I am thankful

Yesterday my husband and children put their busy lives aside to come with me downtown to have professional photos made. Over the years we have had photos made at Sears, Pennys, Kiddie Kandids and similar "studios." We have had a lot of mediocre photos taken at these places. One time the photos came back and one of the children was half way out of the photo! And the worst part was that we HAD to purchase them because my dear husbands parents were in them and they had returned to their home in another country. There was no way to redo the photos. It was terrible! We did have professional photos made once with a photographer who came to student housing. He actually took my favorite photo of our family so far. So why, you ask, do we keep going back to these barely adequate places? Well to be honest - It has always been about the money. This year is different. Our oldest child will be moving out of the state for law and/or graduate school soon and we decided it was time for some great memories in the form of some great photos. After all my dear husband and I are about to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in a few weeks and we didn't have professional photos at our wedding either, so it is time!



I hired a professional photographer and when given a choice of locations I asked for an urban setting. When it really comes down to it, we are an urban family. I might fantasize about living in the country, but we spend our time in the city, and our photos should reflect that personality. Ironically the photographer suggested we do the pictures on the street where my dear husband works. He and his colleagues laugh about the people having their pictures taken on the streets outside their offices because, despite the beautiful architecture of the buildings around them, they do not have any romantic ideas about the area. They know that there is a lot of crime on the street at night and that homeless people like to use corner areas as restrooms. However, the area is still a great backdrop and I like the photos I have seen made in this area. I decided it would be a great place to have photos made. We set up an appointment for the daytime, and stayed out of corners. I think that the photos will be more special because my dear husband works in the area. I had a wonderful time, and was very pleased with the photographer. I thought she was very good at looking at at the whole scene, and getting everyone just right. She was also very accommodating of all the shots we decided we wanted, even when the two youngest wanted to do something fun in a photo together. She had them jump off a bench and she shot their photo in midair. Our oldest daughter decided it looked like fun and joined them jumping off the bench. I cannot wait until we can view the photos online in a couple weeks! I know I will always have some great memories of these photos and the moment in time they have captured.

Baking Time!

It was Saturday morning and we didn't have to run to any type of lesson or a volleyball game or a ballet lesson and it was glorious! Well we did have to run to pick up our fruits and veggies from the coop at 10 a.m. but that is a joyful errand - More on that later. My early riser daughter thought we should make something yummy for breakfast since we didn't have to run anywhere, and I agreed.

We went through the usual list: biscuits - oops sorry, no crisco; waffles - oops sorry, remember when we opened the waffle iron last time and someone had left a waffle in it and it was filled with green hairy mold - appetizing!; french toast - oops sorry, we are low on bread; how about muffins? Great idea! We have lots of frozen bananas that need to be used. So we pulled out all the ingredients, and I had the early riser grab her camera, which is my old camera, so that she could document the momentous morning. She's having a little trouble with keeping the camera still, but she's not too bad! Lots and lots of sugar with all those eggs and oil! Yummy.

And lots and lots of flour too.

Carefully measured into the cupcake papers. lol

And there you go! Yummy muffins with the fruit I picked up at the Co-op!

My neighbor and I discovered a coop here in town which has a large number of satellites throughout the valley. One of these is just 3 minutes away. The coop operates once a month. Their motto is to buy things locally as much as possible and then fill in with what they can't get locally. You can buy a full share which gives you 3 or 4 different meats, a selection of fruits and vegetables, one pound of rice, and a loaf of yummy wheat bread. A half share is the same except half as much stuff. A harvest share (my favorite) is only fruits and vegetables with a pound of rice and a loaf of yummy wheat bread. They also have an organic selection you can get from an organic farm here in the area. This month my harvest share was:

one bunch of yummy young asparagus

one bunch of great broccoli

5 oranges

5 kiwis

2 Utah tomatoes (which had seen better days unfortunately)

1 head of great butter leaf lettuce

5lbs of red potatoes (they smell great but haven't eaten any yet)

1 Avocado

6 bananas

one pound of brown rice

one loaf of Stone Ground whole wheat bread

I think that was all of it. I may have forgotten something. But $14 seems like a good deal for all that don't you think? Each month I debate whether I should have bought two harvest shares. . .still debating for next time.

I don't know about you, but this entry is making me hungry!

Happy Windsday Rabbit

As I walked the bus load of kids to school today I had to laugh. It is truly Windsday here in our neck of the Hundred Acre Wood. The leaves were not just dancing across the road, they were running! We looked up and it looked like it was snowing leaves! At one point, the only little boy that walks with us, stopped and the leaves swirled around his feet just like they are in this Winnie the Pooh picture. It was delightful! I love walking these kids to school on mornings like this. I will have to readjust my attitude once the snow flys everyday and the temperature drops to 30 on a regular basis.

I read an article in Prevention magazine that says "When you're crunching that 100th sit-up or scaling 10 flights of stairs, it's not your muscles that will really push you, but your brain. How fast, how long, and how powerfully you perform is mostly in your head." So I just need to psyche myself up to love the snow that is bound to come our way! I'll need to have a Pooh-like attitude.

And so now I am off to experiment with paint on fabric today. I'm very excited about trying it and will try to take some pictures to blog about it later. In the meanwhile - Happy Windsday!

To do List. . .I did

Sunday nights seem to be my night to attempt a plan for the week ahead. I can often overwhelm myself with all I want to accomplish in the upcoming week and so I decided that perhaps I would write a "to do" list, however sometimes my these lists can be a little overwhelming. I decided that I should write an "I Did" list instead. A list that will help me to remember that I did more than just get out of bed last week. Here goes:

I Did
. . . read the Scriptures with my daughters every morning (wahoo).
. . . walk my daughters to school every morning, and picked them up a couple days.
. . . pick up my daughters and all their friends in the van one day because it was still pouring rain when school got out.
. . . went to an Enrichment meeting at church and heard all about gratitude, for which I am grateful : D because I really have A LOT to be grateful for.
. . . pick up my paycheck and of course I had to buy a piece of fabric while I was there, but I needed it to finish the baby quilt.
. . . think about going to my Wednesday morning quilt meeting but suddenly became obsessed with finishing up a baby quilt for a friend.
. . . finish the quilting, binding and washing of a baby quilt.
. . . mail a birthday card to one of my friends after carrying it in my purse for a week!
. . . go shopping for groceries at Costco and plan out a menu for the week - at least in my head.
. . . carry out most of that menu plan by cooking dinner in some form every night (heating leftovers still counts as preparing dinner, right?)
. . . wash at least 2 loads of laundry (dear hubby finished up the rest -love that about him!)
. . . clean up the cats kitty litter which had been scratched out of the box because the sides of the new second litter box is short.
. . . find a new box for their second litter pan with a higher side to it so that the urine didn't squirt over the top, and they don't get all the litter on the rug. (They don't like covered boxes because they are too smelly inside once they poop. Spoiled babies.)
. . . also clean up the cat urine from the rug - what a joyous and thankless job that is.
. . . went shopping for Superior brand quilting thread at a shop on the other side of the valley and was delighted when I got there to find the thread was all buy one get one free! I bought eight instead of four spools because I was already planning on paying for four spools, so why not!
. . . go furniture shopping on that same day to find a night stand for my room so that I could put my desk into the living room and hide all my stuff rather than having it all piled on top of my desk.
. . . find a "night stand" at the third store I went to, which is really a piece of office furniture with two LARGE lateral filing drawers on the bottom and a hutch on top with doors to hide my books from flying cat hair and dust! It is a beautiful piece of furniture I found at a great price.
. . . clean up my desk, then pull it out and get rid of all the cat hair and dust that had accumlated since I cleaned it last month, and set up my new nightstand with the help of my strapping baby boy. (Thank you son.)
. . . go to Mervyn's clearance sale which isn't much of a deal at all, but had to buy some jeans because I don't know where else I will find the kind I like once Mervyn's is gone! I paid a dollar more for jeans than I normally would have when they were on sale before, but. . . deep sigh. However I did find some really cute earrings for $2.50 a piece!
. . . diecut 60 paper dolls and 60 groups of children for a lesson I gave today at Church (and it was only Wednesday when I did that - Imagine that - I thought about my lesson all week and not just at the last minute!)
. . . spend about 7 or 9 hours quilting on my challenge quilt. I never realized how fast time could fly when you were really enjoying a quilt project!
. . . drive one of my daughters to a tennis lesson, another to a volleyball practice, and then both to a rehearsal for their play, as well as their theater class (and that's a slow week of driving).
. . . pick up my college age daughter from her job of teaching ballet because the bus schedule is so stinky in the evenings! But I must say it is always nice to see her and see how her life is going!
. . . take the van in to the shop because there was a funny noise coming from the front passengar tire. Was very happy when they fixed it in 10 minutes and there was no charge! It was just a loose mud flap, which was their fault anyway from when they rotated the tires last week.
. . . shopped online for a book to help me learn Adobe Photoshop, as well as a pair of winter shoes to match my new coat.
. . . searched ebay for doll houses. My 11 year old babies have recently become obsessed with the idea that they would like a dollhouse. I suppose the older daughter didn't have this same obsession at their age because she had two three old babies running around to play with!
. . . went with the family to see The Music Man, a musical which was put on by church members.
. . . drove my babies to take a test at the Junior High to see if they can get into the ELP (gifted student) program there next year. It was a four hour test! Doesn't 11/12 seem a bit young for a four hour test? Maybe it's just because they are my babies. I don't remember if I questioned it when the older two went. Oops.
. . . went to the library and picked up new books even though I haven't finished the one I'm on now. Seems that no matter what number I am on a waiting list for titles I want to read they all come to the library at the same time!
. . . read about 2/3rds of a fictional book about a pioneer woman in the Arizona territories. Reading this book has made me grateful to live in this day and age, no matter what anyone says about now being a tougher time. I'll elaborate more in a review on goodreads once I finish the book.
. . .also read some books about beading to get myself ready for the final stage of my challenge quilt.
. . .checked my email daily, as well as the posts of all the blogs I am following and stalked my friends on facebook.

I probably did a few other things, but it's bedtime, and I need to sleep so I can start next weeks "I did" list.

Awesome Quilt Give Away

One of the blogs I follow led me to another blog where the writer is giving away these three awesome quilts! Can you believe it? They are so beautiful, and I hope I win one of them! You could win one too. Just click on the button in myside bar and post a comment on her blog to enter! You can also earn more entries - read her blog entry to see how. Good luck to us all!

Books that should not be out when your house is messy. . .

And come to think of it - these books should NEVER be left lying about or else someone might think you have actually read them and that you KNOW how to clean house! Sheesh.

My Head is Going to EXPLODE!

Everytime I turn around I see something new that I want to try. I checked out an ebook at the library that will teach me more about Adobe Photoshop and haven't taken the time to read it and I think it may expire before I get the chance. There is another book I should just buy and then I won't have the pressure of reading it before a due date.

One of my friends recommended a good read for me that is suppose to be very entertaining and I already have two books I'm attempting to read right now so I had to put it on my goodreads "to read" list. I did request it on CD hoping that I will remember to pick it up and then remember to listen to it while I sew. I haven't tried the listening and sewing thing yet. I love to drive and listen to a book on cd because I can so easily get lost into the story and it helps the miles go by. Maybe I will have to drive to my sister's house again so that I can actually listen to the story if the sewing and listening doesn't work out. I'm sure she wouldn't mind, although I think my husband would.

Usually I like to have the tv on while I sew. The TV provides noise and I "watch" shows like Law & Order, Star Trek, Stargate SG1, How clean is your House and You Are What You Eat. They are shows that I don't have to look at the entire time in order to know what is going on and I love them. Lately while I have been piecing and quilting a very cute pink and green baby quilt I have been watching some shows I have on the DVR. Specifically I have been trying to catch up on the second season of Quilting Arts TV. It's a wonderful show which tells all about different quilting techniques and teaches me lots of new things I want to try. The problem is Ihave to actually stop sewing and watch the show! This defeats the purpose of having the TV on to begin with. The shows are always demonstrating such cool things and I have to look up and see the final product. I've watched each episode twice now because I keep missing something. I have a very large mental list of things I want to try and thus my head may explode very soon.

One of the episodes gave me an idea that just might save the witches wall hanging I made for Whimsy -either that or totally ruin it. I'll let you know when I finish it what the results were. Then again if it goes terribly horribly wrong, I may never mention it ever again!

Hello Winter!

Halloween was a beautiful day here in our part of the world. Costumes could be seen since overcoats, gloves and hats were not needed. (Unlike a few years back when the snow was falling so thick and cold that we drove from house to house!) We did have a couple sprinkles of rain, but nothing to cry about. We went on trick-or-treating and had a wonderful time! And now here we are just four days later and Winter has made her appearance. This is our lovely peach tree who refuses to die. She is an inspiration every year as she delivers hundreds of delicious babies which we gobble up and then cry when they are all gone. She looks so beautiful in her winter coat. We will pray she recovers in the spring once again.

So goodbye Halloween, goodbye fun pumpkins and goodbye warm balmy weather -for now. Hello Winter!

Go Vote!

If you haven't already, please go vote! If you don't vote then you have no right to complain, and we all LOVE to complain about politicians.