Kazoo

On Monday I took Ty and Ella to the zoo with friends. Later that day I told Ty to tell Andrew what we did. He ran up to Andrew and said, "Daddy, Daddy, guest what? I went to the KAZOO!" Ha. Kids. Gotta love 'em because life just wouldn't be as funny!

Relief Society

My day was pretty crazy. All of us spent the day cleaning the house so that we could have guests over this evening. Andrew had invited a fellow BYU fan and his kids over to watch the football game. His wife and I then left to attend the broadcast of the General Relief Society meeting ( I know some of my readers aren't familiar with some of the terms I use, so let me clarify a bit. All the women in the L.D.S. Church are part of the Relief Society. This society of sisters, bound together under the motto Charity Never Faileth, has grown to become the largest women's organization in the world.)

When I first arrived for the meeting, I was assigned randomly to the pink table. One of the goals of the evening was to get to know the women from the other congregations. It was a little awkward at first but pretty soon we were chatting away. We were served dinner and then we watched the broadcast from Salt Lake City over the satellite. The talks were phenomenal and I was truly inspired to be more observant of the needs of others around me, so that I can provide more 'relief'. Relief can be given in big ways, but it was stressed that those little bits of relief that we offer others (providing a meal, giving a compliment, sending a note, babysitting in a pinch, etc) can be just as crucial. I learned many other things as well and it felt great to be inspired to live better.

One special thing that I want to note is the size of the group of women that met to night at the Stake center (An LDS Church with a larger floor plan so that bigger groups can meet together). The event was standing room only. There must have been 32-40 tables set up with 8 seats at each table. The chapel was also packed and we filled every inch of the pews, plus the overflow room. I was incredibly impressed with how many came when they could have watched the meeting at home on their own tvs. The best part though was when we sang the hymns, how powerful and beautiful this large group of ladies sounded.

Happy Birthday Unckie Dave

We want to wish Andrew's brother, David, a happy birthday. He is 23 today! The picture above was taken on his wedding day this past August.

Swing Smiles

Ella loves the swing, the higher you pusher the more she laughs. A little daredevil in the making, yikes!

On her own

Well, I am a little morose this weekend. Ella is walking pretty much all the time now and it all goes downhill from there. I tried to not show her the floor, and it worked well for a while, but I can only hold her so much before my arms give out. I have to admit it is wee bit fun to watch her walk, especially to see the huge smile on her face as she gets to her chosen destination. She is growing up too fast.

The Tuesday Ten

So I apologize for neglecting the blog lately. I have been soooo very busy lately and thought I would share 10 things that are going on.

1. I took Brianna, Arick and Ty for eye appointments last week with interesting results. Brianna's eyes have improved and she no longer needs glasses. Arick and Ty on the other hand did not fare as well. Arick's eyes are worse and the doctor thinks that is what is causing his frequent headaches. I only brought Ty in as just a precaution and it turns out the kid has the worst eyesight of the bunch. Poor little bugger. So now my boys need glasses. Pictures will follow soon.

2. My Primary calling at Church is keeping me plenty busy. Lots of meetings to go to lately and I have to plan our yearly program.

3. Organizing and cleaning. I have lost lots and lots of things and it is driving me nuts. So I have been organizing, which means creating a bigger mess first and then organizing. Such a long process. I have definitely thrown out lots of stuff but I have so much still left to do. I still haven't found those lost items yet which makes the process even more painful.

4. Participating in a children's clothing consignment sale. Hopefully I get some money from this to help pay for an external hard drive so I can get my old photos off of my PC and work on them. My PC is not a happy computer and I am scared it is going to crash and take all my stuff with it. I am scared to even turn it on, which it doesn't do well half of the time.

5. Preparing a class on "Frugal gift giving throughout the year". I will teach this to the ladies at Church and I am so excited since it is one of my favorite subjects. I am also helping to put together a class on stamping.

6. 9 doctors appointments in 3 weeks, I really miss our old doctor in CT. Even Ty says he wishes "Dr. Iogas" moved to Tennessee with us.

7. Playdates and story time for Ty.

8. I have listened to 5 Audiobooks in the last 2 weeks but I am missing having a book to read, so I checked out 10 books for the next 6 weeks. I am trying to figure out what book I will suggest for bookclub when my turn comes again. I am reading Plainsong now and have a few others on my list. I will review a few of them when I am finished.

9. Busy planning for the upcoming holidays. I have to start early so I can enjoy December.

10. Driving. I have been doing lots of driving. I am finally reaching that point that I am feeling like a taxi driver. We have signed Brianna up for Piano, Arick for guitar, and Brianna will soon be doing Girl Scouts. Plus there is Activity Days for Brianna.

I haven't even taken 1 picture in 2 weeks which isn't from lack of desire, just haven't had time. But I will tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Andrew's DVR list

Just so you don't think that I, Amy, hog the dvr, Andrew has his recordings as well.

NFL Football
Pimp My Ride
How it's Made
Rugby
College Football

With an occasional Formula One race in the mix.

DVR

Recently we had Dish Satellite service installed so that we could watch BYU football games. Part of that service includes a digital video recording device that records shows, pause live tv, etc. Let me just say wow! I admit I love watching tv but I hate the time it takes. Now I can watch a 1 hour show in 30 minutes and Andrew can watch a 4 hour football game in 1 hour. That is huge! Plus I have been able to record my late night shows and watch them in the morning so I don't have to stay up late. I love love love DVR!

Curious to know some of the shows I am recording? Here are my top five, at least until the new season starts:
Murder, She Wrote
Monk
Psych (can you tell I love mysteries/solving puzzles)
Hannah Montana (I record them for Brianna, at least that is what I tell myself)
Good Eats with Alton Brown on the Food Network (I love how he explains the science of cooking!)

OAMC

OAMC stands for "Once A Month Cooking". The premise is that you cook 30 meals over a 2 day period with shopping and prep on day 1 and cooking on day 2. I have always this was a great idea but I have never had the best freezer space. Well now I have a large freezer and I have been thinking of trying it. As I was talking to my friend, Cristina, about it, she told me that she has done it before, however, she and a friend did it together to cut down on the work. Instantly I knew that doing OAMC with a friend was the better way to go, so we made a plan to do so. Picking out the recipes was the most fun. Some recipes we chose included: beef chimichangas, apricot chicken, pizza rolls, chicken enchilada casserole, shredded barbecue pork, and hawaiian chicken. We decided only to do 22-24 meals the first time to ease into it and I am glad we limited it. OAMC is one of those things that become easier every time you do it. I did manage to do my 22 meals, although one meal was a bust and I had to throw it out. The cooking day was long although not as hard as I thought.

It was all worth it though. When I open my freezer and see all the foil trays lined up with healthy, homemade from scratch dinners, I get a little giddy. I even have each dinner marked on the calendar (I love love love iMac's calendar program!) so I don't have think about it. All I have to do is just look at the calendar, pull out the correct meal the night before, thaw and reheat in the oven. I will use 5 meals each week and the other two nights we will have a meatless dinner such as spaghetti, rice and beans, bean burritos, pizza, etc. 4 weeks of no dinner hassle, that rocks!

Labor Day Swim

Hello! I apologize for being so behind on my blog. Going from PC to Mac is harder than I thought. Old habits really die hard. Add the fact that I using software with icons so different than what I am used to and you can imagine that this is a slow going process. It took me longer than I should to figure out how to save my photos to a web-friendly format with my new software, whew. I love it all though.

Look for a big post from me on Sunday about my first adventure with OAMC. If you don't know what OAMC stands for, you will have to read my blog to find out.

In the meantime, here are some pics from Labor Day. We spend the day at the beach on the lake, it was wonderful. Perfect weather too. Click on the photo to see it bigger.



I love this photo!