Zout It Out

This is the most amazing stuff I've found in -- well, almost ever. I can't tell you how many shirts I have ruined with oil stains. You know the ones. You're eating salad and suddenly there's a piece of it on you and it leaves the spot of oil from the dressing. It's really just about impossible to get out. The stain stick and Shout never got those out.

A few weeks ago, an oil spot showed up on one of the DH's favorite sweatshirts. Plus, it had already been through the dryer when it was discovered and then made at least one more trip through the drier before I started working on the stain. I also splattered butter on a fairly new sweater, so I was determined to figure out how to get the stains out.

I went to a great book Queen of Clean Cleans Everything. It's a fantastic book for figuring out how to get almost anything clean, including bad luandry issues. First, I found the recommendation to put WD-40 on it. I sprayed it on, waited five minutes, and then rubbed in dish detergent, as directed by the queen, then laundered as usual. It just left a different stain. Her second suggestion was Zout. I found it for $2.99 at Target and sprayed it on the sweatshirt and another sweater that had set-in stains. One trip through the washer and dryer and both were good as new.

For my money, that's about as good a value as you can get. For $3 I saved two pieces of clothing so far and expect to do the same with more.

Still Christmas Crafting

This is the last of my Christmas projects. I just finished this one today, but it still counts. It's for a few gifts that I'll be giving next week when I see the rest of the Stake Relief Society presidency. Hopefully none of them are reading this and spoiling the surprise.


To make these, I used cardstock for the front and back covers and then used decorative papers and stickers to embelish and make them look cool. I found wonderful papers to use, so that helped things turn out very nicely. I made four, so after the ladies choose theirs, there will be one left for me!

Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New!

I hope you all look back on 2007 with fond memories. I know I will. Here are some of the hightlights:

• Spending President's weekend on the coast with great friends
• Visiting Patrick's family in CA and going to his nephew's wedding
• A Memorial Day road trip with the DH out to the Peninsula
• Great friends over for a birthday BBQ on the 4th of July
• Our anniversary in Friday Harbor (and super fun moped rides)
• Starting a new job (and the DH did too)
• Fun in Boise after Christmas

It really was a wonderful year. Now we ring in the new and look forward to creating more great memories. It's also a time to reflect on what needs to be improved. I think I'm still working on the same old things. I looked at my goals for last year and I really didn't do so well. Here's to a better 2008. My goals are pretty consistent:

• Improve my health by excersizing and eating a healthy diet
• Improve my spirituality by studying the scriptures and attending the temple
• Improve my mind by doing smart stuff (or taking a class, or doing sudoku every day)

The DH and I have new gym memberships to a gym that opened today, so I'll let you all know if he goes to the gym with me. This should be interesting.

Welcome to the Word, Baby Girl!

Our dear friends Mark and DeeDee had their baby girl on Christmas day. It was pretty tough on Mom, but baby Melody fared very well.







She's healthy and happy and just about as beautiful as a little baby girl can be (and that's pretty darned beautiful).

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing every one of you a very merry Christmas day! The DH and I have opened presents and are on our way to brunch with friends before heading to the old Robertson homestead. We pray for safe travels for ourselves and everyone else making their way to and from festivities this week.

Seattle Christmas Tradition

Last year, the DH and I decided that we needed a Christmas tradition all our own. I gave him the task of thinking something up and he came across the idea of going on the Argosy Christmas Ship cruise on Lake Washington. I thought it was a great idea, too, so a tradition was born.

Last night we went on the Christmas ship cruise. It ended up being a lovely night (after much rain) and we ended up chatting with two delightful ladies while we were on the boat as well. The photo is of one of the boats that was along for the trip. I know it's a little hard to see in the picture, but it's the best we can get with the little camera we have. Maybe next year, we'll get some better pictures.

Bah Humbug

I've worked on very few projects, and not blogged much, because work has been cramping my style. Don't get me wrong -- it's a great job. It's just been a lot of work and really hard since I started two months ago. The icing on the cake was having to let someone go on Tuesday. Yes, exactly one week before Christmas. It made me very grumpy and it's part of a long list of things at work that have made it difficult to focus on the good stuff, like having a lot of Christmas cheer and enjoying the season.

Well, as of 5:00 today, I'm off work for exactly nine days. Nine glorious days to enjoy the season, my friends and family, and work up some good, old-fashioned, Christmas cheer. I'm ready for it, I tell you. I think that tonight, the DH and I may need to deliver some Christmas gifts to get me in the cheery mood.

I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Our Dishwasher -- Or, Another Project Finished

Look at my lovely dishwasher! It's displaying another project that I finished tonight. I actually made two of these to give to friends. I've already passed one on and will give this away soon.

The pattern was from my mother, who made these for all of her grandkids (or rather, one per family with grandkids). I thought they were super cute and it would be a fairly easy project. I really enjoyed coloring. It's one of the things I can do that I find really relaxing. Even better than Spider Solitaire on the computer.

Baby Blanket Success

I finally completed the baby blanket that I started ages ago. I was going to do some free-form machine quilting and it was a major fiasco. I can't even express how frustrating it was. The knots of thread on the under side of the blanket were no fun to pick out. And gone are the days of mom picking out the bad work for me. She really did pick out all my bad seams when I was sewing for 4-H. Isn't she a great mom?

Well, when I realized the free-form thing wasn't going to work, I had to figure something else out. I decided to simply take a washable marker and a big ruler and draw lines on one side. I did lines that were not parallel and a few of them even crossed near the edge of the blanket. Then I sewed along the lines to keep the two sides of fabric together. I sewed some binding on and the whole thing looked really good. I was so pleased! Seriously, I wasn't sure if I could do it, but in the end it turned out fine. I'm not sure if you can see the detail well, but this second picture shows the lines.

I'm going to give it to the couple accross the street who just had a baby. They're really nice and I would love to feel like I'm a good neighbor.

Christmas Rock and Roll

We started December in full Christmas spirit. First, it started snowing around 2:00 and blanketed the neighborhood with wet, white snow. It was really lovely.

In the evening, we went to our first Christmas concert, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It's definitely not your Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Everything is electric with this group. The light and laser show was pretty astounding, at least for a girl who doesn't get out to that kind of rock concert very often--or ever.

They had amazing musicians and played great music to kick off the season in style. We had a great time, even if the snow did deter us from picking up a Christmas tree. We'll have to do that some time next week.

Please Join in a Christmas Tradition of Giving

This Christmas, I want to start a tridition that is bigger than myself. A few years ago, I heard about Heifer International, an amazing organization that helps families in third world countries start sustainable business endevors by giving them livestock and training.

Heifer International's mission is to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth and they do that by working with communities. Heifer provides families with training and a livestock gift. The family then has hope for a sustainable future and they in turn become donors by passing on the gift of the animal's offspring to another family in need. They are also rated by Forbes as one of the world's top 10 charities.

I also think this is right in line with the spirit of Christmas, since Christ was born among the livestock.

Would each of you who reads my blog think about what you could donate to this great cause. In the past, I've made donations in others' names as my Christmas gift to them. That's one idea. You could also talk together with your family about one thing you could forego this Christmas season and donate the monetary equivalent of that to Heifer International. My goal is for my friends, family, and I together to donate at least $1,000 -- enough for a “Milk Menagerie,” which includes several milk-bearing animals.

What can you do now?
Go to the Robertson Family Christmas Giving donation page and make as small or as large a donation as you are able. You can donate as little as $10, so any contribution helps. Also, spread the word and maybe together we can raise $5000 -- enough for an "Ark" instead of the "Milk Menagerie" for some deserving people.

My Fingers Hurt, or Why I Don't Sew Much

Thursday night, while the DH was out home teaching, I thought I would sew the blanket that I started a month ago. All intentions were good. I got out the machine and the fabric that I had already trimmed and taped together. That wash-away tape is brilliant -- seriously!

So, I started sewing the free-form sewing and it all went horribly wrong. The tension on the machine is a little finicky in the first place, and using the darning foot (or whatever it's called) wasn't helping at all. After sewing for about 15 minutes, I gave up. There were wads of thread on one side, angles that didn't work for a baby blanket, and one frustrated sewer.

It took me two hours and three DVR shows to pick out all the sewing. I'm now looking for a plan B.

Gratitude -- the Final Installment

Here's the final in my list of things to be grateful for each day of the month of November.

18. Amazing friends. I really could use the rest of the days to list the wonderful friends I have, but I’ll just put it as one item. I’m blessed to have friends in many places who support me in all different ways. I can’t imagine getting through life without them.

19. A wonderful home to call my own and share with the DH. It might not be fancy, but it’s our place. It also has a great back yard. It was a really good venue for our wedding reception and we’ve had some very nice parties there since. It was especially fun for my birthday party last summer.

20. My cute nieces and nephews rock! They’re all so cool in such very different ways. I just wish I could see all of them more often. I don’t even see Max, who is in the area, as often as I’d like. This is one of the many reasons I’m looking forward to Christmas with the whole family this year too.

21. Good insurance policies. I got to be reminded this week when I took the DH’s truck in to get fixed. I was driving it last Sunday after he had loaded two couches (one was a sofa-sleeper) with the tail gate down I drove over the bumpy part of 125th St. and the tail gate got knocked off and skidded on the ground until I could get pulled over to the side of the road. I don’t know if the DH will ever let me drive his truck again, but at least I got it fixed. And it only cost me $100.

22. Sunshine, especially in the winter, is such a great blessing. I love those cool, crisp, sunshiny days. They’re fairly few and far between in Seattle, but I love them just the same.

23. My computer is a wonderful blessing. It helps me keep in touch with my many friends and family and provides a creative outlet. It’s all kinds of fun, even if it is also really just a tool to do more work sometimes, too.

24. Amazing restaurants in Seattle. Just tonight, the DH and I went to Bick’s in Greenwood. The food was amazing. Last time we were there, we thought it was just too loud. This time, we got a booth in the back and it was wonderful. It’s not nearly as noisy back there, so we could carry on a conversation. That way, we could enjoy the fantastic food even more. And that’s just one of many great places.

25. I also grateful for the gift of travel. I have my grandparents to thank most of all. They covered the fees for study abroad when I went to Vienna while I was at BYU. That trip included touring most of western Europe, England, and Israel. I have to thank my parents as well. It still amazes me how much of the country we saw as I was growing up. I’m not sure I would have had the patience to drive six kids the two-day trip to San Francisco or even farther to L.A. so we could go to Disneyland. It was pretty nice to have grandparents in Arizona, so we got to go across the border to Mexico. I know it wasn’t a very broad Mexico experience, but still a foreign country. They took us to Canada too. I felt like a globetrotter before I ever flew across the ocean.

26. I’m not sure I would survive without books. I know I haven’t done too well with the book club, but I still read as I can. It’s just not nearly as much now as I’d like. I’ve read so many books that have had a great impact on my life. It’s always a wonderful thing to find a book that just speaks to you. It’s happened to me many times.

27. I love a good movie. One of my favorites is A River Runs through It. I think I could watch that another ten times without getting tired of it. It’s on the short list of movies I could watch over and over.

28. I’m grateful for a sewing machine. I sort of suck at sewing, but I’m still grateful that I have the machine and I can use it in a pinch. It’s a nice little appliance to have around.

29. I love my cell phone. I know it may also sound silly, but it is another thing that keeps me connected to the people I love. It’s so great to spend my evening commute on the phone with the DH or my sister or mom.

30. For my last entry, I’m going to say the DH. I know I’ve already listed him, but I just can’t say enough how grateful I am to have him in my life. I’ve learned so much from him. He’s so much more willing to serve others and give of himself than I am and I appreciate that about him. He is also ready to do almost anything I need him to do, even help with stake relief society functions when he’s not too enthusiastic about it.

Mmm... Pie!

Well, I think Thanksgiving was a resounding success. The brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over for some yummy food. They brought half and I made half, so it wasn't too much work and the food was great. The best thing the SIL made was the homemade cranberry sauce. YUM! The recipe is below. The best thing I made was pumpkin pie. I used my sister's mother-in-law's recipe and it turned out great. That recipe is below as well.

All in all, we had a really nice time. Patrick even got more birthday presents -- a leprechaun christmas tree ornament, and a new Mario game for the Wii. Patrick also got a really cool truck for Max that kept him entertained for quite a while so he wasn't too bored while we were cooking and chatting.

I'd say a good time was had by all. This is the before picture. We forgot to take an after picture, but it was sort of like this, only messier.

Fresh Cranberry Orange Sauce
2 large navel orangesa
12-ounce bag fresh or unthawed frozen cranberries, picked over (about 3 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup honey
several tablespoonse of pomegranate seeds

With a vegetable peeler remove three 3-inch-long strips zest from 1 orange. In a saucepan of boiling water blanch zest 1 minute and drain in a colander. Chop zest fine and transfer to a large bowl. Cut away peel and pith from oranges with a sharp knife and discard. Quarter oranges. In a food processor pulse oranges and cranberries until chopped coarse and add to zest. Stir in honey. Chill sauce, covered, at least 1 day and up to 3. Add pomegranate seeds before serving.

Pumpkin Pie
1 29-ounce can of pumpkin
3 eggs
3 cups sugar
1½ teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
3½ cups of milk

Mix and pour into 3 9-inch pie tins lined with pastry. Dot top with margarine. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, then at 350° for 45 minutes (or until knife comes our clean). Cool for 2-3 hours.

These actually took about an hour-and-a-half to finish baking at my house. It was totally worth it though.

Blog Readability

So, I found this quite interesting and funny. Over at How About Orange, I found The Blog Readability Test. To waste some time, I checked out all the blogs I read to see how they rated. Only two of them came out as Genius level; The DH and my dad. I came in at High School reading level. Not bad, especially since not that many geniuses read my blog -- except for you -- you're a total genius!

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Shout Out to the DH!

Everyone be sure to go over to the DH's blog and give a shout out for his birthday. It's not quite as exciting as the big milestone birthday last year, but it's still a great day. He wore his new suit and shirt with cuff-links to church yesterday and looked as handsome as I've ever seen him. And thanks so much to the Craven's for a fantastice birthday dinner last night.

Why Are My Lips Orange?

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, I was also putting away portions of the Clinique free gift I got a couple of weeks ago. I looked at the lipstick and thought it was a fabulous color. It was one I must wear today. I put it on and then went about my getting-ready business. After getting dressed, I went into the bathroom for one last look in the mirror to make sure everything looked just so. To my horror, my lips were orange. Again. It seems that all Clinique lipsticks turn orange on my lips. It's something to do with pH and chemistry and other things that I don't fully understand. What I do understand is that I have one more tube of lipstick that I can throw away. Bummer.

Gratitude -- Lots to Love

13. Leaving the gym this morning, I realized how grateful I am that my body works as well as it does so I can be physically active. It's a great blessing that not everyone has, and I realize that.

14. I also thought how grateful I am for the rain. It smelled so good when I was outside and it felt good (especially since I was overheated from being in the gym). I also know that it makes a lot of other things that I love grow.

15. I'm grateful for my husband's new job. He just got offered a position at his company in inside sales. Although he'll have to work harder to maintain the hard body he has, it will aslo mean that he doesn't have his body beat up every day by the nature of his work. It's a very good thing, even if does come with some trade-offs. He'll miss working all day with his friend Jason, but he'll be able to walk at the end of the day and will have little risk of getting another hernia.

16. I'm also very thankful for cars to take us places. It's so convenient and easy. I guess these days, I'm also thankful for a good job to pay for the gas. Even driving a hybrid, it's still a concern that we drive so much. We have to make an effort to consolidate trips and save fuel.

17. I'm thankful for clean entertainment. The DH and I saw Dan in Real Life yesterday and were very entertained by it. It was clean, funny, and entertaining -- the trifecta of what makes a movie good. We've also been enjoying Pushing Daisies, a new program on television this season that is also fairly clean, funny, and entertaining.

Gratitude -- My Family Rocks

9. The DH is my true love. I'm grateful for my favorite part of every day just before we go to sleep. I lay my head on his chest and we talk for a few minutes before one or both of us need to actually go to sleep. It really is the best part of my day.

10. I'm grateful for my dad. I love that my dad is always taking classes. He's such a great role model. He's learning how to play the organ (even though he doesn't know how to play the piano) and he's taking a religion class. His love of learning has always inspired me.

11. I'm grateful for my mom. My mother has always been very involved in all her childrens' lives, but in a good way. I love that my mom remembers all of my friend's names. In fact, sometimes she remembers when I don't. I know I should be embarassed, but really it just makes me that much more impressed with my mom. She is always interested in what I'm doing and always has time for me. I can't count how many times she's had to listen to me cry on the phone.

12. I'm grateful for the sibs. They're all amazing in their own ways. I don't think I have room to tell you about all of them and how cool they are, but suffice it to say that they all rock. Plus, the married ones have all had good taste in spouses. I'm very blessed with my wonderful in-laws too.

Fremont, 5:06 p.m. -- Seen When Leaving Work Today

I kid you not. A man was vacuuming the sidewalks and gutter. It was some kind of industrial looking vacuuming contraption, but vacuuming none the less.