Our sweetie

And here's our sweetie.

Tile

Here's my first attempt of installing ceramic floor tile. It still needs grout. That's tomorrow's project.

Bathroom

This one didn't turn out that well since the light was on so I adjusted the colors. It's supposed to be a nicer shade of blue.

Like the view?

I did take them at night so the colors may be a little off, but don't you like the view out the window?

Basement photos

Jere here. Dad mailed us a new digital camera and I took some photos of the basement. Consider it a small preview to all of you who will be staying here next month. The carpet should be coming soon.

72 hour kit

Well, I finally did it. I went and made 72 hour kits for each of us. Recent events got me motivated to do it. I had a list of things needed and we got what we could at home and then we went shopping for the rest. We are keeping them in the car. Two in Jeremy's car and two in my car. Now in case of of an emergency we will be a little more ready. We did this for Family Home Evening on Monday and turned it into a hunt with Olivia. We would name something on the list and she would see if she could find it to put it in her bag. She had a great time and now we each a 72 hour kit. We are slowly working on getting a year's supply of food. We probably have 4 months worth of food stored.
If you want a copy of the items to go in the 72 hour kit or how to get a year's supply of food by buying a little each week let me know and I will send you the copy I have.

Cooking

My friend Marianne showed me how to make freezer meals and how to make them last in the freezer. I love this way of cooking because then I get two meals and only have cook once. I just take a meal like Lasagna and either double the recipe or put it into two smaller containers. I buy the alumunim pans at Warmart for 3 for .99 and I put half of the meal in it. Then I wrap it with plastic wrap, then wrap it with alumunim foil. Then I put it in the freezer with the name of the meal and directions for cooking on it. This saves me so much time and believe it or not money. As a working Mom this is really nice because there are times when you come home and you just don't want to cook, and you know you shouldn't go out. Plus with our small family it is hard to eat 9 by 13 pan of anything. And rarely do all the left over get eaten. But by freezing dinners you aren't eating leftovers. The food is as good as if you just fixed it that day.
Here are some of the meals that I freeze. If you want a recipe just let me know. If you have a good recipe that you know can be frozen I am always looking for more recipes.
*Lasagna
*Baked Ziti
*Manicotti
*Chili
*Calizones
*Chicken Soup
*Chicken Enchiladas
*Chicken Pot Pie
*Chicken King Ranch Casserole
*Beef Stroganoff

Trip to WV

We have bought two sets of tickets to go to WV.
I will be going on Oct. 7th and coming back Oct 12. I am taking this trip to see my brother, Thomas, before he leaves for Iraq. He is in the Army and is now stationed at Ft. Hood Texas. Garrett will be going with me and Olivia will be staying here with Jeremy.

We also bought tickets today to go back to WV for Christmas. We will be leaving from VEGAS on the 24th of Dec. and coming back on the 31st of Dec. We like flying out of Vegas so that way we can see both families.
We are excited to see everyone!

Ignore this:

Preschool Songs

Livvy came home singing some songs from preschool. She taught them to us and each song had hand motions. She is so smart and she loves preschool. We think it is amazing that she remembers them when she gets home. Here are how three of the songs goes

Turtle
I have a little turtle
His name his Tiny Tim
I put him in the bath tub
to see if he could swim
He drank all the water
and ate a bar of soap
Now he is sick in bed
with a bubble in his throat.
Bubble Bubble Bubble
Bubble Bubble POP

Five Speckled Frogs
Five Little Speckled Frogs
Sitting on a speckled log
eating delicious bugs. YUM YUM
One jumped into the pool
where it was nice and cool GLUB GLUB
Now there are four speckled frogs.
etc.

Days of the week (Sung to Oh my Darling and your repeat as much as your want.)
Sunday, Monday
Tuesday, Wedndesday
Thursday, Friday
Saturday

Calling

We got called into the Bishop's office today. We both got released from the activites committee and I got called to be the Assistant Communication Chair Person. They said that I would be doing the Newsletter and working with this other lady. I looked at him kind of funny and said, "I've already been doing the newsletter since March." So now I guess it is official that I do the ward newsletter. I thought the whole thing was comical. Jeremy didn't get a new calling. But when we got the call to go and see the bishop we were dreading a call to the nursery. : ) We were glad I just got called to do something that I was already doing.

Mystery Bag

Olivia got to bring home the mystery bag to take a show-n-tell in. She finally decided to take the pink train that my dad made for her. She was so proud to take in the train with her name on it. She got to put the train in the bag and then we helped her come up with 3 clues for others in the class to guess what was in the bag. Then we had her practice telling the clues. She acted like such a little teacher. She said, " Sit on your pockets and raise your hand so I can call on you" and then she wouldn't call on us unless we were doing the way her teacher had shown her. It was really cute and funny.

Winn Dixie

We rented the movie Winn Dixie. We choose this movie because the author of book is Kate DiCamillo and I a have read other books by this author and enjoyed the books. 2nd it looked like a really cute family movie and 3rd several of my third graders thought the movie was great. Anyway we LOVED the movie. It was so good. Olivia enjoyed it too even though it was not a cartoon. She even asked to watch it again. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good family movie with good values. This might even be one that we buy. It is about a girl who's dad is a preacher and they move to a new town and she wants a friend and finds a dog who helps her meet other people in the town. I now want to go and get the book and read the book.

Basement, Preschool, Croup, Teaching

We finally started a blog because everyone else is doing it. We don't have a good digital camera so we won't be able to put alot of pictures on here.

Basement:
So you want to know what is going on with us. First we finished painting all of the basement and we had a guy come and do measurments to give us an estimate for carpet. We are so excited to be almost done. We should ge the bid on Tuesday. Then hopefully by next Saturday we will be able to buy the carpet. Then it will take another couple of weeks to get it installed. We want it to be done before everyone shows up here in October so people will have a place to stay.Jeremy says he is excited because this is the first big project he has really completed. My friend Marianne gave us a couch, some end tables and a mattress so when it is finished we will have a some furniture down there.

Preschool:
Livvy started Preschool this week. She was so excited. She will go two days a week for 2 1/2 hours each day. We bought her a little purple backpack. She is so ready to be going to school. The first day went well and she said they read a story about a frog that blows bubbles and that it was funny. I couldn't think of what story the teacher could have read to her. We talked to my nephew Zach and he said that in his class his teacher read a similar story. My sister and I think it is the same book. She also got choosen to bring home the mystery bag and put a show in tell in for next time. She wants to take everything in her room. I can't believe she is so grown up and going to school.

Croup:
Garrett has croup. He has had it for about a week and is starting to get a little better now. We were really worried because he was weezing and coughing pretty bad. He had to have a breathing treatment and got a steroid shot. He still sounds raspy but we think the worst is over.

Robin Teaching:
This year is great! I still work part time which I love and this year for the first time I only have 20 students. In the past I have had around 28. I didn't realize having 8 less kids in my class would make such a difference. They are a really good bunch of kids and teaching is fun so far this year. Also grading papers seems alot more do-able with less kids. Next year I will have a big class again so I just want to enjoy this year. Even if some of the parents make my life hard, it just nicer this year. The only hard thing was at the beginning of the year I had to find a new babysitter. That was really stressful but I found a lady in the neighborhood who wanted to watch 2 kids. She lives right next to the park. She is really great and I feel blessed that I was able to find her and leave my kids with a trustworthy person.

Principal Jeremy:
This year Jeremy is a full time Vice Princpal at a different school then the one he was at last year. He seems to really enjoy what he is doing and says he doesn't miss planning lessons and grading papers. The principal keeps him busy with (well I'm not really sure what he does all day) But he always says he was really busy and tired. He still claims he wants to be a principal next year. He will start applying again around November. I really hope he gets it.