Surprise!

My brother in law, Nathan, wanted to throw his wife Natalie a surprise Birthday party for her 30th B-day! I did all of the decorations. This was the fastest I've ever thrown together a party. I started on Friday and the party was on Monday! Nathan bought Rock Band for Natalie's B-Day present and so he wanted a Rock Star themed party. I couldn't find any ideas online so I had to completely come up with everything myself. I thought Leopard print and red would be a fun RockStar like theme.

Here's Natalie when she first walked in. She was completely surprised.

Here's the Buffet table. The party favors were Leopard Print Chinese take-out boxes tied with red ribbon. It had a candle from For Every Body in it.

The Rock Star banner I made.

The Paint can balloon anchor.

30 Banner!

I decoupaged Leopard paper on the bottom of the glasses and added glitter around the edges.

We all played Rock Band and had a great time. Happy 30th Natalie!

Food Storage

I have been feeling a pull to get more food storage together lately. Food Storage is a good idea because you never know when you might need it. Your husband or yourself could lose their/your job, there could be an earthquake or terrorist attack that would make it impossible to get to the store. Or another Great Depression (many economist's feel it's very likely). I've been trying to think outside the box of things that should be in my food storage. We all know it's a good idea to have wheat, beans, water, and oats. What else would we need if we weren't able to make it to the store for an extended amount of time? What if we didn't have water or power?

How would we do our laundry?


I found the last American company that makes washboards.

http://www.columbuswashboard.com/

I felt it was well built and I was glad I bought one. If you never need it it makes a cute laundry room decoration.

Next on my list is a metal washtub.











I also bought a lot of the Fels-Naptha heavy duty laundry bars. It's a solid laundry soap bar. I found them at Ace Hardware.









Another important thing would be a laundry clothesline and clothespins. I found a retractable clothesline at Ace Hardware. It's called the Handi-Line. And you can get clothespins at the dollar store.








We have one 55 gallon water barrel filled up in our garage. It wouldn't last too long with 6 people so I want to get more. It is a start though.












I want to get a sure water tank ASAP. They have a 250 gallon to over 500 gallon tanks.
https://www.surewatertanks.com/



























Another important thing to have is handkerchiefs. You can wash them over and over. A better idea than storing a ton of Kleenex.









Another very important thing I have in my Food Storage is glad rags. http://www.gladrags.com/


Glad Rags are washable maxi pads. You might think that sounds gross but it would be hard to store a lot of maxi pads or tampons. They come in a lot of different sizes. If you couldn't get to a store you'd be very glad you had some of these.













I also have cloth diapers stored. If you don't need them someone else will. It would make a great barter item.





















What if you couldn't get to your bank or the banking system was closed down for some reason (For example the government closes it for a "bank holiday" to avoid a run on the bank)?

I plan on getting some silver coins soon. Right now it's hard to find a website that have silver or gold coins in stock. I found one after a lot of searching. http://www.apmex.com/ I feel silver coins are better than gold cuz it would be easier to trade things with silver than gold. I wouldn't store US Dollars because you never know what the value of the dollar is going to be. Gold and silver are always valuable.









Another thing I've stored is bags of hard candy. We are a nation addicted to sugar. If you don't need it it would make a great barter item.








I also keep some clothes, underwear, and shoes a few sizes ahead of what my kids are in right now. During the Great Depression not having these things for kids was a big problem.


Most every time I go grocery shopping I pick up some shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, lotion and/or toothpaste for my food storage. Get the stuff on sale! These would be priceless if you couldn't make it to the store.


I store vinegar and baking soda. You can use these two things for so many cleaning jobs and also you can use it in your cooking.

I have a lot of spices in my food storage. It's a great way to spice up some boring food storage!

Another thing that is hard to store a lot of is Toilet Paper. I have some but it goes pretty fast then what do you do? I have some spray bottles stored for this purpose. You put some liquid soap in it with some water and use it to spray yourself off with.













A sun oven is a great thing is have in case there wasn't any power or gas to run your stove. http://www.energystork.com/









A solar flashlight is another great item to have. http://www.energystork.com/










I hope I don't ever need to use all of this but I feel better knowing I have it just in case. It's better to be safe than sorry! Hope this gave you some ideas about things you've never thought to have with your food storage items.

Pinewood Derby

Christian participated in the Pinewood Derby with his Scout Troop on March 3, 2009. He worked so hard on his car. Here's a picture of him with his friend's and a picture of him putting his car on the track for his first race.

Christian got 7th place overall.

He won an award for most creative car!

Great Job Christian!

Valentines Day and the Daybreak Prom!

On Valentines Day Sterling and I ate at The Thai House and then headed to Murray's Art Center for a night of dancing to a live band. They gave a flower to all the women and served refreshments. At intermission some dance students performed three different Salsa dances. Very fun! I'd have to say that this is one of the most fun dates Sterling and I have been on in our 10 years together! I'm sad I don't have a picture with both Sterling and me. We didn't have anyone to take our picture so you'll have to settle for a picture of just me.

Then the next Friday Sterling and I went to Daybreak's Adult Prom! It was fun and made me feel like I was in High School again! It's so fun that we were able to go dancing two weeks in a row. I hadn't been dancing for a few years before this. So it was long overdue!

Karate Kid!

Christian earned his Brown Belt in Karate last Wed.! We're so proud of him. The picture is at the beginning of his test so he doesn't have his brown belt on. He has been working really hard

twice a week for four years to get to this point.

Way to go Christian!

Christian also earned his wolf and three arrow points in Cub Scouts in December!

Thanksgiving

Some of Sterling's Family!

We're all trying to recover from two fun filled days spent celebrating Thanksgiving! This year we went down to Sterling's parent's on Thursday and spent the night. The kids had a blast sleeping in the loft with their cousins (from CO so they don't get to see them very often). We had a great time catching up with Sterling's sister, Celeste and her husband Kevn and kids.

Jason, Christian, and Emilee.

In the evening the older kids and Sterling made things out of Popsicle sticks and glue guns. They had a blast making bridges and houses and Sterling made a huge Turkey!

Jason and Raina

Sterling and I got up at 4 AM to hit some black Friday sales. First we went to Wal-Mart. It was pure chaos. We only had to wait in the check out line for 1 hour and 15 min. Then we went to Kohl's. I think I waited about an hour in that line also. It was crazy but I did get some killer deals so to me it was worth it!

Emilee enjoying her pumpkin pie!

Then we went back to Sterling's parents and got Thanksgiving dinner ready again. 5 of Sterling's siblings plus spouses and kids came on Friday. It was so much fun visiting with everyone! When I first married into Sterling's family gatherings like this were sort of overwhelming because I wasn't used to all the chaos and noise. I' m used to it now. It's crazy, fun and very loud! In the evening we all played Balderdash! It was great fun. I then got the kids ready for bed and we headed home. We got home at 10:30 PM and I was beat. I had been up since 4 AM and didn't get a nap. We had a great Thanksgiving and hope you all did as well!

For South Summit Alumni

I was reading the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday, and came across a weekly article in which people can write recipe requests and The Tribune tries to find it, whether the recipe is from a restaurant or just a long lost favorite recipe. Someone wrote in to get the Almond Cookie Recipe from the South Summit lunch ladies. I've seriously been craving these for 10 years now! I've tried many almond cookie recipes from the internet and none of them come even close. So I was Thrilled that they got the home sized recipe from the lunch ladies! I wanted to post it here in case any of you have been craving them as much as I have!

Almond Cookie

1 Cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 1/3 Cups brown sugar (not packed)
2 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups Flour
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and almond extract and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture until combined. Drop by teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. Press down. Bake 8-10 minutes. Over baking will dry them out.
Servings: 4 dozen

Enjoy!