Halloween costumes

The girls costumes look great this year!

Amanda is dressed up as Marco Hietala, the bassist/vocalist for our favorite Finnish symphonic metal band, Nightwish. She looked great! I made her costume by painting the band name on a t-shirt and making a foam core replica of Marco's guitar. (A Warwick Infinity NT) Because most people do not know who he is, we put photos of Marco, the band, his guitar and one of me and Marco, on the back of the guitar. We made her goatee by gluing crepe wool on with spirit gum. (I spent an amazing amount of time trying to figure out how to do the goatee, as I could only find ones that were black or brown, and then finally I found crepe wool and it was PERFECT!!)

Rebecca was a fairy. We got her wings and skirt from a neighbor down the street who was giving away costumes last month. All we had to buy was the leotard. We painted her face and she really liked that part!

Katrina was a princess. She wore the same dress that Rebecca wore when she was five, but we bought her a new tiara that was just hers! She loved it.

We went to the Ward Halloween Party last night. There were a TON of people there (word sure gets around!). It was fun. There were lots of game booths, like the ever-favorite cake walk, etc., and then afterward everyone went out to the parking lot for a trunk-or-treat.

We did a booth that people could get their photo taken in their costumes. We had a backdrop with a big spider web and spider on it and a table with a candelabra with drippy candles, a skull and a cauldron with mist coming out of it. People stood next to the table and we took their photos and then we printed them out for them. It went really well.

Amanda gets to dress up in her costume on Friday for Halloween, but at Rebecca's school they do mismatch clothes and crazy hair day. Tomorrow Katrina gets to "trick-or-treat" at the library for Storytime. This is a fun time of the year.

Primary Presentation

Today was the Primary Presentation in our ward. Amanda was the Narrator and Rebecca had a talk and sang the first verse of "When Jesus Christ was Baptized" with her friend Brooklyn Kaufman, who sang the second verse. The girls both did really well and the whole Presentation was really nice. The children did a great job. One of my kids from my Valiant B class gave a talk about prayer and told a story about how his family had prayed to find his mother's car keys. I was so proud of him for sharing such an important experience that he had.

Speaking of my Valiant B class, I was released today. I have known about it for a while, as they told me about the change a little over two weeks ago, but I wasn't going to be changing until after the Primary Presentation. So, today I was released and taught my last lesson. It has been a hard change for me. As much as I have complained about the kids and how much they drive me crazy, I was heartsick to learn that I wasn't going to be their teacher any more. I love teaching the Book of Mormon, so I was sad that I won't get to finish that either. Their new teacher is going to be great though, so I am not too worried. The release also means that I won't be the Activity Days leader any more either.

Change is the most unchangeable part of life.

Geocaching and Pumpkins

Today was a lot of fun and it was a gorgeous day! We went geocaching with our friends, the Kaufmans, and then we all went up to Mom and Dad's for the annual Pumpkin Carving Fest.

It was a hot day for October (88 degrees!!), but nice! We started out by showing the Kaufmans a few of our caches and a few other cool caches in the area and then we headed up into the foothills, by way of Auberry Road, to a geocaching get-together that was celebrating the return of a cacher who had spent the last eighteen months traveling around the US by Amtrack train and finding caches in each of the contiguous 48 states. What a great goal to accomplish!

From there we drove up into the mountains around Kerkoff and Redinger Lakes in the Sierra mountains past Auberry. We drove as far Cal Center where there is a benchmark showing the exact center of California. There is also a cache there. There was a different one there six years ago when we were last there, so it was fun to go back and see it again and find another cache. We found a few other caches on the way back towards Auberry.

As we drove through the mountains and around the lakes we stopped to take photos here and there, as the Kaufmans had never been up in the mountains here. It was a perfect day to show off the beauty of this area! Kevin stopped short twice to get out and look at tarantulas that were crossing the road (I stayed in the van, thank you very much!). That was the only "wildlife" that we encountered.

We got up to Mom and Dad's house and had dinner (Mom makes the best soups!). Besides us and the Kaufmans, there was Wes and Laura and Stone and Scotty and Lea. We hadn't seen Scotty and Lea for a few months, so it was great to be able to catch up with them a little bit.

After dinner we all headed out to the garage where Mom and Dad always have the table covered and there are tons of bowls for the pumpkin guts (This year, Scotty not only brought gloves, but a surgical gown as well! Too funny!), and every cutting implement you can think of. There are all kinds of patterns to choose from as well, although most of us come with designs in mind. I found an idea that I couldn't wait to try. I spray painted the pumpkin black and then carved out the design. It looks really neat! Amanda carved the face of Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, Rebecca wrote several things on her pumpkin and then carved a jack-o-lantern face on it, and Katie just drew a face and some squiggles, took out a few pumpkin seeds and then declared that she was done.

This is always a fun part of the Fall/Halloween season and we always love being there, not only to carve pumpkins, but to talk and enjoy the company of our friends and family.


See all the geocaching pics HERE.
See all the pumpkin carving pics HERE.

Family Home Evening

Tonight we had a fun Family Home Evening! (Not that all our Family Home Evenings aren't fun, it's just that this one was different!) The Kaufman's came over to share it with us. We started out by singing "Jesus Once Was A Little Child" and then we talked about what Jesus' life might have been like when he was the same age as each of the kids. We talked about how he would have played with his friends, helped Joseph in the workshop and learned how to be a carpenter, and helped his mom in the house with his younger brothers and sisters.

Then we talked about what Jesus might have eaten. We tried to remember all the references about food that we could from the Bible -- bread, fish, honey, seeds, milk, fruits, etc..

Then the kids got to try some of the foods that we had talked about. I had prepared a tray with figs, dates, smoked fish, almonds, homemade cheese, a pomegranate, bread and honey. They also got a cup of lukewarm water. Jesus didn't have a refrigerator after all. Anyway, the kids tried the foods. Some they liked and some they didn't, but it was a neat experience for them to see what people ate long before the days of artificial preservatives and ingredients.

Lora the Cheesemaker

A few months ago when I was reading the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" the author mentioned making her own cheese. I was really intrigued with the idea and looked online for the company she mentioned. I found the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company online and ordered their starter kit.

I got the kit a few days later and I was very excited to try it out! I even enlisted the girls' help and they were excited too. We poured in the milk, heated it up and stirred and added the acid and the rennet, we let it cook, and it kind of, sort of separated and then when we put it in the microwave, it just sort of turned to curd soup. Hmm. Not very inspiring.

The recipe very clearly states that you are not to use ultra-pasteurized milk, which I hadn't, but it also suggests trying a different brand if it doesn't work. So, I bought a different brand and tried again. Again, curd soup. Even soupier actually. I was supposed to be making mozzarella cheese and instead we had wasted two gallons of milk.

I emailed the company and said, "Help! I really want to do this, but I am having trouble!" They emailed back saying that dairies are getting away with heating the milk hotter and hotter and so the "regular" pasteurization is actually too hot to make cheese.

So, I went in search of a place where I could get milk straight from the cow. As luck would have it, we have an organic raw milk dairy just a few miles from our house. I went and bought the milk (and holy cow! -- no pun intended! -- it is amazing the prices they can get away with when it is organic!) and tried again. This time as I was getting everything ready, I was refreshing myself on the instructions and I read that the water you use to dissolve the rennet and the citric acid needs to be chlorine-free. I asked Kevin if he knew if we have chlorine in our water, and he said we probably did, so I used a bottle of drinking water instead.

I started to make the cheese and it all started working just like it was supposed to! Yea! I fact, it worked so well that the cheese was already stretching before I even got it out of the pot! A few minutes later I had a beautiful, shiny ball of mozzarella cheese! Wahoo! Finally!

I emailed the company and told them of my success and asked about the chlorine. They said that would definitely affect the rennet, so I am going to try again with a regular gallon of store bought milk and use drinking water instead and see how it goes.

We tried the cheese out with some crackers and it was good, and tonight we are going to have spaghetti and I am going to grate some to put on top! Yum!

Front Page News

I submitted another article to the Kerman News and not only did they publish it (my second byline!), but they put it on the front page. In color even! Cool!

We have known the Hergenroeders since about six months before we moved to Kerman. They live across the street from our home. The pumpkin patch they have been working on had their grand opening on October 1st. Susie knew that they would not have time to take any photos, so she asked if I would come and take some photos for them.

While I took photos, Katrina had a great time running around looking at the animals, going through the hay bale maze and checking out all the different sizes of pumpkins.

We stuck around for a while when the first field trip arrived and took some more photos. We even went on the hay ride. I sent several photos to the Kerman News, but they only used one, so here are the others:















Then here are ours:

Katrina checked out all the different sizes of pumpkins, but she was most impressed by the huge pumpkins that were as big as her!

They have all sorts of animals at the patch that the kids can look at.



Katie and I on the hay ride.

See all the pics HERE.

The Big Fresno Fair

Every year at the beginning of October we get the girls out of school a little bit early and we all go the Big Fresno Fair. We really lucked out this year too, as the weather was in the mid-nineties the day before, but in the mid-eighties yesterday. It was a gorgeous afternoon and evening. We went on Smoke-free Kid's Day, which meant the kids got in free, but unfortunately it did not mean that anyone paid attention to the No Smoking signs posted all over the whole fair grounds.

We got smart this year and took photos of each of the girls at the entrance to the fair so that if anything happened and we got separated we could show pictures of exactly what they looked like. Why didn't we think of that before? Luckily we did not have to use them!

We started at the Junior Exhibits and hopefully got the girls interested in the idea of entering things into the fair. We also think we may have finally convinced Amanda about the idea of joining 4-H, as many of the projects that she saw in the fair that she said she would like to do were done by 4-H groups.

Next we went to the Kid's Zone, and they had a new exhibit in there that was SOOOO cool! It was a kaleidoscope exhibit and it had all sizes and shapes of kaleidoscopes that were made from all different types of materials. There was even a kaleidoscope with a camera inside of it so that when you stood in front of it, you became a part of the kaleidoscope. It was so much fun and it was hard to get the girls to leave so that we could see the rest of the fair.

We went into an exhibit of old cars and machinery, which is always a favorite. Interestingly enough - and this may seem like a tangent, but it will come around - CalTrans is almost done with the extension of Highway 180. In the meantime, we are being routed on a detour. The detour is long, so those of us who have been doing this periodically for the last four years, we know a different road to turn on and it cuts about a mile off the detour. As we were driving down that road on the way to the fair, Kevin mentioned that he had noticed a house on the road that had some really nice old, restored trucks that were out in the driveway. We didn't think anything more about it. When we went into the exhibit, I made it around a partition before Kevin did and I saw a truck that was absolutely gorgeous and I told Kevin to hurry around and see this truck. As Kevin went around the corner he said, "those are the trucks!", referring to the truck I pointed out and the one next to it. Two of the trucks in the fair exhibit came from the driveway of the house we passed on the detour. Cool!

We were out on the grounds when the Anhieuser Busch Clydesdale horse-drawn wagon went by. Wow! That is impressive up close! All the gear on those horses is amazing!

We then went to the family favorite, the Rocks and Minerals building. The girls LOVE this exhibit! They spun the wheel to win different types of rock prizes, went through the florescent rock exhibit, bought a $1 bag of rocks and this year we bought a small geode that was cut in half for them. (That was LOUD!!) There were all sorts of displays of different rocks and minerals. Amanda loved a diorama scene that was made out of rocks, and Katrina loved a huge crystal display. She pointed at it and said, "grass rocks!"

We went over to the HUGE play area that has a huge fort and a pirate ship and they played there for awhile. Then the went over to the gold panning area and then we went over to the Livestock building. We saw the chickens, bunnies, cows and sheep. They don't have a petting area anymore but this year they had a great interactive play area. You could saddle a big stuffed horse, dress a scarecrow, play in a corn crib, "milk" a cow, and Katrina loved riding the kid-sized tractors.

Then we headed over to the Fine Arts building to see how my photos had done. I only got one ribbon, an Honorable Mention, for the photo of Amanda jumping off the dunes at White Sands National Monument. We looked at a lot of the other photos and then we got some dinner. We always get to pick our favorite "fair" food.

Then we headed to the much anticipated midway! (Rebecca must have asked us at least twenty times when we were going to go there.) The girls went to their favorite ride where they sit in swings and then get spun way up high. We took Katrina to the merry-go-round and she was very anxious to go on it until we got on it. She started to cry and fuss and Kevin took a picture of her on the horse. The ride started and by the time we got back around and he took another photo of her, she had a smile that went from ear to ear. We got off she said she wanted to go again. We went a second time and she waved to her sisters as we went by, and I told her how brave she was to let go with one hand!

We walked back through the Commerce Building where all the vendors are and then we went into the Ag building. The Kerman display is always beautiful and this year was no exception. We bought a big cup of fruit and had a late night dessert snack. Then we made our way though another one of the Commerce Buildings and then out to the van and home. We have several family traditions that we have formed over the years and this is one that we enjoy very much!

Blogging my weight loss journey - Month 9

I am not sure which language "plateau" translates into "just quit trying", but apparently in Lora-ese that is exactly what it means. I get frustrated when I am not making progress, and then I soothe that frustration with food. (Curse you Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream!!! You are so good!!) It's a vicious cycle!! I don't feel good and I am tired. I get so fed up with myself, but it always takes SOOOOO much longer to get back on track than it does to get off it. More frustration, so more food.

It was really disheartening to realize that I will not be able to reach my main goal. I thought that my goals were very reasonable, so I am depressed that it looks as though I will not be able to reach it. It took me eight months to lose 40 lbs., I can't imagine that I can safely lose another 40 lbs. in the next 2.5 months. Arg!!

I have to say that it is not as fun to blog about losing weight when you are not actually losing weight. I know I have gained weight, as I am feeling tubby, but I am still fitting into the same clothes, so I know I haven't gained TOO much weight back. Although any weight is too much weight. The worst part is that I absolutely stopped exercizing!! I exercized last Thursday for the first time all month! Not very productive. All out to nothing!

The sad thing is that most of the things I have been eating don't really taste all that great (except for the Ben & Jerry's ice cream), and I don't feel good after eating them. But, unfortunately that doesn't ever seem to stop me.

The thing to focus on is what I have accomplished! I have lost 40 lbs. I am healthier than I was at the beginning of the year. I have to get things back in the right direction. I think I will be blogging a little more often than once a month, as I feel like I try to straighten up right before a blog post, so if I do them more frequently, then I will straighten up more often!