Photo Book

I got an offer from Shutterfly for a free photo book if I placed any order. Of course I took advantage but there was a catch. The book needed to be done in a little over a week. At one point I even got a taunting email "Only five days left to order your free photo book." Arg, Shut it!

Last week I started by going through my photos. No small task considering there was easily over a thousand. I picked the ones that highlighted what we had done as a family for each month. Then I started uploading and working on the book.

Monday I started getting so mad. Their stupid templates are very limited with what you can do and how much you can type. I almost gave up. I just wasn't pleased with the result I was getting. That is when I realized that I needed to make each and every page. ( I started regretting that I hadn't been better about scrapbooking in 2008)

I spent many hours at the computer on Monday and Tuesday. I had to share my computer time with Emma who was working on a PowerPoint presentation. Even she was taunting me, "You know mom, there is no way you are going to get that done in time." Seriously child, take a trip to shuttyville.

Last night around 11:30 p.m. I finished. I clicked the button and ordered that sucker. It isn't perfect by any means (there are probably typos but that will prove to the kids I made it!)and I used some quick pages, but it highlights our year pretty well and I think the kids will love looking at it. Now I can go back to quilting and maybe even pick up a book in my free time.

This is the title page.

I'm Stuck

Update-Paul did a dry by and unlocked my car before 10:00 am today. Yeah Paul!

Andrew is home from school today with a cold and I think I am going to go insane. He probably should have gone. He just keeps talking and talking and talking....

In an effort to escape the optical illusions that Andrew wants to show to me on the computer I decided to try and look busy. I went to go get my tri-pod base out of the car and the car is locked. Paul took it Saturday night and I guess he thought he better lock it up while it sat in the garage all day yesterday. Whatever. My purse is in it and yep you guessed it, my keys.

He better stop by the house today and free me. Emma has piano and there is no way I am making her walk in this snow.

It's Baaack!

Growl, hiss, spat!

We just got rid of this gunk and now it is back.

Snow snow go away, never come another day.

Date Night

Paul and I both felt prompted last Sunday to go to the temple so that is what we did. We met up with my parents in Bountiful, handed over the kids and headed up to the temple. It was the first time either of us had done a session there. We had only been to weddings in that temple.

As we were driving to Bountiful we hit fog just as we were getting into Salt Lake. Fog is pretty rare around here and it was THICK! It was a little spooky but hey, we got to use our fog lights.

Once we got up to the temple we were above it and it was a beautiful night.

It was very crowded so we missed the 6:30 session and had to wait for the 7:00pm session.

By the time we were done I was starving! Paul suggested that we go to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. (The weird glow is from all the fog)

Since one of my resolutions is to go someplace new at least once an month I was all for it. I was going to count the temple, but now I have two news for January ;)

By this time it was after 9:30 at night. While I was in the bathroom washing my hands Paul surprised me by ordered me a piña colada, my favorite drink.

Paul was teasing me because I was eating so much food, and I was eating even more quickly than usual. They brought out some rolls, I scarfed them. I brought out my salad, I scarfed it.

Check out the size of that tater!

I got my steak and potatoes and had to force myself to stop eating so I would have some leftovers. They had peanuts on the table and I kept eating those too. Waiting that long for dinner does not work well for me. The food was really good and we will definitely be going back.

We had a really nice time together and plan to try and do a session once a month. We want to go to some of the temples here we haven't been to yet. There are still so many for us to choose from.

Vegas

I have been to Vegas so many times I have lost count.

It is the closet big city to us so it is easy to just pick up and go. We often stop in Vegas on our way to California. (only when we don't fly, obviously) We go for BYU bowl games. I've been on girlfriend getaways. Paul has even had to fly down for work. It just seems like we are always going to Vegas.

Since we don't drink, we don't like hookers or strippers, (however Paul seems to enjoy the showgirls)

we don't go clubbing, we don't have beach bods to hang out by the pool with and we don't really gamble (especially since they took away the coins falling out. A paper slip just doesn't excite me) there really isn't a whole lot for us to do there. We tend to get a little bored.

How many times can you ride the roller coaster around New York New York, see a magic show, check out the Sirens of TI

or admire the botanical gardens and the dancing water at the Billagio?

For some reason though each time I see someone in Vegas on TV (yes I watched the Bachelor this week) it looks sooo fun and I want to go back.

I really do want to see the Vegas version of Phantom and I would love to see Mystere again.

I have been getting tons of emails from the different hotels and they have the best deals right now. It is so tempting to book a room and hit the road. Billagio's best deals are in March and it is one of my favorite places to visit while there.

We don't have any trips or weekend getaways planned for March yet. It is probably still going to be freezing here in March and getting pretty nice and warm down there. Doesn't this look inviting?

I just need to remind myself that we don't need to go to Vegas again. We really don't. It's just that we have stayed in a really scary place down there (this was 2005, I think. Looking back now we can laugh)

and we have stayed in nice, decent places, but it would be fun to stay on the strip in one of the luxury hotels. That would be a first unless you count The Excalibur as luxury LOL!!!

Maybe I will forward the email on to Paul and see what happens.

Another Road Block

We thought that we had a solution for our housing problem, rent out our house. We were told that it would count as extra income so we could qualify for both mortgages at once and we would be able to hold onto our house until the housing market got to be a little more stable. We would then be able to actually sell if for a profit or at least break even.

We were informed today that when renting one house we still need to qualify for both mortgages and have six months worth of rent for both houses in savings. It's pretty clear, the renting option is out. We are so confused. 

We are still packing up the stuff we don't need cluttering up our lives. 

We painted the kid's bathroom today. No more turquoise, what a relief! (This is what happens when you are a first time homeowner after living in rental white for eight years. You get really excited that you are finally allowed to paint and you go a little nutso thinking that the kids would love and undersea bathroom.) It was such a pain to paint we lived with blue for FIVE years!!! See where we tried out some brown? We decided it was just too dark. That has been there almost a YEAR! Also notice the white patch reflecting in the mirror? That is where the towel rack had pulled out of the crappy wall anchors the previous home owners had put in. 

This is actually a nice tan/taupe, it looks like it is reading a little pink in the photos but it isn't pink in real life. We still need to touch up some spots, and put up the hardware. I can't wait to shop for accessories. 

We plan to carpet the rest of the house, or at least the upstairs, this spring and do some other things that need to get done to make it a little prettier. We want the house to be ready if we decide to sell or get in a position where it wouldn't be stupid to sell.

For now we are left sitting here wondering about the feelings we had to pursue the other house. I am glad Paul felt it too or I would really be questioning my ability to understand the Spirit! I guess it is a good thing we like where we live because it looks like we will be here quite a while longer.

I am Pleading for Help!

Without the option of barbecuing (Paul says it is too cold to maintain proper temperature, blah blah blah) I am having the hardest time knowing what to serve my family. When we grill everyone is generally pretty happy.

I hate trying new things because more often than not it is a total waste of money and I hate that the kids act like I am torturing them. I looked through the ward cookbook hoping to find some tried and true recipes that will not fail. No luck. There was some ingredient in each recipe that made it so it wasn't a possibility.

Now you may be wondering why I allow them to dictate me in such a way. If they don't eat the dinner I make I am them responsible for making something they will eat. I turn into a short order cook. If I don't make something half way decent for them, they will eat cold cereal every night of their life. I can't live with that.

They are the pickiest, freakiest, eaters of all time. Here is what I am up against.

Paul hates creamy. Anything with sour cream, cream of chicken soup or cream cheese based is out. He also doesn't believe that soup is a complete meal.

Emma hates sauces. No ketchup, BBQ sauce or things of that nature. She would probably freak out over most creamy things (as listed above) also.

Andrew hates marinara. No lasagna, spaghetti, or pasta dishes with a tomato base.

WHAT THE HECK DO I SERVE THEM???

Any help, suggestions, recipes, or links would be appreciated. We can't keep eating pizza. Help me please!

The kids are gone

Grandma and Grandpa have all the grandkids for the long weekend. That gave me some time to start cutting out and sewing together some quilts. I can have two laid out since Andrew isn't around to use them as an obstacle course. I'm convinced that he thinks I lay them out just for him to jump over. I work better when I have a few things going at once that way when I get bored with one I can move to the other project for a while.

I still need to finish sewing my Christmas nightmare but until I can stomach the thought of that I decided to play with some charm packs. This is what my Christmas nightmare will look like if I ever finish it. The pieces and fabrics are hard to work with. It just hasn't been fun. It will look great when it is done though.
This is just a very simple Valentine's quilt or table topper (I can't decide yet). I needed instant gratification though after dealing with the thing up above.

I used two charm packs of candy kisses and laid it so the reds, pinks and cream go on the diagonal. I am trying to decide how much more money I want to spend. If I cheap out it will be a square table topper. If I go back to the store it will be a very small quilt with a small light colored border framed by a larger dark border. I would display it on one of my quilt racks in the month of February. Either way it is going to be festive and cute. I am hoping to have the other five rows sewn by the time I go to bed tonight.

I love this! The pattern is called A Little Bit Country. It will be an Easter/Spring table topper or wall hanging. It is very small but just so cute and cheery. I bought the same fabric that was pictured on the pattern but the photo didn't do it justice. When I opened up the packs I fell in love with the colors and patterns. They're just yummy! There are extra charms left over that will be used to do make a thin, pieced inner boarder surrounded by another pieced, thicker border. Too cute!

My great-grandma said that each stitch that was sewn on the sabbath would have to be picked out with your nose in heaven. I sure hope that isn't true because I am off to sew!

Happy Birthday!

Today we got to celebrate two birthdays.

We started by going to Chuck E. Cheese for Chandler's birthday. Of course the kids had a blast. We saw the giant mouse, got pizza, played games and won prizes. What more can you ask for?

After that we came home and packed up the kids for a weekend at Grandma's then headed to our second party. My dad turned 60 yesterday and we celebrated by going to lunch at Buca Di Beppo. We had tons of good food and the kids had a blast looking at all the crazy stuff on the walls, hearing the echo across the Pope's table and checking out Pee Boy. He was the highlight of our lunch.

Here's the birthday boy. It looks like he'll have a blessed year.

 Emma is absolutely appalled at the statue

Check out the two hams in the background

This is Cora, the youngest of the grandkids

All the cousins: Lowell, Abby, Cora, Emma and Andrew

This is Emma, Abby, Andrew, Lowell, Talon (my cousin) and Cora

Poor Baby

My sweet little pooh bear is not feeling well. She came from school crying because her head was hurting her so badly. I took down her hair, just in case it was a pony tail induced headache, got her dressed in soft pj’s and put on the couch downstairs where she could watch some TV and eat an after school snack. I gave her some Advil and she seems to be doing better. I asked her why she didn’t call for me to come and get her and she said the teacher didn’t let her.

The thing is Emma only gets sick about once a year. The timing would be right, it's always in the winter. (Last year I missed it because Paul and I were in Las Vegas with friends) I hope she gets to feeling better soon. I'm not used to having a sick baby girl.

Close To My Heart

***I took down the picture just in case there are copy write issues. I was informed that until the paper line is released it is kept pretty hush hush. It was a pretty boring photo anyway LOL!***

I was asked to me part of a photo shoot for Close To My Heart's summer catalog. It was a ton of fun to see how they did everything but it was also really challenging. We were asked to talk, laugh, scrapbook, and smile all at the same time. The shooting took about an hour but we were there for a total of two hours while they worked out the set accents, got the lighting right, figured out our outfits and positioned us.

It was very America's Next Top Model-esqu. They would take a picture then everyone would hover around the computer to see how it looked. The stylist would come over and brush our hair or fix our tops and they would do a few more shots and then make adjustments again. The photographer would come back and give us feedback and then we start all over in a new position.

There was me, another lady I know really well from church and then the demonstrator was a model. She was so pretty! Almost all the shots had my profile. I hate my profile. I hope that somehow the post shoot magic will make it okay. Since this is for the summer catalog we were asked to wear short sleeves. I am so pale white I am almost translucent. My arms are way scary. I felt bad!

Look for us online in a couple of months. The photo they select will be on page 2. Oh and I almost forgot.....click here http://www.closetomyheart.com/Ideabooks/Fall08US.aspx and go to page 60-61 and look on page 61 bottom left. Yep, that's us! One of the designers (Hi Gail!) used our photo on her page. Isn't that cool!?!

One step forward, ten steps back

Today we called the lender. While he has no problem approving us, all the fees and the down payment were a lot more than we have or anticipated. We are assuming that we will not get anything more than what we owe for our house at this point that's if we are lucky. Dang economy!

In this situation we would have to get “creative” to have a big enough down, cover closing costs and pay the realtor. We refuse to go into debt to make this happen. We are enjoying life too much right now to get dragged back down with debt. I also don’t think that Heavenly Father would want us to go against His counsel of avoiding debt.

What does this mean? I have no clue. We are still planning to proceed, but slowly and more cautiously. (Yesterday I was ready to go all out, full speed ahead) Paul and I both feel like we need to move forward, we are still going to get our house ready to put on the market but we don’t have any idea how this is going to play out. What I do know is that I got an answer to my prayers and I am not ready to give up yet.

Here we go!

I got the confirmation I was looking for during Sacrament Meeting today.

While I was pondering, I was reminded of counsel that we received in the temple while we were kneeling over the altar. We were told to have a house where our children could bring their friends. He went on to say things about being the cool house, with pizzas, where everyone would always want to be, things like that. I always looked at this house and wondered how we could do that. I feel like that other house is a righteous desire, one that can make that counsel we received a reality.

The talks today were about prioritizing our time and to put God as our number one priority. I knew that I needed to hear that because getting our house in order is going to take a lot of hard work and faith. We are going to have to really stay focused to make this work.

Logically I can't understand how this dream will become a reality. I am going on faith here and hoping for the best. If all goes as planned we will have our house on the market very soon. I once had someone say, "It's amazing what can happen when the Lord is your realtor." I am hoping and praying that the Lord will take us in His arms and find a buyer who will love this home and feel drawn to it like we were. If it is meant to be, it will happen. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Project 365

I guess I had been living under a rock. I was on my scrapping message board when I saw a girl mention that she was going to take a picture everyday as part of her New Year's resolutions. I thought this sounded like a great idea so I told her that I planned on trying it as well. Late in December I made up all the rules for myself and set it as one of my resolutions. Little did I know that Project 365 was taking the scrapping world by storm. It's what *everyone* is doing. I really had no clue until I was about four days into it and starting seeing things about it on every scrapping board I went to. Apparently everyone thought it sounded like a good idea.

So far I have enjoyed this challenge and so have the kids. They are very good about reminding me to take a picture.

I had planned to just make a photo blog (Link is up there on the top right) and post everything over there. Now I'm thinking I might as well do Project 365 right. I am putting each picture and it's caption on a "page". Here is my first week. This cover page is a template that I got from ikeagoddess' blog.

This is a complete list of my resolutions. I am hoping that doing all of these things will keep me in a positive frame of mind and that I won't get the winter blues. So far it is really helping.

I'm getting deep here...

There is no doubt in my mind that we bought the house we were meant to live in 5.5 years ago.

When we first came to Utah we knew we would be living near St. George for a couple of months before moving the business north. Were renting a home very temporarily in the pathetic little town of Ivins.

As the move north came closer we set aside one Saturday to find our house. I had been doing all the legwork from my computer and had compiled a list of homes I wanted to look at. Paul looked over my shoulder and asked why we weren’t looking at that house pointing to one on a list that had been sent to me by our realtor. I said, “Because it is small, has ugly heart railing, terraces and a really steep driveway.” He then said, “I want to see it.” So we added it to the list.

This house was probably the 3rd or 4th house we saw. When we walked in it was like the heaven’s had opened and we could hear angels singing. It was so far superior to the rest we couldn’t believe it.

We quickly toured the other houses but knew that this was “the one”. We went back home and found out quickly that our offer had been accepted. At some point Paul went back up to Utah Co. to do the walk through and called me to let me know how it was going. He mentioned that it was a little rougher than he had remembered. Oh well, it was our first home.

We moved in and quickly started to realize there were flaws. Structurally the house is great but there were features we neglected to look for and it was lacking storage and living space. There was no way we could deny that we saw this house through rose-colored glasses.

I kept waiting for the day, or overwhelming experience, when I could say “Ah, now I know why this house was suppose to be ours” but it never really came.

I sit back and wonder if it was so I could meet Maggie and all the other fabulous ladies of the ward, or if was so Emma could become such good friends with the amazing Jenna. Maybe it was because my Heavenly Father knew how much I would enjoy looking out my living room window and seeing the breathtaking view of the entire valley below us. Maybe He knew how happy it would make me each time I saw the majestic mountains out my kitchen window, or the cities lights reflecting off the lake at night and knew the joy I would get from watching the amazing sunsets every evening. It’s also possible that it was so I could get excited time and time again by seeing all the deer going through my yard or crossing the street in front of me. Maybe it was so the kids could attend one of the greatest schools around with fun, loving and attentive teachers and staff. Or it could’ve been so we could get to know and become friends with our amazing neighbors.

There have been so many great experiences and fabulous perks to living in this house that it makes it hard to think about leaving. The time has come though where we might be at that point.

We are ready for more space, ready to live somewhere a little flatter, and without so much yard to take care of.

Saturday I was playing on the internet and found a listing for a newer, larger house that we could afford. It had everything we were looking for and the kids wouldn’t have to change schools. I’ve played this game before but for some reason this was different. Usually I forget about it and move on but this has been consuming my every thought.

Maggie and I walked through on Monday and as much as I wanted to hate the house so I could move on, I fell in love.

It would be a great step up for us, but all the stars would have to align just right for it to work. I mean with the housing market the way it is, we might have to stay here indefinitely! We are praying though that if it is meant to be ours we will know it like we did with this house and that things will fall into place.

Right now it seems impossible and unlikely that we could pull this off. So many things would have to happen, but you never know. In one hour Paul and I will be touring it together and we will decide if we want to begin the journey of trying to sell our home.

WE ARE GOING TO MAUI!

This year is lucky 13. Paul and I will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary! Where does time go? We need to get away, just the two of us. It's been what? A couple of years since we went to Chicago and Mexico and enjoyed a vacation with just the two of us. So it's official, everything is booked. We are going to Maui in April. I can't wait. The 6+ inches of snow we got yesterday (and that we are still getting) really pushed us over the edge. Aloha!

I Hate Snow

This may not look like much to some of you but let it be known that it continued to snow, and snow, and snow, and you know what? It's still snowing. That is my poor little car that could not get up my driveway last night. After much shoveling we did get her back in the garage.Can you tell I'm bitter?

The news said we got six inches. Why then were my kids walking in snow that is up to their knees? This was a double bundle day for sure. They had to put on their regular clothes and then snow clothes, boots, gloves and hats. It took twice as long to get them dressed.

This is what happens when you get to the bottom of your driveway and find out that there is old ice under snow. You fall and get cut on said ice. Now stop laughing. No, I mean it! It isn't funny that I feel on my fat butt at the bottom of our driveway. Not funny at all. Too bad the ice didn't just slit my wrist open completely so I would be out of my snow misery LOL!

Do you hear that?

It's silence.

The kids have gone back to school!

Paul started back today also. He had an early class so he left before the rest of us got up.

It was 9 degrees when the kids headed  out the door. This is Andrew's impression of Randy from A Christmas Story. Don't worry, it has already warmed up to 10 so they will be fine. Have I mentioned lately that I hate Utah in the winter?