Princess?

Princess - the daughter of a king.
January 24, 2009

Posed, but not. I had her put on her princess dress, and snapped this shot while she was arranging herself. It is very handy tht her birthday is on Halloween, because she always wants something new for dress up, and in October there is plenty of floofy dress up to choose from! As far as she's concerned, the floofier, the better!

She hasn't been very princess-y today though. Every Saturday, she and Jack get into a whole big thing, hitting and screaming. Then Jack calls me at the grocery store to complain about her, like there's anything I can do from the store. Then I come home and yell and scream for a while, everyone promises that next Saturday will be better, and then the next Saturday it all plays out again, exactly the same. It's like Groundhog Day, but only on Saturdays.

Jack played really good in his game today. He had a couple of blocks and good passes. Lane and I bought a new game for the Wii while we were out and about today. It's called Playground and it's pretty fun for the kids. It has dodge ball, tether ball, paper airplanes, and a couple of others. Hey, anything to get them up off the couch, right?

We finally got the Christmas thank you cards written, so those of you out there who we owe thanks you to, the notes are on the way! Time really got away from me this month, now it's almost over, and now I have to do birthday thank yous, too! I'll never get caught up!

Dreary!

Dreary - bleak, dismal, dull.

January 22, 2009

I never got yesterdays picture up and I liked it a lot. I took it out the car window with my phone when I picked up Addie from school. I liked how the raindrops were on the window, and the dirty snow is there, and the low clouds, and the bare tree, and the overall dreariness that is January in Utah.

Keepsake - A momento or souvenir; a token or remembrance of friendship.

January 23, 2009

These are not original McGuffey Readers, the last copyright date in them is 1920. I found them in my Grandparents house after they died, and since both grandparents were teachers it makes me think of them. My grandpa, Calvin Walker, has even written his name in the cover of each copy. The lamp is my favorite in the house - I love the soft glow of lamplight, I love the vibrantly colored shade against the green wall.


I had a fun day of sewing today. I finally got the black skirt finished up, and cut out a jumper and jacket, got the jumper almost done. It needs hemmed and the armhole facings are sewn on but not pressed or topstitched. Dumb zippers! It has a 22" zipper in and I had to pull the dang thing out TWICE before I got it in, and still I'm not happy with it, but hoping the jacket will cover it up. I had lunch with Calvin today at a really yummy place in American Fork. I think it was called Hibachi House, I hadn't been there before, but I'll be back! Lane has gone up to help with the Klondike Derby tonight. He's not camping out, but helping in the lodge when people have questions or need to come in to warm up. With this terrible inversion we've got going on, it's probably warmer up in the mountains than it is here! We've had some rain, which has helped to melt some of the ugly snow, but it hasn't been a good enough storm to blow out the inversion. The news reported that the fog in SL at the airport is so bad no planes had been able to land or take off for a couple of hours. I think we are expecting a bigger storm this weekend, so hopefully we'll get some cleaner air!

Draper Temple

Engross - to absorb entirely.

Not much new to report on, really. I'm trying to get my visiting teaching done, it's gonna take 3 different outings to visit the 3 sisters. Just couldn't coordinate it this month. Last night we went to Pack Meeting with Jack. He earned his first two pins in Webelos. He was quite proud of that. I think he needs to earn 4 to get his Webelos badge, and 6 to earn his arrow of light, or something like that. Taylor went with the youth from our ward up to the open house at the new Draper temple last night. She has never been to a temple open house before, so she was quite overwhelmed. She was telling us all about it, and it was such a great experience for her. I hope they will get to go visit the new Oquirrh Hills temple when they have that open house. It shouldn't be too far away - last time I drove past there the outside was nearly done, and it has been quite a while since then. I will always remember when I toured the Jordan River Temple back in 1981 or 1982. I was so enthralled with the whole thing I promised myself then and there that that's where I would get married. I wonder if Taylor will want to get married in one of the temples she tours. How lucky we are here to have so many temples so close by, and that the public and the youth can attend the open houses. I think it really makes a deep impression on them.

I'm Booked!

Prepare : To arrange in advance; to provide what is needed; to make complete.

Ok, so this picture doesn't have much to do with anything, except that my original idea didn't work out so I had to find something else. The color of the peaches on my shelf caught my eye, so here we are. I do take great satisfaction, however, in seeing food on my shelves and in knowing that we won't die right away. We'll linger for a little while, anyway. I HATED doing the canning so much as a kid. I swore I would never do it as an adult, or even more important, make my kids help. That would be the worst punishment ever!! Turns out, I kinda enjoy doing the canning. Yes, it's hard work. It's sticky and hot and messy. But there is no greater satisfaction than when that work is done, and knowing that you are doing what needs to be done to be prepared for an emergency.

I got my cruise booked today, for myself and my parents, and am hoping that everyone else will get their reservations made soon. (Are you listening out there??). I love having that anticipation of a great vacation coming up. Let's all cross our fingers and hope for a hurricane free September!

So Blessed

This is today's (Sunday) picture. Addie fell asleep on the couch after we had been watching Mythbusters and Forensic Files all day (after church, anyway). See, you can see the Cheetos on her mouth. She was so cute all curled up, and I snapped about 12 pictures, and the super-bright flash didn't even wake her up. She must have been tired!

Taylor and Jack playing guitar hero. They have both gotten pretty good. They think it's funny that I know the songs on the game, I guess they think "Baracuda" and "Welcome to the Jungle" are new songs!

I met a good friend for lunch yesterday, and we sat there and talked for THREE hours! I can't believe we went on for that long. It was fun to catch up with her, though.

I realized today at church how much I enjoy my calling. I'm serving as secretary in the primary, and I just really enjoy it. I think the kids are delightful and the ladies I serve with are wonderful and always have the kids best interests at heart. I'm so glad to be a member of a church in which we are asked to serve because it truly helps us to grow, not only grow our testimonies, but increase our capacity for love as we serve others and serve with others. It is truly a blessing.

Hobby - An activity or interest undertaken for pleasure during one's leisure time.

I had no plan for what to photograph today. I have a list of words that I have been compiling for when I am at a complete loss, like today, with the hope that the word will give me inspriration. So this is what I have for today. I do love to sew! I've got a black skirt I'm working on right now. I finished up the shirt and planned to have the black skirt finished to wear to church on Sunday, but unless there is some sort of miracle tomorrow, that won't be happening! This week just kinda got away from me. Taylor is a little more than half done with her project, and then she'll make a little jacket to go with it. I think she will easily make the 10 required hours. She's had to do a lot of unpicking! We all did when we were beginners. She has been good to not get too discouraged and I think it will turn out so cute, she'll forget all about the hard parts. She is off babysitting for the neighbors tonight. It's so weird to me that she is old enough to do that now. What a great girl she is!

Thursday Theme-day

Lush - Producing luxuriant growth or vegetation.

I was responsible for choosing the Thursday theme for our little photo group that is doing the 365 thing. I assigned photographing only a part of a thing. So this is mine. It is looking down on my tall pointy plant (no, I don't know the names of anything) in my living room with the afternoon sun coming in. I really like how it turned out with the different colors of green and all. I tried taking a picture of my grandmother clock, that was my intial idea, but the light from the flash reflected off the face of the clock and it looked just awful. So I turned around, looking for something else, and there was my tall pointy plant. What luck!