My FHE Board

I made this to keep track of what we are doing each week for Family Home Evening, and I kind of like it. I know I shouldn't be proud of it because it's not that great, but it's kind of cute and fun. I wanted to make one of those fancy ones with a board and pegs and cute little hearts with everyone's name on it, but I ran into a problem when I remembered I am definitely not a woodworker. I couldn't have made it look cute. So I used what I had (scrapbooking stuff, of course) and I think it turned out okay.

Fossil Day!

Saturday was the annual Hagerman Fossil Day. If you didn't know, and I'm almost sure you didn't, Hagerman is somewhat famous for its horse fossils. Patrick knows more about it than I do, but apparently there were some zebra-like horses around here a long long time ago. Now the National Parks has an office here and a dig site, and new horse fossils are found all the time. Who knew? So in honor of the horse fossils, Hagerman hosts a Fossil Day each year, and this year we were lucky enough to be present for it. Patrick was even lucky enough to be in the parade. Here are some randome pictures from our day:
Here is the Hagerman Horse itself. This is a replica of the real thing, but the horse is the state fossil of Idaho.
Here's Kaiya being cute and watching the parade. It was a perfect speed for her and she was so good the whole time. She just sat quietly and watched. We need more parades.
This one is a mastadon head, which was apparently also found somewhere around here... I think.
Here's Patrick on the National Park float. They were the only one in the parade with a float. The inflatable zebra like thing on the back is what the Hagerman horse was supposed to have looked like (if it were inflatable).
Patrick's float from the back.
Here's the car Patrick gets to drive for work. Yes, that is the Hagerman horse fossil painted on the side.
I took this picture of Patrick in his National Parks uniform the first time he wore it. It's been his dream to work in the Parks since before I've known him, so it's exciting that he is finally getting to realize that dream.
These are the shriners in their little cars. Kaiya loved that.
This is indicative of the kinds of things we saw in the parade. Like I said, Patrick's was the only float, so it was mostly vehicles driving by, people on horses, and people walking their dogs. All in all, though, it was a really fun day.

Small Town, USA

We are now living in Hagerman, Idaho, population 656; make that 659 as of two weeks ago. So far we really like the town and the people are really friendly and nice (except for the person who decided to throw eggs at our car this morning... you will pay!) Here are a few interesting things we've seen so far during our stay in Hagerman:


The size of the police station is pretty funny. Patrick said they only have one police officer on duty at a time, so if you need anything at the police station you have to schedule it so they can be there.
This must be a joke.

Anyone need a "varmint gun"? Notice the "hunting supplies and discount carpet" sign in the background.

The size of the public library actually made me laugh out loud. We haven't been inside yet, so I can't say what they do have, but I guess at least they have something.

The world's first RV maybe?

Crystal Taylor is a popular name

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 979 people with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

I saw this on my friend Noelle's blog. I knew my name wasn't unique, but that's a lot of people with the same name! There are 1,853 Patrick Taylors, but apparently there are 0 Kaiya Taylors in the US. Maybe they think she's still in Japan....

Home Sweet... Cabin?

I am so tired of unpacking (it feels like all we've been doing for a solid month now is packing and unpacking), so I thought I would take some time to blog about our new little place. Yep, it's a log cabin. Apparently it used to be someones fishing cabin and then it was converted into a two bedroom house. It's got some quirks (no door to the master bathroom, walls that don't go all the way up to the ceiling in our room, and no central heat) but it's a place of our own and we're getting comfortable here. There's also no dishwasher, but strangely enough that makes it feel like home since we've never had a dishwasher in any other place we've lived on our own. The place also didn't have any carpet (just the sub flooring, painted), so Patrick learned a new skill and laid carpet in all the rooms so Kaiya could walk and crawl around comfortably. You might be wondering why we chose this place with all the disadvantages. Truthfully, it was one of only two choices, and this was the better one. But really it's not as bad as I'm probably making it sound. I love the layout of the house and the yard is very secluded and serene. It's really pretty. Although we probably won't stay here very long, we like it for now and are enjoying having a place of our own.

Continued...

So I know you all are anxiously awaiting my decision on diapering (ha ha ha), so I'll tell you. I've decided to try it out. I found a website that sells cloth diaper inserts that fit inside the gDiapers, so I won't have to start from scratch. I think that the start up costs are what would have deterred me otherwise, but this way I can keep the gDiaper covers (which I love anyway) and just switch to cloth instead of flushable liners. This could be interesting! Thanks for the comments by the way and the advice:)

I'm thinking about cloth diapering...

Am I crazy? I absolutely love the gDiapers, but they are a little expensive and not having to pay for diapers anymore sounds so enticing. I have been trying to figure out how to get started, but I'm still not sure. Would you do it? Has anyone done it before? Does anyone have any helpful hints or secrets? Any advice is appreciated!