Reasons for not posting

           This blog has sort of gone by the wayside while I've been busy with other things lately. Here's just a few of them.
           My kids... what can I say they are the main reason I don't get as many things accomplished in a day as I'd like. I walked in the other day to find these two playing to their inner musician on my guitar. They were just too cute and Caitlyn got so excited when she'd pluck a string and it would make a sound. Thrills over little things.:)
           We made two unexpected trips home to Star Valley to visit my grandfather who was dying from cancer and then returned two weeks later for his funeral. I was able to see cousins that I haven't seen for 7 years, and remember the wonderful person he was and the wonderful life he led. He has some wonderful stories growing up and my goal some day is to write a few of them into some children's picture books.
           While I was home I also realized that I didn't have many pictures of the place I called 'home' all growing up. So I spent some time driving around taking pictures of all those familiar places of home. It took me right down memory lane and I realized how fast the years are flying by. This barn picture is the place where I worked for a couple of summers counting earth worms and packaging them by 12 into Styrofoam cups for fisherman. Oh the jobs you can find in the country! Across the street from the barn we also moved sprinkler pipe all summer long for a couple of years. Good times.We've been working on the garden getting it ready, planting it, trying to keep plants alive and harvesting our first round of veggies for a salad. They were delicious too. I'm looking forward to seeing what else we can grow from a few seeds.
           Caitlyn's birthday is coming up here a few weeks and so I've been trying to get things done ahead of time. (Which is not my normal way of working. We are trying very hard to change that.) I have known for a while that I wanted to make her a doll so the other night I tried coming up with my own pattern using some ideas from some other dolls out there that I liked. It turned out pretty good for my first time. There are a few things I'd tweak but I was happy with the result. Savannah keeps looking at it and declaring in her sweet girly voice, "It's just SO cute! I can't keep my eyes off her!" They've all be begging me for one now giving me the run down on what color they want, and how they want her hair and dress. So you might see some more. I might even try to pump one out for the crafthope.com cause. We shall see.
           I'm hoping to get some matching pants made from the doll's dress material for caitlyn as well as a little blanket to wrap this baby up in.
           Life has been good lately. I'm trying to figure out a better sense of balance, priorities and planning in my life lately. In fact the other day my visiting teachers from my church dropped by a plate of brownies (which were amazing) and this thought that has been a similar feel of what has been going on my mind lately.
           "When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue and the order of our priorities." - Ezra Taft Benson
           Today is Savannah's last day of kindergarten. Where has time gone. She is growing up too fast! I hope to be able to relax and enjoy the summer with them. Especially since next year she'll be at school all day instead of a half day... :(
           I've also been dying to get out the oil paints. I've been drawing more and see a need to draw EVEN MORE, and the oil paints just keep calling. It's been years since I've pulled them out. I've got some big projects coming up in the near future and I need to get started on them now and get them done early.... my new goal. Get things done ahead of time and early.

A few recent layouts

Summertime

           It's that time of year! My kids are counting down the days until the swimming pool opens and they can go play in the water.  It's already starting to get too hot, and the weather is beautiful.  I just love this time of  year.

Quick Road Trip

           What a dud of a week for blogging. Oh well. I've been living with this cold/allergy thing for about a week and half. It's driving me crazy. You forget how it feels to be feeling 100 %.  I would do anything for that right now.
           My grandfather passed away so we are making another quick trip back to Star Valley this weekend for the funeral and to see family.
           No worries I did draw the name for the book.  Congratulations Tiff - you won! I'll get that to you here shortly.
           Life is good. I'm looking forward to getting something done on Memorial days since all of our Weekends don't seem to exist any more. Wishing all of you guys a great 4 day weekend and beautiful weather!

Perfect Date

           For mother's day I only had one request for my husband. A date with him to Salt Lake City to see the international art competition winners. This is my favorite exhibit to see, and it is only every 3 years. I live for this competition. We still had Jeff's motor bike because it keeps raining every time he declares that he's going to pick it up. Our last two dates where we wanted to take it all fell through to rain too. So the perfect date? Leave all the kids here, a road trip on the bike to SLC, view the exhibit which takes a couple of hours, and then maybe get something sweet and chocolaty to wrap it up before we return back to parenthood. That was my mother's day request, with the stipulation that he had to arrange it all. Babysitter and everything. I just wanted him to pick me up and we go.
           We've been looking forward to this for the whole week. We got everything ready, the babysitters were almost here when we found the bike key missing from the key chain. Now my husband is a very mild tempered man. It takes quite a bit to get him upset. Really upset. The one thing that can do it to him though is when some children of ours get in his stuff, important stuff, hauls it off and he can't find it for the life of him.... that's when he has to remember to breathe, talk calmly, and calm down the rising emotions. You can especially imagine how upset he was when the key was missing. Here he was looking forward to the bike ride and it's no where to be found.
           We finally decided to just take the car to our great disappointment... but that's ok, we were still going to go and have a great time. We got up to SLC and headed to the museum. Started looking around and realized that it wasn't being shown in the museum. When we asked where it was they informed us it was being shown at the conference center, which closed at 7:00. What time was it then 7:10. We had missed it. Bummer. Big bummer. So we tried to determine what else to do for the night. We called up to seen when the 3D movie was showing at the IMAX in the planetarium which was just a few blocks a way. 7:30. Great, we could make it. We booked it just in time to find the sign in the front of the door saying that it was closed for tonight, and tonight only for a special event. Another bummer. We walked around the gateway for a bit, thought about sharing a blonde brownie, but didn't want to spend money on something that we weren't totally hungry for or could really enjoy. So we figured we'd just head home and relax at home, and pick up some pretzel bites on the way. We barely made the pretzel bites by 3 minutes before it closed. What a night.
           Who knows when we'll get to attempt it again, it's not the easiest finding babysitters that want to hang out all night and put kids to bed. I'm having high hopes though for sometime here in the future before the exhibit is done.
           So even though my perfect date which Beau put all together fell through... I still LOVE you honey and know that you really tried, and hey I still got to spend the whole evening with you. Which is what I really wanted anyway. :)

Embroidery - want to learn?

           So I've been cleaning and looking at things that we need to eliminate, give away and get rid of. One of the hardest things for me is books. Especially when they are good ones, or good reference ones. One that I really enjoyed because it got me doing embroidery again is this one, Doodle Stitching.
           It's easy to follow, teaches you the basics about it and has some cute easy patterns to start out with and some cute projects.  It's one of those books that I've felt like I've used it as much as I can at this point but don't just want to get rid of it. So I thought hey... maybe someone else out there would like to learn how and would enjoy it.
           So I thought I'd be frugal, reuse the book and let someone else enjoy it... So if you'd like it, and are ok with a used book.  Leave a comment and next monday the 18th I'll do a random draw and send it to the lucky winner.  That way I feel good about passing it on to someone else, and someone else can pick up a fun new hobbie.

It's in the air.

           Allergies! Man they can kill you. They have been bothering me for the last couple of weeks, but lately they're really killing me. I'm not sure if all the construction around here has also put a lot of dust, insulation and other foreign debris into the air that keeps getting infiltrated into my lungs. I'm still trying to get all that cleaned up and put back together. I guess it looks like a good project for my service group to do since it's my week next week, even though I really wanted them to be working on something else.
           The girls declared that they wanted their training wheels off today, but of course I think they're having second thoughts now that they realize what is really required to ride these bikes of theirs. I'm not sure if I'm quite up to the energy required to teach them how to do it on their own.... the same with potty training Isaac. It's about time, but man there are some things I just don't enjoy doing as a parent and that would be one of them.... I just keep telling myself to think of the money we would save on diapers. Obviously I'm not convinced yet... soon...
           Lately I've been reading up on the concept of square foot gardening. I have to say I'm convinced in a major way. We did it a little bit last year, and since we might not be here after another year I'm not going to do it fully, but we are going to try a few small beds in his method for all of our climbing vegetables. If they work this year, then next year we are going to convert all the way over, and where ever we move Beau's going to just have to prep himself, because there will be boxes to build. I especially like the method because it's so much easier to keep up, takes up smaller space and works great for the area in our yard. If you've ever wondered about if you could have a garden and could do it, this book will show you how anyone, anywhere no matter their living circumstances CAN have a garden.
           The weather is beautiful here though, and it's just in the air... that summer feeling of mowing lawns, yard work, gardening, spending time outdoors and wishing you had a porch swing to go sit on in the evenings... it would definitely be more enjoyable though if these allergies would let me be. What are your big outdoor projects this year?

Fresh New Morning

           I can tell it's going to be a beautiful day. For once I was able to get to bed early, and awoke early thanks to this little girl, who was hungry and got me going after I already hit snooze on the alarm for the morning.  We have plans to get this house back into shape from all of our construction going on. I'm hoping to do some work on the garden and do some planning for the week. Savannah is out of school for the week which I am so looking forward to!
           Our walls got insulated! Yeah after my first long day, and living in construction another guy came back a couple of days later and spent all day getting the stuff in. I am so grateful to him and so grateful to have it done. Now it's just the clean up... patching the walls again and repainting. But that is doable.  Beau was gone all weekend on a Scout High Adventure hike. So the kids and me just hung out and spent time together. They were so good. I've noticed such a huge difference when my kids get to bed on time, and get a good nights sleep. I'd even consider them angels. :)  They  were happy, played well and we enjoyed just being together.
           Saturday Savannah was so excited for mother's day. She kept telling me that they were going to make breakfast for me in bed and wanted to know what my favorite breakfast was. (They had gotten this idea from a Bernstein Bear book they had read.  She was too funny and declared to Mirian, "We're going to have to get up really early, because mom gets up really early. Everyday she is awake before we are and has to come and wake us up. So we have to be up really early so we are awake before she is."  I told her that I could probably sleep in tomorrow so they wouldn't have to get up quite so early.
           She gave me a flower from school that they had a planted. Sewed me a headband with a flower decoration on it that she had found from scraps of material, and then tied a long piece of material to a stick for my present of a streamer. These girls were more excited for mother's day than they were for Christmas!  It was so great and I felt so loved.
           I warned Beau when he got home late Saturday night that he could expect to be woken by girls wanting to make breakfast for me.  He didn't realize their excitement until they woke him up at 6:20 the next morning declaring to him that it was mother's day and he needed to get up and help them make breakfast.  Luckily he convinced them to hold out for another 30 minutes, which they did pretty good at until they came to him declaring that Caitlyn was leaking everywhere.
           So for the first time in a very long time... years it seemed. I got to sleep in. No one bothered me because they wanted me to still be in bed so they could bring me breakfast.  I got to sleep in till about 8:30... boy was it wonderful. Then they all brought me their homemade cards, and my favorite breakfast - creamed eggs on toast. Which no one likes and so I never get to make it.  I felt loved.
           I enjoyed a great time at church with some wonderful messages, the girls made paper flowers in primary, Beau made me dinner, and I had the chance to just sit with my kids in my lap sporadically throughout the day, cuddling  and playing with them realizing even more so how much I love my kids. How wonderful they are and what a wonderful journey it is to be a mother. Really... there is nothing more wonderful in this world than being a mom. Nothing makes me happier.

A Bit Better

           We are still waiting to find out what is going on with the walls so we know whether to put things away and start patching up or whether to leave it out till they come back... sigh.... luckily today has gone better. I still hate sitting around wondering what I can do though... that's a bit aggravating.
           But I got to have lunch with some ScrapGirls today, with my scrap baby in tow. Such fun. I haven't been able to make many of them, but after the last week I was determined to find a babysitter and get out and have some time to myself for a bit. It was great. Some yummy food, good company and a break from everyday regular life. I'm planning on doing absolutely nothing tonight except relax with my hubby and watch a few episodes of psych, and making rolls for a mother/daughter dinner for young women's tomorrow.
           For those of you wondering about Beau's back. It's gotten a lot better, but he is still having issues with it. Especially when he sits down it bothers him really bad, the car trip to Wyoming and back about killed him. So after fasting and praying, we're going to go in for surgery. He's hoping to make arrangements here to get it done in the next couple of weeks. So keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
           Well off to figure out what we're having for dinner... that is the question of the year lately. I need some new recipes. Anyone have some good ones?

Someday I'll laugh about this

           What a day. I know I have seemed to abandon my own blog... in a way I have. I've been trying to catch up with last minute dance practices for the recital coming up, quick trips, activities going on every night, and just being plain exhausted.
           My grandpa has had skin cancer for quite a few years now, but last week they ran more tests to find that it has taken over and is now in his lymph nodes, etc. They said they weren't sure if he'd be gone in a few weeks or a few months. We decided to take a fast trip home this last weekend so that we'd have the chance to go and visit him for a little bit while he was still coherent and able to visit. It was nice to able to see him and he was in good spirits despite how weak he was. We also had a chance to stop in on Beau's grandma as well. It's been a while and sometimes it takes times like this to realize we should be doing it more often.
           Today has been... well.... LONG. Really long.... We had weatherization people coming to weatherize our house. Doing the whole shibang.... since it's so old it has so many problems. They were going to fill the outside walls with insulation (since it didn't have any), winterize the attic crawl space and many other fun things. We knew it was happening this morning, and knew we had to have things moved out of the way....
           Well Beau headed to work thinking that what we had cleared away was enough... not according to the guy that showed up. Everything had to be away from the wall. EVERYTHING... he kept emphasizing. All the book cases that are bolted into the wall? Yes. EVERYTHING.... so the curtain rods and everything have to be down... NO.. you can leave them up but EVERYTHING else has to come down... So what about this extended shelf that is built into the floor and wall? No you can leave that.... but EVERYTHING else. Good grief. Don't put such an emphasis on EVERYTHING if you don't really mean EVERYTHING! Well it meant clearing out closets we hadn't thought about, moving large heavy bookshelves, and unscrewing them from the walls all by myself with three little kids hanging on my legs.
           He kept having this attitude though too... like all this needs to get down... in the time frame of... yesterday. Frustrating... then he looks at you and emphasizes again we need everything (yes I've gotten this point so far....) by TODAY. He had the audacity to say today. (Do I look dumb? Do I look like a sissy girl, that can't touch or do anything and will be unable to move this stuff by myself? I must. ) I just nodded again and said. Yeah, no problem I'll get it down and move everything.
           He then told me where they would be drilling the 3 inch holes on the wall. I expected it on top, but did not expect the answer of below the windows. (Which makes sense and we should have thought of that earlier.) I looked down at the nice white bead board that had only taken Beau a whole week to put up because it was such a pain. "Your going to drill right through the bead board?" Yep! Were' going to drill the holes right through the bead board.
           You've got to be kidding me. How do they plan on patching up a nice 'unnoticeable' 3 inch hole every 16 inches apart on my beadboard. Alrighty.... I'm not ok with that, we'll find out if Beau is. I called him up and he had the same reaction I did. Hmmm... we forgot about under the windows. He thought he would have enough spares in the garage he could patch up those areas. He then called back to ask if I would just try tearing those pieces off the wall instead. Sure no problem... that should be a piece of cake. (sarcasm here) I was only willing because I also didn't want it drilled through, nor did I want to buy more pieces.
           So the morning was spent ripping bead board off of 1/3 of the entire livingroom / kitchen area, cleaning the stuff out of the closets, moving everything to the center of the rooms, etc. I was finally offered help by one of the guys when one of them saw me trying to move a very large bookshelf of toys by myself and saw it tip slightly. Thanks buddy...
           Then me and the kids got to spend quality time hanging out in the office, watching movies, fighting, arguing, and being plain old tired and grumpy from our fast trip out of town. Finally we decided to get out for a while and hang out at the park which was nice. We enjoyed some good weather, played, threw rocks in the river and did some drawing. We then went out for ice cream cones and came home to find them still going at it..... so back to the office we went.
           THANK goodness for a friend of ours down the road who called up and invited the kids to come play. Could she have picked a better day. No way. She was perfect, I owe her! I left with them telling me I missed stuff in the pantry and need to clean off 1/3 of the pantry shelves of food, and clean off the brooms and things from the wall... alright.
           So I came back to sign papers and give an evaluation about a job that wasn't quite done yet, and the pantry to clean up. It was about then that the day really came off well.... That's when the guy came it to tell me they couldn't blow insulation in the wall. (This was after they have already drilled numerous 3 inch holes in the middle of all my walls around the house.) WHAT! You've got to be kidding. He showed me why he couldn't do it. Supposedly they had filled three holes and they kept getting the paper stuff that was lining the outside wall stuck in the tube... so far they've tried three holes and gotten it stuck twice.
           It was one of those moments that I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wanted to say. So what. Unplug it and keep going. If it gets stuck unplug it and go again.... you've just made me take everything down and move it all morning long. I just ripped off all my bead board and now I have holes all over my house and freshly painted walls. I have a huge mess, and your just giving up because it got stuck twice. FIGURE IT OUT. Of course that's not what came out of my mouth... it was more like ok... and I went out to the office. Got on IM with Beau and told him what was going on, and admitted "I could not deal with this right now. I am exhausted. I am so burned out, if anyone even looks at me I'm going to cry. I'm crying right now. I just did all that work for nothing... well not for nothing... I did it for more holes in my wall, more messes and no insulation...." not a good moment. He wasn't too happy about it either and decided to high tail it home before they cleaned it up and left. I was happy to go and get him, because I could just not deal with it any more. I dropped him off to talk to them and I went and vented to my friend and picked up the kids.
           I'm doing better now... my good husband made us dinner - his signature waffles, my friend loaned us her portable crib since everything was stacked in beds, so we at least have Caitlyn in a bed. Isaac is on the floor though. Poor guy. Another manager person overseeing the weatherization is going to see about coming and doing the insulation himself... since he agrees that it can be done. He also agrees they did a terrible job on leaving a mess and doing a sloppy job on other things. Sometimes just having someone understand is all you need.... so until we find out what will happen to these holes in the walls... we get to live once again in construction while things were finally start to look good. It will be worth it and I'll be happy so long as those holes actually get insulation stuffed in them.. if not... I'll be rather grumpy
           I know some day this will be funny. Right?