Missy had this on her blog, here is what Windy means

What Windy Means

You are very charming... dangerously so. You have the potential to break a lot of hearts. You know how what you want, how to get it, and that you will get it. You have the power to rule the world. Let's hope you're a benevolent dictator! You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Six Natural Household Cleaners

Here are some tips I found online.. I have tried some of these and others I am going to use also.

Sure, it’s great to find that one magical product that solves a very specific household problem. (The Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter a multiple-cat-owning friend received as a Christmas gift truly has no equal.) But the truth is, you need little more than the following six ingredients—baking soda, borax, lemon juice, salt, olive oil and white vinegar—to clean just about anything in your home (pet hair excluded). Here are just a few of the many uses for these, well, magical multi-taskers:

1. Baking soda: Acts as a scrub to remove hard water stains; polishes metal; deodorizes pretty much anything it touches (try stashing some in the fridge).

2. Borax: Mixed with three parts water, it makes a paste for cleaning carpet stains; mixed with ¼ part lemon juice, it cleans stainless steel and porcelain. (Note: although borax is a natural substance, you still shouldn’t eat it—and neither should your kids or pets.)

3. Lemon: Deodorizes and cuts grease on counter tops; rubbed on cutting boards, it bleaches stains and disinfects; combined with baking soda, it removes stains from plastic food storage containers.

4. Salt: Another natural scrubber—sprinkle it on cookware or oven surfaces, then rub; add citrus juice to turn it into an effective rust remover.

5. White vinegar: Deodorizes and disinfects; combine with water (and a little liquid soap—I know, it feels like cheating) to clean windows, mirrors, and floors; use at full strength in a spray bottle to fight mold and mildew.

6. Olive Oil: Mix two parts oil with one part lemon juice and use as a natural wood polish. (Save the really good stuff for dinner.)

One added bonus of using natural cleaners: as part of your spring cleaning regimen, you can now clear out all those bottles of specialized (and possibly toxic) potions.

For more tips on rounding out your eco-friendly cleaning closet, see Christina Strutt’s cleaning-pantry-checklist from her new book, A Guide To Green Housekeeping; for a video demonstration of how to mix up some natural cleaning solutions with these ingredients, watch this clip from Decor It Yourself.

What are your best natural cleaning techniques?

The Price Family's Top Ten Tips for Taking Care of our Earth and Going Green

1. Recycle: Many medium and large cities offer voluntary recycling from your curb. If your city does not participate, write a letter to the mayor and the city council urging them to recycle to reduce waste in landfills and temper the need to consume more trees and generate new plastic, aluminum, and glass products. If city-sponsored recycling is still not an option, numerous communities have centrally-located recycling centers where you can drop off plastics, aluminum, paper, cardboard, and other recyclables. Buy a big trash can, paint it blue, and draw the universal symbol for recycling on it. Make it your family's dedicated recycling bin.

2. When you go shopping, use reusable grocery bags. Many stores carry them. If you go to a local fair during Earth Day, you can probably get them for free. Millions of plastic grocery bags are produced every day. They have to wind up somewhere... usually a landfill! Remember the big bag purses from the 80's? We bought five reusable grocery bags that were that size (just not gaudy or made from naugahyde), and they work great! Even during our "big haul" of groceries for a pay period, they work well.

3. Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. A 13-watt CFL produces as much light as a 60-watt regular bulb. You save a whopping 78% of electricity used for lighting your home just by switching to CFLs! With the exception of our dimmable and bathroom vanity lights, all bulbs in our home are CFLs. While you're at it, change your habits! Turn off lights when not in use. Pull open the blinds during the day instead of keeping them drawn and turning on lights.

4. If you're not in a room, TURN OFF the ceiling fan running in there. Ceiling fans do not "cool the house". They make a room feel 5-7 degrees cooler because they move the air around. If you're not in the room to feel the breeze, it is doing nothing but wasting electricity.

5. Minimize your use of the air conditioner. For most of the spring and early summer, A/C use isn't even necessary. Open the windows for the first few hours of the day to completely cool off the house. Then, as the outside warms up around 80 and above, shut all the windows and blinds. Even here in San Antonio (where spring lasts about three weeks), the house stays cool until around 3:00 p.m. Then, you only have to use the A/C until around 8:00. While you're at it, install a digital thermostat and set it to 78 degrees. Every degree you drop the thermostat adds another 10% to your electric bill.

6. Turn off your computer when not in use. Computers left on (and monitors are even more notorious for this) continue to sap electricity needlessly. If you're that tied to e-mail that you must know the instant one arrives, you need to go outside and start planting flowers or take up a hobby like reading. :) Many computers offer a "Hibernate" feature. This is NOT the same as Standby (which still draws electricity). Hibernate stores the entire state of your session on the hard drive and then shuts the computer off. You can unplug it even and you won't lose anything. When you start it back up, it starts quicker than a complete power down, and whatever you were working on is still there... no need to reopen everything!

7. Unplug appliances when not in use. Many appliances and electronics draw some amount of current even when they're not in use. Ever seen those thick black boxes surrounding the plugs of many electronics, they contain a transformer and an AC-to-DC converter that draws energy when plugged in regardless of whether the electronic device is operating.

8. Ride your bike or walk to places close by. Not only will you put less carbon monoxide in the air and decrease your gasoline consumption, but you will also enjoy the physical benefits of the exercise and spend less money on gas (and who wants to spend any more than they have to on gas?!?). You will get DOUBLE the benefits! If you live too far away from places you frequent (like work, grocery store, library, playground, etc.), try regularly sharing a ride. It still benefits you, the earth, and your pocketbook!

9. (This one is solely the input of Windy... snicker, snicker!) REUSE... shop at Goodwill! You would be amazed at how many different things there are to be found that satisfy a need or a want without undue strain on the pocketbook. While you're at it, give back to these great organizations by DONATING your clean, well-maintained, unused items. You never did use that post-hole digger did you? Now you live in a condo. Why are you hanging on to it?

10. Plant a garden. This may seem like a monumental task in your mind. Or, if you're like me, you think back to those days as a kid when you had to pull weeds in the family garden. I never even liked cantelope growing up, so why did I have to pick out all the dang weeds?!? Nevertheless, a small garden with a few key crops can promote health and lessen the grocery bill, all while teaching yourself and your children to appreciate all that Mother Earth has to give us. We recommend you start SMALL and use ORGANIC seeds and soil. Organic methods of pest control are available (who wants poison on their food anyway??). Talk to your local nursery or co-op about organic options that work well in your area. With respect to "starting small", we recommend a couple of square foot planters. Make sure they are at least 18"-24" deep, so the roots have plenty of room to grow. Pick one or two of your favorite veggies, and cut your teeth on the whole gardening thing with no more than a couple of planters. Try a tomato plant and some carrots. Avoid plants that don't grow well in your climate, or the endeavor will end up taking more time than you anticipated and will reap less than you expected.

These are our top ten tips. What are yours?

- The Price Family

Be kind to our EARTH!

So for the past few months or so our family for family night have been watching The Planet Earth DVD series. We have been able to teach the boys the importance of conserving energy, recycling, not littering and just doing our part to help preserve our earth. We went camping two weekends ago and were surprised how the boys noticed any litter around and were eager to clean it up. Last weekend being earth day weekend we were able to go to an earth day fair that was going on. The boys were so excited to get their reusable shopping bags, seeds, and flowers. We all were so excited when I found out that I won a bike!! They were giving away 50 adult bikes and 100 kids bikes. Yours truly was the first name called! It's one of those fun beach cruiser looking kind. I am so excited about it!! now I want to get a little basket for it and ride it to the grocery store to get all of my fresh produce!! Call me crazy but I think I am reverting back to my childhood when I was a tree hugger! Birkenstock's and all!! I am just so interested in learning all I can about being "Green" and how to garden and reduce, reuse or recycle!! Maybe I should end this by saying PEACE :) LOVE, and HAPPINESS

Memories of My Birth & Christmas 1972

I was helping the boys clean up Legos when I found an old letter sitting on the ground. Apparently, it had fallen out of one of our family albums that had some old mementos passed on by my mom and dad. It is a Price Family Christmas letter dated 15 December 1972. Apparently, I was the author. Funny, since I didn't think my ability to compose mail and type on a typewrite occured within my first month on this planet, but nevertheless my name is attached to it. I was even cognizant of my siblings' progress in school and other pursuits. Nevertheless, my father... ever the frugal one... made the decision to combine the Christmas letter with my birth announcement because... get this!... "the postal service is going to require an eight-cent stamp on all Christmas mail sealed or not"!! Very interesting...

Anyways, should you feel the urge, click on it (so it will pull up in a larger frame) and read it. It's kind of a large file, so be patient (3MB in size). I scanned it with high resolution to ensure it was readable.

Apparently, 1972 was a trying year for our family economically. Good thing I came along as the "harbinger of better times" (DIRECT QUOTE FROM THE LETTER!). Okay... it's also a good thing my siblings can't post to this site and offer their own point of view on that comment.

- Joseph

SHHH.. Mom's in timeout!!!

Its been a rough day.. as you can see from the two other posts... I am sitting here enjoying a pity party eating my m&m Mcflurry... Wondering if my children will ever just want to help me out with things... Wondering if they will ever get to a point where they see me working and ask what they can do to help.. Wondering if they will ever just do the things I ask them to the first time and wondering if they will ever stop picking on each other??? Why I get down on myself when my kids are being kids I'll never know... So, while I am here in my time out I read Elder Ballards talk on mothers- It is a great talk if you haven't got a chance to read it do so!! http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-37,00.html
feeling better as I indulge in my self pity and chocolate!!! realizing that in time with love and example they can become the boys I know they are!! That they are sweet spirits that my Heavenly Father gave to Joseph and I to raise with an understanding of where they came from and what they are working for in this life time.. I Do Love the Little turds...

What Can a family do to help out mom?

I love this from Elder Ballards talk last conference...

The second question: What more can a husband do to support his wife, the mother of their children?

First, show extra appreciation and give more validation for what your wife does every day. Notice things and say thank you—often. Schedule some evenings together, just the two of you.

Second, have a regular time to talk with your wife about each child’s needs and what you can do to help.

Third, give your wife a “day away” now and then. Just take over the household and give your wife a break from her daily responsibilities. Taking over for a while will greatly enhance your appreciation of what your wife does. You may do a lot of lifting, twisting, and bending!

Fourth, come home from work and take an active role with your family. Don’t put work, friends, or sports ahead of listening to, playing with, and teaching your children.

The third question: What can children, even young children, do? Now, you children, please listen to me because there are some simple things you can do to help your mother.

You can pick up your toys when you are finished playing with them, and when you get a little older, you can make your bed, help with the dishes, and do other chores—without being asked.

You can say thank you more often when you finish a nice meal, when a story is read to you at bedtime, or when clean clothes are put in your drawers.

Most of all, you can put your arms around your mother often and tell her you love her.

What's a Mom Worth?

Sometimes I ask myself-

What's a Mom Worth?
Sarah Jennings
Family Editor

We intuitively know the value of mothers. They have a profound impact on our lives. In response to the age of daycare and working moms, study after study has come out with some not-so-surprising results: kids were better off when mom was the primary caretaker.

But it's not just mom's interaction with kids that's so valuable. A homemaker's work is not exactly for the wimpy or lazy. A recent article on MSN titled "The Price of a Mom" says after taking into account all the skills and hours a woman puts into homemaking, Salary.com estimates her financial worth to be a hefty 138,095.

6 figures. Count 'em.

I know of many stay-at-home moms that get "the look" when they mention their chosen profession to others. There are many stereotypes of the stay-at-home mom including:

* They're lazy (Hey, all they have to do is hang out with the kids at home all day. How hard can it be?)
* They're wasting their talents (She was so smart in school. Why didn't she become a doctor?)
* They're less intelligent than career women. (Oh yes, well, you don't need an education to do that...)
* They're out of touch with the hard-hitting issues in today's culture. (What a lovely denim jumper!)

But underneath the conservative hair cut is apparently a brain - and one being well-used. It takes talent and creativity to:

* Cook a different and delicious meal for multiple sets of taste buds every night of the week.
* Keep a home (relatively) organized when the residents include toddlers.
* Balance the family finances, especially if the budget is based on a single income.
* Offer appropriate forms and amounts of discipline and love to multiple children, each with varying personalities and needs.
* Maintain a vibrant and healthy relationship with her husband, who is making a noteworthy number of sacrifices to provide for the family through his career.
* Throw fun and wholesome celebrations for each and every family members' milestones including birthdays, Sacraments, and graduations.
* Educate children of varying ages and abilities academically either through home schooling (you're my heroes) or maintaining in depth knowledge of children's schooling outside the home.

I really could go on...and on. Moms have to become experts in many fields. But the outcome? Indispensable, unique members of society who, thanks to their mothers' attentive care, can now have a positive impact on the world.

Then I remember...

Thanks Mom for all the hard work you did for us... Hopefully one day the boys will thank me...

Jen Not Ken

In Joseph's e-mail it stated that we were going to Montana to visit the family. Ken, Mark, Hillary, and Quinton. Well, Its actually JEN not KEN.... Read her blog to find out her comment on this typo... Very funny! You can access it in the friends and family section under Jen and Mark...

No New House

Well after much thought and anguish we have decided that the bigger house is not an option at this point in our lives... Darn :( Well, I guess I better pick out another color paint and start cleaning out this house!!!-Happy Times :)

Ramblings of Joseph...

Well, Windy said I needed to make my contribution to this family journal of sorts, so I reach to the very depths of my creative conscience in a meager attempt to convey a portion of the myriad of activities that occupy our lives at this point in time. Unfortunately, such depths are only about ankle deep...

I am sitting in the home of my sister, Megyn, enjoying a grilled turkey, cheddar, and gouda panini. Megyn lives in L.A., and I came here in between a two-week stint of work up in Menlo Park, CA. I was surprised last night at the arrival of my mother and my Uncle Bill! My family... even my dear, sweet wife... all conspired to surprise me! It was so nice. Today we went to the farmer's market and found some fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. Yummy! I just wish we had some more time together. I have to leave this evening to fly back up to Menlo Park.

Hmmm, let's see... what should I talk about first? Well, I noticed Windy already posted pictures of the sock hop. You can see Isaac and I had quite a bit of fun. Isaac was cutting a rug! That kid got down on the floor and was shaking what his mother gave him! He has also made a new friend recently at karate. Her name is Elizabeth. Yes, my son... the one who proclaims as often as he can, "No girls allowed!" Yes, that son! He has a girl friend... that is to say: he has a friend who is a girl. Oh brother...

Aaron's latest favorite thing to do is come up looking all serious, grab your face in his hands, and say, "Mom (or dad)... I just love ya' (sic)." Immediately following this, he gives you a big hug and pats you on the back. Oh my goodness, the boy could probably talk his mother into buying him a Porsche! Good thing he is too young to drive. :)

Andrew is doing quite well in second grade. He is turning in consistently excellent grades, and he is already excited for third grade. Andrew has recently started one 30-minute private lesson for karate each week. This is helping immensely to augment his regular training schedule. There are so many kids in his regular karate class! It's difficult to learn with so many distractions, so the extra lesson has been a great boost for him.

We have been planning our vacation for this summer! We are all very excited. The grand event will start with a trip to Norman to see my niece, Amanda, get married. Following that, (in fact, immediately after the wedding reception) we will be driving to Cimarron, NM, home of Philmont Scout Ranch. There, I will attend a week-long adult training conference for my position as a Cubmaster. While I'm in the class, the whole family has a full program of things to do. We also get to go hiking together around the area. It should be a blast!

Following that, we will drive up to Helena, MT, to visit with Windy's family (John, Sharon, Ken, Mark, Hillary, and Quentin) for a few weeks. Andrew, Isaac, and Aaron are ecstatic at the thought of seeing their cousins Morgan, Kobe, and the as yet to be named sibling of Kobe. I think Windy's sister, Ashley, will also drive in for part of the time.

After about a week there, I will be heading home for a couple weeks of work while the rest of the family hangs out in Helena. If I can work it, I am going to try to leave the Whitfield house a couple days early and go see my sister and other relatives in the Seattle area. However, that's not set in stone yet. It is also dependent on my sister, Sue, completing her nursing program without going postal in the middle of downtown Poulsbo! ;) Seriously, Sue is finishing her nursing program on 13 Jun 08, and I am hoping she has a little breathing room before work starts kicking her bootie again like school has. It would be great to see Kathryn, Brandon, Arthur, and Calista too!

After my time back in San Antonio, I will fly back to Helena and drive the whole gang to Sandy, UT, to see my sister, Gwyneth, and her family for a couple days (and my niece, Rachel, and her family if we can swing it). Then, we make the long haul back to San Antonio. Whew! It will be quite an experience for sure!

Well, I have rambled long enough. There is more to pass along, but I need to go pack for my trip back to the north...

Body for Life

Ok, so I am to embarrassed to post my before pictures on my blog. I am ready to start Body for Life again. This time I will actually make it for life! I have realized that being thin and healthy is something that EVERYONE has to work for, so if I don't want to be this large all of my life then it is something that I have to do one step at a time. I am posting this in hopes that when I am having a hard time that maybe one of you would leave a comment and it will give me hope to keep going. I have chosen a picture that will help remind me what I am trying to obtain. I have posted it here since this is a place I always seem to check. Wish me luck!

I changed my font at pYzam.com

Staying in San Antonio

Well, I think we have finally decided to make San Antonio home.. At least for the next 5 or so years. Joseph's start up here with SRI is going well.. He should be moving his office out of the house in the next couple of months, THANK YOU! Having a husband work for home isn't all its cracked up to be. We are also hopefully going to be moving out of this house into one that fits our family a little more comfortably, that is if we can make all the finance's work. Keep your fingers crossed for us :) I am so happy we have finally made a choice as to what we will be doing. Now I don't feel like I'm living in limbo. I just wanted to share this bit of news with you all. Keep us in your prayers while Joseph's job and the possibility of a new home takes flight... Love to you all!