Fort Bragg Trip

Right before Teaghan and I left for Girls Camp we took a trip to Fort Bragg. A trip that we do every year so that we can see our friends that we haven't seen in a year or so. Normally we camp, but this year Doug and I decided that since we were only going to have three days there, we were going to stay in a hotel. And yes, it was simply...

MAAAVELOUS.

The girls camped with our friends and Doug and I and the boys went back to the hotel. It really was SOOOO NICE. Cause Fort Bragg is cold! Darn coastal weather.

I love spending time with these people, though I didn't get as many pics this year as we left early for girls camp, so I only got a few with one of the families. But some is better than none I say!

Again, this is why I am so in love with photoshop. You're going to notice the same shot, just edited differently.

CAUSE I CAN'T DECIDE WHICH I LIKE BETTER.

And since I just spent the better part of the last two hours editing said photos, I'm going to post all of them. :)

Next year, I plan on taking more. And in the spirit of documenting, I will put myself in at least ONE. But that may be it:)



Gosh they love it when I make them sit for a photo.

















You may not notice the difference in this next set of photos, but I love how each one turned out. I can't choose!









They were such good subjects. I asked them to jump off a cliff...and they did!














Apparently Zak was in need on some warmth cause he planted his face in the sand. The sand really was nice and warm!





Poor baby! This was how he looked each night as we went back to our hotel. Granted it was usually around 11pm, but this kid is like the energizer bunny. He goes and goes until he's all powered out and then he just shuts down. See, the battery analogy works:)
(Note the dirt on the face.)



How I love little boy discoveries. Especially in hands and pails. I love hands, pails, and feet!

Way WAY Behind!

Zak's Birthday was back in July and I am barely getting around to posting about it. No surprise there though:)

We threw Zak's first "Friends" party for him and Doug thought it'd be fun to take the party to Sky High. We looked up the amount it would cost and then decided that we would save $85 by not actually having the party there. So we decided to let the kids jump for an hour, then come back to our house and have the "party." It worked out so good! The kids didn't want to leave. We ended up jumping an extra 20 min but nobody said anything so I guess it was okay. They were having so much fun jumping off the walls, literally, and us adults were having a blast watching them, that we exceeded our one hour jump time. Oh well.

So here's a couple of pics from the party. I didn't post all that I took cause some didn't turn out, and I'm not sure why. I guess my shutter speed was off. Who knows:)













We love you Zak!!!

Journal Jar Prattle #3...I think

I'm resurrecting the Journal Jar. Per Tuesday night's enrichment night discussion on journaling, it had me thinking that I need to get back to the jar. I shamefully admit that the last time I wrote from the Jar was in 08. Sheesh. That is shameful! So I grabbed it out of the dark recesses of my closet, dusted the outside of the jar off cause two years later it's missing a lid, (roll of the eyes here) and set it next to the computer.

So the same rules apply. Since I print this blog, the "Prattle" is mostly for my benefit so don't feel like you have to read on.

Truly you don't have to.

But you should.

JUST KIDDING. Seriously...just kidding.

Question: Where did you go to school? (Elementary, secondary, college)

Question: Secondary? Does that mean all schooling between elementary and college? Gosh, what a dunce I am:) I will just assume that's what it's talking about. And no, I never got points for having a high IQ. That would be my husband. I live vicariously through him. But mostly by osmosis.

Horizon Elementary was my first school. The year I attended kindergarten was the school's first year opening. It was the school for our little subdivision growing up. I have such fond memories of that red brick one story building. Life was much simpler, and so sweet. And because we didn't know better, we didn't mind putting on all our snow gear just to go to recess. Gosh that was such a pain!

Junior High, cause that's what it's called in Utah, was just as awesome an experience as elementary. It's taken me many years to say middle school instead of junior high. Many Friday's my dad would bring me lunch from my favorite burger joint and I would eat in the cafeteria with all my friends who would be salivating over my burger and fries while they plowed through a dry sandwich. It's making me hungry just thinking about it. I know this age is hard, and it was, but in so many ways it was easy. Especially my social studies class. The teacher would leave during the tests and the whole class would take the test together. Good times....good times. Looking back, I wonder if he knew that's what went on. He never seemed surprised that we were all on the same grading curve.

Three years of high school was spent as a Spartan at Murray High. What a fantastic school! It still is to this day. People fight to get their kids in. Of course the pool is no more. They had to make more room because there was so many kids. My class was the last small graduating class. We had around 400 graduate. The year after that was something like 600, and by the time my baby brother graduated, it was like 800. You get the picture.
Many extended lunch breaks were taken cause I had 6th period seminary; cheering at the football stadium sitting next to a cute guy was so much fun; hanging out with my girlfriends at all hours of the night; working and playing, and figuring out who I really was...trying to get past all the insecurities that seem so silly now; signing yearbooks at the end of the year promising to call everyone but never getting around to it, only to meet up at the start of school, picking up where we left off as if there hadn't been any summer at all; all this I wouldn't change for anything.

Two years of college was spent at Ricks College. Yes folks, when it was Ricks and not BYU Idaho. On a side note, I was seriously torked when we learned that Ricks was going to change. This was years after I'd graduated of course, but to not have any football team anymore?? Really???? Not dissing BYI Idaho, but Ricks was in a league all it's own. Even President Hinckley, when he was Prophet, visited and said that there's just a spirit there that isn't at the Y. It was where I learned that who I was was really okay. It was where I learned what having a "real" boyfriend meant. It was where I learned how to live with 5 girls. FIVE. It was where I learned that when six girls live together the menstruation cycle becomes the same for all parties involved:0 WEEEEIIRRRD. To this day I think that bit o science is still strange. It was where I learned that 6 girls using 6 bottles of hairspray leaves mega film on walls and counter tops. It was where I fell in love for the first time. It was where I met Doug.

This has been very cathartic for me, all this reminiscing. I'll try to keep the Journal Jar from getting relegated to the back of the closet again. But no promises:)

Getting out from behind the Camera

I have been following some of Kristen Duke's Photography tips on The Idea Room. One was about getting out from behind the camera. I would much rather take the picture than be in it, but she suggested to start putting yourself in more pictures with your kids and hubby. One of her readers commented about a woman who decided to do that very thing. She decided that she was going to be in a photo with her family every month, and she wasn't going to care that she didn't look perfect:) And so she did. Here's the quote taken from the She Left Proof Project:

"Many scrapbookers knew Aleida Franklin. She was a wonderful wife and mother and a brilliant artist. I didn’t know Aleida personally, but she taught me something I will never forget.

She emailed me last year to tell me she loved my blog and to ask if I liked my short hair-cut. This lead to a series of emails which eventually led me to remark that I really loved how often she posted pictures of herself with her children on her blog. And she replied to me, “Have you ever seen a photograph of your own mother and thought to yourself how fat she looked? Or how she wasn’t wearing make-up? Or wasn’t dressed in a glamorous outfit?” Of course my answer was no.
She then responded with saying that she made it a goal to take a picture of herself with her children at least once every month. And that to use excuses about how we look, as women, is ridiculous, since our children will never care what we looked like, but only that we had physical evidence of the bond between mother and child.

Aleida tragically and unexpectedly passed away in an auto accident in September of 2008, leaving 2 small children and a grieving husband. After she passed I thought of how those children must feel to have those precious photographs. I have made it my personal goal to follow her wise suggestion and I try to take photos of myself with my children….double chins, make-up free, bed-head and all.

I invite Mothers everywhere to take Aleida’s Challenge. To photograph yourself with your children each and every month. And to post them here so that we can see Aleida’s legacy unfolding"

It's not the complete story though I'm sure you could search for it. I found myself thinking that what she left her family with is something so very priceless. Her children will always have a memory of her, even when that memory may start to fade. This really got me thinking of what kind of legacy I want to leave my kids. Pictures is an easy way to start!

So I've decided that, once a month, regardless of how I look or how crazed I am, I will try to get a picture in with the kids, or Doug, or what have you.

Starting now.

There have been a few people that have asked to see my new "do" from the 'To be Blonde or not to be Blonde' post, so I am going to post a photo of myself. Even though that post was meant to be about the possibility that Blonde's really do get more attention more than it was a hair post. Not that I ascribe to that theory, but it was food for thought anyway. So as much as this makes me TOTALLY uncomfortable, I am going to do it:) Gotta start somewhere I suppose.

Why is it that it's so hard to post a photo of oneself? Does anybody else have this problem???

This one is me trying to take a photo of myself using the bathroom mirror.



Doug wondered why I didn't just ask him. Me too:) I guess I'm just used to being the one behind the camera. So I did. And he was happy to oblige.



So there you have it. I am going to count this as the photo for the month of July. Hopefully this will get easier as the months go by, especially since I won't be doing any more self portraits!

Getting my Craft on! One of my New Year's Resolutions

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to get my 'craft on.' I like being crafty, I'm just usually not good at it. But with blogland being filled with 'crafty' people and their awesomely awesome projects, I felt like I could get creative, or at least copy. After the first few projects I've finished, I can truly say that although I may not be the most creative person, the crafty blogs have definitely inspired me to be more creative, AND to do things myself cause it's MUCH CHEAPER. This wreath was my first venture into the 'crafty sphere,' I just forgot to post about it:) And I don't know why cause I am seriously proud of it! ;)

I discovered this book wreath from one of the first crafty blogs I stalked. It's from Living with Lindsay and I instantly fell in love with it! Especially when you see how incredibly cute and easy it is. Apparently a lot of other people in blogland thought so too cause all of a sudden they were popping up everywhere. So here's hers here. Try saying that 10 times fast!

I wanted one for my sitting room. (Really it's the formal dining room that we made into a sitting room. I'm not really a formal dining room kind of person. You come over, you eat at my regular table, we laugh, we have fun, and there's no amazing china either:) I still have no idea what to put on top of that darn book case and whether or not I should get some drapes or valances. AHHHH, the decisions!!!!

I ended up putting it above the door across from the piano.



I wanted a bigger book wreath over a smaller one, though thankfully I didn't get a larger wreath than the one I got or it would've taken WAAAAYYYYY longer than the 4 hours that it DID take. But I had some time in the afternoon while the kids were playing. So basically it's a wreath made out of book pages. Preferably a book that you don't love:)



Supplies:
Wreath
Glue gun and glue
Books you don't want anymore
Paint optional
Time on your hands- not really optional:)

You tear out each page and glue it on the wreath. You can see Lindsay's tutorial on the link above. I did mine a little different- I fanned my pages. I also wanted my ends antiqued so I took a sponge and a brown stamp pad and antiqued almost 400 pages one at a time, before I glued. A teensy bit anal I suppose. I've also seen someone do it with a lighter so that the edges actually got burned. That's not such a good idea for me. My luck I would probably catch fire to the kitchen table. I also used a grapevine wreath instead of foamie one because I wanted a larger size. It was a little more difficult to work with, but it worked nonetheless.


(note: I shot this pic in manual. gasp!)

All in all, this project cost me $1. For the wreath. The rest of the stuff I already had. Now truly, you can't beat home decor that costs a buck! See what I mean by getting your craft on????

The 6th Time's the Charm???

Doug bought me the CS3 photoshop series, like, a year or so ago. It was so daunting and seemingly so complicated to me. There is no limit to what this program can do! To me, that's daunting. So much to learn!!!!! And for someone who is not techno saavy, I was really intimidated. I took many tutorials, but nothing seemed to really be working, and I have to admit that I gave up. Then I came across some free actions, and I have to say that actions are so SOOOOOOO nice!!! It takes a lot of the guesswork out of editing. So I gave myself a quick lesson, took some photos I had from when family visited from Arizona a couple of weeks ago, and played around with them. I was practically gleeful when I realized that it actually worked:) So I wanted to share with you some pics of us playing around that night that I tweaked in photoshop. Just cause I'm feeling much less intimidated. (Though I have no idea how to work the 20 or so brushes in the blasted thing!)

Baby steps. Baby steps.

I've been wanting to figure out how to use the sun at dusk, so I had Teaghan pose for me. (She was the closest. My other kids practically run when I pull the camera out:) This is the original. A little dark in the face, but not half bad. It's actually one of the few that did turn out. Ah well. :)



Same photo, just tweaked with a soft/diffused action. I adjusted the opacity level to where I wanted it, and wa-la. You can actually see her face. Who knew?





I think this one is dang cute!! My awesome sis in law took this. I ran a B&W action and it turned out fabulous! I think I'm going to blow this one up really big and hang it on the wall. Great job Coleen!!!



Coleen also took this one of Andon and Britt. I only cropped this one. I loved the look of it.


Doug's like a kid at times. It's so sweet! Or he just wanted a ride home:) Who can say. lol



This was a cool vintage action. Again, just adjusted the opacity cause I wanted a bit more color and less brown. Love how it turned out.



I also figured out how to save and export as well. I'm feeling so proud of myself ;)

Just Stuff

I know it's late, but I'm just getting around to posting Father's Day pics. There's just two, but it's better than nothing:) I've decided that since I print this blog and it's my journal of sorts (cause let's face it, I write here more than I do a journal) so I'd better start posting more of the goings-on of our family. And Father's Day is important! :)

I made a picture montage, of sorts, of the kids for Doug's office. His office doesn't have any adornment other than the proverbial 'ficus.' (sp?) You know what I'm talking about...the big fake tree? I cut out big letters, one for each of my kids to hold, and then painted a board black and modge podged it all on. I thought it turned out pretty darn cute! (I'm so into making things myself lately and using pictures to do it. I have another project I'm wanting to start for my bedroom with 12x12 close ups of my kids. Hopefully I'll get around to it sooner than later:)



I bought a six pack of the Weinhardt's cream soda, SUPER YUMMY stuff. We left three of them full of cream soda, and then drank the other three. Happy Father's Day right? Just kidding. We actually washed and took all the labels off the bottles, modge podged some cute paper on them. The three empty bottles we filled with stuff Doug likes. Brittnee decorated the outside of the carrier. So cute!



Doug wanted hamburgers for dinner and then we spent the day relaxing after conference.

So here's my latest project I just finished yesterday. We had this table sitting around in the garage. It was and old one Collette had, and I thought it would look fantastic if it had a new look. Why buy something when you can just refinish what you already have? I neglected to take a before picture, but it was oak and had a bar running through the bottom, as well as some ornamental wood pieces on the side. I took those out in an attempt to modernize it, sanded it, and painted it black.



Then I distressed the edges so that the orange-y oak-y color came through.



Of course, the moment it's dried and I bring it in, I bump in on the garage door and now it has white nicks in it. Good grief.



Now I just need to dress it up. I think I'm going to take one of my leftover tiles from our floor and put a vinyl saying on it. Cheralyn, I will be calling you:) But since it sits underneath my picture frames, I'm thinking of putting the saying "A smile happens in a Flash...the Memory of it can last a Lifetime." We'll see. Most likely it'll sit blank for a while:)

HOME ALONE... Well, sort of

Doug's climbing Half Dome on Thursday. I'm really thinking of upping his insurance policy. Should I be worried?

He climbed it 3 years ago, but didn't go to the top. He almost died of dehydration, though I may be exaggerating slightly. However, their water purifier stopped working so he wasn't drinking ANY water on the way back down and so consequently was exhausted beyond the normal. This time he's in much better shape and is prepared for the hike, ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP.

Seriously, should I be worried?? Is my babies daddy going to come back without any injuries? (Truly, I don't really talk like this, it just came out...'babies daddy.' I think I've been listening to the popular radio station too much. Thanks Teaghan.)

Maybe if I'd hiked it myself before I'd know what to expect, but I hear that last top half is pretty wicked. Maybe ignorance really is bliss. The older I get, the more truth in that statement I find.

Maybe I'll start negotiating with the Lord on this one right away.

Let's see....what am I willing to go without to have my man back? Nope, not Cracklin Oat Bran, my favorite cereal....not my alone time in the evenings to drown myself in reality TV....and certainly not my hair budget....

Hmmmmm.....


JUST KIDDING!!!!! I'd do anything to have him home safe and sound.

Thus the negotiating:)

FINALLY!!!!

I finally finished my photo project after MONTHS of deliberation! If don't know if you remember, but I was trying to figure out how to do a wall of photos without breaking my budget and giving myself a whale of a headache. So many ideas that I was getting overwhelmed. The photos were taken last CHRISTMAS and I am happy to say, that just today I FINISHED IT.

Sweet glory glory hallelujah.

And I have to say, that it turned out quite nicely:) (Thanks to Jeremy Nuttall who put my idea that I had on paper into an actual frame! All I did was spray paint and hang:)

So here it is! Not only do I love how it turned out, but it didn't break the budget.
Now I can display 14 photos quite easily and then take them out and put new ones in.

(Yeah me!)






Then with the extra molding left over I made another frame for random photos we get from family and friends that I like to keep around.





My next project will be to refinish that table you see underneath the photos. I've decided that I like to have a project to do. Especially when it's so much cheaper to do it yourself!

Oh, I got the idea from The Idea Room, but for the life of me I can't find the exact link! She used it to hang a wreath, but I thought it'd be awesome to hang photos on:)

This Morning's Throwdown

So maybe I can blame my poor attitude on the winter weather we're having again after all the really nice weather of the last week. Or maybe not. Maybe I just have attitude and it can't be blamed on anything:)

So I'm pumping gas this morning before taking Andon to school. I'm trying to throw cash in the 'thing' and it won't take so I'm slightly annoyed. How crisp do the bills need to be for pity sake?! Finally get it taken care of, so I start to put gas in my car. This young kid, maybe 18 years of age approaches me and asks me if he can ask me a question. I look at him and say, "As long as you're not going to try to sell me something." (said with a glare. I know....poor attitude:)

He looks at me and says, "Well, if you have full coverage it won't cost you a thing. Do you have any rock chips in your windshield?"

REALLY!!!!! Did I not just say, do not sell me ANYTHING?!? I just stared at him.

He fidgeted slightly.

I said, "No, I don't have any."

He countered, "Can I take a look?"

I'm clearly perplexed here as to how he thinks he'll sell me anything at this point, but I waved my arm and with as much sarcasm and sweetness that I could muster, I said, "Have at it." I then watched him climb up on the front tire so he could wash my ENTIRE windshield to see if there were any chips. I thought, well at least all the bug guts from when we were at Disneyland this past week will be gone. Something good came out of this confrontation, oops, I mean converSATION:)

At this point the gas has stopped pumping and he climbs down, looks at me and knowingly reports that I have 3 or 4 chips in the windshield. Now seriously, those chips must be minute cause I've never noticed them. IN fact, the squigee (sp?) in his hand must have a microscope built into it for him to see those minute chips in the windshield.

I looked at him and said, "Oh really."

18 year old boy says, "Do you know what happens if you don't take care of those chips in your windshield?"

18 year old boy says this.

"Um yes, this isn't exactly my first car." I say this slowly like I think he's hard of understanding. "And really, most of the time those tiny little chips that the naked eye can't see don't turn into anything."

(I was trying hard not to laugh at the poor young whippersnapper:)

At this point I think he was tired of the friendly 'banter' we were engaged in, and decides to throw me some attitude. However, in my defense, he shouldn't have tried to sell me something. I mean, I did warn him. (Plus, he called me maam so apparently being blonder doesn't help you out like I originally thought:)

Young whipersnapper says, "Well don't you care about your windshield??"

Um...HELLO! Did he actually just say that to me???

I sweetly said that of course I did, but I didn't need someone at the gas station to try to fix it for me as my husband was perfectly capable.

Then somewhere, the manners came back to poor young whippersnapper, (I give full credit to his mother) and he puts my gas cap back on for me and tells me to have a nice day.

I said with as much gratitude that I could overdo, "Thank you. I will."

People really shouldn't do business in a gas station. We're already forking out enough money for gas as it is, I don't want to be hit up to buy something else. And if I'd owned an SUV, well, the kid would have been grateful to get back to his buddies with his soul still intact.

To be Blonde, or not to be Blonde- Is that really the question?

For the last few years I have resigned myself to the hard learned truth that I will never be a 'Miss' again. It was okay, my coming to the revelation AND resolution, but I think the vain side of my ego was like, "Wait a minute!!! I'm still young!" Then I got my hair done a couple of weeks ago. (I switched my beloved hair dresser, sorry Kim- I still love ya!! but she was cheaper and I'm on a hair budget.)

She told me she loved the faded out color I already had and wanted to throw some highlights in it, and have the existing color act as the low lights. I said, "okay, sure." I'm usually pretty daring with my hair. I don't mind taking chances. But I threw a disclosure in there that I didn't want to be blonde. NOT that there's anything wrong with blonde, but I haven't been blonde in 6 years. When all was said and done, I'm not totally blonde, it's more of a caramel color, but I LOVE it.

Now here's the kicker: I'm getting called MISS again. Interesting isn't it?