A new Hobby

I have found a new "hobby"! Food Storage and grocery shopping deals. I know, it sounds pretty odd. However, my love and joy of digital scrapbooking has taken a back seat to this new found "hobby". I know, I can't believe it either. It is true.

It all started a few months ago. Around the end of Dec. I had this feeling that I needed to work on getting my basement cleaned out and organized. A friend of mine called and asked if I had any baby boy clothes for a neighbor of hers. So while I was at it, I gave away the rest of my baby clothes and baby gear. I was able to clear out three shelves in my storage room and it was such a feeling of a weight being lifted off. That got me in the mode of doing more. So I went through a lot of my scrapbooking stuff. Never thought I'd be able to do that. Paper scrapping is how my love of scrapbooking started. However, since I digital scrapbook, I figured I wouldn't miss it too much. I filled (plus some) a xerox box of old scrapbooking supplies and gave them away. Another feeling of relief! AAAHHH... I'm loving that feeling. About a week later, Casey said he was listening to a conference talk and asked me if I would be willing to work on food storage. FOOD STORAGE? Are you kidding? I have no idea where to even start. Way overwhelming to think about a year's supply of food! That week, our enrichment was on saving money and a 19x19 meal plan. This should be interesting. LOVED IT!

Then in February I attended a Pantry Secrets Enrichment. I learned to make bread. This is the most amazing bread. This bread takes me 1 hour from start to finish! Believe it! Unless I make rolls or a braid it will take a few minutes to shape. What really hit home for me on this was when Chandler came home from school the day after I made it and asked if he could have a piece of bread. Bread? Really? Not something he normally asks for, but ok, there's a loaf on the counter. No, he didn't want the store bought, he wanted the homemade. Needless to say, I haven't bought a loaf of bread since then. This bread dough is more than just bread. I can make braids, breadsticks, cinammon sticks, stuffed crust pizza, and more. Another one that hit me was when Chandler ate two slices of the stuffed crust pizza. He hates when I order stuffed crust from other pizza places, he would not eat the crust, EVER! Now it's his favorite! The only trick is, I haven't been able to make it gluten-free. I even had my sister who has celiac try and she couldn't do it either.

I have found a lot of great websites. I have almost got all of my year supply of food. Yes, it is an overwhelming thought, but trust me, if I can do it, so can anyone else! I didn't enjoy grocery shopping ever! Now it's one of my favorite things to do. I look at my favorite recipes. Then I thought about how I could make some of them non-perishable because that's what I needed for my main year supply food storage. Then, I went and bought the ingredients I would need that were in the caselot sale. Now that my main meals are mostly bought, I need to stock up on items that I go through faster (or the kids). Chandler is going to eat us out of house and home and he's only 9. So I need to stock up on cereals, snacks, toilet paper (it's getting there), quick meals, etc. We go through cereal so quickly, but I'm finally feeling like I'm ahead of the game. I look forward to finding the "great deals" for groceries. I can't believe the amounts of money I am saving now. For example, last night I went and bought 6 boxes of cereal (raisin bran, shredded mini wheat, and honey bunches of oats - no sugar cereals here), 3 boxes of 12-count Pop Tarts, and 18 count eggs for...... are you ready to hear how much I spent..... are you sure? $12. Serious! What a great deal - I saved nearly $30. My favorite was about 3 weeks ago. I bought 10 boxes of 12-count poptarts (they make a great after school snack for Chandler who is always hungry), 6 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of choc chip cookies for Casey(ok me, too), 2 packages of lettuce, and 2 bags of doritos for..... $38! I saved $66. Yep, amazing isn't it? My sisters now want me to just buy groceries for them. I have had such a great time doing this. I love coming home and showing Casey the amount of food I purchased and then showing him the receipts.

My sister asked me to come down and show her how I do things. That made me feel really good. It made me feel like I actually may have figured out some of this overwhelming idea. By no means have I got it entirerly figured out, but I am so glad that I have been able to figure out a way for us to save money and get out food storage building. Like I said there are a lot of great websites out there that gave me a boost. I've been busy organizing my cold storage room and my pantry. It feels so good! I really feel like I will be blessed for being obedient to what the prophets have asked of us for so long.

A new 'do!

Shelby has been begging me for about 2 or 3 weeks to cut her hair short. I said I wouldn't do it above the shoulders, we would have to ask Aunt Stacy to do it. I was hoping she'd kind of forget about it. But we had a Hansen birthday party for the girls and she mentioned to Stacy that she wanted her hair cut. I had made my appointment, so Stacy said she would fit Shelby in while my color was processing. Shelby was SOOOOO excited! I checked her out of school so that she could go with me. She loved going to the shop. Since my hair was processing, I asked Stacy to take a few photos for me.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

The cut is actually very cute on her. I was most nervous about her having it done because she's always been picky on her hair. However, she knows what she wants and you can't change her mind. Thanks Stacy for the great cut!

Birthday Girls!

I cannot believe my babies have turned 7! It seems so unreal. They are beautiful little girls and bring such joy to our home.

Our blonde haired-blue eyed sweetie. She is such a talented little girl. So many things come naturally for her. She loves piano, singing, dancing, and doing the splits. She has always been one to watch intently and then when she is ready to try something, she does it perfectly. She did that as a baby before crawling or walking. As soon as she was ready, she never fell. Dancing at age 4, she could keep up with her dance teacher. Her piano she has sailed through and even passed up Colby who'd been playing for 8 months with a different teacher. Her latest and greatest accomplishment and successfully wheeling around on "Heelies" without falling.


Our brown-haired, brown-eyed beauty. This little one is going to keep us busy. Casey keeps telling me he is going to take a 6-year sabbatical as soon as she's a teenager. She's a fashion diva. Has to have her clothes just so, has to do her own hair. Has massive attitude that I never thought I'd hear from a 6-7 year old. She is strong willed. If she wants to do something, she'll do it. At 3, she broke her wrist because she was positive she could do the monkey bars. Then 2 weeks after getting her cast off, she went down a slide and had to have stitches from cutting her lip open. She wants to have fun in life and doesn't care about consequences.

Happy Birthday Girls! We are so blessed to have you in our family.

Denise's Update

Denise had her first chemo treatment on Feb. 27. Her husband had to work that night and so she called to see if I would be willing to spend the night with her. When she'd gone through this before, the meds they give her at chemo knock her out so she was afraid she would need help with her kids. Siena had a late night party and Brad's sister took Isaac, so I had Taegan and Kambree to take care of (I picked up Siena around 11 pm). Denise however, did awesome! She was a little tired, but she stayed up for mine and Taegan's "late night" party. We watched a movie and played a little Wii. Kambree only wanted her mommy to take care of her so that was a little hard. On the 28th she was even up to going to two baptisms. Her neighbor's little girl and our niece. By the end of lunch, she was exhausted. So she took home Kambree to get some sleep. Between Michelle and I we took care of Taegan and Siena. I took them home late that night. Monday was a difficult day for her, she was very sick. She started losing her hair about the middle of last week. She called me Monday night and said she'd had enough so she went up to our sister's home to have her head shaved. The kids all got a chance to cut off some hair and shave a little. She'll have her next treatment on the 20th. Hopefully she does just as well. She's eating just about everything, except our beloved chocolate.

Happy Birthday, Colby!

I cannot belive that my oldest child is 12. A Deacon!?!? When did that happen? It's crazy! This year, the kids bought him gift cards and his favorite candy bars. That way he can buy a DS or Wii game using the gift cards. It was a great day! He was a little disappointed because he thought we would take him out to eat right after school, but there's too many after school activities on Friday, so he had to wait until dinner time. We let the kids choose where they want to eat for their birthday and he chose K.F.C. We allowed him to break his gluten-free diet for this dinner, but that's it.

Here he is with some of his fun gifts!

He's into medieval books and really was excited to get this set.

(It's a model, but he wants it to sit on his windowsill)

I was really bad and forgot to get a picture of him with his cake. Happy Birthday! We love you!

Hansen Family Birthday Party

Sunday night, my side of the family (Hansen's) celebrated all the Feb. birthdays at my house. Denise had just gotten out of the hospital so that was one less thing we felt she needed. I have a nephew with horrible allergies, and Denise's home is the only place that is central without pets, so we usually celebrate everything at her home.

Colby loved all his new gifts!

These are the family members who have a Feb. birthday.

(Taylor, Taegan, Siena, Colby, Isaac, Jon & Rachel)

After opening gifts and cake and ice cream, the games began. We played "Curses" which is so funny. I love getting together with the family. We get a long so well and have so much fun!

What More Can Happen?

Last week a good friend of mine decided to help me make some freezer meals for Denise and her family. She said if she could help with anything, it would be this. We spent all day Wed. and Friday preparing quite a few meals. This got me really excited about doing freezer meals. It's the way to go, especially when you have crazy hectic and busy days. We are actually going to do some for her neighbor who just had a baby and has to go in for surgery and will be down for 6 weeks. It's a fair trade. But it is wonderful to have such caring friends around to help with kids or housecleaning or whatever it may be.

Denise got home from the hospital on the Monday after her surgey. Her staples were removed on Wed and Thurs morning she broke out in hives. She has had a difficult time kicking them because she wasn't sure what caused them. About two days later she got the flu for a day. This morning I had a phone call from my mom a little before 7:30 and asked if Casey would be able to get the kids off to school. I asked what was going on. She said Denise was in a lot of pain. I said I'm on my way. I got off the phone, told Casey what was happening, and headed out the door. When I got to Denise's she said she was having a hard time breathing and was in pain from her lower back up to her shoulders. I said we'll get the kids off to school and drop Taegan off at preschool and head down to the hospital. Well, mom showed up 15 minutes later and was able to take her down. I got the two little ones ready and dropped Taegan off to preschool and brought Kambree home. It ends up that Denise has 2 or 3 bilateral clots. They are going to keep her in the hospital for 2 or 3 days for observation and put her on Cumadin (blood thinners). I knew when this all started happening that she would be ok, but it was going to be a long road. I didn't expect her to have difficulties like these while she was still recovering from surgery. I guess that whole thing of "bad things happen in 3's" is true. However, I say it happens in 5's. (Aren't we at #4?)