Quite possibly the grossest thing I ever thought about

I was surfing Etsy for some fabric when I stumbled on these.

moon pads

This is what Crea8tiveMama has to say about her product.

Since I cloth diaper my son, I figured I would treat myself to cloth too! It is like a party in my panties every month with all the fun fabric pads I have!

Benefits include:
Save money
Save Mother Earth
No chemicals, dioxins or sticky wings
No rashes or yeast infections are caused by cloth pads
More comfortable

Set of 2 cloth pads.

The details:
Measures: Approximately 9" in length and 3" across when the wings are snapped.
Materials: Made of a comfortable snuggle flannel with a layer of waterproof fabric and absorbent zorb sewn securely in between.
Closure: Wrap-around your panties wings secure with a snap!
Flow Meter: My pads will contain a medium/heavy flow.

Simply store used pads in cold water (to help prevent staining) and then toss them in the wash. If cared for properly, they can last for years.

Yet I am intrigued.

What do you think?

The newest member...and a gift for another

Here she is. JaDee's truck. I don't know if I have ever met a happier man. Who knew this was all it took!

And an addendum to the last post: I forgot about our '98 Nissan Sentra. JaDee had to replace the clutch to get it running and then it worked great. Then we sold it to our neighbors for their girls to drive to high school right before we moved here.

This brings the grand total of Moncur cars ever owned to 15 vehicles in 13 and a half years. And I didn't mention the company car we had for awhile...

And I mentioned earlier about making something for my future sister in law Katie. She is marrying Dr. Ben and Katie is a doctor of pharmacy herself. So seriously, what do they need that little old me could possible get them.

Then I remembered this quote that I got from my own mother in law shortly after I married her son:

Families are like quilts. Lives stitched together and bound by love.

So I decided to make Katie a quilt and send it to New Jersey for the bridal shower.
Keep in mind I have never made an entire quilt by myself before. I wanted to cut and piece this one together; the whole nine yards. I had friends help me tie it and offer tips and advice along the way and I couldn't have done it without them!

So here are a couple of pictures of the final result.

I have a couple more projects brewing...

Because now I am hooked on this quilting thing!


I stole the picture of Katie off of her friend's Facebook...hope that was kosher!

I fought the garage (and the garage won)

This is what happens when you only let the garage up half way on the way to taking Ethan to school Tuesday morning.

I ran around all day Tuesday and Wednesday without a back window until the nice glass fairies came to fix it.

And the sad thing is the only "good" car after this incident was the '72 VW Bug.

Two weeks ago I was taking kids home from play practice when I saw an accident out side of the Wal-Mart entrance. "Oh no! It looks like the same car that JaDee drives. Oh my gosh! JaDee is in that car!"

It was totaled.

A teenage driver pulled out too soon and JaDee smashed into him. The good news is no one was hurt and it was the other guys fault. Now, JaDee gets to buy a truck. Hopefully we will have it this weekend and I can post pictures.

So the bug has been what JaDee takes to work. It doesn't have any heat, but it does have all its windows. So it was a really toss up when the van window busted which was the better car.

Since JaDee and I have been married we have owned a plethora of cars. Here is the list:

Merker XR4TI
(until another teenage driver ran a light and totaled that one.)
Hyundai
(without an engine that JaDee replaced)
Saturn
(the only brand new car we ever owned with our first job in Delaware)
Jeep Cherokee
(good little car. I was sad when we had to trade it in when JaDee drove from Provo to Ogden every day for work).
'68 Volkswagen bug
(JaDee restored it in high school. Mitch drove it and we got it back. It evetually died and sat on 4 flat tires in front of our Perry house. We sold it to a guy who changed it into a dune buggy)
Chevy Malibu
(we rolled it on I-70 outside of Edwards, CO.)
Chevy Tahoe
(Still my favorite car and being used in UT by, you guessed it, Mitch)
Merker XR4TI (again)
(we got this back after JaDee's dad and the Lovell auto shop class got it all fixed and both Mitch and Jana drove it in college)
Ford Taurus
(sold it to my Mom) Toyota Sienna
(the one now sporting a brand new back window) Saturn
(it was like our first one reincarnated)
'72 Bug
(this one has 4 good tires and only needed a new transmission this summer. You know, an easy 4 day job.)
And Coming soon A Chevy one ton pick up with extra long bed, and a full size quad cab.

JaDee also has his great grandfather's '62 Cadillac fully which he fully restored and is sitting under tarps and a roof in Wyoming.

So there you have it. All you have ever wanted to know about the vehicular history of the Moncur fam!

But this post doesn't stop here. Here are 2 stories of adventures in cars in addition to the 2 we already mentioned that started the day of the accident.

#1 JaDee was picking up Ethan from piano in the Bug. They ran out of gas. Luckily it was down hill to a friend's house and Ethan steered while JaDee pushed it. They got just enough gas from them to make it home and we had just enough in our lawn mower gas can to make it to the gas station.

#2 Also picking up Ethan from piano. I pull up onto their steep driveway and Piano Teacher's Husband opened the garage and started backing out, not seeing me. I hurried down the driveway in reverse only to misjudge the snow bank and got stuck. Piano Teacher's Husband had to use his truck to PUSH me off the drift since I was high centered.

I am done with adventure.

How do you know that?

The ice rink down town is surrounded by ice sculptures. That cement wall is surrounded by a sculpted ice wall.

This one is in front of a giant mural of whales on the side of a building on 6th Ave.

We are peeking our head through Eskimo sculptures.

At an overlook in Kincaid Park overlooking the Cook Inlet. The tide is out and the ice chunks are marooned on the mudflats of the beach behind us.

We spent the Sabbath afternoon looking at the ice sculptures in Anchorage's Town Square. They are amazing. The outing was not met with out some trepidation. We all remembered last years experience to do the same thing. After being in town for about 2 weeks we set out on our first day at 0 degrees. It left us in tears. And prompted a shopping spree at REI that was 1/3 necessity; 1/3 revenge at JaDee for dragging us to a frozen wasteland and 1/3 retail therapy.
(this really long post documenting that and my mental breakdown can be found here)

We were much warmer this year.

After that successful trip which had the boys playing tag on the ice rink and Olivia showing us she would not fall on the ice if she held her arms out like airplane wings, I wanted to show JaDee where Kincaid Park was.

This park is HUGE!!! It is right on the edge of the water and on a clearer day you can see Mts. Redoubt and Iliamna, our closest volcanoes. I have this draw towards the water which is weird since I hardly swim and don't even like to get my face wet in the shower, hardly. The park is mostly a vast system of cross country ski trails that are maintained all year and mostly lit. There is also a large building to warm up in, hold banquets etc.

Olivia and I checked it out on one of our last summer days in September after the kids were back in school. I was trying to remember how to get there and trying to tell JaDee about it at the same time. He claims to have never heard of it. Or been there or know anything about what I am talking about.

Until we get closer to the warming building. Then he sees this trail area marked off with blue plastic fencing and announces, "Hey, this is where they had they US championship cross country meet and time trials for the Olympics."

"How do you know that?"

"I saw it on the news and I recognize the blue fence."

Sure enough, when we later used the restroom, we found a brochure announcing all scheduled events and indeed, the cross country championships were held here.

And the blue fence marked the course.

A decree

I have this sign in the upstairs bathroom. It is "The boys bathroom." And since my boys are 8, 12, and 37, we don't have too much of a problem with aim as much as we do with toothpaste on the counter.

But I decree here and forever more that boys and girls should ALWAYS have separate bathrooms.

Yesterday, Olivia and I ran errands. We shipped a bridal shower present to Katie, went to the bank, REI, the Scout office (did you know I was in Scouting. Ugh. I even have a shirt. I will have to post it some time.), we went to lunch, ballet, and finally to the school play to continue costume selection for the cast of Juliet, Where Art Thou.

Needless to say we were gone from 10-5 and used more than one public restroom. REI has the best one, by the way. And Olivia announces, "I know, Mom. I won't. touch. anything." Every time we enter a public restroom.

After sampling many of the greater Anchorage area's public restrooms, I have to say I much prefer the girls only kind. Separate but equal in all things but cleanliness, in which most of the time, girls' stay cleaner.

Case and point: last night, after dinner we had occasion to go to Wasilla, home of the Rogue, Sarah Palin, to meet a guy about a truck JaDee is buying. We met him at a gas station in town and well, I had to use the facilities.

It was one of those same gender bathrooms.

And the lid to the only john was up. UP! Like they were raised in a barn, or something (but then this was Wasilla. You can read more about them here).

Again, I decree all bathrooms should remain gender specific.

Because not everyone has perfect aim.

I didn't even know!

I have certain things that I have to buy at Target and today I had a list of 3 things to run in and get. But like every Target trip I found my basket filled with things I didn't even know I needed.

Like the foam heart stickers [it's almost Valentines, Mom], a blue plastic basket [instead of a wilted shoebox for the toys in the tub], a protective silicone skin for my new iTouch, a cassette adapter to listen to my tunes in the car, and charging capabilities for the car and home outlets for the aforementioned iTouch.

Oh and a pink limited edition Swiffer sweeper, because it will help me clean my floor better. In fact it will be FUN to clean my floor with a pink Swiffer. And since Target sells their own brand of Swiffer refills I am saving money by buying generic. So hairballs beware!

And miracle of all miracles, I even bought the 3 things on my list too!

as per your request

Here are the Christmas pictures. I have hesitated posting them because I am a little embarrassed by our Christmas gluttony. I guess we were making up for the hotel Christmas we had last year. Not that it wasn't lovely and full of spoils, it was just so weird.

I was having "gifters remorse" as I was laying out the packages that had been stock piling in the garage pantry since September. I actually had been keeping track of what I bought, but it looked so innocent on paper. In 3-D form, sprawled out on my living room floor, however was another story.

All I kept thinking about was did we really remember the true meaning of Christmas?

As I justified every purchase, I remembered that we had shopped our pantry for 2 food drives, searched for the perfect cosmetics to be delivered to a deserving 17 year old who's name I drew off a tree at Wal-mart, dragged the kids to Nativity displays and a Messiah sing along and a lot of the presents were actually paid for by money sent from the various grandparents, and others sent from uncles, aunts and cousins.

After fretting over the materialism of both myself and my kids for the better part of a week, I read this post last night, shortly before dinner. It lead me to ask the question of my own kids, "What if we didn't have money this year and there was nothing under the tree?"

Carter, who is growing up so fast every day that I feel like I am on the express train to graduation and a goodbye at the doors to the MTC, said, "It'd be OK, Mom. We have a lot of nice stuff all ready."

And Ethan, my sensitive soul who is losing that mischievous little boy quality for a more sedated, calmer version of himself, said, "Yeah, its good as long as we have a house to live in."

Olivia assured me that Santa would come bring us presents anyway









Here we are having Christmas Eve dinner with the Teeples. These guys are a great family and we love doing stuff with them. Christmas afternoon they hosted us, and our other friends, the DeKays and Kellers. We are so blessed to have such great friends! Thanks guys!








Ethan got his MP3 player. He loves to listen to the Twilight soundtracks, Amazing Grace with bagpipes and the Mormon Tabernacle choir, and Lady Gaga's Just Dance. Quite an eclectic mix, if I do say so myself.

Olivia fell in love with the American Girl doll catalog earlier this year. And she kept wanting "the girl with the llama." That was the 2009 doll of the year, Chrissa. Good thing Santa came through...just look at that face!


Ethan is discovering the TV behind the tree that Santa left.

Don't tell my other kids, but I think Ethan is my cutest on Christmas morning. His face is so expressive.
Me and my new hat. I am into hats this year.

So is Ethan. Again, look at that face!

Carter and the XBox game that he wanted. To go with the XBox Santa got a good deal on. Turns out there are 2 XBox 360's and we got the one that needed a separate external hard drive to play the original XBox games. And with no stores open Christmas day, it was worse than not having batteries for Tickle Me Elmo.

Santa surprised JaDee by fitting all of his presents into one box. He got some new backpacking gear to make his pack lighter and his sleeping on the ground more comfortable. everything in the box weighed less than 5 pounds. And that was a new mess kit, sleep and and a down jacket.


JaDee got me Nie Nie's All is Well necklace. I had completely forgotten that I showed it to him months ago. It was the perfect token for our first year in Alaska. For some people music is what moves them. I too, love music, but it has always been the power of words that give me solace. I have loved the peace that reading these words around my neck throughout the day, has given me.

For all IS well.

OK OK

A certain hint got me to try and find something to write about. See the thing is we have done a whole lot of nothing the past 2 weeks. Nothing at least that you all weren't already doing. Opening presents, having a birthday, seeing moose #46 on the way to pick up costumes for the Middle School Play.

Wait a second... I did do something!

Carter got a part in the school play. The dram director is in our ward and she asked me to help with costumes. So I went with her to this HUGE collection of everything you could possibly need for a play and loaded up the van and helped her sort everything back at the school. Then she asked me to be the Costume Mistress.

This means I get to dress each member of the cast in whatever I want for their part...as long as it fits. I am really excited about it. The play is the end of February and it will be great! So watch for more to come,

Also I have been reading. (If someone would check their Facebook she would know what her sister has been up too)!

"Santa" (really it was from me for myself...doesn't everyone do that?) bought me the latest Stephen King novel, Under the Dome. Can I just tell you right now that I love this man. He is truly a literary genius. I have officially changed my dream job from Supreme Court Justice to College English Professor specializing in Stephen King books. Yes I know his language is foul. Yes some of his books are scary (OK most of his books). Yes I know they graphically depict things like a hedgehog getting chopped in half by the barrier as it cuts off the town from the world in the first chapter of this book.

But I love love love his books.

With this one being over 1000 (yes that is 3- count 'em- 3 zeros after that #1) pages it is taking me some time to plough through. It has caused me to neglect various household chores and personal hygiene, I really only missed one day of showering opting instead to stay in jammies to read.

But I hang on every word. Analyze every character. I read for foreshadowing, and figure out the majors themes in writing that are at play in this plot. I look for parallels in the real world and apply them to the characters. I love King's personal, and not often subtle, opinions that he voices through his characters. As I read I form whole lists of possible thesis topics from this. I Compare this book to other books.

The characters are so rich they are real. It is like King really knows all about how this event happened and he is just an old timer sitting on the porch relaying the events with all the personality having a real conversation would have.

He talks in parenthesis and incomplete sentences, which I love!

I just crossed the halfway mark in the book after 3 days of reading. And tomorrow I have to get back to the daily grind.

UGH!

The nice thing is, a book like this is a little like going on vacation and all I have to do is draw the covers up a little tighter around me to get there!