Memories (or Why Do I Keep This Stuff?)

When my mom came out for Christmas last month, she brought out a few boxes of my things that I still had at her house. Things that had made the cut when I cleaned out my boxes before they moved in 2002. Treasures that I had saved when I finally gave up my room a few years before that. Memories that I valued enough to preserve whenever I'd go through a purging stage. Obviously these things were important to me--I had my parents move them almost 1300 miles and store them for me until I finally had a home of my own.



When I opened them, I found this stuff. My first backpack, which was full of a few little plastic toys and trinkets, some of which I don't even recognize; my coursage from Winter Ball my senior year in HS, from a date I haven't spoken to in probably a dozen years; a little clay medallion I made in art class in 4th or 5th grade.



There are other things in the boxes which I really am glad I kept--all my old books, yearbooks and letters and notes from friends which make me laugh to reread (even Daddy-o was getting a kick out of reading some of them--I guess its especially funny since he knows the adult versions of most of the writers), some art pieces I did that I actually like to look at, a few toys that I'm saving to pull out for the kids when they are having a bad day. But so much of it just makes me wonder why that was ever so important to me.



Why did I keep a soccer trophy, that wasn't for winning a tournament, but just the end-of-the-year, you-were-on-the-team trophy? I already have the team pictures from each year to prove I was on the team. And why have I hung on to my volleyball uniform from my senior year in HS when I didn't even get to play until the LAST game of the season (that is a whole different post--why it happened, and why, 15 years later, I still think about that fact whenever I think about HS volleyball). And why do I still have flowers from a boy I don't know anymore, but threw out my first rose from Daddy-o 2 moves ago (maybe because it wasn't packed away in storage, so it was crumbling away after sitting on my dresser for several years)?



I guess this is why I need to go through all our storage boxes on a regular basis. And so I can have a good laugh at my high school self--those notes really are hilarious. Or really really sad. But either way, its a good memory.



Please tell me I'm not the only one who has some really random stuff shoved in a box (or two or ten) . . .

It's Your Birthday

Another year for Daddy-o. (And now we're even again--he likes to rub it in for those 6 months that I'm a year older.)We just had a quiet little celebration at home--pizza, cake and ice cream, and presents. The cake, which was supposed to be a basketball, didn't turn out quite like I hoped (thus, no close-ups). Maybe because of the distractions of repair people for both the microwave and shower, as well as a 4 year-old who needed me to spell out a couple sentences for her card.

The kids were probably more excited than Daddy-o, about the present opening

but he does get to go to the Lakers game when they come here in March, so hopefully that makes up for a pretty low-key birthday.

We love you, Daddy-o!

Indoor Time

All these cold days lately have led to a lot of indoor time, which has meant lots of projects started and even some completed! I would mention all the progress that's been made on the kitchen, but I'm done teasing so no more until its actually done. The kids got an early start on valentine's day cards yesterday.

And while they were busy, I made a few cards myself. We decided that since we don't live by any of our family, we need to make more of an effort showing them that we do actually think about them. So we're hoping to actually send out birthday cards this year (and if you are one of those family members reading this, please forgive us if we fail--we do still love you and think about all of you!) January is actually a slow month birthday-wise, except for Daddy-o's coming up next week, so I've been stocking cards for the next few months worth of celebrations.

This is more from the new Cricut cartridge. I seriously love the shapes it can do and the different functions!

And more cards.

I've also done some sewing, but those projects seem to take longer to finish so that will be another post.

Snow Day!

Last night, the forecast was for 3-5 inches of snow by morning. And in Charlotte, that pretty much means the city shuts down. So I started to get pretty excited about the thought of my first "snow day". It never snowed in any of the places I lived in CA and while UT gets plenty of snow, BYU never cancels school. There was one day when I was in school that we got a couple feet of snow and the whole state shut down, except BYU. I still got to wade to class.

We woke up to only a light dusting--maybe half an inch or so. But schools were all closed, almost everyone in Daddy-o's office decided to work from home, and so we got our first snow day.

Can I say how much I love not having to rush out of the house in the morning, first to take Daddy-o to the bus, and then an hour later to take Bean to school. Of course, the kids got dressed faster than ever because they wanted to get outside.

Bugaboo didn't really remember snow from last winter so he was quite curious about the whole thing. When he first looked out the window, he asked Bean, "Why white?"

Bean remembered and was so excited to go outside and "play" in the snow. I tried telling her it was just cold outside and there wasn't all that much.

But we had fun for a little while.

Although Buggy wasn't so sure about the way it stuck to his mittens.

We did build a snowman. You can't have the first snow without a snowman.

The kids thought he was pretty cute :)

And for 10 minutes of play time, we ended up with this:

On a Cold Day

It has been cold here this week. The kind of cold where I feel guilty making Bugaboo sit in the stroller while I walk in the morning. The low this morning was 8, with windchill and humidity. I don't know what the "feels like" temp was, but it felt like iciness to me. And considering how often our heater kicked on today, I think it was cold.

So we headed to the mall after dropping Daddy-o at the bus stop (which is convienently located in the mall parking lot) so I could walk. This is the first week this year that I've resorted to doing laps at the mall with the early morning crowd, but I've tried out both of our neighborhood malls now. I hadn't even heard of mall walking until we moved to Utah, but I guess that makes sense considering the malls in San Diego were all outdoors. And there weren't too many days, even in the middle of winter, that we needed a reprieve from the harsh outdoors.

The kids lasted through 4 laps for me which got in my 3 miles I was hoping for, and then we stopped by the play area so they could have their turn at some physical activity. And then we were home for the rest of the day, doing cold, winter day type of things.

We did a little drawing,
a little animal stacking,

a little crown making,

and while the kids were occupied, I got to do some of my first crafting of the year. Its been a lazy year so far. You know the superstition of whatever you do on the first day of the year predicts your fate for the year--well, I will be watching a lot of TV this year, feeling a little sick, and apparently be spending much of the year without my husband. But today, I defied fate.

I made an overdue thank you card, using my new Cricut cartridge I got for Christmas. I'm really excited about this cartridge and have big plans for it and my garden this spring. I'll keep you posted. . . I also fancied up some hand towels. I bought a set of various colored towels in November with the thought of making a couple Christmas towels and then whatever other holidays we were missing. Didn't get around to it before Christmas, but I figured a snowman is just a nice winter icon, so I could still get away with it until Valentines Day.

And I think it looks great in our guest bath--the blue and black fit in with the color scheme perfectly.

Then I made an Easter towel as well. I'm not quite as happy with how this one turned out. Anyone with applique experience want to clue me in on the secret to getting it to lay flat and not pucker? Maybe I just need to use a looser stitch because the snowman turned out fine, but these eggs are a little lumpy.

And finally, I appliqued some soccer balls on this t-shirt, something I planned on doing back in October when I made Bean's halloween dress. I was feeling a little guilty that I always make things for her and nothing for my little man, but honestly, there is only so much embellishing that you can get away with for a boy.

I'm not crazy about this shirt (its got some of the same puckering issues, and I couldn't decide on a layout that I truly loved and that worked with the pocket), but Buggy likes it, so it works for now.

Any ideas for a masculine valentine shirt? ;)

Winter Surprise

We have a camellia bush--which I'd been told by a neighbor, but that meant nothing to me until I looked out the window the other day and saw these beautiful flowers. I guess having camellias means we get flowers all winter! I can't wait to see all the surprises our yard will have for us in the spring.

A River Runs Through It

This is our backyard after the last couple days of rain. Pretty soggy. At least it drains after a day or two of drier weather (which we won't be getting this week).

But all the water does provide immense entertainment for the kiddos: (that's a worm, in case you can't se it. They flock to the opening of our garage every time it rains.)

Sheer joy:

My Sweet Boy

Bugaboo has been insanely cute lately, with his fascination with his pockets, the way he shyly tucks his head and grins when we're talking to him, the funny little stances and dances he'll do out of no where. . . I could go on and on. He's at such a sweet age and I'm loving it.

Last night, he climbed into Bean's with her for a "tory" and as soon as I started one about the resident fairy that lives in one of our trees, he requested a "amil (animal) 'tory" so I added in a bird to satisfy both my listeners. When I finished the story, he looked up at me and says, "Tank oo. Fun 'tory" and smiled so big that it made my heart melt. A few thank you's like that definitely make up for any amount of mess he can make.

2009, Here We Go!

I am a resolutions person. I have a written record from each year dating back to 1989. I guess it stems from my love of making lists. I have daily "to do" lists, home improvement project lists, shopping lists for several stores, shopping dream lists, craft project lists, gifts-to-make lists. Before Christmas, I even started a list of things I could do while watching TV, organized by the level of mental involvement required so I could pick projects depending on how much I wanted to pay attention to the show or movie. (OK, maybe that last one makes me sound a little crazy, but really, lists are the only way I can remember what I need or want to do--otherwise, I get the kids in bed and flop down on the couch and don't get up for another 3 hours when I crawl upstairs to bed).

So I always have a list of resolutions for the new year. They are very similar, many years--more so these last few years than when I was a teenager because I don't see near as much success in actually accomplishing them as I used to-- but I still like taking the time to review my last year and then plan out what I'm going to focus on in the next 12 months.

A few years ago, I decided to break down my goals into 6 categories to make sure that I was working on all aspects of my life each year and not getting too off balance. Journals/Records, Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Social, and Home/Family. It still seems like one or two categories get the most attention--my physical goals are some of the only ones that I probably think about every single day of the year--but the year that I made a goal to do something fun with a friend once a month (this was the year after having Bean and I had pretty much crawled into a hole and didn't have too many friends those first few months), it made a huge difference in forcing me to get out of the house and make some new "mom" friends. And my goals to read a certain number of books each year helped remind me of how much I used to love to read, and how often I read just for fun, something I kind of forgot in college.

As I reviewed this last year, I realized that I haven't paid much attention to my year long goals, except for the never-ending quest to lose the baby-weight, and, completely by chance, we've had a lot of people over for dinner since we moved here, which meets my social goal. I have had many other goal-setting sessions through out the year where I've recognized that something wasn't working for me at the moment, and many of those would fit as steps to the bigger goals I'd set, but I never even looked back to check. So maybe this year, having a reminder posted out where everyone can see, will keep me on track for more than a week. Maybe not. But either way, I'm still setting them. I have too much fun thinking of what I want to do.

#1--Journals--Print the blog through 2008 as a book. I've heard this is a lot of work, but I really want to have it in print form each year.

#2-Spiritual--Spend 15 minutes before bed praying, reading, and/or meditating.

#3--Physical--Run a 10K this spring, run a mile in 9 minutes (I am seriously such a slow runner these days) and give up my 2 times (or more!) a day dessert habit.

#4--Mental--Cut back on mindless computer time to make more time for crafting and learning new things. I need to come up with some specific short term goals for this, but I think that I will be repeating my Lent challenge from last year.

#5--Social--Each month, have people in our home for something fun, go out for a date night with Daddy-o, and have one girls-night-out.

#6--Home/Family--Get our storage boxes (everything in the garage, kids toys, old clothes)purged and labeled. Get on a GOOD cleaning system where my floors are mopped at least once a month.

I think that should keep me busy this year!

Little New Year's Eve Celebrating

We decided we'd been cooped up too much this week with all the illnesses going around (Bugaboo's had pink-eye, I've had an ear infection, and Buggy and I have both been coughing and stuffy off and on for 2 weeks now), so we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for the morning.

They had a blast, and Daddy-o and I even found a couple games that we really like.

We had a New Year's traditional dinner of Black-eyed Peas with Ham and collard greens (we were a day early, but since Daddy-o left for a wedding in UT at lunch time today, I decided to cook them up early and then figured the kids and I could have leftovers on New Years Day.) I've made this dinner since our last year in San Diego, but it's kind of funny being in the south where this is really is the tradition--I've never seen such a big selection of collard greens at the grocery store--Trader Joes was actually sold out on Tuesday--and I've never seen fresh black-eyed peas. We'll have to try those next year.

After dinner, the kids got to stay up for a couple extra hours with us to watch Cars--very cute movie, and even Buggy lasted for quite awhile before he lost interest. We aren't ready for them to stay up until midnight with us (and they aren't ready for it either--they have been so grouchy today after just staying up until 9:30)--I'm not even ready to stay up until midnight! I fell asleep during It's a Wonderful Life (which we hadn't gotten around to watching yet this year, and we figured its got a nice start-the-year-out feeling to it, so saved it for last night)--pretty par for the course since having kids. I don't know that I've actually made it all the way until midnight these last 5 years without taking a pre-nap around 10:30. But I did wake up with a few minutes to spare (better than our first post-kid new year where I'm pretty sure that Daddy-o never did manage to get me out of the spare bed in Bean's room where I'd fallen asleep a couple hours earlier feeding her.)

Every year, we say we want to have a party, and every year, I'm so glad that we haven't made plans--maybe next year we'll all be healthy and ready to celebrate a little bigger, but for this year, I was happy snuggling with my family on the couch.