Contests!!

Ok, so I'm not clever enough to do my own freebies but my friend Jenni is! She has two contests going on right now. She lives in England and finds some really cool antiques. She is giving away an antique book here and a pair of antique gloves that were hand tatted in the 1930's here. Be sure to check them both out and leave a comment for your chance to win. Mention my name in the comment and I get an extra entry!! WAHOO! So be sure to help a girl out!

Save the Paper

We had a birthday party for Kassi and Noah this weekend. I was folding up the gift bags and tissue paper, when I fondly heard my grandma's voice in my head saying, "Be sure to save the paper." I smiled as I folded each piece of tissue paper into nice neat squares and placed them into my gift wrapping box that I keep under my bed. In the slow economic times we are experiencing, I anticipate that I will be using more and more of my grandparents' tips for cutting corners. Those margarine containers are looking like the thrifty way to replace my dwindling rubbermaid containers. I recently tried my hand at canning jam and found myself telling the kids to save the jars and rings (man, those things are expensive.) because I can reuse them. These are all things I've seen my grandmother do to save money. Now it's time to use those tips and pass them on to my own children. I saw an Oprah about 10 yrs ago where someone said that whatever financial obligations you have, you will pass on to your children. For instance, if you pay for cable your children will feel it's a necessity. Ok, so I do have satelite. This is a case of do as I say, not as I do!! LOL! But it is giving me a moment to reflect on what we spend money on that I don't think my kids need. Another thing I have learned in all my years of wisdom ;) is that you can save time or money, but very seldom both at the same time. It's very much a juggling act to see what is more important, and every case is different. For instance, when I tell people I use coupons to save money, they say they don't have time for it. But my problem is that I don't have the money to save the time. On the other hand, I do pay for a website that tells me what coupons to use, where, and when to use them. This costs me a little bit of money to save time that is worth it to me. So as threats of the flu in Mexico get closer to restricting our trade and making our recession even worse than it already is, it's time for all of us to reevaluate our spending and where we can cut corners and be more thrifty like our grandparents. If anyone has any tried and true tips from generations past, please share them!! Thanks!

Temple photo gallery

Hi everyone! I've been soo busy lately. Especially with my photography class. I have an assignment this week to make panaramic pictures. I made a gallery out of the ones I did of the Mesa temple. Please check this out.  Tell me which one you like the best: night time, day time, day and night merged, day and night pasted together.  I can only pick one to print up.  Which one do you think it should be??  Thanks!  I promise to post more of my photos later.  

Renaissance Festival

Hi all, it's been awhile since I updated. For our anniversary, Mike and I went to the Renaissance Festival. Most of you know that my book starts with a girl who attends the festival, so I really needed to go for research. It was very beneficial and is helping me A TON on my latest rewrite. I took pictures of everything, so that I won't forget what they looked like. I especially took pictures of the costumes people were wearing. Enjoy some of my pics.

I had to take pictures of the bleachers and jousting area too. I loved going to the dress shops. I was so ecstatic when I found the very dress that I described in my book. It was red velvet that parted at the skirt revealing a shimmering gold triangle of material. So of course I had to try it on. It didn't fit me, but it was fun to wear either way.

Noah's Poem

Noah wrote a poem about the creations of God for a religious emblem he's earning for cub scouts. He showed me the poem then said..."You're not going to put this on the blog are you?" At first I said no, but then I noticed the giddy smile on his face. "Wait? Do you want me to put it on the blog?" "Nooooo" Then he stopped for minute..."Ok I do." LOLOL! So here it is, I think he's excited to see what everyone thinks!

Jesus' Creations
Tom and Bonny the cow
Heard some type of meow
They thought it was a cat
So they looked under the mat
And what do you know, it was a cat
The cat was teaching
The cat was preaching
The cow thought it was swell
He was teaching about Jesus' creations the lesson went well
Jesus made the earth he made us too
He probably said, "That will do"
Then here came us
Because he had trust in us.

Happy Anniversary to My Wonderful Hubby!

You know you've been married 14 years when the alarm goes off at 5am, and your husband, not awake at all, mumbles "Happy Anniversary". I also have him trained to say "I love you" in his sleep as well. See he usually gets to snoring and instead of kicking him like I used to do...I just say "I love you honey" he stops snoring, says "I love you" and rolls over on his side (a survival technique to ensure that I don't try to continue talking to him!)

Anyways, we began talking this morning about how long we've been married. Please take the following conversation in the loving, playful manner it was meant (because that's the theme of our marriage!)

Me: Wow, I can't believe it's been 14 years.

Mike: I know especially after our first fight when I found out you don't do housework.

Me: Hey! (punch to the arm) Is that the only thing you can think about on our 14th anniversary...that I don't do housework?

Mike: No, I'm just saying it was our first fight and we survived it.

Me: Is that what we're doing, just surviving through the fights?

Mike: No...I'm just...I mean (finally exasperated he pulls me into a hug) I'm just saying, don't start doing housework now, it might throw off our groove!

LOLOL! How can I not love that man?!! I love you honey! Thanks for finally getting up the courage to ask me to marry you!

Science Project Time Again!

It's that time of the year again when our house becomes over run by homework...SCIENCE PROJECTS! Though Jessi doesn't do science projects in 3rd grade, she had a detailed report due on Cheetahs complete with pictures.

Sammi is a girl, and I know they say that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but I will have to disagree for Sammi's sake. PHONES are what she cares about. So her project was on how a phone works. Good thing for her that telephones run in the family! Her grandpa Wilson provided her with some antique phones that she could open up and learn the parts and how they worked. She really enjoyed looking at the guts of a telepone. I even got to test my photoshop knowledge and doctored a picture for her to make it easier to label the parts.

Now on to Noah's project...he is such a boy! And so is his dad! I mentioned last year about my friend Jenni James' son doing a trebuchet for his science project. (That's where I went wrong!) From that point on it was all the boy could think about. I mean, what boy can resist the idea of a giant sling catapulting objects into the air by means of a counter weight. So I did the motherly thing and told him to look it up on the internet. I was quite happy when I saw a table top version, and I thought, hey this could be good. I of course forgot the husband factor. His thoughts were "table top, schmable top! We can make one ten feet tall!" They did!! It was too big to take to school for the faire so they made a table top one too. But not before they saw how many things they could launch from the big one. (That's a can of coke at the top of the sling's arch right before it begins it's zenith into our cul-de-sac making it's demise as it explodes with a bang to Noah's satisfaction.) It was a father-son project that only those of their sex could truly appreciate. Don't worry guys, I'm sure they will find some way to work the trebuchet into their next paintballing trip! I will be no where near that one!

Now, it's time for me to get back to my mountain of homework that has been at a complete standstill for the last two weeks!!