happy photos | february

As a way of saying goodbye to February I thought I'd share a few photos taken in the last few weeks that make me smile in one way or another.

daily life

I've challenged myself again this year to take a photo every day. I almost didn't because I'm doing the 12of12 challenge, but for me it's become such a habit that it was a no brainer. I don't even have to think about it anymore it just happens.

What I mean is, each day I wake up knowing I need to take a photo of something, something that represents our day, but I never know what it will be. Occasionally I'll have a date with friends or I'm helping out at the school and I make a mental note that I can take a photo then, but mostly I just let the photo find me.

Like this photo...



While I was going to get the mail the other day I walked passed our library and found the two of them this way...Tess was doing homework and Megan was drawing. When I saw it my first thought was that's my picture. I ran to get my camera hoping the entire way they wouldn't move and lucky for me they were as oblivious to me as I wanted to them to be.

Although each day is very similar to the next, it's actually quite different when you start to appreciate each day for what it is...another piece of our story. I guess for me that's the reason I keep up with this challenge. It's become my journal in so many ways and hope through my photos of our daily life my children will get a good understand of the woman I am and the family life we have.

whole lot of megan

I kid you not if I don't get my exercise in at 6am before she wakes up, this is what I'm dealing with.



It's amazing what you'll find out though.

what i saw

This is what got me to get out my camera, the two of them in a tender moment,


and this is what I saw.

Productivity

I have been extremely tired the last few days, not to mention crampy, so all I want to do is lie in bed all day. It has been so hard for me to get up in the morning even with a full night rest. I'm not certain what's going on with me, but I'm determined to push through it and continue with my goals.


So despite the way I have been feeling I must say I've been rather productive. I tacked the fridge, which is never a hard job, just not fun to do. It always leaves my fridge feeling quite empty, but oh so clean. I feel like every time I walk by I'm opening it up just to delight in my efforts.

I also worked on what will be our food storage underneath the stairs. It's not a big area, but it was stuffed to the gills...to the point that if you opened the door stuff would fall on you. It also was a surprisingly easy task. Most things just needed to be taken up to the attic for storage. It felt really good to get that done.

I was also on carpool duty today since the girl that goes to school with Tess was sick. I ended up taking her and picking her up along with the older kids in elementary. Man, all I can say is today I am grateful for carpools. I forgot how much I was in the car last year and I certainly don't miss it. I have a good thing going this year only driving Tess and her friend to preschool 3 days a week. I feel lucky.













I also got some good mail today...Two very nice thank you cards from Kelly and Lisa that made me smile. It has been great getting to know you both. You're right Kelly it is no small miracle finding a friend. I feel so lucky to have found so many in the blogging world.

While making dinner the over ripened bananas kept staring at me so admits my homemade chicken noodle soup efforts I started making banana bread. All I have to say about that was it was so worth it, even though me and the girls made a huge mess with the flour.

Although it doesn't sound like such a crazy busy day it seemed like that to me. I can't wait for the bed. In fact I'm on my way there now. We just put the kids to bed and I think I will read a bit. Such a perfect end to a productive day.

Last couple days in photos

I must admit I have been a bit leery to do anything with my photos. My whole photo system seems out of whack now that I've had this problem. I feel lost without my HD. I won't find out until sometime next week the fate of my HD and the photos inside. Lucky the HD is under warranty so if it's broken they'll give me a new one. I just pray the photos come with it.

Anyway this morning I decided to look through my photos from the last few days. The girls were getting a bagel with their dad so it gave me enough quiet time to get it done.

This morning I asked Megan to go get a diaper so I could change her insanely heavy diaper. Of course I moved onto other things thinking she would just be back. It turns out she got distracted (I encourage this) in her room and when I walked by this is what I saw...
I immediately went to get my camera and snapped this. So glad I got it without her even knowing I was there.

Yesterday the girls and I played with a Mr. Potato Head & friends set Megan got for Christmas. I have to admit when I was a child this was one of my favorites. I love making crazy faces and seeing the different combinations I could come up with. It's good to see some things never change. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back Tess was still playing with Mr. Potato Head and Megan was in her room doing this....
Hmmm, maybe it's time for a big girl bed! Would I be consider a bad parent because I let her play this way? Eventually Tess got up with her and jumped, laughed, and climbed. I love to see the two of them getting along. It hasn't always been like that. It will be sad to see that end when Tess goes to Kindergarten next year.

Thursday was the big snow storm. It pretty much snowed all day long from the time I walked Bella to the neighbors until way past bedtime. Adam wasn't coming home again (work) so I decided to go do it myself. Megan and Tess came out with me for a while, but Megan couldn't take the cold and watched from the window. Tess did her best to help me for a while, but then also got too cold and ventured in the house. It was funny to see them from the window like they were cheering me on.
This time shoveling was hard because the snow was so light and fluffy. I don't know why, but it didn't seem as peaceful and enjoyable as the last time either. I pretty much couldn't wait to be back inside. I told Adam we are getting a snow plower and that is final.

So today I've been running around doing not so fun needed errands. I am just realizing it is a holiday weekend, but only for the government. I don't know why I thought Adam would have the day off. Perhaps I'll take my girls to do something fun Monday.

What do you do on a holiday when the kids are out of school?
Do you have plans this weekend?

BTW it's 8 degrees where I live or according to my car thermo. Can you believe that!? Oh and I wanted to show you how deep it was when I was shoveling the other day. Keep in mind about an inch and a half fell after this photo was taken. (notice my markings on the photo)

I'm freaking out...

Late last night I was trying to locate a few photos and realized the computer wasn't picking up my external hard drive (HD). I couldn't figure out why and did all I could think of until it hit me...I couldn't hear the HD spinning so I knew it wasn't working properly.

Let me take a step back to give you an understanding of what this actually means. Every single photo I have taken is on that HD. No Joke...every one. Now I am not stupid...I did actually back them up onto many discs as the years have gone by; however; I know for sure I have yet to save my photos from December 24 to now. Which means all of my Christmas 06 photos and all the ones from this month are potentially gone. Also I know there are some edits and some projects I have made which are also not saved.

This sickens me to the core. Sickens! I do however, have comfort in the fact that not all is lost, but I have some precious memories that could be gone forever and not to forget a lot of work. It hurts my heart. Adam wasn't home last night (working) so I couldn't get his opinion on the matter or the reassurance, which I desperately needed. Needless to say I did not sleep well last night and had constant dreams about it.

When I spoke with Adam this morning he wasn't much help, but he did give me hope and that's exactly what I need right now. I'm taking it in to pc laptops this morning to see if they can help me recover my files. I am hoping and praying they will be able to.

You know I feel foolish. I have always been so good about downloading photos and immediately getting them onto a disc. I don't know why I didn't do that now. Never again. I have learned my lesson. I hope you will all learn this lesson from me and save yourself a lot of grief. Back up you photos and files! Trust me....computers fail all the time.

technical difficulties

I think blogger is trying to force me to switch to the new version. I knew at some point this would happen as blogger will not support the old version forever, but if I am unable to log in to my account? I have been in a panic for about 30 minutes trying to get onto my account. I have been unable to comment as well. All my comments come up with a wrong url page I have never seen before. Hopefully I will now that I have been able to log in, but it was showing me as logged in when I tried comment earlier.

I'm curious is this happening to anyones else?

New schedule….longer nap

I think I’m in huge trouble. Getting home from church at an earlier time is always perfect for the nap scenario, but today I think I may have taken it too far. After we ate lunch/dinner I laid down at 2ish and woke up at 5:30pm. Afternoon naps are never good on me and of course I had the hardest time getting up. I couldn't shaking it. Apparently Adam couldn’t stand it any longer, he said he was concerned about me sleeping too long, so he came in as I was on my way out. (I scared him really badly which I was thrilled about. Trust me it's very hard to do and he scares me on purpose all the time.) I seriously couldn't take being up for that long so I headed back to bed with him following.

We laid there talking for a few minute and then we heard the team coming down the hall and knew we would be over run by loud noises. It’s funny to see us gearing up and preparing ourselves for what was about to happen. I imagine if someone was watching us they’d be dying with laughter. Of course the girls made there way in between us, doing what they do, taking away the quiet cozy environment. We played for a few minutes and then Bella came up with a genius game. She would mimic someone and we would guess…pretty much charades. Her first person ended up being a character from a movie which to tell you the truth was a bit difficult to figure out so to make the game go more smoothly & quickly we suggested only doing people in our family. Bella started off mimicking Adam and did a very good job of it I must say. Then Adam took a turn and did everyone in the room. The funniest part of this whole game was none of the girls could figure out which one was them. Of course I knew it right off the bat as it was so obvious, Adam’s pretty good, but they had no clue if it was them or not. Perhaps it was some kind of denial. Anyway, everyone took a turn and we were all laughing and guessing and thinking “that’s exactly what they say or do”. Besides just spending some great quality time as a family, I loved hearing the things that stuck out in my girls mind about each of us. Plus I enjoyed how much fun we were having and how we laughed about each other's quirks. I can’t remember having so much fun and laughing so hard with all of us together.

Classic Sunday...making cookies....New Years Day 2006

Here are some highlights:

1. Bella mimicking Megan, “Mommy, is it getting night time.” Couldn’t be more true. She asks me this starting at 10am everyday and usually doesn’t stop asking until it actually is nighttime.
2. Adam mimicking Bella, “oohhhh” with the Charlie Brown walk. So classic Bella and I have already heard it twice tonight.
3. Me mimicking Tess, “I’m not hungry…my tummy hurts”. This girl is never ready to eat unless it happens to be 90% sugar.
4. Tess mimicking Adam, “Bagel time!” The girls have made a tradition of going to the bagel store every Saturday. It has been a four and a half year tradition the girls can't live without.
   
5. Bella mimicking me, “first you need to clean up your room”. Sadly I do say quite often. Not sure that it works most of the time.
   

last night

First of all I want to say thank you to everyone for your comments on my 100 post. I feel such an out poring of love and support. It was a fabulous experience and a real eye opener for me to do and also I loved reading all of yours. I feel like I've gained a bunch of new friends over night. :)

Ok now on with my story....

I had just put dinner in the oven when Adam showed up. I knew we had an hour to kill before we ate and a driveway filling up with snow by the minute (it snowed from 9am-9pm yesterday) so I talked Adam into shoveling the driveway together. We got in our snow gear and headed out. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I love how quiet the snow makes everything. We got both our driveways and our neighbor's driveway done in under an hour...nice. As we went inside I started feeling sick to my stomach and seriously tired. Apparently it wasn't just me. He was feeling the same way. Immediately I was fearful we both had that dreaded flu.

So we went to our room to lay down, of course the girls followed us. I leaned over at him, who looked ready to fall asleep at any moment and said, "don't leave me". He started laughing, but I was totally serious. The night before he went to bed at 7:15pm and I was left to get the girls to bed. Lucky for me I was able to get them down at 7:30pm so no big whoop. Well I was in no mood to do this on my own tonight, plus dinner was in the oven cooking. After much pleading we both got up, had dinner, cleaned the kitchen, put a movie on in the basement, and proceeded to lay down again. This time our relaxation was disturbed by the children...nothing new for us. So we both got up to have prayers, brush teeth, and get everyone off to bed.

Then once again we laid down to actually sleep this time...it's 7:40pm. We turned on the tv just to drowned out the day. Adam is quickly asleep, but I'm up enough to watch the office which was brand new. Suddenly Adam gets up. He can't sleep and heads to his hot tub. He claims he's going to "cook the jimmy". I feel awake as well so I decided to read my book...9pm. As I'm reading I'm falling asleep. You know when you know you're sleeping, but you can't do anything about it. That's where I was. I was in an uncomfortable position and my light was on so I got up enough to turn it off and move, but apparently that's all it took. My mind was up and I couldn't stop thinking. By this time Adam had come inside, laid down, and was having the same problems. I can't tell you how frustrated this was for us...10pm

We turned back on the TV and watch an episode of Nova. Of course he didn't make it through, but I sadly did. Finally I turned off the TV thinking surly I can go to sleep now, but my mind just wouldn't stop and despite my headache and need for sleep I couldn't let go. It was maddening. I ended up staying up until 1 am.

At 6pm yesterday evening I was sure I would be out as soon as I put my head on the pillow. It drives me crazy when stuff like that happens. Especially when you're dying to sleep.

Does this happen to any of you? If so what do you do? This seems to happen to me more than not and could use some advice on the matter.

BTW we got like 8 inches of snow yesterday. Any snow for you?

my mundane life

I enjoy making a list of what I've done during my day as a way to remember, but fear sharing my mundane life peppered with my poor writing skills will cause me to loose readers. Don't know if I can afford that. But with that said, I have decided to throw my fears a side for now and make my blog fit my needs for better or worse. I'm hoping through the monotony of my day you will get to know me better. Of course it's a perfect way to be accountable to someone and in turn helping me reach my goals.

here goes nothing

I woke Bella up for school today and both her and I had a hard time adjusting to the new schedule. Man I was tired. While I was helping Tess change into something warmer Bella came running downstairs declaring she had to throw up. Lucky enough we barely made it in time to reach the toilet so there was minimal clean up. She seems to be doing better because she's already acting bored. So far everyone has been hit with this crazy flu, but me so I am, to say the least, terrified of getting sick.

I not only made a dent in my laundry today I have only one more load to do. This is pretty impressive for me since it takes so long to dry my cloths and all day to do a load of towels. I'm hoping I can keep up this pace. I use to do my laundry on Mondays & Fridays, but am thinking if I do one load a day it will keep me on top of it. Since my dryer is so bad it's hard to get everything done on one day anyway.

I've given myself time to organized my studio today. It's been a mess since Christmas so it's nice to see my desk again. I have the hardest time working in clutter, but seem to do it more often than not. I also want to get things in order because my project for the week is to empty and clean a set of drawers in the garage Adam isn't using. It's a really cool piece with 6 drawers, the four skinner ones with dividers in them. It will be great for organizing embellishments and other supplies I don't know what to do with.

I've realized that if we're going to get Megan potty trained we ought to put her in a big girl bed so if she has to go to the bathroom she can. I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be in a big girl bed even if she can climb out of the crib if she wants. The crib has been up and used for 6 years now so it seems weird to take it down and box it up. I suppose that time is quickly approaching no matter what I do. It's just so hard to imagine that that part of my life is potentially over. Don't get me wrong I celebrate it as much as I morn it.

I have been ready to get to January as soon as Christmas was over. Yesterday we took down all the Christmas decoration so life feels and looks back to normal. My tree was so dead I was grateful to see it go. I had a harder time taking down all the Christmas cards though, I really loved getting them and seeing them up all month. One of the things I love most about January is a new planner. Yesterday I pulled out my new planner and started highlighting dates and preparing it for 2007. I love it. It makes me feel in complete control. Only 9 weeks to my birthday. :)

In true Jill form...
How is your first day back to real life?
Are your Christmas decoration still up?
Do you like to do laundry?
Do you use a planner?

back to blogging....New Year.

Man it's been a while since I've really sat down and blogged. Leading up to Christmas was so crazy and then after was just as busy. My sister was in town all week and we hung out everyday. It's such a nice small break from the everyday for me, but when she goes I am so backed up with laundry, cleaning, blogging etc. I haven't even been to Pink Christmas to see all the gifts. Thank you so much to Melanie for my wonderful gift. I loved that you used a photo of a lighthouse. It meant so much to me that you know I love them.

I am in awe that today is a new year. It feels like 2006 flew by quicker than the last. I have been trying all weekend to look at where I'm at and how far I've come in 365 days. I get discouraged when I review my intentions and realize I didn't meet them all, but am encouraged by the changes I have made and battles I've won. Too often life seems more complicated to me than it should be. I'm hoping this year I can use what I learned about myself in 2006 and make a real difference.

One of the things I'm striving to master is organization. I love to be organized and feel I'm not that bad at it, but more often than not my day goes by and I wonder what I accomplished. I know some times it's hard to get it all done with little ones, but at the end of the day when I can't recall what I did I have to wonder. I'm going to take Jill's advice and start a log of my daily activities. Then take what I learn and move to the fly lady routine. I've done it before, but have since gotten out of the habit. I really think being organized will help me on so many levels in my life. If I can get this down I'm hoping other parts of my life, I'm unhappy with, will fall into place. Let's hope I'm right.

I have several goals as far as creativity is concerned. There are a few areas I want to grow in and learn more about. I already have multiple books I want/need to buy. Perhaps I should have asked for Barnes&Noble gift certificates for Christmas. I so enjoy learning something new and look forward to tackling a new direction and seeing where it takes me. I, of course, want to continue to learn and grow in those areas that I've already found passion for like photography and scrapbooking.

Another goal of mine is to do a project at least once a week...one thing I didn't do very well last year that I really wanted too. I think part of the reason was blogging. I love the blogging world for what it has taught me and the connections I've made, but I see how it can take the place of creativity. I want to make sure to have a better balance so i can keep up with all of you and continue to do the things I love.

I suppose this list could go on and on. I have spiritual and family goals like better FHE, reading the BOM together and alone, serving more outside my home, memorizing the "Living Christ" (a YW goal), getting my food storage complete, potty training megan (hopefully soon), reading more, playing more with my girls, more time with adam, taking a vacation together etc. etc. I just have to say I have such a great outlook for 2007. I feel, though it will most likely come with it's challenges, I'm ready to face them because 2006 was good to me...hard, but good. It has been an interesting ride and I thank all of those who were with me, supported me, and gave me what I needed this past year. I only hope I can do the same for someone else.

Pink Christmas arrived on my door today.

I am having a hard time not opening it. I thought I would just open it right away, but have been convincing myself to wait for Christmas. Now I'm not sure that I should.

Are you waiting until Christmas morning to open your Pink Christmas gift or have you done it already?

photo stamps

Ok tell me is this not the coolest thing you've ever seen? I've seen others do this before and have wanted to personalize me very own stamps, but never wanted to pay the extra price. Well I just couldn't help it. This photo was just screaming to me to be on a stamp. It's even more enjoyable sending out cards now. Anyway, I had them made here. Check them out they are always having deals.

Can you believe Christmas is next weekend? I'm sort of in a panic. Does anyone else feel like they are forgetting something or someone?

Hope everyone is getting a lot done this weekend.

It's a winter wonderland out there

This morning we woke up to tons and tons of snow. It's at least 6 inches, if not more. I would know because I was out for an hour shoveling both driveways. It was so beautiful and surprising warm I didn't mind at all.


Tess has been asking the last several weeks, "when are we going to make a snowman?" I kept telling her we're waiting for the right kind of snow. So this morning when she saw that I was outside she immediately got dress with her boots and wanted to come join me. She even asked me if it was the right kind of snow. I told Megan to get ready as well and when I came back in to check on her this is what I found. Sweet little Megan in her dress up cloths. All I could do was laugh.After changing Megan and trying to find their gloves and hats we headed out to make our snowman. As it turns out, it was more challenging than I thought so Mr. Snowman, as they fondly call him, ended up quite small. I couldn't understand it, the snow was perfect for packing, but for some reason we couldn't get the balls big enough without them falling apart. Apparently I'm out of practice. Despite the size of him we had a lot of fun. Well I should say Tess and I did. Megan gave up after a while. I don't blame her as I couldn't find her gloves so I know she was cold. She did come back out to put on the carrot which she was thrilled about. Actually I think Tess' favorite part was looking for the sticks and rocks...she had to find the perfect ones. Winter is not my favorite, but playing in the snow like this totally redeems it. For those of you that got snow, how much did you get? I'm curious what a difference living on the bench is like since it's our first winter here.

You would not believe...

That I actually think about posting everyday, but for one reason or another it doesn't always happen. Suffice to say I have some catching up to do...as usual. Here are a few photos from the night we all went to temple square. It was sooo cold I'm not sure we even stayed out there for longer than 30 minutes. Despite the winter chill it's a fun life long tradition that I'm glad I was able to experience again with my family.




My basement has been driving me crazy or I should say the lack of organization for my girl's toys has been driving me crazy. To think that Christmas is on it's way is enough for me to try to do something about this problem. So all day yesterday I put up shelves, bought storage bins, and organized the toys. I found it so satisfying to do and the girls even got way into it. They each took one of the small bins for themselves and demanded a label for it. This started the labeling craze so now all the bins are neatly labeled and in place. It's unbelievable how much stuff you find just by emptying everything out and starting over. I must say when I look at the closet and realize it's completely full, I don't know where the new toys are going to go. We for sure need to have each of the kids give away one big item. It just gets to be too much. Anyone else with me on that? So I mentioned the girls were so excited...Bella said, "we have a new house." and Tess wanted to have a sleepover in the living room. I was glad they were as thrilled with the project as I. Perhaps they will keep it looking like this for more than 24 hours. We'll see I guess, but I'm not counting on it.