desperately seeking spring

We simply ignored the cold wind and pretended it was nice outside today.




I can't keep Sawyer out of the street. He just sees it as an extension of our yard. He pushes his lawnmower down the middle of the street, chases balls up and down the gutter and stays completely oblivious of any danger. In fact, he was out in the street when a car was approaching from one end and a school bus from the other. Instead of running towards the sidewalk, he simply stood still in the middle of the road and started waving at the bus. Obviously, there is some teaching that needs to be done. Oh, that will be fun!

butterflies, in the beginning

Slade got a Butterfly Pavilion for his birthday. The caterpillars arrived Monday and are squirming around in their jars on the counter. They have already gotten quite a bit bigger. At times they don't move and I wonder if I've killed them.

This morning we woke up to snow on the ground and the high for the day was 44 degrees! I am so over the winter already! I really hope it warms up soon so that we can release our butterflies outside. Just watch, we'll jump straight to 90 degree weather next week and I'll be complaining about the heat.

art that is my life

I'm working hard to tame the beast that is my d200. The learning curve is steep! I'm still relying on my d50 far too much but victory will be mine! Practice, practice, practice.

I had an assignment to complete for my photography class over at Big Picture. Sawyer was my only semi-willing model. I had to let him outside in the cold and then immobilize him on a stool but I did get some cute photos.

But then he was totally done. This is his "put that thing down, woman, and hold me!" look:

Nathan allowed me to bury him in laundry in my attempt to imitate Rebecca Mudrick.

I am really hoping the weather will warm up and I can get the kids outside for some photo sessions. Tonight's weather was anything but warm. Emma had a soccer game with freezing wind. Then, I was able to make it to the temple after her game but was shocked to walk out after the session to snow! Snow on April 30th? Ridiculous.

gift of charity

I got to take pictures of little Charity last week. She pooped and peed all over the place and decided she definitely did not want to sleep much but I didn't let that stop me!

Sigh. Isn't she beautiful? Still, I'm glad she is my friend's and not mine. :)

mad scientist for a day

Despite my major lack of early preparation, Slade's party went off without a hitch. We had five extra little boys over with lots of mess, food and fun.

Experiment #1: Dry Ice Bubbles
Put dry ice in warm water and watch the water begin to "smoke".
Add a bit of dish soap and play with carbon dioxide bubbles which are great fun to pop.


Experiment #2: Erupting, Bubbling Blob
Something like a mini lava lamp, minus the lamp. Fill the baby soda bottle 3/4 full with vegetable oil. Add one cap full of water. Talk about how water and oil do not mix. Add two drops of food coloring and 1/4 of an Alkaseltzer tablet. When the liquid stops bubbling, cap it tightly. Gently rock back and forth to watch the bubbles.

Experiment #3: Slime
Dave mixed up green slime with the kids while I got lunch ready.

For lunch we had Bacteria Burgers and Hot Dogs. I soaked the hot dogs in green food coloring this morning until the party and added a few drops of blue and green food coloring to ground turkey before shaping it into patties.

Experiment #4: Insta-snow
Sadly, this experiment was rather disappointing after the fun we had already had. And it was a pain to clean up. Sorry to all the moms of Slade's friends since I sent their children home with Insta-snow powder and baby soda bottles full of oil.

Experiment #5: Diet Coke Geysers
Diet Coke + Mentos = Fun!

And to finish it all of we had a bit of Brain Cake and ice cream.
And now, Dave and I are really tired!

if you fail to plan

This morning I planned ahead. I knew I had to take Slade to his Grandma's after gymnastics so I packed a lunch and decided I would also take the other kids to the park after we went to the library. That is just what I did (although we chose not to go to the library). The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed our simple picnic at the park.

Tomorrow is Slade's birthday party. I have been thinking about this for weeks. Thinking about but not planning. Not preparing. Consequently, I ended up going to the grocery store at 10 p.m. tonight. I will also have much to do in the morning. Much of this could have been avoided if I had started earlier and planned ahead.

Plan and be early. If I would actually do that, I would save myself a lot of time and frustration. I haven't been getting up on time in the morning so I am missing out on my planning sessions. Again I think about the things I should get done during the day but often forget what I wanted to do or simply do it in a inefficient way. Can you imagine the kinds of things I could accomplish if I planned a little better!?

Anyhow, this is what I've been thinking about tonight. Thoughts?

slade is six

This boy. What can I say about this boy?


He is independent, intelligent, fearless, determined. Some day these often maddening attributes will serve him well.

Here's more about the Slade-boy from his perspective (borrowed from Sunshine in My Soul):
What is your favorite food? macaroni and cheese, I mean pizza
Who is your best friend? Why? Michael, 'cause he's so nice, he shares his water with me at soccer
What makes you laugh? when people do funny things like fall
What is your favorite movie? Sharkboy and Lava Girl
What are you most afraid of? monster dreams
What embarrasses you the most? when Emma does really dumb stuff
What is your favorite music? Bet on It from High School Musical 2
What makes you really angry? when you count to three, I HATE it when you do that
What is your favorite activity? watch movies
If you were parent for a day, which rule would you get rid of? the 1-2-3 thing
What do you want to be when you grow up? a scientist
Do you think it would be hard to be a mom or a dad? Why? yes, because I would have to go to work a lot
If you could have a magical power, what would you choose? fireballs
What three things do you think you are good at? bomb battle on Mario Kart, playing with my friends, making stuff like experiments
What is the best thing about being six? I can buckle Nathan in his car seat
What is the best thing about being YOU? being good at bomb battle


He wanted "cooked sandwiches" for breakfast, macaroni and cheese for lunch and Carl's Jr. for dinner. Doesn't that sound yummy? He got to celebrate the day by taking off school, playing with friends and cousins, and opening presents. He said it was a good day and I hope in the end he felt loved. We sure do love you, Slade!

my love

Dave read my everyday life post and commented about his absence in it. I must correct this because he is such a ginormously HUGE part of my everyday life. I have a hard time putting my feelings about Dave into words because nothing ever feels quite adequate. How can I tell you how awesome he is?

Every day he tells me he loves me.
Every day he listens to me talk.
Every day he asks me what he can do to make my life easier.
Every day he helps me in so many ways.
Every day he tells me I am wonderful.
Every day he makes me feel beautiful.
Every day he is a fabulous father to our children.
Every day he talks to me about his life.
Every day he lets me know that he feels so lucky to be married to me.

Every day he is the best part of my life.
I love you, Dave!!!!

mish mash

I spent two hours in the dentist chair on Thursday. The only redeeming thing was that I got to watch Pride and Prejudice. I had them start a bit into it so I could see all the good stuff at the end. I watched the BBC version of Sense and Sensibility on TV on Friday night. I had never seen that version but totally loved it. I am on a real Jane Austen kick lately. In the last month or so I have also watched Becoming Jane, the whole BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, two versions of Persuasion, and the Emma Thompson version of Sense and Sensibility. I think it is time to bust out the books again too.

I got a new camera! I couldn't justify spending $1800 on the Nikon d300. So I saved myself a thousand dollars and bought a used d200 instead. I still have to figure it all out. I've taken some great pictures with it but have also had times of little success. A friend of mine asked me to take pictures of her girls at a performance they were in. Not one picture turned out from my d200. The ones from my other camera were much better though. Event photography is definitely not my love. I also took pictures of my friends boys on Saturday. I did half with my d200 and half with my d50. I was hoping I would see just a huge difference in the pictures but frankly I am still liking the d50 pictures more. I really hope it is because I just haven't really learned how to use the d200 yet. I really really hope so.

Dave got a new toy too. A new 46" TV. He has been looking for months and finally found one that met all his criteria. However, once he got it home he found that it is not perfect and there are a couple of things that are bothering him. Consequently he is back to looking. Ugh. My mom called Dave a shopping stalker. He focuses in on one thing he wants to buy and then looks and looks and looks for months. He is usually let down when he actually does buy something because that means the hunt is over. I'm telling him to just keep the TV already and move on but he isn't convinced.

I'm taking three different on-line classes right now. I'm working really hard to stay caught up but not totally succeeding. The first is Stacy Julian's Library of Memories class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I took the class last year and they allow alumni to retake it for free. I am mostly just following a long and doing assignments when I can. I am still completely in love with her philosophy of scrapbooking and photo organization. I really hope I manage to completely implement it sometime soon. She is brilliant really. The second class is also a Big Picture class called Art That Happens to Be Your Life. It is a photography class taught by Allison Tyler Jones. And finally, I am also in the Digi in Deep class with Jessica Sprague that I have talked about before. All the classes are great. It probably wasn't such a great idea to do them all at once. At least, I can save the material and work on it later if need be.

Well that is a lot of words without pictures so here is one of Sawyer just for fun. Say cheese!

everyday life

A few captures of life around here:
Kids doing an experiment...


Nathan eating a banana sideways....

Sawyer turning the lights on and off on and off and on and off....

Sawyer outside where he constantly wants to be now...


Other things you would see, if I remembered to take a picture:
Me on the computer...

Kids jumping on the trampoline...

Kids playing video games...

Me doing dishes and laundry and dishes and laundry and dishes and laundry...


It isn't too exciting but this is my everyday life!

digi in deep

I'm taking another online scrapbooking class from Jessica Sprague. Her classes really are fantastic. This one is an advanced class. My head is swimming a bit from information overload but it so amazing to see what Photoshop can do. And again, I'm just glad that I'm actually getting some scrapbooking done. With this class each week, the first layout is a copy of Jessica's. We design the second layout ourselves trying to incorporate the things we've learned.


On a sidenote, obviously I spend a lot of time on the computer with email, blogs, forums, photo editing and scrapbooking. Last week the computer just kept getting slower and slower. On Sunday I came in to find it completely dead. It would not turn on. I didn't totally panic because I knew at least my pictures were backed up but I was worried about the rest of the things on the computer. Dave figured it was just the power supply though. Today we called our favorite computer guy. He came over with a new power supply and had it up and running within thirty minutes. Big sigh of relief!

when good teeth go bad

Slade has quite the last few days with his mouth. On Thursday, he went to the dentist for a cleaning. I was a couple of exam chairs over and got to hear his conversation with the hygienist and dentist. "What is that?" "What are you doing now?" "That is yucky! I don't like that." He did well though and left thinking that going to the dentist was cool, especially because the dentist pulled out his first tooth.

Today he had to go back in to get his cavities filled. I stayed in the waiting room thinking he would do better without me there. Again, it was very interesting to hear him. This time he did not like the experience at all. The dentist was totally awesome with him though. In fact both Emma and Slade have absolutely no idea they got shots. By the end, Slade was quite upset because he didn't want his lip to "feel funny". He began crying on the way home and by the time we got home was inconsolable. I set him up in front of the TV for a little distraction. When I came back in to check on him, he looked like this:

Since he didn't like how his lip was feeling, he bit it. Hard. Several times. And ended up with a huge fat lip. It stayed very swollen the rest of the day but he did stop complaining. I hope it looks better in the morning.

reflections of Christ slideshow

You can see a slideshow of the images in the Reflections of Christ display that I mentioned here. The images are so beautiful. I really wish I could see it in person. The website says it is a traveling exhibit. I hope it comes somewhere close to me.

grumptastic

Yesterday I was in such a bad mood. At the point of tears the whole day. I just couldn't figure out why. I thought perhaps it was Dave and Emma's visit to the dentist which resulted in an obscene number of cavities. That certainly didn't help but in the end I think it was just the fact that I did not follow my routine or get anything accomplished all day. Is it silly that such a thing would put me in such a bad mood? Chalk it up to my ISTJ personality, I guess.

I have been doing really well. After chastising myself for a long while about my inability to get up early so I could work out, I finally figured out a way to deal with my natural inclinations to sleep but still get exercise. The kids have usually played really well together in the morning after breakfast. Taking advantage of that, I've been exercising around 9 and then getting ready by 10 when we begin our schoolwork. I've also been planning my days better and accomplishing more on my long to-do lists. It has been awesome.

However, yesterday I got up late and then allowed myself to get stuck on the computer. It ruined the rest of the day for me. I totally know better but it is amazing how easily I get sucked in. Today I repented and followed my schedule. Exercise. Done. Laundry. Four loads done and put away. Scriptures. Read. Sigh. I feel so much better.

SPT-remember me

I admit I suspected a little trickery in Lelly's post announcing she would be stepping away from blogging. I'm happy to say it was just a good April Fool's Joke. I don't always do SPT but I am glad for Lelly's assignments. It is hard to get myself in front of the camera so I welcome the extra motivation.

This is not a self-portrait at all but I thought I'd share the pictures my mom took of me while in Colorado. I actually like them and that doesn't happen very often! She did really well for a beginner, didn't she!