Thursday, January 17, 2008

Kason's report on Walt Disney

WALT DISNEY
By: Kason Keller


Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney, had five children, four boys and one girl.

Soon after Walt’s birth, the family moved to Missouri. Walt had a very early interest in drawing and art. Infact, one time he talked his sister Ruth into painting one side of the family’s house with tar.

Walt Disney had many interests. He enjoyed trains, and studied photography. HE also gained a knack for acting and performing.

Walt started his first business, Laugh-O-Grams in Kansas City. The business went bankrupt and Walt packed up his suitcase and headed to California. Walt Disney was twenty-one-years old at this time.

Walt’s older brother, Roy, helped Walt start a new business and set up shop in their uncle’s garage. Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds. Together they had two daughters.

When Walt originally came up with Mickey Mouse, he called him Mortimer. Lillian convinced Walt that the mouse’s name should be Mickey. Mickey Mouse became Disney’s icon and Walt had a genuine love for his animated friend. Walt was known to say, “He still speaks for me and I still speak for him.”

Walt Disney was a innovator and an optimist. Even fourty years after his death, we still continue to grasp his ideas, and his creation, remembering him and everything he has done for us.

As Mr. Disney once said, “WE KEEP MOVING FORWARD and opening new doors and doing things because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”












January 17, 2008
Dear Mrs. Scanlon,


Thank you for doing this project! Kason and I have had so much fun learning about Walt Disney. He is one of my heroes and I have to admit I was pretty excited when Kason came home from school with news of this project and said he wanted to be, Walt Disney.

Kason enjoyed this so much. We had so much information that we had to go over how to organize sentences and paragraphs. (which, I am very rusty at) It was a great and fun way to help him learn. I know the handwriting needs work, but I am so proud of him for writing this report. I thought I would just type it up incase there were a few things that were not to clear on the paper. This is a piece of school work we will keep for Kason. We are getting props together for the Wax Museum part. (This was a labor of laughter and love.)


Jennifer Keller

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Strep Sucks!

So Derek and I both got Strep. Yeah. <---read sarcasm here! Our poor little Ryan has some chest congestion, fever and stuffy nose. (my poor wittle baby) It's hard to take care of sick kids when both parents are down. It is not too bad. Derek got an antibiotic shot, so he is on the upswing. I am allergic to some antibiotics, so I had to get the Z-pack. I know it works faster then most, but I would have rather got the shot and taken some benadryl for the itchiness. I am still laid out in bed.

Speaking of my bed. Ryan is sleeping with us again. Well, with him sick and both Derek and I feeling lousy, it just makes it easier. Infact all of the kids are sacked out on our floor. (I always think our bedroom is too big and then all the kids come sleep on the floor and I am reminded why Derek wanted a big bedroom.) I am starting to wonder why we have 4 bedrooms? Everyone sleeps in ours! Ohwell, at least when they are teenagers and they come in late, I will know!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Some cleaner recipes

The first is the Laundry Soap recipe. Mine did not gel at all. I don't know what I did wrong. I still am using it and it works great!
Here is the link to the recipe;
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/03/15/how-to-make-your-own-laundry-detergent-and-save-big-money

Here is where I got the recipes for the glass cleaner it works FANTASTIC! I have not yet used the multi-purpose cleaner. I did add 2 tbsp of Baking soda to it, for an added abrasive. If you too, want to try this, add the baking soda ver, very slowly.
http://organizedhome.com/pantry-recipes-homemade-cleaning-products

PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW THEY WORK FOR YOU OR SEND ME A RECIPE THAT HAS WORKED FOR YOU.

I WOULD ALSO LOVE SOME GARDENING AND BOTTELING TIPS.

THANKS FOR COMING TO SEE US HERE AT, FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS!

Monday, January 7, 2008

She blinded me with Science

I have been trying to figure out ways to save money on our Grocery bill. It has been high since milk and now eggs have went up. ( I think also it has something to do with Austin and Kason getting older and TALLER. And Jaxon and Megan can hold their own in that dept.) So I decided, that there our a few things that I really like and don't want to have to do without. One is Fabric softener. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Downy's Lavendar Fabric softener. We never used fabric softener when I was a kid, but when I started to use it, I fell in love! I decided maybe I will try making my own laundry detergent. (I know I am up in the night.) But for you hum & haw 'ers, Yes, I did find a recipe and read many reviews about people who have used it.

With excitement for my new "Science Project" I went to Wal-Mart Friday and after getting 3 carts full of groceries (no, I am not kidding.) I found out that they do not sell Borax and washing soda there. I was a bit bumbed and tired. I took Jaxon and Ryan with me and we were there for 3 hours. Ryan was crying, Jaxon kept running into my heels with his shopping cart and I am surprised I did not need a blood transfusion from getting whacked on the back of the ankles so much. After waiting for 45 minutes in line, (I was the 2nd person in line and that should tell you how slow our cashier was.) the Wal-Mart check-out girl had the nerve to ask me, "Did you find everything Ok, today?"
I replied quickly with, "No, I could not find sanity anywhere!"
She said, "Oh, I think that's in the produce department."
(She thought I said celery.)
I decided not to take this conversation any further. I was allready on the verge of tears ( and I was a wee bit nervous I would jump over the scanner and strangle her to an unconsience state for prolonging my agony by 45 minutes.) I did want to disagree, by saying, "No, I think your sanity is kept in the Liquor dept., but I choose not to self medicate!"

Thankfully, Derek went to our grocery store on Saturday morning and came home with both of the things I needed. (My hero!! I love that guy of mine ; ) So tonight for Family Home Evening we talked about the importance of thriftiness and I told the kids how we might be able to cut some cost if we made a few of our own cleaners. Now, some of you might be thinking, "Why in the heck did she try this with her kids?" Well, after thinking of doing this by myself and getting excited about trying them out, I had an epiphany! (they are few and far between) If I am excited to try what I made, the kids would really be excited! Ok, well maybe atleast more willing to help clean and do laundry. So after we closed with the song, "Put your shoulder to the wheel", we went to the kitchen where we made our first batch of laundry detergent. Then after about 10 minutes we were done, so we then made our own Glass Cleaner and Multi-Purpose cleaner. The kids loved making them. I was reminded very quickly that adding baking soda to vinegar makes for a good volcano lava. It was not to bad. we wiped it up and then we were done. The kids were having fun and they were sad we were done. While the kids and I made cleaners Derek made our second batch of Laundry detergent. So, we now have 2,5-gallon buckets (with lids on them)sitting in our mud room. I am hoping it will turn out.

If my calculations are correct (I just love to say that) we will pay .015 cents per load. We usually spend about .27 cents a load. (that is without bleach and fabric softener.) At our house we do (well, we should do) 9 loads of laundry a week. So that is a $2.25 savings a week. I know that might not seem like alot, but I also found a Fabric Softener recipe that I plan on using. I have not figured out the cost savings on that yet, but it will be a much bigger savings and even though I did not want to give up my fabric softener, I am really excited to see how this works. I am looking forward to trying, toothpaste, mouthwash, and liquid hand soap. (The fun never ends!!)

I will keep you all updated on how our "Amish" cleaners go. (I figure it cannot get worse then shopping with kids and I have lived through that. Barely, but I have lived through it.)