Making Your Own Fire Starters

What do you do with your dryer lint? We save ours and make fire starters out of it. Here's how:

Save your dryer lint for a while in a special place... :) All the critters know NOT to throw the dryer lint out.

When you have enough dryer lint saved up, buy some wax and melt it. I found wax in the canning section at the grocery store. (WalMart did not have it this time of year, but they do in the fall. I found it at Albertsons and WinCo.) I melted it by putting the bricks of wax in a rinsed out chili can. Put water in a sauce pan and boil the water, which will heat the can and melt the wax. Then you can just throw the can away for easy clean up.

Fill cardboard egg cartons with dryer lint. Don't use the styrofoam egg cartons. Smash the lint down in there really good.

Egg cartons full of lint - kinda pretty hu?

When the wax is all melted, squish the end of the can to make a spout and carefully pour the liquid wax over the lint in the egg cartons. I don't totally saturate them, but get them pretty wet so the wax will hold the lint together when you tear the egg carton apart.

I let them set up over night, then just broke the egg carton apart with my hands and threw them in an empty laundry detergent box for storage. When you need to build a fire, just lite the cardboard on fire. The wax makes this baby burn for a long time to get your most stubborn fires started. We use them for weenie roasts in the back yard and when we are camping. We also keep some in our emergency preparedness kits.

Lemur says "uuuhhh!" (aka: Hello in Lemur Language)

Lemur has shown sudden interest in talking on the phone. The other day he just picked it up and started talking... okay, grunting since he doesn't really talk yet. He gets on the phone and just jabbers and jabbers. He will take time to listen too, which is thoughtful of him.

So far Lemur has called Hunter, Grandma and 3333333333333 to talk to them. He also calls my friend in Washington frequently, because her number is the first in my phone book on my cell phone. He loves to play with my cell phone and often pushes the phone book and calls the first person on it. Hi Aiden!

When he is done he just hangs up. I wonder, if in Lemur Language, he says goodbye before hanging up?

Reading With Hunter

I love this pictures of my guys reading bedtime stories. For these two, I'm sure it will be "sweet dreams" tonight... look at what they are reading: A Farm Book, and Tall Trees. :)

A few of my favorite things

So my sister said she had a boring week and couldn't think of anything to post on her blog. She decided to post some of her favorite things. (see Insideourbox) Then my cousin had a cute blog post (see That'sLife!) about a mom's favorite things. These two blogs gave me something to think about besides TODAY - thank you, I needed that.

Here are a few of my favorite things:

Favorite Places I've Been:

*Washington Coast (honeymoon) with Hunter
*Washington DC (not on inauguration day!!!)
*Nauvoo, Illinois
*Statue of Liberty
*Mt. Rushmore
*Constitution Hall, Philadelphia Pennsylvania
*The Temple (any of them)
*My Home (on most days it's my favorite place to be)
*The mountains - any mountains with lots of trees, no people, water, good food and a good book.


Favorite Movies:

*The Sound of Music
*Princess Bride
*Private Eyes
*While You Were Sleeping
*Disney's Robin Hood (I can almost quote the whole movie!)


Favorite Food:

*TexMex
*Steak and Taters
*Chinese
*Thai
*Italian

Favorite Desserts:

*Cold Stone Creamery - anything you can get there, I love it!
*Ooey gooey Chocolate/coconut/nutty type cookies
*Pie and Ice Cream (Mom's apricot is my favorite)
*Mud Balls (my own recipe: Basically it's gooey Rice Krispie treats with a bag of milk chocolate chips melted in with the marshmallows - not too many Rice Krispies)
*Better than Sex cake
*Anything chocolate

Favorite things to do:

*Read
*Scrapbook
*Play board games with friends/family
*Hang out with my family (brothers/sisters/mom/dad)
*Garden/yard work
*Jam sessions with good musicians
*Go to concerts/plays
*Work hard - get a good project done during the day.

Favorite things I hate to do:

*Dishes.
*Cook (not to be confused with baking, I love to bake and eat it!, I just hate to cook - you know, like dinner)
*Laundry
*Clean up the house after I just cleaned up the house after I just cleaned the house.
*Clean out the chicken coop (bad memories from childhood)
*Weed the garden
*Change bunk beds (aargh!!!)

Super Powers I wish I had:
*The power to do all of the above with the snap of my fingers.
*The power to tell if people are telling me the truth.
*The power to get from here to there instantly.

Okay, I'm done thinking now. I was just tired of thinking about today. Now I'll go to bed.

a BIG day

So, today is a big day. I'm actually not really sure how I feel about it. Anxious. Nervous. Unsure. Worried.

I only got to watch a little bit of the inauguration proceedings because I was watching two other little critters this morning so "Cars" was put on TV instead of the inauguration, and then I had to work. But, it has been on my mind like all other Americans. I haven't listened to any talk show hosts today to hear their take on things, so this is just me and my thoughts.

My kids are really worried about the new president of the United States. Of course they hear Hunter and I talking politics and then they hear things at school - and we live in a very conservative area, and go to very conservative schools, so they hear anti Obama stuff. Today they got up and said, "It's dooms day." "This is the beginning of the end." and "Are they going to take our guns away today?" My response to them was:

"You know guys, what we need to do today is pray. We need to pray for our country. We need to pray that our new President will uphold the constitution of the United States and honor the men who wrote it. Yes, it is an old, Old, OLD document, but it was inspired by God and everything in it still is needed today. We need to pray every single day for President Obama to make good choices for our country."

Then later I was thinking, the other thing we need to do is get more involved in our community. We need to contact our local representatives and our state representatives and let them know what we think and want and feel. If ever there was a time to be more vocal about things, the time is now! I encourage everyone to know who their representatives are and be in touch with them!

And, I encourage everyone to pray: For our President, Vice President and the people of the United States. Yes, change is probably coming. May God guide us through the changes.

Announcing #8

Yep, you read right, we're having a baby! Number 8 is on the way, due the middle of May.
We went to a "photo shoot" on Friday and saw baby for the first time. He/She waved to us (below) but was very modest and didn't give the vet a very good look. First the vet said "it's a girl" and then later in the "photo shoot" the vet said, "no, wait, I think it's a boy." So, her (the Vet's) final word was it's a boy, but I've felt all along it is a girl, so we'll see.

The Vet wasn't very happy with me that I had waited until I was 23 weeks along to go see her, but, what do you do? It's my fifth pregnancy and I know enough to eat right, don't take the prenatal vitamins because I'll puke my guts out if I do, exercise... ya, right, get enough rest... ya, right, and at this point, don't even try to agree on a name, because nine months is a long time to decide. So, I waited a while before I went to see the vet. She took a bunch of blood and got a good look at baby and said everything was fine - see all the time I saved by not going to the vet every month for the past four months!!! I was just trying to be efficient with my time.

The critters are pretty excited about having another baby. Lemur, of course, doesn't know what's going on, but he'll figure it out after D-day, right! :) Having a little sister (or brother) will be soooo good for him. He pretty much thinks he's top dog around here. We decided he needed to have someone his age to learn to share with, fight with, play with, and every little boy needs a partner in crime. SO... we think 8 is great and we're excited to meet the next critter in the Funny Farm.

Lizard Family comes for a visit

We had a fun (too short) visit from the Lizard family Friday night and Saturday. Ma and Pa Lizard went to the Temple early Saturday morning. We made pancakes together (I had lots of help!) After they got back, Ma Lizard and I worked on some projects together while the critters played. Hunter and Pa Lizard went out and about looking at Hunters drying walnut lumber and spent a while at Sportsmans. Then we all went and looked at a house together.

Li'l Lizard #2, # 4 and #3 had a tea party with Lemur. They sure love Bee! When they had to leave, Li'l Lizard #2 said to me through her tears, "I'll really miss your sister!" They love to play with all of Bee's cool "big girl toys."

Monkey and Li'l Lizard #1 disappeared as soon as they got here Friday night. They played Lego's all night, read books in bed, played on the computer and played outside. They wished they lived closer so they could be together more!

"Time to Eat!"

The other night I called "time to eat." Then I turned back to the kitchen to finish something up. When I turned around, Lemur was serving himself some dinner.

He was very serious and careful.

If I would have left him alone, I think he would have served everyone. The only thing he spilled was a little in the carrots (top picture). Please don't laugh at our well balanced meal, Hunter was gone that night, I was sick and Martin made dinner for us. When I'm feelin' cruddy, it doesn't really matter WHAT we get for dinner, as long as I don't have to make it! I was thankful for his help (and for Lemur's).

Horse Family Passin' Thru

The Horse Family stopped by on Wednesday to say Hi and bring Hunter a pair of holsters Mustang made for him (out of leather). Hunter wasn't here, but Lemur had fun hanging' out with Colt.

Cuzzin's giving hugs.

These two are almost exactly 1 year apart. (April 21 and May 3). In a few years they will be about the same size and tearing up the place. Right now Colt chews on his toys and is happy watching Lemur jump around and act like a crazy man. It won't be long before he is joining him. They are going to have lots of fun together growing up.

Lookin' back at the week

Last week was back to school and routine! The critters seem okay with going back to school, and even got up pretty good. We had started getting them to bed a little earlier and earlier a few days before school started, I think that helped. We kind of got thrown off on Tuesday when Bee and Martin had a snow day - Monkey had to go to school, but that was okay because he got to go on a field trip to see some dinosaurs which was very cool. I'm glad Bee and Martin were home Tuesday because I was feeling really crummy and they watched Lemur while I got my work done, then I was able to take a nap while Lemur napped. Bee went to a friends house to play in the snow. Martin just helped me out all day, bless his almost 13-year-old heart.

I went visiting teaching on Tuesday night which took all evening. I visit great ladies and they enrich my lives by getting to know them better. Hunter does such a great job of keeping things running smoothly at the farm while I'm gone. I never worry when I leave. Wednesday was mutual for Martin. They are working on making snow shoes. I can't wait to see the finished product! While Martin was at Scouts, Hunter and I went and looked at ANOTHER house. We have been house hunting for 9 months now and it's starting to get really old. We've made offers on houses, had some accepted and then felt it just wasn't right. We have made offers and had them rejected. We have even made a FULL PRICE offer and had it rejected. Wow, guess that wasn't the right house! I loved the house we looked at Wednesday, Hunter didn't - so that one's a no go.

Friday Hunter had the day off. He hung out with Lemur all day. I picked the other critters up at school, we did a Costco run and then went to the Stnuh house and hung out the rest of the evening. Hunter picked up the Kcritters and they hung out here playing Wheel of Fortune and Steelhead did homework.

Saturday Martin went to a Merit Badge Clinic for Boy Scouts. He earned his Citizenship in the Nation and Citizenship in the Community merit badges. These clinics are so great because he gets so much done in so little time. Hunter and I loaded up the truck and a crappy old camp trailer we bought last summer (filled with junk) and made a trip to the dump. We stopped and looked at another house and just drove around and hung out together. The other critters had fun at the farm. Porcupine and Monkey went to Grama Hedgehog's house and played with her grandsons. When we got home we just hung out together and chilled. It was actually a really nice day. The critters love playing outside in the canal which has no water in it right now, but some ice they like to "skate" on. After dark on Saturday night they played "No bears are out tonight" in the canal. They said it was really fun. They came in freezing cold, had hot chocolate and watched a movie.

Sunday was nice too. We go to church at 1:00. We spent the morning just relaxing, having breakfast, playing games and reading. After church we had a nice yummy roast dinner. Hunter took the Kcritters back and the other critters and I played Family Feud. I didn't take a single picture this weekend. ooops.

What's going on here?

I have no idea what happened to the last post. The words "school" and "monster" are now a different color text and if you click on them it takes you to a link to University of Phoenix. I think something has possessed my computer. I didn't make it do that! Does anyone know what might have happened?

Hurry Before The Snow Melts!

It snowed a bunch on Sunday and Monday night. The roads were pretty bad on Monday and it snowed more Monday night, so the critters school had a snow day on Tuesday. It was warm all day and by evening the snow was perfect for snowman and snow fort building. The critters made these snow creatures and the snow forts last night. They were outside until after 7:00 having a (snow)"ball."
Martin doesn't make ordinary snow men - they are usually snow monsters of some sort - this abstract two headed monster reflects Martins wacky sense of humor. He loves the snowmen that Calvin makes in the cartoon Calvin and Hobbs.

Bee made this cute "snow cat." She did make a tail on it which I thought was very creative - it's just behind him so you can't see it in the picture. I like his whiskers. Kittens are Bee's favorite animal. She wishes she could invent an injection to keep kittens kittens - so they don't grow up into big cats that are lazy. She loves that kittens are so cute and playful.

The Battlefield... both walls are leaning quite a bit! The critters have stock piled snow balls for both forts. You can see them in the wheelbarrow.

Bee and Monkey ready for the fight.

Martin and his pile of ammo - the critters didn't have time for a snow ball fight last night, and we took these pictures this morning before going to school. It was 40 degrees when we left, so they are praying their forts will still be here when they get home from school. Then... let the snow balls fly!

Candy Houses

I forgot to post these pictures of the critters making candy houses when Grandma Panda was here. The past three years when she has come to visit at Christmas time she has made candy houses with the critters. This year she couldn't find the kits after Christmas, so we made them out of graham crackers. When I was a little girl, we "glued" our gingerbread houses together with slowly melted sugar which hardens into a cement after a few seconds. It worked great with the graham crackers and the critters had a good time constructing and decorating their houses.
I like Bee's angles in her roof. It came by way of mistake from me, but she turned it into this cute little "church."

Sorry about this picture. Martin was frustrated with me because I wouldn't take a picture of him "throwing up M&M's onto the roof" like he wanted me too. (he wanted to actually "puke" them onto the roof - not just "throw them" on the roof) He had a great time constructing his house and spent a long time building "retaining walls," the garage and front steps. It came time to decorate, and gone are the days of carefully placing the candy in creative patterns and designs... this year he just threw on as many M&M's as he could so he could eat them later. I think Martin would make a good Architect, he had a great time constructing the house... we'll just leave the decorating to someone else.

Monkey spent a lot of time making his house a "spiky log house." Of course Lemur couldn't resist pulling off the "spikes" (candy corns) and eating them. Monkey had to replace them several times.

Sleepin' Lemur

Lemur had a hard time napping this vacation. During school he had been napping around 11:00 for a couple or three hours. I think there was always so much going on that he didn't want to miss out, so he just didn't sleep. Then he'd catch a nap in the car if we were out and about, or just not nap at all. We'd go to bed late, sleep in late, then he wouldn't nap etc. etc. This was the first time he has "crashed" on the living room floor. He was one tuckered out Lemur. Then today with church starting at 1:00 he didn't get a nap and fell asleep during dinner at 5:30. I crossed my fingers and put him in PJ's and tucked him in bed, but that 5 minute nap in his high chair charged his battery for another four or five hours. I just put him down and... dang, he started fussing again. Time for some good old cry therapy!!! I'm tired and I want to go to bed. I can't wait to get him back on schedule again this week. He is NOT old enough to quit taking naps.

My RANT for the Year!!!

Here is an email I sent out the other day - thought I might as well post it on my blog because I'm really frustrated with this! :)

I got really irritated yesterday and told the dope at Cartridge World that I was going to tell everyone about their rotten, stinkin' business, so here it goes:

A few days before Christmas I took the kids Christmas shopping. I stopped at Cartridge World and took them two empty cartridges and asked for an HP color cartridge 97 and a black cartridge 96. They gave me a 15% discount for bringing in a recycled cartridge and charged me $23 for a refilled one. She put both in a bag, took my $46 plus tax, handed me the bag and away I went. I didn't think to look in the bag and check to see if she had given me what I paid for. (silly me)

I got home, put the color cartridge in, and tried to print my Christmas cards. I printed about 12 of them before the printer started giving me errors, saying the cartridge was bad etc. I just gave up on the Christmas cards and all printing until a couple of days ago. I tried again, still getting errors. I took the color cartridge out and looked in the bag - there was another color cartridge. I was irritated that I didn't get my black cartridge, but thought, "oh well, I'll try this color cartridge" - it didn't work either!!!

So yesterday I took both cartridges back. The gal tested both cartridges and said one was defective and the other one was empty. I explained the situation and she said she would replace the defective one, but thought I had probably brought her the empty cartridge from home trying to get a new one. I assured her I had not done that. I explained to her that I was in a hurry when I left the store a week ago and didn't check what she had given me, assuming she had given me two newly refilled, working, cartridges - a black one and a color one. She basically said it was my fault and they wouldn't help me.

I told her that I wouldn't be coming back ever again, and that I was going to tell everyone about my experience there and encourage them to buy their cartridges at Costco. She made a call to "her boss" who said not to give me the black cartridge. So, they made an extra $23.00 plus tax off of me, and I had to go to Costco and get some black cartridges.

After going to Costco, Scott ran into Sportsmans, and I sat in the car. I turned on the radio and it was "rant and rave Friday." I called in and told of my experience. He let me vent, then played devils advocate and asked if I had ever gone to a fast food place and not looked in my bag before I left, then got the wrong order. Yes, I have done that before, but when I go back in, tell them what happened, I get what I want and sometimes they throw something in for messing up my order. Cartridge world wasn't working with me at all!! I also told the radio guy that I was a very honest person, and if you give me $10 too much change, I will always give it back. He said he couldn't believe I'd do that - he would keep the change! (what is this world coming to?) Cartridge World only said they'd give me $3 for recycling the empty cartridge (that THEY had given me when I PAID for a new one!). A little later another guy called in and said he had been in the service industry all his life and he was always told, and he always told his employees that the customer is always right. He said that if a customer is happy, they might tell one or two people about their business. He said if a customer is unhappy, they will tell everyone they know... he's right.

SO - pass this along if you want... and shop for all your printer cartridge needs at COSTCO!!!

(ggrrrr... now I feel better)

Happy New Year!!

Our New Years Bash (and week in Review)

I didn't take any pictures of the New Years Party. I guess I was feeling sorry for myself. Hunter was sick, so he and Lemur stayed home. I hate going to family/couples parties without my husband! I did have a good companion though, Grandma Panda went with us. We went to the Ppur's house. They had invited two other couples besides us and all their kids. I'm not sure how many kids there were there - probably at least 20 (it was loud!) We played some fun games and had some yummy munchies. Grandma Panda and I made French Donuts and they were a hit. I took Martin to a Youth Party at church at 8:00 and had to go pick him up at 1:00 a.m. I'm not sure I'm ready for this teenager thing. I like to be in bed soon after 9:00.

New Years Day we slept in, kept the blinds shut, watched movies, ate food and played games. It was nice to stay in my PJ's all day and not do anything I didn't want to do. My Mama Bear and Chameleon came around dinner time. We had hot soup and corn bread for dinner, which tasted great after a day of French Donuts and junk food. Then we played more games and watched more movies.

Friday I had to work, but later in the afternoon Hunter, Mama Bear, Chameleon, Bee, Lemur and I drove around and looked at houses. We have been house hunting for nine months now. I am so tired of it. We have really been praying that the right house/place will come up for us soon. There are some good deals out there right now, but we are being picky about where, how big, acreage, irrigation, schools, commute etc. We don't want to raise our family in town, in a sub division and are being careful about the schools. That limits us somewhat, but we know something will come up when the time is right.

Saturday the critters and I CLEANED the house. We had been "maintaining" it but it hasn't been deep cleaned since right before Christmas. We rocked out to "Mom's music" and scrubbed, dusted, put away all the Christmas decorations, vacuumed, swept and mopped. It feels good to have a nice clean house. We also put our couch and easy chair up for sale on Craigs list. We hate it and want to get rid of it before we move. Who cares if we have to sit on the floor - it'll be more comfortable. Hunter helped a friend figure out his house well problems, took Martin out to shoot his new gun and then Martin, Hunter, Lemur and I went to Best Buy and ordered a video camera - we got a pretty good deal and are excited to be able to video the critters. Martin talked us in to eating at Gandolfo's. They had really good sandwiches. At one point Martin said, "this is Heaven." I asked... is the Heaven part the sandwich, or being alone with Hunter and I? He said, "both." :) Later he said, "I really don't mind having the other critters around though." It's nice having some one-on-one time with each critter (although right now usually Lemur is along too).

Ice Skating (no lumps this year - whew!)

Bee is pretty sure footed when it comes to ice skating. I think if we lived closer to an ice skating rink we'd put her in lessons. She is very graceful... even when she falls. :) We only go once a year and she's pretty darn good.

Martin said "I love doing this every year." He is a pretty good skater too. He can really zoom around the rink!

Last year Monkey took a nasty fall and ended up with a lump the size of a golf ball on his forehead. He still has the lump - although not quite as big anymore. I made him wear a helmet this year and some friends saw him take several nasty falls and hit his head. I think he is too much of a dare-devil. When he plays outside he is always running, jumping, leaping and bouncing all over the place. He skates like that too... only can't land like he does on the ground.

Lemur had fun wandering around the empty arcade. He climbed up on all the driving games and then up on this motorcycle game. Some boys were playing air hockey and he stood and watched them for a long, long time. He laughed and laughed at them playing. Wish I had a video camera to record his laugh. (Actually we just ordered one last night - hooray! It might take me another year to figure out how to post videos, but we can always hope!)

Dinner at Olive Garden with Grandma Panda

We had a yummy dinner at Olive Garden - Grandma's treat. It was a nice meal, fun to enjoy when critters use their good manners (which they did) except the time when Lemur climbed on the table when I wasn't paying 100% attention to him...

Martin was there too, but I didn't get a picture of him. We took dinner to Hunter who didn't get off work in time to eat with us.

We all shared this decadent chocolate what-ever-it-is Italian dessert....

Yummy, yum, YUM!!

Grandma Panda comes to Visit

Grandma Panda came to visit from out of state for a few days. We spent time relaxing, playing and hanging out together. We are so glad she came and we had a wonderful time with her here. (Isn't it funny how we take pictures in front of the Christmas tree... and usually cover up almost the entire tree? Just thought I'd point that out... hehehe)

Of course Grandma Panda brought MORE gifts - she had already sent some to open at Christmas, but what the heck. I love Bee's cute apron and doll from Mexico. Grandma Panda got it the year Bee was born on her trip to Mexico. (Grandma's trip, not Bee's) Bee wants to collect dolls from around the world, and since Grandma travels more than Bee does, she picks up the dolls for Bee. :)

Monkey got a fanny pack, compass, whistle, a tarp, and other goodies to make his time outside fun. He loves the pedometer (is that what it's called - the thing that measures how far you walk?)

Books and videos on Egypt for Martin!