I'm the crazy wheat lady in my ward

Wow! This Crystal is one amazing woman. She's even coming out with a book in March that's filled with wonderful recipes that use mainly food storage items. I'm now a huge fan of whole wheat cookies, blender wheat pancakes and cookie clay dough. Check out her website at http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net/ You gotta try these recipes! I taught part of a Wheat 101 Enrichment and it was a piece of cake thanks to this website.

I was so inspired that I've been working really hard these past 2 weeks and I can now say that we finally have our year supply. (This includes long-term and short-term food items as well as basic necessities like TP, soap, laundry & cleaning stuff, shampoo, etc. ) We could live off our food storage for 6 months and my kids wouldn't know the difference... I don't think they'd ask "Hey Mom, where's the salad?" Unfortunately some things only have a 6 month shelf life like fruit snacks and graham crackers. :(

My challenge this month of March is to NOT shop. Well, only once and that's because Macey's is having their annual sale starting Wednesday and it includes powdered eggs that are $6 off their normal price. So other than one #10 can, I'm not shopping. I challenge you to work on your food storage and see if you can go one week, then one month w/o shopping. This is a great way to see what you're missing in your food storage.

Fat-Free Fake Food

So a new thing in Primary that they just started doing is Second Sunday Sundaes. Any children with a birthday in that month get to go to the Primary President's house after church on the 2nd Sunday for icecream sundaes. I made up this fake sundae to display so the kids would remember to come. The icecream was a styrofoam egg covered in a mixture of modge podge and light cream paint. The white frosting was tricky. I found that a mixture of cheap shaving cream, modge podge, a little white flour to thicken it and more white paint look nice. I used a frosting tip for this but it didn't turn out as nice as I would've liked. The chocolate drizzle was harder since I didn't have the right brown color. I did modge podge, paint and then thickened it with white flour and stuck in in a ziploc bag and squeezed it out of a cut corner. The cherry is actually dried playdough covered in glitter red paint. The cherry stem is the only real thing and I poked that in before allowing the playdough to dry for 2 days. It was stuck on with a toothpick half in the icecream part and half into the cherry. Pretty fun, eh?

Terrific Time in Tucson

I'm warning you now, this is long and has lots of pictures. Ready? :)

I took the kids out of school (along with their homework) and we all went to Tucson for over a week. The kids did their reading in the car between field trips and they were good about practicing piano every day. J even learned how to play a new song from his cousins "Star Wars" music book.

We drove down all day Thursday and got in after midnight so we slept in for Z's birthday on Friday. We went and picked up our Tucson Attractions passports at Park Place (this saved us over $40) and played there for awhile then saw Inkheart since he's read all the books. I want to go read the books now, the movie was very interesting. Then we picked up his cake and icecream (I love Costco) then had a party with family and friends. It was fun visiting with everyone!

Saturday was my neice's baptism and what a special day it was. I should have taken more pictures but was too caught up in the moment. I made this exploding box and had some beaded crocheted white socks inside with a poem tag.

Sunday we got up early to drive to St. David for morning church then hung out with them and the rest of the Young side. We played a new game Wits and Wagers that was fun.

Monday we went with my brother's family to Kartchner Kaverns. This is hands down the best cave I've ever been too and very well protected. I only wish we could've taken pictures inside. Next time we'll do the other room that wasn't open. The Rotunda/Throne room was outstanding. After lunch we headed to St. David to help paint/re-model a bit then back to Tucson for FHE with Greg & Misty and their kids and my other brother Mark & his new wife Michelle and their new puppy Hank joined us.

Tuesday we went to the International Wildlife Museum, San Xavier Mission del Bac (picture below) and the Tucson Children's Museum. We'll definitely go to the Children's Museum again and we'll remember to bring quarters for parking. Took us 5 minutes to search the car for coins! :)


Wednesday we drove way over to tour the Biosphere 2. So cool! I've always wanted to go. We brought along our lunch every day and this saved us a lot of money as well. That afternoon we went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. The Butterfly Magic exhibit was the best. Definitely worth the extra $ and we got some cute pictures, learned about composting and saw a mutated saguaro.

Thursday we went to Sabino Canyon (they ONLY take cash and no, they don't have an ATM anywhere closeby) and rode the tram all the way up for the tourist info then stopped at shuttle stop 6 for a picnic lunch and played in the water. The boys found a little cavern they had fun playing in. Later we headed over to Reid Park Zoo and saw an albino (white) peacock with its feathers displayed. It took my breath away.

Friday I starting working in the kitchen since my SIL wants to remodel the house while my parents are on their mission in Chile. I hate wallpaper... That afternoon we drove to Safford for a Surprise Birthday Party for my 85 year old father-in-law. Boy were they surprised to see us again. They thought we drove home. All part of the surprise plan... Troy got this funny picture since everytime I tried to take a picture, my MIL had her eyes closed.


Saturday I spent the whole day stripping... wallpaper. :) I did take a break halfway for lunch. I grabbed my kids and 2 of my brother's kids and we got lunch at Eegee's (yummm) and ate over at Aqua Caliente Park.

Sunday I woke up at 5am, and after trying to go back to sleep I got up at 6am and we left by 8am to drove home. We got in about 8:30pm. I missed my pillow... and my showerhead... and my laundry detergent.

OK, I'm done. Now I need a vacation to relax from all this vacationing. :)