DISASTER!!!!

 Isn't it wonderful when your hard drive crashes? ARRGGHHHH! Went to turn on the computer the other day and....nothing. Cannot detect the hard drive. There goes our pictures, documents and Justin's work presentations and files. Absolute disaster. We've been using the laptop. Thank goodness for that. I don't even know if the geek squad can fix it or get any files off of it. I'm going to try to get it solved today.

I did have some pictures backed up on photoshop online. They automatically backed up 2 gb of our pictures. So we have all the pictures up until June 2008 on there. Then my blog starts about May 2010. Most of our good pictures are on here. There's a few pics on our families private website to fill in the gap. So I'm just missing about 2 years of pictures. Still a disaster. And all the cool presentations I helped Justin make for his laser stuff was on there too. Those were a lot of work. I hope something is salvageable on that hard drive. I've been meaning to get an external hard drive to back up all our stuff for several months now but never got around to it. Then morning sickness struck and everything productive was thrown out the window.

Needless to say there won't be an update over this summer now that I'm not so sick anymore. Luckily I haven't downloaded all the pictures from our camera on to the computer recently. Count your blessings I guess. After looking through all our picture "archives" we're not missing as many as I thought.

A word to the wise. BACK UP YOUR FILES AS SOON AS YOU CAN!

Susie Homemaker

I've really gotten on a bread making kick. We've been getting a bunch of food storage and that inevitably includes huge cans of hard wheat. How in the world do you eat that stuff? We've put it off for so long because Justin didn't want us to store tons of that and not eat it.

So I got myself a wheat grinder and a couple of good books about using your food storage and baking whole wheat bread that doesn't taste like a brick. GOLD MINE! I've tried making bread before in the bread maker...bricks! All of it! Then I tried making rolls with a recipe that I've watched my mother-in-law make a few times (and had her teach me a few times). They turn out like cornbread biscuits. Every time. I've tried it 3 times. Now I love me some cornbread, but those rolls are supposed to be the fluffy white kind like you buy at the store.

Turns out I've been doing a few things wrong all along. I wasn't using warm water or milk to make the yeast rise. It was almost straight from the fridge or luke warm tap. I was also not kneading it long enough. There's a little trick I learned in the bread book about how to tell when you've kneaded long enough.  WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE!?! And why have I never heard any of this any time someone writes a bread recipe or does a little bread making class at church? This is what you are supposed to explain in a class or recipe!

I tried out my new found knowledge on said mother-in-law roll recipe and whalla! Just like momma makes (Justin ;)). Oh, one funny thing that happened. I forgot to set the egg out to get to room temperature. I knew I mustn't microwave a whole egg. Why, I don't know. I just pulled that out of the cobwebs in the back of my head. Turns out my all-purpose cookbook says the same thing. Any one want to try it out and tell me why?

I still had a cold egg that needed warming so I tried to warm it in my hands. But, my hands are never warm enough (just ask Justin) so it wasn't doing any good. Then I thought, "What is the warmest part of me right now where I could warm up this egg?"


Down my shirt. And down it went. It was doing good, until I went to retrieve it. That egg shell wasn't as strong as I thought. That was a lovely mess. I don't advise doing that. Find some other way to warm your eggs. I eventually just ran it under hot water.

I'd conquered the yeast and kneading of white fluffy flour, now it was time for the heavy whole grain flour. I was a little nervous. I hate wasting time and ingredients just to be disappointed. Justin's not even nice about my mess-ups. He shakes his head and says, "no good. I'm not eating that."

There's a few tricks to whole grain flour because it's so much denser and heavier. You add a little extra yeast, some extra gluten and some kind of dough enhancer like powdered milk, or potato flakes or vinegar to make it softer and rise higher. So, I got a good recipe from my new food storage book that had all of that in it. Then I kneaded it until it was fully kneaded. Let me tell you, that stuff was heavy. I was a little worried that it would turn out to be a brick. I rolled it out and added brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins to make it like cinnamon raisin bread all swirled up inside. Oh man. It tasted just like a cinnamon roll. And it was super soft bread. I couldn't believe my luck. Plus it was rising like a mad dog. That's never happened to me before. SUCCESS! I'm thoroughly satisfied. I can now join the ranks of homemade bread makers. Any one want to come over for some cinnamon roll bread? Cause I got two loaves and I'll make myself sick eating all of it. Please. Save me from myself.

"So... it is down to you, and it is down to me."

It's a battle of wits between me and my electronics. I believe some fairy has entered my house and fried them all, except this computer (on which I am presently typing) and our dvd player. *knock on wood*

It all started one Sunday afternoon. Candace wanted to watch what we call a "Sunday movie". They're religious/scripture cartoons that are mostly housed in vhs cassettes. Enter - the vcr. This little beauty (or shall I say large, hefty brick of old 1980's technology) was given to us by my sister-in-law when she upgraded to a vcr/dvd combo when they first came out. This was quite a few years ago. It was great. It worked. It was ugly and GINORMOUS but it served its purpose...until it started eating our tapes. This did not make me happy. This past Sunday it almost wouldn't cough up one of our "Sunday movies". Sorry ol' Betsy, time to break my back tossing your largeness into the "circular filing cabinet" known as the trash can.

Next we tried a few dvds. We have our dvd player sound hooked up through my old 3-disc cd player that I got when I was a freshman in college. It was kind of like an easy home theater. I did it mainly because there weren't enough audio/video plugs in the back of the tv to support all of our ancient electronics. But, it gave much better sound than our tv...until it too went the way of all the earth. A few years ago it stopped recognizing cds. That's okay, it will still play tapes and it does our dvd sound. Then it stopped playing tapes, and, you guessed it, now there is no sound coming out of it. I know it's receiving the sound. It lights up, but nothing comes out. Solution = TRASH. At this point it's starting to feel cathartic. The trash can and I are quickly becoming friends.

Now I've hooked up the sound through our tv since the back plugs have opened up after the vcr died. It's terrible. I can hardly hear people talking. I'm changing the channel and volume with the buttons on the front of the tv and it's going in the opposite direction. Something fishy is going on here.

Next up is our wii. Great fun, unless there is an error and it won't read the discs. After some research I found out it is a problem with the wii system itself and I would have to send it in to get repaired for $75 because it is no longer covered under warranty. A lot of people have this same issue. This, however, I will not throw in the trash. It still works most of the time and it would be too much $ to spend on something we don't REALLY need right now. I have to save my money for the myriad of electronics that have already "bitten the dust" so far.

Then there's the laptop. We got it through the Chickasaw nation, Justin's tribe (he's such a white boy) as a laptop scholarship since he's a student. It's been really great. He can do his complicated math programs on it for work/school and we can watch movies on it at night in bed. My favorite thing. Now it's restarting itself after I turn it on from some unexpected error. I've run a virus scan and I can't figure it out. It still works okay for now, but with my luck with computers I think it will start having more problems soon.

Let's see, what else. The girls had a v-smile that won't turn on any more. It's an educational video game system for little kids, basically. They tried it after the wii was having problems. The entertainment center is looking pretty barren right now. In fact, I may set fire to the entire thing. Anyone in the market for a charred, gigantic tv? It's a 27" CRT beauty....? No? Well, I may have to keep that. It still works after all.


Seriously though, does anyone want to sell/give me their old vcr? As long as it was made in the last 10 years and doesn't look like a dinosaur. I'm also open to suggestions about home theater systems. I think I want to get one with a blu-ray player in it. I hear those discs are a little more resistant to tiny tot scratches. ;) I can't handle the sound coming out of the tv.

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth...i.e. Loooooonng Post

Alright guys, overload time.

I feel like I've fallen off the face of the Earth. I've been so busy with all kinds of stuff that I haven't done a whole lot of other stuff, like interact or talk to other people. (sorry mom!) It also doesn't help when I lose my cell phone and can't locate it because it's been missing for a while and the battery is completely dead. (success, It's been found now!). Our kids have also taken turns passing around a stomach bug the last 2 weeks. That's fun. I love washing all kinds of blankets and sheets. You know how I love laundry.

Since my last post 2 months ago we've done so many things. Let me sum up...

yeah right, you know I'm going to give you every detail.

Meagan's school had a little program about our country. It was pretty cute. I'm glad they did it. I think a lot of people are losing sight of what makes this country so great and where we've come from since its founding. Good to know they are teaching my kids at least. Each kid had a part in between lots of songs they learned. Meagan had to fill in for one of the kids' parts.

They had the audience join in on the Star Spangled banner. Sadly, most of the people either didn't want to sing or they didn't know the song. A lot of people were looking around confused like they didn't know the words or something. It makes me sad and worried that patriotism is getting lost these days.

At the end of February we went skiing in Flagstaff. Way fun! The kids did really great.

This is Meagan's second time skiing. First time a couple of years ago didn't go over too well. But by the end of the 1st day she could do this.

She was racing me down the mountain after a while. I'm a scaredy cat so she usually beat me.

Here is Candace's "skiing".

...and here's how Seth did it.

Justin said he loved it and was saying "uuuuaaaaahhhhh" every time he turned a corner. Most of the time he hung out in the lodge with whoever was recuperating. We went with a big group so we could get the group discount. He was really good, but I think he started getting separation anxiety by the end of the 2 days.

I also did really well. I didn't biff it until my last run on the last day. My ski hit a hole and twisted my foot around, causing me to eat snow. I was trying to film Meagan skiing so I just took my video shots and told Meagan to wait while I figured out how to get my ski back on. It took me, no joke, 20 min to figure out that the ski had popped off and not released the locking mechanism. It usually does when your foot comes out, but it must have come off with too much force, too quickly and my ski would not go back on. I figured it out after I had the brilliant idea to compare it to my other ski which was still attached. By that time Meagan got confused about where I was and just headed down the mountain without me. She was okay but my shoulder muscle still hurts from that fall. I'm just glad it happened at the very end of the trip and not in the middle when there was still some good ski time left.

Their first bath all together. We won't be doing that again. The water was a little too deep for Seth.

I also had some recuperating time after all that. I had laser eye surgery in March. I'm no longer legally blind! 20/20 vision, as long as I don't let my eyes dry out. I have to use a lot of eye drops though. No big deal, after dealing with contacts and glasses most of my life. I lost my last pair of contacts and my glasses broke after the ski trip. It was difficult to try to ski with glasses. You have to have some sun and wind protection and goggles weren't fitting too well over my glasses. That's why they broke. Hooray for me! I still catch myself trying to push my glasses up on my nose, or thinking, "oh, I need to take out my contacts". Nope! Ah, it's beautiful.

I've still been doing some crafting and home organization. I made a diaper bag for my friend who just had a baby. I wish I could have kept that sweet awesomeness. But, it's better to give than to keep for myself.

 Finished product. Alyssa, if you're reading, this is what yours would look like. You can pick the colors/fabric design you want, of course.

Inside Detail

Front detail.

The girls helped me paint their shelf/hook rack. They picked the color. I had to hang it low enough for Candace to reach so she could hang up her dress-ups and put her little "treasures" on the shelf.

 And...their room has been a lot cleaner. Brilliant!

I've been doing a little kitchen organization, too. I got a magazine holder to put all my small spiral cookbooks in. They kept falling over in the cabinet and getting lost. Such a frustrating mess. And, I got rid of the powdery flour and sugar bags that haunted the a fore mentioned cabinet, with accompanying scoops. You know, the Raisin Bran box kind of scoops. I'm lovin' it. Yep, pretty easy to please. Plus it's more convenient because I want to start baking a lot of bread. I made some cinnamon raisin bread the other day. The kids loved it. I think it needed a little more work before I'm happy with my bread baking abilities. Now I just hope I can remember the Thanksgiving bread-making lesson me and the other sister-in-laws got from Mamma Paul.

And finally, IT'S...!

I love pastels, the perfect weather, nice breezes and the chance to grow something green around here.

Here's our first real attempt at a garden. I would love to have tomatoes or lettuce whenever I want. 

It's going pretty good so far. I got a timer to water it automatically. Cause last year I kept forgetting to water everything and it all died.

Here's an idea that I thought was pretty cool. Toilet paper rolls double as seed starters. I got the idea from here. What an awesome (free) use for something you'd throw away anyways.

 

Want another great use for toilet paper rolls? I know you do. 

Fire starters. My mom taught me how to do these. Stuff them with dryer lint and dryer sheets and they light up like the Fourth of July. Saves you from searching for kindling when you're camping, or if you have your own fireplace. We go camping a lot so it's useful for us. I never thought I would wish for more empty toilet paper rolls in our house.

Just make sure you don't stuff them too full. They won't get enough air inside to stay lit. You could also poke holes in the side to let in some air. We tried them out last weekend when we went camping. They worked like a charm. I wished burning the whole bag I had would have helped keep me warm but there wasn't enough firewood in the world for that. Yeah, I know. Camping in April in the mountains...bad idea. Well, it was. Freezing cold all night long, and I mean freezing. One of the worst night's sleep ever. We were going to try out a new rock climbing place the next day but we were all so cold and miserable we just wanted to go home before the rains came. Yep, rain. I don't care how much the kids are looking forward to camping or how much we promised them we would do but I will never go camping again when the forecast says, Low - 33, 30% chance of rain. I was already halfway done packing all our gear by the time I saw the forecast or I would have absolutely said "no way. I don't care what I promised you we would do this weekend." and suffered through the whining and complaining that would inevitably follow.

But on a good note, we all took long hot showers and cozied up to a movie and hot chocolate when we got home. We stayed in all day. I do love doing that every once in a while.

Loads of videos of our cute kids

 We were eating pizza for dinner one night. Meagan loves to make up random songs...kind of like me and Justin. This is her "ode to cheese".

 Then Justin came home from work and got in on the action. These guys crack me up.

 This is how Seth learned to walk. Turns out we didn't need a walker after all.

Here are some of his first steps. Thank you small stool for teaching him how to do it.

 Here's Meagan's 7th birthday party. She wanted a blackforest cheesecake for her birthday. Who am I to deny the wishes of a 7 year old? The kids mostly just played outside while the adults talked and ate. My kind of party.

 Alright you. Stop growing so fast.
















                          And finally, I got a new haircut.

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