Wednesday, December 31, 2008

So here is how the story goes, Christmas morning we get up, I snap two shots of the kids delightfully discovering Santa's surprises and my camera powers down. I had JUST put fresh batteries in the night before. It has been eating up the batteries like crazy and taking blurry pictures, so while I understand that the camera is almost 6 years old, my wallet isn't ready for a new camera, so...I'll have to think of something fast before hannah's birthday in two weeks!!!
I'll have to beg, borrow and steal some pics from everyone else's camera of our fun christmas morning and day with the family at Rendi's house.

Happy New Year 2009 to everyone!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

(My favorite is the snow themed one)
Christmas is almost here!
Rendi and I have been cranking out our "JOY" blocks, they are pretty easy and we think, a great christmas decoration to give away.

BRRRRRRRR!
We've had arctic temperatures and even a little snow, the kids are so excited to break out their winter gear and get outside, but it is COLD!! 14 degrees on some days and more to come.


I'll have to break out this picture when they get older and fight a lot! Aren't they too cute?

GETTING ALONG=1 HAPPY MOTHER
Hannah and Taylor have been so loving, playing all the time with each other. They are very imaginative with their games. Today Taylor was helping Hannah with her homework and being SO patient, as she is often a little DIFFICULT to work with! Right now they are playing Transformers, it is funny how much Hannah knows about them from her older brother.
After a couple hours though, they are usually ready to do their own thing but I just love hearing them talk and plan their next game. I hope this lasts for awhile.

Thursday, December 11, 2008



I forgot to put up a post of the Gingerbread house. Taylor is so funny, he asks me the other day what traditions we do and I mentioned making the gingerbread house that we were doing that night, and this year he didn't participate. It's really fun to have my own kids and incorporate traditions I have done from my childhood with new ones, like making the gingerbread house and we always let the kids pick out a new christmas ornament and write their name and year on it. When they grow up and move, they can have all those ornaments. We also make cookies every year and I do believe I love it more than they do!

I have worked about 60+ hours this week, a little crazy for me and I will never do it again!! I have hardly seen my kids, my Christmas to-do list is stacking up and my house...well we won't even go there. The GOOD news is I can smack down some money on that new computer I had to buy that I am really enjoying, plus extra money this time of year is handy. But still holding down four jobs at once isn't fun. The good thing is it adds variety! My current "four jobs"-ad set at Kohl's, temp job at collection agency, cook at an assisted living center, graphic design work.
Variety is the spice of life, and I have to keep learning, that is a good thing!

Sunday, November 30, 2008





We had a great weekend! We just got the christmas tree decorated and up. Thanksgiving Day we all pitched in and cooked-Hannah and Taylor helped make the pies. I added a photo to show off my pastry leaves.



The kids set the table and we enjoyed our feast and then watched movies for the rest of the night.

I had to work the day after thanksgiving, "Black Friday" for those in retail. It was okay but after nine hours on my feet I was ready to come home! Now we can gear up for Christmas!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

'Tis the time of year where coughing, sniffling, sneezing and hacking is about us, especially in this house. Taylor was down for 4-5 days with a fever and sore throat-poor kid sounded like he had been smoking for 20 years. Look at pretty picture below.



So Taylor graciously handed over his germs to Hannah who has all the symptoms, plus a barking cough and waking herself up in the night gagging. Took her to the doctor and the doctor said..yep it's croup and gave her some medicine to keep her airways open.
These are the times I am very GRATEFUL I don't have to work full-time and I can stay home and watch lots of cartoons with my sick little one and push those fluids. Thank goodness my kids sleep a lot when they are sick or I'd be crazy!!


Ahhh..Hannah at her finest-mad at me for taking a picture when she doesn't feel well.

Here's to a healthy rest of the month!!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

We are very blessed to have a WONDERFUL music department at Taylor and Hannah's school. They do music programs for each grade every year. So Friday, they had one in honor of Veteran's Day, and Mom and I went to it. The amount of planning and practice that went in to was obviously a lot! It was just the third graders and they did group songs, and then each class got to do a song where they played instruments. Taylor was on the sandpaper as you can see in my blurry pics (time for a new camera). We even got to hear from a WWII veteran who had some great stories to share. My camera was a little funky and the pictures turned out red, so I just made them black and white to save your eyes!



On November 8th, I was honored to have a baby shower for my dear friend Heather. She is expecting her second-a girl, so we got to pink and purple out. Because her last shower was traditional, I decided to go a little different. I served lunch of chicken alfredo pasta, salad and my Mom made her yummy french bread. We used real plates and cloth napkins and instead of a cake, I decorated cupcakes and rather than those *really fun* baby shower games that EVERYONE knows, I opted for some fun personality tests to see our traits, based on color/design and questionaires. I had a great time and hopefully everyone else did. I also made my first diaper cake (the ribbon is slipping in the picture).










Better late than never is my theme of the day. First off really late pics of my cuties on Halloween and cousins. The cute little mouse is Kayla-my cousin! Hannah is of course, a dog and Taylor is a desert commando!



Friday, November 14, 2008


So what do you do when you want a part-time job at night so you can be at home with the kids during the day and pursue your other job (mine is the graphic design) and love shopping and clothes?? The answer is get a job at Kohl's. I am now an "ad-set" associate for that fabulous department store and I've already used my employee discount!! I work from 8pm-12-2am (depending on the sales) putting up all those signs that tell you how much the price is. It's pretty easy and I am a night owl so it works out. I don't think I'll retire there or anything, but for right now getting a regular weekly paycheck is very important for food and gas (especially when you have two children that eat non-stop, and stay so skinny).

I am also listed with a temp agency I get calls from occasionally to do admin-type work. Between my three jobs, we should be able to zap out some debt, or at least fund some new shoes I would like :-)

Monday, November 3, 2008

Keep track of the votes!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Saturday Night Live is really rocking this political season. Amy keeps a pretty good beat!

Saturday, October 25, 2008


I got invited by Rendi to her church's "Super Saturday" where a bunch of women get together to eat, chat and craft. There were three Christmas projects to do and they were all so cute. Here is a picture of one of the projects, when I finish the other two I'll add them. It's just wooden blocks decoupaged with painted letters on them-easy and so cute!

Our creative-ness was flowing so later that afternoon we tried to go find other supplies to continue making more projects, and left Mike with all four kids. My husband is awesome. He went and got more pumpkins with the kids and let them pick out their patterns and started the process of pumpkin carving while we (Rendi and I) were out playing. They got distracted and played with neighbor kids so ours have yet to be carved, but I think he is pretty great for undertaking all that!Oh those silly boys!

Needless to say, we couldn't find the letters but we got paint and lots of determination!

And on a random note, here is a funny picture.
Here is how I found our cat: curled up in Hannah's stuffed kitty bed she got at Build-A-Bear workshop. He knows the best places to sleep and really LOVES her room.

He doesn't mind the pink satin or faux fur!









We went to the pumpkin patch last night, an activity I really love as well as the kids. We had already done the corn maze (cut out to the shape of McCain and Obama's faces-haha), so we needed pumpkins to carve. The kids got to enjoy hot doughnuts, an inflatable play area, hay ride and petting the animals-Hannah especially loves that, she has no fear around any animal.

We also wrapped up Taylor's soccer season on Thursday night. He has made a lot of progress this year, he is so tall and gangly that any sport is really great for the coordination building. Nice posing huh?

Thursday, October 23, 2008

I haven't posted on here for almost three weeks! Life goes by quickly.

Here is a quick rundown of what I've been doing:
1. Taking kids to soccer, watching games and doing soccer 4 days a week. Doesn't Taylor look SO excited. That's my child full of positivity!

2. Planning a friends baby shower that is in three weeks. I made some cute invitations, am making a diaper cake this weekend and planning the menu.

3. Looking for a part-time job so I can have a regular pay check (extremely helpful when my clients don't pay). I think I landed one at Kohl's yesterday after a couple interviews and handing in lots of resumes at other places. Thanks to Jenny for putting in a good word for me!

4. WORKING-yeah!! I have done a postcard for a local dental office, a logo, the Idaho Botanical Garden's winter Garden aglow poster and postcard, and a display for the Peregrine Fund.

5. Hanging with the kids-they have had 5 days off this month for school.

6. Getting to go out for my anniversary. Mike and I celebrated 9 years on October 9th!! We went to the Cottonwood Grille and had a fabulous time. I haven't laughed with him that much for a long time. Hannah took our photo.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

DO NOT LEAVE A CUP OF COFFEE BY YOUR LAPTOP that you just got back from the Mac store (where they brought it back to life after having it for three weeks).

Yes, you heard it right. Only two weeks after getting my computer back from Apple, where they graciously gave me a new logic board and re-did the hard drive at THEIR expense (and after the warranty was expired), I spilled coffee right into the worst place to spill coffee on a Mac laptop. Warm, vanilla creamer flavored coffee.

And why did I have that coffee right by my computer, you ask? Well, I certainly do not know why, since in the three years and two months I have owned my laptop I HAVE NEVER HAD ANY LIQUID BY IT.

So the story goes like this: I was enjoying some early morning browsing with my nice warm coffee, realized I had it by the computer, picked it up to move it and it slipped, I spilled, screamed, mopped up the coffee with my shirt, mopped it off the keyboard, powered the computer down and waited, turned it on and nothing-no power, then I cried and within hours had it back to the service department of the Mac store. Bad news they say, THE LOGIC BOARD IS TOAST, GONE, DIED, LEFT TO HEAVEN, BROKEN, NO LIFE, FINISHED. And no logic board means no computer for me.

So then I really freak out-I had work due that day that afternoon, so I have to contact clients and tell them I can't get the work done and then I start worrying and feel really stupid.

Then I cry some more and after much fretting (I have projects due to clients on Monday) I bought myself a 20 inch imac today.



It's beautiful, it is twice the speed of the laptop, it has Leopard and Ilife and it was a lot of money. That I didn't have. That I wasn't planning on spending. That I will now have to work extra time for to earn. That I will have to hear about from my husband for a very long time.

If anybody knows of anybody needing graphic design services, you can find me here. Anytime. Day or night.


Monday, September 22, 2008


FEELING LONELY
I think nobody reads my blog..sniff sniff
I don't know many other people with a blog-a couple of my close friends use myspace (yuck!)...so please if you so feel inclined and anybody other than my sweet sister Rendi comes here- PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT! You family members that are on here, sign on and say something, it makes it much more interesting (Mike that includes you!)!!


I'm going to have to go get some virtual friends on blogspot so I can not feel so riduculous reading other people's blogs...does ANYONE else do that? Let's get honest, now! I must say I find it really fun just clicking on people I don't know and reading their blog...am I just weird?
Leave a comment about your opinion on this.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

First I just want to say I am SO happy it is fall, my very favorite season of all. Crisp apples, the coldness of the air, the brilliant chaning leaves, soccer season and pumpkin patches just make this time of year wonderful.


What is NOT making this time of year wonderful is the fact that I have NO computer. A week ago, actually over a week ago, I went to restart my Mac laptop and nothing, nada. So after calling tech support (I HIGHLY recommend getting apple care with any apple computer), I had to take it to my local and only mac store, MacLife. After 4 days they finally diagnosed it as having "multiple issues" meaning it needs a new logic board and memory updates, and had to be sent to Apple headquarters.
So here I am pining away for my computer, not just because I enjoy the little familiar place I've created there with my iTunes and my favorite websites, and all my pictures on hand, but I HAVE WORK TO DO! This computer is where all my files are, how I work on projects. And for me work=sending out invoice, and sending out invoices=money and money=groceries, gas, etc!

I had to call clients and tell them I couldn't do their projects because I had no computer and the ones with upcoming deadlines had to go elsewhere, it's killing me!

So here I am using my kids PC, what has life come to? I've had to load acrobat and flash, and put all new favorites in. Then Friday Mike's computer crashed, so just like old times, we are all back to using one computer. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned in this....go find something else to do besides be on the computer!!!

But for now I just have to think about all the projects I could be working on...sigh.
Good news is all my data was recovered. WHEW! It could be much worse!
So until my Mac comes back, I'll be stuck on this PC..big sigh. At least I can check e-mail. And the repair is all covered by APPLE....so what am I complaining about really?

Wednesday, August 27, 2008



We have had a nice summer, but now back to school!! YEAH!!
Taylor is starting third grade and has Mr. Levy for his teacher. Because of overcrowding, instead of going to Hubbard Elementary that is K-3, he goes right next door about 200 ft. away at Teed Elementary that is normally 4-5 grades, but this year gets 2 third grade classes. It will be a nice change for him to have a male teacher and he was really excited to start (although the photos don't really capture that happiness).


Hannah started kindergarten and has Mrs. Saunders for her teacher. She was pretty excited to get to go to school like big brother-a little nervous in the beginning- and even more excited to ride the bus home. We are officially in a "walk zone", but morning kindergarteners get bussed home. So I now get from 8:00-11:30 a little time to get some work done, do errands, etc.


(This dragonfly was awesome, it was orange and its wing tips blended into a beautiful blue.)

We enjoyed our second annual trip to Idaho Botanical Garden on Saturday to enjoy all kinds of "bug fun". They are great clients of mine and I do the postcard and map that go with Bug Day.

Taylor has NO fear about touching all kinds of bigs, no matter how big they are.


Hannah got to go this year and while she wasn't too interested in the bug-a-mania, she did like all the crafts. She got to make a really cute butterfly out of coffee filters that she watercolored and then put in a wooden clothes pin. Then she did a pasta project that showed the life cycle of a butterfly.


They both really liked the "bug juice" they offered (really sweet blue punch).



We didn't get to stay very long but we had a great time and the gardens were beautiful.