Pampering

Dear Blog Readers,

I would like your input on pampering yourself. Why do you do it? What do you do? I'm teaching a mini-enrichment class next week and I want to get outside opinions. Please post your comments and ideas!

Thanks!

VIP

Yesterday one of the local army division had their Pass and Review and President Bush came to review them (as far as I can tell, he just walked past them. All ceremony). I'm not saying that I'm a Bush supporter or not; He's the president of the USA and I got to see him. Pretty amazing for a small town girl!

At the ceremony they also had "free-fallers", the division band, and thousands of troops. It was an incredible sight.






Today the division put on a mock airport takeover. They had equipment and paratroopers jumping (or falling, in the case of the equipment) from the sky. Then we watched as they used their training to take over the airstrip.

My Name

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I'm not really surprised. Maybe if I had a more common name, it would help!

Camera

Thanks to President Bush, I just got my dream camera... a Nikon D60. It's amazing!!!! I love taking pictures with it and looking at them on the computer. The difference between the D60 and my regular point-and-shoot is huge! And it can do so many things! Luckily, my toddler is willing to be my subject, so I'm getting some good practice - running after the aforementioned toddler. Thank goodness for digital because that way I can take a thousand pictures and delete all of the awful ones, without feeling guilty for wasting money on developing them. To get back to the point, I love my camera and thought I'd share some of the pictures I've taken recently.

"Tagged"

I want you all to know that I don't usually do these. But because it came from my good friend, I will.

3 Joys
1 - My family
2 - Books
3 - Taking pictures

3 Fears
1 - Falling (very different from heights)
2 - Insects (just the nasty ones)
3 -

3 Goals
1 - Run a 10K
2 - Become a photographer
3 - Get a master's degree

3 Current Collections
1 - Salt and Pepper Shakers
2 - Business cards
3 - Recipes

3 Random Facts
1 - I love to try new recipes!
2 - I make bread every week, grinding wheat when needed
3 - I like to fold laundry

Strawberry Jam

I made it. It set up, it tastes good and it looks gorgeous in the jars, which all sealed properly. What more can I ask for?

The Beach

We went to the beach last week. It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive each way. On the way there we ran into traffic (for no apparent reason. I like traffic that has a reason to it: accident, construction, cattle, etc. Something to say "I'm sorry that I'm slowing traffic. I'll move as quickly as I can".) It turned into a 3 hour drive to get there. We found the beach and had a really fun time. The seagulls even seemed to think our picnic was the best!.

Then we drove around Historic Downtown and decided that we wouldn't buy a house there (we weren't planning on it anyway, let's squelch all rumors now. There were a couple of cute houses that were for sale and we stopped to get an information sheet from those convenient little boxes, just for interests sake.) They were cute though! And very close to fun shopping centers! Then we headed for home. We found the road we needed and ran into traffic again. This time there was a reason though. The road we were traveling had been closed due to an air show. Which is a good reason, except that we didn't know any other way to get out of town. So we drove around in circles (literally. We were on the same road at least 3 different times) and finally decided to ask for directions at a Taco Bell. 5 minutes later we were out of town. Driving around town though, we found my street. Isn't it perfect?

Digital Scrapbooking

I know some die-hard scrapbookers. I tried hard to become one of them, but I just couldn't do it. I guess I'm just not OCD enough. Rather than taking the time to measure and cut and match colors I haphazardly put together my books. And they got done, but I'm never thrilled with the job that I did as I look through them. However, that all changed with the advent of Digital Scrapbooking.

I recently purchased a program for this new scrapbooking option and I LOVE IT!!! Using my digital pictures I can put together pages in a snap. Then I can send my pages to a printer and voila! They are delivered to my door in all their finished beauty. (Ok, I have to confess that I haven't yet sent pages to be printed, but I plan to in the near future). It is nice to not purchase all the supplies but to have them all a click away. I highly recommend digital scrapbooking!

Cleaning Checks

To my BYU Friends:

Do you remember cleaning checks? I do. The day of the checks would be completely set aside for the deep cleaning that was necessary to pass inspection. Yet, the boys could sleep in, stack the clutter into piles and pass without a second thought. Fair? Hardly. After many years of brooding on the subject I've come to a conclusion. BYU expected girls to be the house-cleaners and so wanted to be sure that they knew what was required to keep a clean house. It's the only reason that I can see for the complete polar opposites of cleaning inspections.

As I look back now, I'm grateful for the tough inspections. They really did teach me how to clean well. They also gave the roommies and I a good excuse to order pizza once a month (we wouldn't want to get our clean kitchen dirty, after all). And it was much nicer to live in a clean apartment.

But I still wonder about BYU's expectations...

Salt and Pepper Shaker Shelf

Today I hung my Salt and Pepper Collection Shelves. Granted, I only have 2 sets of shakers so far. And I know it's kind of an odd collection to have. It all started a few years ago when my friend went to NYC and I asked him to bring me back a souvenir. He brought me a set of NY S & P shakers. I thought it would be fun to collect them. So I decided to start. But being a transient teacher at the time, I never had anywhere to put them so I never continued the collection. Now, though, I have space, so I began looking for a suitable shelf on which my collection could be housed. No such shelf was to be found. Hence, I opted to make them. 5 trips to The Home Depot later, I have made and hung my shelves. Aren't they gorgeous?