How to make a Sticky Post

Wow! So, Andrew and I have been wanting to put a sticky post (the first post on the page that always remains there) on our adoption blog for awhile. I had no idea how to do it. I had no idea it was called a sticky post even...until today. And you want to know something? It was a piece of cake! Maybe it isn't totally right, but it worked. And actually, this post is a final test to make sure it really works. Here are instructions in case you ever want to do it.

First, there are actually two options: 1) the post is centered and directly underneath your header; 2) the post is in the same position and format as your other posts.

1) Centered
Log in to blogger.com. Go to Layout, then Page Elements. Right under your header, click the box that says "Add a Gadget." Click Text, type whatever you want, and save it. That is it!

2) Normal looking post
Log in to blogger.com. Go to Layout, then Page Elements. Right under your header or in the side column, click the box that says "Add a Gadget." Click Text, type whatever you want, and save it. Now, drag that box that you just typed the info in over to the area on the page that says Blog Posts. Click save. That is it!

Then, just thank Brianna for figuring out what in the heck a sticky post is!

It's been awhile

Hello! Don't worry; Andrew and I are still alive and doing well. But I have to admit that we are new to the blogging world, and I really have a hard time keeping up with two blogs. I wouldn't really worry about it because I think only three or four people even know this blog exists...but some of those people have this linked on their blog, and when I saw that it had been two months since my last post, I figured I better do something about it. This is it...the adoption blog gets all the news, pictures, and excitement. Check it out here (just don't go everyday or it will really mess up our tracking numbers). I want to update it weekly, but sometimes it happens every other week or so.

Speaking of adoption, no, we haven't heard anything. It is hard and often frustrating, and I feel like Heavenly Father is always trying to teach me to be patient and trust in Him. I am either a really slow learner or I just have a hard time giving up control. I know we have been in this process for only a short time, but when you add on the previous years of struggles, it feels a lot longer. We are doing our best to spread the word, and have supportive family and friends who are helping us as well. We have some great pass along cards with our contact info if you want some. You can give them to anyone to let them know we are hoping to adopt. There is also a group called Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) which consists of others who are hoping to adopt, those who have adopted, people who were adopted, or people who love adoption. We are becoming more involved with that and are very excited!

Church is going well and keeping us busy; which is good. I am in Primary and Cub Scouts still and we also work with the Young Single Adults. It is a fun challenge. Work is going well for Andrew but wow, it is starting to get crazy and busy! He just left an hour ago to go meet with people and do whatever and he won't be back tonight until midnight. That isn't normal, but he is covering his area (which is already large) and helping with another that is a few hours away, so traveling is always involved. But we are grateful for his job!

Everything here in Sterling is the same. Actually, we have now lived here in this house for 15 months, which is the longest we have ever lived in one place. And we were starting to go a little crazy; so we rearranged our bedroom. I recommend it to anyone who is getting sick of their living arrangements.

Well, that is it. Hope all is well for each of you! Oh, and I feel like I need to put at least one picture on here, so here you go: celery.

This is probably my favorite thing to dry in the dehydrator. Well, not really; it takes awhile, but it is so nice to have on hand. Have you ever wanted to make some chicken noodle soup and you wish you had some celery to throw in there? Yeah, that is me, all the time. I buy celery occasionally, and then half of it goes bad in the fridge. But, I found it on sale a few weeks ago, bought two packages and dried it. Now we can have it in soup whenever we want. I love it! Have a great week...or two months!

Emergency Essentials Food Storage Analyzer

I like food storage. We are working this year on really building it up. We have enough wheat for the two of us for more than a year! But, how about everything else? Well, not quite there, but working on it. We are planning to stock up and I have been saving every week to put towards a big purchase at the end of the year. Anyway, Emergency Essentials has this new thing that will tell you how you are doing. Since we have enough wheat, but not all of everything else, we will just have to eat a lot of bread. You put in how much you have in your Food Storage: buckets, #10 cans, and canned items from the grocery store.

It was easy to do, although most of our food storage now isn't in #10 cans, so I had to search to see how much the cans weighed. Then, I could figure out how much pasta and rice we really had. It doesn't have areas for everything...like cereal, granola bars, tomatoes (but it does have tomato sauce), or chocolate chips (and we have a year's supply of those fortunately!). But, it does cover a lot of other things. I am not totally sure if I included everything we have because I wasn't sitting down with a list of items, although I did refer to my pantry often, but it says that we have enough food for 163.66 days! Not bad, but we have a lot of work to do! Good thing we like bread...

And, if you try out the Analyzer before October 28th, you can receive a free $10 gift card from Emergency Essentials!

Go to the Food Storage Analyzer and create a free account; try out the analyzer; then write your own review. Click on the red button below for more details and instructions.

More from the garden

Since my last post was titled "Cucumbers", I thought about calling this one "Tomatoes." But then, I figured I needed to be more creative, but I can't get over the garden theme I guess. We've had some weird fall weather moving in, and none of my tomatoes want to turn red anymore, but I had one that did.
But, here is another one that is not so red.

Oh, wait...it is the same tomato! What? I left it on the plant forever, hoping it would be red all over, but some bugs decided to take over the green part, and the red part was getting soft anyway. I am not sure what happened, but it looked pretty crazy. And it didn't even taste that good...it was really acidic. Other than tomatoes, things are well. It has been so busy lately. We went to Washington to visit my family, and I will have to post more later on that. I have been canning all summer: strawberry jam, strawberry rhubarb jam, blackberry jam, raspberry jam, rhubarb, apple juice, relish, salsa, and last, but definitely not least...potatoes. They were the worst! I had to use a pressure canner for the first time. But I survived, and hopefully will do it again soon. I took pictures of some of the things I canned to document it, but they are all on the other computer, so maybe I will add some later.

Also, we were approved for adoption and are so excited! Visit our adoption blog and then pass it on to your friends too. Thanks! And have a wonderful day!

Cucumbers

So awhile ago I wrote about all the things I loved in my garden...and didn't include my cucumbers. Why? They weren't from seed like everything else; the ones I planted didn't come up. I've never had much luck with cucumbers, so I had no idea what they would do this year. Well they grew!


Three weeks ago, I picked two cucumbers! I was so excited! We were actually in the middle of a Youth Conference that Andrew and I were in charge of, so I didn't take pictures to document this occasion. I just ate them. They were good. The next week, I had a few more...so I decided to take a picture. Unfortunately, I got my tonsils out the same week I took these pictures and Andrew doesn't like cucumbers as much as I do, so we gave them away. I had no desire to eat these cucumbers then...I felt brave enough trying mashed potatoes. This was what my diet consisted of for a week or so.

Anyway, back to the cucumbers. They are still growing. And growing. I only have one plant and there are only two of us. We've given some away...but our crisper drawer is still full. And, more will be ready by tomorrow. We are eating a lot of cucumbers. Almost every dinner and

at lunch too. In fact, I was eating my lunch before I posted this, and knowing I would be posting about cucumbers, I figured I better eat some then. It was a good one. A really good one...that made me want to eat more. But I still can't keep up. Anyone want some cucumbers?

What we've been up to

So, we started this blog because we wanted a blog to have for people to look at during our adoption process. We heard it was a great way got birth mothers to see more than just our online profile. So we started this one. And then, we learned you don't want to use your last name. Great. So, we started another one. We decided to leave the new one as only our adoption blog, and this one can be the normal one where we talk about our day to day life. But, since we are new at blogging, I can't guarantee that will last long. Keeping up one blog is hard...two is harder.

But, while we are blogging...here is an update and what we've been up to lately.
Andrew turned 27 in May! We got to celebrate his birthday on more than one day because that is the way he likes it, and we had things for church that night. He got a Bocci Ball set, so we went to the park and tried it out. It was a lot of fun, except for the mosquitoes. We had a great dinner of Orange Chicken (like the kind from Panda Express, although Andrew says it is better) and ended with a great dessert. In fact, it was the Best Dessert in The World, and his birthday wouldn't be complete without it.







Last weekend, we went camping! Although we like camping, it was the first "real" time that we have gone camping since we've been married. We don't count the times we've been with the Scouts...or the time we lived for the summer at the Cub Scout camp...or the time we pitched our tent outside of a cabin. So, this was a new experience. And we loved it! We went to Rocky Mountain National Park, and as always, it was beautiful there. The next day, we went to a nearby Girl Scout Camp, where our ward and two other wards will be having Youth Conference. Andrew and I were asked to help, and then the main couple in charge decided to move. That means that we are now in charge...which is crazy, but we are excited. We went on a hike that wiped us out, but we saw some beautiful mountain views.


In other exciting news, we had our first Tornado Warning here! It freaked me out. We had just gotten home, and were actually going to be having our Family Home Evening lesson. The plan for that evening was to find out what to do in a tornado, because we knew that would be important. I looked up some information online, and Andrew got some paperwork. Well, we got home, and sat down to take a break. Then we heard this noise...like a siren...could it really be the tornado sirens? It was. We turned on the radio, and they said to take shelter. We have no basement, and we aren't brave enough to crawl into the crawl space, so we threw some stuff in a backpack, grabbed our important papers folder, our wind-up radio/flashlight and took off. We went to one of the designated shelters (at our church) and waited. We were very prepared...and probably looked crazy to everyone else. But, the tornado didn't land, so we waited an hour, and then they said it was safe to go back home. Oh, and in case you were wondering, we did have that lesson afterwards.

The Garden

I love having a garden. I really love when some things are already planted and growing...like rhubarb and raspberries. I can't wait for the raspberries. But, I like planting seeds and seeing how they grow and waiting for them to turn into something delicious. Here are some of my favorites in the garden this year.

Pumpkins. This is our first year ever growing pumpkins, and I love them because they grow! Cucumbers don't seem to like me, and the bugs are taking over the cantaloupe...but the pumpkins are already getting huge!

Chives. Don't they look great? I hope they keep doing well. I love having them! Also, notice the green lawn. We haven't had the sprinklers on for awhile...it is all from the rain.

Brocolli. This is also a first and we are growing cauliflower too, but it isn't as big yet, and it is covered by leaves. But I can't wait until this stuff is ready.

Tomatoes! I love tomatoes. Andrew doesn't, which really is too bad, because I think I planted 6 plants. 4 Beefsteak and 2 Cherry. Last year they didn't do so well...which is why I had to plant 6 plants of them.

Lettuce...the best for last. Really. I love growing lettuce. It is my favorite, because, like pumpkins, it always grows. At least for me. When the bugs attack everything else, they stay away from the lettuce. Unfortunately, you can't save lettuce; and when it bolts, well, it is gone. But it grows fast. And you can plant more for a fall crop. I love lettuce.