What Retirement Savings?

Yesterday we got the quarterly report on Paul's 401K retirement savings plan. The money has been invested in the stock market in various recommended mixes. Well, folks, it wasn't good news. We had heavy losses, as I'm sure everyone has. It has so far set us back 4 years of investing. If it continues we simply will have nothing left to retire on.

We are so grateful we still have time left before Paul retires! If we were close to retirement, it would be such a dire picture. I'm sure the retirement age will have to go up. We are also grateful that Paul has a job. So many people don't and my heart and prayers go out to them.

Homemade Bread Bowls

Last night we had a really extra yummy dinner. I decided to try making my own bread bowls to go with the cheesy potato soup I'd planned on making. They turned out marvelously well! They taste so much fresher than the ones you buy in the store--and they're so much cheaper!! The picture shows the roll in a bowl, but you can put it on a plate instead. Some of our kids hollowed the roll out too much and created thin spots and holes that the soup spilled out of, so you want something under the rolls.

I used a recipe from my sister that was for hamburger buns, and I just made fewer and larger buns. I process everything on the dough cycle of my bread machine, but you could do it by hand if you wanted. Here are the recipes:

BREAD BOWLS
Makes 6

1/2 cup milk, warmed
1/2 cup warm water
1 egg
3 1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons rapid rise yeast (or one package)
2 Tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon margarine

Put all ingredients in bread machine on dough cycle. Form into 6 balls. Place on greased cookie sheets. Let rise until double, about 20-30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cool rolls, then cut the tops off in a wedge shape, with the knife held downward at an angle. Then hollow out, leaving about 1/2 inch thick edges. Pour in hot soup. Scrape the sides of the roll and dip in the hollowed out pieces while you eat your soup. Enjoy!


CHEESY POTATO SOUP

Serves 4
4 potatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 quart water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon seasoning salt (optional)
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon chives, chopped (optional)

Fry onions in a little oil until translucent. Combine onions, potatoes and water in heavy saucepan. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. In heavy skillet, melt butter or margarine. Add flour; cook and stir until mixture bubbles. Remove from heat; stir in milk. Return to heat and cook and stir until thickened. Stir mixture slowly into potatoes; cook and stir until thick. Add cheese and seasonings. Serve with chopped chives (or parsley).

I'm a Little Teapot

I had an Etsy customer ask if I could make a teapot hat. It sounded like a fun challenge, so I gave it a go. Here is the result:




I think it would look cute in lots of different colors. Ben just had to sing the teapot song while wearing the hat. Can't you just see a pre-school class performing the song while wearing the hats?

Can You Believe This Sunset?

I love having a front-row seat to see beautiful sunsets. It's hard not to take tons of pictures!



Isn't God the greatest artist?

Getting Older

The other day, Ben looked at me and said, "Mom, your hair is turning white. you're getting older." Paul came to my defense and said, "No she's not. It's not turning white." Ben said, "How old are you, Mom?" I said 45.5. He said to Paul, "See? She's getting older!"

Well, I've got news for you buddy,
SO ARE YOU!


Ben at about 7 months


Ben at about 3 years


Ben today, almost 7

Christmas 2008

We got a white Christmas this year! It snowed and snowed. Christmas night there was a blizzard. I'd never seen so much blowing snow! It was a complete white-out. Ben blamed it on Dallin, who prayed for a white Christmas.



Here are our stockings all hung by the chimney with care. Doesn't it look cozy? I love our picturesque fireplace!



On Christmas Eve, the kids acted out the nativity, complete with appropriate hymns. We had to scramble a little for costumes. The chairs are left over from Monday's huge Dupaix family Christmas dinner party. We had 39 guests!



In keeping with the holiday spirit, Baby Cakes and Muffy set aside their differences and signed a truce. Actually, they've gone beyond that and are best friends now!



We love being close to extended family! Grandpa and Grandma came and spent Christmas Eve with us. We had a yummy ham and potato dinner and acted out the first Christmas.


This is what Muffy looks like underneath all the fluff. She's enjoying (not really) her first bath at our house. Is she cute or what?


It's Christmas morning! It's so fun to torture the kids by making them wait on the stairs for pictures before they can open presents! It's a tradition I'm passing along. And, you know they'll do the same with their kids!


Is there a wrong reason to "go green?" I was motivated not so much by environmental responsibility as just not wanting to deal with all the wrapping paper mess. In past years, when our family was smaller, we've over-filled two garbage cans with Christmas paper. In our last house we'd light a fire and burn the paper as we opened gifts. This year we have a gas fireplace, so I sewed up a bunch of fabric bags for our gifts. It is so nice not to have a huge pile of paper and ribbons to throw away. The bags worked great, and best of all, I can use them again not only for Christmas, but for birthdays too!

The World's Cutest puppy Lives Here Now, Too!

I bought Paul a little Shi-tzu puppy for an early Christmas present. She is adorable! We named her Muffy. At first Babycakes the kitten would have nothing to do with her, but now they're best of friends and play together often.

We are working on paper training Muffy, and so far things are going pretty well. She is held almost constantly by the children, which she seems to enjoy quite a lot!

I've been meaning to post these pictures of Trina. Her YW group went to a beauty college and got their hair done. Most of them got up-do's. I think Trina's looks gorgeous!!

The World's Cutest Kitten Lives Here

This is the latest member of our family. Her name is Babycakes. Michelle and her roommates rescued this little kitten when her mother, owned by a roommate's sister, abandoned the entire litter. Babycakes was the runt of the litter and was sickly. The girls nursed her back to health, adminstering antibiotics and milk replacement. Michelle brought her home at Thanksgiving time. We had a local vet check her out. She is in very good health now, although she's a little underweight.





Babycakes has quickly wormed her way into our lives and hearts. She is very playful and fun to watch. She has a thing about shoes. Since she is so small, she can't be an outside cat until next spring, so she occupies the sun porch at night. She has regular play dates with the other two kittens (who look ginormous next to her!) so she will learn normal cat behaviors.



Here she is, with eyes all aglow, in our cozy family room.





This gives you a perspective of how tiny Babycakes is. She is sitting on the futon on the sun porch here.

A Calling For Karen

So, after 2 1/2 months in our new ward, I finally have been extended a calling! In fact, as of last Sunday, I've also been sustained and set apart...as the Mia-maid advisor in our ward.

This is a new venture for me. The only calling I've had in the YW organization is beehive advisor when I was expecting my first baby. I don't remember anything about it, and I wonder if we even had any active beehives in that ward.... So, this is one calling I have no experience in.

I checked the church website to learn more about my calling and discovered that my calling doesn't officially exist! It seems in basic wards, the YW presidency takes care of pretty much everything. I realize that wards have a lot of freedom to adjust the program is needed for their particular situation. I also realize that lots of wards have advisors for the YW classes. I just wish there were a little more info out there about what exactly I'm supposed to do. I have been told that training is forthcoming, and that I can expect to teach the girls every other Sunday. I also have high hopes that I can go to girls' camp! Yay!

The entire YW presidency was changed Sunday. Fortunately, the new president and her 1st and 2nd counselors have had experience in the YW organization. Hey, at least someone knows what they're doing!

For now, I view my position as an accessory to the presidency, particularly the 1st counselor, who is over the Mia-maids. I was also told by the bishop that I was to try to become close to the girls and set a good example for them. My pleasure!

We already had our first activity--a rather last minute outing to the local high school's production of Beauty and the Beast. One of the Laurels from our ward was in it. It was very crowded, a little stressful keeping track of all the girls (we lost one for awhile), but quite enjoyable and very well done.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Imaginary Letter to the Disney Corporation

Dear Disney People,

I happen to know that companies spend good money for advertising space. They have to pay to advertise on bus benches, buses themselves, billboards, TV or radio time, and I've even seen advertisements on cars. Companies also have to pay just have their name listed in a phone book.

Why, then, I ask you, do I have to pay for my little girl's shoes, which clearly advertise such Disney characters as Tinkerbell, Hannah Montana, and High School Musical one, two and three??

YOU SHOULD PAY ME TO BUY THOSE SHOES!!

Sincerely,
A mother who is sick of all the free advertisements foisted on our children

Halloween 2008

How fun it was to have Grandma and Grandpa Stoddard join us for a pumpkin carving Family Home Evening the Monday before Halloween. Grandma was put in charge of taking pictures and Grandpa handled the frosting of the cookies. Everyone had a great time, and we all got to bed far too late!





This is how I spent most of the evening--preparing a carving pattern of Brigham Young. It turned out pretty well, though I had a little problem with the left eye where a fragile bridge piece broke and I had to try to prop things up with a toothpick. It was a little disappointing.







Here are the inventive costumes the kids decided to wear this year. Andre is CTR Boy and Dallin is the tacky gym kid.





Lisette repeated a fun costume from a couple of years ago. She's the biggest, cutest puppy in the litter!

Sunsets, Early Christmas and Cute Hats

Can you stand more sunset pictures? These were, I thought, particularly lovely. They are taken from my little balcony.




My brother-in-law decided we needed some bar stools to go with the bar in our dining area. He called it an early Christmas present. In October. That has to be a first! It was very thoughtful of him.

Here are the pretty bar stools:



Meanwhile, my Etsy store has picked up again, since the weather is cooling. I've had several orders for hand knitted hats. Earlier this last week I caught a virus that made me so exhausted, all I felt like doing was staying in bed, listening to books on CDs and knitting. I got a lot accomplished! Here are some pictures of some hats I knitted this week:

A Rose, by any other name...

When you have an unusual name like Dupaix, you come to expect people to have a problem spelling it, pronouncing it, etc. The most common mispronunciation is something like Duprey or dupree. Today we got a couple of pieces of mail that misspelled our name in ways that had us rolling with laughter.

From Tooele City, I received a check refunding my deposit. It was made out to Karen Dupzix. In the same mail pile was a post card from our mortgage broker addressed to the Dupaxi family. I'd never seen that one before either. Both are clearly just typographical errors, which of course wouldn't be caught by spell-check. I'm thinking of making a collection of name slaughtering samples of our last name! These would make a good start.

Love the View

When we were deciding what house to buy, the view from the master bedroom suite was definitely a big selling point in the one we purchased. Here are some samples of the view from our little balcony. I am looking forward to seeing the landscape covered in snow from up there...which should happen before too long.

Bib Maker Extraordinarre

The owner of a flower shop in Tooele orders bibs from me. She packages them in gift baskets with her flowers and other baby items. She says some of her customers just love my bibs. They are fun to design and make. By making my own bias binding, I can match the fabric and applique perfectly. These two pictures represent the latest order she placed for my bibs.




I got soooo excited yesterday when I found this box of tissues. It matches the paint in the master bathroom perfectly!! It is the first thing I've found that matches! Now, the really good news is that once the tissues are gone, I can take a piece of the carton to the store to find other things to match the bathroom. I am so glad my whole bedroom isn't this hard to match color!