Provident Living Blog

I don't know about you, but when I came home from church today after the "Provident Living" talk in RS, I was all "Gung-Ho" about food storage and such!! I googled "Provident Living" and I found this AMAZING provident living blog...I wanted to share it with all of YOU. It is http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/
and I love it already. Since I haven't even started with my three month supply, I didn't know how to make a menu. She provides a great menu with tips to have a binder with menus and inventories in them. She lists so many things that I didn't even think about like toilet paper and femine stuff! :) Anyway, I thought you girls (and guys, I guess...) could check it out and let me know what you think. Have a wonderful day!! Love ya!

All Things Jill

Well, this blog goes out to my very good friend JILL WHITNEY who has created a simply delicious blog for all of her recipes. I have recently been making "menus" each week because a) I like to be organized, b) I like making lists, and c) I like cooking. I have chosen one or two of Jill's recipes from her cookbook she gave me as a bridal shower gift, but THIS week, I am doing "All Things Jill". So, here it goes.
MONDAY: Honey Pecan Chicken
TUESDAY: Coconut Shrimp and Chips
*Chocolate Hazelnut Bars
WEDNESDAY: Fajitas
*Snickerdoodle Salad
THURSDAY: German Pancakes
*Cookie Dough Chocolate Bars
FRIDAY: Left overs :)
SATURDAY: Baked French Toast with Berries
SUNDAY: Chicken Pasta Salad

If you would like to check out any of these recipes, go to her website: jillybeansrecipes.blogspot.com

Wish me luck!! Loves, Katie

Fossil Springs Rocks! 1 million gallons of natural spring water flows through this bad boy per hour. There are small waterfalls, little swimming holes, and beautiful vegetation along the bank of the creek. This picture is a spot where we would jump in and observe the light blue water with its spots of white sand on the bottom. Good stuff. This hike takes about 2 hours to hike down into and it's a good 2.5 hours out. Throughout the hike there is about a 2500-3000 ft elevation change. Unfortunately I didn't have a good day pack and my feet were rubbed raw with blisters from all the rock hoping in my chacos. So the last two days I have been so sore, but it was still worth it! Katie was way worn out and sore too but she is a trooper. She is not a big hiker but loves to do things with me that I enjoy. The trade off is that I have to watch chick flicks with her, which most of the time I don't mind!

NICE VIEW!!!

Summer Time "Joys"

SO because I am a school teacher, I put off countless projects and annoying on-going errands during the year and say "I"ll do that during the summer". Well, it IS summer and I've put together a lengthy "To Do" list...I've had it for the past 2 weeks and although I've checked some things off (yay!), I keep adding to the dreaded "list" so now it is larger than before...I especially hate the items that are vague like "family history" and "food storage". I know I need to do them, but know that they'll never get checked off like that. I need to be more specific, but that involves another list-making. On top of that, I want to actually have some hobbies this summer so I've added "Buy a sewing machine", "Make jewelry", and "Read Books" to the list. Great, those are things I want to do but NOW they are just sitting on the list STARING at me while I blog...On a positive note, I've given myself a time limit to get things done off of the LIST....if I do so in a timely manner, I will reward myself greatly by buying a new sunday outfit so I don't spend Sunday mornings boring myself AND my husband by saying, "I don't have anything to WEAR..." (to be said in a whinny voice) I usually stand in my closet and stare at my clothes for at least 10 minutes, debating the possible outfits. It's sad and I hope there's at least one other female out there who shares my dilemma!

The Coupon Pool

I have made several attempts to jump into the "coupon pool"--my sister always brags about HUNDREDS of dollars of food she gets for ONLY $5 (okay, that's an exaggeration, but you get the point)...And so I have clipped coupons, joined PYP, and feel pretty darn good about myself. Well, then I go to the grocery store and realize all of my coupons are all for naught until something goes on sale...but then the store is all out of it. Am I supposed to drive around town to another store to buy 12 cans of tomato sauce because they are 30 cents cheaper than normal?!? I think I have just "dipped my feet" into the Coupon Pool and not quite jumped all the way in...I'm a little nervous because there's no turning back. I don't get the Sunday paper so I'm not benefiting from those coupons either....is it really worth it? So far I think I've used ONE coupon and saved 40 cents. (wahoo...) What am I doing wrong and what should I DO?!? Help! Love, Katie

Frustration!!

Dear friends who are devout bloggers,
I just spent over TWO HOURS trying to figure out how to put a picture inside a blog banner/header...anyone know how to do this?!?! TCBOTB suggested paint.net but this is extremely confusing to me...HELP!
Sincerely,
A brand new blogger in need of desperate help

I'm here waiting at court for a preliminary conference for my crack baby case...

Our trip up to the Snowflake, AZ temple was so much fun. We got there on a Friday night and as you can see, it was a full moon. The Snowflake temple is gorgeous inside and out. They have a waterfall running right out of the temple it's great. We went up there at the beginning of May so the temperature was a nice 68 degrees at night and 82 during the day...Before we left I told Katie, do you have your temple dress and what I meant was church clothes or clothes to wear to the temple but she took it as temple clothes so she said of course. So we get there and she says, Chad I forgot my church clothes. I said, you told me you had them and then we laughed because we realized the miscommunication. So we drove 20-25 minutes to Sholow to buy some church clothes at JCPenny but by the time we got back it was 10:30am and the next session wasn't until 2pm. So we did sealings instead! We didn't have time to do a session at 2pm because we had a 3hour drive back and Katie bought us tickets to see Stomp that night! What a sweetheart. I had been wanting to see that show for a long time. It was so much fun. For a couple days afterwords I would be snapping and tapping on anything I came across.

I still got it!!! This is our community pool and our niece Camille is on the top of the stack.

Our beautiful gas guzzling Yukon! It's still worth it!

White Mountain Area in AZ on our way to Snowflake.

It was a bittersweet moment to give up the Audi but we gained the Yukon!

I love this pic of Katie at Easter!

Hydration is happiness!!!

These pictures didn't load earlier. This pic is devils bridge. Awesome hike!

ip+077.jpg">> The El Ricon resturant. Since we ate outside they gave us these blankets. Awesome!

The weather was rainy off on and for 2 days but we loved it!

Maya's B-day party!