Saturday, February 21, 2009

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: my baby

pace found my sunglasses and thought he was one good-lookin' baby. he is shirtless because i'd just finished giving him a haircut, which he was also very pleased about. he was feeling very handsome and photogenic and kept telling me to take pictures "gen" (again) and then demanding to look at them on the camera.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

more house pictures--sorry











i guess once i start blogging i get on sort of a role.....and loren's at meetings all night, so why not, right?  i think (dare i say it?)  that the house might very well be almost done (the 'almost' is because i still have to hang curtains in my room).  i know i've said that before, but now i think i mean it.  we got our new couches, so the big-empty-room problem is solved.  i also acquired many new turquoise things that quickly found places in the house (i must be in a turquoise--not to be confused with 'blue' --ha ha--mood these days).  and, i finally finished the powder room, which was actually very difficult, since it's wall-papered in not my style at all, but i think i found something that works.  so, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  or not.  mostly these are for my mom, and my sisters, who don't mind me getting a little house crazy every now and then!


beach fun (and freezing cold)

Click to play no school= go to beach

valentine's day

okay, so i was going to do a cute valentine's day post after reading all of yours, but now that i'm here ready to do it, i remembered that my camera sat diligently on the counter during all the festivities and never actually got used.......
i want someone to invent a camera that knows when you want a picture taken and just takes it by itself.
anyway, we did have a good day.  the kids threw their second annual card-making/cookie-decorating party and invited all the kids in the ward their age.  we had a lot of fun.  and it was good to have their friends from church over for the first time.  i love seeing the creative side of the kids, and i think i must secretly still be a sticker/fun paper junkie (left over from my elementary school days of 'the sticker collection') because i have so much fun buying supplies for the kids' parties!  i went way overboard, but luckily the kids like doing crafts all year long, so i'm sure everything will get used up eventually!
loren got me the best present ever--a day at the spa!  i have never, ever, ever even been close to a spa before, so this will be a big treat (i will post pictures of my newly manicured/pedicured/facialed/massaged self after i go).  and the best part is that he already buys me everything i really need (and then some) so it was fun to get a real present that is absolutely impractical.  hooray for valentine's day!!!!!!!

Monday, February 9, 2009

i have a question

okay, so i am new to this world of online keeping in touch, and i cannot figure out this facebook thing.  loren signed me up for it, and now i've got like a million friends (well, not really, but you know what i mean) adding me onto their facebook pages, and then i add them onto mine, and people can post little comments..........but i don't get why there are blogs and facebooks and why some people have both and some people have only one or the other.........and how do people find time to run in to the computer and type what they are doing every second?  i realize the irony of that statement as i sit here blogging, but i only get on my blog twice a day (or so-ish), and not all the time to say exactly what i'm doing at each moment.  that said, i have enjoyed catching up with long-lost friends through facebook.........so is it basically a friend-finder for people who have easy access to a computer?  i guess it would be a pain to have 300 people listed on your blog list, so in that way a facebook page is better.  anyway, if any of you computer-ly social people can clue me in on this, that would be much appreciated!  and, i don't mind being on any of your facebook pages, and i think it's fun, i guess i'm just saying i don't know how it all works (don't go thinking i am anti-facebook)............

Sunday, February 8, 2009

new 'unusuals' of south florida

so, loren and i discovered something on one of our family walks the other day.  all of the ducks in the ponds/lakes/canals in our neighborhood are fake!  yes, fake.  floating out in the middle of the water like real ducks.  trying to trick northern virginia fools like us.  we did feel really silly that we'd always thought there were ducks all over the place.  what is really driving us crazy, though, is the fact that we cannot figure out why they are there.  it's not just for decoration, because since we discovered the fake ducks, we've been looking for them, and they are on every bit of water in all the cities all over here (and there are bits of water everywhere here in south florida).  the only thing we've come up with is that they are alligator decoys.  i really should just ask somebody, but i feel sheepish.  any ideas?

on a different subject (one dealing with cars), loren and i saw two very unusual and somewhat worrisome things in the same intersection last night while we were out and about on a date.  the first was a normal car (white crown vic) that was placed/mounted/jacked up (i'm not sure of the correct vernacular here) on huge truck tires, so that the bottom of the car was actually higher than the top of our car.  we had never seen such a thing before--even in california where the changing of tires on cars for various purposes is quite common, we never saw something this unusual.  it would have been better if it had been painted with lightning stripes or something, because then it would have at least been admitting that it was out to draw our attention, but it just acted like a normal car on crazy high wheels.  
anyway, we pulled up next to this car at a stop light, and then we noticed that the pickup (legitimate) truck in front of us had real bullet holes in the back of it.  we started wondering what section of town we had wandered into, and were very glad that we were 30 minutes from home and not closer to it.  

always an adventure, it is, moving to new places!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

mother/daughter moment

liesel and gwyneth and i have been doing something really fun.  i guess they read in a book about a mom and a daughter who wrote notes back and forth to each other in a journal.  g & l thought this sounded like fun (gwyneth actually started it first and then liesel joined in), so they each got a journal and we pass them back and forth every couple of days with little notes in them to each other.  it's been really fun to read their thoughts on things, and i like being able to tell them all the good things i notice about them.  i am writing this down in hopes that i will remember these moments when they are teenagers.....

Monday, February 2, 2009

tagged: 25 things about me

i'm not really sure at all that i can think of 25 things, but here goes:
1.  i thrive on getting things done quickly
2.  i like being organized and de-cluttering
3.  i do 2 loads of laundry every day--i put the first load in as soon as i wake up
4.  i play the piano and would love to take advanced piano lessons some day--i played a really hard piece in church a couple of years ago and secretly loved it, even though it scared me to death
5.  i want to buy a bike--i haven't owned one since i got married
6.  reading is my favorite thing to do when i have a spare minute
7.  dick francis is my favorite author
8.  the ender's game series, john grisham's books, and 'these is my words' are some of my favorite books
9.  i also like youth books:  cynthia voight, the bronze bow, island of the blue dolphins, (and i almost always read all of  liesel and gwyneth's library books--including the nancy drews)
10.  i still do yoga every day--i started it 1 1/2 years ago!!!
11.  i like to change/redecorate my house
12.  if i had to get a job right now, i'd like to coach a swim team, or be one of those people who help people get their houses ready to move (a 'stager')
13.  i like flowers--love flowers, actually
14.  i am always looking for new 'healthy' recipes that my kids will like
15.  when loren was in pakistan, the kids and i had cereal or toast for dinner at least 3 times a week
16.  i do not need variety in my food--i would eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if it was up to me
17.  speaking of foods, these are some of my favorites:  mashed potatoes, fruit, mexican food of all sorts (minus the meat, cheese, etc), lasagna
18.  i have a sweet tooth that i am constantly battling
19.  i suddenly started liking mushrooms about a year ago, and now i eat them raw all the time
20.  can you tell i'm hungry?
21.  i just got called to be the primary chorister--i am excited and nervous
22.  i would have liked pace to be twins (crazy, i know, but then i could really be 'done')
23.  i like camping
24.  i looooooooooooove weekends and holidays and days off work--i love it when my kids are home from school--that's why i homeschooled in the first place--i like being scheduled, but i like it to be my own schedule
25.  hmmmmmmmmm.  i wish my hair was curlier; i wish i could afford more pedicures and massages--i do not like manicures, though;  shopping cures lots of my problems; i love purses and shoes--i've had the same purse since november and i'm not looking for a new one, and that is a record for me
26.  sorry i cheated and crammed lots of things in at the last second!
27.  consider yourself tagged!  i'll be checking your blogs.....