Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Tidbits

What have I been up to lately?

 Picking cute bakers up from preschool. 

Attending award assemblies- way to go Booker, ON-A-ROLL honor roll.  

Spotting hot air balloons from the backyard.  

Writing cute notes to neighbors.  

Early morning running.  

Drinking out of the dog bowl and then drinking straight from the ground when that gets old.  

Feeling snuggly and sick. Perhaps from drinking out of the dog bowl.

Turning these... 

...into this. 

And crafting with Young Women.

Marana Pumpkin Patch

Hey! I just noticed blogger has a nice little "upload from your phone" option now available when you upload photos... making this even easier. I'm loving the "cloud" lately. 

So Hey! We went to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Clark probably has NO recollection of this event. He spent the morning at the ER with a kidney stone. It was baaaaaaad. I wish I could go to the pumpkin patch with heavy narcotics flowing through my veins. Even without them, the pumpkin patch was pretty fun. Plus it's practically right in our backyard which beats driving an hour and a half like we have in the past. 



 The above photo? So very Asher. 




Thank you nice stranger for the blurry photo. No really, thank you! 


Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Dish

I've been disappointed with my blogging self lately. Things have gotten pretty impersonal around here and that makes me sad. I haven't pulled out my camera in ages, which is about to change shortly when the holiday photo season starts. But that just means I'll be taking pictures of other people's families and not my own. Again, feeling sad. Things need to change.

Some of my closest girlfriends from high school/college and I have a habit of group emailing so we can stay current with each other now that we're all spread out across the country. We dish about the sorts of things that never get published on blogs and Facebook. So in an attempt to breathe some life back into my blog, I'm going to try to write (somewhat) like I'm writing to my closest girlfriends...

Where to start? How about here. Clark was recently presented with an opportunity to pursue a job overseas. There's nothing quite like the possibility of moving to force you to sit down and really evaluate how much you like your life (like point by point). I really want to live overseas one day, but I also highly value my right to drive a vehicle and my short sleeved shirts and my ability to go places without my husband's permission (if you're getting my Saudi drift). I also highly value the other things I enjoy in my life right now... great friends, a fantastic neighborhood, a huge ward that I love, support from Clark's family, living near my sister, good healthcare and school options and on and on and on. So no, we're not moving anytime soon. It wasn't the right opportunity. But it sure did make me feel wanderlustful.

On being a mom. Adding a third kid to the mix is tricky, especially if that third kid is Asher. He's a handful. Hot and cold. Sweet and sour. Sadly I'm starting to fall into "pregnancy watch" territory, what with Asher being at the ripe old age of 18 months. If he were an easier kid, maybe. There are days when I honestly feel like we might be done having kids. Other days, I feel like I can go another round...  a year or two from now. I'm sad that I no longer have the energy to do the things I did as the mom of one. Like really sad.

On my calling. Truthfully? Although this occupies a huge part of my heart right now, I hesitate to share about it so publicly. I'll just say that I LOVE working with the young women in our ward. Absolutely love it. I feel a tremendous amount of pressure though. Those years for me, were so pivotal in my life. I spend too much time worrying about how some of my unorthodox leanings might affect impressionable young ladies and not enough time simply sharing my love of the gospel with them. I have a lot of room for improvement.

On accomplishing goals. I started running. For someone else, this wouldn't be newsworthy but I'm proud that I've stuck with it. Regardless of where my weight is at, I will always feel like a fat girl on the inside. So with each mile run, I'm astonished with what my body is capable of. I wish I appreciated my body more ten years ago instead of hating it as much as I did. Bodies. What a great gift they are.

The best for last. On being married 7 years. I have a terrible habit of under-appreciating the things in my life that come naturally. Even if they are most precious to me. This is true of my marriage. In the last 7 years, I can count on one hand the number of fights we've had and I remember each of them distinctly. Two of them involved Clark accidentally ruining my carpet and probably (probably? most definitely) some degree of PMS on my part. It's obnoxious when people brag about how easy their marriage is. I'm not saying we haven't had our heartaches. Believe me, we have. But I'll save the dish on those for the actual emails to my girlfriends. I'm just saying that the heartaches are manageable because the easy times have made them worth managing. I've made it clear in the past that I really dislike public blogging displays of affection (too disingenuous) but since today is all about getting personal, can I just say... Holy crap, I love that man. 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Fall Break in Prescott

It's Fall Break this week and Clark was out of town for a few days so we headed north to for cooler weather and good company.

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This kid is fearless.

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Amara had an appropriate amount of fear.

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Goldwater Lake.

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Don't be fooled, that goose was super aggressive.

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These guys were more interested in feeding themselves than feeding ducks.

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Asher + Juice Box = Bee Sting.

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Which made his little eye swell up. Poor kid.

Thanks for letting us crash your home for a few fun days, Rie Rie, Kyle and Amara!

Majorly Long Mobile Upload-Update

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Ike gets some serious bedhead in the mornings.

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Booker started reading on his own and quickly devoured several Wimpy Kid books. Then he asked Clark to print off the lyrics to his current favorite song. I think we should be worried...

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Ike planted some seeds for Joy School. I was shocked that they actually grew. He was overjoyed.

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More bedhead...

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Having a ball with his buddies.

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Lookin' sharp for the primary program.

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A semi-decent school picture. Hooray! Which reminds, maybe I should order these. Or just take a picture with my phone and call it good.

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For a second, I had no idea what this photo was. Then I remembered... Booker and his karate class were practicing how to fall.

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FHE crafts.

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I went on the first grade field trip to the library/local park. Asher came along and was accompanied EVERYWHERE he went by a group of cute little first grade girls.

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Those girls were obsessed.

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I went to a Shins concert and the opening band performed the theme song from Portlandia, which had me in a fit of giggles (several hipster UofA students looked at me funny). This, coupled with the fact that I was accompanying my 16 year old nephew to the concert made me feel very old and unhip.


But this made it all worth it.

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Plus I got to use the panorama feature on my phone.

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Swoon.

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Nevermind.

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More Halloween crafting. Chalkboard pumpkins.

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This guy loves his baby doll.

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He also loves ice cream.

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Hates Scooby Doo costumes though...

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Sat still for approximately one second during General Conference.

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Booker got a migraine. Fergus offered some cuddle-therapy.

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Ike got a fat lip when his brother wheeled him into a wall while playing "car crash." Brothers... such is the life.

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Love that guy.

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Asher got his first official haircut.

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It lastest of all thirty seconds. He kept hitting the hairdresser and thrashing about.

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