Merry Christmas Eve

I have the rest of the year off! Beyond excited to relax, spend time with family and friends, read, sleep, clean, etc., etc., etc,.

To make the most of my time off, I have decided I am not going to complain at ALL for the next week. I am going to enjoy, savor and love every minute of this time:} Anyone want to join me in a no complain zone??

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
-Mahatma Ghandi

PS I passed my TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thinking of doing this in January...

Brave Girls Club

Top 5 Favorites

Have missed focusing on the little things in life that make me happy and smile:} Here are a few of my recent favorites:


Frazey Ford
Folky, acoustic, relaxing perfection. Download now...


J Crew Mongolian Lamb Stole
Faux fur for fall? Yes please...
Bare Esentuals Eye Cream
No more creases and eye makeup icky woes. Eye makeup stays put all day!

Young Women Personal Progress online
Everything is online! You can set up your account and keep track of everything online (click here to start). Bless technology. Did you know you can earn a second medallion? Started my 1st Faith Value Experience today...



People iPhone app
Just when you need a dash of pop culture to lighten your day

Where I have been...

So much for my lofty goals of keeping my blog up this year:} My life has been consumed by a few things that I hadn't quite anticipated this year.

First, I decided to take a certification test for work. This little table has consumed every Thursday night for the last month and for the next two months, every waking thought, and every nightmare. It is so hard. So much harder than I ever imagined. And it won't be over until the end of December. If you have a minute, please send a good thought out into the universe I can pass this thing.



Second, I got called into the Young Womens Presidency. The BEST thing is that activities are on Tuesday nights, the only night Shane works early. I have been working so hard on juggling Mack, praying he won't have a breakdown, that I won't get a migraine with 15 screaming girls. I actually might need a prayer I can survive this more than my test if you have two minutes:}




Anyone else excited for Halloween? My favorite holiday! Needing something to look forward to!

Happy Birthday Gaynell:}

Just wanted to wish one of my favorite friends a Happy Birthday! I love her creativity. I love that she goes the extra 10 miles for any project she does. I love how kind and genuine she is. Love you Gaynell! I hope you have an amazing day:}

Seattle by numbers

2 planes to get to Seattle because we wanted a cheap flight


5 seconds it took for us to start calling each other Buttmunch after the Beavis and Butthead GPS voices came on in the rental car


26 smiles as we saw the Seattle city line driving into Bellevue


10 stories Rex (Ian's future father-in-law) told us about Lake Washington, Mercer Island, and 1-90 as we drove to the Red Sox game

115 dollars for tickets to the game, parking, and the Ivar's fish and chips

42 times Ashley and I purposely misprounced Chone Figgins name

12 times we tried to get on the JumboTron doing the Rally Jig

14 times we talked about how awesome SafeCo stadium was

45 garlic fries Ian made the girl in front of us spill everywhere

4 home runs the Red Sox hit

13 innings played until the Mariners lost

3 complaints from Keith that we were lost after the game and were going to Vancouver

10 comments from my sisters the next morning at brunch we were happy we were doing the trip kid free

1 piece of Kahula cheesecake shared

2 hours to drive to Anacortes to go whale watching

4 phone calls Richard placed to the whale watching place begging them not to leave us as we were running late



1.5 hour boat trip through the San Juan Islands to get to the spot to whale watch
$3.50 we paid for the junior high school nachos on the boat

20 orca whales we saw up close and personal

116 facts we endured listening to about J pod, spy hopping and Ruffles



23 cool stories we heard on the way all about the history of the islands. My favorite? The story of Safari Island.

52 houses that dotted the islands. So cool and isolated.

1,245 times the whale boat guide told us how amazing this trip was in his quest for tips

0 places open in Anacortes at 10:00 pm to eat when we docked

1 late night donut shop open we ate at

52 times we were so happy we decided to go whale watching

8:02 am the next morning we got up to get ready for Ian and Rachael's wedding

4 miles we drove to get to the temple

36 tears shed during the beautiful ceremony

2 gorgeous people sealed for time and all eternity

456 pictures taken around the temple

5 basket of chips we ate at La Azteca before we chowed down on the fajita bar

8 stories told about Ian and Rachael at their lunch

42 minutes hanging out on the pier waiting for the ferry

$50 to get our car and 6 people on the ferry

30 minutes on the ferry heading to Bainbridge Island

10 jaw drops at the beautiful country club where the reception was held

50 minutes we spent hanging out on the deck with drinks relaxing

24 sparklers lit on the front porch to say goodbye to Ian and Rachael

346 laughs on the way back to Seattle listening to Richard talk about "Masterpiece Theater"

9:56 when we woke up the next morning

3 miles to get down to the pier to eat at Fisherman's

2 hours hanging out eating crab, lobster, salmon, mussels and shrimp

56 booth visited at the Market

4 fish we saw thrown at Pike's Place Fish Market

1/4 pound of Mt Rainier Cherries ate walking around

4:43 to catch the flight home

10.321 memories we brought home from the beautiful trip

Love you Ian and Rachael

Rachael Getting Married

Ian is engaged--and soon to be married to this darling girl! We hosted a shower today for Rachael to celebrate their marriage next week. Love how gracious, smart, and sweet she is. Looking forward to all the exciting wedding festivities over the next month. Congrats you two!!

Sleep. Eat. Talk. Relax. Repeat.

So one very cool thing about Shane and his new ride? The need for a road trip. Pronto.


Left M at home and zipped down to St. George. K, so Shane and I really, really love St. George. I love sun, palm trees and pools without having to change time zones. Kinda like our Hampton's weekend spot if we lived in New York. You get the picture. Packed up all my reading goodies, took control of the XM, and we were set.



My biggest fear is that when M is gone and we get on regular work schedules that we won't have anything to say to each other. You hear about all those couples that the bottom falls out once they are actually faced with talking and living with each other. So, these little trips become very important to reconnect and make sure we still have just a bit of a crush on each other. Love our conversations, our fun, our laughs. We ate at our favorite spots (The Pasta Factory), tried a few new ones (Panama Grill), found some real estate we both wished more than anything we could buy, ate Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes, sat at the pool for hours, laughed our butts off at Hot Tub Time Machine, took naps, slept in, got so lazy, came up with a business plan for a decent movie theatre in St George, hung out at the local Walgreens for a bit, took a walk around Green Springs and marveled at how quiet it was, tried to convince each other our music was cool (me Radiohead, Shane the entire country music genre), held hands, and drove that new Camaro suuuuuuper fast.

XOXO S.

Attitude adjustment

Trying to work on some fresh, new attitudes in this house! Found five quick steps today to get readjusted:

Practice upbeat communication

Make an effort to greet people in a positive way because people typically reflect the tone of your greeting back to you.

Learn something new and interesting

Develop a new hobby or learn how to do something you have always been interested in. You'll be amazed at how much more exciting life is when you are involved in something interesting.

Act positive

Have you ever noticed that if you mope around the house, acting tired and depressed, you feel even more tired and depressed? But if you get up and act enthusiastic about life, even if it is only an act at first, pretty soon, you will feel enthusiastic. In other words, fake it until it becomes true. Shakespeare said it more eloquently, when he counseled, "assume a virtue, if you have it not" (Hamlet 3:4). Do this: when you wake up tomorrow morning, jump out of bed and say, "I feel great! It's a great day to be alive!" Say it with conviction, and in no time it will be a great day. Of course you will feel a little silly, that's OK. It sure beats dragging out of bed mumbling, "today's going to be another lousy day, just like yesterday."

Look for the Good

Make a conscious decision to look for the positive. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most people are about as happy as they decide to be." If you look around, you will discover that everyone has challenges and heartbreaks; and everyone has good things in their life. The issue is not the problem--everyone has problems of one type or another--it is our reaction to the problem. Will you choose to respond positively, no matter what life hands you, and then focus on the good things that are happening? Or, will you choose to react negatively, and focus on what's wrong? The decision is yours.

Give yourself a break!

Remember, YOU are the only one who can help your attitude. You cannot depend on other people or changing circumstances to get you out of the dumps. Take time to give yourself the break you deserve. Stop criticizing yourself or blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. Remember, you are doing some things right too!

concepts by mindperk.com

Founding Fathers Play

Mack has his year end school play today. The concept was Survivor meets everyone that signed the US Constitution or had something to do with molding the country's inception. Kind of an interesting concept for sure, but I loved every second.

Here is Mack as Alexander Hamilton. The sunglasses were part of a song about the Bill of Rights being cool. Right up a fifth graders alley:}

Happy Birthday Amanda!!!

Happy birthday to my bestie! I am beyond lucky to have you in my life:} Thank you for all you do for me & my family. BFF? Hope so!

Anyone started this one yet?

Stopping to smell the...

Side note before I start this post. I am sitting on my porch witnessing a very cool lightning storm roll in. Humid, swollen clouds are everywhere. A giant rainbow just appeared. Taking this as a good sign. Love...



Mack wanted to walk to the park today. I usually am not a huge fan of walking to the park. It is just really a stretch of road populated by some trees, but mostly just road to get to the park. Normally, anyone I see walking down this road I assume is homeless or lost their license due to one too many DUI's. But, in following with my spirit of stopping more, I decided a walk was just the ticket.



The road was dusty, and we did get a few strange looks, but we had a wonderful talk about upcoming testing this week, the difference between thunder and lightning, possible birthday gifts for Shane, found out more about the Trax project, and happened upon this little spot of purple.



Take a walk this week and see what inspirations you come away with...

Be...

Stopped today to craft. I love making things. It just makes me feel so creative and happy. I made these blocks for a darling young woman in our ward who's birthday is today. I have been in Young Women's for the last three weeks and am completely enjoying the experience. I think it is exactly what I needed to get spiritually back on track. I know that is one component of my life that has really been missing for awhile. The thoughts on these blocks made my think about each of their purposes. Not only to youth, but to me as well. They are...

1. Be grateful.

2. Be smart.

3. Be clean.

4. Be true.

5. Be humble.

6. Be prayerful.

7. Be still.

8. Be positive.

9. Be involved.

Sooo simple, but when followed, absorbed and lived, so profound. I really believe that anyone that follows these guidelines can have the world opened up to them and find happiness in any situation. Regardless of your faith, I hope these can resonate.

Find the full message here

Enjoy your Saturday!!!

{To make these blocks, create 3 x 3 squares in Photoshop and create each thought. Make your own patterned paper by typing out each thought and changing the font for visual interest. Modge Podge onto wooden blocks (I bought a ton of these at Wood Connection), ink and sandpaper the edges and gift}

The Three Musketeers

Spent a super fun night with Mack, Joey and Kaela at the Hale Theatre seeing the Three Musketeers. Joey got us tickets, so going for free made it even more fun. The play was amazing, the costumes were gorgeous, and Mack totally got into the sword fighting scenes. Loved it all!

Bakery Nouveau

Misssssing Parisian bakeries. Can't wait to try this one in July

#junewish

I don't make wishes very often. I kind of believe in putting the work into a dream instead of just crossing my fingers good karma will come my way. But, something sparked me last weekend that I needed some magic in my life. Soon. The last three weeks have been uber stressful, and I haven't been able to feel quite like myself. Generally, I thrive on stress and deadlines and people not happy with me. I love the challenge of making everything all better. But instead of challenging me, it has mowed me down.

So, I am working on changing my attitude and outlook. And hopefully with a little positive thinking I can get back on track. Twitter had a trending topic last weekend of a #junewish. Something you can throw out there in the universe all my 72 followers can read about me. My June wish was to stop, breathe, be grateful & relax. So, that is exactly what my focus is going to be this month.

My first goal this week is it to stop. To appreciate. To actually notice things. To eat slower. To talk to my husband more. To start saying no more. To completely be in the moment with Mack. To take better care of myself. To get outside more. To think about things more and assess the situation before reacting. Very tough for me. Working on it....

Make a June Wish with me...I will send good karma your way:}

Happy Mother's Day!

To make this simple card:

Hand cut four circles making each circle a bit smaller than the last. Crinkle each circle in your hand and then flatten out. Put three brads in the center of the smallest circle. Hand cut two leaves. Type, stamp, or hand write your sentiment on a small card.

Five Things I Love Sunday

[crushes] this week...


Television
Started DVR'ing Selling New York on HGTV. A sweet little 22 minutes in my life every time I watch it. Want instant creative/inspirational gratification? This is it. Sparkling, hip, trendy apartments decked out in obscenely expensive Sub Zero fridges and more exposed brick than you could wrap you head around. Maybe apartment living in NYC wouldn't be so bad...

Sweaters
Loving this springy cardigan. It just kind of goes with everything (haven't tried it yet with mustard shorts though!). Weird weather this week has had me going to it daily. Find at JCrew.

Garage Doors
Want a wood one. I think it would completely transform our house. Just have to talk Shane into how GREAT it would be. Hmmm....


Claw Games
An all time favorite in our family. Won a fab little doll this week from this one.


Paris Share
This is an old prison called The Conciergerie. Just down from Notre Dame, kind of out of the way. This is where they would hold prisoners before they went to the guillotine. Marie Antoinette lost her head here. Kind of beautiful--I guess not a bad place to think out the last few days of your life. The guard here thought we were Germans. Not sure what Germans look like, so wasn't sure if we should take it as a compliment or not:}