw.  No, not her English.  English is actually the official language of Belize (it was a British colony); her English was accented, but great.  She was TOO WORDY!  It was nice to hear about the country on the bus, but once we got to the ruins, we wanted a short explanation, and then time to explore!

But our guide was very into educating everyone about her country.  I guess that's admirable.  The only problem we had was that we were standing in the middle of an open, grassy area between Mayan buildings under the HOT sun!  And to top it off, she had suggested that we don't put sunscreen on unless we were "highly allergic to the sun."  I thought that meant that we wouldn't be in the sun for most of the time.  But we were.  Needless to say, I got burned, but not too bad, and I actually tanned... minimally.  So now I really have a farmers tan.

After she finished telling us all about Altun Ha (that's the name of the place we went) we climbed to the top of one of the buildings and took some pictures.  At this point I had to pee so bad (I had downed two bottles of water thinking I would be dehydrated if I didn't), I couldn't enjoy it much, but I got some good pics.  I scooted down the steps as quickly as my fear of heights would let me--the stairs didn't have much by way of a railing and they were really steep stairs!

I ran to the bathrooms and then looked for my Belizian (sp?) souvenier.  I know, cheesey right? I found a cool wooden carving that the seller's husband made.  It's pretty solid, so I didn't feel ripped off.  It reminded me of some of the faces and stone carvings on the buildings.

We went to eat lunch after the ruins.  I thought we were going to a restaurant, but we ended up at someone's house and we ate in their courtyard.  Maybe that is a restaurant in rural Belize, I don't know.  The food was good.  And we had some shocking entertainment.  There was a guy who sat at a table behind me who's plastic chair's legs broke out from beneath him!  They were those cheap patio chairs, but still!  Plastic went flying out from both sides of him!  Thankfully, he wasn't hurt.

After lunch we got on a small-ish boat to take down the river and back to the port.  Here's where our tour guide lied again!  She said we didn't need bug spray because there weren't any mosquitos.  Well, there might not have been any mosquitos, but there were sure some other kind of blood-sucking, itch causing insects!  I got bit at least 10-15 times, and they're still itching!  When we got back to Idaho and told our friends about the dumb bugs, their response was maybe those same bugs bit the Nephites! :D

The boat ride was nice and relaxing--other than the bug bites, but they didn't itch then and the fact that we were crammed in there like sardines, good time to make friends :)--and we saw a bunch of cool animals!

The entire excursion took about 7  hours, so when we got back on the boat, we had just enough time to get ready for dinner.  Yummy, yummy dinner and great company!

We should have realized that each show wasn't as good as we hoped.  I kept thinking maybe this show will be better, but sadly, no.  Thursday night's performance was Broadway show tunes, which could have been great, but they chose weird songs from risque shows.  :(  By the end of it, we were closing our eyes and trying to sleep so we didn't have to watch it!

I think it was this evening that all of us went on deck to play shuffleboard?  I know we all went one night, I just don't remember which one.  We had a lot of fun and we took a crazy picture of the guys posing with their shuffleboard pucks.  As soon as I get it, I'll post it!

Tomorrow: At sea, the last day on the boat.

Thats how I feel sometimes

Today, I defeated my enemy!

You all will laugh at me for my sillyness by the end of this post.  I am a wuss.  There I said it.  A complete wuss.

I try to walk to my parents house each morning.  And I fail completely for two, no three, reasons.  One, I'm lazy in the mornings.  I like to sleep.  Therefore I don't usually have time.  Two, I make excuses easily.  It's too cold to walk, or it's too hot, too windy, too sunny, too wet... You get the picture.  But the biggest, most embarrassing reason I don't walk is because of a stupid, shrimpy dog.

This dog, I swear, tracks me down.  Only me.  Nobody else.  And then he "chases" me.  He howls, barks, and growls as he runs after me.  His legs are I think 3 inches tall so when I'm walking, he has to run.  Plus he's right at my heels.  It's not that I'm scared of dogs.  I just don't like a dog I don't know "chasing" me and barking.  What's he going to do?

So usually, I avoid walking to my parents house because he can find me on almost every route I've found to get there.  I thought I had found one that was relatively safe, but as of today, it's not.

I don't know why his (I'm going to call it a he because I think of boy dogs as meaner than girl dogs) owners don't keep him penned up or on a leash or something!  Not that they have to coop him up in a kennel, but come on, every house in that neighborhood has a back yard!

Anyways, today as I was walking, I saw him about a block and a half away.  He saw/smelled me and came running.  At first, I got really nervous and thought about running away.  But then I remembered what Caesar always says, "calm, assertive energy" and "own your space."

So I stopped, faced him exuding calm and assertive energy, and told him to "go home!" And then pretended like he wasn't there.  I owned my space yo!  The dumb dog kept barking for a couple more minutes and a couple cars drove past us and I'm sure they were wondering what I was doing.  After a little while, he quit barking and I walked on, owning my space along the road.

I looked back after I got a ways down the road and he was still there, standing in the same place but NOT barking.  When I got to the corner, I looked back again and he was gone.

So yay for me!  And now you can all laugh because the dumb dog was a basset hound.  One of the least threatening dogs on the planet!

And for the record, this is not the dog that was chasing me. I found this pitiful pooch picture on wikipedia.org.

Thankful Thursday - Laughing

I am so grateful for deep down, throw back your head, belly aching laughs!  Especially the ones that make it difficult to breathe!

I had one such laugh yesterday night.  The Country Doctor's Wife had this video on her site and I laughed just about until I peed my pants!  Watch it and laugh!

What I want to know is how did she get him to do it?

3rd folder, 3rd file thing

I got tagged by my great friend Hannah to do that 3rd folder, 3rd file thing with my pictures.  Well, the only problem is that I have MULTIPLE picture directories!  I've got at least 4 projects going right now and I like to keep them all completely seperated.  So, I picked the directory for the project I'm working on right now, then the third sub-folder, then third picture (I'm sure you're all throughly confused by now, sorry).  And here it is...

 

It's me with my cake on my 2nd birthday

This is fun!  Thanks Hannah!

Killer Soup

For dinner on Sunday, I made some pretty awesome soup and biscuits!  If I do say so myself. :) Derek even declared it to be his "new favorite soup!"  How exciting!  I even made it mostly from scratch.

Here's what I did.  You can try it if you want.  It's pretty darn easy.

1 can Minestrone Soup
1 can green beans
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 large can tomato sauce
1 can red kidney beans
Beef Broth to taste (I think I added the equivalent of 2-3 cans? I used the bullion cubes)
Water
2 cups of whole wheat penne pasta.
Some red pepper powder
Oregano
Garlic Salt

You can use fresh veges if you want.  I have before, I just didn't have any at the time.  The minestrone had carrots, celery and I think potatoes.  I would have added more to the soup, but sadly, I didn't have any of those either.  Oh, drain most of the liquids out of the cans or you'll have weird tasting soup.  Yuck!

Derek and I are HUGE fans of red pepper.  We picked it up in Korea. You don't have to put it in.  It's probably fine without it.  Just a little more boring.

Also, this "recipe" made copious amounts of soup.  At least it did for us.  There's only the two of us.  If your family's bigger, it probably would feed you just fine.  It made at least 6 regular sized servings, maybe more.

Another cool thing, I got all these ingredients out of my food storage!

So there you have it!  If you're lucky and ask really nicely, I'll post the recipe for my signature biscuits.  They turned out pretty well for that dinner too!

Japan is a Fun Place...

Case in point...

In case you missed it (I did the first time), the English translation is at the bottom of the lower yellow box.

I got these posters from the Tokyo Metro website.  I found them through Japundit.com

How Hard is it to Get Rid of Treats?!

A couple of days ago, I made some yummy chocolate chip banana bars. I'm usually not a fan of anything with bananas in it, but these weren't bad at all! My parents had three extra ripe naners, making the recipe 1 1/2 times larger, so we had A TON of C.C.B.bars as I affectionately call them.

My first thought was to give them to my mom's visiting teachees (In Mormon lingo, those are women that my Mom checks on and visits each month with another lady), so I wrapped them up and they were all ready to go. But those ladies don't live within our "rolling range" so we put that off for a day or so.

Finally, this morning, we decided that it was high time to deliver them to SOMEONE! We had already eaten the first pan, and weren't about to eat another! So my Mom and I went on one of our daily "rolls" (my Mom's in a wheelchair, therefore rolls), C.C.B. bars in tow.

We thought, we'll go around the block and give them to the people we know on the way. We got to the first door and knocked... no answer. Oh well, we thought. On to the next door. We knocked, dogs barked... again, no answer! This is unusual, we thought, but we kept going. At the next door, still no answer!

How hard is it to get rid of yummy treats?! It was bordering on the ridiculous! We laughed to ourselves, and kept going. On the next corner was a friend that my mom sometimes chats with as she passes by, Jodi. She was home! We had perfect timing with her because she was just going out the door to pick peaches!

Our original inspiration for making the treats was to give to a new friend we made this week who also has MS. But he wasn't home either. :(

So let's count. How many houses? 4. How many plates of cookies given out? 1. That meant that I was still carrying two plates of cookies and by this time--just about noon--the sun was coming out and the chocolate chips were starting to melt!

We stopped by another friend's house and thankfully, she was home! It was getting a bit hot to be out and about. But that still left one plate. What were we going to do with that plate? I seriously considered eating them on the way home, but our friend mentioned that another mutual friend was coming to meet her in just 5 minutes to go to an "empty nester's lunch" (again, very good timing). Ah, good! We thought, we can finally get rid of this last plate!

It was quite an outing! Usually, we're only out for 30-40 minutes. This time, with all the door knocking, it was closer to an hour or more! Who would have thought it would be so hard to get rid of treats?!

Rachel needs...

I found this on my friend Jodi's blog, who found it on her friend's blog, who probably found it on another blog and so on.  Anyways, it's pretty funny.  Search "(your name here) needs" in google and type the first few things that come up!

1. Rachel needs a reason to believe.
2. Rachel needs your help.
3. Rachel needs fixing.
4. Rachel needs help when she enters Manhattan's meat packing district.
5. Rachel needs us!
6. Rachel needs to refer to web sites, manuals and a variety of documentation.
7. Rachel needs a hero.
8. Rachel needs your votes.
9. Rachel needs no signs to unite with Yaacov.
10. Rachel needs to learn more about using her powers to their full potential before she could take down X-men.

So, what do YOU need?

Cross Stitch, Love Them or Hate Them?

I was reading my friend Jodi's blog today (she always has cool tips and fun stories) and she mentioned that she was thinking of doing a cross stitch for her next craft project.  More power to you Jodi!!!

I've been working on one off and on for the last 7 months or so.  It's called "Old World Map," by Janlyn.  It's on sale right now for $23.39, originally $41.99.

It 's quite large and detailed so I burn out pretty quickly.  I get really into it for a week, and then have to take a month or so to recoup.  Here's a picture of it.

It's so big I literally had to stand that far back from the computer so I could get my face in with it and not be all scrunched down and hunch-backed looking.  

And yes, my computer is in the kitchen, on the kitchen table.  

And yes, my kitchen/dinning area is tiny and I'm practically leaning against the refrigerator door.  It's not quite as bad as it probably looks...

In the end it should look like this...

But who knows when the end will be!

Memories From Enrichment

Our ward invited a special guest to show us how to use powdered milk more efficiently.  She was great!  She was like a cooking show, but better because we got to sample the things she was making.  We also got a hand-out with the recipes she demonstrated.  Here are the five things that stuck out to me the most.  

1. Almost gagging after tasting the plain yogurt.  Why would she have a sample?  To show the consistency of the yogurt?  She had other flavors made from the plain yogurt so the consistency was already shown.  I guess because people often use plain yogurt in recipes that they would need to know what it's like, but man, it's a downer for a sample!

2.  Finding out about 3/4 of the way through the presentation that "instant" milk and "non-instant" milk are both powders.  I thought that "instant" meant real milk from the store.  How much more instant can you get?  I was really confused when she said that instant was a bit cheaper than non-instant, but we'd use twice as much. 

I thought, if instant is cheaper (still thinking real milk) why are we bothering with this presentation and with powdered milk?  And why would anyone want to use non-instant (still thinking powdered milk) if they had to use twice as much?  I guessed that powdered milk was good for storing. 

This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened to me.  I often jump to conclusions that seem reasonable at the time, but when I find out the real deal, I feel REALLY stupid as in this case.  Finally I asked Tanya what the deal was with the instant and the non-instant and she explained that they were both powders but one mixed instantly and the other took more time. 

Huh, DUH Rachel!!!

3. The sampling experience.  We only got one cup or bowl (in my case it was a cup), so all our sample left overs collected in the bottom and mixed together.  So by the end of the evening, we were getting yogurty, ranchy, milky, strawberry-ish, flavors in everything.  UNLESS you got a HUGE serving of the sample.  Then the majority of the sample was untainted.  But of course, us polite women were all only taking tiny spoonfulls. 

I had an inner struggle with whether or not to take a large sample or not.  On the one hand, everyone was taking teensy bites and I would look like a complete pig if I took a big spoonfull.  On the other, the samples were DELICIOUS!  Well, most of the samples I was NOT wild about the plain yogurt or plain powdered milk.  The chocolate kind was great.  So by the time the chocolate icecream came around (remember, I have a jones for chocolate), I thought, "forget this, I'm eating ICE CREAM!!!" and scooped a HUGE serving in my cup and then into Tanya's as well.  Hope she didn't mind.  The ice cream was really good.

4.  Meeting a new friend.  Tanya was kind enough to pick me up and our new friend Francis.  Francis is investigating our church and came to Enrichment with us.  She's easy to talk to, fun and really nice.  I want to hang out with her more.  I hope she chooses our church!  Oh, and congrats to her for getting married soon!

5. Hanging out with my friend Tanya.  She's so cool!

This One's For Tanya

I'm not sure if this is the one I used as a kid.  My dad found it on-line.  10 points for dads!!!!

Edible Chocolate Playdough
3 Cups Powdered Sugar
6 Tablespoons Baking cocoa
3/4 cup Powdered Milk
1/2 cup Butter (Room temperature, no substitutes)
1/2 cup Light Corn Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:
Mix and knead by hand until desired consistency (something like a tootsie roll).  One can shape all kinds of things with this dough and then eat it also!


Recipe from cdkitchen, it's what's cooking online.

AND check out the Kool-aid Playdough in "My Shared Items."

Don't worry! They aren't dead!

For those of you who don't know, we love the Ortons! They are so nice to us! For example, Derek went to scout camp this last week. I was a bit lonely, and Tanya noticed. She invited me over to her house for the evening last Tuesday and I ended up staying there until 2AM!!! Crazy aren't we?! Brent was the responsible one and went to bed about 12:45, but Tanya and I stayed up and watched The Music Man. The one with Matthew Broderick. The only one really worth watching in my opinion. :) Anyways, I digress, back to our craziness. We both had responsibilities the next day. I go to my parents at 9am. She has three young children who I'm sure wake up early, EARLY, and desperately need their mother's love and attention. AND their family was going to leave for Rexburg in the afternoon! That's a 5 hour drive!

So I tried calling them Wednesday to see if they made it to Rexburg alright. I was afraid that they might have fallen asleep at the wheel because of their lack of sleep. No answer. My call went directly to voicemail. I tried calling again on Thursday. Same thing, voicemail. And on Friday. And on Saturday. I started to worry. Maybe I really did indirectly cause their deaths! How awful that would be! They weren't there at church either. I was half expecting (In my over active worrying imagination) the bishop to stand up and announce an awful tragedy, that the Ortons had died in a car crash. But thankfully, that didn't happen. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't panicky. Like I said, I was just over imagining and worrying. I get that from my mom...

I decided that I would call again on Sunday evening. Brent works for the city of Caldwell, and I figured he'd be back at work Monday morning. So I called, and Tanya answered! They weren't dead, just her phone. Yay! And even better, they stopped by our house on their way home. They must love us too!

Softies!

I found some great tutorials on LucyKate Crafts. She makes some REALLY CUTE softies. Before looking at this website, I had no idea what softies were! They're cute little critters made out of felt and fabric. I spent all evening last night making a toadstool and an owl while watching the X-Files, Season 1. And then this morning I made a Totoro knock off!

Pinkie the Owl (I know, real original right?)

Totoro himself!

Mr. Toadstool

Check out her site! Totally cute stuff!