A Favorite Blog

Is this one http://latterdaychatter.blogspot.com/. I'm a stalker!!

Argentine Tango

Oh, I just LOVE this dance! My newest favorite routine from DWTS Season 11, Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) and Derek Hough performing the Argentine Tango. Love it! It got the best scores of the season from the judges (so far).

Crochet Patterns I love Part 1

I love this little tawashi. I've made several but unfortunately I can't sell them on Etsy unless I make my own pattern. Working on that! http://www.craftstylish.com/item/43848/how-to-crochet-a-tawashi is the link, and here's a picture I snagged from her website (since I can't find the picture I took of mine at the moment).

Isn't that cute? These are little scrubbies you can use to clean dishes, etc. I want to find some acrylic yarn and make some for bathroom cleaning since I abhore sponges (germs! ick!!). While browsing for more tawashis, I rediscovered this one: http://crochetpatternsonly.blogspot.com/2009/06/spiral-scrubbie.html. I've tried it before but I must have had brain fog, because I can do it now. LOL. Of course this YouTube video did help!



And this website (Naztazia.com) has a ton more videos and patterns. Darling!

So that's my current obsession ... er ... hobby. Just sharing!!

9/11

Every year at this time I think back to 9/11/2001. My mom called me in the morning (early!) to tell me she'd heard on the news about New York City being attacked. I was so half asleep I don't think it really registered for a few minutes. Then I turned on my television and watched the events of that dreadful day unfolding. Every year at this time I think of the lives lost in the attack, the lives of our military that have been lost, the lives of the rescue workers who have died because of the effects of being at Ground Zero. I think a lot of us have forgotten the way we pulled together on 9/12. I love that Glenn Beck has a 9/12 organization. We were all Americans that day, not Republicans or Democrats or Liberals or Conservatives. Americans! I know that I'm not 100% on this, but it's my hope and prayer that we'll remember our heritage as Americans and let that be our guide.

I really like this video that was put together. It's a bit more partisan than I'd like, but hey, it was there and I liked it!



And I found this the other day. It's our national anthem being sung at St. Paul's Cathedral in London as part of a memorial. You can tell who the Americans in the crowd are, they don't have to look at the words!

First Day of School 2010!

Time for first day of school photos! First up, Sarah, who is now a junior in high school!

She's taking three AP (advanced placement) classes this year. Yikes.

And Spencer, now an 8th grader!!

He's in honors classes, and taking Spanish, and wants to play soccer this year.

Another Dance I Just Love!

This one's from Dancing With the Stars. I know, I know. We love it. Especially when Donny was on ... *sigh* ... (okay, no drooling on the keyboard). This is probably my very favorite pro dance ever. I just love it. I have it on my iPod too. This is from Season 7, week 1 results show.

Playlist -- Figured It Out!

Woo-HOO! Figured out how to get into Playlist (finally they sent me the password reset, after the THIRD time I emailed them about it -- grrr), and switched around my playlists. I'm in a rockin' kind of mood so I put the rock playlist on, and it should NOT autostart ... enjoy! Just some of my current (and recent past) favorites.

Another Favorite Show and Video

Because Alisa has inspired me ... another couple of favorites from So You Think You Can Dance. The first one is probably my all-time favorite, Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura dancing a lyrical hip-hop by Tabitha and Napoleon. This was done week 3 of season 4.

This one is by Katee Shean and Joshua Allen. It's a Bollywood number (the first they had on the show), done in week 5 of season 4. The choreographer was Nakul Dev Mahajan.

I LOVE THIS SHOW!

Okay, I admit it, I'm a Gleek. Love Glee! Love it, love it, LOVE IT! Thought I would hate it, but I LOVE IT!

One of my faves? This medley from the season finale. LOVE IT!

Of course the BEST part, when Finn tells Rachel he ... well, you know! isn't there. Sigh.

This is awesome, too.


And this one made me cry!

That was then, this is now ...

We went to the Oregon Coast the last week of July (I'll post more pictures from that trip later). One day we went to Cape Meares to see the lighthouse. We go there nearly every year because we love the view and the little short lighthouse. Unfortunately, some numbskulls shot up the lighthouse last winter, and the actual lighthouse is still closed due to the damage. But we were able to look around the outside and enjoy the beautiful view.

While we were there, we walked to the Octopus Tree. It's a huge, beautiful tree that has a fence around it to protect the tree from harm. A few years ago, I took a picture of Sarah and Spencer on the fence by the tree, and I wanted to update that scene this year. Here's the result! The first picture is from 2005, when Sarah was 11-1/2 and Spencer was 8. The second picture is from this year, 2010, and Sarah is now 16-1/2 and Spencer is 13. They look like the same kids, but different. It's amazing to see how they change and grow over the years!

Sarah's 16th Birthday

So very late, but still posting some birthday pictures from Sarah's 16th birthday. 

Sarah with her balloons (courtesy Grandma Noakes).

 

 

Eating Chinese takeout from Mandarin House. (Yummy!)

 

Alan and his mom (Grandma Noakes).

  

Spencer doing his best to hide.

 

But I found him anyway.

  

Sarah and Grandma Jean.

 

Me. I hate pictures of myself but this one's halfway decent. 

Sarah and her Owl City CD.

 

Sarah and her new camera.

 

She wanted the Harry Potter cake!

 

Family picture that we used for Christmas cards.

That's it! Finally posted birthday pictures, only nearly six months later. Sorry about that! More updates to come ...

More Food Adventures

I tried another new recipe on Monday night. It was not as huge a hit as the Spinach Chicken Penne, but still went over pretty good with at least Alan and Sarah. Spencer only ate plain noodles with butter, after trying and dramatically rejecting the version with sauce. I liked the dish, but apparently any type of tomato sauce is now on my NO WAY list. I've had esophagitis problems ever since, and the only thing I did differently in the whole time was eat this dish. I even made my own fake marinara with tomato sauce and some spices, hoping that it would be less of a problem. Nope. Oh well. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the dish:

I found it here: http://www.iamamoneymagnet.com/2009/10/easy-baked-ziti-recipe.html . I do recommend trying it, especially if you like something similar to a lasagna. It is quite good, just not on my remake list (and I have a pan in the freezer, so that will have to just get eaten by the family). 

 

Spencer's Broken Toe

Some of you will already know that Spencer broke his right big toe on Tuesday 2/9/10. He tripped on a plastic grocery bag containing the items that needed to go in the freezer. Go figure. Five more minutes and they would have been put away, or if he'd taken it a bit slower bouncing into the house from the garage (he went to get a pop), he might not have tripped on the sack. At first I thought it was a bad toe stubbing, or maybe a sprain, but when he was still in a lot of pain on Wednesday I called the doctor. We went in, the doctor said looks broken, and we got an X-ray and went right back up to the doctor's office. It wasn't pretty ... Spencer has a growth plate fracture and essentially dislocated the toe. Went to the orthopedic specialist on Thursday; they reset the toe and told him to stay off it for a week. He's 12. So far, so good, but I'm not looking forward to school tomorrow!

For the not-faint-of-heart, here are pics of the X-rays. Before ... the big v-shaped gap is where the growth plate broke. Oh, and his toenail was popped out of place also.

And after being set. No more big v-shaped gap, toenail back in place.

 

Much better, huh?

Trying New Recipes

Because of these ongoing health issues of mine (3 ulcers and chronic esophagitis), I have been trying some new recipes with no red meat, more chicken, etc. This one is a definite keeper! I love Rachael Ray, and this was featured on the January 25, 2010, episode of her TV show. It actually has artichokes, spinach, and chicken as well as the penne, but I eliminated the artichokes because nobody in the family is much of a fan (well, I like them but I wanted the rest to eat too LOL). The recipe is found here http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=3180 ... not sure about the rules of reposting on my blog, so I'll refrain. The only change I made was eliminating the artichokes, and I did use 2% milk rather than whole milk or cream because I didn't have those.

Here's a picture ... sorry, it's just of leftovers that I rewarmed, but I'm sure you can see the deliciousness!

 

I give this 4 stars!

Digital Scrapbooking

I really do like digital scrapbooking. I'm woefully behind on ALL my scrapbooking, and one of my goals this year is to try to get a page a week done. Ha ha. Don't fall off your chairs laughing, now! I must admit, only one page done in January, but it's beautiful (I think anyway). I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of PSE 7.0, which I'm fairly new to. I have all the photo organization and editing down (or most of it anyway), it's the bells and whistles that I'm not 100% clear on! So without further ado, here is the layout I finished in January.

As explanation, each fall our church has a Young Women in Excellence Program. This past fall, a member of our ward (Charlene Hardy, website http://chardyphotography.squarespace.com/) took glamour shots of the young women which were then displayed on tables along with their interests and hobbies. She then gave the parents a CD with the pictures on it, so that we could get prints for ourselves. These are some of my favorites of Sarah, age 15 (then, 16 now).

Memory Lane

This is my little trip down memory lane. Thirteen years ago this month, Alan was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Twelve years ago this month, we were sealed as a family in the Seattle Temple. Here are some pictures from that night.

Here is a family shot at home before the baptism. Yes, I was pregnant with Spencer at the time ...
Here's a picture of Alan and I at the post-baptism dinner. We went to Cedars Pier One, I believe. Alan would remember but I will check that detail later.


Here is Sarah with my mom and dad at the dinner. My dad died not quite four years later, so this picture is special to me.


I will post more later ... after I get them scanned into the computer. These are all from "back in the day" when we used film in cameras!