Craft #1: Weekly Menu Planner

After a long therapeutic trip to Michael's (there is nothing like a good craft store), I was ready to make my weekly menu planner.

CRAFT: Weekly Menu Planner
COST: ~ $0-10 (depending on the materials used/already have)
CRAFTING TIME: 30 minutes-1 hour (depending on your level of indecisiveness)

• Purchase or use an old frame. I wanted one that was bigger (11 x 14) so I would have enough room to write what I want. I bought a 2 pack from Michael's for $6.00 (with a 25% off coupon). There are some great picks at local thrift stores too!

• Decide on a color scheme and choose your scrapbook papers you'd like to use. If you're anything like me, this part takes forever. 

• Because I bought a photo frame (as opposed to a scrapbook frame that cost almost $15.00 more), I had to get creative on covering the 11 x 14 space with 12 x 12 paper. Thus, I choose two purple papers that I liked and a few accent colors (black and gray) to assemble together.

• Make labels with the days of the week. There are many different variations that you can do with this. I decided to keep it simple and write on cardstock with white marker. I added black brads to them to spice things up. However, you could use label tags, write directly onto the scrapbook paper, use stenciled or sticker letters. etc. The possibilities are endless!

• Next, decide on what you'd like for the title. You could use a bigger version of what you used for the labels or something completely different. Again, there are lots of possibilities :) I decided to go with foam sticker letters. 

• Helpful Hint: When using sticker letters, cut them out with the backing on them and arrange them before sticking them onto your piece. This helps with keeping things nice and centered, or off center if that's what you're going for :)

•  Secure all current pieces with adhesive. I live and die by photo splits (small square double-sided adhesives) and zots (clear round glue dots). 

• Lastly, I added a strip of black cardstock with a piece of white shimmer ribbon. I used the glue dots for the ribbon since they are clear and small. It was perfect for covering the overlap of the two different purple designs and added a nice separation between title and "content."

• Finally, place your scrapbook paper in your old frame! Use a dry erase marker to write in meals, grocery items, etc.

This idea is great not only for menu planners, but for calendars, to-do lists, abc practice for kids, photo message boards and anything else you can think of :) 

Elder Krebs - 1 year in London.

Hey everyone - this is my little brother, Elder John William Krebs - he's awesome.

In the MTC - where he learned to be a missionary

John is currently serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS/Mormon) and is absolutely loving it. I've been thinking about him a lot lately and he just passed his year mark - I can't believe it has been that long. Although we argued - John has always been one of my best friends and the only person who knows how to get me angry :) I have missed him and am so sad that I will be out of Provo by the time he gets home. I am looking for an internship in London next summer, mostly because I want my family to be close to this awesome brother of mine. Love you Elder Krebs. You are the best missionary there's ever been.

Where he has served.
A) MTC, Preston, England. August 20th - September 12th
B) Dereham/Norwich, England. September 13th - February 22nd
C) Hyde Park, London, England. February 23rd -  June 21st
D) Essex/Grays, England. June 22nd - Present

Who he's served with.

Elder Brozzu - MTC. 3 weeks. "As you know I have a frenchy for a companion. He is out right hilarious. He always tells me whatever and i can tell when he's frustrated with me because he starts mumbling in french and rolling his eyes :) hehe. He loves me. He says things like, whatever, bowchickawowow, and ooo laa laa all the time. We had hamburgers for lunch one day and i was asking him if he'd ever seen the pink panther when he is trying to say hamburger, and i thought he had because he was saying stuff like damburger and hamBURRRger. I was laughing, but then i realized that he hadnt seen the movie and in actuality he was trying to say hamburger and couldnt :) :) i love that man." 

John with his trainer - Elder Young

Elder Young - Trainer, Norwich. 18 weeks. " I decided to switch my comparison of my companion to Matthew Allen Kearl :) Everything he does reminds me of Elder Kearl now. He is fantastic and wants to work. We are getting along quite nicely and the work is progressing.."

Elder Rallison - Follow up trainer, Norwich. 6 weeks. "He has been out 17 months and seems like he is a real great guy. I am very excited for something different." "He is from a tiny town in Idaho, named Franklin. It has about 650 people in it. He grew up on a cattle farm :) He said that tons of Napoleon Dynamite was filmed behind his house. He worked at the same chicken coop that Napoleon did. He has a great sense of humour and has me laughing all the time." "He is constantly singing and making me laugh. He is way more of a hick than I am and he's not even from kentucky. He is not really a hick though... but kinda. He likes high school musical and fantasy... so basically he is a very well rounded individual. "

Elder Avanesyan - Hyde Park. 6 weeks. "I love my new companion. Before this, he was honestly one of my favorite missionaries that I had met. We are working so hard together. I am in heaven. My last two companions have been great... but to be honest they both held me back. They either couldn't work as hard as I wanted or they didn't have the motivation to work as hard as I wanted! But Elder Avanesyan has BOTH! Last week we had 46 hours of accounted labour! The highest on my mission so far!!"

 

Elder Avanesyan and the Assistants in front of China Town

Elder Slejess - a Duke fan... uh-oh.

Elder Seljess - Hyde Park (Threesome). 2 weeks. "He is from Utah and is a foot taller than me! He used to be in the Hayes Area. but we received a missionary from the Siberian Mission and he moved to Hayes. So we get the leftover rubbish :( just kidding! I love it. He is so great except for one terrible terrible fault. He is a dUKe fan. Oh how close I was to calling President and telling him that there was a mistake. I will trust in the Lord's will and plan... and hopefully learn a ton. I am in the War Chapters right now... so maybe I will learn not to follow that traditions of my fathers :)" 

Elder Zarian - Hyde Park. 6 weeks. "I will be staying here and will be companions with Elder Zarian. He is a great guy from Eagle, Idaho. He reminds me of my daddy, Elder Young. They both have the same tendencies. We were in the Norwich Zone together for 4 1/2 months and he was my District Leader the last transfer. The reason we are now companions is because our areas are combining and both our companions are gone. I am really excited for it. He is dying soon, so he better not be trunky. Either way we will work hard."  

Elder De Oliveira - Hyde Park. 6 weeks. "I am staying in Hyde Park... but I will be getting a Portuguese companion. Therefore, we will be working half in the Hyde Park Ward and half in the Portuguese branch. President called me and asked how my Portuguese was, and I told him that it was no bueno." "He is from Rio and is trying to teach me Portuguese. "It is hard to teach, when you have a bad student" is his favourite phrase when I complain that I'm not learning fast enough or that he is a rubbish teacher." 

Elder Park - Essex/Grays. 6 weeks. "I will serving in Essex. More specifically Romford, and my Ward I cover is Grays. It will be a bitter sweet goodbye to the beautiful city of London, but I will only be about an hour east." "My companion learns faster than anyone I know. I'll tell him something to try... like... vary your door approaches more to speak of more gospel truths. The next door... his approach is completely different, he is using english words I don't know and then we are inside the House teaching the Restoration. How the man does it...I do not know. The spirit is working in him as much as it is working in our investigators!" "We knocked on a door and a dog started barking super loud and then ran like a bullet into the door making quite a scary noise. Elder Park RAN to the other side of the fence. I am chuckling to myself and he says "Elder... not funny. I almost took a pee to my trousers". Of COURSE this only made me laugh harder."  

Elder Ireland - Essex/Grays. Present, at least 12 weeks. "Elder Ireland and I quote the pageant soundtrack constantly... and we are having a ball together. My Heavenly Father is becoming my best friend... as I speak to Him personally every night. He hears me... I know it."

More Pictures:

 

Three baptisms of John's in Grays. 

John with some cute kids at church :)

Elder Adler, Elder Resolme, Elder Mosolakae and ME! We were all in the MTC together and now we are all in the Zone

The First One is the Baptism of Jackie :) Ah. She makes me so happy! She is a miracle.

I love the pink pants...

Thursdays Shmursdays.

For some reason Thursdays are always super duper slow. Why is that? Let me recap my morning for you:

7:40am: Groggy wake-up (also when Chuck realizes he has a quiz during his 8am class that he hasn't studied for)
7:40am-8:00am: Mad dash to make Chuck's lunch and drive him to class while he frantically studies for the quiz. (Of course, he aced it :) )
8:00am-9:30am: Thought about doing the dishes, checked email, did a few dishes, checked pinterest, checked facebook, etc.
9:45am: Decided that I felt too miserable and climbed into bed....



11:45am: Woke up from that, "Just gonna lay in bed for a little bit" nap.
Noon-1pm: Made up our meal plan and grocery list for the week.

LAME.

On the upside, somewhere in my lingering around on the web, I found a cool idea for meal menus (way better than my excel sheet print-offs). So, boring-lounging-grocery shopping Thursdays just turned into craft Thursdays :)

Awesome craft site: www.makeandtakes.com

Now all I have to do is figure out where in the world we're going to put it...

Baby Krebs

Check out the update on Baby Krebs.

That is all :)

The Bump

Pregnancy continues to fascinate me. I'm amazed that God has blessed us with the ability to create life. His trust in us is astonishing. It only makes me more anxious to live up to what He can see in me.

Little peanut continues to grow and move and it's making me more and more anxious to meet him! We haven't hardly posted any pregnancy photos, so I'll give you guys a little timeline of how I've grown in the past six months.

May 21, 2011: 10 Weeks

July 1, 2011: 16 weeks

July 16, 2011: 19 weeks

July 29, 2011: 21 weeks

August 7, 2011: 22 weeks

August 20, 2011: 24 weeks

September 25, 2011: 28 weeks

September 25, 2011: Happy as can be!

Things are going really great so far. Sometimes it still surprises me when I look in the mirror and all of a sudden there is a baby in my tummy! Hopefully I don't freak out in a few months when I  wake up in the morning and there is a baby in my room ; )

Fiji Reunion

So, we've only been back from Fiji for about a month - but yesterday HELP International sponsored a brunch to celebrate the summer's accomplishments, to highlight some of the projects in the different countries and to provide a venue for a sweet reunion. I showed up a couple hours late thanks to a proctored and practice LSAT (I take it next Saturday - pray for me), but I still got to see them all and hang out with them after wards at a park.

Group photo in Fiji! Sorry about the quality. 

Group photo from Saturday... 5 are going without sleep after hiking Timp, FYI. 

It was so great to see these guys who became such good friends over the summer :). Two of them drove down from Rexburg and a whole handful from Logan just to be there on Saturday - what a great team. If you didn't get to see the video we put up of our time in Fiji, you can check it out here. We really were blessed with incredibly responsible and hardworking volunteers - and although I might have given them all a hard time, Emily and I sure do love them.

Darcee, Lauren, Carlee and Taylor

Hanging out at Kiwanis Park - the Timp hikers were tuckered out...

My new best friend.

Acid Reflux = the bane of my existence.

Thirty minutes after I put anything in my mouth it feels like my throat is on fire. Luckily, someone brilliant created these tiny chewable tablets that taste like candy and keep me from ripping out my throat.

Since the start of my pregnancy, I have consumed 437 Tums and counting.

Thank you, Tums for saving my life and my sanity.

Em's painting again!

You all have no idea how excited I am that Emily is painting again :) I think it is so awesome that she can paint... that artistic ability passed over the Krebs genes completely - ask any of my siblings. She will hate that I am posting this on our blog, but I like to brag about my wife - a lot.

When I got back from my rehearsal of "Savior of the World" tonight; this is what I came back to.

A rough practice of my Christmas present (shh... I'm not supposed to know)

Don't let the smile fool you... this is not a happy face. 

Thanks honey for painting again. If anyone would like to commission a painting from her for a Christmas present to someone special, I'm sure she'd be happy to help you out for a small fee ;).

Savior of the World - Back to the Stage

So... as if I didn't have enough to do in my life, the North Park Stake (for the non-LDS, that is the group of about eight, 300 person congregations) decided to put on a Christmas production to commemorate the birth of the Savior called, "Savior of the World." 

This play was written for the church by a group of LDS composers and playwrights and was debuted at the new conference center in Salt Lake City in 2000. We are only going to do the first act, which is all about the Savior's birth, and I decided on a whim that it'd been long enough since I performed - so I went and auditioned. I was surprised when I was double-cast as Joseph and realized that it would just add another layer to my already complicated life... Tonight, we had our first blocking rehearsal. It was fun to be reading lines again and it brought me way back to High School when I performed in Les Mis, Beauty and the Beast, and Big, to name a few.

Emily as my costumer during Beauty and the Beast, circa 2006

Rehearsal was a blast and I've already started to feel the spiritual nature (and coincidence) of me playing Joseph, the earthly father of our Savior, right before I welcome our first son into the world. I only pray that I will be as good of a father to 'Bugaboo' (Emily's name of choice for the baby) as Joseph was to the Savior. I'm excited for this opportunity to be back on stage - it is a blessing to be able to do something I love.

Sketch pads and chocolate chips

So, I'm starting to sketch again (in preparation for oil painting extravaganzas in the near future) and realizing just how long it's been since I've sat down with the old sketch pad and pencil (or pen for that matter). It's slightly depressing that things that used to be a cinch now take hours and I still finish a little less than satisfied. Makes it hard to keep trying, if ya know what I mean. But, alas, I'm working on it and (at the admonish of my husband who thinks, of course, that I'm way better than I actually am) I'll be posting some pictures when I can create something that doesn't suck. Also, I went to the gym tonight while Chuck was studying/PRSSA-ing and when I came home I was aching for some chocolate chip cookies (which I haven't had since before Fiji, I think). So, after my wonderfully hot shower (I will forever be grateful for hot water-Thank you, Fiji) I find my husband busily making double chocolate chip cookies. I'm pretty lucky :) Of course we had to run to the store to grab baking soda (which we hadn't re-bought since our return to America, land of Supermarkets and walmarts) and cocoa powder (and starbursts because they just looked way too good). So much for going to the gym. Chocolate > Will Power. Every time.

Fiji: In a nutshell...

Emily and I had the most incredible opportunity this summer - we got to live in Fiji and serve the people there for four months with HELP International. We grew to love the people (even more) and to crave the food. We hope you enjoy this video that Emily put together that should help answer some questions as to what we actually did while we were there. It is a little long - but we think you'll like it.

The songs (if you were wondering) were some of our favorite Fijian pop - sorry about the tuning difficulties, Fijians are all about the beat - the notes don't matter so much. If you have any more questions about what we did, or how to get involved yourself -- just send us an e-mail.

Hellooo Utah!

Hello beautiful mountains of Utah!

Chuck and I are pleased to announce that we have returned to our lovely basement closet in Provo after one of the most amazing/fun/difficult/crazy experiences of a lifetime. Chuck is already back in school, working at BYU Communications for an internship, serving on the PRSSA board, working in Bradley lab, serving as a Program Director for Community Outreach Day AND being an awesome husband and best friend :) Gotta say, the kid is pretty busy. Which makes my scrapbooking, buying groceries, learning new recipes, sketching, cleaning, watching movies, reading books I've always wanted to read life look a little puny. But hey, to each his own :)

I wanted to post a few pictures from this summer about our fabulous experiences, but since it was such a packed summer, it'll come in installments (hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed that I remember that we even have a blog).

So, as they say, we'll begin at the beginning :)

Approximately a week and a half before we left for Fiji, we found out that we were expecting! Even with all the awesome things that have happened in the past five months, this news is hands down the most exciting/fun/scary/happy/nerve-racking/blessed/joyous that we have to share :)

Five days before we left for Fiji, I graduated from BYU with a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science and a minor in English. Yay for school! Look for more updates soon when I can figure out this whole photo uploading business :)