I *heart* yogurt

But I really hate paying for yogurt. that stuff is EXPENSIVE, y'all. And most typical yogurt either has WAY too much sugar in it, which i'm trying to avoid because i discovered that too much sugar gives me migraines that are terrible, or it contains aspertame or some other kind of fake sweetener in it, which i'm trying to avoid.

So i was bumming around the internets today (i do this a lot) and found several recipes for home-made yogurt. except most of them are really complicated and require things like candy thermometers and coolers and sound super duper complex. I think that takes too much effort, and also equipment i don't own and don't wanna buy.

Then i found a recipe to make yogurt in the crockpot. It takes two ingredients and a crockpot. I have a crockpot. I also have one of the two ingredients needed to make the yogurt: milk. all i need to do is get my hands on some plain yogurt and i'll be good to go!

So that's gonna be my experiment next week. I'm really excited about it!

UFO's

No, not the alien kind. Although that would be cool too. I'm talking unfinished objects here, folks. The kind where i start a crochet or knitting project and then get distracted and move on to something different. This happens more often than i'd care to admit. I've got UFO's all over my living room:

A slouchy hat: This is for winter. I started it last winter. I haven't finished it yet.

An alpaca wool Scarf: Again, i started it last winter. then i ran out of yarn. Then hobby lobby ran out of the yarn i needed and didn't restock until spring. by then i didn't need the scarf anymore.

A sock: I really do plan on making two socks. I got halfway through the first one...and there it sits.

A 3-foot Dinosaur: He's camouflage. He's gonna be really cool when i finish him. But he's also 140 stitches around at the biggest point, which is where i am now, and it takes FOREVER to complete a round.

An olive green Platypus: Platypus' are cool.

Dan's Birthday gift: This one i am actually making progress on, since i only have a month to finish it, and i'm determined...but once again...not done yet.

A Striped prayer shawl: This was started as an attempt to practice a new technique. I have since employed said technique on Dan's birthday gift and have abandoned the shawl to UFO status. It's cool because the prayer shawl ministry doesn't meet again till September.

A lap blanket: also started as a prayer shawl ministry project. Also have until September to finish it.

Tom Baker's Scarf: I'm knitting this one, y'all. To be authentic. I'm about a foot into it and have something like fourteen feet to go. I've since cannibalized the yarn i bought for the scarf to make animals. I'm going to replace said yarn on a skein by skein basis as i need the colors. SOMEDAY, i will finish this stupid scarf so i can become one of the elite; a proud owner of a handmade DR. Who scarf.

And I've been commissioned to make a blue triceratops for a three year old's birthday. That isn't until the end of October though. So i haven't started it yet. I'm already contemplating yarn color choices, however.

On the plus side; I've got something like...25 granny squares to send to charity for Crochet a rainbow, I've made...18ish animals to send to Little Hands of Hope, and I do occasionally sell an animal here or there. Plus I've made a HUGE dent in my yarn stash, which, for the record, wasn't that ridiculous to begin with. However, all typed out...my list is kinda crazy. I need to get on that.

why are titles so hard to come up with, anyway?

Dan's gone this week; he left at the crack of dark for NM with the high schoolers for their missions trip. They're driving and it's going to be a long trip, although they split it up over two days. I think he's gonna be in for a bit of culture shock when he gets there. Plus a shock over the weather. I don't think he's ever experienced heat without humidity.

I'm here this week, keeping myself busy. I just learned a cool new crochet technique called Afghan stitch and i'm using it to make a prayer shawl for the ministry i'm involved in. I'm really excited about how it's going to turn out. I'm also working on a stuffed dinosaur that's going to supposedly be about 3 feet long when i finish him. That's gigantic. In fact, that's only two feet shorter than I am. I dunno what i'm going to do with him when i finish him though. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it, LOL.

The weather here has taken a turn for the strange, again; the last couple days it's only been in the mid 70's after about a week of 90+ weather. If it stays like this all summer it'll be totally fine. I think everyone here overreacts about how hot it gets. AND they don't have anything like the humidity in MD.

Last weekend my parents were here and we had a good visit. We all went to Independence, MO and saw where the Oregon Trail had started. We've been to the other end, in OR, so we figured we'd hit up this end. It was nice, there was a cute little museum dedicated to the start of the trail and the various places the trails went. Then we drove around a bit and saw some other things, like this funky building that is the world headquarters for some type of LDS church, and the house Harry S Truman lived in, and a woman driving a horse and buggy while talking on her cell phone. That was pretty funny.

I'm teaching the 4-6 year old class Sunday school this summer, so today i made playdoh. Green, if you're wondering. It took me all of forty-five seconds on my stove. That's probably the only thing my stove has ever done in a way that was better than the recipe called for.

And as a final thought, the spell checker in Google chrome just informed me that schoolers should in fact say schooners. Yeah, right.