salsa update

I just wanted to give you all an update.  I just returned from another Friday of "boutique" shopping (this is a very popular thing down here).  The "salsa girl" was again selling her goods at this different boutique, I was instantly worried because I have NOT been able to get a hold of her this entire week, but then I saw a large sign that said... KEEP REFRIGERATED.

I'm not sure how I missed the sign at the boutique last week, but I did.  So there you have it.  It wasn't canned salsa at all, just fresh salsa put into jars. 

But now you all know, that if you put fresh salsa in an airtight bottle on your pantry shelf after leaving it in your car for a couple of hours, it will EXPLODE in the middle of the night and make a huge mess.  Never do it.

elder & sister adams, well done

These are my parents, and today they finished their eighteen month mission, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They served in the Family History Library at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  I am proud of them both, that they stepped away from their busy and comfortable lives in Idaho and were willing to serve a full-time mission.  They are a good example to all of us and especially to their grandchildren of their testimony of the Gospel.

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matt. 25:21.)

I am thankful for each of you and the personal sacrifices you made to complete an honorable mission.  I love you both and am excited that you can now come and visit us.  Hope to see you soon!

thankful tree

I am a faithful reader of the 71toes blog.  Travis calls me "the blog stalker". I am not ashamed to say that I am a blog reader, I get a lot of great ideas and good advice from the blogs I read. In my opinion, there are a lot worse things that I could be doing with my time, but probably some better things too,...oh well, I'm not a big TV watcher so this is my one guilty indulgence. Oh, besides Coke.

Anyway.....I got this great idea from www.71toes.blogspot.com.  Last year I read about her "family thankful tree", and loved the idea. (you will have to look up the exact post for this year in the November section, and last years under the Thankfulness section, I am not handy enough to link the actual post) I wanted to do one for my family but with being in the middle of a move it just didn't get done. So this year I was determined to start this in our family and make it tradition.  I want to use the whole month of November to think about thankfulness and gratitude.  I want to personally think more about all of my many blessings.  I want my kids to see what abundance they have compared to so many.  I want us to be THANKFUL!

I wasted the first part of the month deciding "how" I was going to start this project.  I knew I wanted our tree to be visible to the family on a daily basis and I didn't have a great spot in the kitchen that I thought was big enough.   I also wanted something permanent, more like a decoration that the kids would count on every year.  I wanted it to be cute enough that I would be excited  to put it up each November 1st when I'm pulling down my Halloween decorations. So it came a little late in November this year, but hopefully it will be a family tradition that my kids remember for years to come.

And here it is, and I am very happy with my version of the thankful tree, if I do say so myself!

We really are more "thankful" than this, only Austin has done his leaves.  Cutting out the leaves took me almost as long as making the whole thing.  I will definitely use a die-cut next year.  So anyway the other kids should be doing there leaves tonight when they get home.

gilbert temple

On Saturday we went to the groundbreaking service for the new Gilbert Temple.  I had never attended a groundbreaking before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was interesting, they shared a lot of history about the area, mainly the church growing in the area.  I can't remember all the numbers but what they basically said was that in the last fifty years LDS people have swarmed to the Mesa/Gilbert area like flies on trash.  I think they said that the Mesa Temple is now servicing 70 stakes and is inadequate for that number, the new Gilbert Temple will service 20 or so of those stakes.  One number I do remember was quoted later in the day by the Stake Primary President that we have 1121 primary age kids in our stake!  I couldn't believe the number was so high but we do have kids galore down here.

It was very warm at the groundbreaking and Travis got a nice red burn on the left side of his head, I was sweating buckets because I wore my "winter" clothes since it was November 13th.

The reason you don't see Nic in the above pictures- he couldn't tear himself away from Harry Potter for a photo shoot with the shovels.

Trying to keep Austin entertained- when he is "ssssssooooooo HHHHHOOOOTTTT & bbooorrriiinnnggg!!!"

 This is an artist rendition of the Temple that will be in 22 - 24 months.

I wanted to show this picture to show how many people were there.  I stuck my camera above my head backward and snapped this.  They had 5000 chairs set up and we were sitting like 3rd row to the back, I think.  All the people behind that were on lawn chairs, blankets or standing.  I would guess maybe 7500 people were there!

We are excited to watch the temple be built so close to us and will keep you updated on it's progress.

disaster

I am currently taking a break from cleaning up this...

I know it doesn't look like that big of a mess,...let me give you a little more perspective on the disaster.

Just so you know that I am not exaggerating about the magnitude of this mess, it is on just about every surface- the floor, six shelves bottom & top, and the ceiling.

Now I will tell you what all the green stuff covering my entire pantry is.

It is salsa.  On Thursday, Chloe and I went to a boutique and they were selling the most delicious salsa.  We bought a bottle and finished it off that day.  It tasted soooo yummy I thought I would hurry back to the boutique and buy some more, which I did on Saturday.  I bought a quart size jar of the green salsa because it was good too and two pint size jars of the yummy original salsa we had tasted.  The kids begged to open it but I said no we were saving it for over the Thanksgiving holiday and put it on the pantry shelf.

I had been feeling a little stomach sick all weekend so I went to bed a little early, Travis came in and went to sleep a little after ten and then KAAABOOOOM we woke up to a loud crashing sound about 11:30 last night.  Travis bolted out of bed, I'm sure thinking we were having a break-in.  I knew it wasn't that because no alarm, so we started looking around to see what fell.  Travis opened the pantry and said "Heidi, it was your salsa."  I thought it seemed a little weird that it would fall off the shelf because I put it there myself and knew it wasn't close to the edge or anything so after looking a little closer we discovered that it didn't fall off the shelf but exploded. I could hear a little noise, kind of like a hissing noise.  I picked up the other two bottles of salsa and saw that they were moving inside, bubbling and hissing.  Possessed salsa I had just purchased.  Anyway opened those two bottles in the sink, they were under so much pressure they popped the minute I unscrewed the lid. My pantry would have been green and red because I am sure they would have exploded too.

I made the mistake of not staying up to clean the mess last night or taking Travis up on his offer to clean it up. I felt way to sick.  This morning it is hardened on and taking me way longer to scrub off surfaces.  I went back to bed but could not fall asleep partially due to my stomach ache and the other part wondering if I was dying from botulism due to the bad salsa I had eaten on Thursday.  I had to get up and read on the inter net about canning.  Yes, you can get botulism from exploding canned goods but I would probably already be dead if was botulism.  Most exploding canned goods are from improperly processing but couldn't find any information if you can get sick from it.  I am sure you do because isn't it bacteria growing that makes the jar explode in the first place?

Then I am thinking, I know the girl who made the salsa, she is in my ward, there were 2 different kinds of salsa that had this problem, is she going to kill someone, should I tell her, doesn't she know how to can, how is she going to get the word out that her salsa is bad, are there other exploding jars???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will tell you this, her salsa tastes delicious, I'm not so sure about her canning techniques.  I wasted $16.50 on the salsa that now cakes my walls and I have another 4+ hours of scrubbing to look forward to.

A disaster in my book!

to my cousin Emily- now I have an even more similar experience than the one I told you before.  I am just grateful mine only involved one jar and no smoke or burning smell!

awesome

If you asked Chloe about our night last night she would say it was "AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", and it was.  Chloe and I went on a mother/daughter date to the Mindy Gledhill concert that was hosted by Christian and Stephanie Nielson (all of which we love).

Let me tell you something about myself, I do not get all worked up about celebrities or famous people, just don't. We frequently see,Chester Bennington ,who is singer for Linkin Park, at Nic's baseball games.  Travis thinks it is neat and wants me to walk over and get a picture or autograph, I say for what? I feel pretty much the same about any celebrity or sports figure, why would I want a piece of paper with their name on it? I might snap a picture,maybe.   

This being said, Chloe was a little more gaga over the fact that we got to see these people than I was. Don't get me wrong I thought it was neat and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  But then I started thinking "so what if she was starstruck?", I'm actually thankful that she is so gaga over these particular women.  Stephanie is a women who I admire immensely, she has taught me so much about enduring and I love that she shares her testimony every chance she gets. Mindy writes great music that has clean lyrics, she dresses modestly and is a good role-model of someone who has followed her dreams without foregoing the calling of a wife and mother. AND, we both enjoy them, to boot.

Here are the pics of the night.

 Chloe and her friend before the concert started.

these two girls were sitting directly in front of us

 as well as the rest of the family (I know I said I didn't get starstruck)  and for those of you who do not read the Nie Nie Dialogues you are completely lost

 Mindy rocking out on her keytar

Mindy's keyboard guy - I must say the strangest man I have seen in a long time, the picture does no justice.

Chloe got to go up on stage, she was so excited.  Mindy gave them all a beat that they were supposed to clap to, and unfortunately Chloe is like the rest of our family- musically challenged, she said the beat was too complicated and she couldn't figure it out. (It have to say it was hard.) She did fine faking it, I didn't even notice.  Mindy even complemented Chloe on her cute outfit!

AND THE GRAND FINALE!

Chloe and Nie Nie



A few other random pics.

All and all great night...thanks Chloe for talking me into taking you!

veteran's day

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY! -  to our favorite Veteran. Thank you for your service to our country. Nicholas wrote a paper about veterans and YOU, and if you were here, Holden would treat you to a special Veteran's breakfast at his school in the morning.  Hope you have a great day.
and...
HaPpY 14th  bIrT hDAY to Abigail, today!!!!
We hope you have a very happy day and wish we were there to celebrate with you.

another pack meeting

Nicholas earned his Bear award last week in Pack meeting.
This guy goes all out for Pack meetings and the boys absolutely LOVE it!
Remember I have blogged about the awesome Scoutmaster before... but let me tell you what he had cooked up for these three BEARS. He brought out three plates of "bear scat", and told the boys they would find their Bear Award in the "bear scat".  There was green Koala poop (pistachio pudding), white Polar bear poop (vanilla pudding) and brown Grizzly poop (chocolate pudding). Unfortunately, Nicholas drew the green poop and then gagged the whole time becuase he did not like the pistachio pudding, but he made it through.  He used his tongue to dig around in it and drooled a little and then once he had the award another Cub Scout watching said "I love pistachio pudding" and licked the rest of the plate clean! Travis and I laughed and laughed about that, he didn't even care that another kid just basically spit in it. I guess that's a boy for you.

Way to go Nic, Congratulations on your Bear!

mr. lopart

If you are not familiar with who Mr. Lopart is than you must not have a child under the age of 5 or maybe you don't have the Disney channel.  If you need to look this guy up, click here.

Here is the wikipedia definition for the show and the character, Mr. Lopart.

Handy Manny is an animated children's television program launched in 2006, part of the Playhouse Disney morning block of the Disney Channel. The show features the adventures of Manny Garcia, a bilingual Hispanic handyman, and his anthropomorphic, talking tools. It also teaches young children the beginnings of Spanish and the importance of cultural diversity.

Leonard Francis Lopart, usually called Mr. Lopart (voiced by Tom Kenny) — Slightly campy owner of a candy store next to Manny's workshop. He is a single middle aged man who lives happily with his cat Fluffy. There hasn't been a reference to him ever being in a romantic relationship, although he does have an excellent loving relationship with his mother. Mr. Lopart's know-it-all unusually high level of self confidence, attitude and refusal of Manny's assistance often lands him in trouble, usually resulting in his falling on the floor or on the objects he lifts. It should be pointed out that Mr. Lopart has accepted help from Abuelito on occasion which suggests the issue he has is actually receiving help from someone his junior.

Now you are wondering why I am sharing this?  It is because I have my own Mr. Lopart.

Every time I get Austin out of the bath I comb his hair like this, always have.  He doesn't wear his hair like this normally so sometimes I just want the nostalgia of that "classic little boy hair". Then one day he looks in the mirror at himself  and says to me- "I LOOK LIKE MR. LOPART!"  I burst out laughing and it still makes me laugh, now we kind of have a thing going. When he has a bath he knows he will have Mr. Lopart hair.  Once in awhile he will say, "do my hair like Mr. Lopart", what a funny kid!