My baby girl

Alisha went to her friends Quinsenara tonight, kind of like a "coming of age" party. We don't often see Alisha all dressed up, and we never see her with her hair curled, so it was quite a sight. All dolled up for looks older than the barely 14 she is. Does this mean my baby girl I waited so long for is growing up?! We bought Alisha a nice dress, but she decided to wear one of Raquel's instead. The color looks so good on her!

First temple trip

Friday, Jan 16 was Tierra's first trip to do baptisms at the temple. Because it took 2 1/2 very long, very frustrating, very emotional years just to get her baptized, it was a pretty meaningful experience for me. I was able to go, in fact I've only missed a couple youth temple trips in the past 10-12 years. I wish Ryan or Matt could have gone to do the baptizing, but they were both working. Tierra wore the dress I got her for her BSYO concerts.
This is a photo of the whole group before leaving to go to the temple. Alisha and Tierra are on the far right.

Saved food

I've been making use of my foodsaver vacuum sealing machine which I got a couple months ago. I really like that it has a jar attachment so I can vacuum seal my odds and ends pasta. They tend to poke through the bags, so sealing them in jars works well. Also, because we have such a bug problem here in Florida, vacuum sealing items in jars assures we don't share our food with critters!

In this photo I have walnuts, split peas, raisins, a cake mix, macaroni and cheese, leftover ham to put in beans (this goes in the freezer) and jars of beans and pasta. My neighbor does everything in the bags - rice, flour, soup, veggies, you name it.
I have quite a few quart size bags I got on a great sale from hsn.com. Wish I'd gotten a lot more because they can be expensive.

Yesterday I made an excel spreadsheet for my food storage, listing everything I have, the amount, and the amount needed for one year. Can't plot the route if you don't know where you're at. Taking the inventory was eye-opening. For example, I discovered I have 10 gallons of dried apples. That's about nine more than we'll use in a year! But, they could be good bargaining items if times get tough. I also found a didn't have as much of some items as I thought.

My next project will be to start a small garden in buckets. I have a few, and will be visiting some bakeries to see if I can get some more. Then we'll try tomatoes, green peppers and maybe peas.

Wonderul pianist

A lady from church told me about this wonderful pianist from Korea - Yiruma. Check out this song on youtube: (you may need to cut and paste, or just do a search for Yiruma on youtube.com)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mikudzy6Ddo&feature=PlayList&p=81C5A0CBA9AD1462&index=6&playnext=7&playnext_from=PL

I made a playlist of a bunch of his songs, so I can listen to him for about half an hour at a time. His music is very relaxing and beautiful. For "Twilight" fans, he wrote "Bella's Lullaby," at least I think that's what it is called.

New Year's Eve

We went to Matt and Raquel's for New Year's Eve. Raquel's brothers Miguel and Pepe and their families, along with Ryan's new girlfriend Whitney, and Lynn and his boys were there. I ended up coming home early because although I'm NEVER sick, I was sick. Just a cold, and feeling yucky. Tierra spent the night. Alisha was actually babysitting for another family, so she wasn't there. And Jason was at a party with a girl he's just started dating - good Mormon girl, Yeay!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Matt and Raquel's new house. All the painting and floors are done! Matt still has the crown molding to finish, but the house looks so much better now that the turquoise, lime green and dark purple paint, and the horrid carpet are gone.

Ryan and Jason played Guitar hero while Tierra just laid around and watched, and Alisha stole the baby from me! Juliette is now 3 1/2 months and starting to really take notice of what is going on around her.

Conference memories

General Conference is always wonderful, but more so this time because Matt and Raquel brought my little granddaughter over! It's been 3 weeks since we'd seen her, and she doubled in size! She looks so much like Matt, (and toots just like him too!)