Laugh of the day!

Thank you to Natalie, for posting some samples of some hilarious Mormon genre cards over on her blog! Go here to see the entire collection, but here are some samples of my faves:

Unexpected stuff and emotions...

First....my poor sister, who I talked to yesterday morning and she was just fine, was suddenly stricken....struck(?) yesterday afternoon with appendicitis....so she spent the night in the hospital and had the little inflamed bugger taken out today...Beth, we wish you a speedy recovery, and hope this doesn't throw a wrench into you coming up here in a couple weeks! :)

Last report was that surgery went well, and she'll go home tomorrow if there are no complications.

Now for the emotions...my mom had decided to sell her house this summer. I had been bugging her since my dad died to sell it and get something more manageable for her, on one level, etc., but she wasn't ready. Until a few things fell into play this last Spring that made sense for her to sell it, and she felt ready.

So she cleaned and straightened the house a bit more, packing some things up, and purging others. She met with a realtor, and they came back tonight to give her the numbers and such, so she was reporting to me about the meeting....then I asked if she thought she'd sign with them, and she said, "Oh, I already did!"...I was surprised, and asked when they were going to come put the sign up and such, and she told me it was already up. It was at this point that the completely unanticipated emotions just blubbered out of me...yep, I lost it. I seriously did not expect those feelings. I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming almost 3 years ago when we lost my dad. But it is so real now, knowing that the house I lived in from age 10 on will be sold and no longer be "home"....and it hasn't even been home to me for close to 18 years! I think it just brought up those feelings of loss again....I lost my dad, and now the home that is full of memories of my growing-up years will also be gone. If there is something I have discovered about myself, it is that I don't deal well with change sometimes. Oh well, after a good cry, I'm feeling more stable! ;)

Bored, bored, bored....

I am getting tired of the look of my blog.....I'm needing to change it up to something more bright and summery.....so even though I have about 200 things on my "to do" list, I'm sure I'll be playing with it this week.....so stay tuned! :)

**Motorcycle Disclaimer**

I'm noticing a little theme in the motorcycle comments, so....

Just as a disclaimer.....I really have no choice in the matter. My husband has had motorcycles since he was 7.....yes, I said seven.

He had one when we were married, and has sold and bought since then for different styles and bikes. He did sell his latest dual sport (dirt bike, but street legal) with the aim of getting one to ride to work in order to save gas.

I let him know my feelings on that.....the whole idea of him riding a murdercycle on the freeway is beyond what I can emotionally handle. I let him know about the absolutely sick and nauseas feeling that I would be experiencing TWICE on a daily basis until I knew he arrived at his destination safely...and that he didn't want to be around a wife that was that mentally distraught. Daily.

He does know what he is doing when he rides....he is cautious, and doesn't do crazy things. But it's all those other idiots out there that worry me....the ones who change lanes without checking first, put makeup on while driving, have cell phone conversations that are more important than what they are supposed to be doing, typing emails on their blackberry's....you know them!

Besides....a suit and tie staying clean riding a motorcycle? Not happening. Not to mention the sudden monsoonal rainstorms that we get in the summer...occasionally.

Then I also brought up the fact that I want him to stay alive for quite a few more years, to which he responded that he does have a good life insurance policy...as if money would make being a widow with 4 children driving me insane okay.

I also know that a monthly bus pass is only $8 for Church employees, so I'm pretty sure that's a bigger saving on gas. ;)

Oh, and to his credit, the first motorcycle that he brought around, that I hated the second I got on it and had an absolutely sick feeling about, he didn't buy.

But then he found this, and since I didn't feel horrible about it, he got it. Now he feels complete. He has his motorcycle that he'll tool around the neighborhood on, take the kids on rides around the block, and possibly ride on errands a few times. And then it will get put away and not ridden much. Just like the others. ;)

Swan Lake

Ellie loves the Barbie movies.....Princess and the Pauper, Rapunzel, 12 Dancing Princesses, and Swan Lake.

She likes to watch them in Mom & Dad's room so she can lounge in the recliner or lay on the bed.

She also must have her tutu on in case she decides to dance along with the movie.

I really need to catch her dancing along on video one of these days! :)

My Workspace....

Jenn, over at I Hate Whine posted a challenge to post a picture of your "blogspot"....and you had to snap a pic without cleaning or straightening up anything...so I did it, but only because my clutter pile in front of the laptop was smaller than usual this morning! :) I like that you can see the Perler beads that the kids were working on this morning, and the partly colored picture on the easel...and Ellie and her "binky bear" snuck into the picture as well. :) Keeping it real!

If you'd like to play, post a photo on your blog, and then come comment here so we can get a look-see! :)

More pairs!

My husband acquired a new possession today....Jared was thrilled about it because last week, Ron sold his dual-sport bike....

Anyway, he brought it home, and all I saw were pairs....PAIRS EVERYWHERE! So I just had to do it again! Without any further delay:

Two of a kind
f/8, 1/250, ISO 100, 28mm, action: PW Boost

Oh, and do you like Jared's watch? Yeah, my 4 yo thinks he can tell time!

Pairs.....

Hope & Believe is a fun photo-a-day blog that I like to check out, hoping the creative juices flowing there will spill onto me over the web! They even have weekly challenges, and have invited anyone to participate. So this week I finally decided to do it. The challenge this week is: a pair. On to my offering.....


Here is my little Ellie, she has lived for a pair of years, has a great pair of blue eyes, and today, is sporting a pair of pony's! :) Thanks for letting me play!

Photo info: f5.6, 1/200, ISO200, 55mm, action used: PW Boost

I Love To See The Temple...

Here's a good thing that came out of today's photo session....I caught this cute shot! This was after running a couple of actions on it(PW Vintage & a simple vignette frame). I ordered one for each of the little's bedrooms, because I've been meaning for the longest time to get a picture of the temple in their rooms. Now I've got it!

Slow week?!

Yep....not much going on around here....at least not really thrilling stuff anyway!

Monday, Nicole had her first piano recital. I am so glad to be done with that song! She's been practicing that little number since MARCH! I will really be so happy to never hear Matt, My Cat ever again in my life. :o) She did well...played her song a little too slow....and moved her mouth as she was counting, and was a bit distracted....which was evidenced by the fact that she let her eyes wander out to the audience during her playing! Oh well, she is her teacher's youngest student, and in my opinion did better than some of the older kids that started piano at the same time she did. If I get the nerve to try and upload the video we took, I'll add that later....I haven't even watched it though....that's how much I don't ever want to hear that song again! Here are some still shots though...

She's so talented, she plays with her eyes closed! just kidding....Mommy the master photographer only got one shot of her playing though, and I didn't check it close enough to notice that they were closed! Oops!

Flowers for our little performer.

The rest of this week was taken up with working on a little project for Father's Day. Which now Ron has a huge idea about, since I needed his help in editing the pictures.

We have a large wall in our dining area that has a picture on it that I'm tired of. So I wanted to take some cute pictures of the kids, blow them up, and make a picture wall. I decided to do a 16X20 of a group shot, and then surround that with 8X10's of each kid. I found some cute black frames for 50% off(woohoo!) at Hobby Lobby, and have spent the week trying to get shots of the kids...I finished off today and wondered to myself why I even try! I finally did get some good ones...but holy cow, my children do not follow instructions! I bet they will look back at these pictures one day and the only memory they will have is me freaking out at them to just look at the camera and smile! I hope that I can come to appreciate the pictures as well, as I gaze at them daily...and forget the frustration felt while taking them! ;o)

Here are some of the rejected shots....thank heaven for digital photography!

Riley really did do fine with the following of directions...it was the wind that kept "blowing" her shots! I crack myself up...

I'm pretty sure I asked for a smile....but instead I got this...

Ellie was much more interested in picking the flowers, smelling the flowers, not sitting down...pretty much anything was more interesting than looking at the camera.

Jared....in between the fake smiles and goofball poses I did get some cute shots of him.

There is the greatest place for pictures down by American Fork Hospital. Someone has a bunch of old cars, and they have built an old fashioned looking garage/gas station to store them at. The old rust buckets are outside, but the inside of the garage has a bunch of restored cars in it. Very fun for pictures!

The group shot....I have lots of these....between getting Nicole and Jared to just hold a pose and smile, and trying to get Ellie to just look at the camera....I almost gave up!

I think one of the most frustrating parts was editing all the pictures, and then downloading them to Costco for printing....only to realize that I needed to crop the pictures before I downloaded them. My editing and actions got all messed up if I didn't...so I had to go back and redo all of them...and I of course picked the photo sizes that require the most cropping (just FYI....if you are planning on printing your pictures in an 8X10/16X20 format, take the picture with a lot of extra space around it to allow for cropping. I, unfortunately, did not, so my favorite pictures that I chose to use lost a lot of their visual interest and charm because of it...dang it. Live and learn.:o) Oh, and 16X20 enlargements at Costco are mail order only. So Ron's Father's Day gift isn't going to be exactly complete when he gets it. Oops! Maybe the big print will show up next Saturday.