Don't ever say I didn't teach you anything...

Do not adjust your screen - you are seeing what you think you are seeing. These beautiful slippers are made of maxi-pads. Yup, that's right.

The young women in our ward have been talking about slippers made out of maxi-pads for months. I have to admit that I had never seen them before, although I did see some of our girls unsuccessfully attempt to make a few pairs at girl's camp this year. I had to go online to see what they were really talking about.

Last night was our annual slumber party at High Banks Resort (thank you Kim and Tim) and I brought this bedazzled pair as the grand prize for a game. I kept the girls in suspense until the winner was announced...and they reacted even better than I had hoped...all that effort was well appreciated!

Don't feel bad for the other girls who didn't win - no, no - I brought plenty of supplies for everyone else to make their own pairs. The girls sat on the floor and crafted for quite some time and everyone ended up with their own personalized maxi-slippers.

We had a great time last night (not just making the slippers), but swimming and playing in the lake during the massive down pouring, watching movies, talking and eating plenty of yummy treats!

And...young women of Duluth...when you are older - don't ever say I didn't teach you anything!

Do. Make. Bake. airing...

The latest episode of Do. Make. Bake. airs on channel 7 this Wednesday at 10 a.m., 3:30 p.m., 8:00 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. It will also air on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. There will more times later in the week, but this is the first round for this episode!

Thank you Glen!

When my dad was here we went over to Glen Milbridge's house and picked raspberries...and picked raspberries...and picked raspberries! We picked 3 large bowls and then came home and made jam, muffins and froze some in little sections (mini muffin tins) to make fruit smoothies with later. Yum Yummity Yum. It was so much fun to do the project with my dad and to have so much stuff to enjoy for the next little while! Thanks Glen!!

TIMBER...

Well...our poor birch tree just didn't make it - even with the tree injections (yes, I said tree injections). So, down she goes. We got a bid for taking the tree down and almost choked...and then decided to do it ourselves. When we called a couple of friends to borrow tools, they decided to come over and help too! This top picture is a "before" shot - the birch is about 50 feet tall!

Here is Dave Siebert yielding his sword...or chainsaw as the case may be...

Zac Smith (what a good home teacher) was helping direct Greg when to drive the truck and pull the tree. At this point, we had rope around the tree.

Right after this picture is the point where the rope snapped and we layed the tree (softly and amazingly with no damage) onto the roof of the house. I didn't get any pictures of the tree in that state because we were all in panic mode and trying to figure out a new plan...not really time for snapping pictures. Zac had an idea to link some tie down straps together and try those...and it worked! What a miracle. Down she went...into the road. Then the guys made quick firewood out of the tree and away it went!

Here is the "after" shot of where the tree was (obviously after the stump was ground). We are really happy with how it all turned out, but think that next time we will probably just pay the price and save the ulcer inducing afternoon!

You can do magic...you can do anything that you desire...magic...

What in the world is in these?? They really are magic and I am in love with them. I know they have been out for a long time now and many people already have their "magic eraser testimonies", but seriously, they just don't disappoint.

When my dad and I were sealing the back splash in the kitchen last week, we were very careful to wipe up any spills on the granite part of the backsplash...however...we didn't realize that the sealant had splashed little, tiny spots all over the back 5 inches of the counter top. I went to clean them a few days later and could feel thousands of little sealant drops...ahhhhh! So, I read the bottle to find out what to do...rent a professional sander to try to remove the product...um, not a great option. So, what the heck?? Let's just try a magic eraser and see what happens - I'll tell you what happens - magic. Gone - all of them - no sander needed. Thanks Mr. Clean.

Little Miss Sunshine

Or maybe not so much...Greg and I were trying so hard this morning to get Ava to smile for a picture - it was not happening. We even tried to bribe her with some fruit leather - nope! So, here is a series of Ava not smiling, but still looking cute to me!

The full moon over Lake Superior

This is the view from our bedroom...on a clear night with a full moon, it is pretty awesome. I love the reflection off of the water - it really is a little mesmerizing to look at...I love the lake at night!

Home sweet Home

One of the things we decided to change while the yard was dug up was to move the kid's play house from the upper part of the back yard to the lower part of the back yard. The patio that the play house was on will be gone once the back yard is finished and we never really liked that it was so close to the house and garage - it just wasn't a really kid friendly area for the house.

We put in a little brick patio in the back corner of the yard and decided to move the house to it. It makes a great little play space and was well worth the recruitment job of neighbors to help us pick it up and carry it down there! Home sweet Home for our little play house!

I feel the earth move under my feet...

And move and move and move!! This is a picture of the basement floor when they were digging to put in the new lines for the sewer and the storm drains. Can anyone say "mess"? It took Greg and me 6 hours to clean up the laundry room after they left and that was with them leaving it "clean".

It's kind of hard to get the perspective of the depth here, but this hole is almost 12 feet deep. They put these walls down in the hole to protect the people working just in case the walls collapse. This is right at the back of the house where the pipes come out into the yard. I had no idea how much dirt a 12 foot hole makes - especially one that is this long! I also had no idea how many or how huge the rocks would be in our yard. We are on the blue stone that you see so much here in Duluth. They said that it must have been blasted out for our house and then they used some of the blasted rock to backfill around the house. It was actually pretty fascinating to watch them get it all out.

Here's the view from the back yard. The pipe you can see is for the storm drain and the dug up area to the right was for the sewer line.

I thought this was the best picture of the back yard chaos! I'm so glad to have this project done and I'm also glad that the city decided to reimburse everyone who has to do it $4000. That really helps take some of the sting out. So...no longer are we contributing to Lake Superior's issues...we hope the EPA is happy!

Cyndi and Brittany are superstars!

Okay, so maybe that is just a little exageration, but to me it's true! They came out to visit us on Monday and stayed until Thursday. We had a great visit (despite there being no hot water for two days while our plumbing was being worked on). Brittany just found out she is having a girl and so we had lots of little girl talk and even made a few hair bows (can anyone say sassy pink leopard print??)!

On Wednesday we taped the second episode of Do. Make. Bake. and hopefully I'll get it edited this week so I can send them a finished copy. They were really funny on the show - Cortney was in the room with Greg and I think Cyndi was having fun entertaining them - the show will just be a bonus!

We'll probably go to Hutch the last week in August to see them. Cyndi has a few new ponies this year and we want to take the kids while they are still little. Hopefully we'll also have a chance to make some home made salsa (all with ingredients out of Cyndi's garden) and make some cute aprons...I'm definitely not the only one in this family who could have a show supporting their craft habits!