favorite job: commentator

This is just quick and silly. But I realized today at church that I love conducting in Primary more than any of my other Sunday responsibilities. I want to love Sharing Time but usually I feel like I failed at this wonderful teaching opportunity. So, what is it I love about conducting? I get to respond to EVERYthing! I get to comment on the scripture and the talk; on our visitors, birthdays, and baptisms. I get to elaborate all I want on the announcements. I get to share what happened to me during the week or what I know is going on with the kids (like this week was Back to School). When sharing time is over, I get the final say and to share my testimony of what was taught. I think I am this way about a lot of things. I like to respond and comment on things. So, when I'm not sharpening pencils, I'll have to find a job commentating, somewhere where they will give me the last say!

how far will we get?

Ethan is running around my computer room having just been kicked out of the craft room for coloring on my walls again! This is like the 200th time but I am counting my blessings because it was just pencil, not permenant marker this time AND I caught him heading for his second wall before he did any more damage!. So, we'll see how far I get with this post.
But I have had pictures and ideas I wanted to blog about. So, this will be a random post and may take me all day to write, but here we go!

Back To School!

I love getting ready to go back to school! First, we buy new school supplies. I love a brand new box of crayons, clean erasers, freshly sharpened pencils, sharp scissors... Then, we organize all our stuff! We divide things out, fill our pencil boxes and load our backpacks... This year, I personalized my kids bags with Heidi Swapp iron-ons. Don't you love it! I want to monogram everything!! This year, we didn't really need to shop for school clothes but we did need shoes. And let me say, prayers were answered when I found shoes for every child at Target AND they were on sale! So, with several days until school would start, we were packed and ready to go!
I think I decided I want to be a pencil sharpener when I grow up! There is something wonderful about the smell of the wood and the sharpness of the point and the pile of yellow lines growing... do you think that's a real job?


Fun Mom!!

The hose was out because I had cleaned the pool (and put it away), sprayed down the swing set and cleaned the front porch (including my rocking chairs). I went out just before putting kids to bed to make sure everything was put away when I noticed how dirty the garage door was. I asked Soren to run and turn on the water so I could spray it down. Well, unlike my usual neat freak, get to bed on time self, I decided to just spray Soren with the hose! And Megan. And Emily. And Kate and Ethan! Everyone was already in their jammies and Kelly was waiting for us to have family prayer- but, who cares? Well, normally I do. But I let loose and was rewarded with really great laughter and smiles on my kids! I can't promise it will become a habit, but I did have a good time forgetting the routine and just having fun! I couldn't help but think how proud Kristi would be of me!!

Tradition!

Even though I am jealous of people with lots of traditions, we don't have many of them around our house. We do have one though that I LOVE! Every year, on the first day of school, I give a new book to any child who is in school. Often, it ends up being more than one and this year I have four in school!! So, this is the stack of books for my kids this year. I am really excited to give them to my kids because I found books that are so perfect for my kids interests and reading levels!! I love how excited all my kids are about reading! It is the one homework assignment I can get behind!! Happy Reading!

Surprise!!


Of course I love good mail, but I received a couple of things in the last week or two that I was NOT expecting! My sister, Elizabeth, sent me a package with tags and ribbon... something she has never done before! We exchange kids clothes and christmas presents but a package full of fun for no reason at all! It totally made my day!! Thanks Elizabeth!

And then, I walked into my front room the other night and found a Stampin' Up bag sitting by the door. I asked the kids where it came from and nobody knew! AND, in addition to my order, there was a bundle of Bazzill books. I called Jill to find out what the deal was and she said, Lisa brought the books back from her retreat in Arizona for us! She had just slipped the bag in my front door- if there was ever a reason to leave your door unlocked when you leave, this is it!!! :) So, THANKS Lisa! It was SO nice of you to bring me my stuff and to haul back the extra goodies! I'm looking forward to scraplifting some great ideas!

So, You Think You Can Dance?

I think there has been enough time since the finale to say, hip hip hooray! Can you believe Benji won?!??! I have SO loved this show! I liked all the dancers in the final four, although I wish Allison had made it! But, I really expected Travis to win. When they said it wasn't Heidi, I wasn't surprised. When they said it wasn't Donyelle, I wasn't surprised. When they annouced Benji as the winner, I jumped three feet in the air and screamed! I didn't think I cared that much because I liked them all, but I was shocked and thrilled for him! I can't wait for next season! And in the meantime, Kelly is compiling a CD for us of our favorite songs from the show. Any suggestions?

Well, it has been eight hours since I started this. I'm sure there was more I would have blogged about if I had had time each day. But alas, I do what I can. It was fun to post again. l'd do it more if Ethan would nap! He fell asleep today in the stroller on the way to Emily's Kindergarten Evaluation and was woken by the hail storm we had to walk home in! A day in my life... sheesh!

to read or to write...

that is always the question for me as I sit down to the computer. I am not nearly as busy as everyone makes me believe I am. But, when I sit down for my few minutes at the computer, I can write an entry OR I can read all of yours. Obviously, I choose to read more often than I choose to write.
My sister, Angela, called today to ask what was going on in my life because I hadn't posted for a while and she wanted an update. Well, nothing is going on. Just ordinary day to day things. But my kids just don't leave me time to both read and write.
Ethan won't go down for a nap today. I feel so unproductive with him- for an easy going kid, he sure is demanding of my attention. The list of things to get done and to do for fun is SO long, that I've stopped looking at it. It is too discouraging. But, for Angela, I am writing this post to say,

Hello! And things are fine.

SALE!

Hey Local Friends-
Forget Me Not is having their birthday sale today through Saturday. You get to pop a balloon for a discount and the real reason I am posting- they have the Ali Edwards book (pattern paper) and the new card book (Stacy and friends: 40 techniques...) both for 40% off! I think the store inventory is kind of low right now, but was so happy to pick up new books! I haven't done that in SO long!

So, if you're in the neighborhood, it just might be worth a stop!

One week and counting!

My kids start school one week from today and I can't wait! I am so tired of the fighting, the mess, the whining about being bored when I am neck deep in jobs and projects... My kids found out who their teachers are last night and who is in their class. I think we are happy about who everyone got.
Megan has the same teacher Kate had last year- our first repeat teacher!! I hope she will get to know Megan as Megan and not assume she is like Kate, because we all know she is NOT!
Emily has morning Kindergarten which means from 9:15am until about noon, I will have just Ethan. Of course, he'll be awake and in desperate need of attention since all his playmates are at school! And then, when he goes down for a nap, Emily will be home and wanting attention of her own. I hope I can make the most of this but am a little annoyed that I won't have true alone time in the afternoons. But, who am I kidding? Alone time with five kids even if school is in session? HA HA HA!

{When do you start school and are you excited or sad that summer is ending?}

my weekend in Eden

Kelly and I celebrated our 12th anniversary this weekend. Kelly surprised me with a wonderful weekend away. He took care of all the details, including the babysitter (and that is a huge deal!!!).

After Kelly got home from work on Friday, we packed up and headed north. We dropped kids at Grandma Hot Tub's house and hurried out the door, anxious to be kid free for a couple days. I had no idea where we were going but was quite happy to just relax and let Kelly run the show. I felt more and more relaxed as we drove through Ogden Canyon and ended up in the beautiful and serene Ogden Valley. Our destination: Eden!

We loved the old worn barns mixed with beautiful new homes, the green fields surrounded on all sides by mountains... it felt isolated from our busy world and you couldn't help but slow down and enjoy the view. We had dinner at The Red Dog Grille, located in the General Store and dripping with small town charm. The food was fabulous! We ate outside in the late evening sun while we laughed and reminisced about 12 years together. Some of the highlights include the birth of each of our children, traveling, and ballroom dance classes.

After dinner, we checked in to a gorgeous condo at Moose Hollow. Kelly brought my favorite candle and bubble bath so I could take advantage of the jetted tub. We went to bed early because the BIG surprise was early Saturday morning.

We got up at 6am and headed out to a huge field where there were several hot air balloons in various stages of taking off. One of them was for US!! It was so fun to watch the balloon fill with air from this heavy duty fan and then see the balloon tip up as the pilot heated the air. We hopped in the basket with 4 other people (including the pilot), excited to go up in the morning sky. We were first up in the air, which was fun. (Oh no, maybe I am more competitive than I thought!) We hovered low for a while, hoping to catch a south breeze, but the breeze had already died down. So we went UP! We flew for about 45 minutes and then landed in a field (full of grasshoppers!) where we helped put the balloon away. It sounds like we did all the work, but it really was fun and our pilot, Mark, was so nice and easy to talk to. You can tell he loves what he does! After the balloon was loaded, we went back to the field where we were parked. Before we left, we had a glass of sparkling cider in honor of the first pilot. (He landed in a field, scaring the farmer who then tried to hurt him with a pitchfork, so he started bringing champagne as a gesture of friendship for landing on someone else's property!) It was an AMAZING adventure and a great way to start our day!

Our other activities included:

• a nap
• a visit to the monastery in Huntsville where they make flavored honey (we bought orange and raspberry- both are delicious!)
• lunch and swimming at Pineview Resevoir
• Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest (again, and I liked it even better!)
• dinner at Ye Lions Den in Ogden (you may have heard of it if you like to listen to KSL's movie show!) a five course meal, every course was good- especially the prime rib!!
• and then home, where Kelly let me go to bed and he did the grocery run and woke the kids to see the meteor shower/shooting stars

And it doesn't end there.

As if the balloon ride and get away weren't enough, Kelly bought me a present for our actual anniversary (Sunday). I think it is the best gift he has ever given me! You may disagree, but I am so totally amazed by his gift! I don't know how he even knew- if I made a comment, it would have been so slight and offhand. But, still wrapped in the priority mail envelope was a copy of the book Jelly Beans for Breakfast! It is out of print. It has been for a long time. If you know me, you know this is the perfect book for me and when I was little, I LOVED this book. I have a black and white photocopy of the only copy I have seen since loving it as a child, found in a learning center at BYU. Kelly, my ebay wiz and very thoughtful husband, found a copy and I am ecstatic! I read it to him as he nodded off to sleep last night, exhausted from making it a wonderful weekend for me! I loved every minute of my weekend and it is all thanks to Kelly who really went all out! How lucky am I?!!! Thank you Kelly, for a wonderful weekend in Eden!

{our digital camera is kind of on the fritz, so you'll have to wait for pictures. Sorry!}

revisiting creative hang-up #2

Remember how I can't work in a mess? How I get distracted and claustrophobic when there are stacks and piles around me? Well, it is even more than that. I really, really love organizing!! It is just as much fun to rearrange my shelves or even better, to add new ones, as it is to scrapbook! So, as Jill requested, these are pictures of my new IKEA shelf and my newly organized space. As a note, organized is NOT the same as clean. If I could figure out how to keep my room clean AND organized, what a creative genius I could be!! :)

Katelyn's Wedding Book

The cover of katelyn's book. The book is 10" x 10". I painted the flower red. The button is one of the clear 7 Gypsies buttons with striped paper behind it, the same striped paper as the inside of the cover.





I did a section of Katelyn and Justin that had several "layouts" with all black and white photos of them. The pages have quotes too. This is my favorite! (Do you love Ethan's feet in the corner of my picture!!)





They had receptions in Utah and California so I made divider pages with tabs for each location plus a tab for the Katelyn and Justin section. The tabs are Karren Russell Narratives and I printed my own words on transparencies to replace the ones that came in the tabs. The divider pages were the only red pages in the whole book, every other page was black and embellished pages had red accents. The pen for signing was a silver gelly pen- it looked really cool on the black pages!

Inbetween some of the signing pages are these little pages with quotes about love and marriage- kind of advice type quotes. I totally stole this idea of putting things inbetween the pages from Michelle, the same Michelle who thinks she never has an original idea! Join the club Michelle! So glad I have you to steal ideas from!! I think this is one of the most fun and unique things about my book!


The back cover has the new couple's monogram- I LOVE the big chipboard 'm' from BasicGrey!! And of course, I LOVE adding ribbon to the binding as a finishing touch! It just multiplies the happiness!

Eliza's Wedding Book

The cover of Eliza's book. This book is 8x8. I used BasicGrey rubons down the paper seam and Making Memories letters to create the couple's monogram.






On every wedding book I make, I include the announcement as the front page.







This is my favorite "layout" from the pictures of Danny and Eliza. The reason I put a section of pictures grouped at the front of the book is because I love to use my embellishments and you can't have anything bulky inbetween the signing pages or people can't write. I also love putting quotes with the pictures the couple had taken! It is fun to put meaning to those expensive snapshots!



Again, I did colored pages for the dividers. I included a black bulldog clip embellished with a rubon word so the pages for the other reception could be closed and people didn't sign in the wrong place. (Yes, I learned that from experience!)





Instead of small quote pages in this book, I made full pages. (Danny didn't really like the advice quotes, so I found as many shmoopy ones as I could to match the pictures they sent me.) I cropped and faded the pictures in photoshop, added the quote over the photo and printed the whole thing on vellum. It was a really subtle effect that was a favorite with this couple!



The back cover is so simple- a rubon with a charm that reads "cherish". And of course, more ribbon down the binding!

do something creative every day

I hung on to my box from Paper Source for a long time because I loved reading this sentiment! I think it is a wonderful and brilliant idea! Unfortunately, I don't seem to find time every day for being creative. I guess that is why I love deadlines, even with the stress and craziness the deadline adds to my already crazy life! When I have a deadline, it forces me to get things done and how wonderful it is when I am forced to do something creative!!

When I was a kid, I did NOT think of myself as creative. In fact, I thought I was uncreative because I had brothers that were such wonderful artists. While at BYU, I took a floral design class, which led to a job at Campus Craft and Floral and that escalated into all sorts of creative endevors! I feel that my life has been greatly expanded and enriched by developing my creativity. Having found my creative talents "later" in life, I also think everyone is creative- maybe not with paper and glue (my current favorite) but still creative. If you are not finding ways to develop your creativity, you are missing out!

These are my latest "forced" creative projects. I made the guest books for two of my friends' weddings. I hope they are so much more than just a guest book and that my friends enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them! The finished product is such a source of happiness and accomplishment for me (unlike mopping the floor which gets sticky within minutes of putting the mop away!)

{Just Kidding! Blogger won't upload my pictures right now. I'll try again later.}

Happy Birthday Mom!!

My wonderful mother is turning a year older today. I wanted to say she is celebrating her birthday, but I don't know that she is doing much to celebrate. Too bad! I wish we were closer so we could help her celebrate- she deserves a big party with lots of laughter and fun! She has given so much of it to us!

Sorry we can't be with you mom! I hope you have a great day!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Gratitude is...

happiness doubled by wonder. -G.K. Chesterton

Don't you love this quote?!! Life has been busy. My kids have been sick. I have had company. My house is a wreck and frankly, so am I! But I have wonderful friends who have helped me survive the last couple of weeks and I am indebted to them for their kindness! I was so happy to receive their help and gifts but the surprise and generosity of it all is truly a wonder to me and I am so grateful!

My bookclub friends got together for Amy's birthday and to see her new baby! But we all left with presents! Collette brought us bookmarks and CUTE cherry spoon rests from her trip to Washington D.C. and Jana brought us flavored syrup from Nauvoo. It is such a wonderful feeling to know someone thought of you while they were away! Thanks you two!

Michelle, having just sent me the fabulous red, white and blue package, sent me a copy of the Simple Scrapbooks special issue! It came on a really bad day and the package itself was a great pick me up but how delightful that it kept picking me up as a flipped through it during the rest of my day! Thanks Michelle!

Jill, who has 'friend in need' radar!, offered to give me the sharing time she had prepared since it was her turn for the class presentation this month. I didn't know how I was going to pull off sharing time with my crazy busy week but thanks to Jill, I didn't have to prepare one from scratch! She brought me not just the idea but all the visual aides too! I only spent an hour or two learning it and adapting it for my primary (I had to do both Jr. and Sr.). If that wasn't enough, she delivered it to my door AND had disinfecting wipes to help with my sick kids!! Thanks Jill!

But the most surprising and timely gift was delivered to my front door by Amie! I didn't even go to the door I was in such a funk and sitting, depressed, on the couch. My day had been terrible. What I needed to get done seemed overwhelming. There was a knock at the door and I was sure it was a salesman- just that time of day. So, imagine my surprise when my kids brought me a giant paper bag with ribbon and a card! They weren't sure who brought it since they have not really met Amie. I opened the card and the words on the front made me teary- just because. I ripped open the bag to find the cutest star plate! Amie had seen my room once and thought the plate would look good in my Americana room. That's all! That's what prompted this wonderfully generous gift that could not have come at a more perfect time! Amie is one of those sweet souls that I know through Jill. We really only see each other when we're with Jill, so that she would think of me independent of that AND bring me such a thoughtful gift is truly a wonder to me! Thank you, thank you Amie! It meant SO much!

Many others of you have left me sweet comments and messages that have also lifted my spirits! (Kristi- I would call you to my Jr. Primary in a heartbeat!!) I can't imagine my life without friends! I couldn't do what I do without each of you! I thank my Heavenly Father daily for the blessing you are in my life!