And now we shall rest from our labors for a season

This weekend was Labor Day weekend.  We were able to take a trip to Junk Town (Grand Junction, CO) for the weekend to spend time with our family.  It really was a great weekend.  We are so thankful to Harrison's mother and grandmother for setting up our arrangements to come and visit.  We love the fact that Alliegant Air has a direct flight to and from Grand Junction.  GJ is such a small place and it was an answer to prayers I think when they set up the flights between our home in Vegas and our family in GJ. 

I took along some airplane reading material. I love Martha Stewart but I love her Halloween special issue even more. I am frustrated that this is NOT part of my annual subscription... but whatever!

We spent a couple of days on "The Mountain" with Harrison's parents and grandmother.  It is fun to spend time together up there.  It is quite beautiful and it is a great break from the Vegas heat and hustle and bustle of the city.  Just trees, cool breezes, conversation around the fire, hikes, naps, and reading with a blanket. 

I was so excited to wear long sleeves and shiver when I went to sleep.  I am SO ready for fall to come.  I am officially tired of the hot summer (but mark my words... come January... I will want them back).

We had a lot of good visiting time.  There were lots of memories and feelings shared about the mountain and the gospel.  I am thankful for those.  We ate good camp food... pancakes and eggs for breakfast, taco salad, and hot dogs (with Catalina dressing instead of ketchup... most people liked that variation.  I was too chicken to try it... I am lame). 

We brought dogs with us.  They were fun.  They love it up there.  Tucker and Abby and Little Bits loved taking swims through the yucky lake.  I call it yucky because it is.  It is quite mossy and I would never swim in it myself... especially when we had to check for leeches on the dogs after they got out... eeww.

You can see that the dogs are quite dirty from their swim in this picture.  What you can't smell is the horrid smell that they smell like.  They smell like rotting something.  EEWW!

All three dogs were given baths.  Tucker is all clean now in this picture.  They had to wait inside while they dried off since it was getting quite chilly outside at this point.  I was happy to love on the dogs when they were clean.  The cleanliness was short lived.  They got back into the lake the next morning.  They were of course stinky and brown again.

We spent Saturday evening with my family.  I am sad I didn't take more pictures... but it was fun anyway.  We ate a wonderful BBQ dinner and watched my dad and brother shoot off some big fireworks that my dad got while he was on a business trip in Wyoming.  It was fun.  I love being with my family (especially my sisters)

We get really silly together and have a grand ol' time.  I am thankful for them... even if we end up punching each other by the end of the night (in a sister-ly way though- I promise).

I love visiting GJ because it is a nice break... but like all vacations- it was too short and I was sad to have to come home.  I heard from somebody once that it is the BEST time to come home when you don't want to.  I believe that.  When you wear out your welcome and you are tired of being on vacation... it seems that the burned-out feeling is what sticks... whereas when you leave for home while you are still quite enjoying yourself... there are always better experiences and feelings.

It was nice to sleep in my own bed on Sunday night.  There is nothing as awesome as the feeling of your own bed at night.  It is one of the BEST things about coming home.

Yesterday (actual Labor Day) we did a bit of shopping.  I have been told by quite a few people (who shall remain nameless) that my style is beginning to be frumpy and quite grandma-like.  So- we went and did a little updating.  I was SO happy to find that everywhere was having a great sale!  We didn't buy anything full price!  YAY!  We shopped at places like:


Now I have never shopped and A&F.  But- their denim was 50% off and we couldn't pass up $40 jeans!

I have never purchased anything from H&M either.  I have been inside before, but there is always something just a little "off" with their clothes for me.  Well, Harrison talked me into getting a fall blazer with padded elbows (quite the 80's throw-back).  I was scared but Harrison made me brave.

We didn't find a dang thing at Old Navy.  It doesn't surprise me though.  They did have a pair of cropped pants that I am still thinking about though.  I might go back and get them.

 There aren't many things I can afford in Saks... but I can afford Clinique mascara.  So that is what I got there.  Probably the lowest amount spent EVER at Saks... $14.50.

After our shopping, we went to lunch at Blondies.  They have really good Cobb Salad.  But our service wasn't the best this time.  BOO

 

I am thankful that Harrison and I were able to spend the weekend together.  We both have busy schedules (especially his grad school schedule) and there aren't many weekends when we have the ENTIRE weekend together.  This was a real treat.  It was also awesome that we were able to spend a lot of our time with family.  I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend.  What did you do?  Tell me about it in a comment!  



Going Green

A couple of weeks ago I went to Target to buy laundry soap.  It seems that about every 6 weeks I run out of laundry detergent, fabric softener, dryer sheets, bleach, Woolite, blah blah blah.  Well- those things are stinkin' expensive!  It seriously costs me like $60-$70 a trip when I need to buy it all.  Well- I decided that enough is enough.  I decided to go green.  I decided not to throw my money away at the companies that charge me $18 for a product that costs about $1 to make and contains potentially harmful chemicals.  Now- with that said... I am not the type of person that is always watching my carbon footprint and recycling like I should and such... but I am the kind of person who is willing to find little ways to make a difference in the environment and improve my way of life.  In this case, it will also ease the stress on my pocketbook as well.

So anyway- I decided that I would make my own cleaning products.  I have been reading quite a few blog posts about the subject and I found a few recipes that I thought would be the best suited for me and my life.  I have made and tested the following products: Powdered Laundry Detergent, Surface Cleaner, Mildew Cleaner, and Dishwasher Detergent.  

I have had quite a few inquiries about the recipes and the outcome of my cleaners, so I thought I would blog about them and give you my opinion... and share the recipes as well. So I have discovered that there are a few things that you should have in your cleaning arsenal at all times.  Always have these things on hand.  They are for the most part quite affordable and they will last forever.  One of the great things about them as well... they are non-toxic.  So, if your kids, pets, or brothers decide to lick, step in, or touch the things you clean... they are going to be alright.  There are no fumes either.  SO GREAT.  OK- here is the list of must haves:

-Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer makes one that you can get at Wal Mart)

-Baking Soda (not the same as washing soda)

-Vinegar (just regular white vinegar... and buy the BIG one like in the pic above)

-Borax (you can find this at Target or Wal Mart or the grocery store)

-Essential Oils (tea tree, grapefruit, and lavender are some great ones. These are used to make some of your cleaners smell good.  That is all they are used for)

-Lemon Juice (used as an antibacterial agent and also a scent provider)

-Hydrogen Peroxide

-Liquid Castile Soap (I found Dr Bronner's at Trader Joes for about $10)

OK- First up:

Surface Cleaner

-16oz Spray Bottle

-2 tsp Borax

-1/4 tsp Castile Soap

-Hot water (it needs to be hot so the Borax dissolves)

Mix all ingredients together in spray bottle.  The castile soap I got is scented with peppermint already so I didn't need to use any essential oils or anything to scent this particular cleaner.

I used this on my kitchen today.  It was wonderful.  It cleaned my counters, sink, and stove top great and my kitchen smelled so good.  This can be used on ALL surfaces.  It is quite gentle but effective.  I did have to mix it around a few times during use to make sure the Borax was getting mixed in.

All Purpose Liquid Cleaner (like to clean your floors)

-1 gallon HOT water

-1 tbsp baking soda

-2 tbsp castile soap

I have not used this yet, but I am sure it works great.  Just put it where you need it and clean clean clean.

All Purpose Abrasive Cleaner

-Castile soap

-2 tbsp baking soda

Mix together to make a foamy paste.  

I used this to clean my stove top.  It worked quite well.  It took a little more elbow grease to get the stuck on gunk to come loose but it wasn't that bad.  Again, the peppermint smell was great.

Dishwasher Detergent

-1 cup Borax

-1 cup Washing Soda

-3 packets Lemonade flavored unsweetened Kool-Aid

Mix together in big container.  Use 1 tbsp per load of dishes. 

I used this today.  I thought the dishes would have a lemon scent to them but they didn't.  They did come completely clean but there was soap scum on lots of my glasses.  I don't know if this is the detergent's fault though.  My dishwasher is kind of a piecer.

Mildew Killer

-Spray Bottle

-1 part Hydrogen Peroxide

-2 parts water

5 drops essential oil

Mix together in bottle.  Spray on area.  Let sit one hour. Rinse after one hour.

I haven't used this one yet.  I didn't have an hour to wait for the cleaner to sit.  I am planning on using it after the Labor Day holiday though.  I used grapefruit oil in mine.  It smells divine!

Powdered Laundry Detergent

-1 cup grated Fels Naptha (this is a bar soap you can get at Wal Mart in the laundry section)

-1/2 cup Washing Soda

-1/2 cup Borax

Mix together in big container.  Use 1-2 tbsp per load depending on size.

I have my test load of laundry in the dryer right now so I don't have a definite answer on how this works yet.  I used it on some towels that had been left in the washer for almost 2 days... so they were smelly and mildew-y.  They came out of the washer quite clean smelling though.

So- there you have it.  I am also going to make my own air/fabric freshener (like Fabreze) but I haven't made it yet so I am not going to write it here.

Let me know if you have any questions.  I am planning on making toilet bowl cleaner in the near future.  I will also let you know how that one works out for me.  

Well- I hope this has been informative!  Let me know if you have any questions!

The Summit of Mount Laundry

I have a love/hate relationship with laundry.  I love washing laundry.  I love buying the clean smelling detergent and fabric softener.  I love putting the dirty laundry in the washing machine and adding the concoction of powders and liquids that make it come out clean. I love getting the clothes out of the dryer and pressing them against my face and breathing in deeply the smells of lavender, vanilla, and cleanliness.  This is where my love ends.
The hate begins at this point.  I hate folding laundry.  I hate ironing laundry.  I hate hanging clean laundry up.  I hate putting laundry away in its correct spot.  So this is why every so often we have to summit MOUNT LAUNDRY

This is the laundry that has been piled up, washed, re piled, worn, washed, and RE PILED about 5 times in the last 6-8 weeks.  Pathetic.  When the laundry is done in the dryer, I just throw it on the guest bed.  Throw it there and we just grab what we need to wear out of the pile as we need it. 
Well- I was tired of seeing this mountainous pile of clothing and linens... so- last night we folded and hung all of our clothes.  It took us 2 episodes of Mad Men to get it done.... so about an hour and a half.  So sad.  Most of the clothes were wrinkled and they didn't smell like fabric softener anymore... they were just clothes.  Sad.

Now our closets and dressers are filled to the brim with clean (and wrinkled) clothes.  I always tell myself that I will never let Mount Laundry become more than just a speed bump... but who am I kidding??  We will probably have an enormous Mount Laundry again before we know it. 

There.  Now you know something kind of "wrong" about me.  It is kind of funny.  We here in Blog-land always put our best faces on.  We post about the GREAT things that happen to us and post these cute and "perfect" pictures of our lives.  We all do it.  I mean, who wants to read about somebodies REAL LIFE??  HA.  But- I thought I would give you a look into what it is really like around here... behind the hobbies, the projects, and the fun vacations.

What kinds of things are "real" in your life??  Mount laundry? Mount dishes (which I will post about someday... I think my sink is starting to smell rotten again because the dishes are piled), Dog window art (you know... when your windows are smudged because of the dog, kids, and what-n-not).  What makes you REAL??  Leave me a comment and tell me!!!

And a very Thankful Thursday to you too!

Yeah- there are a few things I am thankful for this week:

Date Nights
We went and watched the planes take off and land the other night at the airport.  It is a fun thing.  There is a radio station you can tune your radio to and hear the air traffic controllers talk to the planes.  Harrison also found an app on his phone that allowed us to look up the flight numbers to see where the planes were coming from and going to.  It was fun!  Especially when we heard the pilot in his British accent talking to the control tower as he was leaving with this big 747 full of people on their way to London.

Brok
He is my brother.  The 6th out of 10 kids.  He is 14 years my younger.  I love him!  He is smart and funny and a pretty dang good looking kid.  He won his football game last weekend 31-6.  Good job Brok!  I am so proud of you!

New hair-do's
Well sort of.  This was an attempt to use Velcro curlers again.  My hair never turns out very great when I use them.  I found a really cool tutorial on using them on Pinterest.com (of course) and thought I would try it again.  It started out great and it was great UNTIL the very end.  My hair has not been cut or trimmed since December (eeww... I know) and so my lucious waves were flat as a pancake in about 5 minutes after taking them out of the rollers.  Crap!  I will attempt it again when I get my hair cut.  But I am thankful anyway for the tutorial and the hour and a half I spent on it and my fun make-up (which I don't have a picture of).

Cupcakes
I love them.  I really do.  I am all about the cupcake craze right now.  I really am.  I love the fact that it is a little personal and portable cake.  I love the fun things you can do with cupcakes.  We celebrated a co-worker's birthday at work the other day and there were CUPCAKES brought in.  They looked so dang cute!  I was excited to take a picture of them all!  I really like the colors in this picture.

Hobbies
Harrison and I have our fair share of hobbies.  We have a ton of fun with them.  One of the hobbies that Harrison has always loved is photography.  He really has a great talent for this hobby.  He set up his dark room stuff in the guest bathroom last week to print some photos from some negitives.  It was fun to see him create stuff.

Find something to be thankful for this week.  I heard a quote this week that I really liked:
Everyday might not be good, but there is something good every day!  I believe that!

Thankful Thursday... a day early again

Why can't I get my butt into gear and blog more?  I dunno.  Well- here is a round of Thankful Thursday for all:

Good Deals:
So it is no mystery that I am a bargain shopper.  I shop the sale isles, I shop the clearance racks... and recently I have decided to be brave enough to search for some awesome deals at second-hand stores.  You see- I have this really weird phobia of clothes that have been worn by an unknown person.  But- I have tried to break out of that mindset and fond some dang cute clothes for a dang good price.  Like... my Talbots pencil skirt for $4.  Yeah- awesome!

My Hot Husband:
I love him for so many reasons.  We have had a few "discussions" the last couple of days (why does it seem that "discussions" happen all the time for a time and then there are no "discussions" for a long time in a marriage.  Weird).  Well- as emotionally charged as some of those "discussions" have been, we always seem to work it out.  ALWAYS.  I am so thankful for that.  I am thankful for his patience and his willingness to work it all out.  Plus: he is pretty dang handsome if you ask me:

Cliche and Positive Quotes:
Yeah- I am a sucker for cliche quotes.  Here are some of my favorite... presented in an eye pleasing way:

Well- be thankful for something today... and everyday! 

Thin-spiration. Just a little rant

Well- for the most part... I try really hard to be positive on this here blog.  I mean- who wants to read a blog of crap and hate and rants and depression and whining and stuff??  Not me really.  But... I can't be silent about this anymore!  I have been totally into Pinterest.com lately and it really is an amazing site for inspiration and creativity (let me know if you want an invite to join).  Well- there is a ton of crap circulating on this site called "THIN-spiration".  These are posts and pictures of being skinny and doing whatever it takes to get that way.  I am totally tired of it!  I know eating disorders and things of this nature are nothing new... but I have just had enough.  Starving yourself or punishing yourself for eating and not being "skinny" is just sick and wrong.  Well- here is some of the crap that I see on that site (which ironically make me want to puke.  But not in an unhealthy eating disorder kind of way).

It just makes me sad and a bit angry to see all of this circulating around.  Now- do NOT misunderstand me.  I do NOT believe that OVER eating and living an unhealthy and unbalanced lifestyle are acceptable.  I do, however, believe that there is moderation in all things.  I do believe in well balanced diet and exercise and keeping yourself healthy and in shape.  I have come up with some of my own "Healthy Living" inspiration to counteract the effects of these borderline (if not COMPLETE) eating disorder like thoughts...

I feel really strongly about this.  All people (and especially women and girls I feel) should learn healthy and positive habits.  Eat healthy and act healthy.  Get enough sleep and exercise and indulge a bit too!  It is JUST FINE to eat a damn cookie and to have a piece of cake.  Just don't eat the entire dozen or the entire pan at one time.  I mean, come on people.  

Sorry about the rant but I just can't keep quiet any longer.  Hate me if you want for talking about this... but you know what... my blog- my rules :)  So to all of you reading this today- eat a cookie.  And remember to walk around the house while you are talking on the phone (it will burn some calories).

Remember when I used to post a lot?

What happened to those days?  I dunno.  I miss those days though.  Looking through old blog posts and remembering that I used to write and blog about all the things we did and the places we went and the things we were doing.... I got sad because I don't do that anymore.  Well- I am going to try and change that.  I am going to write about us more.  I am going to make a new commitment to tell our life story more regularly.  So- here is what has been going on the last little while:

A couple of weeks ago we were in the mood for waffles.  Of course we didn't want to MAKE the waffles, so we went to IHOP to indulge.  While we were waiting for our food, we played the "see who can push the sugar packet across the table and get it to hang off the table the farthest without the packet falling or flying off the table" game.  We haven't played that in a long time.  I won... SEE:  

It was a fun time.  We enjoyed our breakfast for dinner.

I love to paint my nails and I haven't been posting about my latest "designs"... so- here are a couple of designs from the last couple of weeks:

About a week and a half ago we had one of our cats (Spock) come into the house to visit us one evening.  We haven't had them in the house for quite sometime but we let them mill around for an hour or so in the evening.  Well- I decided to let Spock spend the night in the bedroom that night.  We were petting him and Harrison noticed that his back paws were in bad shape.  It looked almost as if a few of his claws had been ripped out.  OUCH!  They were bloody and very painful looking.  Well we decided that he was going to be an inside cat while we let his paws heal up.  Well- he is LOVING the fact that he is now an inside cat.  He is quite well behaved too!  He sleeps at the foot of my bed almost the entire day and night... unless he is sleeping in the bay window downstairs, the chair at my sewing machine table, or waking me up at 5:30am when my alarm goes off (he is in my face and mewing until I get up).

I have also been doing a few sewing projects.  I have finally overcome the fear of my sewing machine and I have really enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment when my projects turn out AMAZING!  So- here are some before and after shots of my new kitchen and dining room curtains.  I am quite pleased with them:  **DISCLAIMER:  There isn't the best lighting in the kitchen/dining room really EVER so these pics are pretty crappy looking but you get the picture (oh- and don't mind the dirty dishes in the sink... hey- we live here and we are kinda messy)

And last but not least- we have decided what we are going to do with our NASTY and beyond repair parquet wood floors.  I saw this idea via Pinterest.com (my new fav social networking site) and I about died with excitement.  Paint the wood floors!  So simple... so awesome looking... and about a tenth of the cost of replacing the floors!  So- Harrison practiced in the downstairs coat closet.  Now- these are NOT the final colors for the kitchen/dining room... BUT they are still awesome!  We are however using the chevron pattern.

Now I know there are a lot of peeps that will see this and think... HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO WOOD FLOORS??!!  But folks- we can do what we want!  Ha.  But really- the floors cannot be repaired or refinished.  So- we decided to paint them.  Its a great idea.  It really is.

Oh- and one more thing.  I am reading the most wonderful book.  I have been feeling sort of different lately and kind of weird.  I couldn't really put my finger on it until about a month ago.  I decided that I needed to be happier.  I don't really feel depressed but I just feel unhappy.  I feel like I could be a much more positive person and an overall happier person if I just set my mind to it.  So- I went to Barnes and Noble the other day to look in their self-improvement section.  I haven't read "self-help" books since I was a teenager and read 7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens  and Chicken Soup for the Teenagers Soul and other LDS self-esteem books.  Anyway- I thought I might find some good reads and something inspiring.  Well- I went straight for the "H" section to see if I could find something on Happiness.  Well- a book jumped right out at me.  It is called The Happiness Project.  It has been a wonderful book!

I am about 1/3 of the way through it.  I have highlighted the CRAP out of it too!  There is so much good stuff in it.  All sorts of ways to become a happier person... to become your best self.  I am very much enjoying it.  I suggest everybody read it.  

Well- I think that is a good update for now.  I am going to be better at posting about what the heck we are up to in our "daily" lives and not just what we did for birthdays and vacations.  I miss blogging often.  I guess I just felt like we weren't interesting anymore.  Well- I was wrong.  We are totally interesting!  We are awesome!  We are blog worthy! 

Search for the missing song

So I decided to switch my songs from Myspace (yeah, it's still around) to Soundcloud. Soundcloud is a much better set up and seems a lot better. But anyway I started looking for the three songs I had recorded on my computer recently and I was only able to find two of them. Which is troubling because you may remember this post where Jaala is laying down her vocals, and it is clearly on my laptop.

 But for some reason that file is nowhere to be found. It seems to have vanished into thin air. And of course Myspace is so esoteric that there is no clear way to download it from their site.

At any rate, things are going well in the therapy/grad school world. I had a meeting with a fellow student this evening for a project we have teamed up on and we were able to talk about some troubling things about our lives as well as come up with some pretty awesome sounding ideas for our project. All in all, even though we stayed an extra 3 hours at school it was fun.