Knights of the Shag Carpet

Happy Birthday Alleen

2009-12-08T18:18:00.002-07:00

Sixteen years ago, you had a birthday and then a three days later you became my eternal companion. We miss you more than most people realize. You were the yin to my yang. I miss you so much that it hurts sometimes. When I look at our children and I watch them doing things that only could have come from you, the pain lessens just enough to keep going. Happy Birthday, Love. I miss you.

Happy Birthday Logan!

2009-09-12T10:08:00.002-06:00

Today is Logan 15 birthday. It was fifteen years ago that Alleen gave birth to our #1 son. She would be so proud of him. A high school Freshman, soon to be an Eagle Scout, and faithfully honoring his Priesthood. I know that she is looking down at him with a big smile and lots of tears for missing this part of his life. Happy birthday Logan!!!

It's been 2 Years

2009-08-03T19:40:00.005-06:00

It's been 2 years since Alleen passed away. 2 years since we last talked and shared insights about the economy, politics and just life in general. We made a quick trip to put flowers on her grave today. We got some silk Dutch Irises, and a silk sunflower. She really liked Dutch irises and sunflowers. We also put a sprig of white lilies in with the flowers. The lilies were for Duncan our son who is buried with Alleen. They were able to disinter his casket and put in with her, so his casket is between her feet. It was almost 12 years ago when he was born too soon and passed away. So when I had the chance to bury him along with her, I took it, and now they are together both in body and in spirit. We miss you!!

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T06:53:00.005-06:00

Happy Mothers Day. We MISS YOU!!!
Love Dave & the Boys & Ginger

See How They Have Grown

2009-04-05T08:51:00.005-06:00

Logan is in Washington D.C. area for the week. He is on a school trip. They'll get to see the White House, Smithsonian, the National Cathedral, The Liberty Bell, The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (they were actually going to lay a wreath, but because of a change of plans they only get to see it), Vietnam Memorial, plus countless other places that I can't remember. Adam was in the 4th grade play, he was an Indian dancer. I took a video of it with my camera, but it wasn't the best video so all I have are some stills. Adam's county float was on Davis County. Which means that Logan did most of it while Adam kibits a lot. Over all it turned out ok. Adam had the final say on how it turned out since his name was on the project and it was his grade. Logan took 1 in the school science fair, first in the disrtice fair and went on to regionals. He enjoyed his time but he didn't win anything. Logan has twice been nominated of the Mayor Teen Award. he recieved a certificate and some goodies from the city. The picture is of his latest certificate and the mayor. Alleen would have been proud of her boys. I know that I am.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T20:46:00.004-07:00

Merry Chrismas Alleen. We Miss you!!!

Happy Birthday!

2008-12-08T06:21:00.003-07:00

Happy Birthday my Love!! WE Miss you.

Let there Be Lights

2008-12-02T20:34:00.003-07:00

Our first Thanksgiving after we had gotten married we were in Alleen's home town. They have a yearly tradition that includes a light parade. Alleen's brother had a V.W. Thing sitting in his garage. We had talked about getting the thing up and running and decorate it for the parade. Finally this year we fufilled the dream, it was a year too late for Alleen to be there snapping pictures of the event, but the boys were in the car and even though it was a rain/snow mix, it was fun. Here is a picture of "Oggie" with everyone in the car. Alleen's idea was to have a wooden cut out of a coyote howling with the words "Howl a luah" in lights. We didn't get that far, but we did have fun.

Pink Floyd

2008-10-19T21:25:00.006-06:00

When we first moved here, we were going to the big city one day and as we passed the GSL. Alleen yelled “I think I saw a Pink Flamingo!” I thought she was seeing things, but later we learned that a flamingo had escaped from Tracey Aviary some years back and was nick-named “Pink Floyd”. So when A-bomb and I were at the local ranch store buying cat food, we saw this pink Dodo bird. It isn’t a flamingo, but it is pink and I know that Alleen would just love it. While we were down south for the weekend we put it and another bird that looks like a pelican on her grave. It was also the anniversary of Duncan’s birth/death. He would have been 11 if he had lived. If he had lived we probably wouldn’t have A-bomb, so when one door closes another door opens. The photos of A-bomb falling down are at a park in Dixie that has this really soft covering instead of wood chips. A-bomb wanted to see if it would hurt if he fell down, so he tried to hurt himself a couple of times until I stopped him from trying to hurt himself. The other photos are of the boys playing at the park.

Happy Birthday Logan

2008-09-14T20:09:00.002-06:00

Last Friday was Log's 14th birthday. It has been a very low key b-day, mainly because he had a scout jamboral in SLC it began on Fri. and ended Sat. p.m. he came home horse and stuffy nosed (allergies). He wanted Angel Food cake so when we went shopping we bought one, some Danish junkett and frozen strawberries(we forgot the whipped cream). Today was regional conference so we stayed home and just relaxed. Log's mom was the one who really made a big deal about birthdays. A-bomb helped Logs buy a 8 gig flashdrive. I have some magnets ordered that should be here tomorrow. We're going to try to go to the raceway and let them race go-carts for his birthday (even though it'll be late).
It's hard to believe that it has been 14 years ago that he was born. We had been married for 9 months and 1 day when he was born. Now, he has braces, is in the 8th grade and will be soon inducted into the Order of the Arrow. He was a good baby, and a very smart little boy. He was our only boy for 4 years before A-bomb came along. I'm glad he came into our lives and that he is such a good young man. I am so proud of him and I know that his mom is really proud of him. I can't be sure, but I think that part of his subdued attitude is because he is missing his mom. he doesn't mention it a lot like A-bomb, but in his own quirky way he misses her a lot. I miss her more than words can say.

It Has Been a Long Sad Year :(

2008-08-03T22:12:00.003-06:00

It has been a very long year. What I have missed the most is not being able to talk to her. I miss our conversations, our t.v. time, and our just going on drives on Sundays to be together. Having to do it all has had its moments, the laundry and shopping take up a whole Saturday (during the school year). Holidays and birthdays just aren't the same without her special touches. She always made them special even without a lot of money. When I had hurt my back, it was a tough time because I was worried about the boys, if Alleen had been here she would have watched the boys and made me stay home from work to go to the dr. Instead I went to work and then waited for a sub to come (which one didn't come so one of the Sped. aides took my class) while I went to the dr. I had quit my second job so we could be together more, because I had missed so much of the last year by working 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on nights I would have to work the two jobs. My final week at the truck stop was spent planning her funeral. It wasn't fair that I quit to spend more time with her and ended up holding her hand while her life ebbed quickly from her. I also did this 10 years ago with our son Duncan. It has been a quiet week, very few phone calls (thanks Wyo. Granny) to distract me from reliving the very vivid last few frantic hours of a year ago. I tried to not think about it, but it just kept popping up in my head. The boys didn't need to hear me talk about it, Logs was at scout camp so he missed all of the frantic 911 mess, Ads was here but he was out in a friends car so he would see her in the condition she was in. 14 years was not enough time. We both waited so long to get married, we were considered the old couple with the young kids. Many people thought that it was a second marriage for each of us, but it was our first and only. We had so many plans together, missions, both the boys and ourselves, marriages (the boys), spoiling the grandkids, and just growing old together. I always pictured us sitting on the porch in the cool evenings reading to each other, like my grandparents would. Grandma would read to Grandpa while he kept the flies a bay so they wouldn't land on his sweetheart. We did a lot of our dating by going to the temple. We went to Manti and the St. George temples before we were sealed. Because of work we didn't go as much when we moved up North, I missed that time together just the two of us in the temple. I know that I'm rambling on but I miss her so much and I feel bad because I couldn't make it down to put flowers on her grave today (stupid economy). I know she understands, but it still hurts. The boys have gone to bed and I have the dishwasher to unload before I go to bed so I had better get it done.

The Head Stone

2008-07-15T07:08:00.005-06:00

We have returned from St. George. The Headstone is ready. They are going to pour the cement base this week and set the stone next week. They let us get some pictures of the headstone at the monument place so we did. The pictures are a little stark because of the lack of grass.

The etching on the stone (the one of the hands and rose) I actually gave that picture to Alleen for our first anniversary. I was in college and Logan was barely three months old. I found the picture and gave it to her with a dozen roses for our anniversary. The picture hangs on our bedroom wall. I’ve taken a photo of the picture and I’ll include it.

When they were designing the stone, since we were sealed on the same day we were married, they took out the box that had the sealed date. Well by doing that, it left a hole on that side, I looked at the designer and said “Alleen’s a journalist and a scrapper, if we leave that looking lop-sided and not symmetrical, she’ll haunt me forever!” He laughed, but I was serious. So we moved the married date to just over the temple engraving and arched it so it just fits. I think she’d approve. Here is what it looks like before it gets set next week.

Alleen's headstone

2008-06-17T06:34:00.002-06:00

I ordered Alleen's headstone while we were in St. George for a wedding. Here is a tentative version of what it'll look like. The stone is a light pastelish red granite called "Morning Rose" When I get some real picutes of it after it is put in I'll post them.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-10T06:50:00.005-06:00

Play Ball

2008-04-27T10:54:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple of Adam's picutes. Baseball season started yesterday and his forst game was yesterday. His team lost, but he had a great time. He stuck out both times but he went down swinging.

Easter Break

2008-03-26T20:06:00.006-06:00

We have returned from our annual Easter sojourn into the cold Wyo. town of Afton. We have gone up for Easter to be with family for many years, This year instead of dying eggs we Tye-dyed tee shirts. It was a rousing success. Here are some of the pictures of the festivities.

Here & There

2008-02-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

Just thought you might like to see the boys playing on the red rocks of So. Ut. Sagehen loved the red rocks and the red sand from Dixie. She once told me when we went down for Thanksgiving after being up north for a couple years that even the sky was a bluer blue in Dixie (maybe it's just the contrast of all that red). She was right the sky was just a deeper blue that up here in the tooeles.

Happy Birthday, My Love

2007-12-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

Today would have been Alleen's 49th birthday. It snowed all day, the boys just moped around not wanting to get cold and wet. There is an empty feeling hanging around the ol' abode. We have the tree up (eventually even she conceded to putting it up before her birthday, after the boys got older), it's decorated, but the house is still empty. Tuesday would have been our 14th anniversary. I'll take the day off to do some Christmas shopping. I'll probably eat at one of our favorite places, Cafe Rio. There is so much I miss about her it is hard to say them all. I just miss her. Happy Birthday Alleen. I love you!
David

The Angel on the Tree

2007-12-04T21:39:00.001-07:00

Well the tree is up. Adam went to bed and Logan was at a scout meeting so I decorated the tree all by myself. I was always in charge of the lights and Alleen put the ornaments on. She had a certain idea as to the way they were to look. The boys would help her and after they went to bed she would stay up and re-arrange the ornaments to they way she thought they should look. I understood this about her and let her do it her way. While putting up the ornaments on the tree I was finding some new ones that I hadn't seen before. I found this one you see here in the box. It was marked on the back with the following "Mommy 1999". We would always make or buy ornaments for each of us and each year. This one was hard to put up and not shed tears as I hung it on the tree.

Just a quick note

2007-11-13T06:13:00.001-07:00

I thought I would post a quick note along with a new photo of Alleen's name sake. We (the boys and I) had to go St. George for my dad's funeral during our UEA break. WE missed the first 3 days of the new quarter.
I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving.
David

Alleen's Namesake

2007-10-20T06:42:00.000-06:00

Here is a photo of Alleen's neice who will carry her name as a middle name. Mysha Alleen Sorenson. She was born on the 18th of Oct.

Alleen's Resting Place

2007-10-08T06:43:00.001-06:00

We went to St. George for a quick trip and got a fuzzy picture of Alleen's final resting place. My camera phone was having problems so that is why the picture is so fuzzy.
David

Sagehen's Eulogy

2007-09-02T08:14:00.000-06:00

I thought that for all the friends of Alleen who couldn't come to the funural and I thought that I would share the eulogy that Alleen's brother-in-law Gordon gave. Apart from the memories of family members the majority of the eulogy was taken from Alleen's blog and scrapbook pages. Here it is. David

Alleen’s mother wrote this about her.
Alleen was always a quiet thoughtful child. She had a patient loving disposition and was seldom a bother to anyone in her home or at school. One of her friends recently told me that some of her classmates took advantage of her shy good nature and made her life miserable. She has since forgiven them. (ReNae’s note: The classmate who told her this was one of the advantage takers, who, in spite of making Alleen miserable then is a good friend now.)
She was mostly a happy child and she could come up with some good wise cracks. When she was very small she said “Time goes faster than I do.” and this has become one of our family’s favorite sayings. Alleen had a way with words, an excellent command of the English language and a love for learning. She enjoyed reading and was a good student. However, she was a poor speller which proved to cause her a lot of grief in her chosen profession as a newspaper reporter, writer and editor. When she first started to work they did not have computers with spell check. She taught herself how to use a computer and was an expert at it.
Alleen always loved paper. We have a picture of her about 2 years old sitting at a table with pencil, crayons and paper completely absorbed in what she was doing. She was fascinated with shapes and fitting things together. She was very creative in her writing and in her artwork.
She learned to sew and took top prizes for her sewing and 4H work at the Lincoln County Fair. She had a lot of good friends and was loyal to her friends forever.
In high school she was on the yearbook staff. This helped her with her chosen profession. She learned to take pictures and develop them in the dark room. Photography was one of her talents.
As a child Alleen lived on the family ranch in Crow Creek Idaho in the summers and in their Afton home in the winter to go to school. Her father was a cattle rancher and her mother was a school teacher who taught High School Art and Home Economics.
Alleen wrote this about how much she loved the life we had growing up on a cattle ranch in Idaho.
When I dream of home
I am always on
the ranch
in the two bedroom house
where our
family of seven
spent the summers
of my childhood.
I dream
of long golden days,
Dad haying from dawn to dusk,
dragging
home exhausted.
Mom cooking huge meals every
day to feed the
hay men.
I remember playing with the grape hyacinths and
our Siamese cat, Ming. Who usually gave birth to
a batch of kittens each summer.
With no television, we gathered
In the living room at night to read.
Just family. It was enough.
Alleen has a long and distinguished pioneer heritage on both sides of her family, with ancestors who were part of the church in Kirtland, the Mormon Battalion, the Willie Handcart company, and who have served the church in in many ways. Her Mormon heritage is very important to her, and she loves the gospel and has always been glad to serve in the church.

Alleens sister ReNae writes:
Alleen always had the gift of making things happen. This has been a theme of her life.
Alleen Debra Sorenson Lang was born December 8 1958. She was the 4th daughter of Alf and Colleen Sorenson. Her older sisters were 9, 7, and 4 years old. It was getting to be a family and community joke that Alf only had daughters, so when Alleen came along the stage was set for her to be just another of the Sorenson girls. There were some important differences though. Alleen’s name was a combination of her parents Alf and Colleen’s names. She was the first child to be named by her parents not her maternal grandparents as the first three were. She was the only one of the girls to have a middle name, Debra, which was her father’s mother’s name. She was supposed to be the last child, so finally dad got to name her and he must have realized that a son was not likely, so he made Alleen his special little pal. Four years after Alleen was born dad finally got his boy! So Alleen didn’t remain the last child, but she remained daddy’s little pal. They had a bond built on their love for each other and their similar sense of the absurd.
Alleen is very easy to love; she was quiet and cooperative, but a little bit quirky. She would sit and listen for so long people would forget she was there, and she heard many a conversation that was a little too old for her tender ears. Sometimes when the whole family was in the car traveling with everyone bickering or otherwise making noise mom would suddenly say “Alleen, where are you?” And we would hear a little voice from the very back of the long old station wagon say “I’m right here.” Later she would say some innocent little thing in a clever way that made us all a little too aware of our bad example. Once after a long drive to the ranch with the traditional slapping pinching, whining and kicking dad stopped the car about 100 yards from the house and ordered all the quarrelling children out into the night, Alleen spoke up from the back “I ‘tay right here.” She was right; she was the only one who wasn’t guilty.
When Alleen graduated from high school, she went to Ricks College in Idaho for 2 years, then after graduation she went to Utah State University. There she became a part of the journalism team. She said that she learned far more by working with the irreverent and funny newspaper crew than she ever did sitting in class, but she did both class work and real work and graduated in 1981 with all of the skills necessary to produce a newspaper. She worked on the Preston Idaho newspaper for a year, and then for two years she was the mainstay of the newspaper in Montpelier Idaho. There she interviewed, reported, photographed, made the layouts, went to meetings and ball games and all of the thousands of things a small town newspaper requires. She became a loved and necessary part of the community very quickly.
As her sister in the middle of raising 4 young children I thought she had the life I was missing. She bought her own car with her own money in 1984. It was a red Pontiac Sunbird with a standard shift. To me the ultimate in freedom and sophistication. She moved to Cedar City Utah in 1984 and went to work for the newspaper there. She transferred to St George and lived and worked there for 7 years. I remember going to visit her and being impressed with her numerous skills and all the people she knew. She could do anything.
She was unhappy about her single status, but I don’t remember her complaining about it. She was a spectacular aunt to my kids! They all loved her and she made every one of them feel important. When she came to visit she was like a tropical bird that flew into their lives and for awhile everything was full of exotic colors and extra fun.
She created a group of dear friends everywhere she went. In St George she and some friends started a group that watched Star Trek every week. They became a wonderful family to her and she loved to do things with them. In 1992, even with her support group, her demanding job had begun to wear her out, she made a life changing decision. She had saved as much money as she could over the years, and finally she had enough to take a year off. She was getting tired of the deadlines and the pressure, and she wanted to be closer to her family.
She moved to Logan, Utah to a cute little studio apartment and let time help her sort her priorities. It was there in Logan that she decided to rededicate herself to the church, ponder the scriptures, and pray and there she made the decision to take out her endowments. It was a great time for her family having her close, and she spent time with her dad tas she hadn’t been able to do in St. George. The year she spent in Logan is memorialized in her oldest son Logan’s name. David Lang had been part of the Star Trek group, and had helped her move to Logan, and a year later there he was, helping her move back. She and Dave had been friends for quite awhile, and she was kidding around with him one night about how girls in love scenes in the movies always touched the guy’s face. She stroked Dave’s face and asked “does that make you fall in love?” Apparently it did.
Alleen bought a condo in St George about two houses away from Dave’s parent’s house. She furnished it with furniture she got from her grandparents, and moved a friend in to help with expenses. She and Dave were in the same ward and they became best friends. It must be true that best friends make the best marriages, because it wasn’t long before they were engaged.
Dave and Alleen planned a December wedding, and just before Thanksgiving that year her beloved Daddy died. She said she then understood her need to move. She had that year to be close to him and he was able to be with her when she got her endowments.
The marriage had an interesting start. Shortly after she got married Alleen received a penicillin shot. She had a violent allergic reaction, and spent many days swollen, and sick. She was also pregnant. It’s a good thing Dave is a good Mr. Mom. He had plenty of occasions to put his homemaking skills to use in that first difficult year.
Logan was born 9 months and 1 day after Dave and Alleen were married. He joined an exclusive little group of cousins. A month earlier Alleen’s brother had a little girl and 4 days later her 43-year-old sister had another girl. The family jokes that these are the babies Grandpa Alf sent when he got to the other side. Alleen was very taken with the triple cousins and always made a special effort to combine them for special events. She worked to make their baptism a special day. They were all baptized on the same day in the same place and it really was a remarkable family occasion.
Alleen’s life has never traveled in a straight line. She learned a lot from the zigzags it has taken, but it was not always easy. Logan was a very smart and active little boy. It was a good thing he was also a good baby, because when Alleen was pregnant with her second baby in 1997 when Logan was two years old she had to stay in bed for many months. This is not easy with a 2-year-old and a husband going to school. She had a nice big bedroom and a computer, and a lot of patience and love. Logan thrived, and she was able to hold on to the baby until he was old enough to be born. Duncan Campbell Lang lived only a few moments and Alleen and Dave were able to hold him as he died. Alleen was changed by the experience, as her husband wrote in a tribute to her:

“Most people never saw the sensitive side of her; she took her duties of motherhood very seriously. When Alleen had just given birth prematurely to our second son Duncan, and as the doctors and nurses were taking care of her, she held our little boy as his life was slowly passing from him she was sobbing an apology to him for not being able to protect him, and for letting him down by not carrying him to term. The nurse thought that she was apologizing to them for crying, ... she just didn’t get how seriously Alleen took her job as protector and mother.”

About 5 months later Alleen again was in bed with baby number three. She was deeply concerned and reaching the end of her rope. In our conversations she confessed to feeling like the worst mother in the world, unable to save one baby or care for the other and agonizing over the safety and health of the third. Dave was again a great help, as he worked and went to school, and Logan, older now, at age 3, became very self-sufficient. Alleen’s mom was able to stay with the little family and help as the time for Adam to be born got nearer. Adam was born healthy in December 1998. He was like a little miracle and Alleen devoted herself to his care and to Logan, as she was able to be more active.
The Lang family moved to Tooele in 2001. Alleen blossomed as a mother and her love for her family radiated from her. She had never been happier. Her home and her children were the center of her life. She began scrap booking, using the skills from her newspaper life, and her love of paper. She started a blog and submitted her scrapbook pages to a web site where she gained friends both online and in her home and church. She always had the gift of gathering friends around her. She began to work part time as a writer for the local newspaper and her busy life with her family became the subject of her blogs and scrapbook pages. Dave posted a tribute on Alleen’s blog after her death, and the last time I looked it had 73 comments expressing love and thanks to her for her life well lived. Many of them from people who only know her from her writing.
I’m going to quote from some of Alleen’s writings. They express her life and sense of humor in her own unique way.

About the men in her life:
“I have been truly blessed to have close association with some of the best men on the planet.
My Dear Husband is outstandingly patient and hard working. He is such a great father to my children and such a supportive husband; I could not have picked a better man for me.
My father. The man who taught me the meaning of the phrase "unconditional love."
My Eternal Father, who loves me not in spite of myself, but because of myself.
My brother, long suffering and patient in a world of women.
My sons, what precious souls they are. My hope for them is they may follow in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.”

About Adam:
Money can’t buy you love, I told my son as he expressed his fondness for me after I purchased 400 water balloons.
His answer.
“No, it can’t but it can buy fun.”
Now there is a child with a grasp of the world.

I don’t much care for sports.
There, I said it.
This would not be too big a problem if it were not for one fact. I’m the mother of two boys.
Boys, as a general rule, do like sports. ...
[For me] Baseball is the exception.
I remember watching the 1975 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds against the Boston Red Sox. Dad was a fan of the Reds with their switch hitter Pete Rose, as well as other famous players Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo on the team. We watched the series together, and it is one of my fond memories of my father.
I sat through a few baseball games played by my nephew, Shane, and never really understood why my sister was so intent on the game.
Now I know.
Adam signed up for Little League this year
He was given his uniform yesterday and he looked cool all suited up with the hat and glove. I do believe baseball uniforms are so much more classic than football jerseys and head’s and shoulders above soccer shorts.
When I see him in the pants, the tucked in shirt, the baseball cap, with mitt in hand it stirs something akin to patriotism in my little heart. During the opening ceremonies a group of three teen-aged girls sang the Star Spangled Banner, they did a beautiful job and it made me teary eyed.
Baseball is just so All-American; it’s hard not to love it.

About Logan:

"Who would have thought I would bring a math wizard
into this world? I am hard pressed to balance my checkbook,
and I only do it under duress.
I was fine in my number-free world, then along came my first born
son, methodical, logical, technical Logan.
"The boy loves numbers, math and all things scientific.
He took first place in the school science fair while he was in first
grade.
Instead of watching sports, he has the television tuned to MythBusters or Numbers.
He hates to get up early, but willingly gives up 30 minutes of sleep twice a week to attend an advanced math class.
"When he and his father get talking math problems I
just smile and go somewhere else in my head. I’ll let them discuss negative numbers, integers and Pi while I think about my next newspaper story or scrapbook layout."

Note to self: Be careful how well you educate your children.
Today I told Logan to put on his socks so he wouldn’t get sick.
His reply, “How are socks going to prevent me from contracting airborne illnesses.”
Me: “Because I said so!”

To her niece who is struggling with some of the same things Alleen went through:

It was May 1993, I was living in Logan without a job, or a family, or any idea of what I was going to do with my life.
I had just gone through the temple on May 1 and traveled south to go to my friends wedding in the St. George Temple on May 9. I was sick when I went south, but I just kept getting sicker and sicker until I ended up with laryngitis. On the way home I was stopped by a cop and given a ticket because my car registration had expired.
In short, I was miserable.
One year later I was living in St. George, married to Dave and pregnant with Logan. We were both unemployed, and he was going to school. We are still paying off the student loans.
I was single for 35 years and I often wondered why
(well I kind of knew why I was single)
but why I had been given this lot in life.
But, being single did have some great moments.
The whole not having to answer to anyone but myself, having the house the temperature I want it to be, watching the television shows I want to watch, not feeling guilty if the dishes aren’t done at the end of the day aspect of single life still appeals to me.
Do not get me wrong. I adore being married, I fiercely love my children, I can’t imagine life without my beloved companion by my side.

But every now and then I remember watching television shows without interruptions.
My life is always changing. Just when I think I’ve figured out what I am doing something changes and I’m struggling to learn something new.
Right now the something new is juggling my obligations to my children, my husband, my home, my job, my church calling, my hobby and myself.
I am spending way too much time and energy on a job that uses my skills, but is not bringing in enough money to justify its existence.
The distractions of my job leave my children wanting more attention from me, and I slightly resent it, because I’m feeling pulled so many directions.
Dave is not home nearly enough, he’s not getting enough sleep and I am worried about his health.
But it’s not going to last forever.
One day my children will be grown and I will miss them more than I miss my left hand.
My Dave’s schedule will eventually settle down and he will be home more often. I hope so, because we all miss him.
I may hit it big in the scrapbook world, quit my reporter job and start resenting my hobby.
So many things can change in such a short period of time.
This too shall pass.

Change is on the horizon:

I am now thinking a change is on the horizon and I’m not really sure where I’m going to fit a change into my open days with nothing in them.
But I can’t spend a lot of time thinking about it today. The day stretches ahead of me with nothing in it but a few loads of laundry and a kitchen to clean. O yes, since I now have the spray paint, maybe I can start on that scrapping project …

My new motto: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, Cola in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "WHOO HOO! What a ride!"

Do you ever have the feeling that something is about to happen? And that something, be it big or small is going to change the current course of your life.
What’s more, you know something should happen, but you are not sure if you want something to happen, or if you think the something is good or bad, or just … something.
Kind of like the feeling that you are either seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or the headlight of an oncoming train, but you are not sure what it is just yet?
That’s kind of what I’m feeling right now, and it’s making me a little uneasy.

The scripture on the scripture a day calendar for the day Alleen died was:
In my Fathers’ house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14: 2

One of Sagehen's Last Pages

2007-08-26T08:11:00.000-06:00

Alleen (AKA sagehen) had finished this scrapbook page on the 16th of July for a contest, however, Logan didn't want her to submit it because they would keep the page. She hadn't gotten around to submitting it, so I copied the journaling so you could read her feelings about life and how insightful she was.

48? Seriously?
Not I, the female version of Peter Pan. Born the youngest of four girls, I was the perpetual little sister. I played in the creek and gathered wild flowers while my older siblings hung laundry and cooked for hay men.
They followed practical courses in college, home ec. and teaching, while I studied journalism. They raised children and I launched myself into the world as a newspaper reporter, admittedly in a small town. Along with boring school board meetings and deadline stress my job brought adventures like gliding over dawn-washed meadows in a hot air balloon and listening to blue grass music in a natural red rock amphitheater under the stars.
At 35 I married my sweetheart. Within the year our first son was born. The second took a bit longer; I gave birth to him a few days after my 40th birthday. Play-dates with my children’s peers put me in a group of women 10 to 20 years younger than myself.
But at 48 I’m starting to feel my age. My knees creak when I climb the stairs, the silver strands in my hair are getting harder to pass off as sun kissed blonde streaks, and skin around my eyes is starting to crinkle.
Just this month a high school classmate called to tell me about our 30 year reunion, and my mother celebrated her 80th birthday. Unless I plan to live to be 98-years-old, I’m on the downhill slope.
Behind me stretches a life full of memories. Ahead I face more joy and more challenges.
One of my favorite scriptures reads: “We see through a glass darkly.” We do not know what the future holds. My life is half over? I don’t think so! My life has just begun. Well, okay, maybe not just, but I can bring experience to bear as I continue to fill my glass with wishes, dream and memories.
48! Seriously!

A Fond Farewell

2007-08-04T15:10:00.000-06:00

A Fond Farewell & Loving Tribute.

Alleen (aka the Sage Hen) was taken from us on August 3, 2007. She was suddenly stricken with a broken blood vessel in her brain which quickly took her life. She felt very little pain and she went quickly.

I am going to miss my sweet wife, helpmate, confidant, and mother of my children. Alleen had a sense of humor that was witty and to some, hard to get. She would come home from teaching a Relief Society lesson and tell me how it had gone, and then she would tell me of one of her statements or jokes that she had told, then she would laugh as she described the look of the women’s faces as they tried to tell if she was joking or not, but the ones who knew her were trying to contain their laughter. I remember at my 20th high school reunion, one of my classmates was saying goodbye as we were leaving he said “It was nice to see you”, and Alleen said without missing a beat “It’s nice to be seen”. The classmate who was a lawyer just stared at us not knowing how to respond to her comment.

Alleen loved her family. She loved going to Star Valley to visit the Bowling’s and the Sorenson’s and her mom of course. She loved to get together with the Stott’s and she regretted not seeing the Draper’s as much as she wanted to. She loved her dad Alf, She would tell me about going on road trips to Idaho Falls or other places and how she would stay awake to talk to her dad so he wouldn’t get lonely while the others were asleep. Alleen always had her camera with her to take pictures of the kids, nieces and nephews. Holland and Ashlee were some of her favorite targets because of the closeness of the two with Logan. She loved to take pictures of raindrops on roses, the cat attacking the toilet paper roll, the sunset, the lone bush, rock, tree, or critter just sitting out by itself in a field. Her favorite subjects were Logan and Adam, Katie then Ginger (our cats).

Alleen loved being a reporter and writer. She was known for her non-biased opinions and reporting style for the paper. She hated being on the school beat because it made her feel very uncomfortable dealing with my employer and bosses. They really liked her, when I told one of the directors that they had replaced her with another reporter he said “Why I like her and I know that she was going to be fair and not try to create trouble.” She took her journalistic ethics very seriously and was never shy about letting me know when she saw another reporter abuse the ethics that she so deeply believed in.

Most people never saw the sensitive side of her; she took her duties of motherhood very seriously. When Alleen had just given birth prematurely (due to incompetent cervix) to our second son Duncan, and as the doctors and nurses were taking care of her, she held our little boy as his life was slowly passing from him she was sobbing an apology to him for not being able to protect him, and for letting him down by not carrying him to term. The nurse thought that she was apologizing to them for crying, but I knew who she was apologizing to and I wanted to tell the nurse to shut up because she just didn’t get how seriously Alleen took her job as protector and mother.

Goodbye and farewell my Alleen. I’ll miss you and I love you.
David

I may never be dry again

2007-07-26T11:20:00.001-06:00

This week I have been reminded of the time Wyo. Sister came to visit me in St. George one summer. It was sweltering hot, and just before she arrived, the clouds burst and we were hit with a gully washer, which left the town not only hot but humid.
The first words out of Wyo. Sister’s mouth when she climbed out of the car were “But it’s a dry heat!”
Muggy doesn’t begin to describe the weather.
We went to Lagoon on Pioneer Day. My workplace has a tradition of giving employees tickets to Lagoon, and treating them to lunch every summer.
It’s been hotter than hadies, so we thought we were being clever dressing the boys in swim suits and riding “Rattlesnake Rapids” first thing ~ three times. For those of you who don’t know about “Rattlesnake Rapids” it is a pseudo white-rafting experience guaranteed to get everyone in the boat sopping wet. I’m very glad I didn’t take the camera, because my bag was soaked through after the second trip down the river, so I sat out the third ride while DH and the boys went.
We followed this by a trip on the log ride. Apparently the more weight in the boat, the lower it rides in the water and the bigger the splash when you hit the bottom of the slide. DH and I (plus the boys of course) made quite a splash.
In previous visits to the water rides, we have dried relatively quickly because of the heat. Not this trip. The high humidity just kept the four of us in our own personal weather system.
We went home right after lunch to peal off our clothing and change into something blessedly dry.
We ducked out of the Primary Parade by going to the movie “Ratatouille” that evening. It was a fun movie.
Yesterday, after a long day of trying to muster up the energy to do our daily chores in spite of the high humidity, the rains finally came. It was a monster cloud burst. Our street was flooded in short order and our lawn followed. DH was happy because we were getting water on the yellow spots on the lawn.
I was standing on the porch taking photos when the cat came streaking across the lawn yowling. She didn’t stop to go through the front door, but scurried into the shelter of the carport. Ds-8 was terrified by the lightening.
We were just sitting down to dinner when the power went out, so we finished the meal and I cleaned the kitchen in the dark. We had hopes that DS-12’s swim practice, DS-8 Cub Scouts and my town meeting would be canceled, no such luck. The power went on just as I was driving out of town.
It’s much cooler today, but everything feels kind of damp.
I hate humidity, so I am very grateful I live in a desert when the air is usually dry.

Snap shots

2007-07-22T19:11:00.000-06:00

1. Take a picture of three things in your home that represent you.

Here are our fourth and final set of Photo Challenges:

2. Take a picture of three things that epitomize the city/town you live in.
3. Take a picture of the three places you frequent the most. (these two did not happen because it's stinking hot outside, DH took the car with air conditioning and I'm not about to go running around with my camera on a blistering hot Sunday afternoon and no air conditioning.
4. Take a picture of all the people around you now.
5. Take a picture of your favorite shoes.

To be fair, these are not so much my favorite as my only pair of shoes. I think I have three pair of shoes in my closet (well, okay, on the living room floor) right now: Black heeled pumps for dresses, these for every day and a pair of those foam clogs for my frequent (ha!) trips to the beach.

Ahhhh, sigh

2007-07-21T21:51:00.000-06:00

I finished HP. Yep, I am a fast reader.

I am very happy to have read it, to have all the ends wrapped up, to know what is going on.

But I am very sad to be done reading.

I took a few minutes away from my busy schedule of reading, ordering a pizza for lunch and trying to keep my boys from killing each other to take four more of the five photos in the ST challenge for today.

1. Take a landscape photo. Sorry, missed it.
2. Take a still life photo.
3. Take an unposed photo of someone displaying emotion.
4. Take a photo of a beautiful weed.
5. Take a photo of your favorite hangout.

HP and ST weekend

2007-07-21T09:58:00.001-06:00

I have too many fun things to do this weekend.
DH went down to Wal-Mart last night to brave the crowds picking up Harry Potter seven. He bought two books, even though we have one winging its way to us from Amazon even as we speak, because we have three HP fans in the house.
Since he is a elementary school teacher, he can put two of them in the classroom and get reimbursed from the school for the purchase. WhooHooo. Every job has its perks.
But I’m torn between reading and playing on line ~ even though I have a great fear someone will slip a spoiler in somewhere. But ScrappinTrends, is having an on-line crop weekend with prizes.
I came downstairs to have a shower and logged on to find this photo challenge, so I took a few minutes away from HP and went photo hunting.
Grab your cameras ladies! I'm going to be posting some challenges for you to capture with your camera throughout our crop. You'll get 10 points for each photo shared. If you create a layout with your photos you'll receive an additional 40 points!

Here are the first 5 Photo Challenges:
The only thing I missed was the sunrise. I could have shot a wicked sunset last night. We have wildfires on the mountains across the valley from our town. Last night we went for a drive to the neighboring town, about 10 miles from here, where DH works. It is being threatened by the fires, but they seem to have diverted it back over the mountain.
1. Take a picture of the rising Sun.
2. Take a picture of your favorite body part...keep it clean! lol

3. Take a picture of your craft table..right NOW!

4. Take a picture of your neighbor's yard.

5. Take a picture of yourself without makeup!
I took the photo right after I climbed out of the shower.

Here are the second set of Photo Challenges:

1. Take a picture of the first thing you eat/drink in your day.
I made the muffins to celebrate HP day.

2. Take a picture of what you're most proud of.
I am proud of my whole family, but DS-12 and Djin were the two members readily available.

3. Take a picture of something red. DS-8 in his red T-shirt.

.
4. Take a picture of what's in your fridge

5. Take a picture of something with wings.
DS-12 suggested this. It is not a real bird, of course.

Napping, always a good option

2007-07-20T18:03:00.000-06:00

This topic just seemed like a great blog in the making, don't you think? July is National Anti-Boredom Month. So, here are a few questions about boredom that I'm asking as this week's blog challenge.

1.Your entire family has gone away for the weekend. The house is all yours. What are the first three things you do?

1. nap. 2. scrap. 3. repeat.

2. Your bankbook is looking healthy, you have a four-day weekend ahead. What sounds good?

Taking the family to San Diego ~ Sea World, sailing.

3. What do you do while waiting in the doctors office?

Try to keep my children calm.

4.Would you rather spend an afternoon alone in a book store, a mall, napping in the hammock?

Reading in a hammock? Is that an option?

5. You have an unexpected 48 hour stay in the hospital. You're coherent and not in pain. How do you spend the time? Reading? Channel Surfing? Laptop surfing? Calling your friends to come visit? Ringing for a nurse every five minutes? Sleeping?

O no question, I’m sleeping and reading.

6.You have a nine hour trans-continental flight. Get excited about finishing a hot novel? Watch the in-flight movies? Become best friends with the stranger seated next to you? Take three valium and sleep the time away?

Watch the movie, read a book, gaze out the window.

7.You have a seven hour layover in Chicago O'Hare Airport. Do you wear down your cellphone battery calling friends? Read a book? People watch? Shop every store in the airport? Take a taxi and see the city?

Seven hours. Probably shop, eat and read.

8.What do you do when your bored stiff?

Take a nap.

9.Work first, play later? OR Play while you can, the work will still be there when you get home?

Nap.

10. List three times that you are easily bored.

I think the airplane trip would bore me. Any discussion of sports has my eyes glazing over. Gossip about people I don’t know has me yawning, too.

Cat lady for fun and profit

2007-07-19T21:39:00.000-06:00

If I were to become a crazy cat lady, I would probably be a breeder because I love kittens and I’m a little bit snobbish about what kind of cat I have in my house. I love all felines, but I want to own pretty, well bred ones.
I have always fancied Siamese, but today while I was looking at Stuff-On-My-Cat they showed this photo of some very lovely cats. Following up on everyone’s comments, I discovered they are bangels.

A Bengal Cat is a hybrid between several breedings of Asian Leopard Cats and Domestic cats.
Males can weigh up to 20 pounds and females between 7-12.
They look like a typical housecat except they are more spotty .
"The Bengal Cat is a distinct, unique breed of spotted domestic cat derived from the ancestral crossing of a domestic with an Asian Leopard Cat'.

I, of course, want one ~ sometime in the future after having lived a long and happy life with Djin, of course.
I have always held ~ deep in my little heart ~ a desire to own a leopard. You know, the kind of cats seen in those movies about slinky Egyptian princesses in heavy black makeup reclining on chase lounges and being fed peeled grapes.
I have come to terms with the realization that I will never be slinky or have servants peel grapes for me, but I have been known to lounge around the house.
So I have a plan. I’m going to be a bangel breeder. Of course this would involve an investment of several thousand dollars, since bangels are remarkably rare. It would also involve finding people willing to pay thousands of dollars for a cat. Ain’t going to happen in Utah, I don’t believe.
Still, it gives me yet another reason to live forever.

MMM now what?

2007-07-16T21:52:00.000-06:00

I’ve been thinking about entering Memory Makers Masters, plodding along, putting together some layouts that are quite nice, but I can’t say whether or not they are prize winners.
This weekend I worked on the “I wish” assignment and my DS-12 played in the supplies with me as I figured out some techniques. He helped me set up the computer for journaling and offered feedback on the page.
Today I was finishing up the page (and I think it’s hot!) and mentioned that I was going to have to send it away, never to be seen again.
He was devastated!
The page is not about him, it’s about me. But he really doesn’t want me to enter the contest now, saying things to me like “you are not going to win anyway,” and “why don’t you just throw it in the trash right now.”
Thing is, he is probably right. I don’t have a big chance of winning.
What would you do?

I posted this question on my scrapbook message board and got some interesting responses. Now I'd like to her from you guys.

The rules of the contest are, you can send copies of four layouts but must send in the original of the "assignment" in this case the assignment is scrap about "I wish."

Umbrage and moments of chagrin

2007-07-12T21:55:00.000-06:00

DH, the boys and I went to the Harry Potter movie yesterday. It was great fun. Here are a few of my thoughts.

I loved Luna ~ her soft voice, combined with that spectacular hair reminded me a bit of Holland.

I did have questions about Umberage at the beginning of the show but by the end I loved to hate her.
Beatrix and Tonks were also great characters. I had a really time fixing Tonks in my mind while reading the book, the movie actually helped fill out the character for me.
If you did not know anything about the book, the move was spectacular. It flowed well, the special effects were stunning, it was just cool.
Having recently read the book, however, I will admit to being a bit confused on occasion.
That being said. Yes, we will be buying the DVD.

Today, in the aftermath of the movie, I have found myself busy once again.
I didn’t bother to shower, change out of pajamas, even eat breakfast this morning because I had two stories I needed to write and file.
DS-12 had a dentist appointment at noon, so at 11:30 a.m. I quickly finished my stories, put on some pants and clean unmentionables and hurried off to the dentist where I waited for 90 minutes.
Afterwards I took the boys to Wal-Mart. My plan was to pick up pop and photographs. Alas, they couldn’t find my photographs, so we settled on a brownie mix instead.
It wasn’t until after we climbed in the car to go home that the oldest son mentioned: “Mom, you shirt is on backwards.”
Tuesday I wrote an editorial about the lame condition of our community library. When I asked my boss this morning if he had any comments about it, he said nary a one. But when DH returned from a day of classes with other teachers, he said several liked it. Their only problem with the commentary is it wasn’t harsh enough.
Feeling please with myself, I went to the Pine Canyon Planning Commission meeting. Afterwards I went up to one of the commissioners ~ a fellow newspaper correspondent who I had seen waiting in line for Harry Potter 5 ~ and asked her what she thought of the movie.
A second commissioner asked me my name, I told her, and then she commented. “I work for the library.
*rut row*
We had a civil discussion in which I reiterated my point of view and she defended the lame excuse of a local library.
She didn’t convince me, but it was another “my shirt’s on backwards” moment that could very easily left me embarrassed.
Instead I found it amusing.
The moral of the story? If you are going to go out in public, be ready to be observed doing so.

Famous kitty

2007-07-11T09:45:00.000-06:00

Look who is on Stuff on my cat!
http://www.stuffonmycat.com/index.php?itemid=4140

Yesterday I was called by one of the employees of my local scrapbook store. It was a good news / bad news call.
The business owner is going to the doctor today in hopes of being able to deliver her son. She is a week or so away from her due date, but she usually has her babies very early and going full term has been a challenge for her.
Unfortunately, the surprise of this pregnancy along with the expense of running the business has left her making the decision to sell the business.
I'm heartbroken. I love her store.
Another scrapbook store moved into town in May ~ which helped seal the deal on her decision to step down. Alas the "new" business is full of old themish, cartoon-like paper.
It is really not my style.
On a related, but different subject, the employee called to ask me to be on her scrapbook team for a competition in SLC. She and the store owner, as well as I and one of my Ya-Ya Scrappers are going to be on the four-woman team. (I am assuming the Ya-Ya will say yes.)
As part of the competition we have to come up with a team name, a logo and have a photo taken of our team.
I was pondering this last night while I was sweating and wishing for the bilssful escape of sleep.
Here are a few of my team theme suggestions:

Team Tulies
(a play on the word Tooele) I picture a photo of us in the middle of a field holding sunflowers
Salt and Paper
This plays with us being so close to the Great Salt Lake ~ but it can also be a cooking theme, with all of us wearing black and white (with touches of red) aprons. Photographed in a kitchen, of course.
Commando scrappers
Again, identifying with Tooele and its military history, I like this because I can see us wearing camo T-shirts. We could be photographed at industrial depot.
Area 31
Not quite as secret or far out as Area 51, but still the undiscovered scrappers ~ which could be another team name. I envision a “Men in Black” photo shoot here, on the salt flats, of course.
The Undiscovered Scrappers
We could have secret identities!

If only I could be so inspired with my page layouts.

It's hot here

2007-07-10T16:44:00.000-06:00

Seriously, stinking, putrid hot. The air is grey because Utah is burning. But I could be one of the firemen on the lines trying to battle the wildfires in this misrable heat. I'm not, so I'll pray for those who are.

My children are restless.
Seriously, stinking, beat up on each other and scream restless.
But I get to stay in my house away from the heat. It could be worse.

Apparently I am in charge of the entertainment.
Not only for the children, and the husband, but also the cat. I am also in charge of the meals, the laundry, working part time, and painting the living room. But at least I am not working two full-time jobs.

Clearly I am cranky.
But I'm trying very hard not to be. So I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and pray for rain. Won't you join me?

It's more fun to watch

2007-07-07T13:18:00.001-06:00

I had a great many titles planned for this blog. Perhaps I might call it “It’s a long way, to painting Sagey” or even “Ready, Set, Paint!”
But after spending the last 24 hours indulging my wild hair and painting the living room, I have settled on the above title.
Yes, it is much more fun to watch “Trading Spaces,” “Property Ladder” “Flip that House” and “Designing Cents,” than it is to actually paint.
Perhaps that is why it has taken me the better part of a year to work up the energy / courage / nerve to actually apply the Sagey paint I purchased for my living during the Labor Day weekend ~ 2006.
Yesterday the wild hair hit and I decided the time had come to paint. I have a long weekend because of Independence Day, and DH didn’t work Wednesday or Friday. He is going in to work today at 2 p.m. I think I have found something he likes less than working for Flying J. … working for me.
DS-L is also impatient with my methods. He want’s everything painted and put back into place right now. If it can’t be right now he want’s a detailed timeline right now.
DS-A just wants to be part of the fun, but he had a hard time remembering he can’t put his hands on the wall.
The cat is simply confused.
I will continue with my Sagey saga later. Right now I have been informed by DS-L that I have to cut my afternoon nap down to 30 minutes because he want’s to get to that second coat so we can put the furniture back in place.
He was not pleased when I told him he was going to have to put up with two boxes of books in his bedroom for another day … or three.
I am gaining a new respect for my Mother, who had five young helpers.
BTW, Mom, Happy 80th birthday!

Small town fun

2007-07-05T10:16:00.000-06:00

First let me state that I am deeply, passionately patriotic.
I love my country.
Independence Day, however, doesn’t really do it for me.
Parades, eheee, don’t trip my trigger, even though I have memories of my Father heading up the VFW display in his Army uniform. I also have memories playing clarinet and marching with the band in those horrid, hot uniforms with the plastic lined caps or stuffing napkins into chicken wire until my fingers were raw top make parade floats.
What's more, you've seen one parade, you've seen them all.
Every parade features the same entries.
“Beauty” queens giving the elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist wave.
Politicians in convertables.
Fire trucks with hoses to spray the crowd.
Horses crapping in the street to the disgust and delight of young boys.
And for a really good time, everyone chucking salt water taffy to the same young boys with plastic grocery bags poised to collect the loot.
But we went to the parade, anyway. Instead of going to our big city, we drove to the town where DH teaches school. The parade started later in the day and we were able to watch from the lawn of the school, which happened to be in the shade.
Hooray!
We went back to the town for the fireworks display. This time we settled down in the middle of the soccer field. I think we were the only ones there since most folks had staked out a spot by the park ~ the site of the great launching.
We lit some sparklers and smoke bombs then played with light sticks. I found a deal on the skinny little light sticks usually used for bracelets. I bought 50 of them, along with 50 connectors, for three dollars.
When the fireworks started we realized our blanket was not ideally positioned for viewing, so we loaded everything on top of it and dragged it to a better spot. We were able to settle down for about five minutes of fireworks before the whole thing was over.
The traffic jam drive home was complicated by a crew of firemen dousing a lively blaze that had broken out along the side of the road.
We didn’t actually see the fire, except from a distance. When we got to a place where we could turn off we took a back road home.
It was not an earth shattering day of fun, but when I asked the boys what they liked best, DS-12 said he liked that we were able to spend the time together as a family.
Good point!

Help please

2007-07-03T09:37:00.001-06:00

I’m kicking around ideas for this MMM scrapbook challenge and I need some input. Which of these photos do you like best?

<---hand one

hand one bw--->

<---hand two

hand two bw--->

<---hand two bright bw

hand two low sat--->

I also need left handed family members to send me a sample of their handwriting. Maybe you could write down a favorite saying or scripture? The page deadline is July 30, so I need handwriting samples ASAP.
Thanks!

Pity the praise hog

2007-07-01T10:54:00.000-06:00

I got a wild hair and decided to try to put together five layouts for the Making Memories Masters competition.
This is a big event. Scrappers from around the world compete for the MMM in hopes of landing a lovely prize package and a chance to work for Making Memories magazine for a year.
I basically have a snowballs chance to win. But I thought I’d give it a shot anyway because I need another reason to bang my head against the wall.
I came up with what I thought were brilliant ideas for layouts while hanging around the pool in St. George last week. I took some photos, did some sketches, bought a few items of chipboard, and even collected some red blow sand for one of the ideas.
But I am vastly disappointed in how the page turned out. If I wasn’t making it for MMM, no doubt I would be pleased, but I just don’t think it is a prize winning page.
I finished up a second page today. I’m a little happier with it, but again, I don’t think it’s going to win prizes.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about it is I can’t post my pages ~ if I did I would be disqualified.
I still have about a month to come up with some prize winners. The contest doesn’t close until the end of July. But I’m just not seeing myself doing my best work.
Now if I hadn’t posted the Djin in the flowers page, or a couple other pages I really like, I might be able to use them.
Alas, I’m a praise hog,

But you're making great time

2007-06-28T08:53:00.000-06:00

On the way home from St. George we had the radio on and heard several La Quinta advertisements. Our favorite was:

Your car has not air conditioning.
The kids are in the back seat screaming.
The dog is carsick,
And you just went 400 miles the wrong way.

But you’re making great time!

I have one of my own.
I was writing a story on the Utah State Parks 50th anniversary Geocaching adventure. So I took the boys with me to the Great Salt Lake Marina where we had our own geocaching treasure hunt so I could take photos and (I hoped) talk to other people looking for the illusive gold coin.

It’s 101 degrees in the shade
The brine flies are swarming
You can’t figure out the GPS coordinates

But you got to drive the car with air conditioning!

For the record, geocaching is not as much fun as it sounds. Well, it might be, if I were not a fat old woman with bad knees and a 20 pound camera slung over my arthritic shoulder. Sure, son, I can carry the water, wouldn’t want you to break a sweat!
I did manage to get some good photos and the boys picked up a plastic bracelet and a eraser. I also discovered the geocashe is very accessible, so now I will join the couple (who was there when I was there, thus giving me some localized quotes) making regular stops at the location in hopes of finding a gold coin.

Library dreaming

2007-06-26T11:50:00.001-06:00

One of the places we visited in St. George was the new library. It is absolutely beautiful. The plan was based on the old three story Dixie College building in the center of town made of red sandstone.
Many a local are not thrilled that city fathers tore down a “perfectly good” 40 year old library to build the new one, and they do have one point, the stairs are a pain.
They had an active reading program with a lot of children coming and going, but they could certainly have benefited from my niece’s flat out genius with promoting reading.
However, the children’s library is spectacular. My favorite part is the fanciful ceiling paintings. I took a few photos to share because I knew all the book worms in my family, particularly the Ninja Librarian, would be charmed by them.

I lothe our local library and I had a really large rant spelled out in my head. But the natives are getting restless, they want me to go pick up some movies and just maybe the new Harry Potter PS2 game. So I'll keep this particular crankiness to myself for the time being.

My summer vacation

2007-06-24T20:13:00.000-06:00

In excruciate detail

We just came home from a five day trip to St. George. Every summer DH takes a three day class to brush up on the core for his teaching job. Usually he takes the class in town or commutes to SLC. But this year he decided to take a road trip so we could visit family and go on vacation.
It turned out to be a pretty good time, in spite of some problems.
DH wanted to go to his classes and visit with family.
I wanted to shop.
DS-L wanted to visit museums.
DS-A wanted to play.
We managed to fit a little bit of everything in, even though none of it was in generous supply ~ unless you count the swimming. We drove to Dixie on Tuesday and as soon as we checked into the motel the boys were in the pool. Next morning DH left for his class and the boys and I walked to a nearby store to buy swimming equipment. Then they swam some more.
I coaxed them out of the pool with the promise of lunch. We walked down to another store to eat (boys were still in their suits) and after I insisted we rest for an hour after we eat. We were back at the pool again.
After DH came back to the room we ate and went for a drive. While passing through the old neighborhood we notices one of my friends was out watering her plants so we stopped and ended up visiting with the family for two hours while our boys played with their boys.
I was supposed to have custody of the car the next morning ~ even though we had arranged for my friend to bring her boys over to the motel to swim that afternoon. DH had me drive the car out to his meeting place because it was an automatic and I’ve been driving a stick for 20 plus years. I only stepped on the clutch instead of the break once during the first test drive through the sleepy streets of Beaver on the way down to St. George.
Anyway, I put a big ol’ shoe on my left foot to remind me not to clutch, and I drove barefoot with my right foot to enforce the message. All was well until we started going over a hilly part of the road and the car wouldn’t shift into third gear. I was a little concerned but didn’t panic. DH was a little more concerned. But we managed to limp into the parking lot of the school. I suggested DH take the car for a drive to see if he could do a better job than I was doing. He did, and he couldn’t. So he went back to the school, told the instructor he was having car trouble, and drove it to his mother’s place where he made phone calls to the car rental place.
Meanwhile, I called the boys on my cell phone (good thing I thought to leave it with them!) and explained the situation. Eventually DH sister drove me back to the motel where we swam and finished of yesterday’s lunch while DH waited for the car company to tow up a new car for us from Vegas.
The fresh car was an Impala, just like the first one …with its own little quirks.
After DH came back to the motel with the new car, and we ate lunch, my friend came with her boys and you guessed it, we did a little more swimming.
That evening DH brother loaded us all in his truck and gave us a scenic tour of all the new building in Southern Utah (Crikey! It’s mind boggling).
Friday I took DH to the school without incident.
The boys and I then visited the new library and the old tabernacle before we went out to eat and I managed to sneak in a little paper shopping. Actually, I didn’t buy paper, but I did pick up a new photo album.
We came back home to swim, again.
DH brothers gave us tickets to the Roadrunners baseball game. They are a very minor league team supported in part by Dixie’s own famous pitcher, Bruce Hurst. It was fun, hot, and pricy. The Roadrunners lost to the outlaws … but we left somewhere in the seventh inning at a little bit past 10 p.m.
We did some more sightseeing on Saturday, including visiting the pioneer museum where a loom donated by DH’s grandfather was on display. DH says he can remember helping his grandma throw the shuttle back and forth. I seem to remember we had a loom very much like this in the church that was used by Relief Society ladies. Or am I just hallucinating?
I think we spent about two hours in the pool on Saturday, too.
We drove home on Sunday. The car made it okay and the cat was alive and happy to see us.
I now have a fresh batch of photos to scrap.

So very random

2007-06-17T21:40:00.000-06:00

First.
Happy Father's Day to all you dads reading my blog.
I have been truly blessed to have close association with some of the best men on the planet.
My DH is outstandingly patient and hard working. He is such a great father to my children and such a supportive husband, I could not have picked a better man for me.
My father. The man who taught me the meaning of the phrase "unconditional love."
My Eternal Father, who loves me not in spite of myself, but because of myself.
My brother, long suffering and patient in a world of women.
My sons, what precious souls they are. My hope for them is they may follow in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.
Second.
I've been thinking about my mother, too. She is a most formidibale woman, and I could never hope to measure up to her in so many ways.
Iwas raised by a woman who:

Grew her own food and canned it in our kitchen.
Sewed school clothing for her four daughters all summer.
Made her own quilts.
Recovered the furniture ~ both by painting and reupholstering it.
Made Barbie doll clothes for me and my sisters and Care Bears and Cabbage Patch dolls for her grandchildren.
Designed the floor plan of our house and gathered rock from the quarry for the living room fireplace.
Hand folded the nut cups, and hand made topiaries for my sister’s wedding reception.
Sewed wedding dresses for all of us (except me … I’m the fourth daughter and she was getting tired.)

No wonder I feel inadquate most of the time.
She also remodeled her wedding dress to make a fancy dress when she was a young mother. I've been thinking about this since someone pointed out the "trash the dress" site.http://trashthedress.wordpress.com/ For some reason my blog won't let me post an active link.

Some of these photos are flat out spectacular! I wish I had thought of / had the nerve to do this when I was married.
I've been seeing advertisements for a new television show where designers go into people's closets and make new outfits from the clothes. I would feel nothing but sympathy for a designer trying to make something of my rags. But my wedding dress is in there, maybe they could do something with it?

A bucket of fun

2007-06-16T11:51:00.001-06:00

Money can’t buy you love, I told my son as he expressed his fondness for me after I purchased 400 water balloons.
His answer.
“No, it can’t but it can buy fun.”
Now there is a child with a grasp of the world.
It’s suddenly very hot here. Yesterday I had a long list of errands to run and as I was headed out I discovered I failed to bring my wallet in from DH car after we went to a baseball game on Thursday.
I ended up driving out to his work and going out to lunch at McDonalds with him and the boys. Then I came back to town and ran all over town taking care of my errands. By the time I was done I was dripping ~ my car does not have air conditioning. On the contrary, it gets temperamental and sometimes requires me to turn on the heater in order to cool down the engine.
But somewhere along the way we picked up some water balloons. The boys had a swell time filling them and tossing them at each other while I stretched out on the floor under the ceiling fan and prayed for rain.
DS-A had yet another baseball practice that evening, so we filled a bucket with water balloons. After the practice the coach lined the boys up and tossed the balloons at them, giving them each a chance to smack them with the bat. It was great fun, and I believe we have started a new baseball game practice tradition.
This morning I went to get more water balloons and some DVD’s for the boys to watch in the cool of the basement after they have dosed each other with water.
DH, alas, has to work all weekend ~ including Father’s Day. He is not amused.

More scrappin'

2007-06-13T12:59:00.000-06:00

Now that I have purdy new baby photos I of course had to put them together in a photo album for Conner's new Granny. When you finally have a home, I'll drop it by for you, or maybe you can just swing by and pick it up!

Fun with cardboard

2007-06-10T19:21:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos of the cardboard boat races from SailFest. This year’s theme was Viking related, and one ambitious crew built this fine Viking dragon ship, which held up well in the water and ~ due in part to it’s four man crew ~ won the race quite tidily.
A completely poorly designed pirate ship ~ essential a cardboard box with a mast ~ sank equally quickly. But the captain was a crowd favorite because of his theatrical going down with the ship followed by a swim the length of the course, holding the mast aloft with his legs.

Photo file

2007-06-09T21:23:00.000-06:00

I’ve gone for days, weeks even, without using my camera and suddenly I’m a shooting fool. Yesterday I took photos for my friend’s 18-year-old son. Today I took the boys (including DH) and the camera out to the Great Salt Lake and took sailing photos. Then this evening I took photos of the family’s newest member, Tom and Elizabeth’s son.
I’ll probably write more about our GSL trip tomorrow, but right now the family is watching “The God’s Must Be Crazy” and I want to join them, so I’ll just post a few photos for now.

Random craziness

2007-06-08T22:11:00.000-06:00

I’ve been dealing with my usual craziness. DH is home more, which is cool, but so are the boys, which required more work for them and less attention on my fun stuff (scrapping) although we have all been reading Harry Potter like crazy to get ready for the July releases.
Observation: Dumbledore has a brother. He is mentioned more than once. L has been peeking on spoiler internet sites and says he believes Dumbledore’s brother is the innkeeper at Hogsmead.
That’s all the fresh Potter information I have at this point.
I spent this morning with a friend and her 18-year-old son taking his graduation photos. He took us to a ghost town. Very cool! I need to take my boys out there sometime to take photos. I think I’ll probably wait until DH brothers are in town because they have a car that can navigate the rough road. It was rather interesting taking it in my friend’s BMW, following her son in his little beater sports car.
This afternoon (after a nap, of course) I worked on some advertising pages for teaching a journaling class at my local scrapbook store. DH had to work, but he was home by 8 p.m.
He has Saturday and Sunday off. Tomorrow we are going sailing on The Great Salt Lake as part of an annual event held at the local marina. We are also going to visit Elizabeth, Tom and their new baby and take photos.
Sunday we start church in a new building because our old building is being remodeled. Church starts at 3 p.m. Fun, fun fun!
I’ll post photos of sailing and babies when I get them.

In case you were wondering

2007-06-06T20:24:00.000-06:00

What happens when you tie a kite to the ceiling fan in a very messy boy's bedroom. Here's the answer.
It entertains the cat and the boys. Since the room is very messy, it does not bother the mommy nearly as much as you would think it would.
Besides, the mommy is trying to work and keeping the kids and cat entertained ~ although she would prefer they work on cleaning the very messy room ~ is of prime importance.

Boy am I boring

2007-06-03T09:39:00.000-06:00

It’s a slow day. All of us spent most of yesterday either reading or cleaning house. So I lifted this idea from my sister and niece.
1. Who is the last person you held hands with?

Probably DS-A he’s the cuddly one in the family.

2. If you were drafted into a war, would you survive?

I hope so, I have children to raise.

3. Do you sleep with the TV on?

Only if someone is in my bedroom watching TV while I’m trying to sleep.

4. Have you ever drunk milk straight out of the carton?

Well, yah, duh!

5. Have you ever won a spelling bee?

hahahahahaha! *Sigh*

6. Do you like somebody right now?

Yep, my DH

7. Are you a fast typist?

Pretty fast, I was once clocked at 85 WPM but I think I’ve slowed down somewhat.

10. Who can you always turn to?

My DH.

11. When was the last time you chose a bath over a shower?

When I discovered bathing aggravates my excema.

12. Do you knock on wood?

Not usually

13. Are you drinking anything right now?

There is a Pepsi by my side.

14. Do you think you’re attractive?

Only if there are no mirrors in the house.

17. What do you want for Christmas?

I haven’t thought that far ahead.

18. Do you know the muffin man?

Is this a crack about my weight?

19. Do you talk in your sleep?

My whole family does. I think we talk more to each other in our sleep than we do when we are awake.

20. Who wrote the book of love?

Jesus! I like that answer!

21. Have you ever flown a kite?

Yes, late one night at Rick College when everyone else was at a dance, a bunch of my friends (men and women) went to the field across the street from our dorm and flew kites.

22. When was the last time that you went swimming and where?

Last year when we went to Vernal to see the dinosaur park we all took a dip in the motel’s small, kidney shaped pool.

24. How many people are on your contact list of your cell?

DH, home, work, that’s about it.

25. Have you ever asked for a horse?

No.

26. Plans for tomorrow?

working ~ I’m not really sure what form it will take

27. What’s your middle name?

Debra

28. Missing someone right now?

My father, as always.

29. When was the last time you told someone you love them?

A few minutes ago to DS-A

30. What was the last sport you played?

I threw and caught balls with DS-A yesterday, does that count?

31. How are you feeling today?

Content, right now. That could change.

32. What did you do today?

Got out of bed, made toast, came and checked out my computer.

33. Have you ever been suspended or expelled from school?

No, I’ve always been law abiding.

34. What are you looking forward to?

Playing with paper.

35. Have you ever crawled through a window?

Of course.

37. Have you ever eaten dog food?

No.

38. Can you handle the truth?

Well, that’s debatable

39. Do you like green eggs and ham?

I’d rather read Harry Potter.

40. What 3 things do you always bring with you to places?

keys, notebook, camera.

41. Any cool scars?

Not particularly

42. Do you like or have a crush on anyone?

I like myself, I think I’m grand I go to the move just to hold my hand!

45. How often do you talk on the phone?

All day long if I’m working.

46.Do you talk to yourself?

Absolutely! Shusss, someone’s listening.

47. Is there something you want that you can’t have?

Just a little bit more.

48. Three things about the opposite gender that you first notice?

voice, sense of humor, attitude. (see entry No. 45)

49. Who are you thinking about right now?

I can’t really pin it down to one person.

50. Who did you last hug?

DS-A when I told him I loved him.

52. Where is your cell phone?

In my purse, or maybe I’m charging it, I don’t remember.

53. What was the last thing you ate?

I’ll never tell

54. Favorite Color?

Blue, in all it’s many shades

55. Last movie in theaters you watched?

Shrek the Third, Friday..

56. What song do you currently hear?

“Global Warming” a teeny-bopper song played on Glenn Beck making fun of the whole Global Warming political movement.

57. What do you want?

Another long weekend ~ maybe I’ll get something done this time

59. What TV show are you watching?

Nothing right now.

60. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?

Someone from work.

Daddy's home! Daddy's Home!

2007-06-01T21:22:00.001-06:00

The boys were out of school, DH did not have to work (or travel somewhere) today, and I didn't have to go interview anyone.
I think the last time that happened we were headed to Wyoming for our Easter break.
We spent the day together as a family. We went into Salt Lake City where we bought a pair of shorts, sandals, and shirt for each of the boys and a blouse for me. Then we went out to eat.
We came home and cashed in the movie tickets DH was given as a lovely parting gift from one of his student's parents for Shrek the Third. (Mildly amusing but overall a bit of a disappointment). After a brief rest DH took the 8-year-old to baseball practice and I didn't have to go.
DH was asked to work graveyards through the summer, but we discussed it, I pointed out I wanted him around and alive, not working himself to death or risking his life for a measly $8.50 an hour at a truck stop.
He will still be working 40 hours a week at the second job. It looks like most of his shifts will be swing from 4-11 p.m. or thereabouts. But we are planning to bank as much of the money as we can to finish paying off some outstanding debts (student loans, anyone?) So he only has to work the one job next fall.
We may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But don't tell the car or the appliances, they are notorious for gobbling up any spare cash.

Knock on wood

2007-05-30T15:49:00.000-06:00

Don’t look now, but things are good at this moment.
I have the information for three stories yet to be written.
I have a lovely stack of photos waiting to be scrapped.
True, my children are threatening to kill each other. But, they want to watch “MythBusters” the old West tonight at 7 p.m. ~ so if they scream, slap, kick or otherwise abuse each other I have ammo to hold over their head. The penalty of bad behavior is they either miss MythBusters or they have to pick up 10 items off the floor. The house could use a good cleaning. I’m confident my restless one-day-away-from-school-vacation sons will be in a position to earn a lot of brownie points.

I've been thinking about the whole process of writing / scrapping. It has ups and downs. When it comes to writing I find the process of collecting information ~ ie calling people and begging them to talk to me ~ is a huge challenge. Once the initial interview has been either set up or accomplished, the rest is just good fun.
I have a better time with scrapping taking photos, but still, it’s a means to the end, the joy of putting the story together on paper. So my happy stack of newly-developed photos gives me all kinds of inspiration.
I had planned to scrapbook pages for my Dutch niece this week. But when I went to pick up photos I realized I had somehow failed to send the images of her in to be printed. I’m going to have to wait until my next trip to the photo counter before I can scrap her.
But I did get two pages put together over the last few days. I used the same paper family for both of them, but the Sugar and Spice page used a photo I lifted from my nieces blog, and the Pioneer Roots photo has been in my photo fills since July.
I never know when inspiration will hit.
Did I mention DH is home tonight, we don’t have anything baseball related planned and DS-As usual Thursday baseball game is a bye tomorrow. I am almost giddy with excitement.

Catching, witching and hair

2007-05-29T20:26:00.000-06:00

We had a great Memorial Day weekend, but due to the crackerjack planning of the Tooele County School District after the three day break everyone returned to school for three more days.
DS-L’s sixth grade class was scheduled to go on a field trip to the local swimming pool for a communal dip with 500 of his closes friends. He didn’t want to go, so I went to school at noon thirty and picked up both boys.
Tomorrow is another short day and Thursday they will be let out of school at 1:05 p.m. for the summer. Does anyone have any idea why a school district would plan this kind of schedule? It can’t just be to annoy parents and teachers, can it?
This morning before going to pick up the DS’s I stood in the bathroom with my long wet hair stringing in front of my face and did something truly outrageous.
I trimmed my bangs.
It was a most bold move on my part. I have been subjected to many a failed home perm and botched haircut session at the hands of my mother, and thus long ago vowed never to touch my hair with anything sharper than a curling iron.
But I was the point of taking a razor to the stuff and shaving it off down to the roots. Keeping this in mind, the bang trimming was remarkably successful. I no longer have stringy, lanky bits falling in my eyes, and I don’t look like someone took after me with a weed whacker.
Thus buoyed by my success, I was tempted to try my hand at trimming the little Dutch girl locks of a boy playing against DS-A’s baseball team this evening. I know we’ve all seen kids like this. He has spit blond hair trimmed straight across just below eye level.
When he got up to bat his mother, a most charming, woman sitting in front of me, immediately started yelling at him because he swung at a high pitch, reminding the child he wasn’t playing tennis.
She continued with her most un-dulcet tone to rail against him whether he swung at the ball or not. When he struck out she fetched him over to the bleachers where she berated him for “playing like a girl.” I briefly thought if she did not want him to play like a girl, she might reconsider giving him a girl’s haircut.
Her nastiness to this boy made us all supremely uncomfortable, but no one, not even the burly guys with barbed wire tattoos on their biceps seemed willing to take her on. I thought about saying something to her, but I was pretty sure she would knock me cold. And as I was my children’s only ride home, I decided to hold my tongue.
But the game was fun for A. He was asked to play catcher for the final inning and had a glorious time. Between his catching and the pitchers pitching they managed to strike a couple of kids out.
The photos are of A playing with the newest toy in our backyard, a sprinkler that throws balls in the air. I think we had better get him a new – not white – swimsuit for this summer.

The Mirror of Erised

2007-05-28T10:39:00.001-06:00

The Mirror of Erised is a mystical mirror discovered by Harry in a back corridor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. On it is inscribed, erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi — which, when reversed and correctly spaced, reads I show not your face but your heart's desire ("Erised" reversed is "Desire"). According to Dumbledore, the Mirror "shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts."

I am re-reading the Harry Potter series in preparation for a summer of new movies and books. In the past I have always read about the Mirror of Erished simply for what it is, a plot devise. But this time I started pondering what I might see in this magical mirror.
The truth is, I have everything I want … except.
I want to be more attractive.
I want to be more in control.
I want my house to be more clean.
I want more sleep.
I want more money.
I want more time.
I just want more.
I simply want perfection.
And I am a very long way from perfect.
No wonder I’m bummed out so much of the time.

Clothes horse

2007-05-25T10:09:00.001-06:00

I should not be blogging. I have way too much to do. But I want to post some photos and do a little whining about my life, so you lucky folks get to read about it here.
Last night and this morning has been all about the clothing.
It’s spirit week at my sons’ school. They have been half-heartedly participating. A wore his baseball cap on hat day. On career day A said he wanted to be a “Mythbuster” and L suggested he could dress for the part by shaving off one eyebrow.
Today is sport’s day, and A insisted on wearing his baseball uniform. He had a game last night and was well pleased with the bright green grass stains on his knees. His plan was to wear the uniform with the stains, but when he climbed in the car to drive home he spilled his treat punch on himself.
I ended up rinsing out the pants so I could get the punch stain out, while avoiding a full wash and dry so we could keep the grass stains on the knee. This morning when he climbed out of bed I noticed he had been using his baseball uniform T-shirt as pajamas and as a tissue for his snotty nose. I stripped him, washed out the boogers and dried the T-shirt with my hair dryer.
Meanwhile, L has a world fair today in which he presents the country report on Israel. He’s been working on it for what seems like all winter. He was supposed to dress either in customary clothing of the country or in his Sunday Best. He opted for Sunday Best because it’s rather difficult to determine what would best represent Israel without being a little anti-Semitic.
We decided his white shirt and black pants can also double as a sports day uniform, he’s either Larry Miller or the member of a BYU sports team traveling to or from a sporting event.
DH is taking his students swimming today. This means he dug through the pile of clean (?) laundry to find his swimsuit. Now I have to reorganize the pile. He is also headed south for a family meeting and I have been charged with packing his luggage for the weekend.
I had planned to make the classic Mom Jello salad for a neighborhood going-away party / cook-out scheduled tonight. I don’t think I’m going to make it. I went shopping yesterday and picked up everything. But I bought big marshmallows instead of mini-marshmallows and I forgot to buy the pineapple. Besides, I’m running out of time. In addition to the packing I have to call all the high schools in the district for a graduation wrap-up story, attend L’s country fair, take photos of a golf tournament and dedication of a pavilion and try to get the house picked up so when DH brother comes to pick him up I don’t embarrass myself.
Oh ya, I need a shower, too.

As to the photos, they are my own version of “Where’s Waldo” I call it “Where’s Djin” she’s in all but one of the photos. Can you find her?

New blog, new baby

2007-05-23T23:28:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note to let you all know I helped the last holdout in the family a.k.a. Hillbilly Sister create a blog. Here's the link. http://imlosingmymarbles.blogspot.com/
here she announces the arrival of her new grandson.

Another random memory

2007-05-22T10:52:00.001-06:00

Another random memory photo
I love this way of scrapping, but the 6X6 pages are challenging!
Hidden journaling reads:

"My niece, Lisa, was going to college in St. George, Utah when she accepted Kerry's marriage proposal. I lived n St. George, but her mother was 500 miles away. Lisa and I spent one afternoon hitting the bridal shops. She tried on gowns and I took photos to send to her mother. I don't have a daughter and the afternoon with Lisa is probably as close as I will ever get to being mother-of-the-bride."

Freedom!

2007-05-21T09:30:00.001-06:00

I’m free!
I’m free!
I’m free!
Yesterday I was released from my job in the Relief Society Presidency!
Now comes the wait for the other shoe to drop. What will they ask me to do next?
Activities committee?
Homemaking committee?
*gasp* Cub Scouts?
We are in the final countdown to the end of school.
It is assumed at DH’s second job that he will be working full time.
But, 40 hours a week have it all over 80 hours a week, so there’s a chance I’ll see him now and then.
I am taking on the most ambitious task of planning a chore / reward chart for the children to see if I can get them to help out with little things like picking up their shoes, unloading the dishwasher, putting away their laundry and emptying the trash.
There’s a chance I’m going to have a better summer this year than I did last year.
Maybe I’ll put the Sagy paint (which has been sitting in two gallon containers in the corner of the living room) on the wall.
Maybe I’ll get to SLC and buy a pair of jeans.
Maybe the boys will get swimming lessons.
Maybe not.
But the possibility exists.

Pushing the envelop

2007-05-19T19:58:00.001-06:00

Zoo Haiku
Zoo’s tiny wildlife
Flutters by on spotted wing
I capture it on film

How’s that for pushing the envelop with my journaling?
Now for a visit from:
Carmic the Magician

The answer is: A day, a night and a day.

The question is: How long have I been wearing the clothing you currently have on your back.

Okay, that’s not precisely true. I just had a shower and put on something new. But my point is, I am not a shining example of high fashion.
I am barely an example of bag lady fashion.
Clothing, frankly, just don’t interest me.
When I was a child my own mother said I dressed like the waifs in those “feed this child” advertisements. It wasn’t her fault. She tired to clothe me in a civilized fashion. But I tended to grab the first two things that came into my hands and wear them.
Time has not improved my fashion sense.
True, I now know what colors and fabrics work well together. But once I am dressed I tend to forget my clothing. This accounts for the fingerprint size smudge of Staz On ink on the right knee of my one “good” pair of blue jeans ~ the flair legged ones, with gems on the back pocket. I’m sure if you have seen me sometime in the past year, you’ve seen these jeans.
Since I have been wearing the jeans nonstop for a year, they are starting to show their age and I no longer dare wear them out in public for fear of shredding them when I sit down.
I don’t want new clothes. But I need them.
Strangely enough, although I have no interest in fashion, I rarely miss watching “What Not to Wear,” sniggering at the “befores” and trying to guess what Nic is going to do with their hair.
Part of me thinks it would be a fabulous thing to take the $5,000 gift card and advice from Stacy and Clinton to remake my sorry wardrobe.
But then I realize I have no real need for cashmere sweaters and pointy-toed shoes in my “office” in the basement.
Sure, a nice suit would be great for those endless meetings, but it would be only a matter of time before I ended up with ink on the sleeve or ripped out the pocket while trying to get out of my car.
I also suspect a wool pant is not very comfortable when used as sleepwear.
Maybe if you had cartoon drawings of Sponge Bob printed on it ….

My place in life

2007-05-18T11:39:00.001-06:00

Caption: in case you can not read it.
"Hamster-swallowing is simple when you use shortening and a shoe horn, as demonstrated by Al, a retired game show host."

There is something about this cartoon that appeals to my truly warped sense of humor. Back in the days when I worked for The Spectrum we regularly received packages full of these cartoons.
Other favorites included:

A sketch of a very large man crouched over a tiny table captioned “Ray looked forward to the day he could finally eat at the adult table”

A drawing of a man on a desert island, clothes line tied to the single palm tree and the other end clutched in his teeth with the caption: "Aside from the crushing boredom it was laundry day he hated most.”

An illustration of a middle age woman in a dress lying prone on the pavement, her practical purse clutched in front of her on her stomach with the phrase: “Having finally found her place in life, she was happy to just lay there in it.”

Alas, I have lost these three cartoons. I think I gave the adult table one to my “little” brother. I had the laundry day illustration hung above my washer and dryer in my condo in St. George and I’m not really sure what happened to the middle aged woman.
But I’ve been feeling very much like that poor, resigned soul as of late.
There are moments of brightness, however.
Tuesday the Bishopric came to our home. I can’t elaborate because the announcement has not yet been made official.
We only have something like seven days of school left. The downside is I will have children in the house who want entertaining, but the up side is my DH will be home more to help entertain them.
My boss called me in to talk to him today and after our discussion about what I wanted from my job, etc. he told me I’m getting a $1.50 an hour raise.

Yippy!

I then told him I had been considering applying for the Jet Blue job, but the raise offer tipped the scale in favor of my sticking around at the newspaper a little bit longer.
I’m still feeling rather settled in my place, but the good news does help a little bit.

This is another 6 x 6 inch random memory layout. It's taken me hours to put together. Funny, I thought the small format would yield faster page designs.

Dead tired

2007-05-16T21:31:00.000-06:00

I put together this little layout last night on a a 6 X 6 inch page. I’m following the example set by someone else in my scrapping circle and working on an album featuring random memories ~ just because I don’t have enough things to scrap as it is.
I’m dead tired after a two hour planning and zoning commission meeting where numerous folks argued about rather or not a fitness center was an appropriate business to have in a neighborhood shopping mall.
(In my view, a fitness center is not an appropriate business to have anywhere ~ it’s indecent! That’s what it is, all those people sweating and lifting things. Why can’t they eat potato chips and watch LOST like any normal American?)
I had no idea I would be attending said planning and zoning commission meeting until about 90 minutes before the durn thing started. It’s a crossover beat. I cover Stansbury (location of said shopping mall) and another reporter covers Tooele County and business. Even though it hit two of his three beats, I was the lucky (?) winner appointed to attend the meeting on the one night in the month of May when I don’t have anything scheduled.
This morning I had a whole interesting blog written in my head about my sad wardrobe. But I didn’t get it written before my boss called, and I haven’t been able to write it since then.
Maybe tomorrow, after I write the exciting story of fitness centers and hamburger joints.

I'm thinking blue

2007-05-15T12:34:00.000-06:00

Once again I’m pondering another possible career change.
It seems Jet Blue https://jetblue.recruitmax.com/ENG/candidates/
is hiring 600 people in the SLC area to work from home taking reservations. The pay is not great … in the $8 an hour range, but they do set up the computer equipment in your home and there is some flexibility. Employees can work anywhere from 15-40 hours a week.
According to the rumors you can set your own hours, get benefits like free air travel, and again, you get to work from home.
This is tempting to me because my current job has no set hours, no set time I am to work, and not as much flexibility as I originally believed it would have.
I’m thinking working a set number of hours on specific days would be a great improvement over my current job of loitering around the house while waiting for phone calls without being paid to do so. Plus, I would have a little more control over my hours.
I suggested it to DH as well. If he decided to pick it up and drop his current second job (which pays about the same) he would be home (albeit working) and he wouldn’t have to put nearly as much gas in his car to travel back and fourth. I just checked out the site, and they are looking for bilingual (as in Spanish and English speaking) employees.
As I write this, I just picked up a call from my job wanting me to put together three stories for a special section this afternoon. Did I mention my newspaper job is driving me crazy?

Gotta blog

2007-05-14T10:01:00.000-06:00

This is Daisy. She comes with her new adopted parents to A's baseball games and entertains the crowd in the stands. I can't remember what kind of mix she is, A Shitzapoo or something along those lines.

The pressure is on. Now that I have induced most of my family members to blog, I have an obligation to post regular entries. I had some great ideas this weekend, but somehow I never made it into the basement and onto the computer.
I spend most of the weekend reading. DH ordered the third of the Percy Jackson series and it came in the mail Thursday. I, my DH and our DS-12 have all been reading it. I have also been reading the second Fablehaven book, which DS-12 checked out of his school library.
Saturday while I was cleaning the kitchen I happened upon a booklet of coupons and DS-12 decided we needed to go coupon shopping.
I clipped while he made the list. Among the 35 cents off toothpaste and soup, we found a buy one get one free Ghirardelli chocolate coupon and a buy one Subway sandwich get a second sandwich free.
Plans made, we went adventuring. We decided to go to Macy’s instead of Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart is in the middle of a remodel project and the place is more annoying than a swarm or gnats right now.
All went well at first. A pushed the cart, L checked the list and I supervised.
But when we came to the chocolate isle A became bored and started running off with the cart. We couldn’t find the chocolate, I was getting grumpy.
Bryers ice cream was on sale 2 for $5, and the coupon we had was for double churn ice cream. But the boys wanted bubble gum ice cream and I did not want double churn, (I opted for caramel, chocolate dipped pretzel instead).
Subway was not fun, after ordering the sandwiches I found out I had to buy soda with the sandwich in order to get the deal. It ended up costing more than I expected.
We managed to save $13.50 with the coupons, which we spend on the Subway sandwiches. True, we saved $1.00 on Bayer Migraine medicine, which I needed after the trip to the grocery story with my boys.
After staggering home, melting ice cream (we were in Subway a lot longer than I planned to be there) and cranky children I realized although we had saved $13.50 ~ we would have saved $85 if we had just stayed home and made sandwiches from the lunch meat I had purchased the day before.
We went out to dinner Saturday night because DH had to work on Sunday. It turned out to be a lovely evening. We ate on the patio because the restaurant was roasting hot. The food was good, it was cool and relaxing outside, and the evening was fine.
DS-8 woke me up early Sunday because he had made a little ceramic dish in school for Mother’s Day. It really is adorable.
All in all, I suppose I had a pretty good Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-13T22:43:00.000-06:00

Here’s a photo of my boys making me brownies. Now we know they can do it, maybe I won’t have to.
Hahahahaha.
*sigh*

A couple of things

2007-05-10T22:21:00.000-06:00

Two Names I Go by:
1. Mom
2. Alleen

Two Things I am Wearing Right Now:
1. 5-year old kaki Capri’s
2. Dare T-shirt with a smiley face on it

Two Things I Want (or have) in a Relationship:
1. Love
2. Friendship

Two of My Favorite Things to do:
1. Sleep
2. Eat

Things I Want Very Badly At The Moment:
1. A week without working at the paper!
2. My husband at home

Two pets I have:
1. Djin the cat
2. That’s all, unless you count the boys

Two things I did last night:
1. Attended a three hour planning and zoning meeting
2. Wrote a planning and zoning story

Two things I ate today:
1. A gum-drop bunny from A’s Easter candy
2. A slice of toast

Two people I just talked to last:
1. DS-8
2. DS-12

Two Things I'm doing tomorrow:
1. Laundry
2. Paying bills

Two longest car rides:
1. From Montana to Afton with my friend and her new husband.
2. From Afton to California in a red Station Wagon when Karen was born.
Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Easter

Two favorite beverages:
1. Dr Pepper
2. Cherry Coke

Two things I watched today:
1. ER
2. My son’s baseball game

Mommy's little shortstop

2007-05-09T11:29:00.000-06:00

DS-8 had his first baseball game last night. DH didn’t have to work his second job, so he was able to go to the game. Good thing, too, because A’s coach is note necessarily interested in making sure anyone but his own (bratty) child gets plenty of play time.
DH noticed a couple of children were at their second time at bat and A still hadn’t had a shot, so he went over and asked what was going on. The assistant coach said, “I asked if anyone hadn’t had a chance to bat yet.”

Problem is, A is not the sort of child to speak up and demand his turn. DH is, particularly when it comes to our children.
After sitting through one more extra long inning A had his shot. He made some great hits ~ which is to say the bat made contact with the ball. True, most of them were foul balls, but he wasn’t fanning himself like so many other players.
He was on his final strike when the pitch went wild and hit A in the head. He had a helmet on, but the helmet came up and smacked him again. He was a tough guy, but didn’t really want to run the bases so the coach sent out a pitch runner.
Still, he had a great time.
He’s playing short stop. I always liked the position because you get plenty of action, but you don’t have the pressure of the pitcher or catcher.
One more thing, I know you are not supposed to make fun of kids, but notice the guy in the left hand side of the photo on third base. Don’t his pants look a little ~ high. I frankly don’t know how he managed to run, although truth to tell, he was not a great runner.
We didn’t get home from the game until almost 9 p.m., the boys bedtime. A is really thrilled with baseball but clearly it is going to cause some problems in the running of the household.

Then there was one

2007-05-08T13:50:00.000-06:00

And now it’s down to One.
Bwahahahahahahaha!
That’s right, Little Brother has started blogging too. He even has photos of his athletic children. Here’s the link. http://alfsboy.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile, I’ve put together another page. The Asian look is a slight departure from my usual style and I’m not quite happy with the big block of light paper on the upper left hand side (I entertain suggestions) but the rest of the paper is pretty cool and the braid, “borrowed” from Mom’s stash is a great touch.
I couldn't take it anymore, I had to change the layout. True, I no longer have journaling on the page, but I cut the strip of journaling off and pasted it to the back of the layout.A has his first baseball game tonight and DH will be home to watch it with us. I’m hoping for a good evening with the family all together.

Lucy's story

2007-05-07T22:57:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post to announce a new blogger on the scene, http://paperporcupine.blogspot.com/. I know, we thought it would never happen, but Wyo. Sister is now on board. Little Bro. and Hillbilly sister, you are the last holdouts.
Speaking of Hillbilly sister, when is your young' en going to make a granny out of you. I've been waiting for the anouncement every day. You will let me know, won't you. And send photos .... better yet, let me come and take some photos and scrap the little guy. (guy? right?!!)
I had an interesting experience today. The youth of our ward (starting at age 14, so DS-12 misses is, darn it!) are preparing to go to Wyoming for the Handcart Trek this summer. A few weeks ago we were asked to submit names of ancestors in the Willie and Martin Handcart companies. Apparently to personalize the trek, youth are asked to take on the name of members of the handcart company.
Yesterday the first counselor of the Relief Society told me her daugher had been given the name of Lucy Ward, my grandmother's grandmother. My children and I were invited to go to her house tonight and tell her daughter about Lucy. (DH was working, or I'm sure he would have gone with us).

For those of you unfamiliar with the story ... here's the report on the Willie Handcart Company site:

Lucy Ward
Willie Handcart Company
To each hundred there were five tents with 20 persons to a tent; 20
handcarts and one Chicago Wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen to hold provisions and tents, each person was limited to seventeen pounds of clothing and bedding.
The strength of the company was equalized as much as possible by
distributing the young men among the different families to help them. Several carts were drawn by young girls exclusively. Lucy was one of these. She had just turned 23 years old in May.
At this time, (6 Oct. 1856) the Salt Lake Conference was taking place and Brigham Young was sending a rescue party to the stranded handcart companies.
James Barnett Cole, went with them. One night he dreamed he would meet his future wife with the stranded Saints. He even was shown what she looked like.
She had a fur cap and a green veil tied over her cap to keep the wind off, she was very beautiful.
He told his dream to Brother [William} Kimball and he remarked, "We will see no beautiful girl with a fur cap and a green veil in these frozen
Saints."
Reminiscing, James Barnett Cole said that they saw the encampment just as the sun was sinking in the west. It looked like an Eskimo village which was fully a mile away. The snow was very deep and paths had been made from tent to tent giving the camp that appearance. It was located on a plain near the river.
When the people caught sight of the train coming, they shouted, they cried, they threw off all restraint and freely embraced their deliverers.
Just then, William Kimball caught sight of Lucy Ward in the green veil. He drove up to her and said, "Brother Jim, there is your dream girl." James asked her to get in the wagon and her reply was, "No I don't know you."
She got used to the idea of having him around, because on the way to Salt Lake, on November 2, 1856, they were married at Fort Bridger by William Kimball.
- Story or Lucy Ward by Ruby M. F. Hall,
Granddaughter

My brain has a mind of its own

2007-05-06T22:04:00.000-06:00

I’m having a hard time writing this post because it’s about the tricks played by the unconscious mind.
As it happens, I have several events this week that have proven to me that I do not always know what my brain is thinking.
The above card is a good example of the way my brain works.
Earlier this week while cleaning up my scrap table I started playing with scraps and sewed the card together. I even put the “Inspiring” rubon on the bottom of it, but I really had no idea where the card was headed.
Yesterday I was getting ready to go to my scrapbook store and demonstrate the crop-o-dile* I wanted to find another example of the tool’s versatility, so I covered a chipboard “u” with paper and punch holes in it, threaded it with ribbon and attached it to the card. It was then I noticed the "u" and "inspiring" and the light bulb went off .. "u r inspiring".
People credit me with being a lot brighter than I really am because some part of my brain (I'm not sure if it's the left or the right) produces these little creative bursts without talking to the other part of my brain.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had this experience.
The other example of my brain work is not so pretty.
I’ve been feeling like a push me pull you at work since the old editor left and the new one was hired.
My old editor worked with my skills which, as it happens, is writting feature stories. The new editor is trying to make a hard news reporter out of me … it's been quite a struggle for both of us.
I know investigative reporting must be done, watchdog for the public and all that journalistic rot. But I really don’t like doing it, I’m not very good at it, and I'm think it is sometimes a little um, unnecessary.
Thursday after due prompting from the man I wrote another story and made a colossal mistake, the kind of mistake that has the superintendent of the school district (who happens to be my husband’s boss) calling me and telling me he is not happy, no, not happy at all.
Whoops.
By all rights I should be a quivering mess.
I’m not.
I owed up to the mistake, apologized to the head school guy, called my boss agreed that I had made a monumental assumption and eventually talked to the superintendent again and we appear to be friends again.
Through it all I felt, and I hate to say this but … vindicated? I knew deep in my little heart the pressure was going to get to me, I just didn’t know where or when. Now there has been a lovely little explosion and my fingers got singed.
May is shaping up to be a most interesting month.
*(a hole punching, eyelet setting tool that punches holes in everything from fabric to tin ~ really it does. I punched a hole in a clipboard with it last month!)

A purpled rainy day

2007-05-03T15:50:00.000-06:00

It was hot last night, and the wind was blowing so much we closed the windows and turned on the air conditioner.
I had a rather difficult time sleeping.I woke up to a grey rainy day; with one of those all day soaker rains so rare and appreciated in my Utah desert home.
I have a perverse fondness for an occasionally rainy day. It’s the kind of day that leaves me with a desire to curl up with a good books and a plate of cookies. Since there were not cookies to be had in the house and I had a deadline this morning I didn’t get to indulge this impulse.
But the standing Thursday afternoon Relief Society Presidency meeting was canceled, which gave me a few extra hours this afternoon, always a bonus.
I used my extra time to go grocery shopping. I also dropped by Scrappily Everafter to pick up some materials for the make and takes I will be demonstrating Saturday for National Scrapbook Day. Once I figure it out, I’ll post a photo on my blog.
I noticed the raindrops on rose leaves this morning.

This afternoon when I was unloading groceries the sun came out and sent all the drops a sparkling. So I dumped the groceries on the table and went on a short photographic tour of my back yard.

As I wandered I discovered a bunch of blue/ purple / pink flowers. They seem to go together in kind of a photo essay, a purpled rainy day.

Or something along those lines.

Get ready for some baseball

2007-05-02T20:32:00.000-06:00

I didn’t think I would manage to get a photo posted today.

I spent last night at an EPA superfund meeting listening to engineers discuss arsenic contamination in groundwater.

Don’t you wish your job was as exciting and glamorous as mine is? (snort!)
I woke up this morning with a blinding headache. It was so bad DS-8 volunteered to get me some meds as I slumped on the couch trying to get them ready for school.

After they left I dozed on and off until 8:45 a.m. when the superintendent of our local school district returned my call (of Monday morning). I talked to him for a while and managed to get enough information for a story.
I ended up with enough information for two stories before 9:30 a.m. Whahoo! That almost never happens anymore.
As my headache had subsided, I got all ambitious and emptied the dish washer, loaded it up again, made a batch of muffins (looks like we are out of flour ~ put that on the list) and ….

Drum roll please

Paid some bills!

The most despised chore of all time.
Unlike scrubbing toilets (which is plenty icky, so I don’t do it much)
And folding clothing (which is pointless, so I don’t do it at all)
If I don’t pay the bills I start getting threatening letters written in red ink and sometimes I find my cell phone or cable television doesn’t work anymore.
Not that I’ve ever had that experience, nosiree bob. I’m always right on top of that bill paying chore.
After wading through the paperwork, ordering new checks because I had run out of them and paying a couple other bills by phone because I had failed to order new checks, I was ready to write my story.
And I did write it for a while, until I had to feed the boys and take them to baseball practice.
I took the camera with me and managed to get this photo of DS-12 watching the practice. I’m grooving on the way the shadows fall on his face.

Now I need to write the other story, get the kids in bed, watch LOST and maybe even fit in a shower there somewhere before DH gets home from work at 11 p.m.
I wonder what I’ll photograph tomorrow.

But consider youself warned. I'm going to be at baseball practices or games something like four nights a week. There will be more baseball photos.

Starting a new photo a day

2007-05-01T10:21:00.000-06:00

I went outside and caught a quick shot of the lilics blooming in the front of our house. This is the first year we have managed to get any blooms from the plants. I love lilics, they smell wonderful (kind of wish I had my sense of smell back again) and they are so pretty. What's more they remind me of home.

I wanted to impress you

2007-04-29T09:49:00.000-06:00

I have been making and hording layouts to get back into the layout a day challenge on one of my scrapbook message boards. I was pretty faithful with the group from January to April, but when I took a week off for Easter I kind of lost my momentum.
So, I decided to take the month off and just make layouts, projects, cards as the mood hit. Oddly enough, I’ve been in a rather creative place since I took the pressure off myself.
I have put together a folder of about eight works to kick start May. Good thing, too, since the month is shaping up to be all baseball all the time.
Today I made a layout I absolutely love. I am so in love with it I’m struggling not to post it on the board so I can see how much (or, sadly little) everyone else loves it. You, dear reader, are the lucky one to get to preview the design.

I used the photo of Djin in the flowers. When I took it, the photo reminded me of the family ranch, and I had comments from family members saying the photo gave them the same association. So I wrote the journaling accordingly.

When I dream of home

I am always on
the ranch
in the two bedroom house
where our
family of seven
spent the summers
of my childhood.
I dream
of long golden days,
Dad haying from dawn to dusk,
dragging
home exhausted.
Mom cooking huge meals every
day to feed the
hay men.
I remember playing with the grape hyacinths and
our Siamese cat, Ming. Who usually gave birth to
a batch of kittens each summer.
With no television, we gathered
In the living room at night to read.
Just family. It was enough.

I spent some time in the local scrapbook store until I found an absolutely perfect paper combo {Crate Paper, of course. Right now I'm all about the Crate or the Cosmo Cricket} for the page and I used a sketch from the “Little Book of Sketches” to jump start the design. http://littlebookofsketches.blogspot.com/

Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie

2007-04-28T13:20:00.000-06:00

I don’t much care for sports.
There, I said it.
This would not be too big a problem if it were not for one fact.I’m the mother of two boys.
Boys, as a general rule, do like sports.
The simple truth is basketball bores me, I can’t stand football, I only find soccer interesting if my sons are on the field and hokey leaves me cold, although I do like watching the Zamboni and the weird behavior of the crowds during a fight.
Baseball is the exception.
I really do like it, and the smaller the scale the better. Baseball reminds me of the neighborhood games played in the schoolyard behind my mother’s house. I was a really, really bad baseball player, but at least I was allowed to play.
It’s a sport I understand, although my loyalty to baseball is rather spotty.
I remember watching the 1975 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds against the Boston Red Sox. Dad was a fan of the Reds with their switch hitter Pete Rose, as well as other famous players Johnny Bench Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo on the team. We watched the series together, and it is one of my fond memories of my father.
Years later when St. George Native, and lefty, Bruce Hurst pitched for Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets, I, along with most residents of Southern Utah was glued to the television. When the series was lost in the seventh game I was mightily sad. But St. George now has a Bruce Hurst legacy in ball fields and teams.
I sat through a few baseball games played by my nephew, Shane, and never really understood why my sister was so intent on the game. Now I know. My DS-8 signed up for Little League this year and with games and practices I am now committed to something like four nights a week sitting on the sidelines of a baseball diamond.
Quite frankly, I have no idea how I will manage getting him to all the practices and games, as well as attending my required meetings for work and church while DH is working several nights a week. Now would be a good time to perfect cloning.
Today was the official opening day ceremonies. Apparently all little leagues have opening day ceremonies at the same time as the National Baseball League ceremony.
DS-8 was given his uniform yesterday and he looked cool all suited up with the hat and glove. I do believe baseball uniforms are so much more classic than football jerseys and head’s and shoulders above soccer shorts.
When I see him in the pants, the tucked in shirt, the baseball cap, with mitt in hand it stirs something akin to patriotism in my little heart. During the opening ceremonies a group of three teen-aged girls sang the Star Spangled Banner A capella, they did a beautiful job and it made me teary eyed.
Baseball is just so All-American, it’s hard not to love it.

Guess what my plans are for today?

2007-04-28T08:09:00.000-06:00

But dang, the kid looks good in a hat!

Becoming Ashlee

2007-04-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

I'm still collecting my thoughts on a blog I want to write. Until then I'm posting my latest layout. This is a photo I took of Ashlee over Easter. She looks very much like her father here, only cuter, of course.
The journaling on the page reads:

Ashlee, I am amazed at the beautiful young woman you are becoming. I
shouldn’t be surprised; you were always an exceptionally pretty child.
I have
been fascinated to watch you grow. You started school convinced you were the
smartest child in the class and then went about proving it.
You, along with
cousins Logan and Holland started the “new wave” of children in our extended
fmily. Thethree of you brought new life to a family mourning the loss of
your grandfather, Alf and your grandmother, Drusilla.
When I see your
fresh young face I can’t help but anticipate the adventures ahead of you.
In
some ways I want to push the pause button and make you stay just the way you are
~ but then again, I can’t wait to see what you become.

Black? White? Brown?

2007-04-25T09:34:00.000-06:00

*****

Update, I finally decided on white and spent the rest of the day working on the layout. It doesn't look like the kind of layout that would take all day to complete, but the sewing, pulling threads, tying them and taping them down took forever!
Anyway, here is the final product.

*****

I'm puzzling over what to do with this layout.

I picked up the design from an on line sketch and I really like the blocks. But I'm not sure what color I want for the background.

I thought I liked the brown until I took a photo (after arranging the papers so I could put them back when it came time to glue everything down) and saw the thumbnail.

Through the miracle of modern technolobgy I was able to doodle around with other color choices, and now I'm leaning to the white.

Any thoughts?

Stuff I've been making

2007-04-23T16:05:00.000-06:00

I've been back in the scraproom this weekend working on everything but layouts. I already showed you the wall hanging. The card above and on the left were made from scraps of the same paper line, as was the "Read" clipboard. The other clipboard was made from My Minds Eye paper.

I'm trying to set up a class for people to make teacher gifts, featuring clipboards. Since my oldest son has a male teacher and my youngest son's teacher is female, I decided to make two examples. When I'm done with the class, the kids teachers get the gifts. Since many of your are teachers, (media specialists, children's librarians, day care providers) I would appreciate any thoughts on rather or not you would like a clipboard for a gift.

Paint fancy

2007-04-22T10:57:00.001-06:00

In spring a woman’s fancy turns to paint, and the Sagy paint I bought last fall and stacked behind the sofa in hopes of one day applying it to the walls is now calling my name.
I’ve been watching a lot of HGTV, which has fed the yen to slap a little paint around ~ although it’s hard to say which came first the TV watching, or the desire to spruce up my digs.
In any case, I have made an “accessory” to put on the walls, should I ever actually change the walls from boring white to slightly less boring green. I used my Dutch Girl paper and a D.I. find I picked up last fall when I was in my brief thrifty stage.
In theory, I will hang framed photos of my beloved family on the pegs under the shelf.
Baseball continues to be a saga of strangeness.
DS-8 was scheduled to go to his second (well first, because the first practice was canceled due to snow) practice Saturday at 5:30 p.m. but while I was in the shower DS-12 took a call telling us the time had changed to 11 a.m.
When we arrived as scheduled there were two teams playing on the field. Since we don’t know the team yet, but we do know they are named the “Blue Jays” we asked both teams and were told the second group was indeed, the one we sought, but they had started practice at 10:30 a.m.
I figured DS-12 got the message wrong, introduced A to the coach and sat down to watch the practice. As we watched, DH and I realized they were playing T ball, curious, we thought he was in a pitch team, but we’re new at this and we could have missed something along the way.
A proved to be pretty talented, maybe it was because he was one of the largest kids on the team.
Wait.
When did A get to be so tall?
One of the parents overhearing our conversation asked us how old he was.
“Eight,” we said.
“These are six year olds,” she told us.
While A was practicing a new team had arrived, you guessed it, they were the 8-year-old Blue Jays. So A played a few minutes with his real team and DH and I mourned the loss of what appeared to be a really great coach.
DS-12 spent the day in SLC doing Temple Baptisms, and we were spared several hours of infighting, a very good thing.
Even better, DH didn't have to work on Saturday or Sunday.
What's more, this weekend is Stake Conference. A better woman would be rejoicing at the opportunity to learn at the feet of her stake leaders. I am darn excited because I don't have to go to Relief Society and I'm slumming around the house in my p.j.s
Wickedness may not be happiness, but a nap comes pretty close.

Shields up!

2007-04-20T09:25:00.000-06:00

Do you ever have the feeling that something is about to happen? And that something, be it big or small is going to chance the current course of your life.
What’s more, you know something should happen, but you are not sure if you want something to happen, or if you think the something is good or bad, or just … something.
Kind of like the feeling that you are either seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or the headlight of an oncoming train, but you are not sure what it is just yet?
That’s kind of what I’m feeling right now, and it’s making me a little uneasy.
Yesterday morning I was feeling pretty chipper.
The day stretched ahead of me with nothing in it, except I did need to unload and reload the dish washer, throw in a couple loads of laundry and write a news story. Other than that I was all clear.
After waking up a former NASA astronomer for information about the story (apparently astronomers work at night and sleep during the day) and spending two hours putting together the report of summer star parties it was 11 a.m. but …
Most of the day stretched ahead of me with nothing in it. Well sure, I needed a shower and I had to go buy some spray paint for a scrapping project, plus the laundry and dishes still needed attention but …
At noon after the shower I sat down to eat a bowl of soup and watch “Mission Organization” while feeding stray bits of meat to Djin I realized some of the day had slipped away. I still needed to go shopping before tackling the projects in the house but I still had time, except the phone was ringing, and it was work, with one question, then it was Standard Optical with another question, then it was work again with yet another question and it was the Relief Society President reminding me I was late for our weekly meeting which starts at one and usually lasts two hours and I had thought was not going to happen because she was going to be out of town this week.
However, I was already dressed and ready to go since I was just heading out the door to go shopping for spray paint.
Okay, so now it’s 3 p.m. and the day is no longer stretching ahead of me with nothing in it. DS-8 and I make a run to the store to pick up spray paint, nabbing something for supper on the way home.
What with eating and watching re-runs of “Darma and Greg” before I knew it, it was time for “Survivor; Fiji.”
But CSI was a re-run and I could still make the bed and clean the kitchen and get a load of laundry going but then again as I was making the bed I saw the phone and realized I had planned to call K to follow up on something that happened in the meeting and we got to talking and …
Well now, it’s 9:15 p.m. the boys need me to tuck them into bed and I still want to watch the DVR copy of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “E.R.” I recorded because I was planning to unload the dishwasher and throw a load of clothes into the washing machine and DH is due home from his second job any minute.
Which is to say yesterday was just your average day.
But several things were said during the meeting and during my discussion with K afterwards that made me think of marriage and families, and making decisions, and charting your life’s course.
As a result, I am now thinking a change is on the horizon and I’m not really sure where I’m going to fit a change into my open days with nothing in them.
But I can’t spend a lot of time thinking about it today. The day stretches ahead of me with nothing in it but a few loads of laundry and a kitchen to clean. O yes, since I now have the spray paint, maybe I can start on that scrapping project …

Odd ramblings to avoid work

2007-04-18T11:23:00.000-06:00

{Photo blatently stolen from Stuff On My Cat because I like it}

I’m a little groggy today. I was awake from about 4 to 6:30 a.m. ~ just in the bed thinking about stuff, battling DS-8s elbows and Djin’s furry face, trying to sleep. As usually happens. I went soundly to sleep at 6:30 a.m. and woke up about 15 minutes before the children were supposed to be to school.
A storm is blowing in, and as I have discovered since moving to this town, storms in our little town are preceded by wicked winds.
Yesterday the weather was wonderful. But last night at about 7:30 p.m. when I went out side with a spray can and yet another project I had a hard time getting the spray paint to stick to the wood because the darn wind kept blowing everything sideways.

In an attempt to avoid work I have created a blog for my local scrapbook store. You can find it here: http://scrappilyintooele.blogspot.com/ And yes, the first entry looks oddly familiar.

I have also been on a reading kick lately. I’ve read something like six books in the last week. It’s not as ambitious as it sounds. Four of them were children’s lit fantasy stories about a door in the woods and a dream world.
Oddly enough the two adult books have ended up sharing a common theme, the challenge faced by cultural and racial prejudices, and neither one overtly speak of the theme, it is just there as an underpinning of the stories.
The first is Fanny Flagg’s “Welcome to the World Baby Girl,” about a female newscaster in the 1970’s watching as muck rackers destroy the lives of good people by digging up smut from their past. As it happens, this newscaster has her own secret ~ although she isn’t really sure what it is. The girl’s father was a World War II soldier who met her mother during training and married her before being shipped overseas.
He ends up being killed in the war, and his wife and daughter come to a small southern town for a few years before the mother takes off with her child because she is hiding some unknown secret.
The other story is Tony Hillerman’s “Shape Shifters.” Anyone familiar with Tony Hillerman knows his books are mysteries based on the crime fighting of Navajo police in America’s southwest. I spent several years on the fringe of the area written about in the stories, although I never understood the Navajo people as explained by the book, even though one of my good friends in St. George was part Navajo.
His story also touches on the Hmong, an obscure people treated badly in their Asian home. I’ve never heard of the Hmong (pronounced Mong) until last year of so when I did a layout for a friend who’s husband served an LDS mission in California among the Hmong.
Both books are a pretty good read, if you are looking for something to do.
DS-8 has his first baseball practice tonight. He is so excited he just can’t stand it. He’s even trying to get me to go out and help him catch. Poor deluded child, he thinks he has a Mom who is willing to do that sort of thing.
It should be interesting learning to play baseball in a wind storm.

One more thing. While I was doodling around looking for a story related to my English as a Second Language story I am currently (avoiding) writing, I found this.http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660192238,00.html It might be of interest to my family members.

Help meeeeeee

2007-04-16T18:47:00.000-06:00

Seriously. It's an illness. But I can't pass up a stack of papers called "Dutch Girl." I just can't. Holland, send photos.

Quick post

2007-04-14T09:39:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post beore I go back to the scrap room. I managed to get a couple of layouts done yesterday. I have been asked to teach a journaling class at my local scrapbook store next week. I am also working on a clipboard project for the local store and another project for the Scrappin Trends newsletter. I hope I manage to get a couple of them done.
DH is going crazy with his second job. They have him scheduled to work all weekend. I don't know how much longer he is going to put up with it before he just quits. I totally understand his frustration, he's never home. There has to be a better way to make a living.

Okay, I'm back

2007-04-12T18:47:00.000-06:00

Okay, you may be wondering what the mystery blog entry was yesterday. I started writing it when I discovered it was almost time for my big Thursday night of television with Survivor, CSI and ER. Just as I was getting ready to get back to blogging DS-8 decided he needed me to help him go to sleep, and while I was in with the child DH turned off the computer, television and lights.
As I was closing in on 11 p.m. by the time I finally got the munchkin to sleep I decided to just let the whole computer thing go and get to bed.
To answer your question, Karen; sadly I am not responsible for the sketch blog. But it is cool, and they are offering a drawing for prizes to those who spread the word. Not being the sort of girl to turn down the chance at free scrapbook stuff I jumped on the band wagon to link their site on my blog. http://littlebookofsketches.blogspot.com/
The photos are the last of my Easter shots. I plan to do a page with them along the lines of “It was fun while it lasted.” Because within 24 hours after we brought the hover disk home the boys tossed it on top of the elementary school.
However, I anticipated the toy wouldn’t last long, and it kept a half dozen boys entertained for several hours ~ which I consider a pretty good investment for a three dollar toy.
I made the card with scraps from the A & A layout. I am slowly learning that making cards is a good way to used scraps and help clean up the work surface for the next project.
Today (knock on wood) I have the whole day to myself with no work or nothing. I took a little nap in the sun earlier in the day and just realized I need to run down to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for DS-12. As I am edging in on noon, I’ve already frittered away a good portion of the day. But I’ll be doing some scrapping this afternoon.

More purdy girls

2007-04-11T13:00:00.000-06:00

The photo in the layout is a year old. Yep, I’m really good at getting those photos in pages as soon as possible.
Funny story about the layout, I bought the brown and white AC paper in Logan on the way to Wyoming, simply because I love it.
When I had a spare minute I pulled it out and started pushing it around with a photo of a butterfly. But I couldn’t get it too look right. So I flipped through my file of photos and discovered this one of Ashlee and Abby. That’s when I discovered the back side of the AC paper was a good match to Ashlee’s shirt and the page just sort of developed from there.
The smaller photo is Ashlee this year. I’ve also included photos of my niece and niece-in-law, beautiful women, both of them.

Easter Colors

2007-04-10T21:03:00.000-06:00

Part of our Easter activities was coloring eggs together. Wyo. Sister hosted the event, and she had it well organized. Colors were ready for dipping and each child was given a half-carton filled with eggs, with their name on it.
Thus each child had a sent number of eggs, and there was not squabbling. Great idea Sis! After the eggs were colored, Magon, the newest member of the family, judged the entries and awards were given for things like "Bunniest Egg," "Rottenest Egg (for most outragious use of color)" and "Just Ducky" egg. my DS-L wanted to win the Just Ducky award, so he drew a duck on one of his eggs.
We had a problem deciding which entry qualified for the "Most Uniform" egg, but decided Jake should be awarded the prize because all of his eggs were dyed to look like camaflage ~ Uniform, camo, it was a stretch, but it made him happy.

Easter Abby

2007-04-09T15:18:00.000-06:00

This is an ode to Abby, three year old princess, only daughter of my niece, beautiful girl child, and the subject of my photos today.
I took a great many photos over Easter vacation, but the camera loves Abby, and even when I wasn’t necessarily selecting her as the subject, she came in focus.
Tomorrow I’ll move on to other Easter events. But for now, it’s all Abby, all the time.

Happy Easter!

2007-04-03T19:53:00.000-06:00

I don't really know why there was a red X here. But I'm back, so I'll see what I can figure out.

To whom it may concern:

2007-04-02T13:06:00.000-06:00

To whom it may concern:
I will be bringing the Shane Magon wedding album with me to work on over the Easter weekend. I would appreciate anything you can contribute in the way of photos, ideas, and actual gluing.
I have currently completed all of the pages except:

N {nieces and nephews?}
Q {quiet moments?}
W {A poem beginning with the
letter W?}
Z {Z end works for me, but I need art!}

I also ran into a snag when the Making Memories rub on letters I was using ran out of "e"s. If you can find a set of "Making Memories Simply Stated" lower case rub on letters in white, (item number 23507) and bring them with you to Afton, I will repay you for them.

Karen sent me an e-mail suggesting

W ~ White
N ~ Newspaper

Any words that do not contain the letter “e” would be greatly appreciated. {Notice how "Unite" has become "Unity."} I called the manufacturer and discovered Simply Stated has been discontinued. :(

Trippin' down memory lane

2007-04-01T12:03:00.000-06:00

I’ve been playing in my photos for my ScrappinTrends design kit. I had SEI paper this month, and it seemed a good match for the photos. Conference weekend is a great time to scrap. I can scrap and listen to conference and let my house go to pot without guilt.

It's really odd, I can remember each one of these dresses, and the stories behind everything in the photo.

Mom made the red dress with the trim. I thought I could still find some of the flower braid in my stash, but I apparently used it on something else.

I can remember the exact moment this photo was taken. We are sitting on a scooter Ray{mond} made with one of his friends. I thought I was hot stuff because the girls finally let me win the Miss America contest.

The other photo was one of a strip of photos taken in a photo booth at Idaho Falls. Grandma Hall took me to get the photos taken, and she told me how my sister posed all pretty with her hand up behind her head. Somewhere it got lost in translation, and I decided to put my hand up like I was a hostile witness being sworn into court. Mom and my sisters laughed until they cried when they saw the photo.

I think I convinced Wyo. Sis to fix my hair for this photo. I thought this look was stylin’

The blue dress was my first “store bought” dress. We bought it at J.C. Penney’s in Idaho Falls. I didn’t like it ~ I wanted something sweet and girly. But Mom’s sense of style prevailed, as always.

I think I sewed this dress. I know I picked out the pattern and the fabric, one of those flame retardant double knit numbers. I still like the print on the fabric, Maybe I’ll see if I can use it for a layout inspiration.

When the family gets together

2007-03-31T11:54:00.000-06:00

I started my first day of vacation napping, cleaning the bathroom and attending a hockey game with DH’s family. Today I expect I will try to recover from the excitement of yesterday.
The napping and cleaning was uneventful, albeit desperately needed. The hockey has become a family tradition.
DH is one of 10 children. The hockey game started when his sister in southern Utah was given the opportunity to buy cut-rate tickets to the Utah Grizzly hockey game. She and a few of the brothers decided it might be a fun outing, bought some tickets and camped in our basement for the weekend.
Somewhere along the line a brother from Idaho and his children, as well as the southern Utah married children started buying tickets. Now there are 40 tickets sold to DH’s sister and family.
Since the family rarely gets together, (and they are not all in attendance at the hockey game) it is as close as they get to a family reunion of any kind. Eight of the 10 children were there and one of the “missing” was represented by his son, daughter in law and two grandsons.
After the game we went out to eat at the local Chili’s, but not all of us made it to the restaurant. One of the Idaho cousins tripped over a downed street sign while walking back to the restaurant and ended up cutting her leg. Her father took her to get nine stitches put into the gash.
Still, the poor waitress had more than 20 people at the tables with 4-6 separate checks. She handled it very well.
We didn’t get home until after midnight, and I slept in until almost 10 a.m. today. Such luxury!
Truth to tell, going to a hockey game is not my favorite thing to do. I don’t understand the rules, I’m not particularly comfortable in the stadium seats, and I hate crowds.
But it was fun to get the family together, re-acquaint ourselves with the crowd and meet the newest cousins. The setting doesn’t allow for a lot of interchange between families, we sit and watch a game, then we sit and eat.
Today DH and the boys will be meeting some members of the family for other activities. I’m not sure what they will be doing, but I’m not going. I have plenty to do at home, and I suspect he’ll have a better time without me.

The high price of shopping

2007-03-27T18:48:00.000-06:00

Wal-Mart, seriously, is possibly the most frustrating place to shop on the planet, particularly when you go there with two children, between the hours of 4 and 6 p.m.
I had planned to go earlier, but I ended up scrambling to write a news story, then I fell asleep on the sofa, and then it was 2 p.m. and the boys were going to be home at 3:15, so I just waited and took them with me.
After I had made the decision to take the boys shopping with me, a neighbor lady called and asked me to read the journaling she was putting in a scrapbook for a friend. I set up the appointment at 5 p.m.
Wal-Mart was it’s usual nightmare of freaky folks, slow-moving grandmas and mothers with children (I currently fall into the latter category, but I am on the edge of the first and second category, as well).
I ran into a ya-ya in the cookie aisle, and while our children ran up and down the cookies and other shoppers shot us dirty looks she gave me some coupons ~$2 off Contessa frozen dinners, yehaw!
Then I came to the checkout line and picked a spot. I did not make a good decision.
I looked at my phone and realized it was 4:47 p.m. and there was a lady with a cart overflowing with goods and children in front of me. So I called my appointment and pushed it back to 5:30 p.m.
After I loaded my goodies onto the conveyer belt and was properly pinned in by another shopper behind me I realized I was in “Dons” line. Don is probably 80 years old and, I swear this is true, reads the labels of every product as he scans it.
I had several multiple item purchases, milk, bottled water, binders (cool looking and on sale!) and in each case I told him how many of each item I had in the cart. Undaunted Don scanned each item separately.
We walked out of the store at 5:13 p.m. I knew I wouldn’t get the groceries put away before my guest arrived, but there was a chance I would get the car unloaded.
So we pull into the carport and tumble out grabbing packages as we go. The cat came to greet us, and stood in the doorway, waiting for me to unlock it so she can go in it first.
We dumped packages on the table, and in the process, a saucer left on the table crashed to the tile floor and shattered.
I’m sweeping and swearing lightly under my breath, DS-7 is scrambling to pick up coats and backpacks in the living room and DS-12 is finishing unloading the car.
But we made it.
When she came to the door the glass was off the floor, so were the school supplies.
DS-12 unloaded groceries and put them away while I helped my neighbor.
And I vowed never to go to Wal-Mart again. ….. until tomorrow when I run out of double sided tape or realize I forgot to purchase laundry detergent.

Just a quick layout about my 12-year-old DS. He wrote the equations on the page.

Journaling reads: "Who would have thought I would bring a math wizard
into this world. I am hard pressed to balance my check-book, and I only do it
under duress. I was fine in my number-free world, then along came my first born
son, methodical, logical, technical L----.
"The boy loves numbers, math and all things
scientific. He took first place in the school science fair while he was in first
grade. Instead of watching sports, he has the television tuned to MythBusters or
Numb3rs. He hates to get up early, but willingly gives up 30 minutes of sleep
twice a week to attend an advanced math class.
"When he and his father get talking math problems I
just smile and go somewhere else in my head. I’ll let them discuss negative
numbers, integers and Pi while I think about my next newspaper story or
scrapbook layout."

Wash, rinse, repeat

2007-03-26T22:06:00.000-06:00

I was flipping through my photographs looking for something to scrap when I came upon these shots of my family at the Bonneville Salt Flats taken last year.
I realized I still hadn't scrapped photos taken in 2001, so I put them together and a page was born.
This one is heavy on the journaling:
"Five years is but a moment in the unchanging, harsh environment of the Bonneville Salt Flats.”It is a monotonous, white, hot expanse unrelieved by vegetation. The only landmarks in the great vastness are blue-grey mountains floating like a mirage in the distance and the thin line of I-80 across the desert floor.
"With the exception of cars zipping along the freeway, it is the same wasteland traveled by the ill fated Donner Party in 1846.
"But you have changed, our lives have changed and the world has changed since our first visit to the Bonneville Salt Flats in June of 2001.
"We were on a new adventure. David was looking for a job and had been offered a teaching position in Wendover, Utah. He turned the post down, but ended up working in the same school district, first in Tooele, later in Grantsville.
"David’s hair was just growing back from being publicly shaved at a school assembly. He lost a bet with his students ~ they read more than he said they would.
"Logan was six. He turned seven on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after America was attacked and some 3,000 innocent people were killed by terrorists. America is still at war in Iran because of the attack.
"Tow headed Adam was two and still learning how to use the toilet. He’s seven now, and is learning math facts.
"When I look at these photos I marvel at how much our lives have changed in five years. I wonder what the next five years will bring.
"I dream of a peaceful, safe world for my sons. But I fear peace is distant, like the mountains in the Bonneville Salt Flats. I hope it is not just a mirage."

I am very, very, very excited for my upcoming vacation.

I have fallen into a great big rut, and I really need to be doing something else.

Monday:

Get up

Send family to school

check internet e-mails, etc.

call Transcript and get my daily assignment.

Call people on the telephone.

Shower while waiting for return phone calls.

Throw a load of laundry in the washer.

Throw a load of laundry in the dryer.

Empty the dryer first.

Fix a sandwitch for lunch.

Write a story.

Welcome kids home from school.

Unload dishwasher while cooking supper.

Reload dishwasher.

Watch television or work on scrapbook page.

Tuesday.

Get up.

Send kids to school.

Check internet, e-mails, etc.

Shower

Throw a load of laundry in the washer

Throw a load of laundry in the dryer

Empty the dryer

write shopping list

Go shopping

unload car

Fix a sandwitch for lunch

Go to Relief Society presidency meeting.

get home in time to greet family home from school.

Empty dishwasher while cooking supper.

Clean up after supper.

Watch television or scrap pages.

Wednesday:

Get up

Send family to school

check internet e-mails, etc.

Call transcript and get my daily assignment.

Call people on telephone.

Shower while waiting for return telephone calls.

Throw a load of laundry in the washer

Throw a load of laundry in the dryer

Take a load of laundry out of the dryer

Fix a sandwitch for lunch.

Welcome children home from school.

Take them to piano lessons and or Scouts between writing stories.

Empty dishwasher while cooking dinner.

Clean up dinner.

Watch television or attend Stansbury Park meeting.

Watch television.

Go to bed.

Thursday:

Repeat Tuesday but replace the Relief Society meeting with scrapping or shopping

Friday:

Repeat Thursday

Blah, blah, blah, blah

Sorry, am I boring you, cuz I'm kind of boring myself.

Today wasn't too bad. DH came home after school and mowed the lawn. There is now wind whipping around the house and the weather report tells us to expect snow tomorrow. Gotta love that March.

It's all in the packaging

2007-03-24T18:35:00.000-06:00

I imagine you all are getting tired of seeing scrapbook pages on my blog, but I'm not tired of making scrapbook pages, so I guess you'll just have to suffer through it in case I actually sandwitch some news in here somewhere.
Hillbilly Sister asked me about idea generating, and this is an example of the strange places inspiration will take you.
Yesterday while I was cleaning up my scrap space I found a box of "Petaloo" flowers someone had given me. I like the flowers, but I adore the box. However, it takes up a whole lot of room in my storage, so I decided to throw it out. Well, not exactly. I covered the lid with blue paper and used it for the title / picture frames on this page.
I've been holding onto the "Bowling" paper for several years now. I bought it to make something for Wyo Sis. If you know her, you know why I found this paper so entertaining.
I called the falconer today, only to discover March is not falcioning season. The birds are molting, and getting ready for fall, which is the hunting season, Duh!
So I went with plan B and am talking to a woman who lived in my ward (julie) when I moved here, about Cystic Fibrosis.
Her second child, a son, was born with the disease about four years ago.
I have a connection with C.F. because when I was a kid the girls in my church took on the task of collecting money for the disease. I remember learning about it from our Seminary teacher, who had a niece or nephew (I can't remember which) with C.F. I also remember going door to door trying to pronounce Cystic Fibrosis in spite of being terrified about talking to strangers.
Julie's sister, brother and parents still live in our ward. Her sister taught DS-12 his first piano lessons and was the accompanist when I was working in the Primary Presidency. Her brother was in the bishopric for a time. Her nephew (via the brother, not the sister with a C.F. son) is in DS-12s Boy Scout troop, but is the reason L hates Boy Scouts.
It's odd interviewing people I know. But at least I don't feel strange calling them with follow-up questions.

Layers, it's about layers

2007-03-23T17:18:00.000-06:00

You won’t believe what I found in the kitchen today. The countertops!
I remembered them from a few months ago, but today all the stars aligned and I was able to remove stacks of papers, cat toys, spray paint, a pine wood derby car, two battery packs, an eight-pack of spaghetti noodles from Costo and a cap gun to find the bar between the kitchen and living room.
It won’t last, of course.
In my cleaning spree I also reorganized the message board. This, I confess was more a result of buying adorable little round push pins because they came in a cool magnetic container ~ they only cost $1 at Office Max and I passed on the cool magnetic container full of paper clips.
Another most extraordinary thing has happened. It’s Friday and DH has the night off. Someone at work called him asking to switch so he’s upstairs right now watching television. The boys are playing outside, and I have unearthed my scrap table.
It’s true, I should be setting up an interview with a local falconer for a Tuesday “Hometown” story. But I’m not. It occurs to me that right now the paper needs me more than I need them.
I decided to tear apart the “Kindergarten Kid” layout based on the words of Wyo. Sis. I really didn’t like it, and her comment that it looked like a Wanted poster sent me in the wanted poster direction. I ended up sanding and sewing the heck out of it. But I think it turned out much cuter than the original.
Also, Hey, Karen! You are famous! Thanks for the package, hehehehehe.

A little nutty

2007-03-20T14:18:00.000-06:00

That’s what my editor said about the people I interviewed and wrote about today.
Now I’m pondering things.
Well, I’ve been pondering things since I attended a fireside on Sunday. There an American born Jew, who immigrated to Israel at the age of 12 talked about his belief that Israel has been foreordained as the Promised Land for his people.
True, there were plenty of edgy things discussed, even written in the story, the most inflammatory being:

“opponents of the Jewish homeland are also deeply spiritual, “but the
question is, what spirit are they connected to,” alluding to his belief that the
battle in the Middle East is a classic war between good and evil.

Okay, I can see where my editor might consider it a little thorny. It certainly is not politically correct.
My editor removed it from the story.
But I’m not sure these are outlandish statements:

“Peace has been hijacked by the media … It is not ignoring evil, it is the
light that overcomes the darkness, it is love of family, love of life.”
Or
“Peace is when your beliefs and actions are in step with each other.”
Without this unity of thought and action there is turmoil in your own soul that
has a ripple effect on your neighborhood, your community, your country and the
world.

As I wrote in my blog earlier this month, I appear to be out of touch. I don’t think the statement

“we have a responsibility to care for the Jewish people,”

is outrageous. Nor do I think it’s out of line to say

“It is not a political war. It is not a war of bullets and tanks; it is a war of
spirit.”

Let’s be clear. I don’t believe the followers of Mohamed are evil. Nor do I believe Jews are “pigs” and “dogs.”
Instead, I am under the impression that we are all children of the same God. I believe He has a plan for us, Christian, {even Mormons}, Jews and Muslims. We all can lay claim to Abraham as our ancestor.
I suppose this is the crux of the problem. Who is entitled to the Abrahamic covenant? Who can claim rights to Israel?

Yesterday DS-12 came home from school and said all sixth grade students were required to write a term paper about a country. When his name was called, asking him what country he would write about, he thought about saying Denmark, but instead asked to be assigned Israel.
I was blown away by the choice. It’s true, he may have selected Israel because I have been writing about the subject, but I don’t think I discussed it much in front of him other then telling him I was going to the fireside to listen to an Israeli soldier.
Anyway, when he came home I showed him the internet connections I had found with Israel National Radio, where the Jewish man I had just listened too co-hosts a daily program.
Last night I took him with me to interview the man. (I wanted to augment the fireside with some personal information from both him and his American host).

He sat with me as we discussed biblical prophesy, the Jewish belief that God is in everything we do and the common ground shared by Christian and Jews.
I don’t think I was wrong. But more than a few people think I was brainwashing my child.
Apparently that makes me a little nutty too.

On a lighter note: I have to inclued the interchange between myself and the photo editor of the paper about this shot.

Troy; Here is my attempt to photograph a couple of people afraid they might
accidently touch each other other while in a poorly lighted room. This goes with
the Jewish / Mormon story for today.
Aleen, do have any caption info for
these lovely folks who have done an exceptional job of maintaining their
personal space?

Three cards, a layout and ...

2007-03-19T15:42:00.000-06:00

Continuing with my on line crop displays, I made these three cards and the layout all using one ad inspiration challenge. I really like the ad that inspired all this card making, but I think I am going to re-visit the layout. The photo totally cracks me up, it is so very Adam. But the layout needs some work.
I went to a fireside for work last night. The speaker was an American born orthadox Jew Zionist living in Israel. He co-hosts a radio show in Isreal with a friend he met while they were serving in the Israli army together. Very interesting, no?

I have a lot more to say about the fireside, etc. but I have another interview with him and his Tooele host tonight and I need to ponder everything.
Stay tuned for more blogging on this subject.

The things I do for paper

2007-03-17T21:45:00.000-06:00

I’ve been scrapping all day long. My on-line design team has been hosting an on-line scrap and I am participating for fun and prizes.
There are about a dozen challenges up right now. But I have figured out how to combine more than one challenge in each layout in order to get more points.
Here are some examples:

I misunderstood the challenge here. I was supposed to take a photo from a different angle. But as I had already taken the photo on Wednesday, I scrapped it into a page.

Here I was supposed to use some bad photos. I photo copied a page from my journal shortly after Adam's 1st birthday. I kind of like the way it turned out.

ON this one I had to use three photos, a K in the title, and some red.

I also had to alter (as in doodle on) the photo.

My third challenge was to use something from the hardware store. Dig the dry wall tape.

It's not my best work, but if I get goodies from the deal I’m okay with it.

On this one I had to be "inspired" by the ad for one challenge.

Use items from a shopping list of goodies for the second challenge. (I chose brads, striped paper and a green and blue color scheme)

I also did the journaling for another challenge.

Out of touch

2007-03-16T10:06:00.000-06:00

There is a very good chance I don’t really know what is going on in the world. I know selective things, like how high the water is in Stansbury Lake, President Bush changing his wording about Mexican immigration to “migration, and the global warming hoax and the religion of environmentalism. (Yep, I lifted those last two subjects from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.)
But I don’t know other apparently important stuff like how many men claim to have fathered Anna Nicole Smith’s baby and rather or not the neighbor across the street is in the nursing home again.
Frankly, I miss a lot of what is going on around me, both close to home and in the national and international headlines.
I don’t watch daytime television, instead I listen to Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and Glenn Beck on “Family values radio, KNRS!” I don’t spend a lot of time visiting with the neighbors, or even looking out my front window, instead I’m chatting about school board meetings with the district superintendent. I know in excruciating detail the population numbers of my school district, and the teaching methods of my DHs fellow school teachers, but I can’t remember from one day to the next when my children are supposed to have their science fair project completed.
I’m not sure how much of this selective knowledge of the world around me is a conscious choice.
Okay, I do chose to listen to conservative radio news rather than watch Katie Couric on television. I do have a rather pronounced gag reflex, after all.
But the rest of the news filtering seems to just happen by nature.
The boys school news tends to be contained in one of the papers overflowing their backpacks which tend to litter the front doorway of the house every evening. My contact with these backpacks usually is limited to the daily shrieks of “pick up your backpacks and put them away already!”
I don’t really have a lot of time to sit on the front stoop and chat with the neighbors about the other neighbors, not that I am all that interested in the subject, anyway. I’m generally too busy picking up backpacks as I kick a path to the door so I can pick up my daily allotment of bills and advertising flyers from the mailbox.
But I suppose no one can know everything.
This is said to be the information age, but it seems in the midst of all the information many of us (myself included) are more ignorant than ever about the really important things in our lives, the events going on in the lives of family members and neighbors.
I suppose ignorance is bliss.

Mornings reek

2007-03-15T09:56:00.000-06:00

Getting up one hour early in the morning is a most ghastly proposition.
But I do like sunshine after the kiddos come home from school because they go outside and bounce around on pogo sticks, throw balls, chase the cat up the tree then climb the tree to retrieve her and generally get fresh air and exercise without whining for me to entertain them.
So this week has been a mixed blessing.
I’ve been obliged to drag my protesting body out of bed much earlier than I wanted to. But DH has been home for three evenings, we’ve gone out to dinner and I drove to my meeting on Wednesday in light instead of darkness. These are all good things.
Most important of all is the sunshine.
I’ve been in a deep, dark, nobody-loves-me, I hate my job, funk for months. Now I see the sunshine and I’m feeling much better.
Still, yesterday was a bit nutty.
Along with the usual scrambling for stories, taking kids to piano lessons and Scouts and going to the Stansbury Park meeting I also took baby photos for a friend (who happens to be the boys piano teacher), fixed a nice dinner for DH because it was his birthday, and sent the guys to the science fair because I was cooking dinner. I could have gone to the science fair, but then we wouldn’t have had anything to eat.
Today I was up early writing news stories. I need to take DS-12 to the eye doctor because he broke his glasses on Saturday and he’s due for a new exam anyway. It’s always something.
I don’t really have a point to all this rambling except I did want to show off some of my photos and let family members know I am available to take pregnant belly and new baby photos if they so desire. I love taking photos of new babies, and it’s one gift I can give without spending a lot of money.
The woman/ girl in these photo turned 19 the day after her baby was born. Isn’t she adorable? Is it just me or does she look like she could be one of Janene's daughters?

Her son was born a month early and spent several days in the NICU while she spent several days at the McDonald House with her mother. But everyone seems to do be doing well now.