I had my first ultrasound this morning. I found out I'm 17 weeks along, and due around April 10th. And we are having a girl! I am carrying really low, her head is pretty low, and she was curled up a little in the ultrasound, as if to say, "leave me alone, I want to sleep!". I really love ultrasounds. One of the shots we got was of her hand up, and it's really clear, you can see the joints of the fingers. Another shot has her sucking her thumb :). I was a little surprised at how excited I was to find out she was a girl, I was in the grocery store and I wanted to stop random people and tell them i was having a girl. I refrained though. :).

Yum.

I started getting vegetables and fruit through Bountiful Baskets, an online business that brings in veggies and fruit at a discount. I have loved it so far, and I think it's a great program. You don't choose what you get, which I actually, so far, like, because you end up trying things you wouldn't normally try, or haven't had a chance to try. This week I got sweet potatoes in my order, and i do not like sweet potatoes very much. I foudn a recipe though, for sweet potato fries, and made them, and they are AWESOME! Seriously, I highly reccomend them.

Pre-heat the oven to 450. Cut the sweet potatoes into thin strips. Put the strips in a plastic bag and add some olive oil, just enough to coat the strips, add salt (I used Kosher Salt, the recipe calls for sea salt) and pepper and squish around in the bag to coat evenly. Dump on a pan, make sure none of them are touching, and bake for 15 min. I didn't trust the temp in the recipe so I put it in at 400 degrees, and just watched them closely, turning to brown. I wasn't watching closely, and accidentally burned them a little, and they got pretty dark, but they still tasted REALLY good.
www.instructables.com/id/Perfect-Oven-Sweet-Potato-Fries/

Bday parties, work, baby, and new calling

We decided that it would be fun to have a small birthday party for Ethan at Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's, since his birthday this week coincides with beet harvest (I think it's beets...). Ethan had a fun time opening gifts, and loved all of them. I still plan on having another birthday party for him and inviting some little boys over. I haven't quite figured out what i'm going to do and when, because I am now working part time, but I think it would still be fun to do.
this is Ethan battling Brandon with the light sabers (sp ?) Ryan got him and Brandon is using Boise Bronco noise makers he got for ethan. Ethan loved all the presents. I'm not sure the light sabers were a great idea for him, it will be quite interesting trying to keep him from breaking something with them.... :)

Another reason for going up to Grandma and Grandpa's was to announce that we are expecting a baby in April. We won't have a due date for a while, without random guessing, so we will wait until the ultrasounds to announce that. I heard the heart beat on Friday, and it's amazing how something so simple as the sound of the heart can make you feel such peace.

As I said, I am now working part time, in order to pay for insurance and help out with finances for the time being. I enjoy my job so far, I work as an in-home caregiver to a boy with a form of Muscular Dystrophy (sp?), and I'm finding that it can be a very rewarding field of work. The other caregivers that I work with seem to be very caring, compassionate people, and I think this will be one of those jobs with little co-worker drama. I do not like co-worker induced drama, so I hope it continues to be a good work place.

This next sunday I will also start being in the YW presidency as the 2nd counselor. It will be announced next sunday, but no one from my ward reads my blog, and no one that reads my blog knows anyone from my ward, so I think it will be okay if I put it on here. I was very overwelmed when they gave me the calling, but even though it's definately not a calling I would aspire to, I do believe it is right. Especially when the brother who extended the calling quoted almost verbatim a paragraph from my patriarchal blessing, I knew that it was something I needed to do.

So, that has been my crazy life lately.

New Blog Title.

I know I'm so random, but the "secret" was I changed my blog title....:) I think I'm funny.

Oh, and by the way.......

just wondering how observant all of you are....:)

Judging

I'm sorry my posts have been pretty boring and few and far between lately. One of the reasons is my camera is broken, and so I can't take any fun pictures, and the other is i don't have much to blog about lately.

Ryan had this picture on his computer, and I thought it was funny. It kind of ties into the following about being judgemental, in that we can sometimes get a little full of ourselves....:) it says :I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

Right now I just felt like blogging about some thoughts that have been going through my head. I went to the RS Broadcast on saturday, and President Monsons talk has stuck in my head. How sad is it that we are all so judgemental? I know I struggle with this, and it hits so subtely that often you don't even realize you are passing judgement. My mom on sunday had a man at church come up and start getting upset at her because he saw her driving across the bridge in town talking on her cell phone, and he felt she deserved a ticket. Funny thing is, my mom doesn't own a cell phone, so it wasn't her, but he was insistent that it looked JUST like her and the same car and everything. She could then turn around and judge him for judging her. I wish I personally wasn't so quick to judge others. I find that I subconsiously categorize people: She looks mean, or she looks kind, she looks smart, they don't look very intelligent. Often we really don't mean to be rude and judge, but it's so subtle and it comes so naturally that we don't even realize we are doing it. One of my husbands greatest qualities is that he is almost completely non-judgemental. I really admire him for that. He sees people purely as people and doesn't think, oh I wouldn't want to be friends with them or they wouldn't want to be friends with me, he doesn't notice what people are wearing, or how they do their hair. He is friends with anyone who is kind to him. if someone is nice to him, he is nice back, but if they ignore him he shrugs it off and moves on. I'm working at being more like that, and not being offended and not judging or catergorizing others.

Really good recipe

My roommate Krsitina and I made this recipe multiple times back in college, and it is very delicious. I made this today and was reminded how much I loved it and decided to share it. I didn't have a photo of it so I found a picture of tomato soup off the internet. I don't think I would suggest putting cilantro with this recipe though (like in the googled photo).

Western Tomato Soup

3 strips of bacon cooked and crumbled (or more depending on your taste preferences)

1/2 cup finely diced celery.

3 tbsp finely diced onion

1/4 cup finely diced green pepper

3tbsp flour

2 cups milk

1 can tomato soup

16 oz can stewed or diced (whichever you prefer) tomatoes

1 1/2 cup tomato juice

saute onion, celery, and green pepper in bacon fat until limp not brown. drain most of fat, and add flour. Stir and cook for a minute or two. Add canned tomatoes and saute for a couple of seconds, and then add the milk and stir to dessolve the flour and deglaze pan. remove from heat. In a sauce pan combine the milk mixture and the soup. heat and stir until smooth, and then add the tomato juice. Stir until slightly thickened, and garnish with the bacon.

Blue Kitchen

I just happened across the most awesome food blog ever, Blue Kitchen http://www.blue-kitchen.com/ The author, terry (and sometimes his wife Marion) posts extremely delicious sounding recipes that look and sound straight out of a gourmet resturant, with simple (seriously!!) instructions. I happened across the blog, and saw the featured recipe being tea smoked chicken, and I was curious. Terry explained a simple way to smoke the chiken in your grill, and the picture looks so delicious. Some of the ingredients in the authors recipes look like they would be difficult to find in Idaho, but if you were wanting to make a special meal and wanted to do something new and have it taste amazing, this food blog looks like it would have exactly what you are looking for.

My mom made a quick unplanned trip to Orem UT this weekend to move my brother Charlie up there to live. She stayed the night last night at my home, on her way back to washington, and spent the morning with me. I am envious of all the people I know whom have family nearby. I haven't seen my mom in a little over a year, so It was nice to have her spend what little time she could before she had to take off for the 10 hr drive home. It was a nice morning, and we didn't do much (there isn't much to do in the area where I live, and I hadn't had time to plan anything) but it was still nice to just hang out.

Book Question: I would love feedback on this one.

Today two college students from Estonia came by selling educational books for children. Normally I find these kinds of things to be annoying, as most of the claims are silly and i hate having people try to sell me things. You know how it is, they try to tell you how their books are different than most and will make your child a genius, but in realty the books are not any different than normal books you could find cheaper elsewhere. However, this time I actually think these books are worth it. Here is a link to their website: http://www.southwesternathome.com/ Here is the series I want: http://www.southwesternathome.com/Southwestern-Company-Products.aspx?p=131 Ryan wasn't convinced, so I'm going to try to save the money myself and hopefully find a way to buy them at another time. The books I decided I wanted to buy were the Ask Me series which are hard bound scientific/educational type books with beautiful illustrations and pictures and they are very interesting- I would love reading them myself. So, has anyone seen this type of book (the kind that your children would actually like to read) in a series for cheaper than $166 for 14 books? I figure buying the books one at a time from a book store you end up spending $11-$15 a piece for a nice book. It's exactly what i've been wanting to get, so I would love if anyone knows of a similar series for cheaper.

School

Ethan is going to a speech therapist at the hospital, and it is going nicely. I wish the sessions were longer than a half hour once a week, but it's better than nothing. The tharapist pointed out a real problem that is probably the main reason for Ethans speech delay, his tongue muscles are not developed, so he has trouble using his tongue. He could only stick it out as long as it was resting on his bottom lip, he couldn't lift it up or move it around freely. It's nice to finally have an idea of what he was struggling with, so we are doing different things to help him practice moving his tongue around and its working. He can say more words now than I can list, and he's saying full sentences occasionally now. I am in the process of registering him for school, and I'm very happy that their program sounds better than the last school we were at. This school has certified speech therapists who come once a week, and then they have techs who work more often with the children, and the techs are supervised by the certified speech therapists, plus the techs have to go to training twice a month. Last year, the week before school ended, the girl who was Ethan's speech therapist mentioned that she was not certified, she just had experience. I was upset that for a whole year he had only worked with her for speech therapy, which explained why he had barely progressed in speech. She was nice, but Ethan needed real speech therapists to help him. I'm very ready for him to be in school again, it's hard to keep him occupied by myself all day, plus I will be able to do things while he is away at school that are hard to do when he is with me, such as paint or maybe find a part time job to help out with finances. We will see.

8 year old artist

I saw this article http://www.today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38553499/?GT1=43001 on MSN today, and was amazed by this boys talent. His name is Kieron Williamson, he is 8 years old, and shows incredible talent when it comes to painting. I love his colors and balance in his paintings, and I wish I could sell my art for as much as he is selling his :).

Part 2: about me

1. I grew up in Washington and I really miss it. It is a beautiful state to live in. If I get the chance there are multiple places I would want to live, or at least travel to. Once I took the amtrack train over Stevens Pass, and it was breath taking, and you go through Leavenworth which is a little Bavarian style tourist towns that looks straight out of the Alps. I would love to live in the Seattle area, there are so many cool places to go and see such as museums, AMAZING resturants, and for nature you have the cascades, ocean, rainforest, lakes, rivers, etc. It is SO beautiful there.

2. I love making home made pies. A home made pie is a beautiful thing. Now I'm hungry....

3. I love making stuff. I was always trying to make stuff as a kid. 2 things I would love to learn how to do is re-upholstering furniture and carpentry/woodworking

4. I would love to write a book someday.

5. My favorite memory with Ryan was when we went on a canoe trip the summer of 04 (we were married in 05) with a group from BYU-I. It was a fun trip and I want to do something like that again only just have it be Ryan and I.

6. I broke my arm 4 times by the age of 18, 1- falling out of the cherry tree 2-lost my balance and fell, on carpet, in my room. 3- repeated #2 exactly a year later 3-rollerblading

7. My favorite memory of my family life as a child was going camping. Dad would come home and say "we are going camping" and we would pack everything up and drive several hours north to the mountains. It was always stressfull packing to go and coming back, but the in-between part was wonderful. We roughed it in sleeping bags and tents, and for meals it was the basic camping style food of hot dogs with smores for desert. We would pick blue berries in the morning to put in the pancakes. I hated breakfast, cause Dad always burnt the pancakes and left the insides gooey. Nasty, I still wiggle thinking about it. I loved camping, the 7 of us kids would go through the forests following Dad and find the creek to go fishing in. I have a lot of good memories of camping, and some pretty wild memories like the time when sarah stepped on a hornets nest, and we had to drag her and levi out of there because they were getting stung so much that they panicked and wouldn't move. Sarah sat down in the middle of it, and I remember Heather grabbed one of their hands and just took off running, over logs and bushes. Sarah went into shock and was given a blessing by Dad and a nearby camper who turned out to be a Bishop or something, and she turned out better off than Levi whose face turned out more swollen than Sarah's. fun stuff.

Versatile Blogger: Part 1 Artists

One of Ryans cousins, Carrie at http://madebybedtimetales.blogspot.com/, was sweet and awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award. I would like to pass the award onto some of my favorite sites. I'm changing the rules of the award a little bit, and I'm just going to put some of my favorite artistic bloggers on here- some of them are pretty up there in the art world so I'm not expecting them to respond, but thats completely fine with me.

1. Lizzy House at http://lizzyhouse.typepad.com/lizzyhouse/

The author of this site is a professional fine art printmaker, and a commercial textile designer. The fabric she has designed is beautiful, and her confidence in herself is an inspiration to me. If you are a quilter, or enjoy sewing, or creating really in any way her site is a good place to go to.

2. Jon Klassen at http://burstofbeaden.com/coraline.html and http://www.jonklassen.blogspot.com/

I LOVE the beautiful animation and artwork that was done for the movie Coraline. I was googling the artwork and found Jon Klassen's site, who had done some artwork for the movie. His style is beautiful and unique, and I found the coraline site helpful just in how to choose colors. I love going to his blog to see new artwork he has made.

3. Sarah Mensinga at http://sarahmensinga.blogspot.com/

Sarah's art is definately my favorite out of all of the art sites I follow. She does mostly illustration from what I can tell, and it is beautiful and inspiring. I think I originally discovered her site through illustrations she had done for Drawer Geeks. Her artwork has such beautiful lines and color combinations. Her artwork is so gorgeous. Some may think that llustration is not sophisticated, but to see the work artists are coming out with you would be amazed at how refined and beautiful illustration can be. I haven't taken a class yet on how to do color in artwork, so I have to learn as I go, so when I see her artwork and how beautiful her color schemes are, I am amazed.

4. Drawer Geeks at http://www.drawergeeks.com/

This is a wonderful site where someone posts a list of words, and artists can choose a word and illustrate it. This site helps build artists creativity, for those times when they can't think of what to draw or paint. I love looking at the wide range of styles in the artwork that is posted, and I find that it helps greatly sometimes with my creativity.

Ethan is talking in sentences, and you can understand him!!! He hit a language burst, and he's been saying words I didn't even know he knew. It has taken us by surprise, because in the last couple weeks he has progressively said new sentences randomly, and Ryan and I will stop what we are doing and look at each other and say, "did he really just say what I think he said?!" It's a relief.

Something calming about going small.

I saw this video clip on Yahoo today, and I found it pretty cool.

www.vitality.yahoo.com/video-second-act-jay-shafer-20910192

There is something really calming for me about the idea of going small when it comes to homes. I guess it makes me feel like that the wasted space is done away with, and also you can't collect as much "stuff" in a small home. It looks liberating. Sometimes your "stuff" can weigh you down.

I wouldn't want to go as small as this man did (I like room to move around, esp. with children), but I like the idea of designing a comfortable home that had places for everything, and do away with wasted space and junk. I've always dreamed of someday having a home where every thing you owned had a space, and you didn't have piles of anything anywhere. Of course being good at organizing and cleaning would make a difference regardless of the size of the home. I'm working at being better at cleaning and organizing so that I will have a beautiful home some day. Going small on your house would also mean that you would have more money for the extra things you want to do or have, for me that is landscaping and beautiful furniture, or traveling, along with the expenses that children bring along.

Happy Days.

Sorry, there won't be any new pictures for a while.... Ethan got a hold of the camera and it will need to be repaired as a result. So instead I posted some old random photo's that I like. I've been having more days lately where I am very happy with life. There are still the unhappy things in life, but there are also a lot of things that are happy right now. I LOVE my house. Doing yardwork makes me love it more, it's an in-expensive way of working towards a goal, so I feel like I'm accomplishing something even though I can't afford to do everything at once. I might have ugly flooring, but the grass in my backyard is growing, my veggie garden is miraculously growing, my flowers are growing, and I've saved my Dogwood tree (it's pretty bare looking, but it's alive).

Today I was mowing the grass/weeds in the backyard and there were about 6 giant dragonflys buzzing around the yard. They stayed for over an hour, and Ethan had fun chasing them around the yard. It's nice to have perfectly content moments in life.

I've decided it's not always about seeing the good in trials, but seeing the good in spite of trials. Saturday Ryan, Ethan and I went jet skiing by ourselves on the snake and it was a nice moment, where I thought how much I love my small imperfect family. My goals have changed over the last 5 years. Origionally I had an agenda of what I thought I needed to do/accomplish/have in order to be be a good person. My new goal is just to be a happy family. I figure if we can accomplish being a happy family we are doing a lot better than most right?

Bell

One of my kitties died on wednesday. I don't know how, I just came home from Ethan's speech therapy appointment and running errands to find her by the back door. It was pretty sad, and it is still bothering me. It was the gray kitty, Bell. The darker kitty, Tinker, has been pretty lonely since, and follows me around the house every where I go, and wants to be held constantly. Before she was a pretty independant kitty and I could never find her. I ended up having to carry her around like a little baby one day just to get some peace and be able to do the laundry. We are going to get another kitty, so she won't be so lonely.

I got ambitious yesterday and decided to remove asphalt in the back yard. I assume that the previous owners thought it would be a good idea to pave an area to park, but then they didn't maintain it, and so it eventually was covered in dirt. I got a little sun burnt, and I am really sore now, but now I have all this area I can work with and do whatever I want with. well, at least once we haul away the broken up asphalt.

Ethan and I have both been spending a lot of time painting. My painting is coming along. For me painting is made up of a lot of problem solving. I spend a lot of time figuring out what color is best, where to put it, what is wrong or right with the composition, color, value, etc. I bought some new paint, and found some really good colors that are working brilliantly, and I hope this painting will come out pretty good in the end. It is definately a work in progress.

Newly planted flower beds.

I spent the day gardening, and so I'm very worn out. I had to remove a lot of sod to re-define the flower beds. Once I finally got that done I started putting in my plants. I still plan on buying some more plants, such as some clamatis to climb the porch railings. Some of the plants I planted today are new, and some have been in pots for several years. Unfortunately I discovered that my white asiatic lilly, which appeared to be doing quite well and even multiplying in the pot was actually not draining well. I'm not sure they are going to make it, since most of the roots seemed to be rotted. One nice thing about this was that I was able to easily seperate the bulbs so I could plant them im multiple locations. As for the peonies. Two of the plants are looking droopy, and I'm hoping that with watering and sun they will perk up...Then, the lilly of the valley, which had also multiplied in the pots, did not want to be seperated from each other for planting. The smart thing to do, I guess, would be to plant it as it was straight from the pot. But I didn't want to do that, I want to spread it out. So, it might not make it either, but that is my fault for wanting to do things the hard way. And sadly, I'm very concerned about my dogwood tree, it does not appear to be doing well, and I dont' know what I can do about it- the leaves are dying, and it seems to be wanting to go into "fall" mode and change colors for fall. It would seem I was great at gardening until the day I got a yard, and then I lost any luck or whatever I had before. I love gardening, so I will keep at it, I just hope it all starts growing and doesn't die on me.

Painting and progress on the yard.

Today I felt like painting, so I started working again on my current painting. Ethan found me and decided he wanted to help me paint, on my painting, and could not understand why I wouldn't let him. I decided to set my other easle up along with some poster paints and acrylics and give him a couple old paintbrushes and let him paint on one of my ugliest (it was hideous) college paintings. He loved painting, except he doesn't like getting paint on himself or on the floor (which is nice, but slightly inevitable). He ended up with paint all over himself even with the plastic bag on, but that is part of the fun of painting. He liked when I showed him he could mix the colors and get new colors, although he didn't want the colors to mix (he had 4 seperate brushes going by the end of it). I also thought it was cute that he sang while he painted.

The mess that is our yard. Ryan's dad came up and helped him move part of the fence back. It looks so much better now, it's much more open feeling. Ryan rotatilled a small part of the new area for me to have a garden, and I started getting it ready to plant stuff and discovered that there were definately more rocks than dirt. So, I'm thinking I might bring in some dirt and make a raised bed veggie garden. I've started digging up the front flower beds, and expanding them also. That fern planted in the front was over growing it's area so I had to dig out a bunch of it. We also planted our dogwood tree in the front yard (sorry, no picture yet), and i'm hoping it survives... We also are moving that swing some where (it won't fit on the porch, so we might get rid of it), the previous owners left it there.

our lovely backyard. makes for a lot of mud right now.

This is the fence after they moved it back, originally it was almost flush with the hot tub.

this corner is where I am putting my veggie garden. This picture was before I had the large pile of rocks going.

We arent' sure what we are planning with the hot tub. the previous owners let their dog chew up the cover, and those covers are expensive. It also leaks, and Ryan is trying to figure out if it's cost efficient to patch it up, and if it will even work then....we will see.

I love painting!!!!

I've started an oil painting, and I'm so excited about it. I got the first layer painted, with the darkest hues. I've been trying to come up with ideas for paintings, but all of them were lacking and I got bored with them before I had a chance to sketch them out. Last night I had a dream where I saw in clear detail exactly what to paint. I woke up surprised because it was a perfect idea, exactly what I want to paint and I could see it so clearly, everything from composition, to color scheme. I have never been so inspired. It's not necessarily an inspirational painting, but I felt inspired as to what to paint. I'm not telling you what it is yet, only that it will be impressionistic in nature. I'm certain I'll have some pictures of it up soon.

Rain Rain Go Away.

I feel like blogging today hoping maybe it will help me feel better.

Today has been one of the saddest days of my life. I'm not going to explain it all here, that's too personal, and I'm sure it's not something everyone wants to read about. I did want to say some things I've learned from my sadness.

1. I have a testimony in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in the Book of Mormon. I know it's true in my heart and in my soul.
2. You choose who you will be, and if you don't choose you might find you don't like the person you have become, so choose. (original quote taken from the Iron Giant, and modified by me a little).

3. Teenagers are hard, and I do not look forward to having them. Can I just sleep through that part? j/k. But, I pray and hope that a mighty miracle will happen and my children will not greatly rebel. You want the best for them, you want them to grow up happy and you know which things will bring them the greatest happiness, and which things will bring them only sadness and pain. I don't know everything, but I do know some basic things about what brings happiness and what brings pain, and I hope that if nothing else my children will believe me on the important things. If they want to question the health benefits of broccoli, oh well, but the big choices in life that are most important, I hope they believe me and choose well.


4. I've gotten to the point on certain trials or things that bring me great sorrow where I feel so helpless, I've done all I possibly can. And I realized that the only way out of the problem would be for a miracle from Heavenly Father, for Him to send help. So I believe in God, and miracles, and the power of prayer.


There was a video on MSN a while ago about an LDS mother whose 16 month old son had drowned in the bath tub and he had been pronounced dead at the hospital. They were able to finally get a heartbeat after 40 minutes or so of trying (i'm not sure if that's total or just once they got the hospital), but he was in a coma. the doctors told the parents that the likelihood of him coming out of the coma was slim, and that he probably would have to re learn everything. He did come out of the coma, and was not brain dead and was the same boy they knew. The interviewer was asking the parents questions about them leaving the baby un-attended in the bath tub, and the mother sat there on national television and bore her testimony on the power of prayer. Her testimony moved me so much, to see her say it on national tv. I knew that what she said was true. God made it possible that her son got the right doctors who knew the right methods to use, it was through God that he was saved.


So, back to my original point, I believe that Heavenly Father will help. We don't always know how and when, and we don't always recognize it when it happens, but it will happen.

Toddler drowing article and video, I highly recommend watching the video:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35820985/ns/today-today_people/

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35833923#35833923

Random

Random thoughts today.

Ethan has been struggling with temper tantrums lately, but with the help of some good advice and comforting from friends, it seems to be abating. We can hope right? Things I've learned so far in parenting (and I'm positive there are those who would disagree, but so be it): Spanking does not work. I don't like to spank, and I don't believe in spanking, but there have been moments where I've chosen to spank, and I've come to the realization it doesn't work, and it just creates more hostility. My goal is to try hard to find alternative methods of "discipline" that are more positive and actually produce results. Positive parenting seems to help a lot (noticing and praising good behaviour, distraction/difusing through humor, etc), as does time out, when done properly. I am amazed at how much parenting changes you and how much I have grown and changed since becoming a parent. It might not seem like much to others, but to me it seems like I've changed a lot. Many more years to go right?

I miss Costco. I went to the store today to buy diapers and found that they don't carry the size Ethan wears (he wears them while he's sleeping, and on really long car rides or for babysitters whom I don't want to overwhelm with potty training my child). So, I headed over to walmart, to find that the huggies were overpriced. I decided to go with the walmart brand, thinking that since they are mostly for sleeping, quality wouldn't matter. I was surprised when I got home and pulled one out of the box. It was extremely thin and flimsy, there wasn't much to it... I'm not too sure how much those things can handle.

I LOVE my new home. It's still very disorganized, but it will eventually all get unpacked and put away. I am waiting for some warm weather to do yard work. I love yard work, but I hate the cold, so it will just have to wait. It gives me time to plan out what I want to do, right?

Happy Songs

Songs that i've found that make me happy when i'm sad.

Train--Hey Soul Sister www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT3zCj3F1d4
Regina Spektor-- Fidelity www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigqKfLWjvM
-- The Call www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgUL3ut4gyQ

Actually, most of Regina Spektors music makes me happy. She's so quirky and there's just something happy about her music.

I'm trying to find a part time evening job I can do to help supplement our income, and I must say I hate applying to jobs. Ryan is always amazed when I bring home these applications and they want to know everything short of your mothers maiden name and social security number. The job application process has taught me something about myself. I'm okay with not "climbing the corporate ladder" in a matter of speaking. Many jobs want you to aspire to higher positions in their company, and in the past I've always felt like it was a bad thing that I did not to want a career, but honestly I think as long as I work hard and look forward to going to work each day, I'm okay with not working my way up. Everyone has their unique talents and gifts, and I think I'm finally coming to accept what I want and know that it's okay if what I want is not what everyone else wants. I always knew I wanted to be an artist and a stay at home mother, so I am okay with not having a third career.

Happy Easter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2ykowGxL8&feature=related

I know that my Redeemer Lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives. He lives, He lives who once was dead, He lives my ever living Head. He lives to bless me with His love, He lives to plead for me above, He lives my hungry soul to feed, He lives to bless in time of need

New House

Here are two pictures of the house we are in the process of buying. We are past the inspection part, the sellers finally agreed to take care of some major fixes, so we are pretty sure we are going to be moving in less than a month. I say pretty sure because you never know for sure until the final signing and until you have those keys in your hands. I'm sooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry, I know most people don't want to hear about your childs potty training, but it's such a nice day when it starts clicking that it's hard not to share the happy news. I am so proud of Ethan, because potty training finally seems to be clicking with him. Last thursday or friday he starting going poop in the toilet on his own, without telling me before hand and without me asking. I was so impressed. One of the days he was playing with his toys and all of a sudden he exclaimed, "poo poo!" and ran into the bathroom and went in the toilet. He's so proud of himself. He's had minimal accidents since then, like not quite making it to the toilet in time, but I think it's finally clicking, which is really nice. YAY to seeing an end in sight to the use of diapers!

I've made a new friend, and i'm so excited about it. We are the same age, and we both studied art at BYU-I at the same time, and yet we never had a class together. We have a lot in common, and I think it's funny that here, in small Rupert, I find someone who I have so much in common with- you just wouldn't expect to find someone like that in such a small, out of the way town. Plus, our husbands seem to like to hang out also, so it's perfect. Having friends makes life so much happier.

In 6th grade Christy Brookes came to school one day sporting braces and talking about her overbite. All the kids were oohing and ahhing about hers and their dental woes, and I said, "I don't have an overbite". She started laughing. Since than, with other teasing and comments that followed over the years, I have been accutely aware of my overbite, and wished I could have braces, however it just was not something my parents could afford. My sister Rachelle had the worst teeth, and so a couple of years ago my parents were able to get her braces and it helped (didn't cure the overbite completely, but helped). Ryan and I have finally decided we could get me braces, and so I've started the process, and this is what I've learned. It sucks to have an overbite, because apparently if I want it to be 100% fixed I would need surgery, which would cost 10,000+. Not an option obviously. Braces will still help, but we won't know how much until after it's done. Fun stuff. I figure it will still be worth it, but it has made me believe that it would have been a lot easier to be born with crooked teeth than an overbite.

This picture was taken by a photographer of Banks Lake back home. I found it on a google search, so I don't own the rights to the photo, but I thought I would take a chance and post it anyways.

Today I am lonely and homesick. But not a realistic homesick, because the place I'm homesick for doesn't really exist. Sometimes, when we think back on childhood memories we tend to embellish them a little, the sun is always shining, the clouds are perfect, and the sun is putting a nice golden glow on everything.

It was a long night.

So I had this bright idea a couple of weeks ago to take the child proof knob off of Ethans bedroom door, thinking that since he was three he should learn to stay in his room without being trapped in there. I was thinking in terms of nap time, and putting him to bed, I didn't think very much about if he were to wake up during the night, since he normally sleeps pretty well all night long. The other day I accidentally tripped on the cord to the cd player in his room and it fell and is sort of broken, so he hasn't had music the last couple nights. I think that might have been the problem last night when he decided to wake up at 3:45am and come tromping out of his room. He got mad that I didn't want to get up and make breakfast and so he went back to his room for a little while, which surprised me. A couple of minutes later he was back, and when I told him to go back to his room as it was still night and he needed to sleep he said "Good Night" and shut the door. It cracked me up, because I didn't expect it. So, I waited to hear his door close and didn't hear anything and so I went to find him, and he was on the couch in the living room. I took him back to bed, and tried to get him to sleep but for some reason he just couldn't sleep. He finally went to sleep after 6 some time. Fun stuff. Lesson learned, one- I have to lock him back in his room so I don't have to worry about him getting out and turning the stove on (I caught him doing that the other day mid-afternoon), and two- I need to buy a new cd player so he can have his music when he sleeps. He didn't always have the music, but I found it really helped, and now it appears he has some trouble sleeping without it. There is also the possibility that he's getting to the point where he doesn't need naps during the day....but I REALLY have been dreading the day that happens. It won't be horrible, but I really enjoy nap time...

Whats for dinner?

I found this food blog recently, and I love a lot of the recipes. The author, Elsie Bauer, has a lot of good recipe ideas that I can tweak to my specifications. Plus, she gives additional tips and thoughts along with the recipes that I have found helpful. http://www.simplyrecipes.com/

Room of Lost Things

I hate losing things. This time it is my car keys (it happens repeatedly). I found my phone this morning, so that's no longer lost. Some day I will lose my mind and it will end up with all of the other stuff that I have lost over the years. One day I will find a room somewhere and it will be filled with all of the things i've lost, from earings to clothes to homework. I'll walk in and say, Hey! My red jacket that I was only able to wear once before I lost it back in High School! I've missed you! Sounds like a childrens book idea...I might have to do that....

Brussels Sprouts

When I find a new thing that I like, I tend to get a little obsessed with it for a while. So, I recently, in the last 6 months or so, have discovered Brussels Sprouts. I had never had them before, and then I had some at a cousins home when we came for her newest little girls baby blessing. In my opinion, they were absolutely delicious. Since then I have been experimenting with them, i've tried several different recipes, however I'm having difficulty producing the same dish each time I cook them. For some reason, even if I follow the exact directions, they don't turn out the same each time- one day it will turn out wonderful and the next time i try the same recipe I can barely eat it. Ryan is not a fan of brussels sprouts, so his opinion is they are just bad to begin with...:). If anyone has any good recipes for brussels sprouts, I would love to have them, especially since I went and bought a bunch more...

Recent and not so recent sketches

These are several drawings I've done recently. Ryan challenged me to draw something new every day and post in on my blog, so that I would be constantly creating new things. unfortunately we are having some technical difficulties with our scanner, so it's taken a while to get them uploaded (I had to wait and use Ryan's mom's scanner). I drew these all in pencil, I'm not a big fan of pencil, I prefer charcoal, but pencil is less messy to work with. I want to thank Kim, I used several photos of her boys for several of the drawings. Kim, you take the BEST children photos, I frequently look at your blog for reference photos.
These are some basic figure sketches I've been doing from a worksheet I got back in college. They are very good for teaching you the very basics of anatomy. It would be nice to actually study anatomy, but these work pretty well also.

Several sketches from college. The first set I did from photos I had or my roommates had. The second was of one of my roommates, Tina. I started to draw another girl leaning on her shoulder, but that girl got a phone call and left before I could draw her in. It would have been really a cute picture to have them both in it.

Waking Up

Pearls

Since losing my wedding ring several years ago, I have been looking off and on for a replacement ring. One of the problems I've faced was that diamonds have increased in price so much. My original wedding ring now costs almost 3 times more than when Ryan bought it in 2004. I loved my ring, and was very sad to lose it, but as I've been looking at diamond rings I just don't find them "that" pretty, like when you see something you think is pretty in a store, then you check the price tag and think, never mind, its not that pretty. Plus, when I think of paying that much money, I think of all the other things we could get....bigger and more important things, and I talk myself out of it. Then I happened upon some pearl engagment/wedding rings and I fell in love. I've always loved pearls, and honestly I find them prettier than diamonds. I think they are timeless, elegant, and beautiful. At one time pearls were more valuable than diamonds. Also, the tradition of a diamond wedding ring was started in the 1920's (my source might not be credible, but it sounds about right) as a marketing scheme to boost sales of diamonds. So, this is my new ring goal, for when we have the money for a ring, I think I want a pearl ring with diamonds on the sides. I don't know what color of pearl yet, or what design, because there are so many beautiful ones to choose from.