Housekeeping

Yes, I have lived in my house for two and a half years, but I finally got some pictures hung today. The wall behind one isn't painted yet (it has been half done for almost a year -- one of the side effects of being easily distracted and having a husband who hates to paint) but I HAD to get it up. I will have to redo the vinyl letters once I do paint, but at least the picture is UP. And if you can't read the letters, the first one says, "a perfect brightness of hope..." and the second one says "Families are Forever."

We also got new bedding a few weeks ago and I had to show it off. I love new fluffy pillows and comforters. Makes me feel like a princess. And it inspires me to make the bed everyday. And the new bedding meant I finally bought drapes for our room. It is so bright in there when the sun first comes up that you need sunscreen at 4:30 a.m. (at least it feels that way when you are trying to sleep). There is also a street light right outside our window so it is light in there even at night. The blinds that came with the house worked a bit, but these are WAY better. I am planning to paint the walls the same blue as the comforter with maybe one chocolate brown wall. I haven't decided. And I am getting the father's day pictures of the kids printed as 8x10s and those will probably go on a wall somewhere. I need something nice to go above the bed, but I don't know what. It may take me another two and half years to figure that one out.

Lastly, here are the promised pics of my flowers. Don't mind the dead grass. We had to spray some very noxious weeds and we haven't dug out the dead grass to replant yet.

Family Time and Pictures

Isn't it funny that the more organized we are and the more we get done, the more time we have to do our own thing? I think that I spend so much time trying to creatively avoid doing the inevitable that I don't do much other stuff, either. The past two weeks I have given a concerted effort to complete my own chore chart and to help the girls finish their jobs. They have little "rewards" for doing their work. I have the joy of knowing that my house is clean. This past week even though I have been busy, my house has been clean, we have gone to free swimming lessons at the local pool, we have had playdates with friends, I have watched my DVRed shows and movies, and we have spent time as a family. It's great!

I am going to try to make sure that on Saturdays we have fun family activities this summer. I am starting to realize that once school starts I won't see nearly as much of my Jillise as I would like! So instead of Saturday being the schlep around the house/go to Safeway/mow the lawn day it usually is I want to try to do something fun as a family in addition to the other stuff (this is where my needing to be organized comes into play). Today we went to the pool as a family. It was a bit cold, but we all had alot of fun and now we are all exhausted. I am hoping the girls aren't asleep downstairs. If they are, Brian gets to stay up late with them tonight!

In re-reading this post I realize that it is a tad random. I told you I was tired...

Here are some pictures I pulled off of my camera today and some that Bonnie sent me from swimming lessons because I couldn't FIND my camera (it was on my dresser in plain sight):

Here we have the fun new trays I found at Walmart for less than a dollar each. And yes, those are purple sprinkles on the applesauce. I buy the unsweetened stuff and then I put a few colored sprinkles on it and the girls think they are getting a treat. And this is a typical lunch for my girls. They will eat all of it, then be starving an hour later. Is this normal? Am I not feeding them enough???

Fathers Day Breakfast:

The Fathers Day frame pre and post words:

The girls playing in our new bedding:

Swimming Lessons (which were a HUGE success, mainly because the teacher lives two houses up from us and the kids knew her):

Summer Vacation is Here

Jillise is now officially a 1st grader. Waaaah! She got a fantastic report card, a backpack full of fun memories, journals, activities to do over the summer, and even some fun crayons and art supplies from her teacher. She celebrated her first day of freedom by waking up at 5:30 in the morning, wanting to play. It's going to be a long summer for me if she keeps that up!

She insisted on wearing the same dress to school that she wore on the first day of school. It makes before and after comparisons really easy!

I find it funny that I didn't ask her to pose or stand a certain way, but her hands are in almost the exact same spots. Creatures of habit, we are!

Today was a great Fathers Day. At least if I was a Father I would have loved it! Brian got to sleep in (until 9:15) when we brought him breakfast in bed: an omlette with ham, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and salsa, OJ, Krispie Kremes (these weren't on the original menu but they were selling them for a fundraiser outside of Beauty and the Beast rehearsals yesterday), and grapes. We brought him the homemade cards and the pictures in the frame. I didn't order my vinyl letters in time (the ones that say Daddy's Own Tarheel Blues) so I had to put a sticky note on there explaining how it will look when it is done. Then he got to hang out in bed and read until it was time to get ready for church. Then for dinner we had steak and twice baked potatoes, and ranch and bacon Suddenly Salad. Joelle had picked brownies and icecream for our Family Home Evening treat tonight, so we even got dessert. I think it was a great day. Now I am going to go collapse from exhaustion.

Angels Among Us

First off, if you are my husband and you are reading this and it isn't Father's Day yet, STOP. Go read ESPN.com or something. DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS BLOG!

Okay. Now that that is out of the way... For Father's Day this year I wanted to take pictures of kids that really showed off their eyes. Then frame them with the quote "Daddy's Own Tarheel Blues" (because Brian's favorite basketball team is the UNC Tarheels and their school color is baby blue). My friend Shannon got a new fancy schmancy camera for her birthday and wanted some guinea pigs, so I volunteered my children. Holy cow. The pictures turned out WAY better than I ever imagined. Since it would be a shame to only post one or two, here are collages with nine shots of each child. I love how there is such a range of emotion in each picture -- especially with the girls. It is going to be SO hard to choose just one picture from each group to go into the frame. If only all decisions were so deliciously difficult. So thank you, Shannon!! And Brian, if you are still reading -- STOP!!!

Time Wasting -- the TCM way

I have rediscovered Turner Classic Movies. At BYU my roomie was a screen writing major so we were always watching random old movies. I even had the pleasure of being IN some short films of hers (Elliots Oatmeal Train, anyone?). She would come home from class and tell us about the old film stars and the old movies that they had watched. I really enjoyed them.

Fast forward 13 years and the only stuff that I seem to be able to watch is on Noggin or ESPN. I don't have much time to sit and watch an entire movie. But TCM has Sunday Night Silent movies. They fascinate me. It's like watching the best historical fiction. The clothes, the subject matter, what they thought was beautiful, funny, tragic. I can't turn it off. It is amazing to me that just being caught alone in an apartment or room with someone of the opposite sex was totally scandelous and grounds for a FORCED marriage. This has been the focus of several films and the people were fully clothed and what was going on was totally innocent.

And I love how before each movie they give you a history lesson about people in the film or characters. Who knew that there were homosexual characters in 1920s silent films? Or that a "vampire" was a female hussy?

Anyway. Pointless post. But I am looking forward to my next Silent Sunday Night!

Grass And Granola

A few weeks ago I bought a book called "The Best Easy Day Hikes in ________ (enter the nearest large city to us right here).: I was SO excited to start getting out and about with my kids, especially since summer vacation is four school days away. On Friday we decided to try the easiest one and my friend Jodi and her kids joined us for the adventure. My brother John was also in town so he came along, too.

I chose the hike we went on because it was only 2.9 miles and there was only a 15 foot elevation change. Piece of cake. Provided you actually find the correct trail. Which I did not. What we went on was a two mile hike in VERY long grass that had been flattened by a car or something. It LOOKED like a trail. Basically Jodi, John, and I had to high step it the whole way because we would sink down into the grass and have to take extra big steps to get out of it. The kids were light enough that they just ran over it. Thank goodness for John who was a real sport and carried a hot and tired Joelle for part of the way back. Jodi and I really worked up a good sweat because we had backpacks on our backs and babies strapped to our fronts! Surprisingly, the kids had a GREAT time, despite being itchy and scratched up from the grasses and the terrain. Jillise and Ben were falling into the grass on PURPOSE, calling it booby traps. After the exhausting "fake hike" we found the REAL trail. It is flat, partially paved, and lined with blackberry bushes. We will be going back soon to do the entire loop (we were too hot and tired to do the full 2.9 miles yesterday) and pick some blackberries. My hip flexors are KILLING me today, but the kids can't wait to go back. I am hoping this will be a fun tradition that we can continue for the entire summer and the summers hereafter.

Today Brian, Jillise, and I went to the Food Bank to volunteer. Brian's work coordinates quarterly service opportunities. I am SO glad we went. We got to bag and box granola but it felt so good to be helping out and to teach the joys of service to Jillise. The facility there is AMAZING. They distribute almost 200,000 emergency food boxes a MONTH from this facility. They also teach families how to cook and plant and care for a garden. They operate at 95% efficiency (which Brian says is unheard of). The facility was clean and the volunteer effort is very well organized. I would like to go a few times a year with Jillise (you have to be at least six years old) and then start bringing Joelle when she is old enough. We met some families there who volunteer every week. We don't live close enough for that, but we can certainly go a few times a year.

Now we are home to relax. It is really rainy, so yardwork is out (darn it). I will have to post pictures of my flowers soon. I am finding that I really enjoy being outside working on my "garden." I have NO idea what I am doing, but I am learning alot by trial and error. My strawberries are producing and my first year blueberry plants will actually yield fruit this year. We don't have a vegetable area yet, but I hope to find a place for those in the next year or so. Off to nap!

Take the keys and lock her up.

I have NO idea what Jillise has been reading or what she has been watching on TV, but these are two "diary entries" I found on our coffee table yesterday:She is growing up way too fast. I had no idea that six year olds were supposed to have these romanticized marriage thoughts and ideals. I think I am living with Anne of Green Gables! I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

Jillise also has her first loose tooth! She is following in my footsteps and the other tooth is already coming in BEHIND the old one, so she may not have much of a gap to show after this one falls out. She's funny. She thought the bumps from the new tooth were canker sores. She was so thrilled to hear that she may actually make MONEY off of these bumps.

Joelle has also been cracking me up lately. She received a little note from a friend at church on Sunday, asking if she could come over to play. On the back of the note her friend had drawn a picture of their house. Joelle got out of the car after church and held that little drawing in her hand, comparing it to all the homes on our street. She said, "We have to find the yellow house that matches this picture. That's how I'll know it's the right house to go and play." The honest look on her little face was too cute. It's like she was holding a treasure map and she just had to match up the houses and victory was hers.

Not to leave Jaren out -- he is a real charmer. He can say "bye bye" and wave his hand. He will also clap if you ask him to. I think he is starting to differentiate between "ma ma" and "da da," but as soon as I think he has it figured out he calls me "ba ba." We are still working with him on crawling and all that gross motor skill stuff. I keep telling myself that the longer he stays put the easier life is for me, but I don't want to have to be taking him to see a bunch of specialists because he isn't mobile by his one year appointment. My mom is an occupational therapist. I'll have to hit her up for exercises we can do with him.

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Music

Last night was the night Brian and I celebrated our combined birthdays and anniversary. We had great tickets to see Harry Connick Jr and it was so fan-freaking-tastic. He is simply amazing. We saw him several years ago (pre kids) but it was in a big sporting arena and we were really far away. This was in a theater and we had orchestra seats and it was just really good. They played some of his older stuff and a bunch of jazz standards. His new CD is a tribute to the music and culture of New Orleans. Harry is just brilliant. He sits behind the piano with no music in front of him and just plays the devil out of that instrument. Fingers flying, he's singing and cracking jokes with the band. Even if you aren't a huge jazz fan, he will make a believer of you. I don't think my foot stopped tapping the entire evening. If you EVER have a chance to see him, GO. Do not collect $200, just GO.

Before the concert we went with some of our bestest friends to one of our favorite trendy restaurants downtown. Now if only I could convince my husband that quantity does NOT necessarily beat out quality where good food is concerned... Sigh. He will always be a Red Robin/Olive Garden kind of guy and I love him for that. At least he is willing to go to little non-franchised places with me for special occasions. Even if he does make snide comments about the prices and portions and foods he can't pronounce!

Today is supposed to have great weather so we will play in the pool, ride bikes, and enjoy it. Today is also our day to help clean the church, so that will be a good service opportunity for the girls. Life is good.