stamp

This is what I came up with (see post below) - I am really happy with it and it was super easy and super fast. I think I like this stamp idea because I can change the stamp to whatever fits my mood or the book.

Done

I finished The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen last night. It was a cute short book and I'll have to write about it on My Reading Spot, hopefully this afternoon. It's up for grabs if anyone wants to borrow it.

Which leads me to the real meaning of this post - personalized stamps. I found these cute stamps on Etsy and I think they are a fabuous idea. I love this but I also want to make my own. I own some acrilic stamping blocks and alphabet stmaps and I think it could be fun to design and put together. On the other hand, I was reading Good Things for Kids by Martha Stewart yesterday about how you can make your own lickable stickers for kids. I can't decide if I like the stamp or the sticker idea - I'm leaning towards the stamp, but I think the sticker would be much easier for me to produce.

Here is my question: do you use a stamp, sticker, write your name in with a pen, or not do anything at all when you loan out a book from your personal library?

(I did finally get around to posting Good News Wednesday yesterday - it's late, but below!)

Good News Wednesday

Here is my good news:
1. Better late than never I am posting my Good News
2. I was able to finally finish Noah's scrapbook this weekend. I was so close back in October to finishing it before he turned one. He will be 15 months on Sunday so I'm a little behind my goal, but I still feel good about having it done. I have a family album that I work on each year, so I only scrapbook the kids for their first year. Here are some of my favorites pages from little Noah's book.






3. The windchill today was only negative 22 degrees, not negative 30.
4. We had a fun picnic yesterday in the living room. The boys loved eating someplace other than the table for once. (We usually only get to eat lunch in the living room on rare occasions or when friends come over.)


5. Bring on the birthdays and holidays. Monday is Wade's birthday, and then we have Valentines Day, Gage's birthday and my birthday all within the next few short weeks! Gage as requested another Thomas the Train party - this will be his 3rd train party in a row!
6. I haven't posted earlier today because I'm almost done with the book I'm reading. I'll have to post more tomorrow!

What's your good news?

My Reading Spot

I was able to post two books I finished last week on My Reading Spot. I finished Why Gender Matters and The Thirteenth Tale. Both good reads. I picked up The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen today and can't wait to dig into it! The warmer weather this weekend had me wanting to scrapbook and create more than read, but alas - snow and cold will return tomorrow, so I'll be back to reading.

Has anyone read The Thirteenth Tale? What do you think? What about those who are reading the last in the A Great and Terrible Beauty series, are you done? What do you think? I've really loved reading these Jane Austen spin off books lately, anyone have a good one to suggest? What good books are you reading now? Spill the beans and tell me what you think!

Monday Moments (early)

President Gordon B. Hinkley, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints passed away around 7pm (Mountain Standard Time)tonight. He was 97 and died of natural causes. You can read more information here, or here.



President Hinkley has been one of my favorite prophets. I am thankful for the knowledge of the gospel that we have and glad that he is able to join his beloved wife and be with his family forever. I saw this quote on my friend Brittany's blog.

"It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." -Gordon B. Hinckley (from the funeral of wife Marjorie)


I know that we have a prophet here on earth today. I know that President Hinkley was a Prophet of God. I know that we can be with our families forever. I know that we are Heavenly Father's children, He loves us and wants us to return to Him. I know where I came from, I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and each one us. I've prayed about these things and I know these are true. If you want to know more you can find out too. Click here.

Noah sledding

This is Noah's video - see the post below for our sledding story!

Sledding

We went sledding yesterday at our former Bishops house. They are the t family, we love them and love their property - I've posted about it when we've been {{fishing}} on their pond. When we got there yesterday Gage kept asking us where the pond went (it was covered in snow). I wish we had our own skates because they ice skate on it all the time! They actually told us that they drill down to see how deep it is to make sure it's safe and right now it's deep enough to drive a truck out on! (They haven't tried it though!)

Anyway - we went sledding. It was finally above 32 degrees and Gage had a blast. Our friends the Grovers also came along so Erica has lots of fun photos that I will post later.


I was really surprised that Gage enjoyed this as much as he did. I went down a few times and it scared me. He kept yelling WOO HOO and that he loved it. What a funny kid!

Noah went down with Wade and didn't have a good landing. I turned the camera off right as Noah flew off. For some reason I can't get his video to upload today, so I'll post it tomorrow. Wade thought letting go was a better decision because he ended up flipping over backwards into a somersault. Noah did have a good time being held and watching. We spent $5 on dinner for everyone at Costco after sledding and Noah really enjoyed that, so in the end everyone had a great day!

Date Night

I was bored and stuck inside all day yesterday and so I finally decided to do my boys hair and take a picture. This was the best one I got. We have been blessed (I guess) with boys that have hair that looks the same each and every day, they wake up and go to bed and it just looks flat on their head. It's great, but sometimes I wish it would do something fun - I try and fix it like this some days and it never stays, I've tried everything. Wade will read this and tell me I need a girl.


Last night was date night and we went out with the Grovers. We had yummy food at Texas Roadhouse and then still had about an hour and half till we had to pick up the kiddos. There is a fun furniture store we really like close to Texas Roadhouse so we decided to head there.



Thanks to a small camera I always carry in my purse and Erica, the photographer, we got some fun pictures. I know the sales associates thought we were strange. No one asked what we were doing, but we were going to tell them we work on a show like Design on a Dime, but it's new and called "Design on a student loan budget"

Wade: "So Bret, tell me about your problems..."

Wait, is Bret hugging Erica and Wade hugging Bret? What is going on here?

Wade said he missed our baby and sat down and pretended to rock. I didn't know his baby was a guitar.

Debbi "Wade, we could put one coke here, and another coke here and then I wouldn't have to get up all day."

Who needs a vase as tall as they are? Who?

Erica and I came up with a game - you had to pose behind all the word signs we could find and act out the word. Here I am being happy. Wade wouldn't play because we gave him a pink glittery sign that said "Thank heaven for little girls." What a party pooper.

The best part of this store is the free cookies. You can take some when you go in and take some when you go out. They are really tasty and we use them to bribe our kids each time we go there. The girl behind the counter wouldn't let us take some home for our kids, she didn't even believe us that we had kids? There's no harm in asking, right?

After the furniture store we drove around and played the left right game - at each intersection someone in the car gets to tell you what direction to drive. I got us lost so we had to quit and go home.

So what did you do on your Friday night?

Swap Deadline

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow is the deadline to sign up for the {{literacy}} swap!

Book, magazines, journals, bookmarks, anything to do with reading is free game!

You'll receive your swap partner Saturday the 26th. You then have a week to put together fun stuff, have the package postmarked by: Friday, February 1.

If you haven't done a swap before it's easy! You don't need a blog and it's fun to participate. Just follow these easy instructions:

1. Send an email to me - wadeanddebbi (at) gmail (dot) com - with the following information

2. Name, address, email address, website if you have one

3. Some fun information that tells about yourself

4. Short sentence or two about what literacy means to you (wow, I sound like an English teacher making an assignment!)

5. After you receive a swap partner put together a fun package for them and have it postmarked by the deadline of Feb. 1st

Good News Wednesday

I posted the funny pictures of our house (below) -now to the good news.

1. We have heat! I can't believe that people live without it!
2. My husband did a great job remodeling our house last night (see post below).
3. This is our last winter in Iowa. I'll be sad to leave our friends, but these temperatures are killing me!
4. Jane Austen movies on Masterpiece Theater on Sunday night are so fun to watch. I'm really enjoying them - have you been watching?
5. The book I'm reading, Why Gender Matters, is really interesting. It's all about the scientific differences between boys and girls, what studies have shown and how we think. I will have to share more about this book soon!

what is your good news today?

Cold

I blog a lot about the weather in the winter time. Sorry. Last night while watching the news Wade heard it was going to be negative 11 today as a temperature - not a windchill - an actual temperature. The windchill is predicted to be as low as negative 30s today. After hearing this he dug into his tool box and proceeded to taped our back door shut with his nifty blue tape?! (Our back door is really drafty and we don't use it.)

Our kitchen is much warmer this morning but I feel like white trash. When I told him how he felt about making our family white trash he replied "I finally do some remodeling around here and this is how I get thanked?" He had to know I would blog about his, so he posed for some pictures.

On other news, our church time got changed to the afternoon church spot. We now have Sunday mornings to lounge around. Since we had played games with friends on Saturday night we had an excess of bottles laying around the house that the boys decided would be fun to bowl with. We are such party animals, I bet you have never seen so many Gatorade and water bottles after a Saturday night party.


Since Gage had been sad the night before that he had to go to bed and couldn't play games with the adults I promised that we would play his Thomas game on Sunday morning. Here are some of our pictures - he even wanted to take some himself. What a goof ball.

I'm green

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

Take this test >

It's 9:50, Wade is working on a presentation, there is nothing on tv, I don't want to go to bed and I'm blog surfing. I'm green - what color are you?

Monday Moments

Where is your focus?

I believe that as women we have no idea how much we can influence this world, through our families, our friends, our relationships, by example. I really try to focus more on spiritual things in my life than the worldly things. We have been counseled to live in this world and not be of it, but that is such a hard thing to do. I get caught up in trying to keep up with the "Jones" or always provide the best and newest thing for my kids. Material things shouldn't be our focus, no matter how cool or impressive we think that they might be. No matter what I hope to think, Heavenly Father isn't going to care what brand of jeans that I wear, or how popular my blog is. I need to remember that what I teach my children, especially by example, is the most important thing I can do for them. Each time I come across these versus (in 2 Nephi a few months ago) and also in Isaiah 3, I hope that I have my focus on the right goal. I don't want to become one of these women.

Isaiah Chapter 3
16 ¶ Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:

17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts.

18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,

19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,

20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,

21 The rings, and nose jewels,

22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,

23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.

24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.

26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

Play group

I am very glad that this is our last winter here in Iowa. I turned on the news while the boys were eating breakfast and found out that the temperature was currently -7 {{negative seven!}}with a windchill of -22 {{negative twenty two!!}}. My crazy husband left the house in shorts this morning to go play basketball!!! I am so thankful for my house and the warm heat that we have. I can't imagine sod hut like the farmers who settled Iowa ever survived. I think the errands that I wanted to run this morning can wait until it at least hits zero.

~~

As promised here are some pictures from our play group we had yesterday. With these bone chilling temperatures I thought a monthly playgroup would be something everyone would enjoy. Anne-Marie and I hosted this first one and all the kids had such a fun time running around and blowing off steam. We made play dough and everyone got to take some home. Here are some pictures.

The recipe we used yesterday was a really simple one that didn't involve cooking or much work. It takes a while to knead the dough to the right consistency but it's so easy and fun almost any age can help with it.

No-Cook Play Dough

1 Cup Flour

1/2 Cup Salt

1/2 cup water

2-3 drops food coloring

4-5 drops liquid detergent

Mix flour and salt together in bowl. Mix the water, food coloring and detergent together and slowly add to the flour and salt. Knead well on a flat surface and shape into a ball. Do not eat.

We had three tables going, I had made separate baggies for each kid with the flour and salt so they could all have turns dumping something into their bowl. Then we gave them the cup with the already mixed solution and they all got turns stirring and kneading it.

Rating

Meet Louisiana Singles

It's good to know I'm clean enough for my kids to read! I saw this quiz on Erica's site, it's pretty funny to see what you come out as (she was R?!).

We're off to the first monthly playgroup! Anne-Marie and I are hosting and we are making play dough! I'll have some fun pictures to post for this weekend.

Happy Friday!

Ice Fishing

The other day Wade's group didn't have clinic so he and a friend in his group, Darren, decided to go ice fishing. They didn't catch anything, froze their bums off, but I guess had fun. Wade said he was so cold that he wouldn't even turn his head to look at Darren when they were talking. I don't think I will ever understand this sport.