going private?

I've been thinking about making this a private blog for a long time, and maybe now is the time to do it. I'm not really worried, but I guess I'll be able to be a bit more liberal with some information. Ooh... that sounds exciting, huh? No, I don't have anything too interesting that we're concealing, but I suppose I will leave it at that :) I'd like to say I'll post more often... but let's be honest, I probably won't.
So if you would like to be added to the illustrious list, send us your email. Really, we're happy to share and are not picky at all about who views our blog, as long as we know who you are.

Hmm.. I guess we haven't posted for a while. Yes, we are still alive and now radon free in our house, which is nice.... Also, we are mostly healthy (which I hesitate to post this as it seems whenever I admit we're all healthy something changes). We've gone camping (see Doug's "dads pics") where Bethany spent most of the time swinging and Audrey got to enjoy her cute cousins. We had fun watching fireworks with some friends and talking about taking photos, and BBQ'ing at the Cache Valley Cruise-In, which was interesting, and we saw some fun cars (including the "monkey car" which was the girls favorite). I started a quilt with the original idea from obsessively stitching who does an awesome job breaking it down for those of us who don't sew. As always, I made it more complicated and time consuming and will probably be working on it for several more weeks, but we will see how it goes... I'm not sure if I will like the quilts, but at least the girls will. We hope to get out and play more this summer in this nice weather and hopefully our garden will finally do some growing. I haven't taken any photos for a long time and hope to remedy that soon for the next post in a month or two :)

poison in the air, flowers everywhere

Turns out our lovely home contains radioactive gasses, from the breakdown of uranium to be precise. Radon baby. Radon is the 2nd highest cause of lung cancer. Apparently this may be more common in quaint little Cache Valley than one might expect. We now know that several people in our area have radon problems in their homes as well. Looks like we'll be installing a mitigation system. It might be worth it to check your own homes. http://www.radon.utah.gov/

If you haven't read it before, I'm posting it again. Here is Jamie Oliver's petition for school food & the health of your kids. It only takes a few seconds to sign. http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition
Also.... I'm so excited! The end is actually in sight..it's been two years and a lot of hard work (mostly on Doug's part). We are finishing caulking and taping this week. Then we (yes, we meaning Doug) need a sprayer to prime and paint our basement this weekend. Does anyone have one to lend? I promise I'll make it up to you! A photo session? Pretty please?? :)

Come on, come on, come on, and give 'em to me

I'm guessing any Jack White reference is most likely futile, but indulge me for a moment. Thanks.
I do have some extra tomato starts... I re-potted a few today into bigger containers and still have too many. They are better boy (my favorite) , Brandywine, and sunsugar (tiny yellow sweet). If anyone wants some, please come get them; I hate to throw them away! I also have more buttercrunch and Romaine lettuce seeds than I will EVER need in my life. I would be happy to share :)

meandering thoughts

The LDS conference this weekend (thanks to the internet) was great. I always love to be reminded of things to work on to improve myself. There is never a shortage of things to work on in the day :) Patience- as in working hard, is one of the things I wish to keep in mind.
This rest of this post is almost verbatim to my friend Jenny's. I had watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution when I was down in SL over a week ago and loved it. I was ready for a little extra motivation; I've been intending to put more action into my thoughts (especially after my doc told me to cut my sugars out....not to mention a handful of nutrition classes creating awareness of accountability) I feel pretty strongly about this, and if you feel any bit similarly, you should watch the video. (It is the same link from Jenny's blog to the video, so thanks for letting me steal this from you :) ) It is food for thought. At least my kids know what a tomato is though!
Here's Jamie Oliver telling you what he really means about a food revolution.
You can also sign his food revolution petition on his website here.

Thankfully, I can say we're starting our 2nd tray of broccoli sprouts (yum! even my kids eat them!) and I'm on the search for fairly quick, unprocessed, healthy meals, especially some that use our food storage and that my kids will eat. Cheers!

I'm trying my best to be optimistic... I know this snow will melt soon, it is after all, April. It's a good thing that it is warming up instead of cooling down. I'm very excited for spring and summer. My garlic is peaking out of the snow and my peppers are sitting on my window. I also had promised to build a snowman this year and had failed to do so yet, so I thankfully made good on my promise.

Albie


Atlas is confident in his vole-catching skills. I do wish he was more fortunate and that we didn't lose a third of our grass to those little buggers. Oh well.