I was away from my baby for the first time since he was born for two days this weekend. I thought I would have a really hard time, but he was with his daddy I was totally fine. It helped tons that Thurm is such a great dad and knows Quinn's schedule and how to put him to sleep, etc.
I went to a photography seminar in Salt Lake. It was a good refresher course and I learned a few key things that I think will really improve my photos. The big one is to meter for the highlights. Meaning, find the white in your photo and meter for that so it doesn't get blown out. This is just totally opposite from how I learned. But I realized its because I learned in college on black & white film. In B&W film, you meter so the shadows have detail. I've always shot manual except for the last couple years when I lost all confidence. Anyway, its a whole new concept for me and I love it! It should help tons. And it was a great confidence booster because I pretty much knew most of what they taught. I took some new info from each class, but it was basically review. So that made me feel good about what I'm doing.

This is a giraffe I made Quinn last week. I saw something similar online. I decided to do hand stitching on the outside and stuff it with cellophane to make it crinkly sounding. I think I'm going to make another one, but stuff it with cotton.

Why is it some days that I can get so much done and others, if I read a magazine I feel like I've accomplished something? Today has been a day of homemaking. I never, ever thought I'd be into crafting and cooking. I'm sure most of you have been to esty.com. Maybe its just because I haven't been to a store other than Smiths in months and months, but everything on esty looks so cool. But then, I went to the family dollar last week and looked at their clothes and thought "oh, cute!"
So these are brownies in a bottle. I think that our mothers might have done this back in the day, but its back and all the rage. So I tried it and I gotta say, its pretty fun eating brownies out of a bottle. And if you put the lid on right out of the oven, it will seal and stay good on a shelf for a few months.

This is my giraffe leg. I saw the cutest giraffe on esty and have made one leg so far. (My track record with finishing projects isn't very good. So far, I have an unfinished scrapbook, skirt, 1 baby leg warmer, and probably a few others I can't think of).

Last are some bottles of jalapeno jelly. I have been trying to think of ways to use all the baby food jars I have. Recently I made some glitter covered votive candle holders for Valentines that will probably be thrown away (a bit tacky). After a small fiasco with the jelly, we tried sealing the lids, but it didn't work. I read online that baby food jars are hard to get to re-seal, but that it can work. So now I have all this jalapeno jelly that will go bad after a couple months refrigeration. So I'm taking them to relief society tonight in hopes some women might take a few.

Thurm needed to send a school picture to his new high school. I have this awesome blue, 80's backdrop and of course, Thurm decided it would be funny to dress the part. He even found his high school glasses (why he is hanging on those is beyond me). His hair was a bit too long for the side-spike hairdo, it kept falling. But then we took the real picture. Handsome no?

His new facial expressions are hilarious.

Don't judge us

Peek-a-boo!



Thurm doesn't want me posting this picture because its discusting and it makes us seem filthy, but its just too funny. So this is a picture of our window seal and what is that? A mushroom? Now I know you just went "sick!" and thought what a horrible house keeper I must be. But let me defend myself. Our front window seal is discusting and old. When we first moved in, I cleaned and cleaned it, but the crack is filled with dirt and crumbling away. Our small apartment also is very humid. I boil a pot of water and every window in the place has condensation on it. So between the humidity and dirt that I can't get out of the crack, a mushroom has grown. Gross. I'm getting out the bleach.

We live on the east side, but our side is more ghetto. I think once you become a parent, you look really lame flashing gang signs.

Alright. I'm on another soapbox. Thurm & I just watched a news story about "sexting" and another about "twitter." The first story was about a girl who committed suicide because she had texted a naked picture of herself to her boyfriend and when they inevitably broke up, he sent it to 100 of his friends, of course. Now the mother is blaming the school system for not alerting her to what was going on at school. THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Can't anyone see this? The MOTHER is blaming the SCHOOL. Why didn't the mother know what was going on in her daughters life? Why didn't the mother teach her daughter not to send naked pictures of herself in the first place? Why are these idiot girls so insecure about themselves that they would do it in the first place? Do they not have any self-worth or pride in themselves? Lets get to the real issue of why teen girls have so little self-worth that they think this is acceptable? Parents, don't let the media or other people raise your children.

The second story was about the latest fad of tweeting to all your peeps about every nuance of your life. People can text a sentence or two about what they are doing or thinking to twitter. It gets sent to all your followers. WHY DOES ANYONE CARE? Why would anyone care what you are doing or thinking at any moment of any day. And everyone is doing it! John McCain is trying to be hip and tweet. Which makes me into a huge hypocrite for being on facebook and blogging. No one cares what I have to say, but at least I'm only saying it once a week or so instead of every hour of every day in 140 characters or less!!!

Which brings me to my next topic of "the internet as a time waster." I've actually had this on my mind all week. I read an article about how stay at home moms are obsessed with being online and waste a huge amount of time doing this. I know its true of my life. I feel guilty reading a book because its a luxury, yet I'll waste hours online everyday. It's the new soap opera. Instead of women watching "Day of our Lives," they facebook for an hour. And so, I've made a new resolution to spend a total of one hour a day online. This includes checking email, blogging, looking up recipes, reading the news, everything.

I really think that technology is one of the tools satan is using in his fight. Don't get me wrong, I love the internet and I don't know how I lived without wikipedia, email and cell phones before. But this is one of the ways satan takes good things and uses them for evil. I was at a high school dance taking pictures last week and I was watching some kids. There was a group of kids all hanging out together, but not talking. They were texting others that weren't with them. Kids are going to be socially retarded when they grow up because they don't know how to communicate face to face. Before the internet, porn was something people had to seek out. Now it just comes to them. And with Mac's "private browsing" there is nothing holding people back from indulging except their own conscious and integrity. But it seems like these aren't qualities that are valued very much in the world. No consequences. No shame of being caught. No trace. I read an article about mac's "private browsing" and was discusted when the article's first sentence was "Married men everywhere rejoiced when apple announced its new feature private browsing." This is the standard we are holding every married man to? Its just assumed and accepted that every married man has a private porn addiction?

When people aren't actively engaged in a good cause, trouble finds them or they find trouble. There is so much time in a day that is freed up thanks to technology that it can be filled with technology, i.e., texting, emailing, web surfing. Why isn't anyone taking this freed up time to do something good with it? I'm guilty of this as well. The world is just getting scarier and sicker and unless we are ACTIVELY fighting and pursuing good, we will get dragged down. Even the most righteous person can fall when tempted over and over again. We have to make sure we keep ourselves out of situation where we will even be tempted.
I can't remember the exact quote, but its something like "what you do when you are alone and no one is watching, shows your true character." And I might add, what you do anonymously on the internet shows your true character.

PS I really am going to get involved in some sort of non-profit organization to channel all this self-righteous anger : )

blessing 8

Health
My poor little man had a miserable night, which I thought was due to teething. But no, he woke up this morning full of mucus and a sore throat. It's my fault and I'm so mad at myself. I babysat a little boy, who was very cranky and mucusy, and let him take his nap in Quinn's crib. The thought crossed my mind to change the sheets and then I forgot about it when QT's nap time rolled around. So today I"m thankful that most days we are a healthy family.
Speaking of health, Thurm & I have been "trying" to run for our upcoming race. It's been very pathetic. I ran ONE entire mile without stopping on Monday. We only have a month left and I have to run THREE miles. And the killer is that I've been more motivated than Thurm, which is hard because I've been expecting him to motivate me. So we are lazy fatties sitting at home instead of running. Hopefully the nice weather will help motivate us.