High Adventure

The 4th year High Adventure for my Stake was this past weekend. You know I took my camera! But if you know me well, you know I forgot to use it.

It's quite frustrating, really. I want to take pictures, but I'd rather be hands free and enjoy myself. I need to do better about it. I'm working on it!

So this weekend I relied on my dear friend Kacey, who went on the camping trip, too. I told her she'd have to send me her pictures since I had a picture FAIL!

Here is a group picture, with our fun Fabulous Flying Monkey t-shirts. I'm so excited for the actual week of camp! Can't wait!!

Whistle While You Work...

Time has flown and our little guys are big enough to help around the house. House work never ends and if Mommy can get help, she's gonna take it! The boys love being helpers and are really good about cleaning up. That convinced me that it was time for them to have a chore chart. We planned this about a month or two in advance. I searched for the materials I wanted and worked on a Family Home Evening lesson that would tie everything in, a chore chart, responsibilities, working, and an allowance with money jars.

Here is Ezra posing with his new money jars. Boy, was he excited to get to drop coins in his jars! We decided that we would start them off with a couple of dollar bills. We showed Ezra some dollar bills and asked him what they was. We expected him to say "money" but instead he very quickly and clearly said "Cash!" We thought it was so funny! Who knows where he got that from!

Here is Ben with his money jars. He was so excited to get to separate the money and distribute it. He put a lot of his money into his Mission fund, because he can't wait to be 19 and go on a mission. He said he wants to go to Mexico on his mission.

I explained that the boys would have daily responsibilities that they needed to get gone. Once they did those, any other jobs they did would make them eligible to receive payment in form of money. I used clip-art to show what the jobs are, since they can't read yet. I also used some already made chore charts I got from Target dollar section to place the clip-art on. we put them on on a wall in our dining room, where they will see it multiple times a day, and be reminded that they too have to help.

On the back of each jar I used stick on letters to write their name so that we never confused which one belongs to whom.

The different jars are labeled "Mission" so they can save up for their missions; "Tithing" so they can put away the 10% of what they earn to pay in tithing; and "Savings" where we encourage them to save their money, and/or save up for something they really want.

I keep them together in the little "box" that the jars originally came from. My goal is to cover it in paper or mod podge it or maybe even just paint it. But I haven't gotten there yet.

Here are the charts I made with so much love. I didn't have a laminator so I used clear packing tape to laminate each square of clip-art.

It was a great FHE night. So far they've done pretty well. I hope this will allow them to be more responsible than I was while I was growing up. They had a blast with talking about all the different jobs they now had and with counting their money.

General Conference Weekend

This year's General Conference was fantastic! If you missed it, you can watch or listen here.

We set up a small folding table in the middle of the living room and prepared some fun snacks and lunch along with coloring and activity pages that were themed for Conference. The boys had a great time!

One of my favorite and uplifting talks of this years co

nference was Quentin L. Cook's. It was titled "LDS Women Are Incredible!" and one of the most amazing quotes (for me) was:

Our women are not incredible because they have managed to avoid the difficulties of life—quite the opposite. They are incredible because of the way they face the trials of life. Despite the challenges and tests life has to offer—from marriage or lack of marriage, children’s choices, poor health, lack of opportunities, and many other problems—they remain remarkably strong and immovable and true to the faith. Our sisters throughout the Church consistently “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.”

What a strengthening weekend it was! Here are

some pictures. Not many, I know, because we were too busy watching!

Orlando Temple

A few months ago we went to the Orlando Temple. We didnt go inside, but instead we hung out at the grounds and enjoyed soaking up the sun andtaking pictures. This was the first time the boys were at any temple, so it was neat to talk to them about it. Here are some pics.

Where are the Wintertime Blues?

Usually by this time in the year I'm just deeply yearning (imagine me stretching and reaching far out into the distance with a real look of yearning in my face-almost to the point of desperation) for the Spring to arrive, with its beautiful buds, warm bright sunshine and the sound of birds chirping the day away. I even wish for the Summer to hurry and skip over Spring. The Wintertime Blues are very well known to me. I try to pretend they haven't arrived, when in fact they've already moved in and unpacked the suitcases.

This year, however, is different. Very. I guess those Blues didn't get the address change and couldn't make it this year. Living in Florida has been phenomenal! I know its Winter; I get it. When we moved here people told us that we would love this season's Winter and that next year we would be more acclimated and freeze our little (or big) tushies off just like the rest of the Floridians.

Not so!

I am already freezing my little (big, really) tushie off! I'm a wimp, I guess. But this 50's weather is COLD! And then I laugh about it when I talk with family elsewhere in the country. They are in ranges of the teens to the 40s. Disclaimer: I'm not complaining!! I've got it good, and I know it!

So on a day where the temperature is 54degrees, I will wear my sweater, my scarf and my coat. And I feel kinda silly, because back in IN or NJ I would be celebrating that I only have to wear a jacket. But here, I can get away with it because lots of people do that. I like to be warm. I love to be warm.

The sky is still blue and the sun shines through, even if it is really cold out. Not so many gray, dark, cloudy, ugly days here. There aren't mountains of dirty snow that won't melt away, either. The trees aren't pretty (yet), but everything else makes up for it. I've been feeling pretty good! I'm still excited for the Spring, but I'm not desperately reaching for it.

Goodbye Wintertime Blues.

Hello Florida! I am falling for you, fast!

Papas Rellenas

Last week, on the first day of the new year, I decided I was going to make something really yummy and out of the ordinary for dinner. The problem was I had no idea what I was going to make. So as I stood in the kitchen thinking about things I enjoyed eating that I hadn't had in a long time I remembered the fabulous and delicious CubanInTheMidwest. Ivonne's blog is pretty much the epitome of the food I ate throughout my childhood. Growing up in urban NJ we had a true melting pot of Latinos from everywhere and I had a lot of the things she posts about. She is fantastic, with great recipes and pictures and directions for making delicious Cuban or Cuban-inspired food.

So I remembered that she made PapasRellenas or Meat Stuffed Potatoes. I already had garlic parmesan mashed potatoes made from scratch that had been leftover from dinner the other night. And I also had some picadillo (cooked ground beef) that would be enough for the potatoes.

I didn't follow her exact recipe since my "ingredients" were leftovers. And I used Panko bread crumbs, instead of regular. Here are a few pictures from my cooking.

Potato Ball already stuffed

Already breaded potato balls

In the frying pan!

These were soooo good! We scarfed them down before I realized I never took photos of the finished product. We made a yummy dipping sauce with ketchup and hot sauce (Cholula brand hot sauce is the best!) Please visit Ivonne'sRecipe to see how EASY this is and so worth the time! She says its quite messy, but my mess wasn't bad at all. Mmmm, so good!

Thank Goodness for Insurance?

Monday night, jammies are on and shortly it will be bed time.
Ezra cuts his left middle finger.
Lots of blood.
Inside "meat" is exposed. (thats what they called it while at Urgent Care. Yeah, real professional)
We bandage it and decide it's pretty bad we need to take him to said urgent care. They close in about 20 minutes.
We make it 5 minutes before closing time. We get told he needs to go to the emergency room at the hospital. Ben thinks they were brushing us off because they wanted to go home sooner than later.
We wait at the ER waiting room for almost 3 hours.
Come midnight thirty the nurse cleans the wound, adds a numbing cream, dressing, and gets the finger bandaged, pretty much the same way I bandaged it at home.
We get a couple extra of the above and are told we should change it daily.
We get discharged.


No X-rays, no stitches, no cast...


Our bill is over $2600.


Yeah, we've got insurance, but we still have to pay close to $500 out of pocket.


For pretty much a bandaid.


Awesome.