Sweet Stamping!

Look at these uber cute notebooks, Holly Tolman made from Sunbeam Stamps!

Turn off technology

One of my besties asked me to make her some graphics for their new YW campaign.  We kinda have a problem with everyone's face lighting up during church because they are constantly on their phones, tablets, etc.  I think I am going to go back to bringing my scriptures to church instead of using my Kindle there.

New Stamps!!!!

Last Day of School

I'm one of those weird moms that loves summer vacation and gets sad when the kids go back in the fall.  Today was our last day.  My son's last year in middle school and my daughter's last year in elementary school.  Luckily I still have two left in elementary school.  I went to pick up  kid#1 and all of the teachers were outside in the parking lot waving to all of the honking school buses full of kids waving back.  It made me cry.  I am so thankful for people who become teachers.  Thank you for touching our children's lives and helping them grow.
My daughter and I made M&M gift bags for all of their teachers.  I originally thought, hey four kids, that's four teachers, how easy is that?  Wrong!  We ended up making 32!  I forgot about all of the teachers that are involved in my making my kids awesome.  I found this awesome poem on Pinterest (ofcourse) and can't find the source of it, so if you wrote it, tell me and thank you!

 

Here's the poem that I retyped and added a little "Laura" flair too! 

You can use it if you want. Just right click and do your thing!

Prince of Peace

Watermelon Jello

Drove really far to spend Memorial Day weekend with DH's family.  I got put incharge of dessert for our picnic.  I would love that task except I was hundreds of miles from my kitchen, so what to make????  Last year, one of my lifelong BFF's (Jenn!) made this awesome watermelon jello so I thought I would give it a shot. 

You gotta buy:  one watermelon, better to go for the long oval ones that seem to stand up by themselves. (You can also shave the bottom a bit to make it stay up),  a bunch of boxes of red jello, (I used six-raspberry),mini chocolate chips, and  boiling water.

Step ONE~ Slice watermelon long way and scoop out fruit. 

Step TWO~ Combine one boiling cup of water per one (3oz) box of jello. So six boxes, would be six cups of water.  Pour it in.  An extra pair of hands would be helpful here because you don't really want to slosh around boiling water.  Remember to not use the directions on the box.

Step THREE~ Put it in the fridge for a really long time.  I made mine around midnight and just left it in overnight, worked great.

Step FOUR~ Adding the watermelon 'seeds'.  Ideally you would want to add the mini chocolate chips right around that time when it is almost jello but not totally.  I am not good at that at all.  My mom was the expert at adding things to jello.  She would have jello masterpieces that you didn't even want to eat, just look at.  I did not inherit that jello gene, so.... I just sprinkled some chocolate chips onto the top and pushed them in with a skewer.  SShhhh!  haha.  It worked though.  You honestly couldn't tell that I made little holes on the top. 

Step FIVE~ keep in the fridge until time to serve.  Slice into watermelon slices and enjoy! 

Follow Up~  My kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!!!  My SIL, BIL, and MIL all thought I was crazy, but who really cares what adults think, right? Finger food is fun.   They did however enjoy the fruit salad that I made with the watermelon chunks and red grapes. 

{Sorry for the lack of and bad photos,  I forgot my camera and had to use my blackberry}

Linking up to...

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've been making and using this recipe for awhile and thought I would share.   I use...
1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
2 cups of shredded bar soap (which is exactly one bar of soap)

I use a very fine shredder that I bought at this wonderfully exclusive store (Dollar Tree).  I use it only for soap, I'm sure you could just use your regular one and wash it but I'm weird like that.  Anyways, the fine shredder turns the bar soap into powder.  I usually make a few batches at a time.  Use an old ice cream bucket (the kind you buy for your kid's birthday party) to store it in.  You just need 1/8 cup of  detergent per load of wash.  Amazing, right?  Less soap, works better, and is better for the environment, oh and the best part.... less than 2 CENTS per load!!