The last few weeks...with photos! :o)

Second post for this month! Whoo hoo!!! ;o)

I realize that it's been far too long since I posted any pictures, so that's what this post is mostly about. This month has been CRAZY CRAZY for me and I've been incredibly overwhelmed most of the time, but now it's nearly over. WHEW! After I get past Rieka's birthday on Wednesday (my baby will be 9! *sniff*) the coast is clear for a bit. Or so it seems at the moment. I guess we'll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings to the calendar...

SO...in brief, since my last post, I was pretty busy with church stuff mostly, with a smattering of household duties and yard work. Activity days, including prep for a recognition night for the girls (WHICH reminds me of the little Glamour Shots Lorinda and Shelby helped me with...which I made into CUTE little frames with a list of positive adjectives for each girl...I'll try to post a picture of Rieka's finished product) consumed me for a while, and I had to do my regular Sunday lesson stuff as well, and then I was trying to get stuff ready for the trip to Utah (me and the girls) for Tina's wedding. What BLISS! Lol! I'm amazed that I made it through it all unscathed. Then AFTER coming home from the trip to Utah, I had activity days again and once again had the usual Sunday lesson stuff to do as well as prep for sharing time in primary! JOY! *sigh* And now, I sit and try to think of the EASIEST way possible to pull off Rieka's birthday. Swimming and pizza anyone? I try to keep the numbers down, but we still always end up with SO MANY people! Ah well. I'll live.

As for the trip to Utah, it was quite good, even with all the clouds, rain, and mosquitos!

I got to see my brother and his family as well as their new house which is still in the fixing-up stages, and on my second stop there on the way home, we had a nice afternoon with the kids walking around Utah Lake, skipping rocks. We had a SUPER time that night being WAY too crazy while staying up WAY too late, laughing at ourselves and each other and playing silly games that we played as kids. Ya GOTTA love times like that. ;o)

It's always fantastic for me when I get to go home. I absolutely LOVE coming down out of the canyon and seeing Cache Valley spread out in front of me. The rain was even a bonus, since one of my favorite things is driving through the canyons when the clouds are low and the mountains are so green!

I got to see Tina get hitched, which was great even if things did get rained out it wasn't the backyard wedding she planned.

I got to visit a bit with family and hang out with my best buddy, Amy, who fortunately had copies of some photos that I could have lost forever due to the computer catastrophe mentioned in the previous post. We ate good food, stayed up FAR too late, and complained to each other about our kids. Ah...ya gotta loves times like that. ;o)

So for now, I can take a breath. I think that sharing time went well yesterday. We had a most excellent dinner with salmon, shrimp scampi, pasta, asparagus, squash, salad, jalapeno poppers and so on. The squash, jalapenos and cucumbers in the salad even came out of our garden! :oD

Now maybe I can just sit a bit. Maybe I can have a bit of time to read. I can enjoy the beauty of the yard and the garden , and I MIGHT even take a dip in the pool a little later.

Catastrophe and Gratitude

I recently had a major computer catastrophe and we lost everything that had been put onto the computer since the end of January. All documents, e-mails, and yes...photos. This has done little to help motivate me into blogging. It takes a LOT of time to organize, categorize and resize photos. I was fortunate to that I was able to have copies of many of those photos on another computer, but the ones that I had already tampered with were lost as well as some that were NOT on the other computer. :o( Not much you can do about it, though.

Moving on to other things, it's been crazy busy. Since my last post, we had fabulous spring break, Paul finished up with his job at Echelon and became unemployed, Leila celebrated her 2nd birthday, Paul and I had marked our 13th anniversary, and Rieka went on a couple of field trips. School is now out for the summer and Paul finally started a new job this past week. My cousin is getting married on the 20th of this month and so I'll be heading up to Utah for that, as well as visiting some family and friends. We're also planning on going to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house.

I'm terribly grateful for all the little things in life. Our patches of garden are doing well and we've already gotten a few veggies as a result of our labors. The sunflowers are doing quite well, and despite being a bit mutated, are still nice to look at. ;o) We're looking forward to having peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers soon and hope that the pumpkins and watermelons produce for us, too.

I'll have to see if I can get some photos put up soon, but not sure when it will happen since I have to work on resizing and categorizing again. :oP And that, as mentioned before, is what takes so much time to do. Until then...love to all!

Slacking

Lol...I logged on to check some things and saw a comment from a friend that reminded me of something I already knew. I've been slacking off. :oP
Things have just been super busy lately and nothing makes this more apparent than the state of my DVR box. SO many recordings, SO little time! ;o) HOWEVER, I shall make a valiant effort this week to update the blog and post some of the very cute pictures that have been taken lately.
I wish to my friends and family who read this much love and happiness at this beautiful time of year, and I remind you all to look forward with anticipation to the upcoming General Conference! :o) Aren't we so amazingly blessed to have the sweet prophet that we do! I absolutely LOVE listening to him, and I always have.
I shouldn't prattle on when I have to be getting ready for church so this will have to be it for now.
Until next time!

Musings: Who are we?

I was just reading my friend's blog and it was making me think...who are we really?!?

I think that some people have multiple personalities, per se, that they shift between depending on the company they're in. I think that I've even done this myself. Not dramatically so, mind you, but to small degree. But despite my bouts of MPD over the years, I think that I've pretty much stayed true to the essence of who I really am. I may have lost sight of my foundation now and then, but I've always been able to find it again.

In the things that I've been reading and studying about recently, I've been thinking a lot about what I am and SHOULD be about; who I really am and what I'm meant to be. It's been said that the more you do something the easier it gets. I think that this philosophy is also true for being yourself.

Do you know how it feels when you stretch yourself to test out new and different things or ideas? It can be hard to get back to your original shape...you almost feel lost, and your sense of self can become completely abstract. It may even feel like you never knew who you were to begin with before your sense of self became so contorted. When that happens, we have to dig to find our foundation again. Whatever that foundation may be, and however long ago it was placed, it IS there. It can be mighty difficult to do, but if we can be diligent, it can be found. That's where our essence is. That's where we begin and where we find who we really are.

Changes

I'm a little slow putting this up, but really wanted to post a couple photos of the girls.

I've been having fun taking different photos lately when Leila is playing and have gotten some cute ones of her. She's growing so quicky and there are little changes now and then that make her more of a little girl rather than a baby. For one thing, she can actually say Kaleb's name now instead of saying "Kabub", and while I'm glad that her pronunciation is improving, I'm sad to see the little things like that fade away.

Also this week, Rieka got her braces! Everyone who sees her comments on how cute she looks with them, and it's definately true! Though she's only had them since Thursday, she seems to be doing well enough at the moment. Here are two photos: before (Feb. 13th) and after (Feb. 26th). Though I suppose she didn't really show her teeth much when she smiled before, and the after shot doesn't really do the cuteness justice, so it kind of defeats the purpose! Oh well. They're still both cute pictures. :o) I'll have to try and get some better shots of her the next week. THAT will be my challenge!

My favorite day of the week

Sunday has got to be my favorite day of the week. Really. Even though we sometimes have a bit of friction in the morning, (like when mom tells us that she needs a picture of Leila printed out for something she's doing in nursery and we find that we have to actually TAKE a picture to have one to print out...) things usually work themselves out by the time we settle ourselves onto the pew bench for sacrement meeting. I do my best to listen to the speakers so that I can get a much needed charge for the upcoming week. We have our Family Home Evening on Sunday as well, which has become a quite a highlight. (At least it is for me!)

That said, I just want to post a short little soapbox shpeal. A little editorial, if you will. And here it is....

I used to watch award shows like the Oscars. I don't anymore. I used to be able to say that I'd seen most, if not all, of the movies nominated for awards. Not so now. For such occasions, movie stars parade out and expose themselves to be praised or criticized by the masses. It's a rough life. I certainly wouldn't want to do it. I know this seems a bit random, and I could certainly go on with other thoughts about this topic, but I won't. To quote Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that. Moving on then....

This last week was quite the week. I've had better. I've had worse. One day we had 4 missionaries come over to trim up the pine trees for us which mom and Lorinda were tremendously grateful for. Saturday I stayed busy and helped mom a bit out in the yard. And now for another soapbox moment, I now proclaim my belief that if a person wants to stay fit and trim, they should simply clean and maintain their homes and yards on a regular basis. This includes taking care of children and pets. If people would do that, they would have no need to go to a gym! Doing home and yard work can produce sore and tired muscles just as well without having to give someone money for the use of fancy equipment. ;o)

After "working out" in the yard with mom, we were reminded that we had a ward dinner over at the church. We were extremely pleased and relieved to realize that we wouldn't have to cook dinner that night. While Paul and Kaleb went over to help set up, mom and I scrubbed up and then headed over with the girls. Dinner was lasagna, salad and bread with various frozen ice cream and popsicle treats for dessert. It was all wonderful and the best part, as I said before, was that I didn't have to make it! Lorinda and I had some good conversation with one of the missionaries who had helped with the pine trees, and she decided that we should reward their efforts. After we sent Paul and mom home with the kids, she and I stayed to help clean up in the kitchen and then we headed over to Marie Calendar's for pie! We ended up taking 4 pies over to the missionaries and we hope that they enjoyed them thoroughly!

Sunday was ward conference and it was amazing. I loved listening to the speakers and enjoyed participating with the choir for a small little number, for which we received numerous compliments. ;o) The stake primary presidency took over in primary to present a combined sharing and music time activity. The ladies who were involved did a wonderful job engaging all of the kids and the message presented tied into a general theme for the whole conference. I was really impressed and grateful for the efforts of everyone involved.

Yeah. Sundays are good. :o)

Valentine Hair

It's been a long time, but I've been inspired by looking at the blogs of some ladies who do fantastic fun stuff on their daughters' hair. SO...here are a few shots of what I came up with today for Rieka to wear to school; my version of a valentine heart braid. Mind you, I probably don't take as much time and care as other people, and I refuse to use any hair products in her hair as well, so my finished work isn't nearly as refined as some others you may see out there. BUT...it's still my creation and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. :o) Oh yeah. ALSO, I don't think the other ladies are working with NEARLY as much hair as I am! Kinda makes revisions necessary on the works of art that I try to emulate.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful President's Day weekend, and a lovely Valentine's Day!

Hmm. It occured to me that I didn't get any good shots from the TOP vantage point. Maybe I'll can get one or two later today when she gets home. It also would seem that I REALLY need to trim her bangs! Lol!!!

My week...Readers Digest version

The past week has been full-ish. Last Wednesday night we had a fun Activity Days learning more about prayer. Things were crazy that day but with the help of my wonderful sister the cupcakes got baked so that the girls could have some fun decorating one to eat. We got a few photos taken, but they weren't too much to look at...especially since I didn't have a chance to shower or really make myself very presentable that day. :oP
The rest of the week passed by and Mom got home from taking care of Kevin's girls on Friday. She had told the girls that they could have a slumber party with all of the girl cousins and THAT created a pretty full house. Luckily, I had a Primary dinner to go to, so I didn't have to deal with much of the chaos. ;o) The dinner was good we played some fun games that helped us get to know each other a little better. Also, I decided that one of the games would be great to use for Family Home Evening, which I did!
Sunday was good...church, Superbowl, and FHE, which were enjoyed by all. This week has been a bit chaotic but it looks like the tidal wave has passed for now.
I had a chance to spend a little time with a good friend yesterday. It was good to be out without any of our kids. I also made mom a cake for her birthday. It was definitely the least I could do for her!
LOVE YOU MOM!!!

The produce guy

Leila's quite the talker. Yeah, I know. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. ;o) ANYWAY...last night Lorinda and I went to the store and took Leila along. As we were going through the store Leila saw some grapefruit and decided to reach up and get herself one. Carrying it as she walked along, she spied the other fruit and started to say "Apple!" over and over. We say to her, "Yes! Those are apples. Lots of apples!"...and the conversation goes on.
"Do you like apples?" I ask her.
"YES!" she says. "Want it!"
"You want an apple?"
"Yes."
So Aunt Rinda then tried to see if there are any precut packages of apples. She spied a produce guy and asked him, only to find that there were none. I then tried to divert her attention to another, more easily consumed, piece of fruit.
"Ooo! Look at these bananas! Would you like a banana?"
But she was off following her aunt to another corner of the store, still saying "Apples, apples!" as she went. I decided to get a couple of bananas anyway because they DID look pretty good, and while I was doing that the produce guy asked me what kind of apples Leila liked. I told him that she just likes any kind, and he then picked one up and said that he'd be right back. He came back a few minutes later with the apple all cut up on a plate for her. I then reminded her to say "Thank you", and she did. We got the rest of what we needed and left the store to the tune of Leila saying, "Thank you welcome, guy! Thank you welcome!" over and over.
Kids are fun, huh? ;o)

The "Twilight" Zone and Tales of Snow!

First of all, I flubbed up! I missed the weekly posting mark by ONE DAY! Darn it all!!! Actually I've been meaning to post for the past couple of days but I just haven't had a chance. It's just a little something funny (to me) that I really wanted to make note of...

My dear ol' sister hardly ever reads. She just keeps herself so busy with other things that she hardly ever reads much other than scriptures or church books. However, we've had various maladies making the rounds through the house recently and she was feeling a little under the weather a couple of days ago. We were talking about something, I don't recall exactly, and Twilight was mentioned. She got an interesting look on her face and said something like, "Fine! Give it to me. I'll read it!"

In short, I was pretty happy that she had finally caved. ;o) So THAT happened on Monday night. By dinner time on Tuesday (after about 14 hours reading, INCLUDING in the car and while eating pizza at Sam's Club) she was done and wanting book two, even though I was in the middle of re-reading itmyself! I graciously passed it on for her to read, and once again, by the next night, she was done. Today, however, work threw a small wrench in the works and she was only able to read a little bit here and there between appointments. Alas, since she got home from work she's back on track! Two books in two days so far. We'll see how long it takes her to get through book three.

Since I was such a slacker before, here's a little bit of a backlog. During December, we had several days that it snowed. I know, I know. It HAS snowed here before, but only ever (in the 8 1/2 years that we've lived here) on the west side of town, where we lived. It has NEVER snowed over on the east side since we or my sister have lived here. One of the days it snowed so much (for Vegas) that the Clark County School District actually declared a Snow Day for the next day! I got a few random photos and thought that they should definitely be posted.

The photos above are from the FIRST significant snow that we had on Dec. 15th. Two of them I took when I was on the way to get Rieka from school, and one I took of the front of the school itself. It was pretty interesting to see the teachers' cars all covered with snow. The two photos at the bottom of the lot was the day after. THIS snow, however, was not the one that warranted the Snow Day. THAT snow would be from two days later as shown in the photos below (pay no mind to the inaccurate date on those photos)...

WHAT is THIS?!?


Snow on the EAST side, baby!!! ;o)

The snow hadn't been coming down too very long at the house, but Kaleb said that it had been going all day over at his school, such that he and some other boys had a big snowball fight before he cam home for the day.

And these are a couple from when Lorinda and I went out later that night to go run some errands. They're a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. I'm only disappointed that I didn't get any good ones of the sad looking palm trees. Most of the fronds were weighed down by the snow except for a few sticking straight up on top. Lorinda and I both laughed when we realized that we had the same idea about how those trees looked: like something from a Dr. Seuss book. ;o)

Until next time, love to you all!!!

A New Leaf

I created this blog quite a while ago and have hardly done anything with it thus far. With the new year, I'm going to attempt to post something here at least every other week, if not weekly. I've also been pretty terrible about keeping my photos downloaded, cataloged, and posted. So I'm going to try and keep up on THAT as well. It seems like a tall order to fill for me, but it's just something I'm gonna have to do. SO...here's something new in the line of photos! Nothing fancy; just a little family photo (along with Paul's parents) taken at temple square when we were up in Salt Lake visiting for Regan's baptism at the beginning of December.

With the new year and a new ward has come new callings for me. Along with teaching the Valiant 9 class still, (which will include Rieka) I'll also be doing Activity Days. THIS is something completely new for me. I'm not really sure what kinds of things to do with the girls (a group of about 5 to start with...again, including Rieka!), but I have great faith in my VAST network of friends and family who are incredibly talented, witty, and crafty! ;o)

As for family happenings, things are well and good. Paul enjoyed a bit of time off during the holidays (see photo below of him and Kaleb playing Rockband, which was Kaleb's big gift for Christmas!) and is now back at work and just started his classes again as well. He also found out when they play basketball in this ward and went for the first time last week. It's well on the way to becoming his weekly work out.

Rieka spent a LOT of time visiting with family (cousins) over the winter break from school. The time really did fly by and she returned to school feeling a combination of reluctance that it was all over and joy to see all of her classmates. She continues to keep herself busy with the computer, Aunt Rinda's dogs, reading, and playing with her little sister.

Leila is just as busy as ever!!! She's a movie fiend and loves the Disney princess movies as well as Mary Poppins, Shrek, Elf. She loves to sing and dance and can frequently be heard singing "I know you...." from Sleeping Beauty. We have to watch her closely when she gets near the dogs because she loves them SO MUCH and just wants to lay all over them; it makes us just a LITTLE nervous and we want to make sure that she doesn't hurt them, so that they don't hurt her. She spends a lot of time with her puzzles and books, and likes to draw and color also with her favorite canvas being Aunt Rinda's refridgerator doors! How I LOVE washable markers!!! ;o)

I keep busy enough dividing my time between various things...home stuff, church, reading, computer time, family, friends and so on. With all of the changes of the past year, I've had to put school stuff on hold but I'm looking forward to the time when I can start up with that again as well.

We love you all, and hope that you all are healthy and happy with many wonderful prospects for the new year!!!