Rayna's Dance Recital May 31, 2008

Rayna has been taking ballet from Amidey's "Crazy Lady's House of Dance" for 3 years now. She is a born performer. She loves the stage, the attention, the costumes, the make-up and the glitter. Last winter I about cried during her recital performance. She had such composure and her posture made her look so beautiful and natural up on the stage. With each performance Amidey has the parents help with the classes back stage to help things go smoother. This time, Amidey let me just watch since I just had a baby. I found that I was able to actually get some pictures of Rayna this time! What a treat! I'm ususally so frazzled I never remember to get my camera out. Here is most of her class

Here is me and my Ballet-Rayna

Here is some video of her dances. I was taking this with my digital camera and trying to watch at the same time. My camera also doesn't allow zoom while in video mode, so it's hard to see the dance as a whole, but, you know, this is all about MY kid. This first one is an awesoeme re-make of "We are Siamese" from Lady and the Tramp

This next one is called "Daughter of a King", and I didn't quite get all of it, but you'll get the picture. You'll be able to see in this one that she finally sees me at the beginning, and she picks Rick out of the crowd later in the song. She brightens right up and seems to dance with all that much more "umph"when she's performing for people she knows.

Her fans that attended were her parents, her siblings, her Grandma and Grandpa Wilhelmsen, her Aunt Mattie Rae, her Aunt Wyn, and Cousin Megan

Neighborhood Friends

Our good friends, the Rhotons moved to Idaho 4 months ago. We have missed them and our kids have missed their kids since they've been gone. Aja called me last week to tell me that she would be coming back down for the weekend and so we planned a day at the park with some of our other neighborhood friends.

Here are 5 neighbor-friends on the same street and on the same side of the street even! From left to right: Aja, Sara, Rindee, Kathy, and Hannalei

Here are the 8 year old friends: Stephanie, Cooper, Caleb, and Ian Here are the 6 year old friends: McKenzie, Rayna, Jayden, and Courtney3 year old friends: Audrey and Jaeda

I remember the day we moved in to our new home in Spanish Fork. We had been living with my parents for 9 months and it had taken 4 months to build our home. We visited the building site almost daily, and about that often I was daydreaming about my new life in my brand new home with wonderful new friends. It was a Saturday, and I was so excited to meet my neighbors and get acquainted in our new ward. The only problem was I didn't know when or where church was...and it was the next day. There were 3 churches within walking distance, so I didn't dare guess even what building it was at. I didn't know what to do, so I said a prayer that somehow we would find out where to go to church the following day.

As we were unloading the last boxes into our home, a suburban drove down the street and slowed as it approached our house. All of the lots around us were still empty, so I knew they were stopping to talk to me. I walked down to the street, and Aja and her husband, Daniel introduced themselves and their kids that were in the back. I got up some guts and asked them if they were LDS. They were! So they told us where and when church was. Such a little act for them, but it was an answer to my prayer, and I about cried with gratitude as they drove away.

My daydreams about my new neighborhood have come true. I just love our ward and the people on our street. It's a rare thing to be able to have so many (good) kids the same ages as mine that they can play with. And what good fortune that all their parents are fun to play with, too! There are such wonderful people in our neighborhood that I love and look up to as well. The Rhotons were good friends and we are sad to see them go, but we are happy that they have moved to a place we are familiar with and visit often.

Flashback Friday -Rayna April 2002

Rayna was such a chubby baby she had a hard time standing up. Her thighs got in each others' way when she tried to stand up. She was such a beautiful baby with huge blue eyes framed with long, dark eyelashes. Her Aunt Becca used to call her "Thunder Thighs and Lightning Eyes". I had people tell me all the time that she looked like the Gerber Baby. She is 6 months old in this photo. Taken at our home in Gridley, California.

Making Cheese

One of those things I've always wanted to try is to make home-made cheese. We found a Bare-Bones Recipe of the most basic of all cheese-making, and decided to try it on our Memorial Day Holiday. We made 1/4 of what the recipe called for because we just wanted to try it out.

First, we took one quart of 2% milk and warmed it to 190 degrees F.

Remove from heat and add 2 Tablespoons of Vinegar. This will make the milk curdle until you have curds and whey (like Little Miss Muffet food!). Let stand until cooled.






When cooled, pour through strainer to separate the curds from the whey. Gently stir the curds to release all the whey.

Then add 1/4 teaspoon of salt. This makes a ricotta-type cheese that you can use like you would use ricotta like in lasagna or salads. Did you ever know that making cheese was so EASY?

So my mom dished up everyone a bite-size taste. My mom was the bravest soul that tasted it first. Mattie Rae and Shan'l were next to try it. They said it reminded them of yogurt. My dad said it needed more salt, so mom put more salt in it. THEN it was my turn.

TOO MUCH SALT! I don't recommend putting

too much salt in your cheese. It wasn't good like that. I think next time I'll try it before anyone adjusts the recipe. So, unfortunatley, I can't give you an accurate account of how it is supposed to taste. Maybe Mattie Rae will post a comment and tell you her experience.

All the kids wanted to try it. Some really loved it. Mik'l wanted seconds, and Jaeda had probably 10 bites of it...till there was no more. Others were good sports and had polite reactions to the too-salty cheese:

This cheese was so simple and easy to make. Now that we have the basics of cheese-making down, I'm going to try a more advanced type of cheese in the future.

Bargain Shopper 54

I'm cheap. I always have been. I'm one that would save my Halloween candy in my junk drawer, eating only one or two pieces of candy at time -rationing it so it would last all the way till the next Halloween. I only buy gifts for people if there's a reason - like a birthday, Christmas, or some other holiday. I save everything ...just in case I might need it someday.

Some of these tendencies have served me well - like trying to run a household on a teacher's salary, but the others I'm trying to work on - like being more generous, and getting rid of all my clutter.

But, I do enjoy finding a bargain when I am shopping. I hardly buy anything if it's not on sale. I have a neighbor that has couponing down to a science. She can come home from a shopping trip and actually MAKE money on her purchases. She showed me a few tricks, and an awesome website (http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com) , and although I'm not religious about couponing, it brings me deep satisfaction to come home with a receipt like the one you see here.

I went to Albertson's last night with Rayna to try and snag some good deals. With their current promotions matched up with some coupons I had from the Sunday paper and some I found online, I was able to save 54% on my complete order. I saved more money than I spent on 37 items!

And, since I also love statistics, graphs, and high scores, I thought it would be fun, for me at least, to see if I can beat my previous best in savings. So, the "54" part of the Bargain Shopper title is the percentage I saved. If I can beat that, then I'll post again.

Gardening with Jaeda

Jaeda is fun to be outside with. She isn't afraid of bugs and everything loves her, too. A few days ago she helped me get our vegetable seeds in the ground. We planted zucchini, crook-neck squash, cucumbers, and spinach. I planted carrots right before Brynlee was born, and only a few are coming up since they didn't really get much attention or water for a few weeks. I may have to re-plant those. After Jaeda helped me with the seeds, she kept herself busy picking flowers (dandelions) and finding "holy polys."

Today she helped me plant our tomato plants and pick some weeds. I found a really big worm in the garden and showed it to her. She cuddled with that worm for the rest of the time we were out. It looks like she may have a bit of Grama Orton's love for all of God's Creatures in her. I love how she actually put it up to her lips and at the end she puts it on her shoulder like she's going to burp it. True love.

Ian the Inventor

So this morning the kids are heading out the door to go to school. It is a beautiful day, so they went out without any coats. Soon they both came back in proclaiming it was too chilly out there. Soon Rayna heads out with her fleece on, and Ian is close behind. I can see out of the corner of my eye that something isn't quite...normal about his solution. It was inventive, though:

He found a long sleeved shirt to wrap around his head. He said that only his ears and nose were cold, so he came up with something that warmed just those parts. When I asked to take a picture of his invention, he stood still in all seriousness to document his discovery. What a kid.

Apple Pie Oatmeal

Enrichment last night was on Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness. This is a subject I am naturally interested in, and attended hoping to get some new ideas. I am always looking for new ways to use the food storage I have, and the lady that taught the class gave me a lot of good ideas. One of the things she mentioned is the different ways she flavors her cooked oatmeal for breakfast.

Honey Nut - add honey and almonds
French Toast- add cinnamon and vanilla
Choco - add chocolate chips
Very Berry - add frozen berries
Creme Brule - add a layer of vanilla pudding, then a layer of sugar, and broil or torch it
Apple Pie - add dehydrated apples and cinnamon

My kids love instant "creme" varieties of oatmeal, so I thought I'd try a few of these. This morning I tried the Apple Pie version. I am not a huge oatmeal fan, so I had to add some brown sugar to help it taste more apple pie-ish, but it was good! Rayna liked it and said she'd eat it again.

I like that oatmeal is inexpensive, it's healthy, and it helps my kids stay fuller longer than if they eat cold cereal. It was quick, only taking about 5 minutes to cook. I'm not a breakfast cooker, but Brynlee woke me up at 6:30 this morning and I couldn't go back to bed, so I took the opportunity to use my kids as guinea pigs. BUT, they know how to boil water in the microwave, so I could make up some "instant oatmeal" packets using my new flavors and they could make it themselves next time I'm refusing to get out of bed.

I am no gourmet cook, and I don't even claim to enjoy cooking. But I am one that gets excited about saving 70% on my grocery shopping trip. Don't look here for recipes to dazzle your guests with, but I may occasionally share a recipe of some new way I found to use my food storage or a yummy frugal meal.