Raingutter Regatta - review

We had our Raingutter Regatta last month. Our cubs decorated their boats at the den meetings. I decided to not have a ranked competition similar to the Pinewood Derby. The boys enjoyed being able to choose their running partner as well as which set of gutters they were going to use. We had the inflatable gutter from the Boy Scout office as well as vinyl gutters.

I decided to make a participation award for each boy. I found a saying to go with Extra gum and put my own twist on it. I then purchased a sail boat puzzle at the local dollar store as the grand prize. Since the races were not ranked, I did a drawing of all of the boys who were there. It was one of our new boys who won the puzzle.

In an earlier post, I showed two options for the pool noodle boats. We tried to do the round side down and they just fell over. Some of the leaders made a catamaran type boat with the pool noodle which seemed to work better. Next year, we'll use the wooden boats again and just have the boys personalize their sails. I didn't feel like the noodle boats worked that great. This would be wonderful for a birthday party though ;)

We opted out of using straws to help with powering the boat. My cousin had done the regatta a few weeks prior. He said that the boys used the straws to push the sails instead of them being breath powered.

General Conference is coming

LDS General Conference is my two favorite weekends of the year. I am so grateful to have a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to provide a living prophet. The six sessions of General Conference provide such wonderful insight and guidance.

I have two favorite sessions. General Conference starts with the Women's session for all women/girls from 8 years old and up. The talks given are geared towards women and personalized for our needs. I also love the Saturday afternoon session. It's always fun to hear the statistics of our church, new callings, and announcements of new temples.

My family has a few traditions for General Conference. I love my mom's cinnamon rolls. She makes them for the Sunday morning session. We all gather together for the Music and the Spoken Word and eat breakfast. My brother in law always sends us a picture of my nephews in a tent. They make blanket tents for the kids to watch Conference from.

I love the many ideas online for making the most of the General Conference weekend. One of my favorites is packets which contain pages to take notes.



I have been browsing ideas for gifts to take to the sisters that I visit teach. I like the kits but there are other options I'm considering as well.

I love being a step mom

Rich and I have been married for just about 6 years. We tried to get pregnant but with no success. Our plans to have a baby together were stopped in its tracks due to a serious medical scare. I have fully recovered from my surgery. I no longer have the ability to get pregnant. My sweet husband had the wisdom to remind me to be grateful for the children we do have. We have his sons once or twice a year for visitation. I truly do love them as my own. I really don't understand why people treat step children differently. All children are a gift. 

My boys are growing up too fast. Look at how they've changed over the years. (I'm sorry but the pictures are out of order)

Crocheting... a lost art?!

I went to a local store the other day to purchase some sewing supplies. The cashier was an older gentleman. He mentioned that not many people from my generation know how to crochet or sew. I would tend to agree with him. I'm surprised at how many of my friends don't know these basic skills. I love crocheting. My mom, grandma and aunt taught me to crochet. I've learned new techniques from various people in my life, including my great grandma. I have made many different items from flowers to dresses. Lately, I do smaller projects since my hands hurt after too long.


My cousin had boy girl twins a few years ago. I made hats for each of them.

When my cousin's granddaughter was blessed, I was able to make her headband. Her dress was made by my aunt.

Yes, I know the flowers are insanely HUGE but that's what the mama wanted.

Grocery shopping yields HUNDREDS of plastic bags. My grandma has cut bags into strips and crocheted bags. I decided to try this myself. 

I cut the bags into 1 1/2 - 2 inch strips. 

I then weaved them together to make my "yarn". 

I wound it up into a large ball. 

I could now start my crochet project. In this case, I made a pool bag. We got season passes for a water park and I knew that we'd be carrying wet clothes. I chose to make the plastic crochet bag for this since it was sturdy and would be the perfect material to get wet.

We were sealed for TIME and all ETERNITY

My life definitely took some different twists and turns than what I was hoping. I thought that I'd be married in the temple by 21 and have several kids. 

I got married for the first time at 26 to someone met at my apartment complex. He seemed to be a spiritual guy but he was very different behind closed doors. He was not LDS but I was not living by the church standards at that time so it didn't matter to me. My marriage lasted just less than 4 years. 

I moved back to Utah and started going to church again. I met an amazing man and we got married. I was not yet temple worthy at the time we were married and we were awaiting notification that my husband's previous temple sealing had been cancelled. I didn't focus much on our wedding. Our plan was to be sealed on our first anniversary. I wore a wedding dress for the temple.