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...