Service Project

"I don't know what your destiny will be,
but one thing I do know:
the only ones among you who
will be really happy are those who have
sought and found how to serve."
--Albert Schweitzer

Saturday morning me, Randy and the kids walked down the street to help with a ward service project. We helped with the yard of a very old widow who has lived in her house for like 60 years. It was so cool to see so many families come together to care for her yard. We pulled weeds, cleared out debris, pruned roses, mowed the lawn, weed whacked, trimmed branches, and some of the men fixed the side of her house. There were lots of kids there and they all started out helping, but ended up catching lots of tiny snakes which were abundant in her yard (I wasn't freaked out, apparently I can handle little snakes but not spiders).

I couldn't help but feel so thankful that we were there. That we had chosen to get up early on a Saturday to go help someone else. Of course, I had been dreading doing this and was fighting with myself as I tried to get out of going, but once again I just said to myself "consider the source" and then I was fine. Every time I don't give in to that adversarial voice in my head I feel powerful and happy. I tend to think of myself as someone without much self-discipline, but each time I overcome that voice and do something I know is "right" or that I'll regret not doing later I feel so pleased.

Anyway, it turns out that so many people showed up to the 4 different service-project houses that everyone was done in 2 hours instead of the 4 hours originally planned. When we finished at the house we were working on we came home and got a garbage bag and then walked up our street picking up trash along the sides of the road. I don't know if people throw stuff out their car windows or if it's all stuff that has blown out of trash cans or the garbage truck, but it's kind of amazing how much there was. It didn't take us very long and we filled a whole bag. Gross. (We wore gloves.)

**What do you think about service and
how often do you actively try to serve?**

P.S. Claudia updated her blog--woohoo. Happy Birthday Claudia!

****Also don't forget to RSVP for the blog party in
my previous post if you didn't check in yesterday.****

200th Post!

You're invited to celebrate blogging and to meet Kristi!
We are having a blog party
at my house
Saturday June 3rd around 4:00pm.

All of you who regularly read & comment on my blog or anyone linked to my blog are invited (that's a lot of you so consider yourself invited). This will be a great chance for all of us to meet face-to-face. We can hang out, eat, talk about the beauties of blogging and anything else we want to talk about. I hope you'll all make plans to come. I know some of you are in California, Seattle, Texas, Australia, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois and so on.
Hopefully you can make a little vacation out of it.

**RSVP by commenting and then we'll figure out details
and actual invitations from that.**

Great mail day!

Can I just say how lucky I am to have such kind and thoughtful friends? I'm lucky, I know this, but I'm still surprised by how often this notion washes over me when one of them reaches out to me and does something so nice.

This is the awesome mail I got from Michelle today! Talk about thoughtful, she not only got me a new book she knew I'd want, but she slipped in $5 because she knows I overspent on flowers last weekend and am tight on cash until next week's payday. Something about that just chokes me up, it could be that she's taking a precious $5 bill from her already tight-for-cash wallet and giving it to me, or it could be that she's understanding enough to know that even though I bought flowers, which weren't a necessity, that I might still want to buy something else whether it be Target dollar spot items, a slurpee, a scrapbook item, or a kid's meal from Wendy's. The point is she doesn't judge me for misspending my money, she understands and is generous anyway. That's a semi-foreign concept in my world where scores are often kept and I'm always running a large debt. Thanks Michelle!

**Have you caught the vision of good mail or what?**

{Update: I spent 3 glorious hours on Sunday afternoon pouring over this book, it's fantastic and chock full of great information and ideas. Such a treat for me.}

14 hours of sleep!!

So after my great visit with Pam yesterday, I talked to Amie on the phone and then forced myself to wrap and go mail Claudia's birthday present so it would get to her on-time. I was in the early stages of a bad headache and just wanted to go lie down in the cozy. After I mailed the present (there was actually only 1 person in front of me in line at the AF post office--amazing) I came home and considered making dinner, though nothing but my stomach wanted to do that.

I ended up making spaghetti (Book Club Amy can pass out now) and we actually sat down and ate as a family. I thought I was feeling a bit better, but as Randy and I sat at the table talking the smell of the sauce made me feel nauseous (not a good sign in the headache world), so I went to lie down on our bed. I was out of it quickly and ended up staying there all night until 8:15 this morning! I was in my clothes on top of the bed with only my favorite blanket to cover me. Crazy. That's a whole lot of sleeping. Fortunately I woke up without my headache! I didn't take one of my trusty Relpax pills last night because I just took one last Friday. It seems that I've gone from having a migraine once every 6 weeks to almost once a week--not good.

Since I slept from 6:30pm-8:15am I feel like I've missed a day or something. We didn't even watch Survivor! That never happens. I guess that makes me giddy for tonight, but now Michelle and I won't be able to talk about it when we get together today.

**What do you do when you get a headache? What's the longest you've ever slept?**

P.S. Lori did a great post you might want to check out.

Fun visit from Pam

My long, lost friend Pam came to visit me today. She lives in Chicago, and I haven't seen her for about 5 years. This photo is one from 1999 when Randy, me and Landon drove out to visit Pam and her husband Matt, but I wanted to officially introduce her to everybody because she comments on most of your blogs and I know it's nice to have a face to go with the name. It turns out her parents built a house right down the street from me (like a mile down the street, but still) so she's been driving past our house a lot and didn't even know it.


Anyway, she came over today to visit and brought me this great stash of stuff from Paper Source! The bag is almost as cute as the envelopes and cards she brought me. I'm so happy about these fun things and can't believe she has a Paper Source store within walking distance (jealous) of her house in Chicago. Crazy. (I must add that it wasn't there the last time we were there staying with them.) They live on an awesome street chock full of cool stores and restaurants. Pam showed signs of interest about starting her own blog, so hopefully she'll do that soon and she can show us all the great stuff by her apartment.


Pam's visit today was delightful (as was our Cafe Rio lunch, thanks Pam!) and it has got me thinking about old friends. Michelle and I had our fun lunch with Jennifer last week after not seeing her for about 10 years. What's up with that? I'm just wondering why we let people drift in and out of our lives? I don't think it's because we don't care. Is it insecurity, that maybe we think they don't care about seeing us so we don't pursue something? Is it laziness? Is it our self-absorbed natures? I'd like to figure this out because I'm finding more and more that it's the people I knew when I was younger that are the friends I value so much now, and I'm sad about letting people slip through the cracks of my life.

**What do you think about this?**

P.S. Matt if you're reading this I really wish you'd comment. What's up with your clandestine blog reading? I thought you'd stopped reading them when you stopped posting on yours, but Pam tells me otherwise.

Photography

I have a serious passion for photography. It started back in 1996 when Kristi & Jeff let me use Jeff's old camera from his mission. It was the first time I ever had zooming technology. Kristi also introduced me to scrapbooking that year, so the combination of a good camera and a hobby that supported it was all I needed to really get going. Randy's parents ended up buying me the body of a Minolta SLR camera for my graduation from BYU. We weren't able to afford a lens for several months, but once I got a lens I was out of control. We didn't have any kids back then, so I took lots of pictures of the mountains and leaves in the fall, plus I took pictures of everything we did, and a lot of pictures of our apartment in Provo (I'm so glad I have those).


In the fall of 1996 my uncle asked me to take lots of candid photos at my cousin's wedding reception. They had hired a professional photographer, but my uncle wanted me to fill in all the gaps. I took like 10 rolls of film and it was the first time anyone paid me to take pictures. I was euphoric, and the pictures were rather fabulous (if I do say so myself). So I started taking reception candids for all my cousins' weddings and for my siblings as well (oh how I wish someone had taken candids at mine!). Since then I've done a few actual weddings (so stressful), lots of engagement photos, newborn photos, several baby births, and lots of kid photos.

Jenn hires me regularly to take pictures of her 5 kids. We always take pictures for their birthdays (even though sometimes it's months after their official birthday). Yesterday she had me take pictures of her 9 year old daughter Kate and her 6 year old son Soren. We met at the park and I just walked around with the kids and tried to capture the essence of who they are. Very fun. I took about 100 pictures in an hour. The kids are very cooperative and natural with me so it's never uncomfortable or unpleasant.

I was talking to Michelle about the pictures today and she said I should put a Photography Portfolio on my smugmug site, so I did. I'm now lamenting the fact that I have 10 years worth of photos "out there" and practically no record of it for myself. I may have to start borrowing back cd's from the friends I've taken pictures for, but lots of what I've done for other people was back before I even knew about the possibility of putting photos on cd. Ah well...at least I started today right?

**What are your passions and how
did you get started with them?**

"There are always two people in every picture:
the photographer and the viewer. "
--Ansel Adams

Tagged by Amy

5 Things in my fridge:

Lemons

Go-gurt
Whipped cream
Ranch dip
Many water bottles

5 Things in my closet:

A whole lot of nothing that fits
Vintage Holly Hobbie Doll
Family Home Evening Kits
Empty camera boxes
Shoes I never wear

5 Things in my purse:

Cherry Chapstick
Monogrammed "J" wallet
Mini composition book & pens
Roll of film
Peppermint gum

5 Things in my car:

Wipes
Cds
Tweezers
Cute lawn chair
First Aid Kit

5 Things on my Tivo:

American Idol
Good Eats
Masterpiece Theater
What About Brian
You've Got Mail

Tagging:
Amie
Michelle
Kristi
Claudia

**If you don't have your own blog, copy these questions and fill in your own answers in my comments section so I can see all the answers you'd give. For those of you with a blog, I tagged these people on purpose knowing they would tag you next.**

Whimsy

I came across this picture that Betsy drew inside a birthday card she made for me, and I just had to laugh. I love the funny, little drawings she does on the rare occasions she writes to me. I also found a bunch of cute little doodle-type drawings from my brother Adam. He leaves his mark on everything he touches, and I'm so glad I saved every little scrap of paper he ever drew for me.


I used to attempt to draw silly little illustrations back when I used to write letters all the time. After sorting through stacks of pictures and papers today and finding a bunch of these fun little things from friends, it made me think that I may have lost a bit of whimsy somewhere along the way. Not that I have to draw pictures to have fun, but I think it was a more playful time of life for me and I'm kind of bummed out that it's gone.


This little scrap of paper shows one of Adam's funny creations, along with my pathetically, misshappen star, and my claim-to-fame elephant butt (which is the only thing I can draw). I have no idea what was going on with this little piece of paper, but it's amusing to me now. (There are card game scores on the back of this scrap of paper as well.)

**Are you a doodler? Do you ever attempt to illustrate your own letters for comedic effect or just for fun? Do you have whimsy in your life?**

Rainy Days & Mondays

It's rainy today and I'm so glad. I feel like I need the break in the weather. It's silly that it affects me so much, but sometimes if there are too many days of nice weather I start to feel antsy, like I have to outside doing things. This poses a problem for my homebody nature. So if I were in charge of the weather I would have 3 days of sunny bliss followed by a day or two of rain, then maybe some partly cloudly days, then back to sun. Today feels calm, not so bright, and I love it when spring rain makes everything green and beautiful. We only get about 4 weeks of lush green in Utah before the desert sun bleaches everything into a brownish color.

I have a few thoughts today and decided I'd use the bullet-point format since Amie likes it so much.

• I love tv and I don't want to give it up again. I think if we didn't have DVR technology I'd have no problem giving it up, but since we do I'm back to feeling like it's a luxury I love.
• Where is everybody? Is it blogging spring break and no one told me?
• We are having a serious influx of spiders right now. Last night I was up at 1:00am talking to Robyn for her birthday and I counted 5 in the kitchen and 6 in the laundry room!! Fortunately these are nickel to quarter sized, mild mannered, light colored spiders otherwise I'd be wigging out for sure. I kept an eye on them, and then when I was done talking to Robyn I got the vacuum out. I figured it was better to risk waking everyone up with the noise of the vacuum than actually waking Randy up to come squish all of them. So I used the hose attachments and sucked them all up, then did a bit of regular vacuuming just to make sure the spiders were swirled into an unrecoverable stupor (I'd hate to have them crawl back out of the vacuum). No one even woke up!
• I'm ready to be done with school for the year. I think having multiple days at the park has made me itchy to be done with school. We are pretty laid back around here with our schedule anyway, but I'm ready for full spontaneity.
• I'm loving Whitney's new haircut. She's back to being her cute, dissheveled but styling self.
  

So that's about it. I'll add to this if I think of the things I know I've forgotten. Until then, I hope whatever busy schedules have taken you guys away from posting and commenting are over so that you'll come back to the blogging world.

**What would you do if you were in charge of the weather?**

{Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia!}

Sunday Notes

Ah Sunday, it's here again. I started my day with an hour and a half phone appointment with Betsy (always great), then finalized my primary lesson plans (I always get my best ideas like 2 hours before church, argh), then scrambled to get ready. My primary lesson went well, but I only had 2 kids in class again this week (I never understand the families that miss lots of Sundays. I guess with spring break they're probably out of town, but still.) My sharing time went extremely well and I even finished right on time! What a relief to have all of that done.

Back to Sacrament Meeting, we had a baby blessing, a youth speaker, a senior missionary couple that just returned, and a musical number. It was pretty good, though we were way in the back on the hard fold-out chairs and I felt like I didn't sleep last night (a lot of yawning). Fortunately my note taking habit saved the day and kept me focused for what could have been a challenging meeting.

• Missionaries are called by God, their specific mission call is where they are meant to be (whether it's a glamorous location or not).
• Steps to prepare for a mission (or to be strong and spiritually prepared in life)

1. Secure your own testimony
2. Study and ponder the Book of Mormon
   
3. Be clean and pure
4. Pay tithing so you can bear witness of this Divine principle
5. Learn how to work (get up early, work all day, retire to bed on time)
6. Serve as a home or visiting teacher (so you know the joy of service)

• Don't be ashamed to share the gospel.
• God is our father, when we disobey Him we distance ourselves from Him.
• Obedience shows our love for God.

The woman who spoke had just returned from a mission with her husband. She said that as soon as she put on her missionary name tag she became very aware of who she was, and was very conscious of her behavior and tried to make sure that she was acting as a representative of Christ. (This made me think about how we as members act and if our behavior is indicative of our beliefs.)

• Let the Spirit be your guide.
• There will be people that the Lord has been preparing long before we are put in their paths. We must live by the Spirit and follow promptings so that we are ready when we encounter them.
• The Lord often works through other people--what is He trying to accomplish through us?

This meeting wasn't as powerful as some of them are, but I thought it was good. My sharing time lesson had to do with learning about Christ and then applying His teachings in our lives. It seems to me that we are familiar with the gospel principles and have testimonies of them, but we still struggle to consistently apply what we've learned. I came away from today feeling like that's what I really need to focus on...applying what I know.

**Thoughts?**

{Happy Birthday Robyn!!
It's the 24th in your world, but the 23rd in ours!
The boxes I sent should only take 3 more weeks to get there...sorry!}

Saturday possibilities

Today I am faced with many possibilities for things to do, so I'm trying to decide how best to use my time. I want to work in the yard, spend time in my scrapbook room organizing, I need to prepare my Sharing Time for tomorrow, review my primary lesson, and do regular household tasks. I also thought it would be fun for Randy, me and the kids to go to a dollar movie (they have several kids shows there right now).

Times like this I need to get out of my head a bit. I tend to plan things too much and end up wasting time or I go full-force ahead doing the things I want to do most and then end up being too tired to do the things I absolutely have to do. So pretty much, I should do the Sharing Time and primary lesson stuff first thus easing my mind and getting the "have tos" out of the way. You're right, you're right I know you're right. Thanks for talking me through this you guys.

**Are you routine oriented or do you just go with the flow (especially on Saturdays)?**

{It's funny this photo appeals to me so much because I can't imagine me and Randy doing this. Ha.}

Sun Hangover?

After spending a couple hours (maybe even less) at the school playground with Michelle, Jessie, Timm and the kids I felt weary. After Michelle's house, Landon, Whitney and I spent another hour at Costco and then came home. By then, I had a headache so bad I felt like my eyes should have been bleeding (gross but true). I'm blaming the sun for this headache, and wondering if I'm going to have to become a shut-in or like a granny with a big sun hat and sunglasses that cover half my face! I'm not happy about this, but I'm also not happy about the headaches and sun hangovers I've been getting already this spring. I need help.


Last night was pretty much a wash. After forcing myself to finish rearranging the freezer to accomodate the new groceries, I took a shower and went to bed. It ended up being around 10:00pm, but there's something pathetic about not having the choice of whether to go to bed early or not. It's one thing to feel good and to be giddy that you can go to bed early, but it's quite another when you feel so crappy that your only choice is to go to bed or suffer miserably.

**I need sun solutions, please help!**

Luxury items

Last night as I was listing the 5 things I was grateful for that day I wrote washer & dryer for one of them. You see, Randy and I had never owned our own washer and dryer until we moved into this house 2 years ago. We went to the laundromat for 6 years, then shared with everyone at my parents' house while we lived there. I will never get tired of being able to do laundry whenever I want. I enjoy doing laundry, and I really love having our own washer and dryer and laundry room. It makes me happy every day.

In addition to the luxury of being able to do laundry whenever we want, we have the added delight of remembering the generosity of Amie and her husband Jimmy because they gave us the washer and dryer when we moved in. They also delivered them to us on Christmas Eve 2003! They are very generous people, and didn't have to help us at all, but they did and I am grateful every day.
**Do you have any items that you're grateful for every time you use them?**

P.S. Cool banner photo courtesy of Michelle. Those who live here and know me will recognize my "uniform." I thought it very fitting for my banner photo.

Park Weather

After two days of cold, wet and windy weather we're finally back on track for spring. We're also on day 3 of no tv, so it's great that we can go outside and enjoy the day. The kids have been doing extremely well without the tv or games, and have been playing together beautifully. We never watch tv on Sunday mornings before church so they're always good about playing together then or entertaining themselves, but during the week they often do their own things. It's fun to see them playing together and laughing more.

This experiment is really making me rethink how often we watch tv or Landon plays games. I don't want to limit it so much that they obsess about it, but I want them to play together and enjoy that time. (Landon was just reading this and came up with the idea to watch/play every other day! I think this is an excellent plan.)

In other news, I'm loving the new look of my blog. I was getting so sick of my template and finally spent the time to mess around with the color codes and got to something I really like. I started my gratitude journal blog accidentally as I was starting a "new" blog just to tweak the colors, but then thought "hey, I might actually do my gratitude journal if I do it this way." All my best ideas are accidents, so I don't know why I'm surprised by yet another stumbling discovery.

**Do you have any suggestions for outdoor activities for the next few days of good weather??**

P.S. Here's a link to a site that gives you color codes that you can add to the html in your blog template if you want to mess with the colors on your blog. You can print out the screen and then mess with it. I found the paper to be helpful but the colors to be darker than they appeared on the color site. It's fun and addictive.

Cruel tease

I just got this email and must say what a cruel tease it is. I've been to a Paper Source store once in Beverly Hills while visiting Claudia. It was a joy, a pleasure, a treat, and a delight so I can only imagine what a paper Nirvana their warehouse sale would be. Pam, I would send you money to go shop for me, but you're going to be in Utah that day aren't you?? Oh, that's cruel too!

**Have you ever ordered from Paper Source or do you get their mailer full of great ideas?**

At least Whitney and I got some good mail from Amy, Bella and Tess today. Thanks!

All is well

We're heading out today for Whitney's last follow-up eye appointment (should only be about 10 minutes), then to Michelle's house for the day. Her boys are home for spring break so that should make for a fun day for the kids. I'm wondering how it will go since Landon will not be playing video games and Whitney will not be watching tv downstairs. Michelle and I may end up taking them to the park if the weather is nice.

I must say that Monday went extremely well with our no-tv experiment. After Landon's early morning negotiations we didn't have to talk about it again. Whitney had no problem at all, which is interesting because she usually watches cartoons every morning. Instead she played Play-doh for a long time, drew pictures, played hide-n-seek with Landon and the neighbor kids, and played with toys. She did ask me if we could "hang out" on my bed. This means getting cozy under a blanket and reading books (a large stack which she had in a specific order), then tickling and hugging. We also ran to the store to pick up our Easter photos, and we went to the library too.

Landon played with the boy next door for awhile and didn't fret about missing out on his game time. We actually took the whole GameCube machine and controllers and put them away so they're not even out on the floor like usual. I'm thinking he may be feeling a bit liberated by this experiment...or he just really wants the marbles.

**What goals have you set that you've actually stuck to? Or maybe I should say what kinds of goals do you set for yourself? I tend to avoid them all together.**

Our Experiment

I came across this page in my Family Fun Magazine last Friday while sorting through my magazines at Michelle's. I've been inspired by Kristi's week of no tv, and thought I'd just open up this idea to my family and see what they thought about it. So yesterday as the 4 of us were eating our Easter Dinner I mentioned the possibility of having a week without tv, just to see what they would say. Surprisingly they were very open to this idea and excited to do it. I could see Landon's face processing the information and wondering if this would include his GameCube too. TV is no longer a temptation for him since he uses all his screen watching tv for games. So I included the GameCube in the ban and said, "I'll give you 10 marbles at the end of the week if you do it." That's all it took! (Marbles are part of our reward system like Amie blogged about on April 5th.) He then volunteered to go 2 weeks for 20 marbles and said, "You know I can't resist the marbles."

This was an amazing development for us, and kind of frightening too because Randy and I like to watch our shows at night. I'm comforted by the fact that since we have DVR we can record all of our shows and watch them later, but I could see Randy looking at me with "us too??" in his eyes. Too funny. I'm hoping he'll spend some of these free evenings giving me a Photoshop tutorial. I'm sure we'll read a lot too, so that should help bring up my reading average for the month since "The Known World" slowed me down so badly. I loved the book, but it was slow going for me. Randy's actually reading a book about unblocking creativity right now called "The War of Art" which I think I'll read when he's done with it.

Of course, Landon came in to our room this morning while Randy and I were sleeping (6:52am) and just started talking to me about how it's really windy and cold outside so he won't be able to play with his friends out there so maybe he should be able to play his games. He even offered to pay me 2 marbles to do that just for today. I didn't appreciate him waking me up, but had to laugh that the negotiations were starting so early in the first day. I told him we had plenty of inside-things to do and that it was only the first day of our experiment and that we would evaluate things next weekend. I suppose I'll have to me more "hands-on" as a mom this week, especially if the weather isn't going to cooperate, but I'm sure that will be good for all of us. Wish me luck.

**Are we crazy or would you consider trying this experiment too?**

This is the LDS Gem I got this morning after I'd posted this.

"One of the main problems in society today is that we spend less and
less time together. Some, even when they are together, spend an
extraordinary amount of time in front of the television, which robs them of
personal time for reinforcing feelings of self-worth. Family home
evenings give individuals and families important time to talk and listen as
parents and children, brothers and sisters, spouses, and friends. Time
together is precious--time needed to encourage and to show how to
do things. Less time together can result in loneliness, which may produce
feelings of being unsupported, untreasured, and
inadequate." --James E. Faust

Happy Easter

It was my turn to teach this week and I had prepared my lesson a week ago, and then realized last night that I'd prepared the wrong one because I'd forgotten to prepare an Easter lesson--duh. So I ended up preparing the Easter lesson last night and this morning, and then called my teaching partner to tell her I'd teach next week too since I was already prepared for that (plus she's moving into her new house this week and could use the break). I had already volunteered to take over our Sharing Time duties next week too, so apparently I'm committed and busy next Sunday.

Anyway, I love preparing lessons for the various callings I've had in the church. It's cliche but true, that the teacher always learns more than the students. This is always true for me and I love it when I've struggled to prepare a lesson and then I finally "get it" and can teach it without relying on the manual at all. The material comes alive for me, and hopefully I make it come alive for the class. I have the 10-11 year old boys and s so they are a great age. They know a lot, can read well, and are still enthusiastic about participating in class.

Some weeks we have 8 kids in class and other weeks just have a few, today I only had 2 boys in class, but it went great. We've all had the Easter lesson many times in our lives, but our level of understanding changes from year to year so the lessons are never really repetitive. Both the boys who were there today are very knowledgeable and come from strong families (The Bishop's son and the Elder's Quorum President's son) so they know a lot, but it was still fulfilling to be able to explain things to them and teach them the difference between immortality and eternal life. I love how I feel after teaching them, and I love singing with them during sharing time. I've recently discovered that I have the vocal range of an 11 year old boy, so if I sit by them I do alright!

So basically what I'm saying is...today was an excellent Easter Sunday. Our family festivities were yesterday and they were good, then church today was fulfilling and fun as well. It's an ideal Easter for me.

**What's an ideal Easter for you?**










{Thanks to Michelle for the loan of the sweater vest for Landon, and thanks to Amie for the hand-me-down Easter dress and shoes for Whitney!}

Click here for more Easter photos.

Thoughtfulness

Our family gathered at my parents' house today (lovingly referred to as The Compound because at one time there were 7 grown-ups and 5 children living there) for an Easter lunch and Egg hunt for the kids. Of course, my lack of digital technology forces me to delay the gratification of photos until Monday or Tuesday when I get them developed. (Amy may post some later on her blog.) So I am choosing to focus on Lori's thoughtfulness.

Lori gave all of us (my mom, dad, Adam, Amy, Andrew and Randy) a little Easter bucket filled with goodies. This is the stash from my bucket. She also gave me a mini bottle of hand sanitizer, but I already stationed it in the car for post-gas fill ups and so on. It was fun for the s to get something for a change, since we basically overloaded the kids with treats. Everyone knows how much I like a little gift now and then (I prefer now), but I think everyone enjoyed getting something and being thought of. Thanks Lori!

{Click here to see all the pictures from today.}

**Do you make an Easter basket for your husband, siblings, friends or just for the kids?**

{Robyn it just wasn't the same without you, Jared and the kids!}

Friday with Michelle

Just so there's no misunderstanding about my earlier post--I said I was experiencing some fear about my Friday with Michelle and that it was creativity related. I was not dreading my Friday with Michelle, for that is my weekly therapy and place of refuge.

Today I brought a large stack of magazines with me. I had issues of Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, Family Fun, Family Circle, Simple Scrapbooks, Creating Keepsakes and Scrapbooks Etc. issues with me. I flipped through all of them (which is fun to do) and cut out any and all pages that spoke to me. I ended up with recipes, good scrapbooking layout ideas, photography tips, card ideas, gorgeous photography, and fun project ideas. These will eventually get sorted through, cropped further, and then put into either my idea book (which I haven't started yet) or my discovery journal. I got a lot done today and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I think it was a nice break from the creative pressure I've been putting on myself, with the added bonus of being inspiring to me because I saw so many great ideas. It was a good day.

**Have any of you started clipping things from magazines and putting them in a discovery-journal type thing or an idea book?**

{Cute card I got from Pam today. Thanks Pam!}

P.S. Michelle and I have both started smugmug galleries with photos from our Friday get togethers. We've just started documenting this (which is sad because we've been doing it for 3 or 4 years now) so we'll add pictures weekly.

{Unrelated info, but Ali Edwards has a gallery of all her blog banners which is pretty cool. Click to see them.}

Inspired by Whitney

Whitney painted this the other day for her preschool teacher. She's always making pictures for people, and had decided to give this one to her teacher. I liked it so much and was so impressed with it that she changed her mind and decided to give it to me! This is really something considering how many hundreds of pictures she has given me, but this is one of the first ones that I think is so great that I really didn't want her to give it away.

Call me crazy, but I think this painting has merit. It's alphabet inspired and she made the upper case and the lower case letters and decorated them. I think I may actually use this idea for my art-challenge journal thing. I've been struggling to come up with different ideas (apparently I love living in the pathetic box that allows me only like 5 ideas) so when I saw this painting I couldn't help thinking what a good design it was and what a clever idea too. We'll see if I can translate this into my own style, I need all the help I can get and have been feeling so frustrated by my creative block that I almost fear my fridays with Michelle (double gasp!!).

**What do you think?**

{Click here to see Whitney's art portfolio.}

Spring fever

{A picture of our flip-flopped feet from today.}

We had a great day today. Randy and the kids got back from their trip yesterday afternoon, so today was my first day back into the routine of my life (after such a short and sweet break).

It was such a beautiful day (it even ended up feeling hot), so the kids and I went to buy flowers for the yard. We went to Cascade Shadows on 500 East in American Fork (next to DI for you locals). I'd never gone there before but thought I'd check it out. I feared high prices, but was wrong. It was the jackpot of great flowers and great prices. We spent $23.40 and got 8 packs of snapdragons, 6 pots of rununculus (I'm so excited about these), and 4 primrose packs. I tend to miscalculate how far the flowers go so we didn't go too crazy. We ended up planting these and working in the yard for 2 1/2 hours and loved it. It was officially my first day of yard work for the new year. We hooked up the hose, pulled weeds, raked leaves, planted flowers, and relocated some worms--it was glorious.

We also went to get my eyebrows waxed! It was so overdue that I really felt I was past the help of a pair of tweezers. I just called the salon and asked if anyone was available to do it. So I explained to the kids what we were going there for and how they do it, and Landon said, "Nasty!" But he and Whitney ended up getting a little "how-to" on eyebrow waxing because they came back with me (the salon was really empty today) and the lady doing it was really great and explained everything to them and let them see everything she was doing. It was so funny. (I wish someone would have been taking pictures of it.) I actually did have Landon take before and after shots of my eyebrows but we have to wait for those to be developed, and I have no idea if he focused the camera correctly or not--either way it should be hilarious.

**Did spring fever whack you over the head today too?**

Click here to see our spring photos from today (before we planted flowers).

I love ebay!

I have a love/hate relationship with ebay. I love it so much that I hate it when I run out of money and have to force myself to stop searching for good deals.

I go in cycles of activity and dormancy with ebay, which are obviously related to me having gone crazy for awhile and then reigning myself in and staying away for awhile, only to have me go back with a vengeance again. It's a fun cycle really. I'm currently at the tail end of a busy ebay time right now. In the last 10 days I've gotten (with partial payment from Landon) a Super Smash Brothers game for GameCube, a skirt & pair of capris for Whitney, two more pairs of pants for Whitney, a magazine subscription for my dad, and a bunch of pants and shirts for Landon. This makes me giddy.

I've gotten amazing deals on clothes for the kids and have discovered that the majority of their wardrobe is from ebay scores. My favorite way to find deals is to search the "mixed lots" in the kids clothes section, then choose the auctions that are "ending soonest" and then I find auctions that don't have a lot of bidding going on with them but that have good stuff. I can swoop in during the last few hours of bidding and get great stuff for a low price. (Dang, this is making me wish I'd documented my past purchases.) I once got Whitney 5 pairs of cute jeans, a shirt, a and a jacket for $22 total (including shipping). I think the poor woman who listed these items had shot herself in the foot by not wording her listing well and by limiting the photos of the items. At first glance it was unclear how much stuff she was really selling. It was a huge jackpot for us! (I get a little flushed as I relive the moment.)

**What have you gotten on ebay? Do you have any tips for scoring deals?**

Eyebrows

My internet was down this morning, so I'm barely getting to logon at 3:00pm (oh cruel, cruel world).

I'm having some eyebrow issues at the moment, and am feeling a bit out of control. I usually just pluck them as needed (which is often), but always seem to miss some and don't notice until I'm in the natural sunlight surroundings of my car. So I put my tweezers in the car so that I could pluck my eyebrows while at stoplights and thereby catch all the pesky parts I keep missing. Well, I can't seem to find my tweezers anymore so my eyebrows have taken on an East German Athlete-kind of look. What makes this doubly troublesome is that some of my eyebrows are turning gray (eek) and are even harder for me to see. Sheesh. They' ve really gotten unruly and I thought I'd just let them run wild and then go get them waxed and put an end to this situation once and for all.

The only hiccup in my plan is that the who usually does my hair and occasional eyebrow waxing (I've only done it twice before) moved away in January, so now I don't know where to go and am kind of embarrassed for a new person to meet me looking like this. You can see my dilemma. It's making me feel unkempt and a bit white trash.

**What do recommend? What is your eyebrow regimen?**

Art challenge day 5

I had a tough time scanning this because it's a weird size, but at least you can read the quote. This is a great one from Jenn's mom Georgia. She posted it on her blog awhile back and I copied and pasted it into a word document so I could save it.

I was a little frustrated with this because I didn't have any other great ideas for making it look more artsy, but then decided that since it's such a meaty quote that it's better the way it is.

**What do you think? It makes you want to read her blog doesn't it?**

Stumped

I've been up for a few hours trying to get ready to go to Michelle's house today for some kid-free creativity (woohoo). I don't have anything specific in mind to blog about this morning, but don't want to leave the house without posting because then when I come home tonight there won't be any fun comments to read. You can see my dilemma here.

I'm in a creativity funk right now because I'm loving doing the 21-day art challenge, but am feeling defeated after seeing Amy and Michelle's great pages. After talking to Jenn at lunch on Saturday (and then Michelle on the phone a few minutes ago), I've decided I need to create pages around quotes I like and not the quotes specifically designated for the challenge. I like Rhonna's quotes, but there's too much mental pressure for me knowing that Amy and Michelle created their pages from those same quotes. I think it will be more freeing for me to use quotes I've saved from other things and then to create something around those. Wish me luck.

Here is a quote I really like and thought would add something nice to this lame post.

"Possibly one of the greatest threats to our
creativity is self-imposed,
the individual barriers people
place upon themselves."
--Richard Martin

**What do you do when you're full of self-imposed craziness?**

Really quite a Sunday

I'm back after 30 hours of not blogging I'm ready and have stuff to say. First, thanks for all your kind comments wishing me well during my weekend of solitude. It is truly blissful and I'm happy to be able to share that joy with you all. Here's a run down of my time so far.

Saturday

• Blogging
• Shower and got ready
• Went to Los Hermanos for lunch with Jenn (delightful)
• Home briefly to vacuum up a spider that scared me as I opened the front door, then figured I might as well vacuum the whole house.
• Had a very dissapointing visit to Stamp Attic (the world's tiniest store). A woman had 3 kids in there with her!! And then there was a fat woman, a thin employee and large me. After 2 irritating minutes I left, I literally couldn't even get to the stamp shelves because of the woman with her 3 kids. I was mad.
• Went to Robert's and found that all their Heidi Swapp stuff is 50% off because they're clearancing it out. Score.
• Came home to read and drift off to sleep for a half hour or so.
• Lori came over, we made chicken salad then went to a movie.
• I got a migraine (oh the humanity) so ended up not having a good experience with the movie.
• I got in bed at 10:00pm, read for awhile then slept until 6:50am.
• I woke up feeling good this morning so I got back into the cozy (after a bathroom visit) and read some more, then fell asleep for couple more hours.
• Got ready for church and made it there just in the nick of time.

So all of this led up to what is really my Sunday post. As I was reading in bed this morning I found myself thinking about how nice it would be to stay home all day, to enjoy the quiet, and to continue reading (The Known World still). But then I had the thought "consider the source of these thoughts" and immediately knew I would be going to church and that I wouldn't let myself regret this day. I'm so glad I went.

It was testimony meeting, and it was so good. I sat there at the end of a long bench full of other people thinking how strange it was to be there without Randy and the kids. As I took the Sacrament I closed my eyes and realized that I was literally blocking out the distractions around me and that it was my choice to do this. I was sitting near a family that has 18 month old triplets and a 3 year old son so they were incredibly busy during the meeting. I had to consciously work to keep focused and to think about the Sacrament. It was empowering to do this and to recognize my choice in the matter.

As the meeting went on I also realized that I never share my testimony. I did it once in my old Eagle Mountain ward when all my family was out of town and not there to see me do it. That was probably over 4 years ago. It made me realize how unfortunate that is both for me because I need it and for my family because they need to see me do it too. I went through all those feelings of doubt and fear until right at the end of the meeting I ran up there and did it! It was an amazing experience and I truly feel blessed for having done it. After the meeting I was surrounded by people hugging me and thanking me; I felt so loved and so thankful for my ward and my part in it. I ended up being weepy for the last 2 hours of church and felt the Spirit so strongly in primary as we sang those great primary songs. After church I stayed to finally get set apart for my new callings and that was a great experience as well.

I know it's kind of sad and pathetic that I did these things without my family being there, but maybe that's the way I have to do it as I baby step my way through the gospel. I feel like I'm improving all the time, and just need to figure things out for myself before I can just exude that spiritual confidence I desire. I feel like today was a big day for me (I'm crying again) and am thankful for the quiet I get to have for the rest of the day as I think about these things.

**What do you think?**

4 Whole Days!!!

I've been hesitant to post about this (or even say it out loud), but it's now official so I guess I can finally say...Randy took the kids to Idaho for 4 whole days and I'm at home by myself!! (Pause here to freak out, swear, do a jig, or wish me ill if you must.) This is unprecedented in the entire 7.5 years of my life as a mother. Sure I've had a day by myself or the kids have slept over at my parents' house, but I've never had any substantial amount of time at home alone. I'm in disbelief and haven't fully transitioned into giddy yet.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the only vacation you ever get as a mother is if you're alone right? Going on an actual vacation with the whole family is more work than if you stayed home in the first place, and you always come home tired, grumpy and needing a real vacation alone. So my dream vacation at this point in life is stay home for 4 days by myself! (Please note: that means this is a dream come true!) I fear harsh judgment from those of you who think it's selfish of me to stay home instead of spending time with my family, but I think it's a win/win for everyone involved. The kids love to have dad-time with Randy, and they all know that their trip will be completely different from the kind of trip they'd have if I was with them. Plus Randy won't have to factor in my opinions and irritations and can go do whatever he wants to do. I think it's great, cool and awesome that he's such a fantastic father and is not only willing to do this, but came up with the idea himself.

So, what will I do?? I'm in the beginning stages of being flooded with choices and fretting that I won't use my time wisely. (Signs of someone who has never had 4 days alone before.) The house is a bit of a wreck from my ongoing mess of trying to clean my scrapbook room (officially started that project March 20th in case you were wondering), as I was packing the kids for the trip I had a strong urge to clean out their closet and do an extreme DI drive of my own while they're gone, but I also want to do fun stuff too (i.e., work on the art challenge, scrapbook, prep good mail, etc.). Most likely I'll be able to do all of these things (yipee) but I'm trying to decide what to do first. Decisions, decisions. I'm meeting Jenn for lunch in a few hours so that's something fun on today's agenda.

**Thoughts??**

Dreams

I went to bed after 1:00am last night and had Randy wake me up at 7:00 this morning (my alarm clock died), but was in the middle of a very vivid dream so I had a rough time waking up. It's amazing to me how often I have vivid dreams and how much I can remember about them in the morning. They often incorporate something I was watching or listening to a lot (tv shows, music, movies). Last night's dream involved me running into a guy from high school (not the one who usually shows up in my dreams) while I had a small, black truck filled with 12 year old boys from my primary class at church. Weird.

When I wake up after nights of vivid dreams I always try to figure out what triggered the thoughts that led to the dream, and what they mean. I haven't come up with anything yet to help me out with last night's dream, but it was such a bizarre combination of people that my head is spinning this morning trying to figure it out.

**Do you remember your dreams or do you sleep like a log?**

How bout that

Landon just brought in the mail from our slushy mailbox and imagine my surprise to find that I was one of the lucky recipients of the 4 packages Michelle mailed yesterday (which she mentioned in my post about the card from Jenn). I didn't even dare hope that one of them was for me, because I didn't think I'd receive anything from her so soon after the last fabulous mail she sent me. I've gotta say again how much I love the good mail program and the generosity of friends. Thanks Michelle! (How funny that we bought each other the same Making Memories Alphabet Stickers, just in a different color.) Click here to see my good mail gallery.

I've got good mail in the works for several of you so don't despair, your turn will come. Until then, how about sending something sweet to someone else just because?

**Do you love ribbon or are you indifferent about it?**

Art challenge day 4

This is what I came up with for Day 4 of the challenge. I used the entire quote. I scanned my original photo, then made it black and white, then printed it in an 8x10 size on a transparency (all of this is innovative as far as my creative abilities go).

After I originally read the quote I stopped to think about what I wanted to do and I immediately thought of one of the hardest things I ever had to do--deliver Landon. I had a long, hard delivery that included pushing for an hour and a half (after 12 hours of labor) and he kept slipping back in and erasing all the progress I'd made pushing him out. I remember thinking "I'm going to die, and that's okay" because the epidural had worn off and my parts were all torn up. My recovery was very long and painful, so when I look back on the first 2 months of his life I can remember the pain of my recovery and the hard transition to life with a baby. (Which if I'd known about before getting pregnant I wouldn't have thought I could do any of it.)

This picture is of our first few minutes at home after being at the hospital. Landon and I still have our hospital bracelets on and I look wasted. It was good to dig this photo out and to think about all of that again. Landon turns 8 in August--wow.

Thanks Jenn

Look at this cute card I got from Jenn today. Whitney brought in the mail and it was only the cute green envelope with this card in it and a lame mailer from our bank. If I were more disciplined I would send a piece of good mail every single day, because there are few things better than opening the mail box and finding a thoughtful surprise in there and knowing that someone was thinking about me. I like to do this for other people too and get giddy when I mail things. In fact, on Monday while I was running around from store to store I kept seeing things I thought some of you would like, and got much more excited about them than when I was considering buying them for myself. Hmmm.

**When was the last time you mailed anybody anything special and what was it?**

P.S. If you haven't commented on my bleary-eyed bloggin post, please do so. I hesitated posting something new because I'm enjoying the comments for that other post and don't want anyone to think that post is over and done with.

Bleary-eyed bloggin

This is one of my 1:00am posts. I tried to go to bed about 45 minutes ago, couldn't cut the chatter in my head. I should be reading "The Known World" but since I spent 4 hours reading today to finish "These Is My Words" I'm giving myself the night off.

So tonight was the 2nd meeting of our ward book club, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. We had 8 people this time (though several women that read it couldn't be there tonight). Everyone seemed to really like it, though a couple that weren't there had complained that it was too violent. I always take it personally when someone doesn't like a book I really liked. I shouldn't let it get to me because we all have very different perspectives and they're certainly entitled to their own opinion, but this book was chosen because it's such a crowd pleaser across all ages of women.

It never occurred to me that there would be anything controversial about it at all. One woman who felt upset by it told me (she stopped by my house earlier to tell me she couldn't come tonight) "everything bad that can happen to a woman happens in this book." I guess that's true, but I hadn't thought of it that way. It's interesting to note though that she read "Blessings" by Anna Quindlen which was going to be our selection for next month, but got vetoed by the Enrichment Counselor (who is totally making me crazy) because there's some bad language in it. I mentioned this to the woman who was scandalized by tonight's book and she said, "hmm I don't remember anything bad about that at all." Go figure.

So I left tonight's discussion feeling a little bummed out. I think future books will be less pressure for me because I haven't read any of them and don't have a personal stake in what people think about them. I have to mellow out and not get so emotionally involved with everything I do. Sheesh. By the way, the new reading line-up is...

• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall
• The Professor's House by Willa Cather
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
  

(If you see any potential scandal in these choices let me know.)

In other news...are any of you reading my friend Claudia's blog? She writes a lot (because she types so fast) but it's definitely worth reading. I've never known anyone else like her, so her perspective is always so refreshing to me. She wrote about "home" today, so check it out if you can handle reading a little bit longer--I promise it's worth it.

**Does anyone have any words to cheer me up from my bummed out book club tonight?**

The way I read

{click on photo to enlarge it}

I read "These Is My Words" from 9:45pm to 2:00am without dozing a bit! This is no small feat for me. I actually prayed before I started reading and asked that I be able to stay awake, and that I would have insights as I read. Well, those prayers were answered immediately. I became so engrossed in the book, which is really something considering this is the 2nd time I've read it in a 6 month time period. I didn't feel tired, and I wasn't begrudging the fact that I had to read it. Most likely the fact that I had less than 24 hours to be finished with the book and prepared to discuss it was motivating enough for me, yet I feel like there was something more. I got lost in the story and forgot that I was just sitting there reading for 4 hours and 15 minutes. I escaped into the book and loved every minute of it. So what I'm saying is...read this book!

The picture above is what I do when I read a book. I write the page number and first part of the sentence of a passage I highlighted. I do this on the last blank page of the book and onto the back cover. This is my own personal indexing system for the passages I love in a book. This way while I'm sitting in a book discussion, I can quickly scan the sentences and find the page number for the passage I liked. I also like the fact that I'm leaving my personal touches on my books.

Books are such personal items, and they affect us all differently. I was thinking about my copy of "These is my Words" and realized that I have read it, my mom has read it, my grandma has read it, and a friend from my ward has read it, and now I'm reading it again--that's a beautiful thing. I don't mind sharing my books (as long as I get them back), and though I treat them nicely, I'm not hyper about keeping them in pristine condition. I want them to be read, loved, and used.

This is one of my favorite quotes from this book, page 152.

"Sometimes I feel like a tree on a hill, at the place where all the wind blows and the hail hits the hardest. All the people I love are down the side aways, sheltered under a great rock, and I am out of the fold, standing alone in the sun and the snow. I feel like I am not part of the rest somehow, although they welcome me and are kind. I see my family as they sit together and it is like they have a certain way between them that is beyond me. I wonder if other folks ever feel included yet alone."

**What's your process when you read? Do you handle your books carefully?**