Because you need more stuff

No, wait, I need more stuff! Head over to Cally's place and enter to win this bag and monsters. She is trying to avoid doing housework by sewing, it is our job to support her!

Wilderness Survival Campout

This camp out was not for the faint of heart. When I was talking to our stake president he got grossed out by it. Starting mumbling about football. I don't know anything about football, unfortunately. No one in this house ever watches or plays football. Of course, since we do not have broadcast TV that would make watching football kind of tricky....

But on to the camp out. It is pretty easy to explain. The first picture shows the boys with ALL of the gear they took. Basically no gear. If you are trapped in a survival situation you have to make do with what you have. They had a survival kit and 1 live chicken for every two boys.

Let the fun begin.... You can just barely see the edge of the mountain that they camped on behind them.
Look how happy and excited. Some of these boys REALLY took the preparation of this camp out seriously. They watched episode after episode of Man Versus Wild. They ate grasshoppers (???!!!) They all constructed their own survival kits. They were stoked about killing and eating the chickens. Have chicken, will survive. They hiked up the mountain carrying the chickens.

They made camp in a rock house. We live in Cherokee country. I like to think that hundreds of years ago this rock house was used as shelter by some of our native American ancestors.
Yes, I am going to cut your head off. By the way, chickens were harmed during this camp out!
Remember this guy? He was one of the happy 12 year old chefs on the last camp out. Last time it was scrambled eggs. Now he is going straight to the source!
Sling him, Bryce. Nothing like a little male bonding while wringing chicken necks.
A wee bit skinnier without his feathers.

Is that the Colonel's extra crispy recipe?

After that wonderful, filling dinner they try to get some sleep. Emergency blankets do not really offer much warmth, but they have a good crinkle factor. And the ground is hard. And dirty. And it was a little chilly.

Sunrise
They seem to have gotten a little bit dirty during the night.

The morning after shot is great.

Before and after. I love it!!!!! Here is a picture of the kit that Adrian made. You can see he set it on a box of margarine to illustrate how small it is.
Here are the contents. Most of it is self explanatory. On the pencil is Duct Tape. fishing line and hooks on the other pencil. upholstery needles with thread wrapped around them. That is for mending cloth AND skin. yuck.

Now, let the comments fly.....

Women's Broadcast

Oh my gosh! I have been wanting to post about last nights broadcast all day. I had a small problem, though.

Gremlins. In my head.

But they are gone. So on to important topics.

First... We were served a catered meal before the broadcast. Yum. We gathered at our stake center, which luckily is only about 5 minutes from my house. We had 220 women. That is a remarkably HUGE number. Let me explain to those of you out in Utah. Our Stake covers 7 counties.

Yes, 7.

Some women have to drive over 70 miles to get to our stake center. It was very exiting to see so many make the journey. Especially when we still have gas stations here in the Southeast that have not had gas since before the hurricane. Imagine how much we are paying!!!

Anyway. I loved hearing from our stake president first. He rocks. And then IO got to sit with him and discuss the camping trip that our Scouts took Friday night.

And totally gross him out. Good times!

Then we watched the broadcast. So great!

I was so stoked that Elder Uchtdorf spoke. Is it okay to have favorite apostles? Well I hope not cause he is totally my favorite! Have I included enough exclamation points yet? So I know you want to know my favorite part.

Elder Uchtdorf's purple tie. Inspiring....

Scariest part of the broadcast: It was when he told us to be more creative. I think he was trying to inspire us to decorate our houses.

I don't decorate. Really. It has taken me 11 years in this house to hang curtains in my bedroom. The other bedrooms still do not have any. Bare walls. No coffee tables. I just got a couple of end tables. And two matching lamps.

My mother about passed out when she was here in September. She noticed the lamps right away.

So basically I am inspired to dress my husband and sons in purple ties and to fret about my undecorated house.

It was a great broadcast!!!!!

Allergies are sucking the life out of William

Every fall it is the same. William suddenly drops nearly dead of mold allergies. I think it happens at the moment a few leaves fall and there is dew on them in the morning.

BOOM mold Grows.

And he can't breathe. Or swallow. or think. It is the pits!!!
I bought him these tissues. I started using them this morning because my nose is snuffly after sleeping with the windows open. They are really neat. They give you just a whiff of Vicks. It kind of lingers on your nose for a bit. I'm liking it. I could never slather actual Vicks on my nose. Yuck. William did say that even though they have lotion on them that the Vicks did start to burn a little last night when he was using a bazillion of them. He was using them this morning again. He is feeling a little better. He has had enough Zyrtec doses I think. And Garlic tablets. And ibuprofen.

Anyway, the tissues are keepers!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The little angels posing in the creek that runs along the side of the road as you drive into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
And the posing is over....

Two Women of Galilee

I just read this book. I absolutely loved it. Normally I read who-dunits. I prefer historical who-dunits, so I guess this is not too far from the norm.

This main character in this story is Joanna. We meet her in the New Testament. She is healed by Jesus. Her husband works for Herod. I think. I would have to go get the book and check. That is not the important part. The important part is Joanna and her relationship with her cousin Mary and Mary's son, Jesus.

It is powerful and subtle and informative and vague all at the same time. PERFECT!

My favorite part is watching Joanna's faith grow. So slow. So purposeful. And she always refers to Jesus as 'my Healer'

We can all call him that. Isn't it sweet?

I think I may read it again before I return it to the library.

On a side not I am going to try to make a list of all the books I read. And as I remember old ones I will add them to the list. One of the girls at Light Refreshments Served keeps a list and it seems like a good idea. We will see if I can do it. Follow through is not one of my strong personality traits!

What are you guys reading? I am ALWAYS reading. I love getting to be in the library so much. I usually get a new book at lunch and read it before deciding to take it home. I have found a few stinkers! And the language and content. UGH. What are authors thinking? Please let us use our imaginations... I have brought back so many books by page 2 because of the language.

Gatlinburg Go Carts

When we were getting ready to leave Grandma and Grandpa's house this year I said to Adrian, "Let's go home through Gatlinburg and let the kids play."





Or maybe he had the idea and said, "Let's go home through Pigeon Forge and stop at the Great Smoky Mountain Knifeworks."





Either way we decided that the other one was brilliant so we said bye bye beach and hello mountains.



After a quick stop at the welcome center we headed to the knife works. Any of you that know Harrison know that he has a thing for knives. And swords. He really likes swords. We (or should I say HE) found some amazing items (including a walking stick that pulls out and has a sword hidden inside. Just like Mr. Steed has on the Avengers!!!). So after the purchases were made we headed back to the car. I have to admit I was already gettting grumpy and tired. And it was about 5 in the afternoon. Anyway...

Then we did some voting on what people wanted to do. Laser tag, go-carts and mini golf won.





Waiting to ride the Go-Carts







The double cars. Luckily we had just the right assortment of ages and sizes. Ella and Molly were not tall enough to ride by themselves, but to ride in a double car the driver had to be at least 16. I know, I could have driven one of them, but, well, they wanted to have fun! I do not drive fun. I have a hard time even going the speed limit. I would have been terrified in one of those things. I couldn't even watch them on the turns!
Ella and AdrianRachel and HarrisonLucyMolly and WilliamLucy

Harrison and Rachel

"Want to do it again????"Creepy picture from the blacklight mini golf

The next morning we went to Cades Cove. Adrian and I have been and seen black bears and baby black bears. So cute. We were so tired that we didn't get there until midday. No bears out in the hot hot sun. Be we sure had fun!

Last night:


Ella: Mom, can I shave my legs?


Me: ??!!??!!??!!WHAT??!!??!!??!!


Ellla: Can I shave my legs?


Me:??!!??!!??!!WHY??!!??!!??

Ella: Because I want to.


Me: Okay


Ella: Great! I will go ask Lucy how to do it!


Who taught Lucy?

Twirly Skirt

I found this tutorial from a link on This blog.

Thanks, Joanna. I made two of them. Molly picked the fabrics. The pink one is hers and the blue one was given to my niece Caroline for her birthday. They wore them to church together the next day.

Molly has worn it every time it comes through the wash. It looks great with a crisp white blouse to church and to school she pairs it with a variety of pink shirts. I like it better with the white shirts but I usually let her do her own thing for school and she likes to wear all pink most days!