nice

Don't you love it when everyone's playing nicely? This was over a month ago, I just forgot to post it.

Redrock in Moab

Moab photos

Right when we got to the hotel we went swimming. Everyone loved it and even Luke was jumping off the side. Then we had a lovely (not really) dinner at Denny's.

Everyone was so excited to sleep in the hotel but no one wanted to share a bed. Jack told me before we even got there that he'd rather sleep on the floor than sleep in a bed with Sam and Charlie (but there was a couch there so he slept on that). Charlie claimed this chair (apparently he didn't want to sleep with Sam either.)

Here is Sam, happy to have the entire queen bed to himself.

We found another chair to put next to Charlie's so that he wouldn't really have to sleep in just one chair. (We also tried to persuade him to sleep in the bed with Sam, but he wasn't having any of it.)

Here's everyone ready to go hiking in a pair of Dan's old, broken glasses.

Jack wouldn't put on the glasses and didn't want to be photographed either.

Moab (Finally)

The day Luke got admitted to the hospital was Easter. The next day was the start of our spring break and we were planning to go to Moab. The plan was to get a hotel with a pool so the kids could swim, only stay one night, and go hiking the next day. We didn't go that Monday as planned, but the doctor said we could try Wednesday.

Wednesday we packed up, got in the car, and drove down to Spanish Fork (where it was very lightly snowing). Spanish Fork is where you head east and start going over the mountains. The snow got heavier and heavier as we went higher and just as we passed the summit we got stuck behind a line of cars we couldn't see the beginning of. We found out there had been an accident and it would take at least an hour to clear. By then it was 6:30 pm and if we went around the long way we wouldn't get there until 10 pm or so. So we drove home.

We finally left the Sunday after Easter, when the weather was perfect and so was the drive. We just took the kids out of school on Monday. It worked out great.

I'll put the pictures in another post or two.

Antelope Island

About a month ago we decided to go to Antelope Island (one of the islands in the Great Salt Lake). All we'd heard about it before is that there are lots of bugs. But a friend of mine told us we should go over and check it out. So on a nice, sunny day we drove over. It was fun. I'd recommend it.

This was everyone looking at brine shrimp, one of the only things that lives in the lake.

On the island used to be a working farm. These pens were used for shearing sheep. The boys loved playing in them and pretending they were locked up.

Of course they loved pretending they were cowboys

They also spent a lot of time trying to lasso these horses (the kind Sam is riding). Actually, once they found these they didn't want to go anywhere else and they all cried when we left them. I'm thinking we should get one for the back yard.

We did see one antelope (or pronghorn as they're also called). We also saw 2 buffalo.

favorite quilt

For those who always read my blog, you'll know that I've posted about this quilt before. But I'm doing it again now for an online quilt festival put together by Park City Girl.

This is my favorite quilt I've ever made. I don't know, but I just really like how it turned out. I love the simple geometric pattern with all the solid colors. Each strip is about 1 inch x 8 inches (finished) and it is twin sized so there was a lot of sewing involved! I also had it quilted (by someone else) with the Denyse Schmidt loops, which turned out great. The backing is orange with the blue quilting thread showing. Love it.

Luke

Luke is finally almost back to his old self. He has been sick for 2 1/2 weeks so far. He got out of the hospital 9 days ago (because he had pneumonia and RSV, in case you didn't read that post) and I had to take him back to the ER 6 days ago. He's also had diarrhea every day since getting out of the hospital because of the antibiotics they put him on. He's pooped through all of his pants at least twice (that's a lot of pants!) He's still waking up quite a few times at night, which is killing me, but it will be over soon, I hope. The good thing is he's laughing and kissing me again. Poor little Luke.

I don't love pancakes usually, but these ones are SOOOOO good!

Hearty Pancakes

1 cup all purpose white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 Tbsp butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients. Stir in egg, buttermilk, and butter. Pour batter 1/3 cup full onto lightly greased hot griddle. If using electric griddle temp approx 340 degrees.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 cup buttermilk
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Melt buttermilk and butter together, add sugar, bring to a boil. TAKE OFF HEAT, add vanilla.

storage space

Hi everyone. I need some ideas and advice. I'm running out of storage space on my PC and it's because of all the music/photos/videos we have on here. We bought an external hard drive recently so we could put everything on it, but then we were told that you need a backup for your external hard drive so that if it crashes you still have your data. So my question is - what do you do for storage space? Do you put all your pictures on a website like flickr and then erase it from your hard drive? Do you just get more than one external hard drive? Do you have any other ideas? I want to make sure things are backed up and that my hard drive has the space it needs to run well.

Thanks for all your well wishes for Luke. He's feeling much better and has a great cough, which is good, since he needs to get that crap out!

Also - I'm in the slow process of updating the shop. There are several new styles of earrings in there. Let me know if you like anything that's new. I'll be adding more stuff for the next week or so.

Poor Little Luke

Luke has pneumonia and RSV. I took him to the ER at midnight on Saturday and they admitted him at 6 am. I have never had a child in the hospital and it was pretty scary at first. The poor guy was having a terrible time and not getting enough oxygen. Luckily he only had to stay one day (and 2 nights, if you count the night in the ER) and he came home today. I thought about taking a picture a few times, but it was too sad. All hooked up to oxygen, an IV, and a few other monitors which he hated. Anyway - he has a pretty bad cough still but is breathing well enough to be home. Thanks to Jamie and Dan (who happened to have today off) and all the people in my ward who offered babysitting and dinner. (I was there the whole time with Luke, except for a few hours when Dan relieved me so I could go home and shower.)

sheeping bag?

did you get my equation from the other day?

dog sleeping bag + sheep stuffed animal = sheep sleeping bag

This is actually a project for Sam's class and will be auctioned off with all the other class projects from their school at the end of May. The boys are begging for one of their own (which really means 4 - one for each) but that probably will never happen. Maybe a revised pillow-only version for that one holiday at the end of the year . . .

Now off to another project - baby shower invitations for this soon-to-be-mama.

maybe I have ADD

Why is it that I have to be doing a million things at once?

I just updated my goodreads profile and I'm currently reading 4 books (1 with Jack).

This week I have 3 paper projects and 6 sewing projects on my list. (I will not get them all done this week).

I guess that's it, but it still feels like a million things when combined with household duties like planning menus, paying bills, cleaning up, and doing laundry.

what i'm working on this week

plus

equals

a whole lot of sheep fabric sitting on my dining table right now. I'll show you some pictures soon I hope.

so excited!

I did a trade with a new friend last week. (I LOVE trading). Gina has a lovely little etsy shop and a great little blog. We exchanged emails because of a giveaway she did and happened to check out my blog. She liked a pair of my earrings and I suggested a trade for one of her gorgeous stamps. Thankfully she agreed and I got this stamp in the mail the other day (with my own name and address of course.) Then she mentioned me and my packaging on her blog! Thanks Gina!





p.s. another trade I made today: I sewed for my friend while she cleaned my kitchen. That's a trade I'd love to make any day!


p.p.s. what I actually got accomplished the day I wasn't sure what to do: washed 2 loads of laundry, folded 4 loads of laundry, put away 6 loads of laundry, made my bed (a rare occurrence), and puttied a few holes in some trim in the kitchen, sanded them, then painted over them.