Miscellany

**I'm playing catch up today after spending a great weekend away, actually I should say, I should be playing catch up. I've been busy taking kids to music lessons and school registration that I haven't had the time to catch up like I ought to. Luckily though, Adam did a lot of it over the weekend (what a gem, right?) so it won't be overwhelming once I get after it tomorrow.


[adam took this with my phone]

**Well there was one thing I did get caught up on...being with my girls. It was an utter delight to see my girls this morning. I got in at 10:30p last night so I was unable to be with them when I got home and was anxious to get my arms around them today. I didn't have to wait too long as they each made their way into my bedroom when they woke up to say hello and cuddle up next to me. I have decided these moments have been my most favorite from the summer and will be the ones I miss when they're back in school.

**School. So hard for me to believe school starts in less than two weeks. Like I said we had registration today to sign up for SEP conferences and volunteer times throughout the year. I'm hoping to be at the school one day a week to help in all the classrooms. Hard to imagine they will be at the same school with the same drop off/pick up times...first time in 7 years.

**I've had my computer at the shop getting windows 7 put on it since last tuesday. I took it in then thinking I would be able to pick it up when I got home, but it turns out they haven't even started on it. UGH! They did say they were super busy when I dropped it off, but come on, a week. The joys of technology.

**I've uploaded and am in the process of looking through my photos from the weekend. Had hoped to have a post this evening, but spent the night playing go fish, jenga, & the 50 states. A wise choice if I do say so myself...I'm learning.

**I'm grateful to be feeling so recharged and happy right now. What a blessing it is.

missing

I think one of the best parts of being away is that it gives you a chance to miss your family. Sometimes you don't appreciate them as much as you could because you're with them everyday, all day. I don't think it's intentional, rather I think that's just how we humans are. It's easier to take thing for granted when you have them all the time. If you've read my blog for any amount of time you'll know I think about it a lot, appreciating my family, but even so, leaving & coming back gives me a different perspective I can't get when I'm around everyday. Being away helps remind me of what I really want, what's important & helps give me the motivation to be better & try harder when I get back.

It's good to get away from the everyday.
It's good to miss & I do miss my four.

xxox
Amy

Sent from my iPhone
(p.s. Have you ever used your email to post on your blog? It's pretty handy when you're out of town.)

pesky growth

This made me chuckle...

"I finally got to exactly where I wanted to be, she said, so why won't all these growth experiences go away & leave me alone." -storypeople

new look

"...and there ladies glasses because i'm not a child anymore."

This is was the first thing she told her dad as she showed off her new look to him. I'm not sure I've seen this girl this excited in so long, and rightly so...new glasses, a new look, is a big deal. It's not only that, she was long over due for a new pair of glasses having out grown them in more ways than one.

I was determined this time around to have more of an opinion, but was plesantly surprised to see she liked what I liked. Kind of a shocker considering we seem to have completely different styles. The challenge came when we realized she had moved up and no longer fit into the kids glasses. Apparently they don't make, as they put it, "tweener" glasses so we had to move onto ladies, which as you can see from her earlier commment, she was thrilled about. However, it did make choosing a more difficult task. Many of the cuter pairs just look way too big. Considering what she had to work with I thought she did a great job narrowing it down and even chose the less expensive pair without realizing it.

So without further ado, here's her new look... All set and ready for the fifth grade.

oh the possibilities...

Adam has me thinking about my studio. I go in stages where I talk about it, a lot, and drive him crazy with the possibilities, but as it turns out he gets excited about the possibilities as well...

I'm going to Portland this weekend with my friend Amy. It was a last minute thing, but am so welcoming this little break from the normal to discover Portland...again. Anyway, since I'm leaving Adam has fully come clean that he had plans to turn my studio upside down while I was away. While I admire his desire to surprise me I'm grateful he brought it up and gave me the chance to talk about what I'd love to do with the room. With limited budget it just really boils down to using what I've got, rearranging and decluttering.

Obviously it's a room to work in and there will be some clutter, but right now there's so much stuff I just don't use any more or stuff that I've moved on from that it's not functioning the way I want. Also, my style has change a lot in the last few years and I want my studio to reflect where I'm at now.

So it looks like I've got myself a big project on my hands...a project I am excited to tackle. This is what it looks like now. I literally just stepped away from my computer and took these photos with my phone.





I have a few idea, a few things I'd like to try. I know I want to paint the closet doors black and maybe paint the room. I know on one of the walls I've thought about doing floor to ceiling b&w photos. I saw it in Elle Decor Magazine and fell in love with it. I don't know that I have a great wall for it in my studio, but I may try. If not I may do wallpaper on one wall instead.

Just thinking about the possibilities gets me itching to start right now. Changing things around always helps to motivate me so I'm hoping this project of mine will be just the thing I need to get me in my studio again and working.

**Does changing things/rearranging furniture in your home help you get inspired?

on the other end...

Remember how I talked about getting a prepaid line for our home phone, well I finally bought it and am in the process of switching phone numbers etc... and that's where my story begins.

I was looking everywhere for this phone. It's small, but no one has used it so I couldn't for the life of me figure out where I put it. I kept calling it and walking around the house listening for a ring, but nothing. Mid search a little voice in my head said, Megan may know where it is. She was eyeing it a few days before and even asked if it was for her. So I called Robyn's (she was at her house) to get some answers, but no one picked up so I went on searching. About the tenth time I called, right when I was ready to give up figuring it was turned off and lost, I suddenly heard the ring on the other end stop and the phone clicked. Someone had picked up the phone.

There was a long pause and then a giggle. It was then that I knew...there is a reason we mothers have instincts.

I said, "Megan is that you?"
I heard, "Megan it's your mom."

Pause

Megan: "Hi, Mom."
Me: "What are you doing?"
Megan: "I'm playing."
Me: "No, what are you doing with the phone?"
Megan: "Oh that, i don't know."

She had packed her bag to spend the night with her cousins and for reasons, still unknown to me, she packed the phone as well. Only Megan would decide that was a good idea. Oh dear. I think we may be in some trouble.

here are just a few photos from the other night...

last week in photos

bbq in the canyon with some friends...


Because everyone took a load we only had to make one trip, of course it didn't come without some complaining.


mmm...some of the most delicious cookies in town. Love their identity too. Check them out.


I've always wanted to get glasses as an accessory. What do you think?


Waiting for Despicable Me to begin...and the popcorn.


The view of downtown from my kitchen window at sundown. It was one of the first times I didn't mind washing dishes. (Yes, I actually took this from inside from my kitchen window.)


While doing some shopping with the girls I couldn't resist the flower bed.

snippets from this morning in my bed

One minute I was lying in bed in the quiet trying to not wake up and then next I had three little girls next to me. These are the pieces I heard...



"What if this was the only bed in the house? That would be really squishy for dad." -megan

"Megan you smell like Marigold." -tess (Marigold is our friends dog)

"Don't bite me." -tess
"Than get your fingers away from my mouth." -megan

"I see a bunny rabbit on the ceiling...sorry that was random." -bella (she was referring to the texture on the ceiling.)

"What are you doing?" -me
"Enjoying your bed." -megan

"It's all your fault!" -tess

"Mommy, I'm stuck on you." -megan

"Stop! I'm trying to lay in peace." -bella

"Come on Tess let's do our jobs. I'm doing the dishwasher." -bella

"I'd rather play than work." -tess

"I'm so tired I feel like I can't even get up." -megan

"Sorry I didn't know." -tess
"Ya yuh did." -megan

"UGH!" - tess

"I want my own grapefruit." -megan

"What are we doing today?" -megan

weighted days

I've watched a family in my neighborhood in the last four years go through some of life's biggest changes. Once they were a young family of five and one by one the boys have grown, gone on missions, come home and gotten married, and created a home for their new families. I've watched the parents go from a house full of teenage boys to an empty nest.

I can so easily, frighteningly so, see my future as I watch them transition from one life into the next. Adam and I, the girls, we are on this path and there is no turning back. We will one day get to this place and I'm grateful that I won't have to get there anytime before I am ready...I hope.

Watching them though, it does make me so queenly aware of the passing of time. In the book Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the Balinese concept of "rubber time". She says, "One day to [a Balinese] isn't necessarily composed of twenty-four hours; sometimes it's longer, sometimes it's shorter, depending on the spiritual and emotional nature of that day." And this is my favorite part, "sometimes you count the days, sometimes you weigh them."

When I read it, it made all kinds of sense to me. Yes, of course. Time shouldn't be measured in hours, weeks, and years. Time should be measured by moments and experiences.



This evening, remembering what it was like to be smashed onto the couch, sweating under the blanket, getting battered by Megan's flailing legs, the way Tess and Megan called for Bella because they didn't want to read the book without her, hearing the laughter from my three girls as Adam read and entertained them the way he does has stay with me long after the moment has passed. Yes this moment was quick, but it was full of weight and the emotion allows it to linger on, and in that sense, it appears to move through time slower.

I love where we're at right now...every piece, every part. If I could reach out and stop time, just for a bit I would, but I can't, so I go with what I know...I can never get enough of these moments. They sustain me and keep me whole, and I didn't understand til now it's because these experiences are full of weight and meaning. There bigger spots on our time line and are what tie the other pieces of our life together to make our complete story. I believe it's that completeness that will help me be ready when the transitions come because I'll know I was there, I was present, and I have the memories to remind me and help keep me moving forward.

xxox,
amy

magical summers

Today as we sat at home for the third day in a row with another sicky (Tess this time) I found myself thinking fondly about my summers as a child. They were magical. I know it sounds cliche, but they were...magical.


[Star Valley, WY | 1980]

I remember boating on the weekend and trips to Lake Powell where my dad taught me to water ski.
I remember going to Star Valley, WY to my aunt & uncle's cabin to swim and ride horses.
I remember running out my door in the early morning hours to my friends house hoping one of them would be able to play.
I remember night games, kick the can, sardines, etc. until the sun went down and my mom called us in for the night.
I remember drive ins and fireworks.
I remember tan lines and popsicles.
I remember my dad playing catch with my brothers in the back and BBQs with family friends.
I remember long days outside playing house in our tree house.
I remember my friends and I asking our moms to let us have a sleepover.
I remember riding bikes around the neighborhood and getting Slurpees and garbage pail kid cards at the 7/11 up the street.
I remember the house being so hot at night that I would lay in the hallway to get the cool air coming off the swamp cooler.
I remember tomatoes and squash fresh from the garden.

It's crazy for me to think I'm now on the other end of these memories. When you're a kid it's so weird to think you'll be anything but. Of course time races on and those memories fade into the background until you have your own children and then once again you're reminded as you watch and help them create their own memories just how magical it really was.

I hope they are feeling the magic too.

photos from the weekend

To celebrate our state holiday we spent the latter part of the day with our friends at our local park joining in the festivities. For us that meant, swimming, food (carnival food), games, face painting, and hanging out and talking. All these things were done just to by us time for the main event....the fireworks. Good times.


We started the evening off with swimming. Little did we know the pool closed at 5pm, we got there at 4pm. We were all bummed, but we had a whole night ahead of us so luckily no one complained.






For whatever reason Bella stayed close to me the whole evening. She wasn't really into playing with the kids or doing any of the games. Haven't quite figured that one out.




Apparently, according to Megan, the blue on her chin is a "blue squiggly" and no she didn't do it herself, she told face painters what to do. Even the red around the eye cracked me up. I can't imagine what they must have thought with her request.









It was an enjoyable evening with our friends, but exhausting. We all slept in and even took naps the next day. I guess being out in the sun will do that to ya.

cultivating gratitude

Although I'm not grateful Megan woke up sick today with a fever, I am grateful it has slowed us down and given us all some time to just relax and enjoy the lazy side to summer. It's got me thinking, how come we haven't had more days like this?

I am grateful to have spoken with an old friend this morning, to know that time and distance hasn't changed a thing. We so quickly picked up where we left off...

I am grateful for the desire to get up at 6am each morning so I can enjoy the sunrise.

I am grateful for a washer/dryer that makes cleaning less of a chore each week.

I am grateful to hear creativity coming from the basement. Bella's on the piano continuing to compose her song titled "rain storm" while Tess sits next to her and attempts to write the music out on her own handmade music sheets.

I am grateful it's 5:30p and that Adam will be coming home any minute to spend the night together.

I am grateful for a husband who loves his daughters and isn't the least bit let down that he doesn't have a son to take on the fathers and sons camp out this weekend.


I am grateful for bakeries that satisfy my chocolate cravings.

I am grateful the clouds are rolling in, hopefully for another summer rain storm.

meet carl

He's the best $.99 I've ever spent.

He repeats anything and everything you say. Sounds annoying, but he has a charming way about him that entertains. He seriously has the girls in giggles for hours. Even Adam was taken with him when he gave him a chance. Find him here.

it's been one of these kinds of days

You know the kind of days that start at 5:50am and don't quit until sundown. Ya, it's been that kind of day. I don't always embrace those days, come on there exhausting, but today I did because it's a Monday. I'm always more receptive to getting back to work, hitting my to do list hard on Mondays. Tuesday-Sunday...not so much :)

Sure feels good to get in bed after getting so much done.

Goodnight Monday...

***********************************************************************************

p.s. Bella's reading over my shoulder correcting my grammar. I don't know if it bugs me or just embarrasses me that she's catching my mistakes before me.

Sunday thought

What is most important?



This was the opening question of our speaker today at church. It always amazes me, and yet, it never should, that God can and will answer prayers so quick & blatant. I literally had been thinking this morning about this very thing...Am I doing what matters most?

Sigh.

I wish this was a question I could answer an unequivocal yes to, but I know I'm falling short. Each day I have a renewed commitment to do my best, unfortunately I'm one of those one step forward two steps back kind of gals so my progress, though progress nevertheless, is small compared to where I want it to be.

So it was comforting today to hear the words service & give spoken from the pulpit. I know wholeheartedly the best way to find happiness is through others by serving them, but it never hurts to hear again and again that service is the key to our joy. In fact, it gives me hope that while my progress is small at least I know I'm on the right path.

xoxo
amy

\ˈmāk-ˌshift\ : a usually crude and temporary expedient : substitute

When I woke up this morning I found a pile of shoes stacked up by our back door and no red box to put them in. Wondering where the box went, thinking first of course what my girls had done with it, my eyes were drawn outdoors to something red.



It took me only a few seconds to register what I was looking at and realized, this is Adam's trap for the skunk. A red wooden box held up by a potato masher with a string tied to the end. On the other end is fastened a folded yellow post-it note with peanut butter on top. I would go into how ludicrous I think this is, the first being how trapping a skunk 6 feet from the house is never a good idea, but I think you can see for yourself this was not a well thought out plan. Oh, but I love him for trying.

He may not have caught our skunk, which was most likely for our benefit, but I will say, he did manage to start my day off the best way possible...with laughter. And that's really all that matters...right?


Have a great start to your weekend.
xoxo

randoms...my head is full of them

**Bella's been away at a camp since Monday, probably enjoying herself immensely while the rest of use are at home missing her. It's crazy how much one person adds to a family. We were eating dinner Monday night and it felt empty. The four of us seemed so small and yet with Bella we feel complete.

**I want these (I'm so drawn to the squares) or something like it for my kitchen. I know just the place. And since I'm not willing to shell out $260 for them, I'm determined to find them second hand...somewhere.

**I think there's a skunk that has taken up residence in my yard. No, seriously. I haven't seen it, but I keep smelling it randomly throughout the day (which is not good for anyone). Sometimes it's in the front, sometimes the back. It's driving me crazy because I can't have my windows open in the morning or my whole house smells skunky. What should I do? Would Animal Control come trap it?

**I have been sleeping horrible this week and I can't figure out why. I get to sleep great, it's just I can't stay that way. So I've been walking around like a zombie around 3 o'clock in the afternoon wondering when I can get back in bed. Drives me crazy.

**Speaking of being tired, I have backed off some, ok a lot, on my p90x. I'm still doing it, but I do miss things (like whole days) here and there. I did do 30 push ups Tuesday morning so I must be doing something right.

**I finally decided to get rid of our home phone and buy a prepaid phone to leave at the house for emergencies and what not. I've thought about it for a long time, but kept dragging my feet. It just makes sense, plus, between that and cutting my cable service in half we'll save like $90 a month. Stoked.

**Last Sunday we had church outside at This Is the Place Heritage Park (more to come), and we gave a ride to our handicap neighbor. He is a funny 55 year old man who's all about business. He doesn't like to be late, in fact if it were up to him he would be hours early and he won't give me the time of day when I say hi to him at the grocery store (he's a bagger there). Anyway, he seems to understand a lot, but he doesn't speak really well. You have to really listen to understand him. When we pulled up to the park Tess said, "this place, I hate this place." (honestly I have no idea where this is coming from. The only other time we've been was last year for church so maybe she's just thinking it's going to be hot, I don't know). After she said it, Richard, who's in the front said in a, I can't believe you just said that sort of way, "dude". Adam and I couldn't contain ourselves. It was just too perfect his disgust. She kept her mouth shut after that.

**Remember this project. I've yet to finish it (ugh I hate that), but have recommitted myself to getting it done and starting 2010. Now that I'll have more time this fall I have no excuses...not that I did before.

summery goodness

made me smile

[click here for original note]

Dear Daddy,
I love you Daddy because when I hug and kiss you I feel happy about me.

I found this note from Tess to her Dad while cleaning out a stack of papers. I don't know how old it is, though her handwriting makes it look like it was written at least a year ago. It made me smile when I read it, in fact, I got a little chocked up.

You can never really underestimate the power of being loved.

I hope and pray she will always feel this way and know, no matter what's going on in her life we are always waiting in the wings ready to give her hugs and kisses.

When I asked her what she thought about turning six she said, "I feel awesome".

When individuals from my past meet Megan the first thing out of their mouth is, "she's you". And while I agree with them on so many levels, she has a confidence about her that I've never known. Confidence that has Adam saying, "She'll either be signing our pay checks or we'll be dead by her hand". I think we both agree this girl is going places.

She sees the world in terms of her. We joke that it's all about her, and while I don't want to believe that, she goes and reminds me I'm wrong this afternoon when I asked her to take all her toys down to her room and she said, "it's all mine" in a very Dr. Evil way.



It's that funny, unique sense of humor that has you forgetting she sees the world in terms of her. She has a very mature witty style that you can't help laughing at. Even when you're exasperated and you've had enough of her way she can still make you walk away with a smile on your face.



Sometimes I call her Stinky and here's an example why. When I asked her to come out with me this morning to take pictures she said, "how many are we taking?" And I said, "a few". Then she said, "a few is three, so we're taking three" (not a question). I came back with, "no, we'll be taking more like 100". And then she said with an exasperated look, "I'll give you a few".



This girl of mine has a fondness for me like know one else I've seen. I mean I completely understand why, who wouldn't...right? ;) It was hilarious when I looked through her school journal and saw that each picture was of the two of us and titled something simple like, "I love mom". When Adam asks, "what about dad?" she tells him he's hairy and mom is smooth. I can understand her logic.



Miss M has taught me a lot, but of this she has taught me tremendously...life should be enjoyed. And boy does she enjoy it.

Happy Birthday my darling Meg. I love you to pieces.