YOEP :: January :: Procedures

My first project on our project of emergency preparedness was about procedures and things I should know. I found a lot of good links.


It seemed that beprepared.com had a lot of good information a wide range of situations. I went there for most of my researching.

I really liked this list of what to do during and right after an earthquake. Since I didn't grow up in earthquake country, I didn't know a lot of this information. My brain always thinks about tornadoes and thunderstorms.

I love this link to a bunch of different checklists for emergency preparedness. It includes lists for the situations, kits, plans, and much more. I spent quite a bit of time on just this page.

A list for making an emergency and evacuation plan. We used this checklist to make our emergency evacuation plan. I'm sure I'll add more to it and will have a little binder that includes much more information about our family and home.

I also found an article from Your Own Homestore about some thrifty ways to prepare for an emergency. These were some really great ideas that I hope to put into action soon.


Let me know if you've seen any other great resources for getting the basics and essentials ready for emergencies. I'm still a little overwhelmed with everything I've found. But I'm hoping breaking it down into smaller steps will help me conquer the intimidation I feel.

February's challenge: Storage space & Important Documents

Motivation Monday

Sometimes people leave you

Halfway through the wood.

Do not let it grieve you.

No one leaves for good.

You are not alone.

I have always loved the musical Into the Woods. Not only is the music amazing, the stories fun, and the whole thing hilarious, but the messages in the show are so inspiring. Certain songs and lines from Into the Woods have always spoken to me and pierced my heart. Please see this show if you haven't already!

The particular line I wrote here is from one of the last songs in the show. From the very first time I saw the show and heard the soundtrack I have never forgotten these lines. It is so true for me. And I haven't been able to get this part out of my head for a few days.

Sometimes people leave us sooner than we like. Sometimes we are separated from family and friends in distance, and we miss them dearly. But I know that loved ones that have passed, or loved ones that live far away, are always with us.

Not only that, but we are never alone. Our Savior is always aware of all the details in our lives. Always. I'm not just saying this - I know it. Every single thing we do is important to Him. He loves us, cares about us, and will always be interested in what we are doing.

Happy Monday!

Let me sleep!

I am transcribing a class that is entirely too early in the morning. Why do students do this to themselves? Stay in bed! Sleep! More importantly, let ME sleep! Oh, my life is so hard...right?

Oh well. Even though I hate the waking up part, I do enjoy the peaceful mornings. They're pretty cool. But let's be honest, the late morning after a really great 10 hours of sleeping in is really great, too. I'm making sure I take advantage of the ability to do that!

Hope you had a good long weekend! :)

January Date Night :: Minute to Win It

I just realized that I haven't shared my 2014 date night book! So I will get on that right away. I'm so glad we did that again this year. I think it will be a fun tradition.

January's date was Minute to Win It themed. It only cost us like $2 because I had to buy was M&Ms. This post is also kind of a picture overload. Enjoy!

Challenge 1: Moving M&Ms from one bowl to another with a straw.

Winner: Steven! He got 24 M&Ms and I got 21 M&Ms. 

Challenge 2: Moving paper bags of varying heights from the floor to the table.

Winner: Steven! This was a shocker because I'm kind of more flexible than him.

Challenge 3: I cut a cereal box into a puzzle. We saw how much we could do in a minute. In hindsight, I should have made these pieces much larger to be doable in a minute. Oh well.

Winner: Lynnette! We each took different strategies, but I wooooon!!

Challenge 4: Stack 3 golf balls on top of each other.

Winner: Steve! He got this in about 30 seconds! I couldn't get the third to balance. Boo.

Challenge 5: Set up 20 CD cases in a horseshoe (like dominoes) and then tip them so the last case falls onto the ground.

Winner: Steve! Steve did this and made it look waaaay too easy. I knocked mine over half way through, so I didn't have time to fix it.

Steve was the big time winner. I lost tremendously. But we had a lot of fun just doing funny things and laughing at how silly we looked. We ate some wings and fries and watched Meet the Robinsons. It was a fun (and basically free) date night!

The Lord of the Rings

My most recent reading journey has led me into the land of Middle Earth with The Lord of the Rings. It's been so fun to finally read these stories and understand what people are talking about. I have been enjoying it VERY much.

I am currently reading the third book in the series - The Return of the King. I am only about two chapters in. I must say that my slow start was due to the enormity of the copy of the book the library had. Look at that monster! I felt like I was carrying around a textbook. Luckily my coworker saw it and is lending me her normal sized book. Because seriously - I do not have the energy to lug that thing all over the place. Not to mention that it would fall on my face and break my nose when I read before bed.

I have enjoyed the magic of this book. I know I'm going to have to read it again someday (after my list of over 100 books that I'm going to read next....) before I truly appreciate all the details that are included in this series. The writing style has been a little bit hard for me to really get into. I often miss really important, action packed parts of the book because of the writing. So then I have to go back and re-read it because I totally missed all of that! Not sure how I can completely miss an entire battle scene that went on for nearly two pages. But I did...

I'm really enjoying Frodo and Sam's story. I love stories about loyalty and friendship (which is probably why I love Harry Potter so much). So far Sam is my favorite. I love his sarcasm and his caring watchfulness. I can't wait to finish the book!

Any recommendations for great books in a similar genre?

Motivation Monday

Sometimes Most of the time I run out of motivation pretty quickly. Usually a really great phrase or quote helps me remember to stay motivated. And depending on my goal, I use different types of phrases, words, or quotes.

I found this quote on Pinterest a couple days ago and it really spoke to me. I often get discouraged because things don't go according to my plans. I liked this quote because it's a new way for me to think about my attitude. It's not the usual quote you hear about changing your attitude to change your perception.

Even though something is thrown into my life unexpectedly (and probably unwanted), I can work with it. Why work so hard against something that is already happening and that cannot be reversed? I need to find a way to work with it and make the very best of the situation.

Mondays are a good time to get motivated since that is the beginning of my work week. What better day to get motivated and ready for all that lies ahead?

Any ideas to share with me about how you motivate yourself?

Crocheted Christmas

Hi friends! I finally finished distributing my crocheted Christmas gifts to friends, family, and neighbors. Here are some of the things I've made. Enjoy!!

Shark hat
Link to pattern on Ravelry

Beard beanie
Link to beard pattern at jjcrochet.com
Link to hat pattern at Red Heart

Stuffed owl
Link to owl pattern at Ravelry

Baby aviator hat
Link to hat pattern at crochet-patterns-free.com

Wavy hat
Link to pattern on Craftsy.com

Scarf/cowl
Link to scarf pattern at juxtapost.com

I also made another scarf that I loved, but I forgot to take pictures. Here is the pattern: Link to fiberflux.blogspot.com


And some more exciting news! In the last month or so, Steve and I have felt that I should start up an Etsy shop. It's something that has intimidated me for quite some time. So keep your eyes open in the next couple of weeks for the announcement and introduction of my new shop. I'm nervous and excited!! If you have any suggestions for things to put in the shop, let me know!

125 years!

Today was Weber State University's 125th birthday. The university went all out on a party for the event! It was so cool! Everything was themed with 125. There were 125 performances, some meals on campus were only $1.25, there was a cake that was 125 square feet large, and at 1:25 p.m. there was a balloon drop of 12,500 balloons.

I just thought I'd share some of the fun pictures I took of the celebration today.

The cake was decorated just like campus.

Some perspective to see how big the cake was.

At the very end the president of the university, the student body president, Waldo, and a couple other people cut and served the cake to students and staff that were there. And it was actually really yummy! You wouldn't believe the crazy strong buttercream smell when you were near the giant cake!

Happy birthday WSU! Great Great Great!!!

Craft Room organization progress

I came home from work yesterday and I was motivated to organize something! I loooove when that happens! If you remember my last post about this craft room, then you know that it was a giant mess. It honestly doesn't look much different. Much of what I organized today was in a closet and just going through what I had and purging/organizing.

But here it is right now. The stuff laying in the middle of the floor is in the process of being organized and moved to where it goes.

Here is where the majority of the organizing took place. This thing was just full of random STUFF. There is still random stuff, but it's not piled nearly as high as before.

I got one of the standing wrapping paper bins for my gift wrapping gear. And of course, my paper was too tall. So I couldn't use the lid part. But then I found a great use for it. All my bags and boxed I've collected and saved were just piled on the bottom shelf of this closet, so I put them all in there. Now I can see them all and they don't spill out when I open the door.

I'm hoping to get everything organized because I found some really cool inspiration pictures for this room. But I can't make it fun and cute until I have the hard work done!

Here is my progress on my goals for organizing the craft room:

• Get rid of my Mary Kay supplies, or use them
• Organize/purge bags & purses (3M hooks) - this is half way done, I purged some
• Organize yarn shelf
• Combine ribbon
• New ribbons storage
• Organize and donate shoes out of shoe bin
• Come up with new window treatments/coverings
• Go through/organize junk boxes (from moving in...)
• Go through/purge nightstand
• Possibly relocate nightstand
• Purge/organize scrapbooks, etc.
• Purge any shopping bags and what is inside
• Get sewing stuff all in one spot
• Organize gift wrapping supplies
• Organize kid craft things

So excited for the 5 things I could cross off my list. It feels so good to cross things off a list!

Chrocheted Slytherin scarf

Back when I was making my Harry Potter scarves for Halloween, I also made a Gryffindor scarf for my friend's little boy. Apparently he loved it so much that he also wanted a Slytherin scarf. So here we go! I just used the same simple pattern as the last time - found here from Halloween.

Don't be too jealous that my picture backdrop is our front desk at work. I forgot to take pictures of it before I left this morning.

Crocheted Zig Zag blanket

This post has been a long time comin'. For some reason I forgot I had taken pictures of this project. I was all upset about it because it was so cute. But then as I was going through some pictures, I found a few pictures of the blanket!! Hooray for remembering to take pictures! They aren't great pictures, but I'm still glad I took them.

I made this blanket for my cousin's baby. I saw these colors in the store and I just loved how they looked together.

This pattern was from redheart.com and it's called the Rickrack Rainbow Baby Blanket. It is so cute and I am so glad I got to make it. It was pretty simple once you got the hang of it. And it is just beautiful! Can't wait to make another one!

The Year of Emergency Preparedness :: 2014

I had one more big goal that I did not mention in my last post. We are making a big goal in our home - to BE PREPARED. It should've been done a while ago since we live in Utah and we are both in the scouting program. But we're just a little slow in that department.

We have been trying to do this but were never really committed. The main goal is to split up the year into certain categories for each month. Then we'll focus on getting materials, gear, procedures, etc. that are necessary for that category. A big reason we are doing it this way is because we don't have tons of extra money laying around - we need to spread out the expenses and budget for our needs.

Not only should we be doing this out of common sense, but also because it's a commandment to be prepared in temporal and spiritual things.

Doctrine & Covenants 38:30
I tell you these things because of your prayers; wherefore, treasure up wisdom in your bosoms, lest the wickedness of men reveal these things unto you by their wickedness, in a manner which shall speak in your ears with a voice louder than that which shall shake the earth; but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.

I'm still working out the order of what we're going to focus on. But January is going to be the month of learning procedures and techniques. I'm hoping to get lists, clear out space for storage, and see what has worked for other people.

In our ward, we had a lesson including things from this brochure:
http://ussc.utah.gov/publications/roots_earthquake_low.pdf
I plan to use this as a close guide for what we will be doing.

So here is to the beginning of the new year - the YEAR OF PREPAREDNESS!

January - The month of learning the procedures