Thanksgiving Holidays

We had the privelege of spending our Thanksgiving holiday at Cory & Minnie's new house in Kennewick. Rob, Rachel, Amber, Steve & all the kids were there. The food was amazing, and we topped off our evening with games and karaoke. It was so nice to be able to visit with family for the holidays, especially since we were planning on going North (but had to cancel due to weather)

Christmas is fast approaching, and the shopping is more than halfway done!! Jeff braved the walmart masses on black friday, but wished he hadn't. The deals weren't all that great and most of the on-sale items were gone before he even got there in the wee hours of the morning. So I did most of my shopping online this year with coupon codes & free shipping offers!

We are full swing with 4H this year. We've been having monthly 4H super saturdays, with activities such as baking, cupcake decorating, arts & crafts, working with animals, and (this is my subject) theatre arts. I'm directing a nativity puppet show & will have some pictures of the homemade puppets up here shortly. We'll be performing this at an old-folks home, and at the ward party on the 11th.



An end to the insanity! (Or is it just the beginning?)

Yes, I've finally come back from an extra long blogging-break! This summer was so crazy! Then, getting back into the routine called life took about a month. Finally I think I can actually take a breather & get my life back in order. Here are some things that we kept busy doing over the summer:

• Summer activities at the community center; lunch, sports, and crafts
• Going to the Eschbaugh park in Yakima a couple times, floating down the stream in inner-tubes is always fun!
• 4th of July at the Woody's house in Yelm. I think I saw the most amazing fireworks show in my life on a big screen TV with grandma & grandpa!
• A trip in the early summer to Spokane, I did a Turbokick training, and Daddy took the kids to the children's museum! We loved the old fashioned horse carosel rides!
• Going to the children's museum in Olympia (right next to the capitol building) with my boys. We love that place, it's so much fun - and so much history right next door!
• We went to Moses Lake water park as a family. My favorite was the body boarding! Such a rush!
• Our week-long trip to the Grimmers at Lake Palmer. We went swimming, hiking, fishing on a boat, got to see baby cousin Vance blessed, and spent endless hours playing games, getting tan, and eating yummy food.
• Picking fruit and canning - we froze blueberries, canned pears, canned plums, made jelly and juice from plums and grapes, and we froze big freezer bags fulla nectarines.
• Through diet and exercise I lost 15 pounds, and Jeff also lost some weight (which I'm not quite sure how much yet)

And what do I have to look forward to in the next few months? Weeeelllll....

• We are going through with the purchase on the big house!! And we're keeping the Merrick house too, with some amazing renters who take better care of it than we could by ourselves.
• I'm still teaching exercise classes and yesterday I ran a mile without stopping (if you know me, then you know I hate to run. And that is a huge accomplishment!).
• I am also volunteering to coordinate a babysitting course for teen girls in the community. That will be going on in the month of November.
• And I'm mentoring a teenage girl for her senior project. She in return is giving dance lessons to Keira.
• 4-H is still going on, and Keanu will be doing 4-H when he turns 5 this year! So teaching 4-H classes will be a blast - we'll be doing creative and expressive arts. (Don't worry, I WON'T be dancing!)

I feel so blessed to have a life full of excitement and fulfillment! All this is due to the children in my life, who add variety and interest to every day. In comparison, my life was dull and monotonous before kids! So even though I have an occasional panic attack and everyday stress, at least I am living life to the fullest right? (even if that includes hours in the emergency room!)

Summer Schedule - Updated

Hey everyone, I'm teaching Turbo 4X a week now!! And I have SOOOO seen a big difference in how I feel, how toned my arms are, my energy level, and it's changed the way I feel about working out. I look forward to my workouts & try to find excuses to exercise just because I love it so much!! Turbokick has definately helped me!! Over the weekend I took a Zumba class with my sis-in-law Lea & I've taken it before at the club we have also. It's a lot of fun & I'm thinking maybe next year I'll get Zumba certified too, wouldn't that be cool?? I just love all that booty shakin & the cute jingle belts too!

So here's my summer schedule (for the most part) running thru mid-August. please everyone come join me!

Monday 6pm - Turbo at the Valley Raquetball Club. Class punchcards available & childcare is 1$ per child.
Tuesday 8:00am - Turbo at the community center. I believe a family pass is 20$ and that includes activities for your children every day. They are going to have something for kids to do during the class, so kids are welcome.
Wednesday 6pm - Turbo at Valley Raquetball Club again
Friday 8:30am - Turbo at the LDS Church on Lincoln Ave. Sunnyside - Kids run around in the gym, so bring sports equipment to keep them busy & cost is free!

One TurboKickin Momma!

Over the weekend we went as a family to Spokane (kids pictures coming soon). We took the kids to the old fashioned carousel with horses & other animals that go up & down, it was awesome! We walked around Riverfront park & stayed in a motel. In the morning Jeff took the kids to the parks around & to the children's museum.

I went to the YMCA for a Turbokick training. It was actionpacked & lots of fun, I was exercising my butt off all day long! In spite of floundering a quite bit with the choreography & feeling like a total idiot in front of everyone during the dance off (because I can't dance) & the practical testing part of it (because I didn't know the choreo that well), I still had a blast! They really did throw it all at you at once & it was easy to get overwhelmed with all the moves to memorize. HOWEVER - When I got home and today when I got a chance to go thru the choreography on the DVD they gave me, it wasn't so bad. I wrote it all out on cue cards for me to follow when teaching & I think with a bit more practice I'll be A-OK!

So at the club I'm going to be switching my class from 5:00 to 6:00 & will stay in the 6:00 spot all summer long teaching Turbokick. I'll also be doing a Friday morning TK class at the church in a couple weeks when I get that all set up. Woo hoo! Go easy on me everyone, I'm learning too!

Momma & the boys!!

Our dishwasher was broken for a couple days. I finally broke down and did the dishes by hand. (after there were no silverware or cups to be had) The boys had lots of fun as I taught them to wash cups and bowls. They felt so grown up & were having so much fun!  And then later on Kalani begged me to lift me up on my hands/feet high in the air. I remember my dad doing this. He'd lay down with his hands on the floor & the kids would put one foot on each hand. Then he'd lift us up in the air & put us on his feet. Does anyone else remember? I do it with my kids & they love it!

You REBEL you!

 Over the last several days from Thursday thru Monday, mom and dad came for a visit. It overlapped Jeff taking the boys to Yelm so Keira & I could have some quality girl time. First Keira and I went shopping, out to eat & visiting auntie Minnie in Kennewick. Then my Mom, Eli & I went shopping too & also out to eat, but in Yakima this time. So it was very nice to have some quiet time.

Soooo, for the story of rebellion! In a nutshell we went to a place we were NOT supposed to be. We took the family & some family friends, and we jumped an 8ft fence to get into an old abandoned railroad tunnel. Don't worry, the tunnel was abandoned in the 70's & it's carved out of solid rock. The floor was flat dirt because they had refurbished the tunnel & used to use it as a walking/biking trail. I have no idea why they don't want people in there now, but that didn't stop us. We jumped the fence with our flashlights & walked the 2.5 miles to the other end, where we jumped another fence. It was SOOO worth it! On the other side was this beautiful and remote waterfall & some gorgeous scenery! If you look really hard you can see a teensy tiny Keira & Malea down by the waterfall in one of the pictures.

Laundry Detergent UPDATE

PS:   The laundry soap DOES work & gets your clothes clean, but I wouldn't say it is as good as say, TIDE laundry detergent. It works about as well as a cheap laundry detergent. But for the price, it's even cheaper than your cheapest detergent & you get WAY more of it. So I still think it's worth it. I'm still planning on using bleach for my whites & an occasional soak and/or spray & wash treatment.




Do it your own darn self - Laundry Detergent!

I've been haunting the DIY websites & found a plethora of recipes for homemade laundry detergent that supposedly can save you a bundle! I've also found both positive and negative reviews. I decided to try it out for myself using a recipe that was most frequently found on these websites. We have very hard water, which makes it difficult to get anything clean. So, I adjusted the recipe to make my mixture more concentrated & included baking soda, which I've heard can act as a water softener in your laundry.  It only took maybe 15 minutes to make, and right now my bucket is sitting in the laundry room. I'm going to try using it today & tomorrow I will post to let you know how well it actually worked!

Ingredients:
1 bar soap, 1 1/3 cup washing soda, 1 1/3 cup baking soda, 1 1/3 cup borax, a 5gal bucket with lid

Directions:
Shred the entire bar into a cookpot & add about 4-5 cups water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally (Taking care not to let it boil over while searching for a bucket) until you have a bubbly "soap soup", with the soap completely dissolved. Fill your bucket 2/3 with water. Pour in washing soda, baking soda & borax. Stir in, then pour in soap soup. Mix well, put a lid on your bucket & wait overnight for the soap to gell up. You can then stir it up & put it into old laundry detergent bottles for easy pouring and measuring. Just be sure to shake the bottle well each time before using. This is a great idea for a moneysaver! I sure hope it works well!