Bleach Is My Friend

Ahh, bleach it has so many uses.

It salvages many clothes at our house.  My kids are not dainty eaters or players, especially not when they are babies.  They regularly trash their clothes with chocolate pudding, mud, or anything else dark and staining. 

 I put their clothes in the wash with bleach and out they come, no more stains. 

 Now, you do have to be careful what you bleach, not all colors are color fast and so some of their clothes started out a different color, but what good is a brightly colored outfit that is so stained that they cannot wear it?  I wash it with bleach and they have a slightly different colored outfit with new life.

This romper used to be about the same color as the ribbon on it.  Now it it a light green, but I like it, you can see the flowers more.

Living in the pacific northwest mold happens.  In our window sills, 

in the shower,

 in the closets 

on the walls and ceiling.  

It is just a part of life.

Here I think some food got splattered on the ceiling above the front door.  No one noticed until it started to grow.

But spray that mold with bleach and water and magically the mold disappears (be sure your room is well ventilated).

We sprayed it with a bleach solution and after a few minutes it is starting to work. 

Look at that magic!

Here are some more results, 

the shower,

And the closet.

Then there is the bleach you use on your hair.  Put a few highlights in and drab boring hair, gains life and vibrancy!

I love bleach.

Tired of Living in ...

Seattle is becoming more seedy.  At least the parts near me.  There are 3 strip clubs on the main road near us and one now has a picture advertisement covering a van parked in front.  NOT OK!  When I saw it, I just wanted to move.  I find different roads to take so I don't have to drive past there.  I don't want my kids to see it.  There are  also 3 medical marjuana dispensaries on the same street.  And then today, I find out that the Seattle Public Library's policy is to let people look at anything they want on their public computers as long as it is "legal", even if other people can see it.  I just want to move someplace where there is no vice.  Or can we just have the second coming already, so everyone is virtuous?

I had to go to Bellevue today, by the temple, and I called Trip and told him I just wanted to live right next to the temple.  Can we move?

Heaven (At Least For 2 Boys I Know)

 Last Saturday, Rez and Ocean were in

 2012 Reading Marathon

at the local public library.  

 At 11 am  they went to a room at the library that was filled with books and they got to sit and read until 5 pm, no mom to tell them they needed to do their job or their homework or anything.  Just pizza, snacks, capri suns and BOOKS.  Every hour there were door prizes.

Ocean won Behind the Curtain.

Rez won Ender's Game and ear phones.

Poor babies, forced to sit and read for hours on end.

Less Food = Less Blogging Study Finds.

Apparently my blogging is tied to how many calories I eat.  The less calories I eat, the less I blog.  So, I am getting skinny, but you are not being kept up with our lives.  Luckily, I ate a lot of calories yesterday, so I can update you today:)  Look around, I want to keep things in order of when they happen, so some of the posts are backdated.

On the brighter side, I have lost 9 lbs this month, 3" off my waist and 2" off my hips.  Plus my arms and legs are thinner.  It just takes a while to track everything I eat and I have been trying to go to bed earlier, so no late night blogging.

This may not look like much, but I haven't been able to zip up this skirt for months.  It is nice to be getting my body back.

Scouts, Scouts Everywhere.

I think it is inevitable, when you have boys and are a member of the LDS church,  you will be involved in scouting.  Scouting takes up a lot or our lives.
Rez was a cub scout and is now a boy scout.
Ocean was a cub scout and is now a boy scout.
Mo is anxiously awaiting his 8th birthday, so he can become a cub scout.
Trip was a Cub Scout Den leader and is now on the scout committee, plus he is an Eagle scout.
Even Lily could not avoid it forever.  She is now the Cub Scout Committee Chairman as part of her calling in the Stake Primary.
We send (or take) our boys on camping trips and plan our summers around scout camp.  Right now we are preparing for the Klondike Derby next in a week and Rez and Trip going snow camping on Mt Rainer at the end of the month.  Lots of cold weather gear needed.

Even more amazing are all the people who have been involved in scouting through their lives and how they still support it.

The Chief Seattle Council and Seattle Mariners had a Friends of Scouting fundraiser luncheon today.  They wanted to have some actual scouts there sitting at each table, so Rez got to leave school for most of the day and go.

Some of the baseball players from the Mariners were helping to put it on, and from what I could glean from Rez, they were auctioning off tickets, they must have been really nice ticket and some other nice things because they raised $275,000

Here they are saying Thanks.

Chief Seattle Council's Facebook paige.

I want to add my thanks to all the community for supporting our boys in scouting.

Tights or Muppet, You Decide

Zelda got these awesome tights for Christmas from her Aunt and Uncle in Spain.

She is adorable in them.

Snow Is Falling...

all around.  On the roof top,

On the ground...

And on the chicken coop...

Monday there was no school for Martin Luther King day, then Tuesday school started 2 hours late, only to have it start snowing about the time the kids went to school and so they were sent home 2 hours early.  

Wednesday and Thursday the snow has been falling constantly.  The chickens won't come out of their coop, even when I left the door open.  I don't blame them.  I haven't been out much either.

The kids have been loving it.  They have been sledding, having snowball fights, building snowmen and generally having fun in the snow.

When they got tired of snowball fights.  They had nerf sword fights, in the snow.

There are icicles on the side of the house.

It has been fun, but I will be glad when it rains and melts all the snow:)