June week 3

On Sunday June 14th our stake had a gourmet food storage fireside. This was way beyond the rice, wheat, beans. They showed us how to can meat (yes you can have meat in your food storage other than tuna, chicken, and that gross fish in a can). You simply add the meat (raw) to a mason jar and pressure can it and the meat comes out cooked ready for any meal. It doesn't store as long as the canned rice, wheat, and beans. They recommend using it up in 3 years but they say isn't a problem because it is so yummy. I'm definitely going to look into this because of the endless possibilities. They also had a great idea for those who have food savers collecting dust like mine. The food savers come with a hose to vacuum out the air in a container well you can buy an adapter that fits over a wide mouth or regular mouth mason jar lid and then you fill your mason jar with things that wont can well because of the oil content, like chocolate chips put them in your mason jar and put the metal lid on and then the food saver attachment and it will suck out all the air so now your chocolate chips, dried fruit, candy etc last at least 3 years. I already bought the food saver attachment but haven't done this yet have to buy some jars first, but my mom has done brown sugar, chocolate chips, salt, nuts. They don't recommend anything floury because that will get sucked up in the straw and clog. I'm so excited to try these new things because the idea of me and my family eating out of our one year food storage of rice, wheat, beans, oats and things like that is not very thrilling and my kids will be major complainers. So this sounds like a great thing to add to those not so yummy long term food. Brenton is back home from scout camp and had the time of his life. Connor is still in extended school and is loving being back into the routine of school and I think it helps knowing his teachers from last year are right next store to his classroom. Talmage started swimming lessons this week. He took them Tues-Fri from 10:00 am-10:30 at my sister Christa's neighborhood pool. Miss Andrea from our ward was his teacher she is friends of my sister Morgan so she is teaching private swim lessons and working at the YMCA as a swim teacher/lifeguard. We had four swim lessons going one after another at Christa's pool one was her kid, my kid, and the others from our ward. I was thinking of having Talmage take swim lessons last year he was 4 1/2. He didn't want anything to do with it. He wanted his arm floaties. So when I mentioned swim lessons this year I wasn't sure what his reaction would be. He was very excited and was ready for no more floaties. His first week was awesome. He did a great job and listened and did everything she asked without any complaints. He loved it. The best part about doing more relaxed private lessons at Christa's pool was the other kids could swim and play in the pool at the same time. The downside is we weren't able to go to the free movie this week. No biggie since we have the movies they were showing this week. On Friday, the primary had an activity. They did a family home evening activity. We all met in the Primary room and the kids were split up into 3 different groups. After practicing some songs, we headed to the gym for a sack lunch. After lunch, the kids separated into their groups and prepared a whole family home evening lesson. They made sure the families with more than one kid in them were in separate groups so they would each do a different lesson. So we came home with 3 different lessons and Talmage is the only one left to do his. The leaders did a great job at organizing this. Then the kids played a game and ate ice cream sandwiches. My kids had a fun time. Later that day Jon and I went to the temple to see a family Jon home teaches get sealed. I never realized the wife had never been to the temple. The husband went on a mission when he was 19. It was awesome to see them get sealed and then have their 2 children join them. The best part was that the Brother who was doing the temple prep classes in our ward was the one that sealed them he is a sealer at the temple. His name is President Scott and he is the brother of Richard G. Scott of the quorum of the twelve apostles. Pretty cool. We also went to the pool a few time in the evening for Connor since he was at school while Talmage was doing swimming lessons. I will have plenty of pictures on the next post since there were lots happening that week.

June Happenings Week 2

O.K. Week 2 of June was less hectic for me. Brenton headed off to his first year of Scout camp. He left on Saturday, June 6th and didn't come back until Friday late afternoon. Jon spend Sunday evening threw Tuesday late afternoon at Scout camp. Connor started summer school on Monday, June 8th. The bus picked him up at 7:23 am and drops him off at 3:00 pm. So this week I was down one kid for the whole week one kid during the day and one hubby for 2 days. It was quiet and weird only having 4 kids at home during the day. They all played well with each other all week. On Monday, my visiting teachers invited me and my kids to her subdivision pool along with the other sisters they visit teach and the kids swam while we talked. It was nice for a change to only have to count to 4 when keeping track of my kids. Since I was down 2 kids this week we went to the free movie days both days. They are every Tues and Wed at 10 am and they offer 2 movies a G and PG rated one. We went to Tale of Desperoux on Tues. and Alvin and the Chipmunks the next day (Even though we already own this one. According to the kids it is always way better at the theatre.). On Thursday, my visiting teaching companion and I visited one of our ladies at the park. With my 4 I had this week and my companions 4 we thought we better do our visit other than their house. We went to the park closest to us that happens to be the best one to go to during the summer because it has lots of shade. We still made the appointment for 9 am though because shade only keeps you so cool. Lastly, on Saturday Jon and I went to a Primary dinner. It was put on by the Primary presidency for all the primary workers as a thank you for being awesome teachers. We had pizza, salad, and root beer of course. Then we did a little get to know you game. It was fun.

June happenings Week 1

Wow has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted. I know all 5 people who actually read my blog are wondering wow I can't wait till she blogs again since it has been 3 weeks and she must have been out on some fantastic vacation like going back to the World of Disney. All I have to say is I WISH!!

No I have been home all summer and let me tell you things have been crazy. My next few post I will highlight each week in June.

Week one of June we swam, went to the park for our ward play group and was the only people there for play group and at the park for that matter. The park they hold play group at has no shade whatsoever on the play ground and a couple trees around the playground that shade 2 benches. Even though we meet at 10 am it is in the low 80s already. So that was the last time we have been to playgroup. We went to the free movies at our local theatre. Brenton and Talmage saw Shrek the third and I took Payton and Kennedy to see the Kit Kitridge movie. They have been wanting to see it ever since it came out on DVD but never did. It was a great movie. Connor and Hayden stayed home with Jon while he worked. Jon and I also went to our ward temple day during this week since this is the last month the temple will be open. We went with my parents and Christa and her hubby Aaron. This was an extra special session for us because my dad was doing an endowment session for his dad who passed away almost 1 1/2 years ago (same one Brenton did the baptism for the dead for in April). The week before Jon started joining me on my exercise routine. I set a goal the beginning the year that I wanted to continue my exercise routine but wanted to jog everyday not just on Tues and Thurs. I just haven't added that part but did when school got out. So this is our routine. On Mon, Wed, and Fri, Jon and I go to the nearby park just over a mile away. and jog the trail. They have 5 different trails to follow (same trail just tweaked by how far you want to walk or jog) ranging from 1 mile all the way to 3.1 miles. So on those three days I jog 1.5 miles and Jon jogs/walks 1.25 miles and we get done just about the same time. Then after that we go to my parents house and lift weights. One day I will focus on arms and the next legs but I do abs every time. Then on Tues and Thurs, I will jog 3.1 miles and Jon will jog/walk not quite 2.5 miles. Fast forward 1 1/2 months and Jon went from jogging just over 1/4 mile at one time to over 3/4 mile at one time. He is doing awesome considering we live in hotlanta. We go around 7:30 am so it is the coolest time of the day, but I am here to tell you it's not too cool at 7:30 am. Most days it is already past 70 degrees outside and add the major humidity and it is pretty miserable. I was also able to pick the first veggies out of our garden.

I thought I would give the upside down planting a try these are cucumbers and yellow squash

Bush beans way easier to plant than pole beans

starting closest 2 jalapeno, 2 green pepper, 1 cherry tomato, 1 Roma tomato, 1 regular tomato, and 2 zucchini in the pots

first pick of the season and they were delicious

Yes, not a huge garden but it is the perfect size and just the right variety for our family. Any bigger and I would need another fridge to put all the veggies in.

Activity Day Girls

Oh how I wish they had activity day girls when I was 8-11 years old. They do some really cool things and I think it is great to have the girls get together and become friends with each other and get to know each other better than just on Sunday's. I mean most of these girls all go to different schools.

On May 28th I was able to attend the stake activity day girls activity. They wanted each ward to have a couple adults to help out. I was glad I was able to go. These ladies did a fabulous job. When we got there, the girls got to decorate their own draw string backpack that had the theme of the activity (Stay on the Path) on it. That was basically something for the girls to do while they were waiting for all the late people to come. After that, the stake Primary leaders did a little skit about staying on the path of the hike they were on and they likened that to how we need to stay on the spiritual path. Then they divided the kids up into four groups. The first group I went to was about being a princess a daughter of our heavenly father. The sister talked about modesty and dress and how we need to act. She did a great job. Then we went to another room and she talked about the Scriptures and how we can liken them to our lives and gave a couple examples. Then the girls make Scripture cootie catchers. Remember those oh how I loved making those and doing that with my sisters. These cootie catchers had a scripture on it which you are to read then a question and the answer. Very cute. Then we broke for lunch which was Domino's pizza, strawberries, and carrots. Then it was off to the last two classes. One was on David and Goliath she had a big laminated poster of Goliath which we were in the Primary room and the ceilings aren't even as tall as he was so part of his legs and feet were on the ground. The girls got to take a sling shot and try and hit him in the head. Then the sister talked about how we all have Goliaths in our life (something we shouldn't be doing or we need work on). So she had all the kids write some of their Goliaths on pieces of paper and then she gave the girls some stones and they wrote how they could overcome these Goliaths in their life. How cleaver is that. I don't know where they come up with these ideas. Then we headed off to our last station which was on prayer. This sister gave some examples of different ways people say prayers and receive answers. There are the people who say their quick prayers while pausing their i pod (with head phones still on) and then getting up and quick pressing play to return to listening to their music. Then they had a divider in the room with a brother being the Holy Ghost giving her the answer to her prayer but she was too busy listening to her music that she missed the answer completely. Then she gave another example when she said her prayer and receive an answer but was to busy to do anything about it right then then went about her way and then later couldn't remember it all. Then lastly, she said a prayer then waited by her bed (chair) for the answer and then right when she got up went to her prayer folder she had made and wrote down everything right then. Then she had the girls make their own prayer folders. All these classes were amazing and the sisters who taught them are amazing and did such a great job. I am so glad I was able to attend and I learned a lot.