Windows and stuff

 So, I haven't posted in a while... but I have been meaning to put these up forever!  We finally were able to put new windows in our house!  So we got all new, double pained windows, and new trim.  Our big front window, we sized it smaller because it was so BIG, and we didn't want to pay the extra for tempered glass.  It's all finished except fixing the inside wall from where we made the window smaller... we need to texture and paint.  Other then that, blinds, and curtains here we come!

When we bought the house

This is how much we re-sized the window

Finished!

 

 Over the 4th of July we had a family reunion, my parents, siblings, and their kids.  We went up to our cabin and put up a new roof, built a new back porch, and dug/moved a new outhouse.  It was really fun seeing all the boys work together, and all the grand kids get dirty.  During our trip Will and I went out looking for a place to go rock climbing... failed... but I did learn how to change a flat tire :)  If you want to read in more detail about the reunion, my sister posted other pictures and info found here.

On top of the rim right before we found our flat tire... it was beautiful up there!

4th Year Hike

This year Will and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a 4th year backpacking trip with 48 YW... 10 were from our ward.  It was great!  Tuesday morning we were up early, drove the truck with 3 girls and were VERY grateful they slept the whole way!  We hiked up Horton Springs, it's about 15miles outside of Payson (by the Tonto National Fish Hatchery).  On the way up, we took a wrong turn, went down a windy road and almost hit a cow… it was really funny… (side note: you know how rabbits always seem to jump in the road RIGHT when you drive by, then run alongside you before realizing they need to get out… just like that)  needless to say, we did not have beef for dinner and made it to the right place for the hike to start.  

The hike up was beautiful with it being mostly in the shade, and some sunny spots, and following the creek.  There were a lot of small pretty waterfalls.  We stuck back with some girls, and enjoyed the relaxing hike with lots of rest breaks… At last, we made it to the top.  It was really nice to take my pack off… but I wasn’t dying… Defiantly not a bad hike to backpack in to.  

I LOVE the headband they
made for us!

Will and I set up camp up a steep hill about 100feet from the girls.  At first I thought I was going to have to hurt him by the end of the trip for making me hike up this KILLER hill so many times throughout the trip, but was very grateful for it seeing how nice and quiet it was with about 4 of us couple leaders up there, and 2 small tents of girls who were pretty quiet.  We left all the noise down at the bottom of the hill…amazing…  The rest of the afternoon we spent setting up camp, playing games with the girls, some certification, and a short night hike for their astronomy class.  After that, we were all grateful to head off to our nice soft sleeping bags to get some much needed rest… for most of us.

Chillin' on his "chair"

Will and I ended up getting food poisoning from the MRE’s we had for dinner so I was throwing up all night, and Will needed too.  As soon as there was light enough outside, we packed up and told the other leaders we were hitting the trail early, for fear that we wouldn’t make it out.  Lol.  It took Will and I 2 ½ to 3 hrs to hike out of there… I wish we had a video camera with how pathetic we looked.  J I swear every 100 yards Will or I had to stop and breathe.  I don’t think I have EVER taken so many rest periods on a hike ever, or total in my life!  I am very grateful we left early because it was a lot cooler hiking out which helped, and we made it to the car about 40min before the rest of the girls showed up, so we were able to take a quick nap which helped a lot.  I am sad to say, it took ALL the girls no more then 1 ½ hrs to pack out… I am very glad we left early so they weren’t stuck waiting for us.

The rest of the day seemed to go better.  Will and I got more energy, but never feeling a 100% and sitting down whenever we could.  We took the girls over to R bar C Ranch where they went repelling and swimming.  Will and his brother in law took over long repel, and I was the only girl so I had the fun task of donn/doffing all the girls harnesses.  It was fun to see how they were all different.  Some were scared to go down…sat and watched for a long time…. Then finally went down, took off the harness and got as quick as they can off the cliff.  They others who really liked it went up to the long repel and had more fun cuz they weren’t scared.  

After that we drove the girls up to Taylor Ranch and headed home ourselves for some much needed sleep.  After 10 hrs of sleep we were feeling much better the next day and were starting to get our appetites back.   Besides the food poisoning, it was a really fun trip!  I would defiantly recommend the hike.  Even for a nice day hike it’s about 3 ½ miles in, and very quick hiking out.  So pretty!  I know AZ can be really hot at times and we don’t see a lot of green where we live, so it was fun to go up among all the green.  It kind of reminded me of NE following along the creek and green foliage.  Only, in NE there aren’t rocks on the trail :) 

Granola

So, I made granola this weekend, and kinda played around with ingredients from two different recipes.  Combining the two, this is what I used and I love it!  Using the apple sauce makes me feel a little bit healthier, and it seems to be a softer flavor without being so plain tasting.

5c Oats
1 c Wheat germ
1 1/2 c chopped nuts
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c brown sugar
1 c apple sauce
2 Tbsp oil
1/4 c honey

Add all ingredients in to crock pot and mix well.  cover and Cook on low for 4hrs.  Place a toothpick under the lid to let it vent.
Tips:
*I like to add white chips and dried cranberries while cooking to add more sweets
*If you like it chewy don't cook it as long, if you want it crunchy cook longer
*I spray my crock pot to just to make sure it doesn't stick to edges. 
*I sometimes add extra honey to give it more clumps

My Random Weekend...

This week work has been really slow, so I've been trying to find things to keep me busy.  My sewing machine is broken...so by the time the weekend came I was bored with reading, practicing the piano, scrap-booking...ect.  So, this is was my fun and exciting weekend...

Blueberries!

First, Friday I borrowed a dehydrator from my sister.  Then, I dehydrated strawberries and blue berries.  Sat. morning the strawberries were finished nice and crisp, and the blueberries were finished in the afternoon.  I am excited to take them on our backpacking hike this week!  Yum!

Kinda bummed that it didn't make much... 

oh well, more time to make more!

Cleaning up.  Laina, Annie, Brisa

Then Saturday, I invited my nieces over to play.  We had fun playing with finger paint, play dough, blocks, puzzles, and eating Popsicle (which is a must for an AZ summer). 

washing

Finally, as if my nieces didn't wear me out enough :) I was bored Sat. afternoon.  I remember my mom making fruit roll-ups (fruit leather) when I was young and LOVED it!  So, dragging my husband along, we went over to his dads and picked tons of yummy extra ripe peaches.  I went home, chopped, ninja-ed, blended, and cooked my fruit leather.  I used my recipe from this website..only I cooked it between 170-200 degrees. So, after cooking about 5hrs sat. night, and 3 hours Sunday morning, it turned out!  One of them cooked a little too long, so we broke that up to go with the dehydrated fruit.  The 2nd one turned out great!  I turned it into 4 nice chunky fruit roll-ups for a perfect snack!  I am so going to make more!

blending

Tips:  Spray the pan with cooking spray before laying down the plastic wrap.  Then, pour the mixture of stuff on top.  

I was able to wash, cut, blend, and have these 2 pans in the oven within a half hour.  So this is really quick an easy to get ready, then all you have to do is wait.....

in the oven

all done!

While I am kinda on the topic of making dehydrated stuff... and you might not know how much I LOVE food storage and I have been working on it... I have also been making lots of granola with my crock-pot and vacuum sealing it into quart size jars for one of my breakfast items for food storage.  I found my recipe from here.  When making it from here, it ends up kinda dry and plain.  So, I liked to add about 1/4c brown sugar to make it more sweet; I also add dried cranberries and extra honey so I can get more clumps out of it.  Oh!  And while comparing this recipe with others, one added chocolate chips, so I did that one time,  GREAT!!!  Chocolate chips is defiantly a must when I make my granola now.  I mean, how doesn't have a sweat tooth?

Two Years Down...Eternity To Go!

Monday we celebrated our 2 year anniversary!   It feels so long, but went by so fast!  After going out to eat, we went to Wal-Mart and bought some airplanes.  We had fun trying to figure out how to fly them and do tricks.  I have to admit, Will’s was the best.  He almost landed his plane on top of a light pole, and also got a couple inches away from hitting a bird.  I had the best scoring nose dives into the ground at top speed.  We topped off the night with an amazing dessert from Nielson’s frozen custard.  Yum!

Our 2^nd year high lights…

*We became home owners now endlessly working on home improvements
*We have a squirrel, named Mr. Squirrel, in our backyard… along with some very colorful birds…
*We have 90% completed of our 4month supply
*We have taken classes to become repelling/rock climbing certified, have been collecting our own equipment, and made it out on the rocks a couple of times
*We still LOVE each other!!!  I am the luckiest person to have the BEST husband there is!

Freezer Crockpot Meals

Last week Camilla and I decided we were going to make 10 crockpot freezer meals to put in our freezer.   She saw a couple different people do in on Pinterest.  She is always bad at making dinner because she gets home late from school, and I am bad at making dinner when I get home from work different hours.  I decided to make some with her because most of the meals had veggies in it ( I HATE veggies with a passion and have no clue how to cook with them to make them taste yummy), and meat in it (my sister isn’t a big fan of eating meat herself), so we decided to give it a try!

This past week we found 10 different recipes we were interested in try, typed up a shopping list, compared what she had and I had so we didn’t have to buy a ton of seasonings and some other ingredients.  So, last night while both of our husbands were at father-and-sons we made our meals!

Around 5:30-6 we went to Superstition Ranch Market (the BEST place to buy cheap fruits and veggies for cheap, you just have to be picky), where we bought the veggies we needed.  $10 dollars each for each of us.  Next we went to the grocery store and bought the rest of the items, and chicken (We both already had some chicken and beef out defrosting for about 4 meals).  We spent $40-50 each.  Then, we unloaded everything and got to work!

Groceries bought and ready to start.

Our recipes posted for easy to read use

Camilla chopping seasonings from her garden, and we used them too!

Here are my 13 gallon size bags with our 10meals in them ready to take home.

 We finished chopping and making the meals around 10:30, cleaned up, and I left for home around 11.  Now all we have to do is defrost them the night before in the fridge, and add it to the cock pot so we can have dinner ready when we come home in the evening.  I hope they tasted good!

Road Trip

This past weekend Will and I drove to Albuquerque, NM for a continuing education course I was interested in taking.  We left Wed. and it was so nice to spend time together on the drive, and read.  I finished 2 books on this trip!  I was at class from 8-5 most of the days, so we were able to do hiking or the "tourist" things.  One night we did drive to the temple and walk around a bit, we managed to eat ice cream everyday, and most of all, I enjoyed having a break and doing whatever I pleased.  We don't have a TV at our house so I am usually keeping myself busy other ways, but it was nice to sit and watch TV For a bit and read a book during commercials.  I have to say... not something I can do for more then a couple of days because it would be boring, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

So, down to the juicy stuff... The class I took was called Visceral Manipulation.  If you don't know what "visceral" is... it's pretty much your guts.  I know it sounds weird, but I learned how to mobilize and balance the stomach, liver, gallbladder, small and large intestines.  It was GREAT!  Defiantly difficult to learn, and I still need LOADS of practice to really become good at it.  If any of you are interested in letting me mush around in your tummies and get things moving again, I would love to learn.  Just some interesting facts I learned...

*in most car accidents tendon that holds the liver can get stuck, and cause pain years to come
*you Liver relates to R shoulder pain, and has some connection to your eyes
*if your small intestines or part of your large intestines are tight it can cause sciatic pain, or tight hip and back pain
*these organs have their own personality to help with the body.  For example... the Gallbladder likes to take on the "every day stresses" of life.  (did you leave your keys in the car?  Late to work? )

I think the most important thing I learned, is why it is so important our inner organs need to move.  If you think about it... how many times do we breathe a day?  All day right?  So, every time we breathe, all the other organs move up and down, or side to side.  If one of those organs has a small restriction in it, and we are breathing X number times a day, that can lead to pain somewhere in the chain.  If we smashed our finger in the door, we don't use that for a bit until it feels better.  Well, our organs can get hurt from infections, accidents, falling, ect. and they need to be able to move freely too.  All in all, I am very excited to put my new knowledge to work, and figure some stuff out.