Consider yourself invited.

I doubt you will be disappointed if you come; we've worked hard.

The performance will be dedicated to Mike and Jill Bearden and family.

December

To say this month has just been busy would be an understatement. At times it has been completely unmanageable.



Much of the craziness has been this:

Voices. The 10 woman choir I've been singing with. (This is us at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.) We've already had 20+ performances and have 2 more. We will be singing at the North Visitor's center on Temple square on Dec. 23rd at 7:00pm and also doing a Friends and Family Performance on Sunday the 26th. I'll post the invite.

But on my mind tonight is heartbreaking news of the loss of a friend's baby. I knew both Mike and Jill in college and sang in the Institute choir with them. Mike is in Voicemale. They have always been wonderful people. Jill was the one that connected me with Voices, but did not sing in it herself this season because of her pregnancy. I just saw them last week as happy as ever and now they are dealing with tragedy. My heart is breaking for them.

Gratitude

I've been forgetting that I even have a blog, but I should pay it some attention today since I mentioned it in my talk. More specifically, I mentioned a list I made on my sidebar two years ago about little things I was grateful for.

Daniel and I both gave talks in church today on Gratitude. I think it went pretty well and I will put it in my talk archive in case we ever get asked to do one on the exact same topic. (I can hope, right?)

Anyhow, one of the things I spoke about was this list of ideas to show gratitude that I found in the Young Women's manual. I thought it was entertaining, so I thought I'd post it here for you reading pleasure. This is from the lesson entitled "Gratitude and Apreciation".

• 1. Write a note—Make it short, and if you like, use a little art work. It needn’t be on fancy stationery; why not a square of colored construction paper cut with pinking shears? Without being mushy or insincere, pen a happy line of thanks. … Use the postman for deliveries, then you’re not around when it’s read.

• “2. Do a favor—This is a subtle way—good to use with your best friend or your parents. It takes an understanding heart to recognize this as a ‘thank you.’ Rise half an hour early and polish your dad’s shoes. … Or make fudge to give the boy who helped haul scenery for the class play.

• “3. A telephone call—Make it on the first impulse, then it’s the most effective. Don’t feel embarrassed, just be sure you let the fella or gal on the other end of the line feel your gratitude. …

• “4. A happy look—How nice to show appreciation in your face—a quick and ready smile, shining eyes, a warm look. To many folks this is the best thanks of all—and can be a secret communication between you and the person you’re thanking. It involves no stammering, no self-consciousness.

• “5. A gift or treat—And it needn’t be expensive! Tuck a candy bar in your kid brother’s sock drawer for his letting you use his ball point. Dangle some candy kisses from your sis’s tennis racket before putting it back in her closet. Stick four pieces of gum in your chum’s science book—when you return it” (Winnifred C. Jardine, “Thanks a Million,” Improvement Era, Sept. 1960, “Era of Youth” section).

• 6. Rock painting—Go rock hunting, and find flat ones, pretty ones, and smooth ones. These are just right to draw a picture on and give thanks to someone for being such a big help.

I've got to go find me a lot of rocks. I've got a lot to be grateful for. :)

Busy, Busy, Busy.

My sister just emailed me and pointed out that I hadn't blogged in a while OR called her. In fact, I haven't spoken to many people at all! My life has been going full tilt and I have very little downtime.

But I do need to say how grateful I am to feel happy. My house is awesome, my neighborhood is super, the kids are doing great in school, we're healthy....we're just busy.

I am anxious about December. The choir I'm singing in has 18 or so scheduled performances. I'm not sure how it's all going to go down.

I do have lots of pictures to post (including Isaac's room), but they're going to have to wait. I'm just too busy...

GNO in Honor of My Birthday!

Over the UEA weekend we went on a trip (which I will hopefully post about soon). While gone, my birthday happened. When you're in the middle of nowhere it's very difficult to conjure up that festive birthday feeling. So....

Tomorrow (Thursday) night I'm going to do something about that and celebrate with a girls' night out. Dinner @ 7:00pm (at either the Olive Garden or Sweet Tomatoes in the Southetowne area) and ???? with the girls. You are welcome and invited to come if any of the following apply to you:

*You like me (actually this a requirement).
*You desperately need to get out of your house and/or away from your children.
*You have been waiting on the edge of your seat for me to post on my blog more.
*You need new friends.
*You have been hoping for an opportunity to shower me with compliments.
*You've been looking for a way to tell me you've been reading my blog but never comment so I don't know you're there. Ha!


Let me know! :)

Little Girls' Hair

A quick post tonight:

I have finally admitted to myself how much I like to do hair. Little girls' hair to be exact. I have found some great blogs that give me lots of ideas. (Like this one http://www.girlydohairstyles.com/)

So here's a few pictures...



The next ones are really just because she's cute. :) Oh, and she covered herself in stickers.

The following one and the one after that are based on the hairstyle called "Got time?". There's a reason for that. It. Takes. Forever. However it lasted for three days. When you have that many elastics in your hair, it's not going anywhere.

I curled the bottom on one of the days.

Isn't this next one so cool? This is Sarah's dear friend. She didn't even complain once while I was doing it.

Be careful sending a little girl to my house. I just might do her hair!

Come to think of it, they don't even have to be little girls.

Life has been busy

I have pictures to post. Lots. But I've been busy.

Isaac's room is coming along, albeit with huge holding periods.

Every night that I've sat down to look at my calendar, I feel anxious. I feel like shutting down, like my calendar is too full. It's not though. It really is doable. I think I'm the weak link here. And that causes me anxiety.

Life is good. Quite good in fact. Yet sometimes I just feel like it's getting away from me.

And I'm starting sentences with 'and' and 'but' and I'm rambling. If this is what I allow to come out, just imagine what it's like inside my head.



P.S. Nea, I haven't forgotten that you want me to post. Sorry. I will. Soon. Hopefully.

Forward Progress?

I should have pictures of this, but I don't.

In the 45 min. Daniel and I were at choir practice this morning the kids built a fort. Not just any fort...a gigantic fort...or as Isaac declared "The biggest fort anyone ever built." They were excited about it so they couldn't fully understand why I wasn't. There was much complaining when I said it would need to be cleaned up by the end of the night.

The evening wore on and one child felt sick and could not help with clean up. Oh, and what a clean up it was! Once the 15 or so blankets came down we realized they had used things from every corner of the house. I was not happy.

Somedays as a mom it seems like I take one step forward and two steps back.

Anxiety and a Busy Week

I was just looking back through pictures and realized how full this week has been.

Visiting friend and projects.

Utah State Fair.

Piano recital for both boys. (Adam's first.)

Grant Elementary Carnival. (Fun, but I'm still feeling phantom stress.)





Marisa's (my niece) birthday party. Always amazing.




Not shown in pictures are many other things that made this one crazy week.


So as I sit here tonight, I've been thinking about what's on my plate for the coming weeks.



For church alone, I have some things for an upcoming Super Saturday to accomplish, a lesson I just got asked to teach that I haven't looked at, choir in the morning, AND something looming yet undefined that I'll mention later.



This next week there is a new playgroup for Sarah, a birthday party, my first time of volunteering in Adam's classroom, a pottery class for Adam, choir (the little one I joined, a big time commitment in my life right now), a mandatory 2-hr church meeting, the CIRCUS (yay), the school jog-a-thon, RS broadcast, a boy's room in desperate need of progress, and more!





Tonight my table looks like this as I scratch my head trying to narrow down the Super Saturday choices:




And my desk looks like this:

Messy. Full calendar. Yuck!

It's times like these that I wonder if I don't deal with stress correctly.

Isaac's room remodel I

I have tried so hard to fix the formatting on this post. I realized my frustrations with blogger are a big part of the reason I don't post much. Anyhow, the captions don't line up with the correct pictures. See if you can figure it out...


The room that was best for Isaac in this house happens to have been previously done in a "cowboy" theme. Fine for a young boy, but not for one about to turn 11. I have decided to focus on Isaac's room since his birthday is fast approaching.

After much deliberating, I decided to take down both the paneling and the molding. It was not paintable and not quite something I could work with.


Here are two pictures from before we moved in:

Clean always looks better than dirty, so here's a few pictures from the first few weeks in the house:

Isaac had his dresser already, so we got him a bedframe to match and used the old guest room mattreses.

Everything coming down. Lots and lots of repair work to follow.

Our New Kitchen Table

So I been thinking about blogging, every day, many times a day. I have SO many things to blog about. However, by the time night rolls around...I'm tired and worn out.

I promised myself I would post something tonight. It's almost midnight.

You see, I have this dream of posting all of my projects on here. I LOVE to see others projects and would like to keep tabs on my own. And boy have I begun projects....

But tonight, you just get a picture of our new table. That yellowish table just had to go (downstairs).


So here's before:



















And after:

The new table is awesome. I'm so happy with the choice.

First Day of School

Sarah started last week...

























....and is in heaven.



The boys started on Monday. (Yes, I see the pole in Adam's head.)


















It's a big school. It's different. It's going to be just great, but it's hard to be new. The kids are working on making friends. I asked Isaac what it was like to go to a new school and he said "It's just like going to preschool, but everyone else already knows each other."






On another note, I don't like living in a disorganized messy house; it contributes to me being discouraged. When I'm discouraged, I don't have the motivation to organize and clean. When I don't have motivation, nothing progresses much and I feel overwhelmed. When I feel utterly overwhelmed I have one of my bi-annual breakdowns. And that breakdown was tonight. Awesome.

Glum

So I think I'm....(just a moment while I check a thesaurus and look up a milder version of the word depressed - or at least a less used one)....discouraged, drained, debilitated, sad, weary, melancholy, in the blue funk, and glum. I would like to be cheery, encouraged, excited, and happy. Sure I've had good days, but I've noticed that the general pattern is trending down.

I KNOW there is LOTS to be happy about, but in my twisted way of thinking I'm finding myself focusing on smaller bothersome things rather than the big picture. I'm finding it tricky to navigate all of the relationships in my life, both old and new. I'm having lots of days left up to my discretion which opens the door for my ineffectiveness and lack of motivation.

I know that I am still mourning the loss of my old life and home. It's so hard for me to go back there and see the house that the new owner is making changes to or to talk to people that still run in those circles. I've considered that there may be some things that would be easier about moving far away and not having the chance to go back. I did need to go into the old school this week to get my hands on a report card that hadn't made it to me. But after? I sat in the car and cried. That is something that's hard for me to leave.

I know there is joy ahead of us here and I would make the same decision again. I'm excited about so many things and I have met loads of wonderful people, but transition is hard.
I imagine it will just take time.

Ugh. Blogger.

So my title is missing for a time. I can work around blogger's annoying tendencies when I have more peace, quiet, patience, motivation, and blog love.

Is anyone out there? Well, I take that back. I know you are. I look at my blog traffic on occasion, but it's so creepy to know that people look and never comment. I feel waaay more inspired to post if I feel like anyone is really interested in seeing it. I haven't even put pics up of my house yet! I have little idea of who reads this. Actually, I take that back too. I went to a baby shower in the old neighborhood last week and had a few people comment on my last post (the morning following when I put it up late at night). It was weird because I didn't realize they were looking. I don't mind much since my blog is public, but man I love comments.

Okay, so it's LATE at night and I've had a good (could have been fantastic if the kids had been a bit better behaved) but long day. I'm a little loopy and tired of trying to figure out what to do about my blog. Probably not the best time to put up a post. I'm really not needy, just busy so I have to decide where to put my time - blog or house? :)

On another note, do you know I'm really falling in love my new house? Like really? Yep. More each day. This week I feel a *bit* more settled.

Oh, also, Lynea made a surprise visit from Seattle this week. So unexpected and fun. I'm sure I've forgotten some things I was supposed to do or phone calls I was supposed to return and stuff like that, but it was worth it.

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties
1. Making fortunate discoveries by accident.

In the spring of each year of our marraige we've had pictures taken. I've had a terrible time as of late making appointments and spending money so spring had come and gone. Yet I was determined not to let a year go.


Some friends from the old neighborhood had their pictures done at a new place called FotoFly right here in Draper, then I saw the ads and then I found out that my new neighbors personally know the people who are starting the business. Last night I finally got to it and called to make my appointment (for today). While I was doing that the girl I was speaking to (who happens to be the owners wife and didn't even know I was personally interested in photography) mentioned that there was a workshop for free at the studio in about an hour. I got to go to the workshop and have a great night where the owner filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. I felt very fortunate to have stumbled upon it.


Today we went to the same place for family pictures and aside from my children that I could have strangled, the experience was one of the best photo shoots we've had. Everyone was very patient and understanding.


Honestly though, I can't get over how well designed the studio is. They've used every inch of that small space so well. I found myself wishing I could have been the creative genius behind it. Who would have thought to paint the exit door in grafitti? Seriously it's worth going there just to see the space.


Anyhow, taking into consideration the children who were uncoorperative, we got some shots I've very happy with. (Tonight I'm having a hard time getting many of them posted tonight though, so I'll try again with more of them when I'm not so worn down.)


Here are a few...

FotoFly charges $79 for a disc with your images. Prints are $4 if you want to print them there. I left with my disc and photos in hand. I think it's a brilliant business idea and hope they do really well.

P.S. Above I linked to their website, but this is their blog. That is one cute little boy. It's a little funny that Daniel and I had commented on how cool their bathroom was.