Church was excellent today. I love Claire being in nursery so I can really concentrate on the lessons. We talked about Elder Bednar's talk about being more diligent at home. A very good reminder. There is an older couple that just moved into the ward and we're getting their moving boxes tomorrow. Whoo hoo! They are nice boxes too...like the ones from the moving places. We are breaking down all the boxes we get when we get to Utah. I DONT want to do this again! We've been married 3 years and have collected boxes 4 times. It's just annoying. We're keeping them for when we get a house. Brian is at a fire side that they just announced today. I decided it wasn't worth wrestling Claire :)

Tomorrow is laundry day. Gotta clean and make some bread. Not much going on this week but cleaning and organizing. Gotta get all our stuff up on Craiglist and out of the 3rd bedroom so Brian's mom will have a place to stay when she comes in April! lol. We are trying to get as much money as possible from our stuff. What doesn't sell I'll just freecycle.

Just stuff

So nothing huge has been going on...so here are some of the random stuff.

Work

They are interviewing people for a position at Sawtooth, like what Brian does. Another consultant is going to be leaving soon to go get his PhD. They have narrowed it down to 5, and then they will narrow it down to 3 and probably bring them up here to interview. Brian actually knows two of the guys they are thinking about. One he really liked and the other he did not like. Kinda funny. They have a list and put the pros and cons of each. It makes us wonder what Brian's pros and cons were :) Can't have been too many cons since he got the job! It's still pretty interesting with the company moving. We still get a lot of comments about it at church. Someone said that 20% of OUR wards attendance is going to be gone. There are still two other wards but I think we have the most Sawtooth people in ours. I guess there was some discussion about going from 3 wards to 2 once everyone leaves but I think the Stake President said no. I think we are going to be moving in early July...AH! I need to start cleaning out the window sills, although they were filthy when we moved in anyway. I have been looking at houses in Utah but its pretty pointless since we will be renting for a year anyway and we don't even know where they are putting the company yet! I did look up the address of one house that I REALLY like in the Sex offenders website and what do you know, there is one two doors down. Blah. Puts that house out of the running. I was very surprised at the amount of sex offenders in Utah county. Ick.

Baby

I'm feeling good. Tomorrow is my midwife appointment. I'm doing my Gestational Diabetes testing. One thing I really really like is that I don't have to drink that nasty sugar drink. Whahaha. I get to pick whatever I want, as long as I get 50 grams of sugar in. I went to the store and got some White Cran-strawberry juice. I have to drink like 2 cups of that. I love the flexibility too. My midwife is in Port Townsend which is like 45 minutes away. BUT my appointment is at 5 so Brian can come with me without missing any work! Yay for a babysitter! :) I'm feeling this little guy moving quite a bit although it seems to be less than Claire. I think I just don't have the time to sit and think about being pregnant since I'm chasing after a toddler all day. It seems crazy because after my next appointment I will be going every two weeks! It does NOT seem like I'm that close! I will have to see tomorrow how much weight I've gained but so far I've only gained 7 (and all 7 was the month I went home for Christmas lol). That is so much better than Claire's pregnancy. I think I just know what to expect more.

Claire

Holy Moley that girl is a handful! Love her like crazy but she is incredibly strong willed. Her new thing to say is "Go away" if we are doing something she doesn't like. Haha. We tell her not to say it, that its not polite, to say please yada yada...but it is hard when you can't keep a straight face. She is a little monkey too. She climbs on EVERYTHING. Monday, Brian had an all day work meeting and one of my friends called and wanted to meet at McDonald's since our husbands weren't coming home for lunch. I said okay. It was the first time Claire has ever been INSIDE a McDonalds. We were there for 2 hours playing. She took a good nap that afternoon. Speaking of sleeping, she still doesn't do much of it. Luckily she sleeps through the night but it is a good night if she goes to bed before 10:30. She gets up around 7:30. I'm envious of those parents whose kids go from 7 to 7.

Being Frugal

I love the challenge of not spending as much money. Little things make me happy. I do all my laundry on Mondays. I love only doing it once a week and not having to worry about it. Well, I started hanging up my shirts to dry. Then I moved on to Brian's shirts, then our jeans. Yesterday I started doing pajama pants and towels. I did two loads of wash and only 1 load of drying. I dry the whites/baby clothes. That would get so tedious to put up all of Claire's little clothes. I probably would if I had a drying rack. Saturday I bought a whole fryer chicken for 69 cents a lb. Put it in the crock pot and had it for Sunday dinner. Now I have a bunch of shredded chicken. Tonight I made a variation of chicken pot pie with the leftover chicken and gravy. Made some biscuits and used dry milk for the chicken mixture and the biscuits. (We also had a delicious honey dew melon...the best one I've had.) Love it! I saved two cups of expensive milk for drinking! Saturday I made some buckeyes that were peanut butter, dry milk, honey, and powdered sugar. Claire LOVED them. She asked for more and more :) I made whole wheat blender pancakes. Make them. They are delicious and healthy. And, what I'm most proud of, I had some bread leftover that was getting stale so I cut it up and made croutons out of it. Yup...I was pretty excited. It's getting to be a game. People may think I'm crazy but I REALLY WANT A HOUSE. haha. And then when we get into a house it will be, I really want to pay it off :) And it's all part of my Laura Ingalls fantasy. haha. I don't do many coupons. I'm trying to faze out most hydrogenated oils and anything with high fructose corn syrup. I remember throwing a fit when my mom tried to do that. It's funny how things change :) (I will still be buying a few things with it...like ketchup. Can't get rid of that)

Time is going by so fast. And we're going to be busy for the next couple of weeks. We got a lot of visiting teaching/home teaching appointments set up, we're going to be trading babysitting for a couple of people, we got Stake Conference coming up soon, and appointments to do splits with the missionaries. Oh, and my birthday is coming up soon :) I think we may go to Bella Italia (Twilight fans will know what that is...and I am not getting the mushroom ravioli) or maybe not. I am trying to be thrifty. :) We are both ready to have a vacation and head down to Arkansas. I'm glad Brian is coming because my belly is getting too big for it to have been just me and Claire.

And lastly, (I'm impressed if you made it this far) CONGRATS to my aunt Samantha! She is having baby #7 in September...

Jumping

Uncle Bryan

Good News!

My brothers got into BYU!! I'm so excited that they will live close to us :) It's going to be so much fun. Claire will grow up by her uncles...at least for a few years. Congrats Bryan and Logan!

Record

So it's a record. Brian and I went on a date TWO times this week! Real, pay a babysitter dates. It was very nice. I'm getting better at leaving Claire. Everyone says she does just fine :) We went to the new Chinese buffet in town yesterday. I was NOT impressed AT ALL. One, what Chinese buffet doesn't have crab ragoon? and Two, I hate going to buffets that don't have anything sweet. We wont be going back. But we had a good time with some friends.

It's been rainy and cloudy this week. I've missed the couple of days of really nice weather we had last week, especially today when we could have gone to the park. I cooked a big breakfast this morning and then worked on my lesson for tomorrow. Claire has been pretty fussy today and I have no idea why. I think we are all ready for spring.

Wednesday, the sisters came over with an investigator couple and we had a little lesson and some dinner. Well, the sisters didn't. They left, which was kinda strange. I made THIS and it was SO good! I love it when things work out.

I tried out some homemade dish detergent this week. SUPER easy and it works great! Brian and I always rinse our dishes anyway so I don't know how good it would work if you put dishes in all messy but it may work great that way too. It has borax, washing soda, kosher salt, and citric acid. You can go ahead and think I'm crazy...I don't care! I may be but I like making things and knowing what is in there...especially when it makes it really cheap! Luckily Brian supports my craziness. It's good for him anyway, I'm spending less of his hard earned money :)

Claire wanted to wear my shirt for her clothes today. And put Brians shirt on her head.

Helping make breakfast

Pretending to sleep after church. She wanted the newspaper for her blanket.
Pretty for church. She got the flower out of her room and wanted me to put it in her hair. Really random.
Loves her kitchen

Navajo Tacos

I thought I should do some more of my food storage meals since we are basically living off food storage. I LOVE Navajo Tacos.

I meant to soak the beans overnight, but I forgot. I then thought I would start them as soon as I woke up...but I forgot. At 10:30 I remember and thought, that stinks, they wont be ready for dinner! I decided to put them in the crock pot instead of cook them on the stove and it was great. I put 1 cup beans to 3 cups water and cooked them on high. They were actually done before 4 so I turned them on low around 3. Put salt, pepper and garlic power in there and yum! (And cheap)

Here is the recipe for the fry bread. I halved it for just the 3 of us.

4 C flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 C to 2 C water

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 TB shortening

Sift dry ingredients. Add shortening and cut with pastry blender until mixed in. Add enough water to make soft but not sticky dough. Knead gently and roll into 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Allow to rest 10 min. Cut into squares and deep fry until puffy.

Top with bean, lettuce, cheese, onion, salsa...whatever.

Make sure you eat one with honey on top too!

Claire actually ate quite a bit tonight. She loved the beans. Luckily she is getting better at eating although I know that could change in a second. I'm grateful for what I can get!

Claire is silly

I'm going to smile real big so you don't get mad...
Yes mom, I'm throwing all the towels out.
NO! Don't take my picture!
SIT!

Jumping

Snoring

We find this hilarious. She has a hard time saying Popcicle but she loves to eat them!

She makes life interesting to say the least!

In other news, I bought some Papaya digestive enzymes for my starting heartburn. I wanted to try something other than tums because I'm scared I will rot my teeth out. With Claire I just popped them all night but of course never got up to brush my teeth! So, we'll see if these work.

I'm meeting with the homebirth midwife on Thursday! Her office is in Port Townsend so a little bit of a drive. Brian and I are going to see how we feel after that.

AND...my aunt is doing a sourdough bread tutorial on her blog on Friday. I've been too nervous to try it but I will now!

You need this to start...

2 Cups whole rye flour or pumpernickel flour

1/8 tsp molasses

5 pound bag of all-purpose flour

Non-reactive container for your starter. I use a plastic storage container that holds 1 quart. A large cool whip container will work as well. You need a lid.

Optional equipment: heating pad and a dish towel to wrap around it.

I couldn't find whole rye flour at my little store but they have actual rye so I asked my aunt and she said just grind that up. I'm really excited. Go to her blog... My Barefoot Farm. She is fun and my cousins are so cute! Do it with us!