Seizures :[

I missed getting to see 2 people play their violins in Sacrament meeting today because of my face twitching. All the furniture was taken up by residing members who prefer the foyer to the chapel, so I picked the carpet. If I were to select a spot in the future--I'd definitely pick it away from the hallway. I completely forgot that in addition to our ward, there'd be another ward trying to pass through the same narrow hallway. Too late! I had 1 seizure. I could tell that it was going to be a pain in the butt one, since it wasn't ending. Antonio timed it as lasting 15 min. Then a few min. later I got a 2nd one while everyone was trying to scurry around me in the hallway--a bit mortifying if you ask me. I sat up after this one ended, but my head just felt really terrible. So I ended up laying back down for the next one to start. The last one went into Sunday school time. Bishop told Antonio to take me home, but I finally was feeling descent. So with my stubborn self, we stayed for our final hour of Priesthood & Relief Society. We got a new Relief Society Presidency--things will be very interesting in the upcoming weeks! So my grand total for this month is 25 seizures...I think we took the total for January and squared it literally--not that I often think about Math. Since it is my least favorite subject! Hopefully, this was just a fluke and things will settle down back to a more normal monthly total. 

Genealogy!

So I started working on some family history this even at about 6pm. I ended for the night at 11:30pm. Wow...I don't know where the time went, but I know it went. My brain and butt are dead. I filled out 19 family group record sheets, and I'll have to get some more tomorrow from the library. I was given 2-3 packets about 1 year ago, we'll I just about finished them off. I'm up to 5,350 people in my family tree! That is about 250 that I've added this past week. I now have 2 dull pencils, 1 tired paw, and frazzled brain. Hopefully, this will help us make some much needed progress on our Temple work!


So this is from earlier this week!
My sister was asking me to help her find her dorm room arrangement online document. The link, not surprising..anyhow it was dead. But by mistake--or divine intervention--you decide; my computer found a website listing some of our family history. So I spent until about 3:15am in the morning copying the information into our tree. Yeah, I know....I should've been in bed dead asleep by that hour. I figured that somebody on the other side of the veil worked pretty hard to get me to that particular page, so I better do my best to obtain as much of the information as I could. I did finally go to bed, and finish working on it the next morning. 

New Favorite Quotes & Scavenger Hunt

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength."
Saint Francis de Sales



"Online sharing true suck" Ex. Facebook, Twitter, Social Sites


This afternoon I went to the Hinckley building for a clothing swap. I brought a purse that was in mint condition from a D.I. swap that I didn't really want. I picked out 2 king sized blue jeans so that my mom can make a jean quilt. They had a point value system which limited you on what you could pick out to keep. Jeans were 5 points, t-shirts 2-3 points, shoes 10 points. Kind of dumb tally system as far as checking out. Because if the leftover clothes are being donated to charity ie (D.I)--there is really no point to keep track of how many points are spent. Now if they wanted to limit the good clothes from getting picked first, than I can understand the idea behind the point system. 


So I went to check out and handed the girl my ticket worth 2 points and 2 jeans. The girl looked at me and said these jeans are 5 points each. I said, "I know." 2 Tickets for 2 jeans. I still want them. She had this weird look on her face, kind of like I don't know what to say. Then she said, "we'll just take points from over here that someone else didn't use up." She bagged them, and I was on my way home. 
We'll....I got smart on the system. I found a sweater in the freebie pile in our laundry room and decided to go back just shortly before they closed the swap. 
I SCORED!!!! They finally disregarded the point system and said get what you want. I got 4 more pairs of blue jeans. So 6 total!! After trying 2 of them on....I found one that I LOVE! The other fits too, but it is more of a low rider pair of pants--not really what I prefer. 


So the funny thing about all of this is I had more luck finding a pair of pants that fit me by randomly grabbing pants off a swap table, then when I've tried on 15-20 pairs of jeans in a store!


Then we went on a date night Scavenger Hunt! It was sponsored by the I-Comm group on campus. It took close to 2 hours to find everything...I must say that is 1 HOUR longer than the SCROLL newspaper said it would take. Each location or business offered a clue to the next location and a discount at their store. We used Antonio's phone and a bar code application to scan a bar code at each location we went to. It was fun, but 3/4 the way through I was wearing out of energy. A lot of in and out of the car!


So I guess you can say that we scavenged a lot of Free things today! 
Happy Friday!

Dog Bones & Food delivery!

Antonio brought home these scrumptious Scooby snacks from the Elementary school where he works. I thought they were so cute & yummy. 

The food order from the cannery arrived late last night. We spent many hours sorting through cans and putting food away. 

Leather Book!

This leather book I made with my new friend Gabrielle! She came over today with the supplies and taught me how to sew this book. I hope to be able to buy more leather supplies to make more books in the future.

Snow Fort!

 This evening Antonio and I went outside and made a snow fort! 27 degrees out and nippy on our faces. It was tricky to make each block. If we used the frozen iced snow, it didn't work out well. So we had to scoop the fresh powdery snow of the top and compact it into the block mold. For $1.50 it was a fun activity! We made a flag for the top of our fort. Then Antonio got the idea to leave our apartment # on the top of a block with twigs & leaves. We'll see how long it all lasts or if the wind gets the best of it all!

                                               Our flag!

Free Fabric--I love Bulletin Board!

I found an ad on bulletin board last Tuesday for a bag of free fabric. I emailed asking the dimensions and was told most were 12"x12". Then I got a second email that the fabric was already taken. Anyway, a few days passed...I got a third email that the fabric was mine for the taking. The other person never showed up to pick up the fabric. So here is what I scored! It is primarily knits, a few jersey sport fabrics, and some thermal like stuff. The knits will be excellent for the cuffs of footed pajamas.

Our Church building & Temple

I've wanted to get a picture of our local church building for a while and found a perfect opportunity to do so today. My family has pictures of almost every place that we lived growing up; our school, house, church. Yesterday at Church, it was extremely windy and cold. Today is a great sunny day! A great day to celebrate President's day. 

                                                          68th Ward, 4th Stake of BYU-Idaho

                                              Rexburg Temple

Bath Salts!

This evening we decided to make bath salts! We hope to sell them at our local Farmer's Market this year. We made orange/lychee, vanilla/pomegranate, lavender, and my top favorite peppermint! The ironic part of all this is.....We don't have a bathtub! 
We use natural essential oils for fragrances since I'm highly allergic to fake commercialized scents. I had a scent/fragrance free bridal shower before we were married. Growing up, any scented bar of soap, bath salt, perfume, ect. were all gifted to my sister who willing and excitedly accepted them. 

Snow!

It snowed about 4 inches last night. We awoke to a white calmness about our apartment complex. Lucky for us, Church now starts for us at 1:30pm, so after Antonio came home from his meetings the car was already cleared off and ready for us to drive it. I took some pictures on the way to our building and some after Church let out. 

I thought we should put antlers on the front hood of our car in the pile of snow collected there.

These are the HUGE piles of snow that the snow plows have pushed to the sides of the Church parking lot. I'm happy they at least plow it! Since our complex is a different story.

Sour Dough Bread, Bears, & Breadsticks!

I have a sour dough starter that I'm having to keep track of. Like a bossy little plant...keeps me feeding it with flour and water. I decided to made rolls out of the sour dough starter. Then I made a 2nd batch of bread and turned it into bread sticks. The leftover dough I decided to make into two adorable bread bears. I used craisins for their eyes! Wow...Did I make the house smell scrumptious! 


We have an itty bitty little kitchen, so most of my cooking space is on top of the stove. 

                                
                                    I started rice in the cooker for Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner.

                                                         Laying out greased cookie sheets!

                                                                  Washed the dishes.

                                 The left dough rising has the sour dough starter in it. The right
                                 just the yeast foaming.
                                

                                                             I dabbed the tops with butter.

                                                                Hot out of the oven!

                                                             2nd Batch almost done rising.

                                                                           Breadsticks

                                                      My seasoning mixture! I love Winco!

                                                                 I coated the bears with egg.

Egg bread bears

                                                                            Bread sticks.

Barley Water

I heard from a nurse on Wednesday at Madison Memorial Hospital about the health benefits of Barley water. She swore by it, so I attempted to keep the idea in my brain for researching later. 


http://www.natural-homeremedies.com/blog/health-benefits-of-drinking-barley-water/


This link said that Barley is an antioxidant, helps cure childhood asthma, prevent cancer, digestive remedy, helps constipation, diarrhea, nausea, lowers cholesterol, prevents gallstone formations, cures current gallstones, helps to control glucose levels and those who have diabetes, helps arteriosclerosis, prevents heart related disorders, can help with seizures, and other attacks. 


How do you use it? Boil with a ratio of 1 barley to 5 parts water. Strain off barley and use it in a soup or other foods. Drink 1 glass of the water everyday. You can add lemon or fruit flavoring if desired. The barley has a plain flavor similar to noodles. I added it to my macaroni & cheese this evening. It was most delightsome!

Tootsie Roll Recipe!

Just experimented and made my first batch of Tootsie Rolls!

1.5 teaspoons butter

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

2/3 c powder sugar

1/4 teaspoons vanilla

3 Tablespoons dry milk

2 Tablespoons corn syrup

This made about 36 pieces of candy!

Sealable sandwich bag (freezer – quart sized if you have an aggressive squish-er)

Tape to seal the bag--not necessary if you are a gentle squeezer!

Combine ingredients! I had to add a little more corn syrup & butter. Squish like crazy. Take out, shape using powdered sugar, and wrap in wax paper! Eat!

Tootsie Rolls!

So I've been reading about some really fun ideas on a blog called "Fun on a dime". I found a recipe for making homemade tootsie rolls and decided to try them out even though it was about 10:30pm and my husband looked strangely at me. 


I get these crazy ideas in my head and have to try them though I probably should've waited till the next day and just gone to bed....But what is life, without some Adventure!