Catching Up

Ok, here goes a quick recap of the last two months:

1.  We spent a week in beautiful Oahu with Jeremiah's parents, brother and aunt at the Marriott Ko Olina Resort.  I had never been to Hawaii and we had a great time.  The weather was a bit cloudy but nice and warm the whole week.  We did a lot of snorkeling and sight-seeing, including the North Shore, Kualoa Ranch, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Iolani Palace and Pearl Harbor.  It was a great trip.  I managed to finish a DVD to give to everyone for Christmas but I'm still working on the book.

2.  We spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Pasco.  It was really nice to be there even though the large family gathering we were expecting turned out to be much smaller than we thought.  We spent a lot of time with my adorable nephew Phoenix and Jeremiah got in some quality XBox time with my brother and cousin.

3.  December sped by quickly--Jeremiah has been extremely busy with finishing the merger of Vision and Asset Real Estate into an awesome new company so I had a lot of extra time on my hands since he wouldn't get home until 7-8, if I was lucky.  Thankfully I picked up my early Christmas present at the end of November and it kept me quite occupied--a brand new Husqvarna Viking sewing machine.  It's not one of the super fancy ones they sell but it is digital and I love it!!  It sews without snarling or me having to rethread it every two seconds.  I finished several baby blankets (from kits I got from my mother-in-law's friend), finally got around to making our Christmas stockings, made an apron for my mom for Christmas and made four super adorable owl bags that I found on Pinterest.  If you like the bags, you can buy the pattern from the author at:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/62512477/owl-pillow-pdf-sewing-pattern-the-lola  It's pretty easy, I can make one in about three hours now, with most of the work being cutting out the pieces and doing the face.

4.  To get ourselves into a holiday mood, we went to the Hale Center Theater production of "A Christmas Carol", read the book on the ride to California for the holidays and finished it off with the Muppets version.  I liked the first two best, especially the first, which was excellent. :).

5.  We spent a week in balmy San Diego for Christmas (I know, real hardship there).  We drove Jeremiah's grandpa's car down so his dad could buy it and we drove back up in...my new car!!  Well, not exactly new, Jeremiah's dad's old car, but it's new to me and it's a car!!  I am no longer stuck in the house at the mercy of Jeremiah's schedule.  I've been excitedly outfitting it in steering wheel covers (leopard print--an impulse buy I kind of regret but will live with for a few months before changing), air fresheners (vanilla for winter, then something more citrusy towards spring, I think) and a coordinated car set including:  visor CD-holder, laminated trash bag and car organizer (it's my new sewing project.  I'm going to try and post pictures as I finish each piece).

6.  Like I said, we spent a week in San Diego with all of Jeremiah's family.  The weather was AMAZING!!  We really enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, enjoying family togetherness.  It was a little strange to be wishing I had brought my capris but Lynn decorated it so nicely inside, there was still a feeling of the holiday.

7.  Now we are home for a good long while.  I have great aspirations for the New Year, including:
 *  Becoming more consistent when it comes to reading scriptures, visiting teaching and working   out.
 *  Systematically decluttering every room
 *  Finishing some family history projects I've been working on for 18 months
 *  Improving my sewing skills
 *  Finally expanding our family with a human member rather than feline.  We will be starting the   IVF process in February.  I'm nervous but optimistic.

Hopefully this post will be followed quickly by others, as I also strive to be more consistent in all areas of my life.

Action Love

It has been a very full two weeks but I will get to that later.  First, I want to rave a little about the actions from Florabella.  I love them.  I want more of them.  I love the dreamy quality they give portraits and even landscapes.  They are on sale right now for Christmas...I am so tempted!  What should I do?  If you're curious, go to www.florabella.com and check them out too!

Do You Know Me?

While I'm waiting for things to scan, I may as well do another post.  Is it weird to have two separate posts on the same day?  I don't know, don't care.  :)

I've been slowly slogging through photos from Jeremiah's grandparents, scanning them in and attempting to find out as much information as I can in order to put together a family keepsake album.  Recently I was delivered another box of photos of people that are completely unknown to those who have seen them so far.

They are really really cool vintage photos; I'm using them for the textures and frames of the old folders they're in, for my digital scrapping kits.  I'm guessing they were taken between 1880s-1920s mostly in the Logan/Ogden region (although I've come across a couple from LA and San Franciscio).  I'm thinking about starting a blog/site where I can post these pictures and hopefully get enough people to look at it that we can maybe identify some of these people (I'm happy to send full res copies to people who think they may have located photos of relatives).  Here are a couple to start out with while I figure out how to format and host a dedicated site.

Blogging is not my forte

Wow, consistency is just not something I'm good at apparently.

I really would like to be better, so here's a post to help get me on my way.

Summer went by very quickly.  In July we headed up to McCall, Idaho for my family reunion, then I went to Pasco to ostensibly spend five days with my parents while Jeremiah went home to work.  Thanks to a hailstorm in Denver that took out 18 aircraft and cancelled hundreds of flights (mine included), I didn't make it home for a week and a half.  It was nice to be with my parents and get to spend time with my adorable nephew Phoenix, though.

At the beginning of August we went to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for a week with Jeremiah's parents.  It was so humid!!!  But I really liked swimming in the ocean (not something I've ever done before and yes, I was a little nervous about sharks since I've heard so much about bull shark attacks on the Atlantic) and biking throughout the island.

I've been taking a digital design class through jessicasprague.com and I'm really excited about it.  I think I may actually be able to contend as a digital scrapbooking designer.  In the next few weeks I hope to start applying to online shops.

I am still doing online therapy for TinyEYE Therapy Services.  My Alberta schools did not renew (it wasn't me, I promise) so I'm working with schools in Saskatchewan, including one of the ones where I tested.  I am working approximately 13 hours a week, or will be when all of the schools are ready to start therapy.  So far it's going well, although most of me would rather dedicate my time to designing.

That's our summer in a nutshell.  I've purchased some website/blog themes that I'm going to try and use for a more professional looking site as I try to move into designing and maybe try to resurrect Blink Memories so this blog may be moving.  We shall see...

Saskatchewan

From May 9-19, I was in the Far North (as they call it there) of Saskatchewan, assessing children for qualification for speech/language services as part of my job as a TinyEYE therapist.  I went to four different First Nations communities, drove over 1200 miles (more than half of it on horrific dirt roads) and tested close to 90 students.  It was a very eye-opening experience; the people there live in fairly poor conditions and have major issues with drugs and alcohol but the children are just children.  They love to play (especially basketball and street hockey), ride bikes and be with their friends.  I took some lovely photos of the lakes (there are over 10,000 lakes in Saskatchewan, in case you were wondering) and enjoyed the peace and quiet.  I was grateful for Internet and cell phone access when I was able to get it (which was about half of the time) so I could stay in touch with Jeremiah.

I had a very enlightening time but I was super happy to get home to my husband, cat and house.  There really is no place like home.

Red Earth, my first area.

One of the (many) dirt roads I drove on.

Pelican Narrows, my second area.

Deschambault Lake Resort, my third area.  I was

here for two nights.

Flin Flon, the "city" I stayed

in over the weekend.  It is

actually in Manitoba.

Sandy Bay, my fourth area.  I stayed at Slim's Cabins

for three nights.  It was really pretty.

Updates

I know it's been a couple months and quite a bit has happened.  Here'a a quick rundown of the highlights:

--I spent two weeks in Canada assessing children on First Nations Reservations.
--I started summer vacation!!!
--Jeremiah has been extremely busy with Vision (a good thing).
--I had a birthday (an eh thing that Jeremiah made special for me).
--Jeremiah sponsored a hole at the UCAR Golf Tournament, complete with massage.
--We got another cat who likes to live in a box.
--I became a Jessica Sprague Certified Digital Designer.
--We celebrated our fourth anniversary.

I'll expand on each of those a little more in additional posts.

Disney!!!

We decided to do something completely spontaneous last week and wound up in Disneyland for 3 days with our good friends, the Hortin's.  We had a fantastic time, the weather was gorgeous (sure beat the snow that was coming down when we left) and Disney without children is fantastic! (See, there are some perks to being barren.  Disney and going to WalMart without screaming toddlers are two of the biggest :)

Here are some photos from our trip:

Pretty birdie

On the sailing ship Columbia in Disney Bay

California Adventure bumper cars

My favorite picture of us

From the Buzz Lightyear ride--it's a 

video game!

Trying on a pirate hat (and face).

Climbing the giant LEGO outside

the LEGO store.

Loved the dust motes on Tom Sawyer's Island

Had to post at least one pic of him

on his phone.

All of us in line for Soarin'

The picture of the picture they

took at Space Mountain.  I don't

remember it whipping around

so much when I was younger.

Trying to pull the sword from the stone.

Driving us to hell in Mr. Toad's ride--that's really where you

go in the ride, kind of creepy (and then there's the

random child whose mother didn't notice we were

already occupying the photo op and sent him in to get his

picture taken).

Pirate's booty on Tom Sawyer's Island

With LEGO Vader at the store.

Final group pic in front of Mickey's Wonder Wheel.

Maybe next time we should ride that...

Spring Has Brought Me Such a Nice Surprise!

No, the surprise is not my spring cold (although I was not expecting it, having been so unusually healthy for the last 10 months).

We had quite a lovely day today and when I ventured out into my garden to pull the invading grass from my planter beds, I found this!

I have always loved crocuses so last winter I planted a bunch of bulbs.  None of them came up last year but today I found this little beauty!  Of course, it would be growing right next to the lilac bush I'm planning on moving this weekend and probably won't survive past Saturday but at least I got a glimpse of spring--before the next snowstorm hits us.

Layout #9

I'm not sure if I've posted all of my layouts for my class on the blog but this is the 9th in the series of 12 for the class.  Again, I've used photos from my trip to the Czech Republic in 2007.

I am seriously considering taking the design class next week.  It is $325 but lasts 5 weeks and teaches you the ins and outs of designing and marketing your own digital kits.

Why polygamy doesn't work.

I have always told Jeremiah that the reason I could never be a polygamist wife is because women (myself included) are not good at sharing their men.  I was backed up by proof that this is actually an inborn, innate setting in women's brains last weekend at stake conference.

We decided we wanted soft seats and since the chapel was already filled, we went into to the Relief Society room to watch the talks in there.  Apparently this was a popular place for people with children in the 18-24 month range and we ended up sitting behind several families of small kiddos.  Sitting next to Jeremiah was an adorable little boy named Matthias who, after carefully watching the other children swarm a mother with treats, decided to join the fray.  Upon making his presence known to the group, he was immediately set upon by a precocious little brunette named Lucy.  She decided they should hold hands and swing their arms while she whispered/babbled sweet nothings to him.  Matthias did not object.

In comes Girl #2 (I never learned her name).  After watching how much fun Lucy and Matthias were having, she decided she wanted to join in.  Now, take note, she had no desire to steal Matthias away from Lucy.  No, she merely wanted to share him.  Lucy would have none of this.  After successfully disengaging Girl #2's hand from Matthias' (who had no objection to sharing himself between two lovely ladies, also apparently an inborn trait), Lucy carefully but forcefully steered her back to her mother, even placing her hand inside her mom's so she could play the swinging-arm game there.  She then backed Matthias down the aisle in order to be out of range of any other women who might hold similar ideas.

Like I've always said.  Girls. Don't. Share.

And another layout

When I finally dragged myself out of bed this morning (Dobby wanted to snuggle and I was in no hurry to move him), I realized *horrors* that I am two classes behind on my scrapbooking class.  So, after doing some work-related email, making myself presentable for the day, plotting out my dream mini-orchard and research dwarf fruit trees on the internet, I settled down and created this lovely shabby-chic layout for the new album I'm doing of my trip to the Czech Republic in 2007.  Here it is:

Little Jaunt

We had a fun little over-nighter to Ogden recently and quite enjoyed ourselves.

Thursday afternoon we drove up to Ogden and stayed with Jeremiah's aunt Susan, uncle Doug and grandpa Doug.  They were kind enough to take us to their favorite restaurant, Javier's, for some yummy Mexican food and put us up for the night, even though they were getting ready to leave on a cruise the next day.

On Friday morning, I got up early and drove to the last day of the USHA Conference (Utah Speech-Language and Hearing Association.  I'm on the executive board--I do the newsletter and take pictures of events).  I got to introduce one of my former (and favorite) teachers/clinical supervisors from graduate school, Nancy Alarcon, and listen on her great classes for the entire day before heading back to Susan and Doug's to help them get ready for their cruise (Jeremiah and I showed them how to prep their Flip and iPad for the trip).  Then they were sweet enough to take us to Winger's for dinner before we left (it was my first experience there--pretty yummy but I wish I wasn't so stuffed from the conference food--we had bagels and fruit for breakfast, donuts for a mid-morning snack, roast with veggies for lunch and chips with salsa and guacamole for an afternoon snack).  We got home at 10 to our cooped-up crazy cat and enjoyed settling into our wonderfully soft bed for the night.  It was a nice 24-hours.

Exciting News!

Well, sort of.  I realized I forgot to post that my license FINALLY came through and I began working for TinyEYE Therapy Services yesterday morning.  I spent the entire day working with a group of school children on the Louis Bull reservation in central Alberta.  It was a tough day due to super slow internet speeds that kept freezing video and audio but we managed to get through everyone and it was really fun.  I worked this morning at another school in Alberta (that thankfully had much faster internet so I only had to deal with a little audio lag, which was still a bit annoying because I ended up talking over the kids and aide a lot) but my afternoon school was cancelled due to a weather-related school closure (I guess that's what you get for living in Alberta).  I'll be working fairly close to full time for the next few weeks as I make up sessions we lost with the kids while waiting for my license to come through, then it'll pare back to 15-20 hours a week until mid-to-late June.  It's good to be working again but I do miss not having to use an alarm.  :)

More My Style

This week's class is more my style, shabby chic.  I decided to scrap our Valentine's photos (at least some of them, I will turn this layout into a double in the next few days).  We had a fun Valentine's.  We decided to keep it cheap so we went to the dollar theater to watch "Megamind" (but since it was in 3D there was an extra charge, plus I got our tickets online and the tickets aren't really a dollar any more for a normal movie so in the end it actually cost us $3.50 each but hey, that's still not bad), then we went to one of my most favorite restaurants ever--Zupa's!  It is a wonderful soup-salad-panini place that if you are blessed to live in Utah, you may have been to.  I got soup (lobster bisque, a good choice but next time I will follow my heart and get what I always get--wild mushroom bisque.  Heaven!!  When I'm feeling up to par, I like to do the combo with a chipotle chicken salad) and Jeremiah had a panini and berry salad.  They always give you chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert so it was pretty much perfect!