Cleaning Tips?

I don't like harsh chemicals but I have no idea what to do for my flat top cooking surface on my range other then elbow grease. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Uncle Tom's Cabin

I am the worst at just taking the time to get my photos off my camera. I still have loads to upload. But alas, by the time I will get them up they will be very outdated, so here is what I have been thinking and not what I have been doing. It is snowing outside and the world looks so clean. Everything sparkles and because logically you can see that it is cold out side it makes being indoors in your own home the most joyful and peaceful of times. I am truly thankful for my blessings for a home to keep me warm and clothes to where. I have been reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and again it has brought me to reflect upon what I have and what I take for granted. I feel this has been (aside form church literature) one of the most spiritual enlightening books I have ever read. So if you haven't read this book or read it in High School, I encourage you to pick it up again. Ponder on what character best represents you now and what you think you may have been in those different circumstances. So even in times of economical turmoil, I trust in my Savior and I am grateful.

updates

Follow up on the mouse story.... We caught a mouse! Actually we caught 5 mice. Taylor got home about midnight that night and by then the stores were closed so after a fitfull nights sleep I made him go to the store Sunday morning (yes I know but I didn't care). He bought a pack of four mouse traps and set them around the house. Knowing mice were nocternal I didn't expect anything during the day. That evening the boys were very anxious to see a mouse in the trap so we told them after they get already for bed they could check the traps. We all went upstairs brushed teeth red stories and half an hour later we let them check. They come running back up the stairs, "We caught one, we caught one!". Sure enough we did. Taylor just through the whole trap away and we went to bed. After about forty minutes Taylor remembered to plug his phone in so down the stairs he goes only to be back in a flash letting me know all three of the other traps had a mouse in it. This time he emptied the traps and re-set them the next morning it was one more (he was the lucky one that got his picture taken) and since then the only thing we have caught was a little boys fingur (we thought we had picked them all up befor we had company, opps!). I am happy to day it has been over a week with out a squeek. Updates #1 Pumpkin Farm Amelia was supper brave, it was her favorite thing to feed the animals big or....

the relatively smallThe "two year old" group that we went with.

Parker Family Reunion.

Hanging out in Provo with my sister and her kids and Sherilee and Sterling Cornaby who we have known since before grad school and became really close to as they were at Cornell at the same time as we were. This was before the reunion.

Here are all the kids. We wish we had gotten a picture of Taylor and I with Sterling and Sherilee, Sterling and Taylor were wearing shirts that were almost identical and Sherilee and I were also dressed very much alike. Maybe that is why we are such good friends, we just think alike.

Sherilee and baby Grant. He was so tiny!!

Marie (my sister) and Kate

Jordan Jasmin and Hyrum (my sisters boy)

Arianna, (Sherilee's) isn't she pretty.

Dale

Amelia

Elaina (my sisters)

MOUSE! MOUSE! MOUSE!

How can something so small scare you so badly? It is 11:30pm, Taylor is at a priesthood activity and so stupidly left his phone here at home! So imagine I am sitting on the couch knitting and watching TV enjoying a nice evening to myself. I here a little scratching I turn around and don't see anything so I assume it was outside (it was rather soft) then about ten minutes later a little dark blur rushes from the couch I am sitting on to the chair in the corner. I immediately focus on that area to make sure that I was just imagining things. But sure enough about 10 seconds later a little mouse that appeared to be the size of my shoe (my imagination is making it bigger) ran from the chair, back under the couch where I am sitting. AHHH!! It took me about three minutes to move! So now as I wait for Taylor to get home so I can go get a mouse trap and it will be me because there is now way I am staying here any longer then I have to with a critter in my house. Oh my gosh I can hear it! This is crazy, imagine I am sitting in my computer chair actually squatting in my chair in the kitchen with Taylor shoes on because they are bigger then mine and I am less likely to feel it if the mouse happens to skitter across my toes freaking out because I have a very dirty rodent in my house. I know many of you must think I am the biggest baby but I don't care that is just the way it is. Seriously where is my tuff husband when I need him?

Magic Eraser

I am going to try the Eraser tomorrow. I also found a small amount of art on my leather couch so hopefully it will come off in both places. As many of you have guessed, I have not cut my hair, I think I have gotten over the major hair frustrations and it seems a little easier now. But I did have to cut Amelia's hair just before our trip to California. I was in the middle of trimming her bangs and Jasmin was screaming on the bed Taylor couldn't hear me calling so a grabbed Jaz ran to the stairs and got Tay's attention. In that 30 seconds she had grabbed the scissors and clipped the sides of her hair, I had to cut off almost three inches. I have to remember she is more normal then my boys (who to this day haven't pulled any stunts that make me want to pull my hair out), I just need to remember with Amelia, if I don't want to have her get into trouble I have to keep trouble up on a shelf.

SHARPIE!!!!!

I rarely spank my kids but today Amelia got it! I am tending a friends kids today (all day) and so after a tiring morning I put everyone down for a nap. Or so I thought, Amelia was in the craft room as her bed was being used, so after I got Jamin to sleep I thought I heard a noise and yep it was Amelia. She had done some cutting and used a Sharpie to color on my white board. I was mad but kept everything cool and calm and explained in a loving way that we don't do those things. I let her get up, she obviously wasn't tired (which always is frustrating to lose my only time of the day which is just mine) but after conference yesterday I was determined to enjoy my children and I really tried to recognize that childhood flies by so fast. So I gave her a snack and put the TV on for her and went in the living room to finish my book. After about twenty minutes I walked back to the kitchen and saw her covering herself (in a brand new shirt!!!) and my table in a pink Sharpie! Where did she find two in one day?! My table is only a year old, so I truly lost it and three spanks and a ten minute time out not to mention a bit of yelling I finally am calm enough to post my frustrations. Does anyone know how to get sharpie off a table top without sanding it down and starting over?

Vacation?

Is there such a thing? Every time I travel for a so called vacation I come back more fatigued then when I left. But is it worth it.... most certainly. I love being somewhere I don't have to worry about bills or appointments made, even when I forget about them I know I can't do anything about. Here are some pictures taken in California, these are not from my camera so I will be uploading more pictures in the next couple days with some from my last California visit that I didn't have until now and also from the Parker reunion. Here are some of the great things about vacations. Happy feet, tired feet.... Not getting dressed until 9 am...

Sunny days...

Smiling faces... (my mother nit this dress I will add a photo where you can see the whole thing) Relaxation.... Lot of play....