Celebrate

We celebrated our day by going out for an early dinner. We went to Ruby Tuesdays. We had never gone there before and were very satisfied with the place. Yummy food. Then we walked around the mall and just enjoyed each other's company.

Pictured are my beautiful roses from my this really one guy that really 'digs' me!

Matthew's Curtains

Last weekend while Mike was away, I finally sewed Matthew's valance for his room. I've had the material for about a year now. It only took about an hour to make them. Don't know why it took me so long to just do it. here are a few photos of the room.

Entering his room.

Obviously an airplane theme
The material up close. Perfect for the theme

Coolest Pumpkin!

We found the coolest pumpkin ever at Sprouts the other day. It's called a Fairytale Pumpkin, and rightfully so. It really does look just like the pumpkins in Cinderella! We meant to cook it and make pies out of it, but after having it as a center piece for a couple weeks it rotted before we got a chance. oops.

Homemade Laundry Soap

We made our laundry soap today. It was pretty simple to make and if I wasn't taking pictures along the way, would've taken about 15 minutes to throw together. This recipe made 2 full gallons of laundry soap.

Here is the cast of characters:

1/2 cup Borax

1/2 cup laundry Soda (not Baking Soda!)

Bar Soap (Zote, Fels Naptha, Ivory)

Shave/grate 1/3 bar of soap
the finer, the better it will melt

Add soap to 6 cups of water in a pot. Start heating 4-5 cups of water in separate pot

Stir constantly over medium heat until soap is melted

(Have Borax and Laundry soda pre measured)Add to melted soap in pot

Stir until dissolved. mixture will thicken as you stir. When dissolved, remove from heat

Add 4 cups HOT water to large bucket (at least a 2 gallon size)

Add soap mixture and stir

Have a gallon and 6 cups of water measured out...

And add it to the bucket. Stir well

Let the bucket sit for twenty-four hours. It will thicken up and become gel-like.

Use 1/2 cup per load.

11 Years of 'Us'

Eleven years ago, today, Mike and I were standing before about 150 people and God, vowing that we would love each other, be committed to one another, and promise to grow with one another, "through sickness and health, richer or poorer, until death do us part..." We entered into a Covenant with each other and God....We were married and started the rest of our life as husband and wife.

Today, exactly 11 years into 'the rest of our life', thus far, it has been so rewarding. We've had ups, downs, ins and outs, but we've always done it together. I love Mike so much and he is such a blessing to me. He helps me grow, he challenges me in ways no one else could ever challenge me. He has put my true character to the test and has forced me to look at myself and refine areas that need to be refined. He loves me and accepts me and is committed to me in my strength and my weakness. He knows that the growth and change and maturity that he promotes in me, is actually just being done through him by God. I love that he remains humble and that he allows the source of his affection and love to be from above.

Mike is my hero, he's my man, he's my aspiration. I love his heart, I love his smile, I love his excitement, i love his laugh, I love his humor, I love who he is inside and out. I couldn't have anticipated a better husband to support and encourage and grow old with. God fulfilled all my dreams of who I have ever wanted for a husband when He gave me Michael. He may not be perfect, but he's perfect for me...and I love him to bits (and still have the biggest stinkin' crush on him. Quite often, I can feel my heart still skip a beat when I look at him)

This relationship is not about me and it's not about him. It's about each other and more importantly, how we together can glorify the One who made us who we are and is still working with us, changing us, and drawing us closer to each other and to Him every day and in every circumstance.

Fire update

Mike took a fire test today through a testing service that both Florence Fire and Prescott Fire will be using. He passed with an overall score of 82.69%

We will keep you posted when we hear anything from either of these departments. Prescott will be interviewing in January sometime and Florence interviews are still TBA.

5 hours after Mike got home, he got up and was thrown back into 'life'. Wednesday he went into work for an important meeting and then Thursday was another important meeting. It was a stressful week but in the end, there was good communicating and good results. Exciting stuff!

Niko has been fighting a cough all week. Wednesday he was up all night trying to breath. Thursday he stayed home, and by Friday he was back at school but still taking it easy.
He had another good week at school and was able to participate in Fun Friday again. He also finished up Royal Rangers this week until after the holidays.

The other two kiddos also had a good rest of the week.

Mike came back from Idaho with some Christmas presents for the kids. I wrapped them right away so that there was no 'accidents'. However, now the guessing games have ensued. Matthew has come up with everything up and down the toy isle as to what's in 'the big box' which he knows is his. Seriously, he just keeps the guesses coming. Too funny. I told the kids that they can't touch them or shake them until they are under the tree, they can only look from a distance and make their guesses. Golly-gee, it's so much fun to watch them.

Yesterday I had another Connector shift. It was really fun, as it was last time. The morning goes by fast. We got called to a 2n1 medical (more serious auto accident requiring 2 engines)...We were just transporting a non-injured person to their home, but we got to go in the 'warm zone' of the scene (past the police barricade where they had blocked off the road) I feel bad for the people involved, but it was all sort of exciting in a way and it was cool to be able to make a difference to someone who is possibly having one of the worst mornings of their life, being available to help them...The rest of the morning was station errands and writing reports-fun, fun.

Friday, we went to the Rio Vista Food bank in Phoenix to deliver several hefty-bags full of bread from the Wildflower Bread Company. Mike recieved a connection through a Phoenix Fire member of this sandwich place that ends up throwing away bags of bread every night because business-wise, they need to bake their bread fresh every morning and practicality-wise, no one is available to pick it up and take it to places that can use it. So this contact Mike has through Phoenix Fire got a hold of him and asked if we would be available and able to take care of it. Of coarse we jumped on that. So, we're set up now to take a load over once a week regularly! So cool. Mike put out the word that he was needing someone to make the pick up in North Scottsdale, meet up with him at work and then we'd get it to the Rio Vista Center. That was set up in no time and now we're good to go. We don't know what other opportunities this contact has for the Food Banks in the area, but this alone is a huge blessing to the community.

Now, with Thanksgiving this next week, we/I have to get in cooking mode as we open our house to anyone without a place to share Thanksgiving with next week. We are so excited to see who will come and who we'll get to know better and share this meal with.

Federal Reserve Note

Bethany lost her first molar last week and after several nights of waiting, the tooth fairy finally got her rear end in gear and made a visit to her room last night. Because it was her first molar, she got a 5.00 bill!! So exciting. She doesn't get her hands on one of those very often.

I was gone this morning when she woke up, but from what I hear, she insisted to Dad that the bill WAS NOT valid. It just wasn't real and there was no telling her different. Her words-"It says it's a 'Federal Reserve Note'. It's not real money. It's just a note..." So back and forth with Dad, by golly, he does not know what he's talking about! And what is more, what a lousy trick that darn tooth fairy played on her. Not cool at all.

I think it's so funny that she examined that piece of paper so closely and read every word on it that it no longer seemed real. How often do we take the green stuff for granted and when was the last time you read a "Federal Reserve Note"?

Homemade Dishwasher Soap

I was originally researching homemade laundry soap, which we will have to make later today or tomorrow. But in my research, I found several sources of people making their homemade dish soap. Pretty much the same ingredients as the laundry soap, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I will warn you though that, true to what people on the Internet are saying, I have started getting a white film on the dishes. We have pretty hard water, which may be a factor, but many people have remedied this problem by adding a 1/2 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle or just filling the rinse aide dispenser with vinegar. So this I will attempt to see if it rids the film from the dishes. Another option I have is adding lemi-shine to the mix (you can get it at WalMart cheapest) But it's about 3.50 for a 12-ish oz bottle and this whole thing was supposed to be about saving money and stretching the dollar. So not sure if I'll go that route. And yet another option I have is to get a box of powder dishwasher soap and do equal part homemade mixture to the store bought. it would at least stretch it. I'll give you updates on the outcomes.

Here is the breakdown of prices. Keep in mind that these are for the whole containers and I only used a portion of these containers to make the soap:

$1.97-Rubbermaid Plastic Container
$2.79-Laundry Soda (found mine at Fry's, not WalMart. Differs from Baking soda in that baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3- and laundry soda is Sodium Silicate,Na2SiO3)
$2.67-Borax
$.10-Unsweetened Lemonade packet/aka Koolaid (This not only makes it smell lemony, the citric acid in the mix is supposed to do something for the soap)

Directions:

1 1/2 cups Laundry Soda

1 1/2 cups borax

1 packet of unsweetened lemonade

Combine all ingredients into container, screw lid on, and shake well until combined thoroughly.

Use about 1-2 tablespoons per load.

Our Extended Weekend at Home

Some highlights this weekend while Mike was away:

• Matthew's Soccer Game: Saturday he played well for 3/4 of the time. then he petered out. He seems to play better when Dad is there with him. But he still did well and worked really hard on keeping the ball on the field and turning it around when he gets to the edge. He has a tendency to just keep kicking it even...right off the field.
• City of Embers: We went to see the movie this weekend. It turned out to be an excellent movie. It was the only kid appropriate movie that we hadn't seen yet playing at the cheap theater. I had never heard of it before, but watched the preview online and we went. I would highly recommend it. Only 'scary' part was a big juicy slug-like bug. But it really wasn't that bad. Go see it or rent it. Lots of symbolism in it, I thought...
• Shopping: Shopping this week was incredible. Good deals, fun stuff
• Homemade Dishwasher soap: I made dishwasher soap last night. I need to do the calculations as to how much it will actually cost per load and all. next on the list is to make laundry soap. Now that, i know, is a penny a load. and it works well, from what I've read. I will be posting instructions on both items soon. I feel so resourceful :)
• Taught kids how to eat edamames: Now I can cross this off my list of things to teach my kids before they go out into the real world. hehe. They love them. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about click here. I think they love them so much because they are fun to eat. they taste great too. I just salt a pot of boiling water really well with Kosher Salt, add the frozen Edamames, boil them for about 2-3 minutes, drain them, sprinkle a bit more salt over them and then we go to town. You squeeze the bean out of the pod with your teeth and then discard the pod. Such a fun, yummy snack!
• Dentist: Already posted about that

Mike's Extended Weekend in Idaho

Well, now that Mike is home from his trip I can freely update everyone on the past few days. I'll start with Mike fabulous weekend.

He had a long morning of traveling on Saturday and finally made it to Spokane. They went and watched our nephew play in one of his hockey games. Mike said it was a great game that was fun to watch, meaning that they played very well.

They spent their evenings playing games and visiting. Sunday morning they went to church and in the evening Mike's brother and his new wife joined in the fun. It looks and sounds like they had some fun times together.
Monday Mike helped with some things around the house and I think that was the day they did a hike around Tubs Hill.
Tuesday they dropped by to see my parents briefly at their church. Kristi is working at there now with the benevolence ministry. It is a huge church with a ton of resources because of it's size and a great ability to help the community. So Mike came by just as they were opening up and the people were coming in droves. So needless to say, it was a quick visit, but it was still good...Tuesday he also made a trip around the boardwalk. Big news up there is a recent children's book that was written with the setting in Coeur d' Alene, Mudgy and Millie. In the book, this moose and mouse have an adventure together in and around the town. It mentions real places, of which some are marked around town with bronze Mudgy and Millie statues...

So, Tuesday evening, Mike was back on the plane headed south. He got home late, but had a great time with everyone.

Dentist appointment

The Crocodile's Toothache

Shel Silverstein

The Crocodile

Went to the dentist

And sat down in the chair,

And the dentist said, "Now tell me, sir,

Why does it hurt and where?"

And the Crocodile said, "I'll tell you the truth,

I have a terrible ache in my tooth,"

And he opened his jaws so wide, so wide,

The the dentist, he climbed right inside,

And the dentist laughed, "Oh isn't this fun?"

As he pulled the teeth out, one by one.

And the Crocodile cried, "You're hurting me so!

Please put down your pliers and let me go."

But the dentist laughed with a Ho Ho Ho,

And he said, "I still have twelve to go-

Oops, that's the wrong one, I confess,

But what's one crocodile's tooth more or less?"

Then suddenly, the jaws went SNAP,

And the dentist was gone, right off the map,

And where he went one could only guess...

To North or South or East or West...

He left no forwarding address.

But what's one dentist, more or less?

The kids had their six month check up today with Doctor J...As usual it was an array of excitement with video games, TV, puzzles, tokens, prizes...fun times...they all came out with no cavities-woo-hoo.

Bethany- Has her 12 year molars 'erupting'/coming through. She was once again instructed to pay more attention to brushing up by her gums, silly girl's going to end up with gingivitis if she doesn't start following through on that. But her beautiful smile did great today.

Niko- His front teeth are finally starting to grow through, only problem is, they're coming in around his existing teeth/tooth and it's NOT budging. So if it hasn't wiggled out in the next few weeks we'll be going back for an extraction for him. Once the two front ones are in, we'll be talking about orthodontics, poor guy. Better start budgeting for that in 2009...

Matthew was pretty uncomplicated. nothing special to report from him. typical cleaning, watch for loose teeth on the bottom...that's about it.

So we celebrated our healthy mouths with a trip to Costco for lunch and then it was back to school.

Bethany's Concert

Click here for more photos and don't forget to watch the two short videos of two of the songs they did

Weekly highlights

Monday-

• Got Niko's spelling test back from Friday and he got a 20/20! Way to go. the previous week he had gotten a 9/20 :( ...so big improvement Niko, way to go!
• Bethany has crucial practice for her orchestra concert on Thursday
• i had my first shift with the Mesa Connectors...It was absolutely awesome and fun and went by so fast. We washed the truck, ran some errands, I got to do some talking on the radio-pretty intimidating, but cool...only one vehicle assistance call and it was already pretty much taken care of when we got there. fun, fun
• Went to do some coupon shopping. spent 25, saved 96 and some change. Among the free items were body soap, ice cream, granola bars, dental floss...everything else-cereal, shampoo, sugar, flour- didn't spend more than a dollar on. I'm telling you all two words, Coupon Sense

Tuesday-

• Veterans day-Kids had it off of school. Mike had to go into work though
• washing the car-finally it doesn't smell rotten in there. The kids were a big help
• Niko got the hang of his Razor Motor Scooter finally, so he was buzzing around all day on that.
• kids played at the park pretty much all day
• tried cleaning the house a bit.

Wednesday-

• Kids back to school
• Matthew got his shots done for school. Poor thing, he had to get 3 of them and one of them was the one that takes forever to put in and hurts like heck. he was so brave and just had a concerned expression all the way to the car. A little boy waiting for his shots saw Matthew and says, "Mommy, that little boy looks scared" It was cute. As soon as Matthew got to the car though, he started wailing, poor guy. His lollipop didn't even help.
• he was good by the time soccer practice came though
• Royal rangers night. Bethany went to the girls class there and they did paper mache.
• While they were at there thing, i went and did some shopping at the market. Again paid 5 bucks and saved almost 40. got to love this coupon thing

Thursday-

• Matthew had a fever and was pretty groggy and yuck. we're figuring it was a reaction to the shots. we loaded him with Tylenol and he was back to himself, still needing to take it easy though
• Started getting Mike's things together for his trip to Idaho on Saturday
• Big Highlight! Bethany had her first orchestra concert. She did fantastic and it was so special that Luke and Carol came to watch her and Grandma and Grandpa Till came down from Prescott to watch her perform for the first time. It was a special night. here are all the photos there are two videos on there too
• Mike made two more pumpkin pies and he boiled the other pumpkin that we had gotten. He's becoming quite the domestic one around here :) He's so awesome! I love that man.

Friday-

• busy day this day, finishing the week up.
• Matthew went to speech and did awesome. he paid attention and did his escersizes and focused on the tasks at hand well.
• went to the chiropracterr to get adjusted. I was out in three places and one of them was a doozey. He did my neck too. Hopefully this will do the trick. if not, i have to come back next week. At least I can put my hair in a pony tail again.
• we finished getting Mike all packed up for his trip.
• We got him some shoes he's been needing for too long. We discovered that he has lost a shoe size. His feet shrank. the guy there said that that is normal as you get older. So now he's gone from a 14 to a 13. It actually worked to our advantage becasue the shoes he was looking at didn't have any 14's in stock. So we got a great deal on those and now he's all set.
• pay day so we paid all the bill. odd enough, i love this day. It's so nice to get it all done and clear out another month of bills and give thanks that there's another month that our budget has balanced-gotta love it.
• we spent today cooking a 22-23 lb turkey for a thanksgiving feast we went to this night. Turkey bags are great! So are those little popper-out sticks that come with the turkeys now to tell you when they're done.
• we went to the feast. There were soooo many people there-fun, good people. it was great to see people we haven't seen in a while and meet new people. I got my baby fix, getting to hold a freash 6 week old little baby. He was so sweet and smelled so good...I ran the boys home after dinner so they could wind down, get in their jammies and I could finish up packing Mike while they watched a movie. Later, we went back and picked up Mike and Bethany and there were still people filtering in...with more and more food :0...It was a fun night

We all had a great weekend!

Saturday morning, Mike woke up feeling awful! We've all had this chest congestion bug going around and yesterday was the day for it to hit him hard. Problem-his CPAT test was scheduled for yesterday morning, bright and early. he contemplated putting it off, but when he got there, he just decided to go for it and get it over with. He passed with flying colors...again! He's my hero. He's so determined and willing to just do what it takes to get the job done and then worry about everything else later. He is so blessed and in turn it is such a blessing to me to see the richness within him. Gosh, i love that man!

Saturday, i also completed my training with the Connector Program. Our class of an original 18 had 12 of us get our "blue shirts" yesterday. The training was so fun and I am so excited to get going on my first shift on Monday. Kind of nerve wracking, but anxious to jump in and get going.

We went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate the high points of the day.

Today after church Mike went over to work on a website for his dad's new business. He's selling Herbalife, an incredible product (so if you're interested, we can connect you with him to place an order-great stuff)...After that, Mike and i went to the show to see Fireproof. What an amazing movie! I cried the whole thing through.

Now we're just getting ready for the week ahead. another fun filled one at that! Concerts, first days, school holidays, shots for Matthew....fun stuff!

Tonight we got the green light to enroll Matthew in half day kindergarten after the holidays. So we're getting all the enrollment papers together. He sure wasn't ready at the beginning of the school year, but it will be good for him to get back into the classroom before he starts all day next year. He's been doing really well with homeschooling. Mike's been really good about keeping him challenged...but the social aspect of it will be good. He really doesn't get a whole lot of outside social stuff now that he is home all the time.

Mike registered today for his wild land classes at the college. He will be doing those in February. We are very excited about him finally getting this certification. He's been wanting/needing it for a while. Fun stuff.

Tonight, I had Bunko with the gals and Mike and the kids went to home group. The played games afterwards and so we all had a great night.

Today Grandma and Grandpa Renwick came down to visit for the day, they are at the tail end of their trans-American road trip. It was great to visit with them and hear about all the places they've been to over the past two months. Its been two years since we've seen each other. the kids have changed so much over those two years. And it was good to get caught up. We had a nice lunch and played at the park for a while. It was a beautiful day with beautiful weather!

Voting Day...Today-History made

Today history was made.
Millions of Americans exercised their freedom and right to vote for the leader of this country, one of the fundamental rights we have living in a democracy type government.
Mike and I watched this evening as the results came in and we faced the inevitable. Soon we came to grips with the fact that a greater majority of Americans today just voted against this democracy that we live in and voted in a president that, if given the opportunity to put his agendas into action, will make history in transforming our Democratic form of government that so many people have fought to maintain, to a socialistic, borderline communistic, government. Oh, boy, what a ride we will have! Get ready.
I will be utterly shocked if we are to see a 2012 presidential election. Obama wants change, the American people want change, well, they're going to get it for sure. Hopefully people like lines-food lines, doctor lines, work lines-remember that lines are a way of life for the communistic society.
Okay, okay, so you think I'm an extremist now, huh? probably, but oh well :)

Complimentry Starbucks/Krispy Kreme for Voters

Hey, hey everyone!

Starbucks is handing out free coffees to voters tomorrow. That'll get anyone out there to vote, wont it?

Add a doughnut to it from Krispy Kreme.

Dressing Up

More pictures click here

Bethany had so much fun dressing up as a Chinese Princess. We sprayed her hair with the black wash out hairspray and made her face white with baby powder.

Buzz Lightyear wanted to wear a Hulk mask, but resigned to the fact that he needed to simplify

Niko was a ninja for the 3rd or 4th year in a row. Fine by us, he had a blast and was very happy with his choice.

Our Crazy Clan

Pumpkin carving

More photos click here

Another busy week...this week was especially busy though.

Monday we had Literacy night at the school. We went from room to room and each grade had a creative way to present a book/story. The kids did a 'book walk'-like a cake walk, but with books. Niko won a book at that. Matthew and his friend loved the 'camp out' idea. one class had a tent set up and handed out flashlights to go into the tent and read a book with the flashlights. They spent a long time actually looking through books in the tent and having fun. Bethany liked the puzzle room the best. It was a fun night.

Wednesday was a half day for the kids. Bethany had a Fall Themed B-day party that she went to. They all had a blast carving pumpkins and playing games. The time went by quickly and everyone was sad when it was over. That same night, Niko went to Royal Rangers and Matthew had his soccer practice. What a busy night it was.

Thursday was spent crossing items off a ridiculously long to-do list. Getting ready for Great Popo to be in town this weekend, running to the library, getting my badge for the connector program, picking up work from the county, going to the market, cleaning, laundry, getting costumes ready for Friday...then, when the kids got home, we carved our pumpkins. It was so fun. We used these designs we had and the kids did a good job marking their patterns out and cutting on their own. Matthew pretty much had me do his, but the other two just needed help with the smaller detailed work. They turned out awesome and it was a lot of fun.

Friday was a mayhem of excitement. the kids didn't wear their costumes to school so the excitement built throughout the day. Matthew went to speech in the morning and did well. then we ran errands, Mike and Matthew went to the YMCA while i worked. they got home and Mike stopped by his dad's to play some cards with Popo. And then when the kids got home from school, we got ready and all dressed up.

Bethany was a Chinese Princess, Niko a ninja and Matthew was Buzz Lightyear. Fun, fun! We went over to Nana and Popo's first. Aiden and Jennifer were there so we got to see Aiden in his adorable little owl costume. Every time he moved his arms, it looked like he was flapping his wings. it was too cute. The kids hit a few houses up and down the street with Popo and daddy-to hold true to tradition. Matthew walked into a house and was looking around at their dogs and such. I guess it was all pretty funny, even though he was out of line. The kid does not understand boundaries. Another house, they were looking into the windows of the home-yep, no privacy when the Clesceri's are present...goof ball kids...We came back home and went visiting our neighbors. We had an actual horse trotting through our neighborhood and the rider was dressed as the Headless Horseman. We thought that was pretty cleaver. It was fun to visit with the neighbors and have an evening to just chat with everyone.

Today was an early day as I got up to go to my second full day of Connector training. It was a bast. While I was busy there, Matthew had his soccer game today and then Great Popo came over for a quick visit. The kids played at the park and they all had a great day around here. The weather has been so HOT still. It's still been in the 90's during the day. So, no problems playing outside around here.

Tonight Mike read a stack of books from the library to the kids and then they were tuckered out and off to bed.