So Long, 2010

You were a good year.  Sure, you could have been better, but you most definitely could have been worse.

These three are definitely the highlight of every year for me:

But 2010 has had its specific ups and downs.  Thankfully, they've mostly been ups.

Despite pay cuts, we've managed to (sometimes barely) stay on top of bills and we've always had enough food to eat.

Because of my babysitting, we've managed to enroll the girls in Girl Scouts, gymnastics, dance classes, and piano lessons.  They've had a blast, and we've had fun watching them do it.

I've been able to volunteer more at the girls' school and get to know the community there.  We have a good school.

Thanks to some wonderful friends who were willing to watch our girls for several days in a row and my wonderful in-laws, who provided a place to stay, Chris and I were able to take a vacation by ourselves.

Thanks to our Netflix account, we've watched some great movies.  And some not-so-great ones (I don't recommend Pi: Life in Chaos, although Chris does).

I've read some wonderful books, and I'm excited to read more now that I'm part of a book group.

Most importantly, I feel like I've taken more steps in my personal spiritual journey this year than I have in the past.  I have a stronger understanding of who I am and where I fit in in the grand scheme of life, and a deeper sense of gratitude to my Father in Heaven for the blessings I enjoy, and to His Son, Jesus Christ, for paving the way for me.

I'm so glad I took so many pictures in 2010.  I may never do anything with the majority of them, but I will never forget the year.  I can't wait to take more next year.

So, here's to what I hope will be a happy, fun, photo-filled 2011!

Bring it on, New Year!

Random Thoughts Thursday

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Two people in foreign countries did random posts today (or, I suppose, yesterday, which was Thursday for them).  I feel so cool to have fans in Australia and Japan.  I don't have to mention the fact that I know both of them, and am related to one of them, do I?

I love being on vacation.

I especially love being on vacation at Grandma's house, because the kids would rather talk to her than me.  And the grandparents see our kids rarely enough that they adore them regardless of how big of a mess they make.  Also, the kids clean up for Grandma better than they do for Mom.

I have read three books since we left our house a week and a half ago: Picking Cotton, which was for my book group and was both heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time; Everything is Illuminated, which I think only made sense because I'd seen the movie; and The Lost Symbol, which was pretty much what you'd expect if you've read any of Dan Brown's other books.  But it kept me entertained.

Now I'm reading...wait for it...The Hunger Games.  Yes, I finally caved.  Aaaaand...I'm enjoying it.

My children can't believe the amount of snow we've gotten here in the past 24 hours.  We went from nothing on the ground at all to probably 8 inches.  Lexi was in snowpants and out the front door before 10:00 this morning.

The other day, Grandma told the girls that she and Grandpa wanted to have a slumber party with them.  She said, "We're sending your parents away so it can just be Grandma and Grandpa and the girls."  Ellie said, "How about we send Grandma and Grandpa away, too, so the kids can do whatever we want."

Chris and I have discovered that when we play games with a group of people, it doesn't matter where we stand at the end as long as we beat each other.  We're not competitive or anything.

Santa brought us a Wii.  I haven't had a complete conversation with Vicki in four days.

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Merry Christmas!

From all of us to all of you!

Random Thoughts Thursday (evening edition)

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We survived our drive down from Oregon.  The car did great, and the kids slept pretty much the whole way.  That's the advantage to driving through the night.  The disadvantage is when both people capable of driving are fighting sleep for the last two hours of the drive.  But we made it!

I love seeing old friends.  And it's even better when my husband likes seeing my old friends, too.

Visiting Utah is crazy.  We have a lot of people to see and not enough time to do it.

Two days until Christmas!  I'm very excited for a particular present that I'm hoping Santa will bring us.

Tomorrow, we ski!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

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Project 365 - Get Ready!

Remember this post?

I promise I haven't forgotten!

Life has been busy, but I've finally set up a new blog for everyone who's interested in participating.

If you click the image above, it should (if I did everything right) take you to Project 365 Central, which I have set up and organized to be a jumping-off point for everyone who wants to join me in taking lots and lots of pictures!

Instructions are waiting there, along with a linky list, just like the linky for Random Thoughts Thursday, so that we can all have a quick and easy way to snoop around in each other's lives look at each other's pictures.

I don't consider myself a blogging expert, by any means, but I've been doing it for a few years now, so if you have any questions, particularly about setting up a blog if you've never done it before, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help!

I'm so excited for this joint project!  I can't wait to see what kind of pictures everyone else takes!  I like exclamation marks!

If you haven't decided yet whether you want to join me in this project, there's still time!  The more the merrier!

Random Thoughts Thursday

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So much to do, so much to do, so much to do…

It seems like all I’m having lately are random thoughts, but I can’t hang onto them long enough to write them down.

I need a vacation.

I think I’m going to be getting a new email address soon. We’re upgrading our internet, and changing service providers. So now I have to figure out how to let everyone know. This should be interesting.

It seems like everyone is late with Christmas cards this year. Either that, or everyone took me off their list. I haven’t done mine yet, but I get 50 free ones, so I might as well – they’ll just be New Year cards, since there’s no way I’m going to get them sent, let alone ordered, before Christmas.

Valentine’s cards are good, too.

Girl Scout cookies go on sale in less than a month. I’m not sure I’m organized enough this year to be ready for that.

Why is it that when I was a kid and we went on road trips, there never seemed to be that much stress leading up to the departure? My mom hid it well, I guess. Me, I’m going crazy.

Ellie does not want to be a vegetarian.  Her reason?  "Vegetarians have to eat toe food.  And that's just gross."

Aaaaand…back to work.

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Sunday Bribery Encouragement

Last Sunday was not a good day in church.

If you're my friend on Facebook, you're aware of that.  Seeing as how my status that afternoon was me wondering whether I'd qualified for extra points in the next life by not killing my children in church.

See, a couple of months ago, Chris was called to be a counselor in our Bishopric, which, for all you non-Mormon readers, means he's an assistant to the leader of our congregation, who is called the Bishop.  Our church has a lay ministry, and all leadership positions are filled by members of the congregation.

What this means for Chris is more responsibilities and more meetings.  What this means for the rest of us is Sunday services without Daddy, since the Bishopric sit together on the stand where they can keep an eye on the congregation be visible to the congregation.

The girls are old enough that they're not too much trouble in church.  They can control their wiggles (for the most part) and don't need snacks or emergency walks to keep them sane.  I usually bring a bag with notebooks, crayons and pencils to keep them busy, but they should be fully capable of sitting through an hour-long service without too much trouble, especially when they've been attending that hour-long service every single week for their entire lives.

Which is why I thought I was going to completely lose it on Sunday.

No, strike that.  I did lose it.  Completely.

I won't name names, but the experience culminated in all the coloring materials being confiscated (apparently the "dirty crayons" are unpopular.  Who knew?) and one daughter being marched out of the chapel and into an empty classroom, where she was placed on a chair in a corner and instructed to remain there alone until she was ready to be in church.

She contemplated the ramifications of this punishment and asked what would happen if she wasn't ready by the time church was over.

Suffice it to say, there wasn't a lot of meaningful worship going on in our pew that day.  And my daughters all spent the majority of Sunday afternoon in their bedroom, contemplating, in theory, where they had gone astray and what they could do to put themselves back in Mother's good graces.

I've been thinking about this ever since then, wondering where I've gone wrong and why it is that my children look on Sunday services as something they're being dragged to, rather than something they're attending willingly.  They love their Sunday school classes, but the worship service itself is clearly, in their eyes, something to be tolerated, but not enjoyed.

The one thing I'd decided by Sunday afternoon is that we are no longer bringing crayons to church.  Vicki is 10 and only colors because the materials are there anyway.  I'm pretty sure she can handle the meeting without a problem.  Lexi is 8 and should be capable of sitting quietly for an hour.  Even if she has no interest in the speakers, she has a vivid imagination and could easily lose herself in daydreams and simply appear to be listening.  I don't care, as long as she's not disruptive.  And Ellie...well, at 5 she may need a little distraction still, but I'm sure she could make it through one talk.  Maybe I'll still bring crayons for her.  I haven't decided yet.

But this morning I read this post by one of my favorite bloggers, Daring Young Mom.  It's comforting to know I'm not the only one out there dealing with this.    My favorite part? 

"Technically I know they’re not old enough to sit and worship for an hour and have a meaningful experience but I do think they should be capable of faking it so people around us can enjoy being there."

Exactly.

She has a great plan for encouraging this kind of faking it in her children.  I'm not thrilled with the idea of bribing my children to make it through church, but at the same time, not bribing them is clearly not working.  And I'm definitely not above bribery.  What parent is, truly?  And bribing with dedicated one-on-one Mom or Dad time?  Priceless.  At least in this house.

We'll be on vacation for the next few Sundays, and therefore going to church with grandmas, who seem to encourage good Sunday behavior without even trying, but you can expect a full report sometime after the New Year, when we've had a chance to test it out a few times.  If it works, I'll be able to enjoy meaningful worship and people at church will think my children are little angels.

If it doesn't, well, there are a lot of empty classrooms.

The One-Upper

You know those people whose stories can always top yours? The people whose labor is always just a little longer and more painful than yours, or whose crazy relatives are always just a little crazier than yours?

Apparently they start young.

Yesterday Ellie decided to get a snack of cheese for herself and her friend. This involved slicing it with the extra-sharp slicer, the one that once caused me to lose a small piece of my thumb.

I was upstairs wasting time Christmas shopping online when I heard the scream. It was the kind of scream that tells me something is truly wrong, not the kind of scream that tells me someone’s sisters are "out to get them".

I found Ellie sobbing halfway up the stairs, cradling her left pinkie finger in the other hand, trying valiantly through her pain and fear to keep the blood from dripping onto the carpet. Her friend was behind her, full of concern.

I led her into the bathroom, where we rinsed off the blood so I could assess the damage (not too much, thankfully, despite all the blood). As Ellie hyperventilated at the sight of so much red washing down the drain, her friend calmly offered a few sympathetic words of comfort:

“It’s not so bad, Ellie. One time I had a paper cut, and it was so much worse than that.”

Random Thoughts Thursday

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I really need to post between Thursdays, too.

I’m really paranoid that we’re going to get another round of the stomach flu this Christmas. You’d think children puking on Christmas would only happen once to a family, but we had it two years ago (all three girls), and two years before that (all three girls, plus Chris, my dad, and quite possibly various other family members). I’m begging for mercy this year; let the curse will broken! Keep your fingers crossed.

Why can’t I ever think of anything when people ask what I want for Christmas?

Usually by now I’m really dreading the drive to Utah, but I can’t wait to try out the new ride. Expect a full report.

I need to figure out how I'm going to post my last several pictures for Project 365, since I won't be on my own computer. And how I'm going to post the first few of 2011.

What, exactly, do my children have against coats?

I’m almost finished with my Christmas shopping. I just need to buy the girls’ present for Chris and figure out what to get my brother and Chris’s sister, and that’s it!

Lexi and Ellie, when presented with the opportunity, actually decided not to get their sister a Snuggie for Christmas. I’m shocked, but pleased.

Did you know goats can faint? Me neither, but apparently they can.

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Random Thoughts Thursday

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Vicki, Chris, and Lexi were all disappointed that I didn’t do the linky last week. I don’t know why; it’s not like they write random thoughts. But it’s good to know they support my blog!

Sometimes I forget my hair is short. I’ll feel something on my neck (usually it’s the blankets when I’m in bed at night, or the hood of my sweatshirt or coat) and I’ll think it’s my hair and go to brush it off my neck. It’s been this way for over three years now, but I guess when you consider it was long for 30 years, it’s still a new thing. Give me 27 more years to get used to it.

Thanks to Lexi’s friend, we girls have pretty much memorized the entire Wicked soundtrack. Now we just need to see the show.

I’m getting excited to start a new year of pictures. Are you?

I should be cleaning my house, since my book group is coming over tonight, but what I really want to do is curl up with a cup of cocoa and a good book. They’re a book group; they’d understand, right?

Just a few more weeks until we give the Swagger Wagon its true test: the Christmas trip to Utah.  Will it handle the yucky weather?  Will we be able to cram everything in the smaller cargo space?  And, most importantly, will we maintain our sanity better than we did in the Outback?  Stay tuned to find out!

Just in case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s something I’d love to participate in, but would be thrilled out of my mind to just witness:



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Random Thoughts Thursday - Thanksgiving Edition

Today is Thanksgiving, so I will confine my Random Thoughts into one area (making them significantly non-random, but that's okay): things I'm thankful for.  Also, no linky this week.

Today I'm thankful for a loving Father in Heaven, a wonderful family, and good friends.

I'm thankful that I have enough food to eat and a warm, dry place to sleep.

I'm thankful for books to read, music to listen to, and how easy it is to communicate with loved ones far away.

I'm thankful for family traditions, which, since 2007, have included bowling on Thanksgiving day.

Lastly, I'm thankful for an awesome neighbor, who brought over an unexpected pumpkin pie this morning, saving me from cooking one more thing today.  You rock, Julia.

I hope everyone else has something to be thankful for today, too.  May your turkey be juicy, your potatoes fluffy, and your pie crust flaky and just the way you like it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just Keeping it Weird

We moved to Oregon from Utah about 5 1/2 years ago.  The weather here in Portland takes some getting used to.

It's not just the rain.  You get used to that pretty quickly, since it's pretty much constant from October to May.

Portland winters are interesting to us Utahns.  We're used to several feet before anyone even bats an eye.  You live in Utah for any period of time in the winter and you learn to drive in all kinds of winter conditions: blinding snowstorms, sleet, icy roads; you name it, we've driven on it.
But here in Portland, it doesn't snow much.  So when it does, the entire city shuts down.

And it doesn't take a lot, either.

Case in point:

Snow?

This is what it looks like outside my house right now.

And school was canceled today.

Shameless Promotion

Shutterfly has a fabulous deal going on right now: 50 free cards for bloggers!

So, because I slightly overspent in one area of our Christmas budget (although the result will be awesome fun for our family), and am trying to make up for it in all other areas, I would love to get some fabulous-looking Christmas cards without having to pay for them!  I'm all over this offer.  Please bear with me while I tell you what, exactly, I like about Shutterfly's cards.

Last year we took our own Christmas pictures and had some cards made up quickly and cheaply at a local discount store.  They were nice enough, but after looking over the options available at Shutterfly, I'm really excited to give them a try.  While they do offer the typical photo greeting cards, they also have a selection of folded or flat stationery cards, which are printed on high-quality cardstock and therefore look more professional to me.  I'm excited to try these out.  With options for up to 6 photos, my biggest problem is that I don't actually have one decent picture of our whole family yet this year, let alone six.  I'm going to do some playing around with the camera in the next several days and see what I can come up with.  Hopefully I'll get some good shots in time to get cards out before Christmas!  If not, by New Year's, at least.  New Year's cards are good, too, right?

If you'd like a Holiday (covering all my bases) card from our family, send me an email (click the "contact" tab above) with your address and I'll try to get one to you.  Remember, though, I'll only have 50!  First-come, first-served, people!

Inventory

As a side note, I realized yesterday that I have cleaned out under the oven once, 3 years ago, when we put in our new floor.  So I'm not a total slacker.

Here is what I found yesterday while cleaning out underneath the oven:

A lot of nasty dust bunnies
1 ballpoint pen
7 Legos
1 spoon
4 refrigerator magnets
6 cookie cutters
2 combs
1 package of dental floss
7 sheets of paper, some with artwork
3 ponytail holders
1 ant trap
2 rockos (as opposed to ordinary rocks)
15 toothpicks
1 crayon
1 M&M
assorted Cheerios, pretzels, and goldfish crackers
and one dime.

At least I got paid.

Random Thoughts Thursday

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This morning I held my tongue and made my daughter a peanut butter and goldfish cracker sandwich for breakfast. Choose your battles, people. Choose your battles.

I am finished with all the Christmas shopping I need to keep secret from the girls! Now I just need to finish up all the rest. Anyone know what my brother wants?

Our oven died last week. It’s amazing how hard it is to come up with a week’s worth of stovetop meals. The repairman should be coming today. Fingers are crossed.

The cookie dough we were going to bake when we discovered the oven was dead, and which we put in the freezer instead, is slowly disappearing, and no one will take credit for it.

I can levitate birds, but no one cares.

One day, when I’m rich and famous, I’m going to travel to all the places in Europe that I’ve been but didn’t care enough about when I was younger. I wish I could remember Madrid.

What is it about parenthood that makes brains fuzzy? I used to remember all kinds of pointless things, but now I can’t remember the pointless, let alone the useful.

I have discovered that while I really enjoy having a baby around for several hours while I babysit, I also really enjoy giving the baby back to his mom at the end of the day. I’m pretty sure I’m finished with that stage of my life.

Last night I bought five tickets to Harry Potter. Tomorrow, Vicki is having the birthday party of her dreams. And it’s entirely possible that I’m even more excited than the four 10-year-old Harry Potter nuts I’m taking to the movies tomorrow evening.

And now, I have to go clean out under the oven. I haven't done it once in the five years we've lived here (I can't believe I'm admitting this), but now that someone is probably actually going to see under there, I'm afraid of what he might find.

May the Force be with me.

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It's Not the Same Thing

Last night at dinner, Ellie was wondering something.

She wanted to know if we had "the princess diarrhea".

Having never heard of that particular ailment (and, as a side note, I'm thinking diarrhea is one of the most un-princess-like things a person can experience), I asked her to repeat herself.  While trying desperately not to crack a rib from holding in my laughter, because she was quite serious.

She still wanted to know if we had "the princess diarrhea".

But this time she clarified for me.  She was wondering about that show, where the girl doesn't know she's a princess, and then her grandma tells her.

Oh.

She meant The Princess Diaries.

Random Thoughts Thursday

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A big thank you today to all who serve or have served in the armed forces.  And a special shout-out to our friend Mike, currently serving in Afghanistan.  You are awesome!

Also, a very happy 90th birthday today to Chris's Grandma Ebert!  She's an amazing lady with a killer sense of humor, and we named Ellie after her.  When I grow up I want to be just like her!  Yipee!

I am so very, very cold.  Time to turn on the heat, maybe?

We spent the morning at two different Target stores so Vicki could spend her birthday money and Lexi could spend her allowance.  We came home with a pillow pet, a Harry Potter Lego set, and a Webkinz ZumBuddy.  And a $1 packet of markers for Ellie.

I'm stressing about Christmas shopping.  Every year I think I'll plan ahead and get my shopping done before November, and every year November rolls around and I'm just getting started.

Why don't stores have what I want in stock when I have the coupon to buy it?

While I am enjoying the extra time with my children, it sure seems like they haven't had much school lately.

I would like to thank Jen from Epbot for bringing this colossal waste of time to my attention.  It's incredibly pathetic that, after at least 15 years, I can still remember where the warp zones and hidden extra lives are.

Why, when it's against the law, do people still talk on their cell phones while driving?  It may have just been the Target parking lot, but you still ran a stop sign, buddy.  Hang up and drive.

Most random comment ever uttered by one of my children: "It would be hard to spray-paint a bald eagle."  Um...yes.  Yes, it would.
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Talking the Talk

About three weeks ago, while on our way to Lexi's dance class, we somehow got to talking about twins.  It was just Lexi and Ellie in the car with me, and they wanted to know the difference between identical and fraternal twins.  We're trying not to sugar-coat anything in our family, so I explained that a sperm comes from the dad and the egg comes from the mom, and when they meet, sometimes the egg splits into two.  When that happens, you have identical twins.  But sometimes there will be two eggs, and if they each are met by a sperm, you'll have fraternal twins.

By this point, we were at the dance studio, so I thought the conversation was finished, but as we got out of the car, Lexi said, "Mom, I was wondering.  If the egg comes from the mom and the sperm comes from the dad, and the baby grows inside the mom, how does the sperm get to the egg?"

Oh, boy.

Considering the fact that we were about three steps from the door of the dance studio, there wasn't time to go into any sort of detail.  Besides, I'm pretty sure the parents of any of the other girls in the class (who range in age from 6-8 years old) wouldn't have appreciated me going into that sort of detail, anyway.  So I told her that that was a really good question, but there wasn't time for me to answer it right now, and could she remind me later when there was more time?

Of course, she didn't.

But we knew it was time anyway.

Time for The Talk.

Such fun.

We had The Talk with Vicki when she was about Lexi's age, and it went fairly well, all things considered.  After sitting in serious silence through the majority of the discussion, her only real reaction was, "Ew."

Lexi's turn, yesterday evening, also went well, but it was more fun.

We couldn't get her to say any of the names for private body parts (which I am purposely not naming here, since I can only imagine the Google searches that would end up here if I did) - she preferred to keep her face buried in her hands during that part of the discussion, even though we teased her by saying things like, "nostrils", "elbows", and "armpits" to try and make her understand that we were just talking about body parts.  Didn't work.  At one point, while we were talking about how boys have a [certain body part], she said, "This is just disturbing."

But she was really interested in the location of ovaries, and how that whole process works.  I got to stand up and do a lot of pointing through my jeans.  And she was somewhat relieved, it appeared, to understand that the eggs inside of moms weren't the size of chicken eggs.

It will probably be about three years before we'll have to have The Talk again, but I think it will be even more fun with Ellie, since she's already shown us that she has absolutely no problem with saying the names of boy or girl parts.  She announced to us at the dinner table one night, much to her sisters' horror, that her friend Timmy* has a [boy part]!  And she's seen it!  While they were going potty!  Isn't that cool!?!

Being a parent is fun.


*name has been changed to protect the innocent.  Although I'm fairly certain the innocent's mother will read this and know exactly who I'm talking about.

Ten Years of Vicki

Ten years ago today my life changed forever.

Ten years ago today, Vicki was born and I became a mother.

While the rest of the nation was trying to figure out who would be the next President, Chris and I were instead trying to figure out how on earth we were supposed to be responsible for this tiny, helpless little creature that was suddenly a part of our family.

And now, even though it doesn't feel possible that it's been that long, she's not so tiny or helpless, and she's ten years old.

A whole decade.

Amazing.

You've come a long way, baby! (We didn't get a digital camera until 2003, and our scanner broke about 4 years ago, so it was slim pickings for the first couple of years, but I made do with what I had.  Besides, she's cute no matter what.)

Blessing day, Dec. 31, 2000

In the comfy chair, 2001

Hiking in Snow Canyon, St. George, Utah, 2002

2 years old, 2003

Camping with Dad (and Dizzy Bear!) 2004

Indian Beach, Oregon, 2005

She did her own hair, and was so proud to show it off at school! 2006

Gap-tooth grin, 2007

Hiking in Forest Park, Downtown Portland, 2008

True Vicki style, 2009

Birthday girl! 2010
(She would like me to note that the crown was not her
idea.  Ellie insisted.)

Vicki's natural cheerfulness and self-assuredness make her such a joy to be around.  I'm so proud to be her mother, and I can't wait to see what the next 10 years brings for this amazing girl!

I Have an Idea, and It Involves You

If you've read this blog for any period of time, you're familiar with my other blog, Project 365.

If you haven't and you're not, you should take a look.  Go ahead; I'll wait.

Are we all back now?  Alrighty...

Last year around this time Chris mentioned that, while browsing Flikr, he'd come across some groups of people who were taking a picture every day for a year and sharing them.  He thought it was a really cool idea, and since he knew I liked to take pictures, he thought I should give it a shot.

So I did.

And I almost gave up on the second day.

See, I decided to document all of 2010, but we were on vacation and January 2 was spent packing up so we could pull out and head home extremely early in the morning on the 3rd.  It wasn't until we crawled into bed close to 11:00 on the 2nd that I remembered I hadn't taken any pictures that day, because nothing interesting had happened.  I almost just threw the towel in right then and there (we were sleeping in the basement of my in-laws' house in Utah, and it was COLD!)  But Chris knew I'd regret it if I did, so he convinced me to get out of bed.  I figured if I was already out of bed, I might as well go outside, which is why my picture for Day 2 is this one.

Today is Day 309 and I've only missed three (assuming I take any pictures today, since I haven't yet.  But I will, dang it!  I will!)

But I'm not writing all this to brag about it.

I've noticed that people actually seem to think this is a really cool idea.  It's fun to document a year in this way.  I take a LOT of pictures, and I don't always post the one that tells the most about my day, but I will always be able to look back at this project and see what was going on in my world on any given day of the year.  And I think my photography skills have improved considerably, at least as far as composition is concerned.  (Although I still maintain that if I had a nicer camera, my photography skills would be nicer, too.)

So I'm proposing an idea, just to get a feel for it and see how many people would be willing to participate.

I want you to join me.

Yes, you.

I'm planning on continuing the project for another year (because I'm determined not to miss any days this time), and I'd love to have some company!  I thought I'd plant the idea now so you can be thinking about it for a while.  If there's enough interest, I'll organize some sort of "Project 365 Central", so that everyone participating can enjoy everyone else's pictures, too.  Of course, your project doesn't have to start on Jan. 1, but it's a good, easy date to remember.  I have a friend who started on her 33rd birthday and is documenting a year from there, and another friend, a teacher, who is documenting a school year.  Whatever works for you is great.  But I'll be starting over on Jan. 1, 2011, and I invite anyone who is interested to join me!

Think about it.  Let me know.  Have your people call my people; we'll do lunch.  Or something.

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I hate the new PBSKids Cat in the Hat show.  Whose idea was it to turn the irresponsible and irascible Cat into a role model?  It's the most obnoxious half-hour on my television.

Yesterday Ellie informed me that she was going to name all her girl babies, if she ever has any, after flowers: Daisy, Rose, and Dandelion.

Someone needs to come to my house and take away all the Halloween candy.  Ellie is turning into a monster.

I am lazy.  There's just no getting around it.  I have all these noble intentions, but I find things I'd much rather be doing, and those intentions go right out the window, where I never seem to miss them at all.

I think this picture would make a great "engagement pictures" submission to Awkward Family Photos:

Chris and I watched So I Married an Axe Murderer last weekend.  We quote it all the time, but it's entirely possible that neither of us has even seen it since we've known each other.

I read an article the other day about how there really aren't any quotable movies being made anymore.  Maybe it's just because I don't go to the movies much, but I think everything I quote is from the last century (which sounds a lot farther away than it really is, huh?)

Yesterday our car was dusted in pollen, and Lexi and Ellie were worried it would be attacked by bees.  How do you reassure your kids when you're laughing to hard to talk?

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Extra Shiny

This evening Chris took the older girls to their church activity.  This is our usual mid-week bath time for Ellie, since her big sisters are gone and she can play in the tub for a long time, instead of having to hurry so we can get everyone clean before bed.

Once she was in the tub, I decided it would be a good time to sit down and read.  I could have been doing the dishes, but that's no fun.

I got a little caught up in my book, apparently, because the next thing I knew the water was draining from the tub.

"Wait!" I hollered.  "Don't drain the tub yet!  We still need to wash you!"

And she hollered back, "It's okay, Mom.  I already did everything you usually do in here."

Somehow, I didn't think her doing it was going to be as effective as me doing it, but she was clearly so proud of her efforts that I knew it was going to have to be handled delicately.

"Um, how about I just do it over again, just to, um, make sure..."

"Oh, okay, Mom, you just want to make sure that I'm extra shiny?"

Yes, that's it!

She's extra shiny

The Stuff That Dreams Aren't Made Of

I love my bed.

I mean, really love it.  I will sleep in other places if I have to, but I'm most comfortable snuggled up on my own comfy mattress, under my own comfy covers.  Maybe I'm a bed snob, but at least I'm a comfortable one. (I suppose now would be an appropriate time to admit that my in-laws actually bought a memory foam mattress for their guest bed after I mentioned to them that the ultra-firm one already on there wasn't all that comfortable - hey, they asked!  I still feel kind of bad about that, but I do enjoy sleeping in that bed more now.)

My children, though...well, I don't get them.

They actually like sleeping on the floor.

Back before we bought all the new shelving for the girls' room, Lexi had so much junk stored on her bed that she couldn't fit.  Rather than clean it off, she slept on the floor for two weeks.

Ellie...well, to be honest, she can sleep anywhere.

And tonight Vicki announced that she was going to sleep in the "hiding place", which the girls created by hanging towels down from Lexi's loft bed.  Upon this announcement, the other girls clamored for a chance to sleep in there, too.

Now, I get the desire to have a fort-type place.  I totally do.  My friend and I used to turn my canopy into a covered wagon, back in our "Little House on the Prairie" phase.  It was still my bed, though.  But my kids have this all worked out: from now until forever, Monday night is Ellie's night to sleep in there, Tuesday is Vicki's, and Wednesday is Lexi's.  They're calling it "the comfy place".

I say it doesn't matter what you call it.  It's still the floor.

They say they don't care, they're sleeping there anyway.

My children are strange.

Happy Halloween!

From our pirate, princess, and cowgirl:

I worked hard on these costumes, so, dang it, I get to show them off!

And a very happy day to you all from us punks.

This is how we dressed for the church party.  We're so awesome.

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It is so cold in my house right now. But I refuse to turn on the heat until at least November. We’ve made it this far before…but I’m running out of sweaters to layer on. And I’m kind of puffy.

I did find my slippers, though, so at least my feet are toasty.

Why does it not bother the kids like it does me? I'm wearing four shirts and two pairs of socks and they're all watching TV in their underwear. I don't get it.

This morning Chris overslept and nearly missed his plane. Thank goodness for a small child who wanted help with the TV at 6:30 in the morning (I never thought I’d say that!)

I need to update Project 365. I haven’t missed another day, I just haven’t had time to sit down and post so many pictures. And, of course, every day I put it off just adds one more picture to put up. But still, I put it off.

We took the Girl Scouts to the pumpkin patch yesterday and I forgot my camera.  I'm an idiot.

I love my new van! The best part is, I don’t have to listen to “she’s touching me!” anymore!

We need new family pictures. Ellie is two in our most recent ones. It's time.

I only have one Halloween costume left to sew. I think I’ll make it.

My fingers are so cold I can’t type right. But I’m not stubborn. I’m NOT!

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Just Call Us the Swagger Family

We’ve gone through a few cars in our 11 years of marriage. Our first was a 1989 fire-engine red Audi 5000. It was an old boxy grandma car (truly, it was. We bought it from Chris’s great-aunt and -uncle, who bought it from his grandparents) and we loved it. We drove it until the day it died, quietly and without fanfare, on a stretch of 7th East in downtown Salt Lake City.

After that we got a Toyota Corolla. It was small, simple, and reliable, although as basic as you could possibly get. No automatic locks, no cruise control (which, let me tell you, would have come in really handy on our move to Oregon), but still a great car for a family of four. Once Ellie was on the way, though, we realized the little Corolla just wasn’t going to cut it for a family of five.

So we upgraded to a Subaru Outback. And it was awesome. Three carseats fit in the back, no problem. It carried us to Utah and back 10 times in the course of five years. The cargo space was unparalleled, and, apart from the slightly ghetto driver’s side window, we never had a single problem with it. But it had a lot of miles on it and was beginning to show signs of its age.

Plus, the kids just kept getting bigger. And the car didn’t.

So, after squirreling away our pennies for three years (three very looooong years), doing lots of online research, and spending two days driving around to a variety of dealerships (from the slightly scary to the overly imposing), we are now the proud owners of a Toyota Sienna minivan! Yay us!



Our new ride.


The girls came along to help out. They were very discerning.

Test drive!


They approved of the bucket seats and “magic doors”, but were disappointed by the lack of drop-from-the-ceiling screen in the first car we test drove. And also the missing mirror from the driver’s side visor.


We did not buy this car.


But they liked the play area and free popcorn at one dealer and the free candy at another.

Vicki, who definitely has the most Ebert genes of any of our daughters, made a chart so she could keep track of the cars we looked at.

The second car we test drove (which did happen to have a drop-down screen – bonus!) ended up being “the one”. It had a few more miles than we were hoping for, but the price was good, and, most importantly, they made us an offer we couldn’t refuse for a trade-in on the Outback.

So we bid a fond farewell to the car we’ve occasionally referred to as “Kermit” (I’m pretty sure Uncle Scotty named it)


Goodbye, old friend.


and drove home in what has been dubbed “Kermit II”. I didn’t actually want another green car, but you take what you can get, and it’s already growing on me.

And we managed to strike gold and landed ourselves the luxury edition, which means leather seats (heated!) and an excellent surround sound system. It also means we get to enjoy my personal favorite part:

That's right.  Our new car has a VCR. Not a DVD player, but a VCR. How many other people do you know with a VCR in their car?

Just watch us swagger.

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The President passed within a half mile from my house yesterday and I missed it. I’m so bummed. A five-year-old friend called me last night to tell me that she’d seen his motorcade, which makes me even more bummed.

I still have two Halloween costumes to sew. I’m such a procrastinator. Now my house will suffer. At least I know Chris will pretend not to notice.

I get to help with picture day tomorrow. I’m hoping I can manage to get Ellie's pictures taken, too, so I don’t have to take her somewhere else. It's just easier that way.

Ooooh, maybe I’ll watch The Princess and the Frog with Ellie while I cut out fabric! I haven't seen the whole thing yet, and we really should return it to Netflix.

I want a new, bigger car and I want it now. Can’t I just snap my fingers and make it happen?

Mary Poppins would really come in handy around here.

Yesterday when I told my kids to turn off the TV and do their homework, no one complained. Should I be worried?

This post was written by Maggie, a counselor at the girls’ school. We love our school.

If you haven’t seen it yet (and you probably have; I’m a little slow), you should watch this. I do love the Old Spice guy, but I love Grover more.

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Halloween is in two weeks?  What?!?  Oh, man, I have to get to work on costumes!  Next year they're all going as bedsheet ghosts, I swear.

It's so great to see the world coming together over happy news.  I'm so glad those miners got out okay!

There is not enough time in a day to do everything I'd like to.  There's barely enough time to do everything I need to.  Can we slow this ride down, please?

The other day I told Ellie I'm going to miss her when she goes to school next year.  She told me it would be okay because her stuffed animals would keep me company.

I now completely understand how people can spend three straight days watching TV shows on DVD.  Lost is sucking me in, and it's probably good for my sanity that I'm not allowed to watch it without Chris, or else I'd be up all night.

I would like to know, though, where they found bottle rockets.  Who brings those on a plane?  There was something else, too...a pickax?  Something like that.  We just keep telling ourselves: willful suspension of disbelief.

I came across a quote the other day that I really like: "Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking." -R. Buckminster Fuller

Who names their child Buckminster?  Even as a middle name?  It makes me think of Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate, which makes me think of Oliver Boliver Butt. Which reminds me that Dr. Suess was awesome.

Blogger's spellcheck is suggesting "bigamist" as an alternative spelling for "buckminster".  Heh.

I would like to know why Facebook thinks I would be interested in "Buddhist Second Life".  Sometimes their ads just confuse me.

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Weird at WinCo

I've been shopping at WinCo Foods for over five years now.  I know some people who don't like shopping there, but we're all about saving in this house, so that's where I go.

Granted, the clientele is, well, different from what you'd find at Safeway or Fred Meyer, but I don't mind too much.  It's never been that strange.

But yesterday was just weird.

When we were walking into the store, I noticed a lady with a bunch of what looked like bracelets inside of baggies walking around the parking lot.  Ellie wondered if she was going to a birthday party, because why else would you have so many bracelets?  But I forgot about her as soon as we got inside.

We did our shopping and left the store.  Just as I got the car unlocked, the bracelet lady approached me.  Apparently she made the bracelets herself and was selling them to support herself.  Okay, I thought, we like bracelets in our house.  They were nothing terribly fancy, but she was selling them for a dollar apiece, so I bought one for Ellie.  She thanked me and moved on to the next potential victim customer.

I hadn't even finished saying goodbye to the bracelet lady when I felt a tap on my shoulder.  I turned and found myself face-to-face with an older gentleman pushing a walker.  He grunted a little (kind of like the no-face spirit in the movie Spirited Away - if you haven't seen it, you should) and held out a small green card.  On it was printed: "I am DEAF.  I am selling these cards with the DEAF ALPHABET to raise money.  THANK YOU."  On the back was a very small image of the manual alphabet.

I asked him (hoping he could lip-read) how much, and he held up first one, then two, then three, then four fingers, followed by a shrug.  I assume he meant dollars.

I have no problem paying a dollar for a hand-made bracelet, but it seems like a bit much to pay for a business card-sized piece of paper with an extremely hard-to-read "deaf alphabet", especially when I, and all three of my children, for that matter, already know it.  So I took matters into my own hands (ha!) and finger-spelled, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can today."  Sadly, I'm not 100% sure he even understood what I was saying.

Now, I truly am all for supporting those in need, and if I hadn't already given the bracelet lady a dollar, there's a good chance I might have gone ahead and paid for the little card, but really?  What are the odds of being hit up twice in and afternoon?  Or even in a day?  Let alone in the space of two minutes, without even moving my feet?

WinCo (or at least its parking lot) is now officially a weird place for me.

After I got in the car, Ellie said I should have shown him that I know the signs for "more", "grumpy", and "silly".

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Until today, I didn’t know doctor’s offices would schedule appointments a year in advance, but apparently they do.  And I have no idea how I'll remember it.  But Vicki's cast is off, hooray!

My cousins, the ones who adopted a baby boy last year right around Christmas, have just adopted another baby boy! Their story is pretty amazing. Happy tears.  Lots and lots of happy tears.  You can read all about it here. Congratulations to Zack, Carrie, Caleb, and little Noah!

I think “Happy a Nice Day” is going to be my new catchphrase. It has a nice ring to it.

Last night we had dinner at The Original Taco House and, by doing so, helped our school raise money for technology. How cool is that?

It is entirely possible that I recycled a Netflix movie yesterday. I'm thinking this isn't a good thing.

Yesterday my baby turned 5.  One month from today, my oldest child will be 10.  Wow.

I have an almost-finished Belle costume lurking in my kitchen, but I’m hiding from it because I messed up on the gathers for the skirt and I have to tear it all out and redo that part. But I also have laundry that needs folding and bathrooms that need cleaning, and I feel guilty working on a Halloween costume instead. And there are two more costumes to finish when I’m done with that one. Ugh.

Aaaaaand…if I’m going to accomplish all I’d like to today, this round of Random Thoughts is officially over.

Thanks for playing :)

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