12 on the 12th--November Edition

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1. Ferris out our window in the morning waiting to be let in after a night of prowling.
2. Our current bed set up, the gray blanket at the bottom is my new weighted blanket to help me sleep better.
3. I'm loving this book!
4. Tara, Kramer and I went to a benefits meeting at work (you can see us in the bottom right of the screen).
5. Lunch time shenanigans.
6. Costa Vida for Triple Points Tuesday.
7. Work Still Life.
8. Listening to The Dutch House while driving (it's read by Tom Hanks which makes it even better.
9. Movie night with the works peeps.
10. Sean, Jen, Taylor, Kramer, Jessica, Tara, and me.
11. Getting gas.
12. November decor.

12 on the 12th--May 2018 Edition

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1. Randy slept in his clothes on the couch all night after falling asleep there, weird.
2. I worked on my primary lesson while watching The Durrells in Corfu (delightful).
3. I spent a long time cutting things out, but I was happy with the results.
4. A pleasing pile of cancelled posted I recently purchased on Etsy.
5. Mother's Day tulips for my mom and cute jars of flowers for Robyn and Amy.
6. I changed the pictures in the frames over our bed after having the previous pictures there for 11 years.
7. Landon did a marvelous job mowing the lawn, it's so nice having him home from Utah State.
8. What I'm currently reading. It's so charming and makes me want to move to Cornwall, England to live in a cozy cottage.
9. The current message on our letterboard.
10. Randy doing some work on his laptop.
11. Our Allium are in bloom.
12. Reading in the cozy with Ferris purr/snoring on my chest.

12 on the 12th--September Edition

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1. Car selfie before heading off to school and work.
2. Dropping Whitney at the high school, it's crazy she's in 10th grade this year.
3. I got a gift from my secret, secret pal at work which was a big surprise.
4. Dropping Whitney off at the high school in the afternoon for drama rehearsal.
5. Ferris loves being in the the cozy with me.
6. Even though I like this book it's taking me forever to read (3 weeks!).
7. We learned about the Flag for Activity Days.
8. We got drive thru Little Caesars and found out they didn't give us Pepperoni!
9. I went for a lovely walk.
10. This was a cool view approaching our house.
11. Whitney was messing around with make-up.
12. Whitney's room makeover collage wall.

Miscellany--Phone Style

It is already time for Whitney to register for her 9th grade classes (how did that happen so fast?!). She applied (along with 110 other kids) to be in the yearbook class. This involved getting two teacher recommendations, submitting 5 photos she'd taken, and filling out the application questions. (I'm happy to report she got in!)

Whitney and her friends were standing outside the office one day during lunch time so I started taking pictures of them.

Amie's daughter Jessica is a senior in high school and is also enrolled in beauty school so I scheduled an appointment to have her give me a manicure. I've known Jessica since she was 4 so it's kind of crazy that she's so grown up now.

Michelle and I met up with Collette for her birthday lunch on February 6th.

Michelle and I went to Pebbles in My Pocket after lunch and found all kinds of cute things (I am addicted to tags) and ended up buying stuff to make Valentines.

 I love coming home to find Landon doing his homework!

Saturday February 7th was so glorious that Whitney and I read outside for an hour!

 Junie basked in the sun next to us.

Randy and I went to dinner at La Costa with Adam and Amy while the girls hung out at home.

My visiting teaching companion and I did a 3 minute stint on visiting our sisters regularly during our Relief Society Visiting Teaching Conference. I had Randy make this poster for me to show how we're all connected through visiting teaching...I love it!

Sometimes you just gotta take a nap horizontally across the bed with your feet hanging off and no blankets or pillow...what the?!

Our Valentine making day was a success! Michelle made treat bags for her visiting teaching people and a bunch of cute Valentines to mail. I made treat bags for my co-workers and book club friends.

I got this funny Valentine in the mail from Natalie S. It's the only one I got.

I read in the cozy every day, this time Landon stopped in and grabbed my phone for a selfie.

We read Man's Search For Meaning last week for Bookclub and all loved it. I'm always reluctant to read non fiction and concentration camp type books because they're so rough on my soul, but this was super inspiring.

I gave this bottle of cuteness to my Secret Pal.

12 on the 12th--October Edition

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1. Cathy is in town from Saudi Arabia (!) so we planned for an early morning walk but I only had a half hour so we sat at McDonald's and talked.
2. Whitney's illustrated birthday card for Randy.
3. Randy's box of birthday Raisin Bran...he can have this any time of course but I bought it special for his birthday since no one else will eat it.
4. Family photo in the car before heading up to help Adam and Amy move.
5. Lori and I boxed up stuff from the kitchen...moving is overwhelming even when it isn't my own move!
6. Lori and I stopped at Einsteins for a snack before heading over to the help unpack at the rental house. We don't have an Einsteins close to us so this was a treat.
7. Adam and Amy's "new" house has a pool!!
8. Upon arriving home Whitney immediately drew this picture of a cat using her water bottle...she's got skills.
9. I started a new book in the cozy (A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons).
10. Randy took a birthday nap.
11. The four of us went to Chili's for Randy's birthday dinner.
12. We stopped at the church to pick up all the primary teacher bags so I could clean them out and put the new class rolls in them (it took me 3 hours!).

Some Thoughts

• We only have 2.5 days left of school and I'm feeling every minute of them...I am so ready to be done. It feels like a major victory to have made it through another year working in the front office of a junior high with almost 2000 kids, I'm exhausted.
• The weather has been so nice I feel guilty if I'm not outside. But I don't really know what to do with myself outside. I have grand visions for an amazing yard but lack the funds and know-how to make that happen...I guess we'll continue to baby step our way along.
• My version of savoring the weather is to read under the canopy of the amazing trees in our front yard, I'm fond of my version.
• Whitney and I may be getting colds at the same time.
• I have 8 hours of church ahead of me tomorrow and I'm not happy about it.
• I wish dinner wasn't an issue every stinkin day.
• If I read in the cozy at this time of day (6:00pmish) I am bound to doze off for an unauthorized, point-of-no-return type nap, so I must not go there.
• I helped Lori acquire two kittens this week (from a neighbor of ours) and it's killing Whitney.
• When I'm at work all I can think about is how much other stuff I could be working on at home, but when I'm at home I often don't want to do anything at all. It's a problem.

Spring Break So Far

We have Spring Break this week (woohoo) and have almost no plans (woohoo again). A couple months ago I started to plan a little trip to Mesquite, NV for Spring Break, but just wasn't excited about it (I hate the 4.5 hour drive) and felt giddy about staying home to putter (oh how I miss puttering at home now that I work).

So yesterday was officially day 1 of Spring Break but it was a cloudy, rainy kind of day which meant the universe was telling me to spend the day reading in the cozy. It just so happens that we're reading a fabulous book for book club this month so I was completely sucked in and read over 200 pages. The kids did their own thing all day, so other than surfacing for bathroom breaks and beverages I was all about reading...I LOVE days like this so much!! I do wish we had a more comfortable set up though, maybe an excellent chair/ottoman combo as opposed to our lumpy bed and my crazy pillow configurations.

Today is Day 2 of Spring Break and it is rainy again...I'm okay with it though because I'm still in homebody mode and this kind of weather is very conducive to staying inside.

I watched a couple episodes of "Monk" with Landon (Whitney was at the Draper Temple with the YW) and then cleaned and reorganized our laundry room shelf. I have no idea why this task has been on my mind (in an excited way) lately but I really wanted to get to it. I took everything off the shelf, washed it down, then relocated a few items that didn't need to be there. The casual observer wouldn't notice a change, but the astute observer would be delighted.

The YW President sent this photo of the kids at the temple. We thought only the girls were going, hence no Landon.

I'm pretty sure my visiting teacher left this little pot on my porch last Friday (there wasn't a note) and I can't believe how fast it's growing; it has doubled it's size in 4 days. I'm not sure what my long-term plan is but for now it's pretty cute in my kitchen window.

Some of our daffodils have bloomed, but I'm bummed because I thought we'd have quite a spread but instead have a few small smatterings instead.

The tulip foliage is going gangbusters though so I'm optimistic that we'll have a glorious array in a few weeks, oh how I love tulip season!

Migraine Woes

All of my days at work are pretty crazy, it's just how things are, so whenever I leave work I feel rather victorious for having survived the day. But last week Wendy was ill so that meant I was running the office by myself for 3 days. I mentally prepared myself (i.e., knew I had no choice and that I was capable of doing a great job) and approached each day knowing it was all on me. I also prayed each morning and night that I would feel great and NOT get a headache.

I'm happy to report all was well. I was firing on all cylinders and I was headache free. In fact, on Thursday morning I had just gotten to work when one of our teachers walked into the office sweating profusely and gripping his chest. I immediately got on the intercom to call down one of our science teachers who is also an EMT, then the administrators came running to the office and called 911. It was an intense 20 minutes for all of us but the ambulance came and took him away and he is now doing alright (it was a major heart attack and he had to have stint put in).

Friday morning I felt a little irritable due to the endless (and often obnoxious) "needs" of the students, but I got over it and had a good, but exhausting day. I read in the cozy after work and had Randy bring home 5 Guys for dinner and we had the added bonus of both kids spending the evening at friends' houses.

But then Saturday morning I woke up feeling dizzy and headachy, so I made my way to the couch and watched "Phenomenon" on TV. That movie makes me sob, so it might not have been the best choice with a headache brewing. After the movie I made my way back to the cozy to read and try to recover. No such luck! I got worse as the day went on so I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to book club that night, plus things got so bad I couldn't even read. I had to get the room as dark as possible and just lie there hoping to die. I kid you not, it was the worst migraine of my life. It felt like I was wearing a tight helmet and goggles of pain. It took several hours for the Relpax to work and even after that I felt wasted. I ended up staying in bed all night long and surfaced this morning at 6:45 feeling robbed of my Saturday, weepy and frustrated. Good times.

12 on the 12th--January Edition

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1. I slept in from my late-night at bookclub and woke to find McDonald's Breakfast from Randy.
2. I started a new book (An Impartial Witness) in the cozy.
3. Landon was on bathrooms and Whitney was on dusting and vacuuming.
4. I posted my 12 on the 12th year in review.
5. I did a little shopping with one of my Christmas Giftcards.
6. Some family romping while I read in the cozy.
7. We met up with Lori for a long lunch at Which Wich.
8. Our self-portrait after lunch.
9. Our snowy view and new stop light at our recently remodeled street.
10. I ordered 8x10 print outs of all of last years 12 on the 12th grids.
11. We spent 3 hours at JCWs with Adam.
12. Whitney and the girls had 3 hours of play time at our house.

12 on the 12th--June Edition

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1. Cathy and I went walking around the temple from 6:45-7:30, it's such a nice way to start the day.
2. I came home and did a blog post...what is that 3 days in a row? Apparently it's summer and I'm not at work all day, yeeha!
3. I read this great Conference talk by President Uchtdorf while my hair was setting (i.e., my cool down time with rollers in my hair), I think I'm going to memorize this paragraph and move on with my life!
4. Whitney and I decided to be tourists in our town by actually walking up and down Main Street to see what's actually there (we've only lived here 8.5 years and never done that before).
5. A shot from Main Street (the clock doesn't have the correct time).
6. There was a sort of garden place between buildings that had several benches and some gorgeous flowers, it was the highlight of the outing for me...though Whitney didn't feel the same.
7. We stopped at Hart's for gas and a drink.
8. I dropped both kids off to play with friends and found myself giddily alone for the afternoon!
9. I got some Cafe Rio take-out and rewatched an episode of Downton Abbey Season 1 then spent a couple hours reading in the cozy.
10. As part of my calling as Scout Advancement Chair I participated in 4 Boards of Review, they weren't quite the spiritual meetings my first one was, but it was still pretty good. I may actually be getting the hang of things.
11. Randy rented a moving truck to pick up a bunch of furniture from my parents' house to distribute to Robyn, Lori and Us. They're moving this weekend so they've been getting rid of all the stuff they won't have room for in their new (much smaller) place.
12. I watched Game 1 of the NBA play-offs with Landon, we were disappointed the Heat lost but we're hoping for a good series.

12 on the 12th--May Edition

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1. Early morning balloon sighting as Cathy and I drove to our walking trail.
2. Cathy and I went an hour earlier at 7:00 to accommodate my busy schedule.
3. The sun was up by the time I got home at 8:00 and made everything beautiful.
4. Whitney had her last soccer game and the whole team played their best, I was ecstatic!
5. Landon's game was an hour later, this is him scoring one of his 3 goals!
6. My mom and I braved an insane day-before-Mother's Day crowd at Costco.
7. I enjoyed an hour in the cozy reading and napping.
8. I washed and trimmed a big container of strawberries.
9. My mom kissing Andrew at our Mother's Day party.
10. Amy took this photo of Landon and I at the gathering.
11. Amie gave me a copy of one of my favorite books! I had originally borrowed Michelle's and was bummed not to own it. 
12. The kids' closet gives me high blood pressure as I put their laundry away!

Five for Friday

1. On Monday my mom came over after school to teach Whitney how to sew a drawstring bag. They had started it at her house a little while ago but Whitney was super anxious to finish it.

2. Landon actually joined me to read in the cozy...the peanut butter M&Ms I had with me may have helped seal the deal.

3. Whitney started soccer practice on Wednesday. Her schedule looked like this...

3:35--I picked her up from school
Home for a quick snack
4:00--Activity Days
4:45--Randy picked her up to go to art class
5:00--Art class
6:00--I picked her up to go to soccer (which started at 5:30)
6:15-6:30--Soccer practice
6:45--Pick up pizza for dinner

And it's important to me NOT to overschedule her...Activity Days used to be on Monday but they changed it and soccer practice just started on that day...what am I supposed to do? Aargh!

4. I did some texting during the time I was waiting for Whitney. It was a nice option since I forgot (what the?!) my book!

5. I came home yesterday to some good mail from Jane! After reading about my Wookie-like eyebrows she sent me the wax she used to maintain a nice brow. I hope I've got the skills to make use this, I'm excited!

6. Last night was the 5th grade's "Traveling Show" (it used to travel). I can't believe it's been 3 years since we watched Landon perform in it! Whitney had a speaking part and totally nailed it. It was a very patriotic show that had my mom and I in tears.

Our self-portrait after the show.

**How was your week?

Don't you hate overscheduled days?**

Seven for Saturday--Does Anyone Read on the Weekend Edition?

Does anyone read blogs on the weekend or what? My comments always drop to like two and make me feel like my weekend posts are rubbish, so I'm doing a roll call. If you read my blog ever I need you to comment this time to let me know you're here. I'll send good mail to some random commenters if you do!

1. Whitney's art classes started up again on Wednesdays at 5:00, which is great because I didn't have anyplace I had shuttle her to that day so I was relieved we could fill that vacancy (heaven forbid I get to spend time at home after work). I am a seasoned pro at waiting that hour in my car, but I had to laugh at myself that I brought 4 books with me...that's a little ambitious don't you think? I actually ended up reviewing my Sunday School lesson, reading this week's RS lesson, and then read some of my novel until I got groggy. I wonder what the neighbors think when they peek out their windows and see me dozing in my car.

2. While at Landon's soccer game in Lehi this week we saw this strange sight. It looked like some sort of Divine communication was going on. My dad pointed out that it looked like it was in Eagle Mountain, but my mom clarified that it was actually Saratoga Springs. (They're always trying to sing Eagle Mountain's praises.)

3. We had Robyn's kids here one night and Landon made green waffles for our dinner.

Ashley helped.

4. I've got a banana graveyard happening on the top of my fridge! Ew! I think I've let the black ones go too long right?

5. Since my life has gotten so busy and since I'm not home to check my calendar I ended up creating a Google calendar that I can sync with my phone (how tech savvy is that?!). I'm hoping this will keep me from forgetting things or letting time get away from me too much.

6. Landon gave a Book of Mormon and a letter with his testimony in it to his friend Tony! Tony lives near us and sometimes goes to Scouts with the boys, but his family isn't active in the church. I thought it was incredibly sweet of Landon to do this (it was wrapped when he gave it to him) and Tony told Landon he'd read it!

7. In other news, I have given up my Sunday nap! It's a reluctant act of maturity on my part (I know, I know) but in an effort to stay on my 9-5:15 sleep schedule I am giving it up. Last Sunday was my first time and I did really well with it. I taught myself how to do Family History Indexing online and ended up doing 81 names! It's kind of cool actually and will probably become one of my nap-replacement activities. I am in mourning for my naps though because being in the cozy on a Sunday afternoon is one of my all-time favorite places to be!

**Do you bring books with you in the car?

Do you think some Divine communication was happening?

Ever had a green waffle?

Are those bananas too far gone?

Have you ever tried Indexing?**

Comment Window Tidbit: If any of you would like a Book of Mormon with my testimony in it I'll send you one for free! Just let me know.

12 on the 12th--December Edition

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01. I woke up at 7:40 this morning and found Landon showered and ready for the day. He's got a good thing going with his early-rising ways.
02. Our yard looks strangely Fall-like for December 12th!
03. I dropped Landon off at the Bishop's house for a Morningside with all the Youth from our ward.
04. I'm not always keen on the sight of 4 huge Sunday papers waiting for me to sort through them for their coupony goodness. (It can be overwhelming.)
05. I had a bunch of white-chocolate encrusted dishes to wash because I made this for our family gathering Saturday night.
06. Whitney and I "made" cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
07. I spent some quality time on the computer loading photos into Smugmug and doing some blogging.
08. The kids spent some time looking at photos on the computer. They love being able to look back on years of photos and videos.
09. I sorted through the newspapers and pulled out all the stuff I need to look through and cut out.
10. I spent some time in the cozy reading this great article from the December Ensign.
11. We had a good afternoon at church.
12. We watched part of the First Presidency's Christmas Fireside for Family Home Evening, and later watched the finale of The Amazing Race.

**How was your 12th?
Will you be joining the
12 on the 12th project in January?
Do you get the Sunday paper?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I needed another Saturday this weekend, dang it!

Six for Saturday

Just so you know, this post took a long, long time to put together due to the very slow uploading speed, but I pushed through the pain.

{I am a total tape spazz.}

1. I had my own Creative Friday at home on Thursday. Whitney ended up going to play at a friend's house all afternoon (woohoo...I'm happy for her of course) and Landon is always great about entertaining himself. I wrote 8 cards and put together a few packages I'd been wanting to do for awhile. It was super satisfying to spend the day in my room (I'm leaning toward being able to call it a studio) and then go to the post office to send all that goodness.


I started rewatching Season 3 of Friday Night Lights (seriously one of my favorite shows ever) while working in my room. I adore Netflix and am totally in love with getting TV shows from them for this purpose. I also love the mess on my desk...that's right, I love a mess! Of course, I prefer it when it's tidy, but since the mess consists of all my stuff (not Whitney's socks or dinosaurs) I don't mind it much. It's always in a state of flux since much of it is either good mail that has come in or good mail that is going out...that's just happy.

I am always making more good mail labels for myself since I go through them so quickly, and love to sit at the computer watching a show while I cut them out (did you notice my mug full of scissors?). I'm going to give a couple sets away to random commenters who tell me what their favorite TV shows are.


2. Landon and Lucas got to do a sleepover switch this week which meant they spent about 60 hours together. They had such a great time together and weren't ready to say goodbye when it was time for me to take Lucas to meet Michelle. I know what it's like to feel that way, so I'm very happy for the two of them to have a great friend in each other.


3. Friday morning after we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House (that will be a separate post) and to lunch we followed Randy back to his office so we could see where he works. He recently moved into the office building Adam renovated (and works in) so it was doubly great to go there and see Adam's great design. This is the door to Adam's office, it is a real blast door he somehow got when they tore down Geneva Steel; he had to get special hinges to hold the weight.


Sadly, Adam wasn't there at the time so we didn't get to see him, but we I did sit at his desk to leave him a note and was amused to see multiple Perrier bottles on it (his desk is the one in the back corner).


4. By the time the kids and I got home I was frazzled. It was far too hot (oh how I wish I could be graceful about the heat) and I was super tired from not sleeping well the night before. I changed clothes, emailed a game-night cancellation (I was in bad shape for hosting a crowd), turned off the phone ringer, and fled to the cozy. The kids were watching a movie and are great about letting me sleep, so I was able to nap for 2.5 hours and then read for an hour before surfacing to find this note from Robyn.


Apparently she got my email about game night (indicating that I was hot, tired and pissy) and came right over to get the kids! That meant I didn't need to feel any guilt for sleeping the afternoon away, had a lovely beverage waiting for me in the fridge and a couple more hours to myself (I cleaned and blogged). Robyn and family recently moved to Cedar Hills so they're now only 5 minutes (instead of 35 minutes) away!


5. I usually listen to audio books with headphones on my iPod and the kids and I use my iPod and speakers for music the rest of the time. I'm rather fond of my music choices and often find myself thinking, "Wow, this is a fabulous mix". But since I make those mixes I think this makes me a genius or a dork...I know. I was thinking I'd like to share the goodness and send a few mix cds out to random commenters who are interested.

**What are your favorite shows to rewatch?
Do you have good mail labels?
Who would you not mind spending 60 hours in a row with?
What object on your desk would reveal who you are?
Do you make great mix cds?
Do you want one of my mix cds?**