Relay for Life 2011

I taught nutrition again, Minute to Win It style, at the elementary school for their Relay for Life event. It went over really well again this year. It was a lot of fun having the kids compete in games, being cheered on by the audience of about 125 kids, and then teach them nutrition concepts between each game. Each of the four 30 minute segments flew by.

The previous coordinator for the event has since had all of her children leave the school and I have agreed to help organize the event next year....guess we'll see what that entails later.

But my favorite part of the whole event was during the hero lap, when the kids walk around the track with a hero. Tyson came to me and said "Mom, walk with me". I felt like crying I was so touched. It was very sweet of him.

Happy Birthday to Me...

I thought this picture of the boys was sweet. It was a nice day. Rick took me out to a nice lunch. We had cake (a free one from the glean of course) with the kids, they enjoyed decorating it with 35 candles. Yes, I blew them all out!
Rick went shopping the day before, to the Supermall, and got me a sweater from Banana Republic and a cool skiing hat, I was very impressed.

35 here I come....

Look What I Did!

I made some cute Valentine pom poms out of old t-shirts.

Scored a free pair of hip boots in Kate's size at a Relief Society clothing exchange. A bit of polish, and wow! Super cute. I've been seeing subway art on the blogs and at boutique. So I decided to make my own, of course. Got my new Cricut, which I LOVE, and here's one of my new projects.

First I painted the board off-white. Cut and applied the contact paper. Sprayed it black. Pulled off the contact paper, sanded and stained. Wa La.

I also made curtains for the boys room. I LOVE CRAFTING!

Bargain Shoppers Lottery

I am admittedly a bargain shopper through and through. I pretty much don't buy anything unless I feel like I'm getting a deal. In fact one of my new favorite websites is Common Sense With Money. I love Craigslist, garage sales, Ross, Target/Kohls clearance, the list goes on.

But today, my friend Tia and I got a great deal at Fred Meyer. We had picked out some earrings that were supposed to be 70% off clearance. Already a super deal at only $.99. But when we got to the register she had a pair that rang up for $.02! We had a little celebration-you'd thought we'd won the lottery- and then the gal rang me up and mine came up the same price. Grantid they were only $5 earrings to begin with, but still, that was 99.6% off. Probably my best deal ever! Cool, I'll wear them with pride!

Busy Mama

Here's a few pictures of some of the projects I've been up to lately.

Thankful blocks at Super Saturday.

Gordon B. Hinckley's BE's. (The square at the top is a metal bee). A project that has been in progress for over a year.

A growth chart for the kids from Super Saturday.

An update to the kids' bathroom.

And I cleaned out and painted the boy's room. Wow, what a project and what an improvement.

And while I was at it I painted the entry and upstairs hallway. No one else would probably notice, but I love it. It's warm and clean.

And if all that in October wasn't enough I started making gift baskets. A friend of mine works for a Periodontist who gives food gift baskets to the dental offices that refer to him. I made up samples of three sizes and then took them in for his approval. Luckily, he liked what I came up with and hired me to make about 80 more! It's been a really fun project for me so far.

I love food and being creative. I thought it all came together nicely.I found a container wholesaler in Kirkland, but had to spray paint the large baskets red.

This large one would be about $150 retail. It's full of all sorts of yummy things. I'd love to eat them all!

I got everything from Costco, Sam's, Grocery Outlet, and Trader Joe's. The best part about the project is that I was paid a lump sum and I just buy everything, put them together, and keep the change. Perfect project for frugal me.

San Antonio and Sunshine

I can't complain about the gorgeous weather in Seattle lately, but I loved the heat of Texas. Tyson, Paige and I spent a week in sunny San Antonio. We missed having the rest of the family, but we just couldn't afford to take everyone.My brother's graduation turned into a family reunion on my dad's side of the family because he has a sister, Rosie, that lives there. Her two children also live there. My Aunt Kay joined us from Chicago, as well as my dad's brother Greg and his wife Ginny and their daughter Amy and family from Colorado. It was the first get together of it's kind. It was amazing to 'meet' these cousins because I have only met them once 20-25 years ago. The beautiful Japanese Gardens. Paige was more interested in the waterfall than posing for the picture.

El Mercado/The Market. A great place to buy souvenirs and enjoy Mexican eats and treats.

A hike we took, which was plan B since we decided not to go to Shlitterbaun (largest water park in the country), due to a 60% chance of thunderstorms. Didn't see a single cloud all day =-(. It had been thunder storming everyday.

An awesome collection of cacti at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens.

The Riverwalk from our boat tour. A lovely place, wish we could have spent more time there.

And the best part of all... the amusement parks. We did Six Flags first. They had a great collection of rollar coasters. My parents took Paige for the day, so Tyson and I along with Jeff and the Hatches did ride after ride.

The next day was Sea World. Even Paige got to go on a ride. We saw all the big shows and actually my favorite roller coasters were there. There were very few lines at either place so we got to go on rides over and over again without even getting off!

Jeff knew one of the dolphin trainers so we went and talked to her after the show. She took us behind the scenes and gave us a private tour, it was great.

Oh, and Jeff graduated! Congrats. We're proud of you.

We stayed with Jeff, and he drove us around. With free plane tickets we managed to do a week trip for around $200!

Angela Wenger, RD

I haven't used this title much in the past 10 years. My last day of work was the day before Tyson was born in 1999. In January, Rick and I decided that with the slowing real estate market, I should try to find a part time job. I only have 1 year of experience and dietetics job are not very plentiful, so I was a little doubtful. I painfully pulled together a resume and applied to a handful of places. When I got an email for an interview I was actually shocked. I ended up getting a Per Diem job, which is what I did at my last job. It is at Highline Medical Center, in Burien, which is thankfully, a much smaller hospital that University Hospital in Salt Lake City, where I worked before. I will be working one day a month and covering vacations for 3 dietititans. Last week I trained for 3 days. Rick had the kids. It was a bit stressful commuting, getting oriented, trying to bring back my clinical knowledge for the back corner of my brain, and thinking about how my family was doing at home without me. The second day was much better, and by the third I was feeling really good about it. Rick is getting the hang of it too. Thursday I got home and he had prepared orange chicken (premade from Costco), with rice, steamed broccoli, and a beautiful garden salad. WOW! We did it...so far.
The best was after my first day, when Bradley asked if there were any surgeries at the hospital that day. I said, yes, to which he fervently asked "did you do them??" Cute.

My latest crafts

We have Super Saturday coming up in our ward. My friend Tia is in charge so we've been brainstorming and making some samples of crafts lately. It's been fun. We've made tutu's (check the Halloween pictures), padded wipes cases, Christmas stackers, and magnet boards and this little board book pictured below.
I made this for my mom to carry around in her purse. I even found an organza bag that it fit in perfectly. We found these books at the Dollar Tree, what a fun project. I'll try to post some pictures of my other projects later.