LeRoy's Photo Shoot . . .

A few months ago an artist in our area, Gregg Thorkelson, asked LeRoy if he would come to his home for a couple of reasons. We did work for Gregg a couple of years ago so just thought it was for more work, which it was, but he also wanted to photograph LeRoy in a variety of poses for some artwork he was doing. The final paintings would be hung in a church (not LDS faith).

It was fun to get the CD of all the pictures and to see the steps taken to get the project finished. He begins by doing many shots of several people, placing the cutout figures in a rough sketch, doing a pencil sketch and then the finished painting.

It's not intended for the final painting to look like it has LeRoy in it - he was just used for figure placement and posing. LeRoy did think it was kind of funny that for each person he represents, Gregg covered in his bald spot.

You can also look at the pictures here to see them more clearly . . . Picasa Album

And also watch for Gregg Thorkelson work in the church magazines. He does quite a bit of artwork for the magazines and has done several book covers as well. And if you want beautiful portraits of you children to hang in your home he does a beautiful job of those. Not that we have put out the money for that but we have another friend who has and they are fantastic!

My Precious One

I needed something relaxing, calming, out of my ordinary day routine to do so I looked up the piano music for this song, printed it, practiced and learned it and it provided me with such a peaceful, memorable hour. (To listen to the song, start the playlist at the right of the blog.)

It was also the first time I have played the piano since we moved into our house . . 6 months ago. I didn't even know that I was missing it.

I first found this song around the same time that I started blogging. When I found it I remember leaning back in my office chair, rubbing my 7 month pregnant belly and letting the tears come. I was pregnant so of course I would get teared up but it really is a beautiful song. It is more than just the words or music that I enjoy, it is the reminder of the emotions and memories that I feel when I hear it that I love even more.

As I think back on this memory, the word "Cherish" comes to mind. It brings back a time of me feeling inadequate to bring another child to this world followed by an overwhelming outpouring of love, encouragement, appreciation and support from my Heavenly Father. I felt completely cherished by my Heavenly Father and in turn it renewed and strengthened in me the desire to really cherish each of my children.

And I must admit that I miss that feeling of being in complete harmony with "the plan" in bring another baby to his mortal body. I can't say that I miss being pregnant, just the feeling of being everything to someone, knowing that his very life was dependent on me and sacrificing my comfort, body, emotions, and time and even putting aside the opinions of society to give him a chance to prove himself in this life.

The Never Ending, Rotating Project . . .

Our whole family has contributed hours, labor, lifting, and ideas to this project. I am so grateful for the extra money that came in the way of a refund that could be put 100% into our storage. I also feel very blessed to have the enthusiasm and support of my husband and kids. It truly is a family project. We work on it together, we enjoy it together. This is one of my favorite things to work on!

The everyday foods. The easiest stuff to rotate :D

The 'cold storage' under our porch. Nathan felt he needed to be part of this picture.

LeRoy and Derek built these shelves. The top is our 72 hour emergency stuff: 7 backpacks ready to go, emerg. food bucket, first aid bucket and water.

Paper products, diapers & wipes, soaps, deoderants, lotions, vitamins/meds and all the kitchen stuff (foil, bags, dishsoap)

It isn't a year supply but it sure feels good to have this much together. It is so nice to have it all organized so that I know the areas we need to work on. Having a pantry upstairs also helps. Our current project is the deep freeze. I have a list of what I would like to add and we all watch out for sales. It is so funny to have one of the kids tell me that something is on sale. I don't think they have ever been aware of the price of food until we started this project together.

Woe is me, for I am undone (Isaiah)

Laundry - not done
Dishes - not done
Dusting - not done
Vacuuming - not done
Bathrooms clean - not done

Play with babies - done
Hugs - done
Story time - done
Listening - done
Me time - done
Honey Do's - done

Another day - DONE!

The Tale of Two Frogs

Kara told me of a book she was skimming through while standing in a line at Kinko's. The idea of the book was to eat your biggest frog in the morning with the "frog" being the task that looms over you, you put off and really just want to ignore. Then you can move on with the day without that 'frog' constantly in the back of your mind. It falls into the same theory as "how do you eat and elephant?". One day at a time.

So I have realized that I have 2 frogs.

My first frog is the one that is completely neccessary and must be done no matter what else is going on. My problem is that I tend to put it off until the last minute or end up staying up until all hours of the morning trying to digest the bugger. That would be my office - the paper/money side of our company. Unless I do my part it doesn't matter how many hours LeRoy works his tail off, it would fail. Of course he would hire another secretary before that would happen but the point is: I just need to do it, consistently. So during the last couple of weeks, having this frog theory in my head, I have done much better. I get the morning phone calls, faxes, banking and invoices done by (hopefully) 10am and then the rest of the day is for my kids, home, husband and me - which is another set of frogs altogether. The rest of the office stuff gets done between 9-11 pm. So really I go to work twice a day, with the phonecall part of it throughout, and it is really working better for me.

My other frog is the exercising that I really do want to do but struggle to find the best time to do. I now have that in good order as well. I actually enjoy 'eating this frog' for 2 reasons. 1) I do feel much better when I work out consistently and 2) I don't have it nagging me all day long when I just get it done first thing in the morning. My favorite time is 5:45 am. No one bothering me, no phone, and no one watching.

And now that my elliptical is finally here and put together I get to begin a new love/hate relationship with this frog. It was so great to work out to the point of a sweaty shirt, tight feelings in my chest from a great cardio workout and no foot pain from impact cardio. I love it already, but wow does it make me work!

So what frog do you need to eat first thing in the morning??

Sesame Street Remote Control

While Kara was at our house and while we were at Kara's house, Nathan packed around Max's toy remoted control. . . the whole time (sorry Max). He was quite addicted to the thing and all of it's funny sayings and sounds, especially Cookie Monster and Grouch. I intended to get one for him while we were in Utah (not sold at Walmart in Rexburg) but I talked myself out of it. Mostly it was just another stop in a rather quick trip.

Kara solved that for us. Nathan received a package in the mail yesterday, along with his free book that comes once a month from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. He wasn't sure what to open first so I suggested the book, partly because I didn't know what Kara had sent and I assumed it was something that we left at her house. We read his book while the box was sitting on his lap - oh the self control that boy has! As soon as we turned to the last page he said "All done, open present".

At first he was a little puzzled, squelching his initial excitement, and matter of factly questioned, "Max's remote??" When I told him that Kara had sent it just for him - to KEEP!, oh the excitement started to ooze.

I hope Christmas goes over this well.

THANKS KARA!!

He even slept with it last night, I know from the Sesame Street voices and sounds that randomly went off during the night, probably from him rolling over.

An Apple a Day . . .

I've found something that Hyrum can munch on and hold by himself.

The apples off of Mom's tree were just the right size for his chubby little paws.

Lip smackin' approval

Meet our Neigh-bors

Nathan, Hyrum and I walked to our back fence last night to visit the horses. This is a great group of calm, friendly animals ready to munch away at any apples or carrots we offer. Nathan was not at all afraid of them, which surprised me considering the size difference.

No fear! I was a whole lot more nervous than Nathan was.

He puts the apple on his hand, palm flat like the neighbor showed him, and then giggles as their puffy, whiskery lips pick up the apple.

We talked about the colt and how it stays very close to it's mommy - just like Nathan and Hyrum should.

Thanks, can we have more???

Sticky Fingers and Shadows

After gobbling down a peanut butter and honey sandwich Nathan picked up a penny - which became just as sticky as his fingers. That penny was the greatest sticker he has ever had! He stuck it on his nose, forehead, chin, and cheeks until it finally lost its sticky-ness.

Once he was done with his penny I managed to convince him that we needed to take off the Tigger costume to wash the honey off. He finally agreed and when I returned from loading up my overworked washing machine, I found Nathan making faces at his own shadow.

I wish I could capture on audio some of the funny things Nathan says, he just doesn't say them when I have the tape rolling. The other day Levi had an orchestra concert so was dressed up in his tux. When Levi walked up the stairs Nathan threw both hands up in the air - palms up, raised his eyebrows and declared in awe, "Wewi yooks yike Jared bu it’s not Jared, it's Wewi". The last time he saw Jared was at his priesthood ordination.

39 Hours

The boys and I left Friday morning to go pick up Erika. She has been at Kara's for the week (since she was out of school for spud harvest break). I missed her! It was fun to see on Kara's blog the pictures of Erika's week. It was all familiar to what she does here (read, make muffins, take care of Hyrum) only she was doing them at Kara's and with baby Max. I'm glad to have her home.

My first stop was at Rilda's for a massage. I was worried about the boys because Derek was going to be watching Justin, Nathan and Hyrum in the Yukon for about 1.5 hours while I had my massage and it was cold! We had everything set up for them to watch a movie on the laptop and I planned it so that Hyrum should sleep most of the time, and if he woke up he was ready to eat and Derek could give him the bottle. I worried for no reason. They had a blast. Nathan even said to me, while pushing me away, "No, go back in". ** And the massage was wonderful. Just what my sore, stressed out body needed.

We got to Utah around 4 and I realized that I didn't have Silvia's phone number any more and she had just moved so I didn't have an address for her. I went to her old apartment and talked to the landlord and we headed over to see the Murillo family. What a great family! On our way home from Utah we stopped there again since Erika was not with us the first time and we were able to spend some more chatter time with them.

Time at Kara's is always chill. We are probably a little overwhelming for the Hill family but we sure appreciate them taking us in for the night. The kids enjoyed watching movies, reading, teasing James and sleeping in.

Our chosen fun for this trip was to go to the new aquarium in Sandy. It wasn't quite what the website had led us to think but it was still fun. The kids enjoyed touching the sting ray, finding all the characters from Finding Nemo and wandering around in the fishy atmostphere. Nathan should have been down for a nap so was a bit of a pill but overall we had a good time.

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I think they were just as impressed with Kara's "huge" library as they were with the aquarium. We stopped at the library in Draper to check out a book on tape for the trip home. It was a life saver considering I have gone over 2 weeks with less than 5 hours sleep each night. We listened to Magyk from the Septimus Heap series. The kids wanted me to drive slower, wanting to get in all 12 hours of audio in the 5 hour trip home.

The weather did help us get through more of the book than we thought we would, though it really just made the trip seem stressful for me as the driver. We saw a truck roll over at the bottom of Malad pass, saw a couple of other slide-off's and had a rude awakening to the fact that winter really is on its way. I'm just not ready for that.

Once everyone was in bed and I was making the nightly lock-all-the-doors-and-start-the-dishwasher rounds I heard a strange sound that I hadn't heard at our house before. As I opened the laundry room window to get a closer listen I saw that we had 2 large owls sitting in our driveway 'talking' to each other. It was so cool! They are pretty loud and their eyes are buggy big!