Young Women's - Take 151

So, I have calculated that I have been a part of, or been in charge of, at least 150 Young Women's activities over the past 3+ years. It gets difficult to think up a new activity every week.

So this week, I finally found a use for these cute little lip gloss pots that I bought about five years ago, thinking that I would start my own lip gloss line of products someday. Side note: I am addicted to all things lips. I have chapstick or lipgloss stashed away in pretty much every purse, diaper bag, drawer and car console. Anyway, I digress. So, I decided to use these pots to make homemade lipgloss for our young women's activity. It actually turned out very well! We made coconut, strawberry and peppermint flavors.

Here is the recipe and a few pics from our activity night. My car still smells like coco-berry-mint.



4 T. petroleum jelly (vaseline)
2 t. beeswax
ground eyeshadow (it should look like a powder)
medicine dropper
lip gloss containers

Grate the beeswax so that it's easier to melt. Put eye shadow into one section of an ice cube tray. Melt in pan on medium heat. Add extract for desired scent (vanilla, cherry, coconut, root beer, etc). Use a dropper to transfer the liquid into the ice cube tray. Use the dropper to mix the color throughout the liquid (squeeze it in and out). Use the dropper to transfer to pots and then freeze until solid (10-15 minutes). This batch will make about 4 pots of lip gloss.

Birthday Party Pics

A photo recap of Claire's birthday party at the Hillers - I made the cake, nothing fancy but it turned out pretty cute. Claire did eat the cake - but she was dainty about it, just picking up small pieces with her fingers - she got a little bit messy, but nothing like what we had hoped for, given that this was her first full fledged sugary treat.

She was very spoiled though- we got some great presents from everyone including some really fun toys that actually make noise! And we are keeping the batteries in this time, don't worry.

Girl After My Own Heart

Claire loves Kate Spade already... even it if is a knock off from New York... she has good taste :) She will carry this purse around and even if she falls down or is crawling, she will hold on to the purse so it never leaves her arm.

No more working from home

So, it's official. I can no longer have a regular day to work from home. I have been working 2 days from home since January so I could be with Claire, and although it was getting difficult to balance things as Claire got older and wanted to play and move all around the house, I still really valued the extra time with her. I went to four days in the office and one day working "remotely" a few weeks ago, and then just got an email from my boss saying that anyone who was doing work from home had to stop by Sept 30 since it wasn't efficient for the firm. Maybe this is why I can't sleep and I am up blogging at 3 am...

I will miss things like seeing this while I'm typing at my desk.


Claire got underneath the desk and scared me half to death when her hand shot out on my keyboard. It was pretty funny though - she loves to hear the keys click clack and will do anything to get to them.

We found it... now do we want it?

Yep. The truck was found on Tuesday morning at a construction site off of Jones, just North of Russell. A construction worker actually called Matt - not the police. Go figure. We assume he must have got the contact info by looking inside the truck...


The tires and rims were gone - it was up on blocks of brand new wood. Dents and scratches on most of the sides and all equipment was gone, except for the water tank.

The police came about 2 1/2 hours later and looked inside... it had paint splattered all over the place.

My vote is to just take the insurance money, which Geico is actually still letting us take if we want it, and walk away from the truck. I think Matt wants to keep it, but we have to decide in a day or so what to do.


I just wish they would catch the people who stole it - they must live around here to dump the truck just a few miles from our house, after 3 weeks.

Happy Birthday Claire!

One year ago I was in the hospital, about to deliver Claire, wondering where the heck my doctor was and couldn't I just push and have this baby already?! I was anxious and excited, but not really scared. She was born at 5:57 pm on September 17 and we were so happy to finally found out who had been kicking around in there for 9+ months - a little GIRL! We love our girly girl - Happy Birthday!

We are celebrating officially on Sunday with family, but here are some pics from the day in her tutu that I finally got around to making. An easy idea I got from Allison - take a piece of ribbon (my preference) or elastic and then cut strips of tuille - fold them in half and knot them over the elastic - like you would do with fringe on a scarf, if that makes sense. Then just keep going and pack all the strips in tight so it turns out really fluffy. On other versions I added ribbon using the same method and put pieces throughout the skirt, which was really cute.

End of Summer Swimming

I am glad that Claire got to go swimming this summer with Emily because if it were up to me we'd probably never make it to the pool, even if I was home during the day. Here are some pics with Claire's new swim suit... just in time for summer to be over.

I Love the 80s

A pair of roller skates is all that's needed to complete this outfit, don't you think? Thanks for the outfit Aunt Megan!

She's standing!

So Claire is now over her adversion to putting her feet down to walk - my dad cured her of it on our trip to CA - she used to just pull her feet up into the air when we tried to get her to walk, while holding our hands.

Then we discovered this magical tutu from Aunt Megan - this was Lily's but we borrowed it for a second. Claire was so fascinated by it that she forgot I let go of her hands. She stood there for a good 10-15 seconds before she realized and promptly sat down in a whoosh of tulle. So now I am trying to make one, thinking it will help her want to stand up more and walk - we'll see if I can make one as cute.

Trip to CA

Some highlights from our Labor Day trip to CA to visit the Johnsons - my parents just dropped off my youngest brother Matt at the MTC last week, and then we stopped in for a visit just two days later to keep those empty nesters company. We enjoyed our time with them and Claire was definitely spoiled - but that's what a trip to grandma and grandpas is supposed to be about, right? It was a very musical trip - piano, harmonica, keyboard, and bagpipes - yes bagpipes - were played for Claire. We all loved her little head bopping to the music so music was the theme of the trip, for sure.


We also made a trip down to Old Sacramento for 49er Days - a celebration of the gold rush in Northern CA - people are dressed in period costume, they brought in dirt to cover the streets so it really did look like an old west town. The sidewalks are wood, and parts of the streets are still cobble stone. Claire got to ride in a wagon with her cute cousin Lily, pulled by Uncle Erick. She loved it!

I also had to stop by some favorite restaurants - what does that say about me that my favorite stops when I go home are eateries? I love this places called Sunflower Drive-Up - it's an all natural, healthy, organic place that serves a ton of stuff I would never order - carob milk, only all natural sodas, and many, many tofu items. But we are hooked on the nut burgers - so good! Matt even ate one and said it wasn't so bad. We will hopefully be back for one soon! And to see the parents, of course ;)

Playing the piano with Grandpa


A bagpipe serenade



Old Sacramento for 49er days (we are big into our gold history in CA)




A visit to see Uncle Erick at the fire station



The keyboard that was not allowed to come home with us

What out Meryl Streep

Yes, that is Abba in the background. This girl loves to "dance, dance!"

No news is good news?

Probably not in this case. Yes, we have more going on in our lives than this truck thing, but I can't get my recent pics off my camera from our trip to CA to see my parents... something wrong with our adapter cable thingy. I will write about that in ab it.

So, two weeks and one day later, no word on the whereabouts of the Ford. 20 days to a vehicle payout - here we come!