A GREAT book

Okay, so I just finished this book and it was so great i just Had to write about it.

This book is really two books put into one, centered around one story, sorta. The book starts out with a woman, Jordan, who is not only a 54 year old married woman with a 21 year old son who lives at home, but an established writer as well. She gets hired for a teaching job at a local community college and jumps at the idea. During her first class she is met with awe and respect by all buy one. A boy around her sons age who criticizes her previous books saying they have no personal blood and sweat in them.
She heads home in a little bit of a funk over this young mans comments to find her troubled son slumped at the front gate of their home, drunk, again.
That night she comes up with an idea to teach her class by writing something she's never written before, an allagory, and also to write something for her son.

The book is Christian based, though not LDS, though it could've been written by and LDS author and just generalized in order to get more readers. I can't remember there being a single foul word, and the whole thing is very clean.
The allagory that she writes is woven into the book and the story of her and her hardships. Honeslty, I finished it today because it was definitely the kind of book that got me thinking about our Savior and all he has done for us.


I know i didn't give a great book discription so you're just going to have to go and read it yourself. :) Enjoy!

Shaving the Beast!

Before we left for Tennessee Dave decided he was going to grow out his goatee again, one, because its fun, and two because he wanted to look older and there by get some respect from otherwise very unrespectable people. And both goals were accomplished.

Then, after he got a picture of his younger brother Steve's beard growth, Dave decided it was time to just let himself go. ;) So he stopped shaving. I didn't mind because not only was it fun, and definitely less annoying then kisssing fresh stubble, but the bathroom was Much cleaner.

So then we came back to AZ and Dave is all set to go to school in a few weeks. He was due for a haircut pretty bad anyway, and so, this time to appear younger then his 24 (almost 25) years he decided to start shaving again. These are picture from that historic moment.

This is the full beard and shaggy hair

Starting to trim
Ah yes... the whatever these are called...
The handle bars with a little more umph at the bottom...
Another handlebar view, this time with a little more side burn
Dave being a Frenchie... I thought it kinda looked more wild west on him but...
Another one
Dave's goat beard... ;)
My handsome hubby :D

Cleaning

So, we're back in Tempe. Which is great except that our tiny little side of the triplex was a TON messier then I remembered. Plus, we only managed to come home, with more stuff.

On our way in, we stopped by Dave's parents house for a quick refresher before heading home. While there my mother-in-law showed me this great packet of information that was compiled by a lady who was on the Church's welfare system for years because she really needed it, and this packet was her way of giving back. It was mostly quick and easy meal and snack ideas, that used all of the available church warehouse resources, but it also had great cleaning tips.

There was one tip that I'd never even heard of before (and trust me, my mother knows most of them). So when we got home and had a little down time, I decided to give them a try.

Here's the first one :

What you will need:
1 lemon or lime (any citrus fruit will work really)
a microwave safe bowl
water
a clean rag













Cut a lemon or lime in half then squeeze the juice from both halves into the bowl. Go ahead and toss the juiced halves in the bowl. Fill the bowl with water and place in your microwave. Then microwave cook on high for about 10 minutes -- long enough for the citrus mixture to boil and let off lots of steam. When finished cooking leave the bowl inside the closed microwave for another 10 minutes. Then using a clean rag and the warm (be careful it may still be hot!) citrus water wipe down the bottom, sides, and ceiling of your microwave. Rinse the rag as often as needed. Cooked-on food splatters will easily wipe away and unpleasant odors will be neutralized. Plus it leaves the kitchen and sometimes even the whole house (if you are as lucky as me) smelling like lemon bars. Its just lemon and water and the smell made Dave look up from his game. Needless to say, we'll be doing that a Whole lot more often

The next one is for the fridge, which, as my in-laws know, we forgot to clean or leave open. So the black mold moved in. It definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and after I was done, the mold smell was gone, but the bleach smell wasn't. So I went online and used another lemon for this.

1. Slice a lemon into 1/2 inch this pieces and place in a small shallow dish or plate

2. Sprinkle 1-2 Tbs of table salt onto lemon pieces

3. Sprinkle 2-3 Tbs of baking soda onto lemon pieces

The combination of the soda salt and acidity in the lemons will make it sizzle, which is pretty cool. Then you just put it in the fridge, uncovered for 4-6 days.

My version has been in the fridge for only a few hours and it already smells less like cleaner.

Give it a try!

PS - The Return from Tennessee and Shaving the Beast will be coming shortly. :D