I'm pressed for time today, so I'm just going to post the charades videos and call it good. Ok, they're not too exciting. Several of the vids he took are too big to post. When Sam EVER gets his software loaded, he's supposed to be able to downsize them. That's the price you pay for High Definition video. My favorite moment of these is Sarah's victory dance.
Oh, and I wanted to do a shout out for a program that a friend of mine started in the Utah valley area. It's called Serving with Smiles and it's a service organization for kids. It looks awesome! (Not surprising, my friend Liz Jeffrey IS amazing). There was a story about them in the latest LDS Living magazine. I know Anna especially needs somewhere else to have to take her kids. :0)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Bailey Family Thing Part 7 (I think)
OK, now I'm just using this as an excuse to not do anything else I need to do. :0)
Monday night we played charades...or rather they did, I'm just not into charades. I know that in Bailey land that's practically treasonous, but whatever. I enjoy watching, though, so I kept score. We played the "kids" against the "adults". Not that all of us "adults" are terribly grownup, nor are the "kids" kids any longer. It was entertaining, but the kids beat the socks off the adults. I shoulda cheated better on the scorecard, eh? But, it's nice to know the next generation has a good tradition base to build on there, although someone needs to clarify Sarah on the rules. :0)
The winning team:

Amy:

David:

These pics were taken Tuesday morning before we left. We got the pic of all the "cousins" only to realize that Meghan is a "cousin" even though she's the same age as the "cousins" kids.


I have a few more pics, of the museum on campus that we visited and a couple of videos of Charades, but Sam just called to have me go and get feed for the silly birds before the feed place closes because he isn't going to make it in time. Hopefully, you won't have to wait until Monday for the exciting (?) conclusion.
Monday night we played charades...or rather they did, I'm just not into charades. I know that in Bailey land that's practically treasonous, but whatever. I enjoy watching, though, so I kept score. We played the "kids" against the "adults". Not that all of us "adults" are terribly grownup, nor are the "kids" kids any longer. It was entertaining, but the kids beat the socks off the adults. I shoulda cheated better on the scorecard, eh? But, it's nice to know the next generation has a good tradition base to build on there, although someone needs to clarify Sarah on the rules. :0)
The winning team:

Amy:

David:

These pics were taken Tuesday morning before we left. We got the pic of all the "cousins" only to realize that Meghan is a "cousin" even though she's the same age as the "cousins" kids.


I have a few more pics, of the museum on campus that we visited and a couple of videos of Charades, but Sam just called to have me go and get feed for the silly birds before the feed place closes because he isn't going to make it in time. Hopefully, you won't have to wait until Monday for the exciting (?) conclusion.
Bailey Family Thing Part 6


On Tuesday, Sam wanted to drive down to City of Rocks, a park about 30 minutes away. At first there weren't too many takers, but eventually, I think just about everyone went. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly, but sunny. Unfortunately, we hadn't counted on trying to keep track of 25 kids in a maze of giant rocks, cliffs, caves, holes, etc. Many of us came out of there with a lot more grey hair. But the kids seemed to love it. After about half an hour, most of the moms had had enough, so they took off back to Albion and lunch. Sam and Grandma Bailey and I went through a drive through the rest of the park. It was an amazing, beautiful place and we enjoyed it.


Hayden finds a hole to peek through.

Sarah tries to hang on to her munchkins.


We took this pictures of the "Four Little Boys" in the parking lot there.

Thursday, May 7, 2009
Bailey Family Thing, Part 5

So, Monday so many things went on that I don't exactly remember the order of anything. One thing the kids did was an Airsoft war in the old theater (above). I didn't venture in, but Sam told me it was a cool/creepy place (depending on whether you were a kid or an adult...Sam is still a kid, so he thought it was cool). It was pretty dark in there, and after I posted the above picture (which was taken with Sam's ridiculously high ISO camera) several of our moms decided that it was better that it was dark so they couldn't see how creepy it was. The kids had fun shooting each other and Sam had a good time exploring the pigeon poo-infested building. Think I'm glad I missed that one. Bet that theater was great in it's day, though.
Amanda and Jenny also had some crafts for the kids to do. They made bracelets, painted ceramics, decorated frames and planted tiny little plants (Meg's sprouted already, she's very excited).

There were these cool tricyles that we rented and the kids and some of the grown-ups had a good time riding all over the campus. This is Gus, taking it for a spin.

Sam was out taking pics and came across this baby owlet, perched in one of the boarded up windows of another building. Cool, huh.

A bunch of the little kids spent alot of their time in the sandpit/volleyball court. Here they are pushing a giant soccer ball around.

The big expedition was to City of Rocks state/national park. It deserves it's own post, though. Probably won't get to it today, though.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Bailey Family Thing, Part 4

So, Sunday afternoon, we FINALLY get to Albion, where most of the rest of the gang was already unloading and getting somewhat organized. We stayed at a Miller Hall, part of the former Albion Normal School. The school has been closed since the 50's, I think, but this family has purchased the campus and is in the process of restoring stuff. The building we stayed in was a former dorm. They did a great job of restoring it and it was very comfortable. Except for the beds, which Mary and I agreed were like sleeping on concrete.
The picture above is the hall that is restored where we stayed. This picture is of one of the other buildings that isn't restored yet.

One of the buildings was taken over by chickens and a couple of turkeys. The kids said they were vicious, but I'm guessing that the kids terrorized them and the poor chickens were just defending their territory.

There was a hot tub, which was used almost exclusively by the kids. All at once.

Amy, Katie and Jenny (with other help) got dinner on pretty quickly the first night. Yummy potato-cheese soup and rolls.

Here's Mark showing off his new physique. He's lost approximately a third of a Mark since January. Good job!

Violet, enjoying her soup and roll.

'Kay, that's all for tonight, it's past my bedtime.
Bailey Family Thing Part 3
Bailey Family Thing, Part 2

OK, I tried to post a video that Sam and Meg took from the top of the volcano, but it's too big. Too bad we don't have a cheap camera that takes low res videos, eh? When he gets the software loaded, he thinks he can reduce it. If/when that happens, I'll post it, it's pretty cool.
So, Saturday night, we stayed in Arco, Idaho. It's famous (sort of, not like we'd ever heard of it) for being the first atomic powered town in the world in 1955, if you can believe that. It's tiny, but kind of cute. There is a mountain there, where every graduating class of the high school has painted their year since 1920. There is also a park with a submarine sail planted in it. Weird thing to find a LONG way from the coast. I guess they did some submarine training in Idaho during WWII. I would guess no one would look for them there, that's for sure.



Bailey Family Thing - Part 1

We flew to Boise on the Saturday before the Family Thing. Sam had his usual five days of stuff planned to do in the approximately 24 hours that we had by the time we landed, got our rental car, got lost in Mountain Home, etc. We ended up taking a big loop, through Craters of the Moon, Arco, Idaho Falls and down to Albion, stopping for the night in Arco on Saturday night. These first pics were at Craters of the Moon. It was kind of a cool place, where volcanoes have erupted in fairly recent history (the first one was 15,000 years ago, can't remember when the latest erupted, like 1000 years ago maybe). Lots of cinder cones, spatter cones, cool craters, volcanic rock that was light enough for Meg to pick up big boulders, really interesting landscapes. We went by just before dark on Saturday and drove back on Sunday morning. I thought it was fascinating, although I can't imagine little kids being too excited about it.




Sunday, April 26, 2009
Food storage and other news...
It's been too long since I posted anything....again! I'm not sure what my problem is. It isn't lack of something going on.
The Women's Conference went great. We taught an easy method to make sure you have at least a 90 day supply of food, without having to resort to dehydrated, unless you want to. This is for just food, no water, and assuming this is some kind of economic crisis and you still have power, etc. You lose your job, expensive medical bills, etc. You start with JUST dinners. If you're in a survival situation, you can live on one good meal a day. Lots of people in the world don't get that, so don't be a whiner. After you get your dinners, you can add breakfast (sleep in late, go to bed early) and lunch or snacks.
This is how you do it:
1. Pick 14 dinner recipes that you can make with shelf stable foods. They can be as easy as pasta and bottled pasta sauce, Hamburger Helper with a can of chicken, canned or dried beans and seasonings. Or as complicated as you want, as long as you can make it with shelf stable foods. This will not be gourmet meals, it will keep you alive. Figure out how much stuff you need to make those 14 meals, then multiply by six...(14 meals = 2 weeks) x 6 = 12 weeks. Now you know what you need.
2. If you're wanting to try some of the easy ones (ie Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada, a can of chicken and a can of black beans....feeds 6 easy) that you don't usually make, try them out on your family before you buy them. We had a couple of weeks of "science experiments" using stuff like Hamburger Helper....something I NEVER buy...and found that most of it was OK, some of it was pretty good. The nice thing about Hamburger Helper and Rice A Roni, etc, is that they have the seasonings all in the box, makes it simpler. www.ricearoni.com has a ton of recipes. Make sure you have canned or dried fruits and veggies, too.
2. Start accumulating your supplies for those 12 weeks of dinner. Shop off your pantry shelves first (paying attention to expiration dates), then watch for sales, etc. I found it was easier get stuff together for one weeks worth of meals at a time. You can do it as you get extra cash and certain things go on sale. Figure out what you can do without to make extra cash....skip movies and watch a video at home, don't eat out as much, etc.
3. Now you need a way to rotate. If you're ultra organized, you can come up with a pantry system that just keeps track of the items for those fourteen recipes. Then you'll always know that you have at least that many meals. If, like me, you're only marginally organized, or don't really have a "pantry", my friend Lysa came up with a great rotation system. Put everything you need for one week in a box....any box that's big enough (big families will probably need two). You'll have 12 boxes, one for each week. Put a litte cash in each box to buy fresh stuff (although make sure that your meals don't rely on fresh stuff...if we're in a pandemic situation, you may not be able to go out and buy anything) Coincidentally, there are 12 months in the year. You label your boxes "Week 1", "Week 2" etc and put them wherever you can stash them. Under the bed, one in each closet, stack them and put a tablecloth on them....whatever. Then, as soon as you've completed your 12 boxes, the very next month you take out the box that corresponds to that month number....box 1 in January, box 6 in June, etc. You eat that box the first week of the month and use that week's grocery money to replace it. That way, once a year, each box will get refilled. Put a menu, recipes and an ingredient list in the box so you're not scratching your head as to WHAT you were thinking, and you'll have a handy shopping list to refill it.
Don't worry about where to put the food until it's in your house. If you're doing as the prophet says, you'll be entitled to some inspiration as to how to make it fit or you'll figure out what you can live without to make space. If you're already storing large quantities of wheat, beans, etc, and you're reasonably sure that at the time you need to use the 90 day supply that you'll still have that bulk stuff, plan that into your menus and just list on your "menu" in the box that it comes out of your bulk storage.
I have more detailed tips, info and recipes. If you're interested, let me know and I can email you a .pdf version of the booklet we made up.
In other news, Sam got a new spiffy camera. We had to sell some stuff, including the old camera, to do it. The IRS got the rest of our money, but we'll recover. The Bailey reunion starts today. Grandma Bailey is with us having a mini roadtrip on the way to that, I'll post pics later.
The Women's Conference went great. We taught an easy method to make sure you have at least a 90 day supply of food, without having to resort to dehydrated, unless you want to. This is for just food, no water, and assuming this is some kind of economic crisis and you still have power, etc. You lose your job, expensive medical bills, etc. You start with JUST dinners. If you're in a survival situation, you can live on one good meal a day. Lots of people in the world don't get that, so don't be a whiner. After you get your dinners, you can add breakfast (sleep in late, go to bed early) and lunch or snacks.
This is how you do it:
1. Pick 14 dinner recipes that you can make with shelf stable foods. They can be as easy as pasta and bottled pasta sauce, Hamburger Helper with a can of chicken, canned or dried beans and seasonings. Or as complicated as you want, as long as you can make it with shelf stable foods. This will not be gourmet meals, it will keep you alive. Figure out how much stuff you need to make those 14 meals, then multiply by six...(14 meals = 2 weeks) x 6 = 12 weeks. Now you know what you need.
2. If you're wanting to try some of the easy ones (ie Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada, a can of chicken and a can of black beans....feeds 6 easy) that you don't usually make, try them out on your family before you buy them. We had a couple of weeks of "science experiments" using stuff like Hamburger Helper....something I NEVER buy...and found that most of it was OK, some of it was pretty good. The nice thing about Hamburger Helper and Rice A Roni, etc, is that they have the seasonings all in the box, makes it simpler. www.ricearoni.com has a ton of recipes. Make sure you have canned or dried fruits and veggies, too.
2. Start accumulating your supplies for those 12 weeks of dinner. Shop off your pantry shelves first (paying attention to expiration dates), then watch for sales, etc. I found it was easier get stuff together for one weeks worth of meals at a time. You can do it as you get extra cash and certain things go on sale. Figure out what you can do without to make extra cash....skip movies and watch a video at home, don't eat out as much, etc.
3. Now you need a way to rotate. If you're ultra organized, you can come up with a pantry system that just keeps track of the items for those fourteen recipes. Then you'll always know that you have at least that many meals. If, like me, you're only marginally organized, or don't really have a "pantry", my friend Lysa came up with a great rotation system. Put everything you need for one week in a box....any box that's big enough (big families will probably need two). You'll have 12 boxes, one for each week. Put a litte cash in each box to buy fresh stuff (although make sure that your meals don't rely on fresh stuff...if we're in a pandemic situation, you may not be able to go out and buy anything) Coincidentally, there are 12 months in the year. You label your boxes "Week 1", "Week 2" etc and put them wherever you can stash them. Under the bed, one in each closet, stack them and put a tablecloth on them....whatever. Then, as soon as you've completed your 12 boxes, the very next month you take out the box that corresponds to that month number....box 1 in January, box 6 in June, etc. You eat that box the first week of the month and use that week's grocery money to replace it. That way, once a year, each box will get refilled. Put a menu, recipes and an ingredient list in the box so you're not scratching your head as to WHAT you were thinking, and you'll have a handy shopping list to refill it.
Don't worry about where to put the food until it's in your house. If you're doing as the prophet says, you'll be entitled to some inspiration as to how to make it fit or you'll figure out what you can live without to make space. If you're already storing large quantities of wheat, beans, etc, and you're reasonably sure that at the time you need to use the 90 day supply that you'll still have that bulk stuff, plan that into your menus and just list on your "menu" in the box that it comes out of your bulk storage.
I have more detailed tips, info and recipes. If you're interested, let me know and I can email you a .pdf version of the booklet we made up.
In other news, Sam got a new spiffy camera. We had to sell some stuff, including the old camera, to do it. The IRS got the rest of our money, but we'll recover. The Bailey reunion starts today. Grandma Bailey is with us having a mini roadtrip on the way to that, I'll post pics later.
Friday, April 10, 2009
I should probably post something....
I'm tired of looking at the same old post, but never seem to have time, photos handy or anything to say. So here are the highlights and not-so-highlights of the last couple of weeks.
Highlights:
1. Singing with the Baptist-Mormon Gospel Choir for the Monterey Gospel-Fest. I'll blog more about it later, but it's a blast! Quite the education, though...no written music.
2. My mom in law has been here all week. It's been lovely to have an excuse to put off doing my taxes or cleaning my house. We've been trying to get out everyday and do something fun.
3. CONFERENCE! I love Conference. When I get past the taxes and the Women's conference next weekend, I'm watching it again. I love DVR's.
4. It's Spring! We expanded our garden and got it mostly planted! Can't wait for tomatoes, corn, squash, peas, beans, cantaloupe, etc etc etc
5. This week is spring break and Meghan has actually spent a large portion of it cleaning her room. Without me begging. Weird, huh?
6. Meghan gets to go to the temple to do baptisms for the first time today. She's very excited.
7. Danny is here visiting. He put a security system in Dad's house, so maybe we can at least deafen the next burglars.
8. The time between 6am (when Sam leaves for work) and 8am when I actually accomplish something because no one's bugging me and no one's calling me. ;0)
Not-so-Highlights
1. Taxes. I hate doing them. I always imagine the worst, so I put it off because I just don't wanna know. It's rarely as bad as I thought it would be...one year when I thought we were gonna have pay a boatload, we actually got a refund. I'm done rounding up all the info....I just gotta plug it all into the software, take a deep breath, and see if I have any money left.
2. It's April already. I think it was Christmas last week and Sam swears it'll be Christmas again in another couple of weeks. I hate that time seems to go so fast and I don't get stuff done.
3. No one has given us a million dollars, so Sam is still working for a living. However, at least he has a job. That would go in the "highlights" section, I suppose.
4. Did I mention the taxes? OK, back to them. This post ended up longer than I planned, already.
I'll post one picture of Prunetucky in spring. Ok, never mind, I won't. I think my computer is stuck in first gear and moving r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w. Maybe I won't have to send all my $$$ to the OTHER Uncle Sam and I can get a new one.
Highlights:
1. Singing with the Baptist-Mormon Gospel Choir for the Monterey Gospel-Fest. I'll blog more about it later, but it's a blast! Quite the education, though...no written music.
2. My mom in law has been here all week. It's been lovely to have an excuse to put off doing my taxes or cleaning my house. We've been trying to get out everyday and do something fun.
3. CONFERENCE! I love Conference. When I get past the taxes and the Women's conference next weekend, I'm watching it again. I love DVR's.
4. It's Spring! We expanded our garden and got it mostly planted! Can't wait for tomatoes, corn, squash, peas, beans, cantaloupe, etc etc etc
5. This week is spring break and Meghan has actually spent a large portion of it cleaning her room. Without me begging. Weird, huh?
6. Meghan gets to go to the temple to do baptisms for the first time today. She's very excited.
7. Danny is here visiting. He put a security system in Dad's house, so maybe we can at least deafen the next burglars.
8. The time between 6am (when Sam leaves for work) and 8am when I actually accomplish something because no one's bugging me and no one's calling me. ;0)
Not-so-Highlights
1. Taxes. I hate doing them. I always imagine the worst, so I put it off because I just don't wanna know. It's rarely as bad as I thought it would be...one year when I thought we were gonna have pay a boatload, we actually got a refund. I'm done rounding up all the info....I just gotta plug it all into the software, take a deep breath, and see if I have any money left.
2. It's April already. I think it was Christmas last week and Sam swears it'll be Christmas again in another couple of weeks. I hate that time seems to go so fast and I don't get stuff done.
3. No one has given us a million dollars, so Sam is still working for a living. However, at least he has a job. That would go in the "highlights" section, I suppose.
4. Did I mention the taxes? OK, back to them. This post ended up longer than I planned, already.
I'll post one picture of Prunetucky in spring. Ok, never mind, I won't. I think my computer is stuck in first gear and moving r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w. Maybe I won't have to send all my $$$ to the OTHER Uncle Sam and I can get a new one.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Blog Drought

I think we have a serious blog drought going on here. I thought it was just me, but even those I could usually count on for some entertainment every couple of days have slacked off. Unless they're talking about American Idol, which I don't watch. I know, I'm un-American. I do watch Dancing with the Stars Who Don't Wear Enough. Although, if Steve Wozniak gets past another week, I'll swear that one off, too. I wish that Edyta chick would wear more than a bikini with drapes hanging off of it. Whatever.
OK, an explanation for this picture. I've always loved James Christensen, don't have any of his prints, can't afford them. This is the first time I've seen this one (saw it in a magazine). It's titled "The Iron Rod". This looks alarmingly like me. This guy's got his eye on the rod, but as soon as he hits the mists of darkness...he's toast. I think I might have an elbow on the Rod, but that's about it. I need to lose some stuff so that I can get a better grip on it. It's hard though, everyone in this house has too many things and too many hobbies. We need to shed a few things. I think I may print this out and put it on the fridge. Hopefully James won't sue me, I can't afford to buy it.
I've been busy on a number of projects, one of which should be the taxes, but I haven't got to that yet. Another one, a 90 days food storage plan that we're teaching at stake Women's Conference, is going to be cool. I'll blog details tomorrow, I have to round up my little fam to read scriptures right now, and maybe get an arm around that iron rod.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Last weekend.....
....and it only took me until Thursday to write about it. In my defense, I keep asking Sam for pics, but he hasn't given them to me yet. I'll post them when I get them.
We went to Bakersfield for the weekend for several reasons: my nephew Andrew's movie premiere on Friday night, my niece Katya's baby shower on Saturday, my great-nephew Jesse's blessing on Sunday. I actually went under duress, I'm really tired of the drive. It was lovely to see all of Liz's kids, however, and Meg had a great time playing with Emily M's Sarah, and Emily W's boys. And, I got to hold baby Jesse...almost worth the drive. What a cutie.
Friday night we made it to Bakersfield in just the nick of time for Andy's premiere, but we missed the red carpet stuff. The movie was kind of fun, not a great movie, but, as Andy says, he didn't write it, he just filmed it. And, he did a great job. It was kind of "Breakfast Club"-ish, but the teenagers seemed to enjoy it and it was at least, clean. Meg was very excited to get the stars' autographs afterwards, one of the main character actors is on the Disney Channel. Can't remember his name...
Saturday morning, Liz, her girls, Mom Bailey and I went to Katya's baby shower. It was in a lovely old home that is now a restaurant...Rose Cottage Tea Room, or something like that. The lunch was lovely and we got a good visit in.
Saturday night, the whole fam-dam-ly went to the Texas Roadhouse Grill to celebrate two birthdays...Sam and Andy's wife Amber. We had a great time and ate WAY too much. That is, hands down, one of my favorite restaurants. Weirdly enough, almost all of our favorite restaurants are in Bakersfield: Izumo's, China Palace, Roadhouse Grill, the Hawaiian place next to China Palace, Sonic...
Sunday morning, Sam and I decided to take the scenic route home, through Santa Barbara. It was a lovely drive and really pretty day. We took some backroads and saw some country we hadn't seen before. We had lunch on the beach in Santa Barbara and got home fairly early...for us, anyway.
Monday was Sam's birthday. I was going to have a long post just about him for his birthday, but I just haven't had time. Unfortunately, he ended up working late that night and missing the Apple shuttle, so Meg and I went and rescued him and we got dinner on the way home. Last night, we went out with friends for yet another birthday dinner, (we're milking it for all it's worth).
That's about it....if I ever get pics from Sam, I'll post some.
We went to Bakersfield for the weekend for several reasons: my nephew Andrew's movie premiere on Friday night, my niece Katya's baby shower on Saturday, my great-nephew Jesse's blessing on Sunday. I actually went under duress, I'm really tired of the drive. It was lovely to see all of Liz's kids, however, and Meg had a great time playing with Emily M's Sarah, and Emily W's boys. And, I got to hold baby Jesse...almost worth the drive. What a cutie.
Friday night we made it to Bakersfield in just the nick of time for Andy's premiere, but we missed the red carpet stuff. The movie was kind of fun, not a great movie, but, as Andy says, he didn't write it, he just filmed it. And, he did a great job. It was kind of "Breakfast Club"-ish, but the teenagers seemed to enjoy it and it was at least, clean. Meg was very excited to get the stars' autographs afterwards, one of the main character actors is on the Disney Channel. Can't remember his name...
Saturday morning, Liz, her girls, Mom Bailey and I went to Katya's baby shower. It was in a lovely old home that is now a restaurant...Rose Cottage Tea Room, or something like that. The lunch was lovely and we got a good visit in.
Saturday night, the whole fam-dam-ly went to the Texas Roadhouse Grill to celebrate two birthdays...Sam and Andy's wife Amber. We had a great time and ate WAY too much. That is, hands down, one of my favorite restaurants. Weirdly enough, almost all of our favorite restaurants are in Bakersfield: Izumo's, China Palace, Roadhouse Grill, the Hawaiian place next to China Palace, Sonic...
Sunday morning, Sam and I decided to take the scenic route home, through Santa Barbara. It was a lovely drive and really pretty day. We took some backroads and saw some country we hadn't seen before. We had lunch on the beach in Santa Barbara and got home fairly early...for us, anyway.
Monday was Sam's birthday. I was going to have a long post just about him for his birthday, but I just haven't had time. Unfortunately, he ended up working late that night and missing the Apple shuttle, so Meg and I went and rescued him and we got dinner on the way home. Last night, we went out with friends for yet another birthday dinner, (we're milking it for all it's worth).
That's about it....if I ever get pics from Sam, I'll post some.
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