Monday, October 20, 2008

Fall in Michigan




The beautiful colors of the fall here in Michigan are quite exquisite.

Seeing old friends at BYU-Idaho


Kelsey and Kyle Pelletier (who is a dear friend from Enumclaw)
Carl Bingham from our Kalamazoo days. Kels and I suprised Carl with a short visit. He lives in the same apartments that Kurt lived in!
Brinton, Cathy, Kelsey & Davin! Another suprise visit to the Phillips boys. I have know these two from diaperhood! We love them!
Cathy and Marilyn Arbogast. We saw each other at Olive Garden in I.F. We were v.t.comps in the claw.
Kels, Kjirstin & Cathy. Dear friend from the zoo! Suprise!

Mother's Weekend at BYU-Idaho

Cathy & Kelsey in class.

Derek, Ryan & Kelsey at a cupcake
joint! They make awesome hot chocolate, too!
Cathy, Kelsey, Steph & Jolene at the Olive Garden in I. F. For those who are not local that stands for Idaho Falls.

Kelsey, Cathy, Jessie & Nan on bowling night! The girls had fun things planned for all of us.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Home decorating!


  • Here is Cara's window seat area. Tomorrow I will sew the pillows for the seat. I already recovered the seat portion in black.
  • Here is a close up of the window treatment.

    Here is the Seminary/exercise room. I am still working on the strips on the back wall that you can see in the mirror if you look really close. But, I used an orange, brown and the leftover paint from Cara's room (blue!) I bought 2 gallon's and only used one in her room

The dining room chairs were re-upholsterd last week! They were a cream color. I added new foam as well.
I also redid some small things in our master bath. I love using spray paint~especially the color black to freshen things up.

summertime in Nashville

How could I not put this precious
picture up of Kylie while her
puppy that Bopa got her is watching her?


Kylie protecting herself in the rain. Nana & Kylie doing fish face!

Kurt, Kylie & Elvis in downtown Nashville! Love that boy!

moving from the claw back to the zoo!


Some last photos of our time in Enumclaw. Thank goodness for great friends. There is even a picture of one of our Kalamazoo friends sitting on the couch next to Cara & Anthony. That is Kristie Maikoski who moved up to Bellingham area. She loves the Northwest! What is not to love about the NW?

Found the cord!!!

Here is a picture of part of our
family while Cara and I visited
Kurt and Jamie in Nashville.

Fall time!

Happy Fall everyone! We are looking for Cara's camera chord so that I can add more pictures. It has been a while since I have blogged. I feel like I always have to put a picture up but I'm giving myself permission to not put one on . It is more important to share what is going on. Is that what the word BLOG means? Sharing what is going on in one's life? That is my definition!!

I have had a busy month with teaching seminary class & with decorating the house among other things. The top item is my seminary class. I have nine students and the class starts at 6:15 a.m. and we meet downstairs in our exercise/seminary room! We took the lap pool out of the room at the begining of school and a good friend came over one Saturday to help me paint the room. I have three colors going on in it and I will put pictures up (when we find the chord).
I love teaching Seminary ~ not sure about the time of morning and am still trying to figure out the sleep thing but immersing myself in the scriptures has been such a blessing. Those of you who are LDS ~ check out that bible dictionary! What a wealth of inspiration and knowledge. What a blessing for me to learn deeply about the Savior's life. Our lesson was on the transfiguration today and I feel so blessed to be in the Savior's true church with His priesthood. I love the youth that are in the class~ we have three young men & six young women. Cara is one of them and I LOVE having this opportunity.

On the decorating scene we have the chandelier up in Cara's room . Our bishop spent three hours putting it up in Cara's room last Saturday. It really makes her room pop! I found the chandelier at Lowe's and got it for 75% off! Look for pictures ( when we find the chord for the camera!) I also got the window covering done and made an easy/ inexpensive cornice board. I bought a 1x4 and added some L brackets to attach it to the wall & some inexpensive pink fabric and added black fringe in a couple of places. It looks Fabulous! Thanks to Joe & Becky Semus for helping me with the finishing details on this project. Good thing you came to visit from Ohio this weekend! Cara's room is almost done. Next project on the room is to make a headboard out of 1x2's and then I will cover it with zebra material. FUN! I love being creative.

I am sharing a yummy jello salad that I served at a friend's birthday dinner a few weeks ago. She wants the recipe so I thought I could share it with everyone.

Kim's Creamy Orange Jello (if you are from Enumclaw it is in the latest tri-ward cookbook)
1 large (6oz) pkg. orange jello
1 large (4.3 oz) pkg. lemon cook & serve jello pudding
2 to 3 (6.1 oz) cans of mandarin oragnes, drained

Cook lemon pudding as directed on package, leaving out 1/2 cup of water. Make orange Jello as directed on package. When finished, whisk the lemon pudding and orange jello together and add as many mandarin oranges as you like. Pour into a 9x13 or similar size dish. Refrigerate. Top with cool whip when ready to serve and enjoy.
This dish takes a long time to set so it is best to make it the night before. I have made it in a 8x8 dish and just cut the jello's in half or use sugar free to make it a little healthier.

We were excited to have the Semus' come visit this weekend. I love having visitors and it was great to have their family stay a few nights with us. A definite highlight of the month!

Okay~ so now I have shared a recipe, scripture help and decorating tips. This is kind of a one stop blog ~ now I just need to let you know how wonderful all of you are. I am so blessed by fantastic people in my life. Thanks for all of the love you send our way!.

Exciting news ~ Rick is coming for his first visit since July! He will be here on Thursday and will be here for his birthday! He turns 52 on Monday the 6th! Yeah that we get to spend it together.
The leaves are starting to change and I think we have seen the end of our days in the 80's. I'm okay with that as I am ready for the next season to take hold. This week it is suppose to be down in the low 40's at night! Yeah! This weekend we had a bon fire and my little neighbor boy~ Cameron was so excited to do this! He ate a half of bag of marshmellows and challenged me to a seat war on the trampoline! One is never to old to jump on the tramp! At least not yet!

Well, it is time to end so that I can get on with my day and find that chord! Love to all & make it a great day!

Monday, September 1, 2008

kelsey visits!


Kelsey came for a quick visit to the
"zoo" and the trip would not be complete until she drove up to Spring
Arbor to see one of her dearest friends ~Anna Glass! Anna is on the volleyball team at Spring Arbor and it was a treat for the girls to spend a few hours together.

Project/ Cara's room

We decided to change up Cara's new room! Kelsey
had this room her whole high school time. Lots
of fun but it was time for a change and for Cara
to use her personality! She and friends painted
most of the room the turquoise and then I
did all of the edging and high spots. The black & white
area was done by me with help of friends Becky &
Angi (measuring and drawing lines on the wall!)
It is not perfect but the idea got thru!
I sewed the comforter & came up with the design
with a little help from Cara's friend who was visiting
from West Virginia! Cara loves Zebra!!!