Letter to the Football Players

Dear Brigham Young University football players and the San Fransisco 49Ers,
    
     I understand the season is just beginning but I have a huge favor to ask. Could you please make it a winning season because I'm not so sure my marriage will survive a season of games like the last ones you just played.
     I don't know if you realize this or not but your success and failures have a dramatic affect on my husbands personality. When you win all is right in the world. My husband is in his own little happy place and I get to go shopping. When you lose I get to hear my husband go over every single play as if he were the coach. He mopes and mourns his loss for days.
     After this last weekend my children and I are really missing their happy go lucky daddy. So, please pull out a win here soon because it would be nice to see some sunshine following my husband again and I could really use a new pair of shoes.

Sincerely,
 wife of a devoted fan.

House Rules

Everyone has rules with in their own home. Some make sense like, no bouncing/throwing balls in the house. There was one rule in my house that I really didn't like. "No shoes on the carpet". Seems simple enough and for those of you who are OCD or neat freaks (which is not necessarily a bad thing) this probably isn't a big deal for you. I hated always having to think about taking my shoes off to just run upstairs and get something really quick. If we didn't want to take off our shoes my dad had a little basket of booties we could put on over our shoes. It was so embarrassing to have a party and have everyone with their little blue booties on.

picture source

The other rule tied to this one was no barefeet were allowed on the carpet either. We always had to have socks on. It wasn't until recently I realized the reason for the rule and, when we move, or the next time I get my carpets clean, I'm going to implement this rule in my house.

Think of where you walk in your shoes (public restrooms, grass where animals have been, etc) and then think of all the stuff that gets stuck to your shoes then transfers to your carpet. My carpets look so dingy right now and it is because we just walk all over the carpet in our shoes throughout the day. The reason we had to wear socks was so our body oils didn't get on the carpet. If the oils are on the carpet then dirt has something to stick too.

When I look at how dirty the water is when I clean my carpets it is incentive to remove shoes before walking on carpet. Plus, it means I can go longer between cleanings too. So, the next time you come to my house and I hand you some booties to put over your shoes you can thank my Dad for the idea.

What rules house rules did you think were stupid only to determine later on that they weren't so bad afterall and have implemented them in your own home?

My Dream House

(picture this house minus the alpacas. source)

The Doctor finishes his medical residency next year so we are in the process of finding a job which means a new place to live. I have wasted many hours looking at houses online in places we may or may not move to. Not to mention the houses I'm looking at today most likely will not be available next summer. We would love to just get back to the mountain west but. I've looked in Arizona, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Texas. It is amazing how different the housing is across the country. In one place a house within our budget gets us a 3-4 bedroom house approx 2500 sq ft and in another location for the same price we could get a 3500 sq ft house on 5 acres with a pool. All of this looking has really got me thinking about what my dream house would look like.

I want a white farm house on at least one acre. The house will have charcoal shutters and a red front door. I dream of having a covered porch that wraps around from the front to the back of the house. Several rocking chairs and perhaps a swing will grace my front porch perfect for relaxing on summer evenings.

When you walk through the front door a music room/living room will be on the left and perhaps a formal dining room on the right. Straight ahead will be stairs taking me to the second floor. To the right of the stairs is the path strait to the kitchen.  A big kitchen with granite countertops, dual ovens, and a sink that overlooks the back yard. There will be plenty of counterspace for entertaining. To the left of the kitchen (connecting to the music room/living room) is the family room. Off the kitchen to the right will be the mud/laundry room.
From the front foyer there is a hall that leads to the right past the formal dining room. Down this hall will be The Doctor's office/library. In addition to a desk it will have floor to ceiling bookshelves which will be filled with our favorite books. There will be 2 big fluffy reading chairs by a window. Further down the hall will be my office/craft room. Built in shelves and drawers will house all my rubber stamps, inks, papers, yarn, and fabric.

The upstairs of the house will have 4 bedrooms and 2 or 3 bathrooms. The master bedroom will be more of a master suite. There will be room for a bed as well as a nice sitting area. The master bathroom will have a big jacuzzi tub and a dual head shower.

The basement of the house will have a game room complete with a pool/ping pong table. A home theatre would be nice too. I will also have a great big room for storage. Half of the room will be for food storage and the other half will be for what ever else I have to store.

This house is just a dream for now but hopefully one day it will be a reality.

Labor of Love

Yesterday was Labor Day. It is supposed to be a day to rest from your labors but many people, like us, take the day to do projects around the house. The Doctor took the time yesterday to perform a labor of love for me. He cleaned out the inside of my van. I can't believe I'm actually showing this picture. I'm quite embarrassed. I decided it would do 2 things by me sharing. 1. Those of you who have a vehicle that resembles this know you are not alone. 2. those of you who manage to maintain a clean van can feel grateful yours does not look like this.....(GASP!!) This is the trash from our summer excursions. For some reason my children feel the need to throw everything on the floor instead of bringing everything out of the car. I'm usually in too big of a hurry and forget to remind them to bring it out. The Doctor started the cleaning around 8:30 AM and finished around 3:30 PM. That didn't even include washing the outside of the vehicle. When The Doctor does a project he makes sure it is done correct the first time. So, he hauled out all the trash, vacuumed the carpets, scraped all the gunk out from where the bench seats hook in, removed melted crayon, and shampooed the carpets. Cleaning the carpets is what took the most time. He had to do it about 4 times before the water resembled a clear brown over a murky muddy brown. Once it was transparent (still brown though) he determined it was good enough and he was never going to get the water crystal clear.

I'm happy to say my vehicle is now clean and we will no longer be eating in the car....at least for today and maybe tomorrow.

Warehouse Stores Make me Happy

Warehouse Stores are great for getting good deals. I do quite a bit of my food shopping at Costco. I learned, again, yesterday that warehouse stores are good at getting you deals on more than just food.

The Doctor and I have been needing an upgrade on our cell phones so the other day we went into our provider store to look. The phone The Doctor wanted was $199 and the phone I wanted was $69.99. We decided to walk away and really think about the purchase before we did it because we just don't have that kind of money right now.

We went to Costco to get a few items and passed the cell phone kiosk they have. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the phone I wanted for just $9.99. The Doctor's phone was for $149. Of course we had to sign another 2 year contract to get them at those prices but, we have no plans on changing providers since we have been with this one for 10 years. Anyway, the phones also came with a car adapter, hands free piece, and a carrying case, all of which we would have had to purchase separately at the dealer store.

We discussed it for a little bit and decided to move ahead and upgrade our phones. So, now I'm happy because I have a QWERTY phone which means I can write a simple text in seconds instead of minutes.

Chicken Monterey

I got this recipe from a lady I went to church with as a kid. I made it for my husband when we were first married and it was a hit. Super easy to make and it tastes great.

Chicken Monterey
6 chicken breasts, boned and skinned
2 cans cream of chicken soup
12 slices Monterey Jack cheese
2-3 C. Stove Top stuffing
1/2 C. butter, melted

Place chicken in lightly oiled baking dish. I cut my chicken into bite size pieces so I don't have to cut it up later for my kids. Plus, by cutting it up I use less meat.
Top each breast with a slice of cheese.

Pour soup over chicken and cheese sprinkle with stuffing mix. Drizzle melted butter over stuffing.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.