Liquid GOLD!

Have you ever wondered what liquid gold looks like. Well, my friends, take a gander at the little beauties above and fill your eyes with an absolutely breath taking view.

I canned peaches for my very first time and while I didn't find it to be much cheaper, I took pleasure in 2 things: I learned a new skill that was actually really fun in a self-satisfying way and after Jason had his first taste he declared, "Oh honey, I don't think you made enough....these won't last a week at our house!"

I have to admit that I am keeping a tight reign on how often we are allowed to open a bottle of peaches, I am hoping these things are going to last us until the millennium. It's true that every time a bottle is opened I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Just knowing that I am 1 more bottle down for all my hard work....it's right up there with all those sick things like spilling freshly pumped breast milk.

*Go ahead and shudder, I know you want to*

Green is the new Black!

I'll have to admit, when we first moved to WA I thought that recycling was Such.A.Pain. Why in the world do we have to sort our trash? I mean, come on.....it's garbage for Pete's sake! I thought it was insane to wash our empty cans and yogurt containers before throwing them away. I mean, what a waste of time and water, right?Well, I must say that after living here for 4 years, recycling is starting to grow on me. And frankly, I really enjoy putting a little tiny garbage can out on curb while rolling out a humongous one of recyclables to sit right next to it.

It seems like being green has really become trendy lately. And I admit, I ain't exactly jumping completely on the bandwagon but the idea of eating "organic" and "recycling" is appealing to me. I'm not exactly making my own compost though.

Now there is one area of the green-scheme that is driving me crazy. And scheme is exactly how I feel about it. The idea of purchasing your own grocery bags and using them over and over. I can just imagine the pitch meeting for this idea.

"Attention members! Profits are down....now what are we going to do about it?"

"How about we stop making grocery bags altogether....in fact, we could manufacture canvas bags and sell them to the consumers. Thereby eliminating our cost from the paper or plastic bags and making the consumers buy their own."

"Do you think the consumers would really fall for that?!?"

"Sure! We'll tell them it's better for the environment and they will be crawling all over themselves to buy their own reusable grocery bags! It's brilliant."

When I first saw the bags for sell at Costco, I scoffed. "Are you serious? Who in their right minds is going to buy their own grocery bags, when they can get all they want at the end of the check stand for free?"

When I saw women carrying in their own grocery bags to shop, I scoffed. It's like they were members of their own exclusive club and I wasn't invited.

You know, if the grocery stores would just give us a small percentage off our total bill if we brought in our own grocery bags then I could totally see the reasoning behind it. Come on, they have to be making bank off this new idea. Spread the wealth, why don't ya!

The other day I was at QFC and as I was nearing the cash register there was this stack of really cute reusable grocery bags hanging there.....and I was tempted. When I thought about it long and hard ....I guess I could see the wisdom in using reusable grocery bags. I glanced quickly over my shoulder to make sure no one was looking before I purchased my first reusable grocery bag. I loaded my bananas in my very own bag and practically skipped out to the truck. Like I had just been inducted into a very exclusive sorority.









We, the sistas of the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle sorority, promise to stop using paper products, use our own grocery bags when ever possible, use both sides of each sheet of paper and wash and recycle all yogurt containers.

I guess it's all starting to grow on me.....Ew, something green is starting to grow on me. Gross! :)

Here are some great ideas for helping to keep Mother Earth green:

1. Use two sides of every sheet of paper.
2. Start reading an e-books , not hard copy of books.
3. Switch off all electronic appliances when you don’t need them.
4. Use rechargeable batteries.
5. Sort your garbage into bio-degradable and non bio-degradable.
6. Plant a tree and take care of it.
7. Try to make compost from organic household waste.
8. Don’t use disposable cups, plates, and cutlery.
9. Refuse plastic bags when you don’t really need them and use your own bag instead.
10. Use Public transportation more often.
11. Check the emission of your vehicle regularly.
12. Learn how to reduce, reuse,and recycle.

That's a first!

About a week and a half ago I took Dallin and Thatcher to McDonald's. Dallin had so much fun playing on the playground that he only had about 2 bites of his hamburger. Well, I wasn't about to chuck the perfectly good hamburger in the garbage, so instead I wrapped it nicely up and tucked it into my purse; figuring he would eat it later that day. Well, we went home and I completely forgot about it! I found the thing a week and a half later, (still good, I might add) in the dark abyss of my purse; thankfully it didn't attract bugs. As I pulled the hamburger out I thought..."What's this?!?! ..Whoa! I just found an old hamburger in my purse. That's a first!"

Family Search!

Okay, I have to admit, I have never been one to get into genealogy stuff. I did take a class in college on how to do it and I learned a lot about the program and how to get family names temple ready etc. Unfortunately I didn't retain ANY of it. Once I walked out the door on the last day of class, one of those brain sucker things landed right on my head and "slurp" the information from that whole semester was sucked right out never to be heard from again.

I have tried to go back a couple of times and search stuff online but I just can't figure it out. Maybe if I was really motivated to do it, I would re-take a class or something but honestly, that kind of stuff is just so hard for me to get charged about. Plus, my family history is researched back a long way already.

OH See? do you see how I am trying to justify my lack of accomplishment in this area!?!? Unbelievable!

Anyway, I no longer have the guilt that sits on my shoulders from sins of omission in this area! Last Sunday, a high councilman was speaking in sacrament meeting. I don't even know what his name was, but between trips to the bathroom, changing a diaper and nursing in the mother's lounge I happened to hear him mention how easy it is to become a volunteer indexer for familysearch.org. He also mentioned that there was a great article in the August Ensign that talked all about it.

Well, on Monday night as I was getting ready for bed, I remembered that talk in sacrament meeting and so I went hunting for the August Ensign. I read the article and I got REALLY excited about it. I would have logged on right there and signed up except Jason was working on the laptop. Anyway, the next morning I signed up (it was so easy, all you need is your email address and a computer) I read through the tutorials that help you know how to work the program and decipher some pretty funky handwriting and voila I got started right there. That first day, I remember feeling such a sense of the spirit, it was like going to the temple, or "gasp" working on my family history. :) Even though I'm not furthering my own line I am making it possible for others to find their family members and it feels so good.

Everyday, I can't wait until Dallin and Thatcher go down for their naps so I can run to the computer and index. It's crazy. I have already done 600 names and it hasn't even been a week. No, I'm not telling all of this so that I can give myself a big pat on the back, but because it is part of the reason I have been absent from the land of "blog" and because I am so stinkin' excited about it.

I don't know what it is about it that I love but, when I start typing in people's names and where they lived and whether they were married/single/widowed or how many children they had and their ages...it's like I really start thinking about PEOPLE that lived a really long time ago. It has information on whether they could read/write and their occupation and it's just so awesome thinking about them and what their lives must have been like.

The best thing is that you do it from your own home and on your own time. If you don't have time to do it one week, no problem. You download 50 names to your computer and you work on those until you are done and then submit them back. If a week goes by and you didn't finish the names, they will go back automatically and go to someone else to be indexed. No Problem. If you sit down to index and your baby wakes up crying after 5 minutes then you just save and come back when you can. It's so user friendly and that's just what I needed.

I guess the 2 main things that I love about it is:
1. it's like detective work, when you can't quite make out the dates or the exact spelling in their name then you get to research....just call me "Sherlock".
2. it makes me feel like I am doing something important for someone else ...at my own convenience, of course. :)