Homemade Lotion Bars

My sister has been into using essential oils for a long time, and she's been giving me a few to try when she's almost out of it (so I get partial bottles for free, which is awesome!). We used them when we had the flu--in a diffuser, making it easier to breathe at night. Beyond that, I never really sought out buying them, except for lavender oil for sleeping, and peppermint oil because I liked it.

Anyway, Dave's aunt invited me to a DoTerra class where they talked about the oils and their uses. I'm still not going to spend a lot of money on them, or become a distributor, but I'm starting to see that they have a huge variety of uses. DoTerra is a more expensive company though ($90 for a 1.5 oz of Frankincense??) but my sister gets them a lot cheaper though her company, Butterfly Express ($4 for the same amount of the same oil).

I was browsing through blogs, looking for uses for these oils, and came across a recipe for homemade lotion bars! Three ingredients: beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter (or cocoa butter). I bought a few ounces of beeswax, already had coconut oil, and found some shea butter at Whole Foods. Melted them down using one part of each, plus some oil. I made lavender, lemon, and peppermint bars. I also used paper baking cups for the molds.

My supplies: beeswax, coconut oil, shea butter, essential oils, and baking cup molds.

The finished product! I think I could find some cuter molds at various thrift stores (Yerington has 3, sometimes 4 thrift stores and Carson City has a lot more) but these work just fine! I'm thinking even tea lite holders could work as molds! I made three different kinds, but what I really wanted was a peppermint bar, and that's what I ended up with.

I did make a pretty good mess in the kitchen while I was melting everything down, mixing in the oils, and pouring the molds, but I just told Dave not to look! I gave a couple bars to one of our neighbors and she said she loves the "thick seriousness" of it...we all have dry hands out here and this has made a huge difference! My cracked fingers healed and my feet are actually soft! Dave's cousin's wife made some whipped body butter with cocoa butter and orange oil so I may have to try that soon.

I got the recipe from Wellness Mama's blog.

Oatmeal's Not Feeling Well

We've been noticing my cat has been peeing on our bed lately! Since that's not a good thing, and since I've noticed her doing that before, in other places, I took her to the vet this morning to see if she had an infection. They had wanted us to bring in a urine sample but Oatmeal was very uncooperative with this, so we went in empty-handed.

She got blood drawn, weighed, inspected head to toe, temperature taken (hiss), ears looked into, and x-rayed. Her results came back: she has an accessed tooth, high glucose, and bladder stones which causes repeat bladder infections.

Next week she goes in to get her tooth extracted and mouth/teeth deep cleaned and hopefully will be good as new!

Park Ranger Blog

I started a new blog, called Park Ranger, Naturalist, Interpreter (interp-ranger.BlogSpot.com). I'm hoping to show what my job is like on a daily basis...not sure if I will really be able to post every single day, but I'm going to try my best! I've got one post up already, but the daily posts will not start until Jan. 1--with our first day hikes! I'm doing a hike at Dayton State Park at a historic mill site, and one at Washoe Lake through the sand dunes. Last year I had about 20 people plus a reporter from the Reno Gazette-Journal, so I'm hoping for a good turn-out this year too!

Ore-crushing mill site in Dayton, near the first place gold was discovered in Nevada.

 

Washoe Lake State Park sand dunes.

Over a year....

I haven't touched my blog in over a year! I'm thinking of starting a park ranger blog, even though I know there are tons out there...but I think it might be fun.

I've been married almost a year now! Dec. 19 is coming up fast :)

I've also been a full time park ranger (interpreter) for over 11 years now! 7 years with Utah State Parks, 4 + with Nevada State Parks! I was a seasonal for 6 summers before that...another season is starting soon and I'm thinking of everything I have to do to get ready for that.

I want to spend more time with my blog. I miss seeing what everyone is up to!

A snowy picture from Washoe Lake State Park

"Kiss the Bride....Again"

Since, May, there hasn't been a whole lot to post about. New job, got engaged...lots of work, frustrations, being tired, driving a lot of miles...about work...so a lot has happened, but I haven't had time or energy to post! ...until now :)

Dave proposed in May, after I got offered a new job. I went back and forth a lot with wedding plans. Dave didn't want a ceremony in front of a lot of people. I didn't either, but still wanted something special with my mom and his mom present. Went back and forth some more, decided no ceremony, just a reception, then a short ceremony with everyone...because I can't leave my friends and family out after everyone comes out for the reception...

My regular days off are Thurs-Sat now that I'm working 10 hour days to save some miles driving to and from work. We stayed at the Peppermill in Reno, and today while we were driving around, we decided to go ahead and get a marriage license. Then, we decided to check out a venue, just to "see." One happened to be available right then, so we decided, why not, and got married!

I wasn't nervous until the minister made us face each other and hold hands. I felt Dave's hands shaking, then decided I was nervous too, and spent the whole time trying not to either cry or start giggling (bad, I know). He felt the same way I guess. Finally we got to the part where we had to repeat after the minister our parts, the "I do," then "kiss the bride." I don't know if they decided to film or take a picture, or if a nervous "peck" wasn't good enough, but then we heard, "kiss the bride again." Okaaaay, make it even more awkward....slightly longer "peck" and then "congratulations!" Put my coat back on, pay, paperwork, and we're on our way as husband and wife! Still a little weird but it works! We called our moms after it was all over, made it "Facebook official," and now we're watching TV/blogging/reading a book (soooo exciting, I know). We've been together for almost 5 years so it's not really that weird, just the new titles are weird.

So anyway I will try to post more often! It totally wasn't planned, and we are still going to do a ceremony and reception in July at Mormon Station in Genoa, but WE'RE MARRIED!!

Do You Like Chinese Food?

I got home from my last day at Fort Churchill and walked up to the door. Taped to the door was a note: "Do you like apples?" Weird. Then I walked in, and there were flowers, a glass of wine, and another note on the table, "How do you like them apples?" Huh. I thought Dave must have been bored all day...

Then he said to go change clothes, because he had rented a movie and got Chinese food. Last time we got Chinese food in Yerington, we both got food poisoning. I wasn't really excited, but he seemed to be, so I changed clothes, came out to the kitchen and he had six containers of food lined up on the counter.

Taped to one of the containers was another note: "Do you like Chinese food?" I opened that container, and inside was a blue box with a diamond ring in it, and a note on the box, "I thought this would be better." I looked at it, looked at Dave...and he was just standing there giggling. I'm thinking, "Is that what I think it is?" Then I said to Dave, "aren't you supposed to ask me something?" He said, "I'm so nervous!" haha it's only been almost 4 years!! So he took the ring and asked me, and I said "sure." (Maybe I was nervous too!) And no, we didn't get food poisoning this time :)

Krista's Wedding (from last summer...)

I realized I never posted pictures from Dave's sister's wedding at Lake Tahoe last summer! Here are a few...it's so pretty up there! It looks like a beautiful day, but it was actually really cold! We drove through snow the day before on the way up to Tahoe.

Pretty cake, pretty view :)

The bride and her dad

I love that they picked Tahoe!

...and Dave and me