Not so fun craft...

A few weeks ago I was browsing through Pottery Barn ... they have such cute stuff but not so cute price tags! I like the boxwood plants they have ... but I've been noticing on blogs that crafters are just making these cute plants themselves.... AND they are a WHOLE bunch cheaper and so EASY!!!  HEY... (I thought to myself)... I can do that too!!!

So off to Savers I went for some great pots... and I found these beauties for a couple dollars. So I ripped out the flowers...

and put in styrofoam. Hobby Lobby had the plants I wanted for half off and I had a gift card!!! Pretty cheap and easy so far!

But now you will notice that there aren't any pictures from this point to the finished product.... WHY you may ask?!?!? First I got blisters from cutting all the little pieces of plant off the stems... I had to get Mike to do most of it cuz I wasn't a quitter!!! This will work!!! THEN after poking all those litle pieces in I ran out of plant... WHAT?!? these are just little pots... So I left the half bald future beautiful way better than potery barn planters sitting on my counter for days til I could go back to Hobby Lobby. Luckily the plants were still half off and I still had some gift card to use.. then I ran home to finish the LITTLE project! BUT... the more I looked at the pathetic things...I thought they are going to be WAY too big for these little pots. So I ripped the ugly things apart cut the styrofoam in half and forced myself to finish this project or ELSE!!!! And to make matters worse we started referring to them as Chia Pets!!!

Whew.... Well... here's my finished plants... I like them... and they turned out fine after all that... but they are still way too big for the spots I had picked out for them ...   So crafters beware!!! This was a NOT so fun craft!!!

My next project... to find perfect places for my overgrown Chia Pets!

Meet the birds...

I was looking through some pics on the computer and I ran accross these...I don't think I have blogged about the "birds"... except to mention the fact that they are cannibals and eat eggs and chicken! I definitely watch my fingers when I am around them. We tell everyone not to put their fingers in the cage cuz they might "bite"... but I don't think it's 'biting" that they are doing... I think it's more like "tasting"!  I guess technically they are my stepbirds since they came with Mike when we got married. The "birds" and I have a sort of love/hate relationship... they don't particularly like me but they will tolerate an occassional rub on the head and love when I give them treats. I like them... they are pretty cute... but when they are noisy (NOISY) and I can't hear myself... then I threaten to cook them... really... that seems to get their attention... then the cycle starts over again!

Kiwi...

Gizzmo...

Big Guy...

So you have now officially met our "birds"!

from Brazil

oi família


This week was a good week, we marked a marriage/baptism!! We are working really hard. We went to the zoo and i took some pics. We will have zone conference this week and interviews with president. This week was kind of sad for the branch, three families moved without notice. Three families that are active in the church. So we helped with a few moves this week. But it´s getting cold here and the brush is still on fire. The new pres is cool i guess, i´ve only seen him one time and i didn´t have the chance to talk to him. But now we´ll have interviews so i´ll be able to talk to him now. I haven´t recievd the package yet but i´ll probably get it at the conference. See you all later. Tchao. Elder Lewis

Weekend projects

This weekends projects were fun cuz we recycled/repurposed/whatever some stuff into great other stuff!

I got these UGLY lovely frames at Goodwill for a DOLLAR each!!! Then Mike and I went to Home Depot (LOVE Home Depot) to get a FEW more things!

My BEST handyman!!! LOVE him!

Transforming some frames...

We (Mike) got the frames all ready then I added some batting and material to a piece of wood... then Mike added the wire and hooks and hung them on the back of the closet door.....

AND I bet you are wondering WHY and WHAT are these things FOR?!?!?

They are to get this MESS organized!!!!

My new jewelry holders... I LOVE them... only problem is... now I need another one... two wasn't just quite enough... and of course I need room for future stuff!

THEN... Kristin brought over a BIG bag of old crayons...

We put them in molds and put them in the oven to melt... then into the freezer to harden...

Then... we have cool rainbow crayons!!! I used to make these for my kids and they loved them!

So those were a couple of our wekend projects... I still have two more to finish and in between all that we are STILL scrapbooking Brandon's mission book!!!

I hope everyone got some great weekend projects done too!!!

What we've been doing lately....

I haven't scrapbooked in a very long time... (due to circumstances beyond my control)... But it is definitely time again!!! Especially since Brandon is going to be home soon and his mission scrapbook needs to get finished!!!

So I went shopping and hit the clearance piles at a few stores... I scored! I even got some paper for a penny a piece at Michaels. It's all very manly looking... but hey... that's just what I wanted. I spent a little over $30 and I used gift cards for most of it! WOO HOO! Then Kristin brought over her stash of stuff and fun gadgets! We spread it all out on the kitchen table and it is STILL all spread out on the kitchen table and probably will be all spread out on the kitchen table till it is finished!

Hey look... Mike is scrapbooking too! helping us out by using the dangerous equipment! Thanks Mike... you did a great job!!

Of course we took a break to eat sometimes... oh look... we are camera shy... Mike says we look like bookends!

So ... let's see... Brandon left in November 2008... and we have scrapped up to April 2009... Ummmmm.... I guess we better get scrappin a little faster!!

From Brazil

Here's the latest from our missionary:

Hello,


I don´t know the exact date i will get home, when i know i will tell you guys. But all is well here in jatai, we found some monkeys this week. Bigger than the normal ones that are here. We also saw a few turtles in the river. but we are still working hard and we are preparing a few couples to get married and the branch is going to make a big party and everything, it will be awesome. We are all really excited here because our branch got approved land to build a chapel. The branch really deserves it because they have been working really hard lately. Evrything is going good here and everyone has good health. Today we might go to the zoo and that should be cool. That´s about it for now. see you all later tchao. Elder Lewis

Lots from Brazil...

Catching up here... scroll down for the last couple weeks in Brazil!


7/13/2010
Hello família


This week we had our first zone conference with president and sister Prieto. They are cool, and also alot different than president and sister Tobias. To me they are more like parents, president always calls us sons and daughters and not elders and sisters. He is more laid back too. They also brought with them 5 kids to stay with them during their mission, they are all grown up and i think they wil help out alot. We took pictures with them but the mission hasn´t sent us the pics yet. It´s sad i won´t be able to get to know them very well but the time i´ll be here with them will be great. Everything is going good here and i´m still eating good and healthy. See you all later tchau. Elder Lewis.

 

 

7/20/2010
Oi família,

How´s everything going there? Everything is going good here. We are working hard to have a baptism this week. Nothing really exciting happened this week. Just that my comp hurt his ankle a little bit and we have to walk slow now. But we found lots of people to teach this week and we are really busy. We aslo have been teaching our comps english. They already knew some but we are helping them talk better. It´s also helping me talk better because i sound like a retard when i talk in english. Congrats on all the baby stuff, sounds like this week was a busy week for your all. But that´s all i have for now, see you all later and ask questions if you have any. Elder Lewis.
 
7/27/2010
Hello família,


This week was a good week but the only bad part was that our baptisms fell through. We had 2 baptisms planned for this week but on sunday they were´nt home. We´ll see what happened to them this week. The weather here has been great, not too hot and it is also cooling down alot at night. This morning we did a little re arranging in the house, the other elders changed rooms and we had to move everything. We just about broke our closet thing but that´s why someone invented super glue! We also installed a fan and brazilian wiring is always a sight to see, if the wires don´t explode it means they did it right. There is no such thing as matching the colors or anything, there´s no pattern or rules in eletricity. I don´t know the exact date i will get home. It will either be oct 27 or 28. But if i can´t go visit the mtc to see trent i was thinking in coming home 1 transfer early which will be sep 15 or 16. But i still have to talk to president prieto, he hasn´t done any interviews yet. It´s hard to talk to him because we have to send our weekly letter through the mail now, with president tobias we used to send emails and it was easier for him to respond to us. But i will do all i can to try to visit the mtc. But everything will work out. I´m still doing good here and i´m loving jatai. See you all later tchão. Elder Lewis.
 
8/02/2010...TODAY!
Hey everyone!


My p day moved to monday so you all have to email me earlier now. But this week was transfer week and no one in our district got transfered. I´m still here in jatai. I still have the same comp too. Nothing much is new here. This week someone started a fire in the brush and no one did anything and it spread into a huge brushfire, i took some pics but i´ll send them later. We are still working hard trying to find the elects. Keep praying for us here in the field. But we are all doing good here, everyone is healthy and strong. Its starting to get a bit warm but i´m used to the heat. Anything new in mesa? How´s everyone doing? That´s about it for this week see you all later. Tchau Elder Lewis.