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.

On the Lam

Quinn is on the lam for shoplifting a bunny. We had our first shoplifting experience today...starting early on a life of crime. Well, actually, mommy just forgot that she let Quinn hold the bunny while we shopped. We are on our way right now to pay for it.

(Quinn's mug shots with said bunny)



Today we opened up the newspaper to find Thurm on page three of the Wendover Times.

We went to McDonald's for lunch today (first time we've eaten there in the entire 2 years we've lived here) and Thurm said "Oh no, now I'm going to be recognized everywhere I go as the crossword puzzle man. Just leave me alone! I'm just a person, just like all of you!"

We have a rat in our house that keeps chewing holes in cardboard, eats papers, gnaws the spines off of books....

AND HERE HE IS!!!!
Quinn, the rat king.


Handsome Thurm looking tired.

Natural light.

That's what I like to see, a hot man in the kitchen : )

My Passport

Thurm's family is going on a Mexican cruise in the fall for their family reunion. For this, I need a new passport because my old one has my maiden name and it expires in a year anyway. I have to mail in my old when applying for a new. I am so bummed because my passport is my proof that I have done cool stuff in my life. It documents a decade of traveling! Nine countries! So here are my photos as documentation that I once had some awesome adventures.

blessing 7

Good people in the world. I have been worrying lately about the sick world we live in and how I am going to protect my children from it. Yesterday I read two VERY different publications. I picked up City Weekly, a very liberal SLC newspaper that takes every opportunity to Mormon-bash. But it has great reviews of movies, music, and books. And then I was reading the Ensign, an LDS church magazine. I guess it was the contrast of these that got my mind working. I started stewing and fretting (I tell myself this is a waste of time because things will happen regardless and I won't be able to change them). But I couldn't get my mind off all the horrible people in the world. How the world makes bad things look good and good things look bad. How there are a million inviting temptations to lead people away from being good and having integrity. Why do some people have such a hard time resisting and others can turn their noses up? Its not just what you've been taught as a child because you see amazing parents with really screwed up kids all the time. And its not just what you are exposed to. People that are exposed over and over again can resist over and over again.

Then last night, as I was returning a redbox movie, I drove past a little church with a big cross on the front and looked into the brightly lit room and saw a small group of people standing in a circle praying. And a small ray of hope entered my heart that there are still good people in the world. I came home and told my husband my worries about how no matter how much we love our kids and how much we teach them, there are no guarantees. And his answer was that we need to start with a strong marriage and then just do what we know is right. What a good man : ) So while Quinn is still under my protective wing, I am going to try not to worry and work on building a strong marriage.

Bucket List

On facebook yesterday I filled out a generic bucket list of things to do before I die. But it was lame and had things like "watch the sunrise with someone" or "dance naked in the rain." 

So here is my list of things to do before I die:

1. Be a kind, supportive, loving wife and mother. 

2. Have 2 or 3 more children and raise them to be happy and confident. 

3. Be a scriptorian. 

4. Be closely involved in a humanitarian organization. 

5. Run a 1/2 marathon with Thurm. 

6. Live in a foreign country again. 

7. Read at least 100 more books of classic literature. 

8. Travel to Greece, Israel, Guatemala,  and Scotland (and a thousand other places, but I'm trying to keep it realistic).

9. Be a great photographer and get published. 

blessing 6

Material Stuff. I have everything I want. We don't spend tons of money and don't have the latest of anything, but we have everything that we want. (I think it helps that I never go shopping, then I'm not realizing what I COULD have). Yesterday Quinn was playing in the canned food cupboard and I was thinking how blessed we are that our cupboard was packed full of food. That might not be the case a few years into the economic depression that is coming our way.  It made me wonder what is going to happen to all the dollar stores full of junk that no one really needs. Are they going to ship it all back to Taiwan? 

But I feel blessed to have cars that run, an apartment that is big enough to fit all our stuff, a closet full of clothes, a computer and camera, a scentsy candle, a BOB stroller, books, etc. Thank goodness for all our junk : ) 

I made these little onsies for Quinn the other day. The top one is supposed to be the seahorse from "The Life Aquatic" but I'm not that great of an artist. I like the owl the best.  (Amy I stole the idea from Jackie, if she finds out, tell her that copying is the highest form of flattery).  

Newest Trick!

Quinn's new favorite thing to do this week is stand. He laughs every time, I think because its thrilling and a little scary.  

Quinn the Cute

Quinn has been adorable lately.  

He has been laughing over everything. When we play peek-a-boo he holds perfectly still till I pull the blanket off and then laughs hysterically. And he will just kiss me without me prompting it. 

He will pick at the carpet, some tiny, itty-bitty object and then try to put it in his mouth.  Thurm & I can't even see what he is picking at. Thurm's comment "I think he's hallucinating."

He has been testing out his voice. Yelping to the top of his lungs just because. Making little sounds that go up and down in tone, sort of sing-songy. Thurm's comment "I think he wants to learn Chinese." (Chinese has four tones to each syllable). 

Its just so exciting watching his little mind figuring things out. You can just look in his eyes and tell he knows what's up.  

Selfishness Masked as Equality

An experience with a stay-at-home mom sparked my thoughts and I wanted to write them out.

So I was a single girl for awhile and considered myself a feminist. However, I think I've refined my thoughts and opinions on the subject. I believe in equality. Equality for the man and the woman and for every race and religion for that matter. 

I have been feeling like feminism has gone overboard lately. I read this quote"What the feminists want is the traditional special protections women had in more paternalistic days plus all the rights that they have gained in the quest for equality with men." We want our cake and to eat it too. 

This is exactly how I look around and see alot of marriages. Let me use an example: Mary stays at home with the kids while John works. Mary says "my job is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Yours is just 40 hours a week. You should come home and help with the dishes and kids, etc. I also expect flowers and gifts occasionally, told how beautiful I am, doors opened, etc. But don't treat me like the "little woman," I am as smart and strong as you any day. " Women have this attitude that men owe them something. That we DESERVE pedicures and shopping sprees just because we are a woman.  This attitude has been pounced on by marketers, of course. What better way to sell a product that to say "you deserve it."  

I'm not saying your man shouldn't treat you like that, hopefully he does, but are you treating him the same? I feel like there is this attitude hanging over women that you have to make sure you aren't getting taken advantage of. We are so worried about not being a doormat, that women are forgetting to treat their husband as good as we expect to be treated.  And if you do serve your husband, treat him like a king, its like all the other women in the world will think you are un-doing all the good the women's rights movement has done. 

EQUALITY. My husband treats me like a Queen. Comes home from work and helps make dinner, does dishes, feeds the baby, gives me massages, gets me glasses of water, serves me constantly. I feel like he works hard all day and I should have dinner on the table and a clean house.  Its my way of serving him and showing him I love him.  And maybe I'm not as busy as other moms because I only have one. But I have tons of time during the day to surf the web, read a book, etc. So I don't think its fair that he should have to come home from work and do dishes. Maybe that will change when I have more kids. But if anything, right now, I feel really spoiled. I get to stay at home and be with an adorable baby all day with lots of time to spend how I like. I'm pretty sure Thurm has the raw end of the deal. 

I just think too many marriages fall apart because they are both thinking "this isn't fair! He/she needs to treat ME better.  I DESERVE this. I'm not going to be a doormat! When he treats me better, than I'll treat him better."  

This is the exact opposite attitude that a marriage needs to have to survive. When I was getting married all the old people who had been married 60 years all gave the advice that "you have to give 110% and hope that you get something in return." That's exactly how it works. If you run around yelling "this isn't fair! I give way more than I get" then it's never going to work. If you give 110%, hopefully you'll get it in return eventually. And even if you don't, it's probably the only thing keeping your marriage together.