Beautiful!

I just found this picture on my cousin Jenny's blog. She is such a great photographer! I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!

My First Album

Emily tagged me, and since I'm a sucker for wasting time I did it. It actually has something to do with what I was going to post on next anyway. I am going to post about graphic design through the ages. Any of us are capable of the graphic design they were doing 30 years ago.



To make your own album, follow these instructions:

band name: go to wikipedia, hit "random article" (or click here and click on random article). the first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. -- mine was Tokatee Klootchman State Natural Site, but I think you'll agree it was best to shorten it.

album title: go to "random quotations" (or click here and click on random quotes). the last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album. --mine was "Absolutely No Good"

cover art: go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" (or click here). third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. Truthfully, I cheated and did not use the third picture. I kept hitting refresh until I liked the third picture I found. Photo by Kretyen

Use Photoshop, Picasa or any other program to put it all together.

Marathon???

I was talking to a friend yesterday who has done 13 marathons. Apparently he WALKED one of the marathons with his wife. I didn't know you could walk a marathon. I called the SLC Marathon office today to see how fast you would have to go. Apparently they have an early start at 6:10 a.m. and then you would have until 1:00 p.m. to finish before they open the roads back up to the public. That's almost 7 hours to walk 26.2 miles or 3.75 miles an hour. Hummm.... could I do that? You can actually finish after 7 hours, but it wouldn't be as much fun after the roads open up. I ran 2 miles in 28 minutes today... ha ha ha ha! Not very impressive. Could I keep that up for 7 hours?

Another option is that they have a bike tour. It's not a race, but you follow the 26 mile marathon course. You have 1:45 to complete it. I'm not sure I could go this fast or not, but I would have a blast trying. The idea of riding my bike through the wide closed off streets of SLC sounds so great. Ugh! I would love this. Maybe I should give it a try.

Does anyone want to try with me? I have a family conflict that day, but I think my hubby would forgive me if I really wanted to do this.

Also, if anyone wants to go to Planet Fitness with me for super cheap (maybe free), let me know.

Church Magnets

As I have probably mentioned before, my current church calling is in the Stake Relief Society presidency. I enjoy working in the stake and visiting all of the wards from time to time. Today was the first of the eight ward conferences I'll attend this year. The ward I went to is the one my cousin Katie and my mother and father-in-law go. It was fun to go to church with them. I made these magnets to hand out after the lesson in Relief Society. The top one is for this year. The bottom was is what I gave out last year.



The bottom magnet is kind of small to read here. You can read the scripture here. Click on Book of Mormon, then Mosiah chapter 15 verse 5. If you are curious about our scriptures, you are welcome to ask questions.

Don't say you can't afford Photoshop

Megan skiied by herself today for the first time! It was only on the bunny hill, but I was still anxious to document the moment. It was so bright outside and I had my sunglasses on. I didn't realize the picture looked so bad when I took it. Fortunately with a levels, curves and saturation adjustment the picture isn't too bad. It's so exciting to rescue a poor photo.

Now, don't say you can't afford Photoshop. Many of you have written that in the comments. The truth is you can get Adobe Photoshop Elements on Ebay for pretty darn cheap. I've bought older versions there for as low as $10. New copies of Photoshop, just older. You don't need the full version for $600 to be able to scrapbook the way I do or enhance pictures like this. Any version will do.

Flashback

This is a scrapbook page from my paper scrapping days. It would have been so much easier to do digitally, but it was still fun. My favorite scrapbook pages have lots and lots of pictures. This page was to document the things Luke liked at 1.5. I'm so glad I did this page because there is so much I would have forgotten. Scrapbooking, journaling and any kind of personal history is cool.



BTW - I just won lift tickets to Sundance! I'm so excited! I know Luke will love it there. I can't believe how inexpensive this year's skiing has been!

40 Things

I decided to copy Stacy and Jill and post these 40 things. It was fun reading their answers and I enjoyed writing mine.

1. My uncle once: told me zebras were horses that went to jail. I believed him for longer than I should have.

2. Never in my life: have I thought any cola drink tasted good.

3. When I was five: it was 1980 and Kenny Rogers, Olivia Newton John, Billy Joel and Michael Jackson were big stars.

4. High School was: a lot of fun but I really wish I was involved in more sports. I completely gave up the first time I got cut from a team and I will always regret that.

5. I will never forget: the day my children were born.

6. I once met: a man who said his closet was as big as the store I worked in. I still can’t figure out why he thought that was so important to tell me. The store was about 1000 square feet.

7. There’s this girl I know who: lived in a flat with a view of a castle (my sister, Angie).

8. Once, at a bar: I hit my head. Actually it was a big beam in the mall and I walked right into it when talking to my friends.

9. By noon, I usually have a new goal in mind, but sadly I don't write them down or follow through as much as I used to.

10. Last night: I played these brain benders with my kids.

11. If only I had: a house in Australia.

12. Next time I go to church: I am going to try harder not to be late.

13. Terry Schiavo: is fortunate to have people that love her. I feel sympathy for both sides.

14. What worries me most: is that someone I love might, one day, suffer a lot of pain.

15. When I turn my head left, I see: A Canon MP620 and a Canon 30D.

16. When I turn my head right, I see: HP Laserjet 2100 and a Sharp FO 5800.

17. You know I’m lying when: I say my car battery is dead and my friends are helping me jump start it now, and then I still don’t come home for an hour or two. I didn’t think through how long it would really take to jump start a car and get home. I was just trying to buy more time with my friends in high school.

18. What I miss most about the eighties: Olivia Newton John and dancing to her music.

19. If I were a character in Shakespeare, I’d be: lost without someone explaining the story to me.

20. By this time next year: both of my kids will be in school.

21. A better name for me would be: Perfect. Ha ha. I’m totally kidding. I like my name and I'm not perfect.

22. I have a hard time understanding: physics and chemistry.

23. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: study business. I would also take a few English classes because I need help with my writing and grammar (I had to spell check grammar). I would love to go back to school for graphic design, photography and art too.

24. You know I like you if: you know me. I like everyone.

25. If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: without question, my parents.

26. Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens & Geraldine Ferraro: are not super interesting to me. If I wrote the questions I would have liked to have heard what people had to say about Corrie Ten Boom, Gerald Coffee, John H. Groberg, and maybe Bill Gates.

27. Take my advice, never: spend much time feeling bad for yourself.

28. My ideal breakfast: would be at an open air beachfront restaurant with my family eating crepes, eggs and orange juice.

29. A song I love, but do not own is: No Air. I really love Chris Brown and wish I hadn't heard any rumors about him.

30. If you visit my hometown, I suggest: ice skating at Solitude, skiing at the Canyons, sledding at Gargoza Park and seeing the lights at Temple Square in the winter. In the summer I would suggest dozens of awesome hikes including Timpanogas Cave and the Red Pine trail, getting a day pass at Snowbird, biking at Deer Valley, waterskiing at Jordanelle, camping in Payson, visiting the Flower Gardens at Thanksgiving Point and tubing down the Provo River. I have so much more I could write. I love the opportunities here.

31. Tulips, character flaws, microchips, & track stars: Tulips are my favorite flower, character flaws are usually understandable, microchips are awesome, and track stars are inspiring.

32. Why won’t people: give me their money?

33. If you spend the night at my house: I would need a lot of notice so I could clean like a mad woman.

34. I’d stop my wedding for: nothing. I’m sure I would have postponed it a month for the right amount of cash though.

35. The world could do without: a crime I find too sad or disgusting to write about.

36. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: hold a cat. Well, I'd at least consider licking the belly of a cockroach to avoid holding a cat.

37. My favorite blond is: Luke or Megan.

38: Paper clips are more useful than: a lot of things! My dream would be to come up with a product as useful as a paperclip.

39. If I do anything well, it’s: the ability to see the good in people. Every story has two sides.

40. And by the way: I think it’s ridiculous I like to talk about myself. I do enjoy learning about others though. Let me know if you post this on your blog.

Monster Trucks and SkyDiving

On Valentine's Day our family went to see Monster Jam at the Energy Solutions Center. It was a lot of fun. I don't know why I like those things so much, but I do. We got to see some motocross in the middle of the show too. Those motorcycles are so much fun to watch, although I'm terrified someone is going to break their back in front of me.

After the show Keith surprised me and said he would take me to do something else. I chose to go to the Salomon Center in Ogden. I've always wanted to go there to watch (or participate) in the indoor skydiving and surfing. I'm still smiling that he went with me. Unfortunately the Flowrider was under construction, but we still got to see the skydiving. Keith even said I could do it if I wanted!!! Wow!!! There were no openings so I didn't get to do it, but I still had a blast watching. When we first got there we watched some kids. I'm guessing they were 6, 8 and 13 or so. They were really good. Clearly they have been practicing. My kids LOVED watching the younger kids and Luke can't wait to do it himself.

Unfortunately, we found out that the $49 introductory price is for ONLY TWO MINUTES total!!! $25 a minute! The kids we were watching apparently are part of a family that buys time in there in 10 hour chunks so it's cheaper, but that is still probably thousands of dollars. $49 seemed worth it to me when I thought you got 15 or 20 minutes, but TWO? Sheesh!

The Flowrider is fairly expensive too, but nothing like iFly. It's worth every penny. If you ever go I would totally recommend paying more and stay a while until you really get the hang of it. It is so much fun! I got to do it on a cruise about a year ago.

Here is an iPhone picture of the Monster Jam. Do you like how they painted the hill and cars pink and white with hearts? I thought that was great. Too bad they had to smash those hearts into pieces.

Flashback to 2003

Wow. It's amazing how fast time flies. This is a picture of Luke and his cousin Kaden almost 6 years ago. These boys are playing the Wii in the other room right now. I should get a picture to post next to this one, but I'm lazy right now. I'll do it another time.

I'm Really Thirsty

Our water started tasting REALLY bad 3-4 days ago. It actually made me feel a little sick. The water company tested it 2 days ago and were supposed to give us the results yesterday but they never did! Ugh! I seriously don't know if it is safe to drink. It has a metal or chemical taste to it and has a crazy aftertaste that makes my stomach feel weird.

The first two days I was so thirsty because I only really like to drink water and never made it to the store for bottled water. I can only drink so much milk and juice. Yesterday I finally got smart and remembered I keep a water supply in the basement in case of emergency. I've been drinking my water storage and realizing how quickly my water storage will go if there really was an emergency. I better store more water. Are you all storing water?

Our main water line was replaced a few years ago and our neighbors don't notice a difference, although some drink bottled water anyway. I'm so anxious to see what is going on. Apparently the city opened up some new wells or something on the day we started having problems. It may not be related though.

In our first house there were a couple days when the water litterally came out YELLOW! It was horrible to think public water in the United States had those problems. Bottled water isn't always better though either.

Happy Valentines

Happy Valentines Day (early I know).

Here is another fun set of Flickr favorites I found.



I thought the ring picture was really interesting. Here is a bigger view of that photo.

Sundance

Thanks to my sister-in-law Christina, I got to go skiing at Sundance yesterday. Sundance has a promotion going where if you sign up as a fan of the Sundance Resort on Facebook, you can ski for only $20 before the 12th of February. Awesome!! I had to get Megan to school and pick Luke up from school so I only got to ski for just over 2 hours, but it was well worth the $20 and it was totally fun to experience skiing there. It was my first time to ski there. I have a new goal to ski all 13 resorts in Utah so it's fun to check another off my list.

It was a really pretty day down low, but up at the top it was really foggy. Here is an iPhone picture from the top.



Here was my view the last 5 minutes of the ride up. Normally, I would have enjoyed it, but my thoughts were focused on skiing with limited vision, plus I was kind of cold. I was nervous because I had never skied there before and wasn't sure how easy it would be to find my way down without losing my way and finding myself on top of a black diamond. I ended up really enjoying the ride down, (fog and all) and would love to be up there again right now. I had no problem finding my way.



This is how beautiful it was the bottom 3/4 of the mountain. I didn't expect such a pretty day when I left home because it was raining at my house.

Valentines (continued)

I got the inspiration for Luke's valentine (shown in the last post) from here. I'm not sure if that is where the idea originated from, but it's where I saw it first. I love it. Note: the sucker would have looked more real in his hand (on my valentine) if I had used an exact-0 to cut a slot on top and below his glove.

I found and modified a template for the heart card here. There is a tutorial on the DSM website that explains the process of using a template like this. I actually had to do a little extra work to make the rounded corners work on this card than what is shown in that tutorial. Ask if you can't figure it out on your own. I get e-mails when I get comments so I'll know if you ask a question even if you post two years from now. I don't want to write it out if no one needs me to, but I'd love to help you if you do need help.

Here is what the card looked like on my computer before I printed it out.

Valentines

Here are my kids valentines. I love how they turned out. I'll post how I made them (and where I got the inspiration) tomorrow.

Fronts


Backs


Inside of Megan's Card


Inside of Luke's Card


Megan's has a little stamp in hers.

Twins?

Who Wants to Buy a House?

This is the design on the front page of my parent's website I helped them design a while back. If any of you need a good realtor, my parents are amazing! They are very successful and know what they are doing. You can get their contact information here.

I used to sell real estate with my parents. I loved it. I loved knowing that if I worked hard I could become very successful. I don't think people understand how hard real estate is. It is so tough. I put in super long hours every single day. I usually worked from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and sometimes much later. The hardest part though was putting in tons of hours for a client only to have them buy something without you. I don't understand why so many people do this and how they can feel good about making someone work for free. Can you imagine me asking anyone to work 40 hours for me (painting, computer work, nursing, teaching... whatever) and then say nevermind, I'm going to pay someone else to finish the job or just do the rest on my own?

Well, the job was tough, but I really did love it. I loved it mainly because I loved setting goals and accomplishing what sometimes appeared to be unrealistic goals. I loved feeling successful and accomplished. My mom is the queen of setting and reaching goals. I loved working with her and learning from her and I miss that so much. I quit at a time I was doing really well. I was selling enough to be considered in the top 5% of real estate agents in Utah. Actually, I didn't completely quit. I just scaled things back to nearly a stop so I could stay at home when I had my first baby.

Eventually I decided to start Digital Scrapbook Memories and when that company started doing well I let my real estate license expire. I'm really glad to be doing Digital Scrapbook Memories now. We struggled to build the business and there are still struggles now, but it's worth it. I started Digital Scrapbook Memories because I had a product I believed in and I have always thought having a product in stores was the way to go.

I love to work. I always have. In High School I would often work two jobs at once. I worked at Nordstoms doing the sales, at LeRoy's (a dress shop in the mall), and at the Mann Movie Theater across from Cottonwood Mall. I loved having my own money to spend. I spent most of it on clothes and entertainment. If I wasn't working I always wanted to be out with my friends. My parents would get so mad at me because I never slowed down.

One of my high school friends told me I was the hardest working person he knew. It was true, I really worked hard (to earn money, not really at my homework). When I sold real estate I was still that hard working person. I loved that about myself. I had so much confidence in myself. In the past couple years I have really been mourning the person I was. I'm not that person anymore. I rarely set goals anymore and when I do, I get frustrated trying to balance everything. On paper everything is so easy, but once you add a family into the equasion there is no way to truly predict what you can control. I want to be successful and accomplished in business, but right now I'm finally becoming ok with the fact that that will have to wait.

I have always understood that my kids are the most important. I understand that my job as a mother is the most important job. I am FAR from perfect, but I do think I usually get my priorities straight when it comes to my kids. My frustrations are that I think I should be able to do both (work and kids). When I don't get my work done I'm frustrated and embarrassed, but I can't stress myself out and be a mess at home all of the time.

In Sunday School a couple months ago a lady stopped the lesson and directly said to me that she wished she would have enjoyed her kids more when she was young and didn't worry so much about having a clean house or making sure everything was perfect. She encouraged me to learn from her. Others in class agreed. In my mind I was thinking she clearly didn't know me that well. In the past couple years, my biggest stresses have to do with the fact that I am NOT working hard and that my house is a mess all of the time. When she was saying that I thought to myself that I can honestly say I do not regret not taking enough time for my kids. That is one of the only things I do well. My stresses are the opposite of what she was saying.

Do you believe that God works though others to help you? I do. What that lady told me in Sunday School really stuck with me. Later in a conversation with my mom, my mom was asking me how things were going with my business. Honestly, I guess most stay at home moms in my situation would answer they were doing great. They would be thrilled if their buisness was going as well as mine, but I never think I'm doing well because I think I'm capable of making millions and because I'm not I get frustrated. I just can't put the time into it I want to. I told my mom what that lady said in Sunday School and told her how I truly don't have any regrets with the amount of time I spend with my kids. My mom said, "Well, maybe that's your answer". Wow. That was powerful to me. I couldn't see that myself. I couldn't see that that lady's words in Sunday School were inspired. I believe they were inspired now. From her words it's clear my friend in Sunday School doesn't really know what my life is like, but I'm now starting to recognize that her words were an answer to my prayers. My moms words were too, because she pointed out something I couldn't see myself. I feel a bit more freedom right now. I'm not going to stop working and I'll continue to set goals and try to do more in business, but I am able to step back and feel better about myself right now. I am able to feel accomplished and secure with what I'm doing. I am finally feeling ok with the fact that the "old me" isn't as important as the "current me". There is plenty of time later in life to find the "old me" again.

I didn't mean to go into all of this, but it felt good to write.

A Favorite

I made these a couple years ago. I really love them and need to put them up in my house. I never have because there a couple little things I need to fix and I've never gotten around to it. Megan's eyes aren't quite this blue (or red) in real life. Also, I didn't delete the dots behind the leaf stems on Megan's picture.

Let me fill you in...

Here is your Superbowl recap:

There were red guys and yellow guys playing against each other.

The red guys were called the Cardinals and are from Arizona. This stood out in my mind because I had no idea there were Cardinals in Arizona.

The yellow guys were called the Steelers (Stealers). I think. I can't remember where they are from.

Half time entertainment was provided by Bruce Springsteen. I was surprised they picked him because no one seems to listen to him anymore. However, he did sound good and looked like he was having a good time, so I was entertained.

The ads were entertaining. Our group seemed to stop talking when they came on. I hate to admit it but Budweiser always seems to have the best ads. Sad. Healthy drink companies just don't seem to have the same advertising budget.

I completely forgot to check the score the entire first half of the game, but I don't know that it mattered because sometime after half time I noticed the red guys hadn't done much anyway.

Fortunately for the red guys they did much better the second half, but they still must have lost because I saw the yellow guys looking much happier after the game ended.



Seriously though... we were invited to a few Superbowl parties. First we went to my friend Amy's house. Then, we went to my mother-in-laws. We had great company and great food... yummm! Amy works with me and runs this site called Caulen's Kitchen. Her cheesecake is to die for. I've asked her for the recipe here.


Amy took these pictures and sent them to me (thank you Amy). Notice anything new with Megan?