Going Green

I think we are really helping global warming?? I'm just SO concerned about it. If you can't hear, it's tongue and cheek. I do, however, have a problem contributing to so much landfill waste. So in the interest of the environment and $$, I have chosen to recycle...ALOT. Well, Mike helps out quite a bit. I'll give credit where credit is due. Since he travels to "the valley" every week, we save all our plastic, metal, etc. and send them down with him to put in the city of Gilbert recycling bin my parents have. We don't really have that kind of recycling in our town. Good think it's clean garbage. We do have paper recycle. Our sanitary district needs it to compost our waste. Yea, pretty gross. I know first hand, having gone on a field trip there. Smelly too. There are a couple of places we can drop it off and it's usually always on our way to and fro. You probably ask, what's the $$ interest? Well, I'm glad you asked. We cancelled our garbage service, saving us $20 a month. We recycle so much that we only have one garbage bag full a week or 3 walmart bags. I recycle there too. I use my Walmart-type bags as my garbage bags. Although Walmart and Safeway, both, have recycling for extras of those too. I take my extras there. Anyway, our good friend Raymond started recycling paper too and now we share his garbage. Or we use our neighbors across the street who is more often then not, staying in their home in "the valley". They don't mind that we use it and we are grateful. You may ask, how does the garbage company feel about this? Answer: They don't mind at all. I called and discussed my options with them. They do have other plans, like every other week garbage pick up. When I asked them about sharing a can, they pretty much said, Go for it. Work it out with your neighbor and it's good with us. So, the moral, where there's a will to save 20 bucks, there's a way.

Tidy and Not So Tidy

I'm sure this scene looks very familiar to many of you. Anna and Amelia share a room. Poor Anna. This is what their beds look like on a daily basis. Anna's is the bottom bunk and Amelia's is the top. I can so relate. My sister, Janette, and I shared a room. You could practically see a line drawn down the middle of the room. Her side was so cluttered and mine was so neat and tidy. I feel your pain Anna. Unfortunately, she has inherited this compulsive perfectionism from both her parents. I will find her up at night getting things just so. When I tell her it can wait until tomorrow she says, it will drive me crazy. I have to do it now. Again, poor Anna!

28 Bottles of Peaches on the Wall

Yup, I canned peaches. Count 'em. There's 28. Since I have limited storage space, I decided to put them above my cupboards in my kitchen. That way I can see how beautiful they are all the time...and so can everyone else. Again, I'm so vain. Since I put the peaches up there, I decided to put everything else. I pickled some beets, dilly beans and made 3 kinds of jam. Strawberry, Apricot Pineapple and Cantelope Peach. I think my "sugar" food storage is leaps above the stuff that will really fill you up, ie, legumes, wheat, etc. But I just can't resist jam. When in crisis, I'll just have to say to my family, Gather 'Round the Sweet Stuff.

Before

After

I'm So Vain

I actually did it. I can't believe it. I had toyed with the idea of removing the mole on my chin and finally did it yesterday. I mentioned to Mike that I'd like it off along with another mole. So we went to the office to take care of some other business and ended up taking both off. Mike has a soft tissue laser which makes it easy to remove moles, skin tags, etc. I was really anxious about the one on my chin. I don't know why. Maybe because it's been a part of me for so long. Amelia even said, DON'T DO IT! When all my girls were babies, they noticed it and played with it while nursing. Sometimes at the office we have mole removing parties. Debbie said that last week when business was slow, she called her husband and sister to come in and have some things removed. So if any of you who want anything done, come pay us a visit.