Redneck moving

Our good friends down the street, Boyers, replaced their freezer and were so kind to give us their old one. Since it is so close and rather than go through the work of loading and unloading it Ken decided to strap it on a furniture dolly and hopped onto the tailgate and had me drive him down the street slowly. It was much faster but I'm sure our neighbors were wondering what their crazy neighbors were doing hauling a freezer behind their truck. I'm sure they had a good laugh for the day.

Valentine's

Valentine's is a wonderful holiday to share our love in many ways. Here's just a few of our ways this year.

School "friendship party" Lexi had treat bags for the other students in her class. It was wonderful to be able to give her the things and she put them together. A bit sad that this is the last year to have just one class to share with.


Lexi and her best buddies at school

One of my favorite traditions is making sugar cookies. I am getting my girls involved in the process so hopefully this will continue as they grow up.

I captured the finished plain cookies but didn't get a picture of them all decorated. We frost them, add the sprinkles and share with friends and neighbors.

The best part of Valentine's is sharing the love. With good friends

Spouses

and even siblings

Food storage

One of our family goals for 2010 is to work on our food storage. I had gotten some dried milk and rice from the cannery and since the food sealer is stored at our house, decided for family home evening we were going to seal the food together. Many hands make light work.


Found out quick that fine powdery items need to be put in a ziploc bag before being sealed in mylar bag. Here's Ken getting the air out of the ziploc bag using a straw. Don't inhale too much or you get a mouthful of dry milk also. Not the tastiest.



Everyone hard at work

My favorite part was doing it together as a family.

The end result. Just knowing we're on our way motivates me to get in gear and start on other things we need to do.

Mission pics from Temecula

The fruits of his labors. This is a lady and her three daughters that Jordan was part of teaching and they accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ. There have many people that Jordan has taught and then been transferred from the area. It was very gratifying for him to see the changes in this family's lives and the happiness they had.



A rite of passage-for the 1 yr mark of the time spent in the mission field a Elder burns a shirt. Jordan had ruined this shirt with grease and so it became the sacrificial shirt. His companion had entered the Missionary Training Center the same day as Jordan so they got to share the experience. This was at a member's backyard firepit.

Jordan has always been a firebug so it wasn't enough to just toss it in and let it burn, he had to mess with it a bit.

The missionary zone in Temecula, CA

I wanted to share this short clip of a game the missionaries play on their preparation day in Temecula. I guess different areas do different activities together for their physical activity. This is what Jordan called "Scoops" or a poor man's lacrosse. Each missionary has a "scoop" made from cutting the bottom off of a 1 gallon milk jug. Many reinforce the edge with duct tape. I'm not familiar with lacrosse and its objectives but it looks like a fun game. This clip isn't too long and it actually shows Jordan. He's in a red shirt and dark shorts. You can even hear his laugh at the end when they score. It's something we miss around here. Sometimes.

Girl Scout training

I have spent many hours devoted to Boy Scouts, in training, paperwork and encouragement. I have loved being a part of this aspect of my boy's lives. I have not gotten to participate in some of the fun camping part-since I'm the mom. Both the girls are involved in Girl Scouts and I have tried to be involved with their activities as well. Paige's troop has been very active with camping and has gone at least a couple of times a year. Lexi's not so much. There isn't anyone trained to be the camping leader so I decided to step up and get the necessary training. We had a 3 hr in town training and then a weekend hands-on training. There were women from all over Houston and we were divided into patrols. Ours was the Bluebird patrol. We had to learn the "Girl Scout way" of doing things and then use what we were taught. It's given me a greater appreciation in what leaders have to do to prepare the girls and very grateful that when we go camping it's not being watched and graded. I passed and am now camp trained.

We had to make a wood fire using a A-frame base then teepee design. Me with my fire.



The bluebird patrol. We were from all over and still managed to have things organized. They were a great bunch of women

We had to have a "buddy" for the day to do kapers and watch out for each other just like the girls do at camp. Mine was Sheri and we were a great team. We had fire duty for dinner

The glowing charcoal chimneys ready for the foil pouch dinners.

Our silver turtle dinners-italian chicken with veggies and cherry chocolate cobbler in the dutch oven. Yum!!!