Check out this sweet skirt I made!

The scene: Deseret Industries.  It was a month before my brother's wedding, and I still needed to find some coral and yellow clothing.  The last 1,000 times I'd been shopping, things hadn't gone so well.  This time, I was determined to make it work.  Instead of looking for the right color AND fit AND item of clothing, I would only look for color.  Strategy: Walk along the racks and pick up anything that's either coral or yellow.

The result?

These pants.  

But, after a little picking, sewing, and ironing...

I ended up with this skirt!  It used to be huge pants, and now it's a skirt that fits me well and that I love. Woohoo!  Now I'm working on expanding my professional wardrobe.  Bring on the oversized pants, DI! 

favorite quote from today

This is what I looked like today.

When I walked into today's second grade class, a boy said, 

"You look like you went on vacation.

Or went shopping.

Or like maybe you're still a teenager!"

Last week, I straightened my hair instead of doing it curly.

In the same class, a boy asked me, 

"Is the reason you look different today because you brushed your hair?"

Those kids are so funny. :)

Agua de jamaica

Here's a recipe for those of you interested in trying agua de jamaica (a juice made from dried hibiscus flowers).  Enjoy!

on top of spaghetti

I made homemade spaghetti sauce tonight!

It was very tasty.  I picked the tomatoes from our garden; blanched, peeled and cored them; and cooked them into some taaaasty marinara sauce.  There wasn't tons of extra, since our tomatoes are pretty tiny, but what extra there was will be frozen for another day.  Yum!  

(Sorry I don't have a picture - you'll just have to imagine it.)

Recipe:

A bunch of tomatoes, peeled and cored

1 onion, diced

1 can tomato sauce

1/3 cup chicken broth

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Pour all ingredients into a large pot and boil until thickened.

If your eaters don't like chunky tomatoes, 

pour into a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!

the importance of backing up photos

Do it, people.

I have heard a few accounts in the last week or so of people either losing all their pictures or thinking they did.  They always include lines like, "I feel sick to my stomach," "I've been planning on backing them up but just hadn't gotten around to it yet," "I have cried over this several times," and "To lose my photos would be an absolute tragedy."

Burn your pictures onto CD's.  Put them onto flash drives.  Store them online (on shutterfly.com, picasa.com, we use smugmug.com.... there are many options).  Don't delete them off your camera immediately.  Send them to someone else. Putting them on Facebook is better than nothing.

Always keep a couple different forms of your pictures - print and on your computer; on your computer and online; on your camera and computer; print and online; scan your print pictures onto your computer; etc.  My personal routine?  Immediately after I put pictures on my computer from my camera, I upload them to an account on smugmug.com.  If I edit a picture later and want to upload the new version and delete the original, I'll do that.  But I always upload the originals immediately.

I'm serious.  Do it today.  Don't put it off another day.  It honestly doesn't take too long.  If you don't know how, call your son or mom or husband or granddaughter or neighbor who does IT.  Imagine how you would feel if you lost the pictures you currently have.  If you imagine yourself as sad, then back them up.

P.S.  Documents are important, too.

smart

I have always told Joel I never want a smart phone.  That's still true.  However, this video makes me want to get one just so I can get a phone from Solavei for such a great deal.

this week

Having no voice / Having a sore-throaty-cough makes it really hard to teach elementary school.  :(

I hope I get over this quick. 

I'm thankful for the kids who make the talkative ones be quiet since I can't do that very well this week.  :)

"Go and bring in those people now"

There has been a lot of rain in our city this weekend.  As many of you know, there were also some pretty big fires recently.  As a result, there has been tons of flooding and many homes are filled with mud.  Church was let out early today so the Relief Society could make food to send over to the flooded homes and all men over 16 were asked to help clean out those homes.  The man conducting church today reminded us of when Brigham Young stopped conference early to save those of the Martin and Willie handcart companies.

"Many of our brethren and sisters' [homes are filled with mud]... and we must send assistance to them.  That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to save the people.  I shall call upon the Bishops this day. I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until the next day... I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you..." - Brigham Young

On November 30, those companies arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

"It was Sunday, and again the Saints were gathered in the Tabernacle.  Brigham Young stood before the congregation and said: 'As soon as this meeting is dismissed I want the brethren and sisters to repair to their homes. ... The afternoon meeting will be omitted, for I wish the sisters to... prepare to give those who have just arrived a mouthful of something to eat..." - Gordon B. Hinckley

I am thankful for a husband who did not wait  - for me or anyone else to ask for his help - to change his plans for the evening, put on his work clothes, and go.  I am thankful that sandwiches can be made with tortillas when we're out of bread, and that my family left some deli meat when they were here last month so I could send something other than a cheese sandwich.  But mostly I am thankful to be a member of a church that practices what it teaches, a church that recognizes that when a neighbor's ox is in the mire, it is action and not meetings that will get it out.

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."  - Matthew 22:37-40

"...when ye are in the service of your fellowbeings ye are only in the service of your God." - Mosiah 2:17

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  - Matthew 25:34-40