A Closer Look Meme

Jenna, who is absolutely amazing in every way possible(check out her blog if you don't believe me), tagged me to do the one tag I have been hoping to avoid. I get to take you all on a tour and show you the inside of my home.


1- My Kitchen Sink:

Shaelynne-derella has not shown up today to clean my house and do my dishes. Bummer for me. The good news is that only one sink is dirty dishes. The other sink is clean (at least it was before the kids dumped all their half eaten bowls of cereal down the wrong side of the sink).

2- My Fridge:

Not too bad.

This fridge, on the other hand, is sparkling clean. Totally 100% EMPTY! Why would I have a fridge that is clean and empty? Well, you see, it's in my garage and last week the power went out and tripped the plug and it was a couple days before we figured it all out and, well, I guess needed to get rid of a few things anyways. I wouldn't really recommend this as a great way to spring clean your meat freezer though.

The stuff in this feezer was a little harder to throw away. I have sweat and tears invested into this stuff. It's just fruit but when it thawed (it didn't completely thaw, just mostly thawed-Ha!Ha! from Princess Bride, when Wesley died....okay!)the juice seperated from the fruit and now I'm happily going to be jamming ALL of it. I wasn't really sure how much jam I wanted to make and how many bags I just wanted to keep as frozen berries but now I'm so glad I don't have to stress over that question anymore. Phew!

3. My favorite shoes:

I love shoes, lots of shoes! but when I find a really good pair, I tend to hang onto them for forever and wear them everyday, everywhere. Also, I hate to have my bare feet on the floor. I can't stand feeling crumbs and sticky or wet on my feet so I always have a pair of shoes on my feet.

This is my 3rd summer loving this same pair of sandals.

My other pair which I actually love more than my sandals are these. When I shop for tennis shoes, I have to try on every single pair in the store until I find exactly the right fit with the right price. It's an all day event but the shoes last me a very long time! I bought these last fall and we are pretty much inseperatable. They have just started squeaking though so I suppose it may be getting time for a new pair.

4- My Bedroom Closet:

The smallest, most annoying space in my house. Let's not talk any more about this one. Moving on...

5- My Laundry Pile:

Well, this is a horrible location for my machines because it is in my doorway to my garage so this area stays generally pretty clean, out of necessity.

It's the rest of my house that is always piled high with clean piles, dirty piles and ironing piles.

My bed:

My hallway:

My yard: (The boys just got home from scout camp)

6- What are my kids doing right now?

Not a clue...and there's no sign of Justyn

The girl in the back of this one is not mine, but I feed her often enough so she definately could be.

Look closely and you can see their chiggar bites from camp. They are heavily drugged up on Benadryl.

7- My Favorite Room: the front room!
In this room I am surrounded by so many things that I love. This is the one room that I insist on staying clean. That's tough when our house is small and our numbers are not but at least once a day, usually at night, this room turns into my own personal sancutary.

Why?
There's my piano that I prayed really hard for my mom found it for me in the newspaper and I bought it for a wopping $250.00 and the bench that my dad made for me, which happens to match perfectly.

My awesome corner shelf that I found at the D.I. for $15.00 and lovingly repainted it and gave it a whole new life.

My last name. After this last year and all the drama with Ken's family, Ken wanted to change our last name. I decided I needed to take action so I found these letters at Michaels (very cheap) and painted them. Our last name is now displayed, loud and proud, in our front room and hopefully it stays that way for a very long time!

Ken loves this clock, I love my fake, never need to be watered so of course they'll never have to die lillies, some of the kids favorite books and our scriptures.

This is a frame that Ken bought me while we were at BYU. It had a ding so it was on clearance. He surprised me with it and since this was way out of character for Ken, it's one of my treasures.

This picture is from my sister-in-law and I absolutely love it. It's kind of 3-D the way she did it and I love this picture of Christ. It has a very reverent feeling to it.

This is my life motto. I take things way too seriously. I'm trying to enjoy more and stress less.

This plant is from Ken's granparents. We got it after they died a year and a half ago and what makes it even more special is that it was given to them when Ken's aunt and uncle were killed the year before. So it's my little reminder of all of them.

This is the first and only plant I bought when we moved to Twin Falls 9 years ago. We're still here and so is it.

This plant is from my cousins funeral. I was not able to attend because I was having a D and C that day (I miscarried twins and my cousin was only 17 so it was a really sad day) so my mom brought it up to me to cheer me up. It was twice that big when I first got it and apparently has really struggled to live with me but I think we have finally figured each other out and it looks like she has agreed to be happy. Not really growing but still green.

I love to look out the front window at my hanging baskets . (Yes, these are the same baskets that killed our little kitten.)

This plant is from Henry's birth. To me it symbolizes the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of another.

This is my family praying. Aren't we cute? And my Dad made the base. Our faith and family grounded on the foundation of previous generations....(I'll keep working on that one)

This is our family road map, our daily reminder to be a little better.

And finally....My Most Priceless Treasures of all.

That was really, really long. Oops!


8- My Most Recent Purchase:
Nothing fun. Just supplies from Target. I did buy Randy Paucsh's book "The Last Lecture" on CD and we listened to it on our trip last week. It was really good. Ken even liked it. Don't buy it though. You can just borrow mine. It was good but maybe not THAT good.

9- My Dream Vacation:
If I could go anywhere I would go visit my family and friends, no deadlines, just enjoy those I love. And my first trip would be to Utah. I'd start in Tremonton with my sister and go all the way south to here, my cousin's back yard, visiting every single one of you in between. Someday......



10-A Self-Portrait: sort of....

Now I tag Stacie W. and Jen W. Both are married to my cousins and they live a really long ways away and I'll probably never in this lifetime travel that far and I think that they are amazing women, they have to be to survive our family, so I'd love to see their lives more up close and personal. So, ladies, if you have the spare time, humor me ;)

Sore Feet and Bugs

Zach and Ken left yesterday for Scout Camp. Ken took my car so I have been stranded. The kids insisted on lunch in the park yesterday and I need some groceries so I consented to walking the 50 miles (give or take a few miles) to the park. The kids got lunch, I went shopping and then piled all my groceries into the stroller for the LONG walk home. (Side story: I was against the wall of the grocery store, out of the way, loading my groceries from my cart into my stroller, when the manager came up and asked me if he could help me. I looked around at my situation. I had 2 strollers, 7 kids (we had picked up a couple of extra's on our walk) and me, hot and tired, trying to magically stuff all my groceries into my already full stroller. I wondered, what kind of answer does he seriously expect me to give him. Wasn't it slightly obvious what I was trying to do? That only added to my frustration. I got his hint and moved my circus act outside.) Seriously it is only like 1 mile away but it took us 3 hours round trip and now my foot hurts so it wasn't really that much fun. Why does my foot hurt? Oh, well, that's because I knew it would be a long day in the sun and I didn't want to have tan lines from my walking shoes so I opted for the more practical sandals and now I'm paying the price. Hey, no tan lines though, only on my feet.

After my neighbor came screaming in my door last night that we had to come out and dance in our first summer rain storm for good luck with her, she mentioned that she was going out of town with her husband for a couple of days and wouldn't need her suburban and wondered if I would mind watching it for them. Did I mention I live in the kindest neighborhood on earth?

So, Ken just called. Actually, they have no phone service up at Camp so he had to drive until he had some bars. He and Zach are either coming home tonight or committing suicide (Zach's exact words!) Why?

NO-SEE-UMS

They are being eaten alive. Zach said that Ken is covered in these little bites that are swollen and blistered. He said it's so gross that you don't even want to look at him and they itch! He said they can't concentrate on anything and all the sprays they have tried are not working. This is only a little funny in that I could have predicted this would happen. I love to have Ken with me when bugs are around because between the two of us, he will get bit every time and they leave me alone. In 14 years, I have never been bitten when I am with him. This has even happened in our bed. He'll wake up bitten and I'm left alone. I tell him it 's because he's just too sweet and the bugs know this and that he should be more onry like me. Apparently, Zach takes after his Dad. So, their week long Father/Son bonding trip has been cut short. I have to admit, I'm not sad at all. I'm ready for them to be home!

Temple Square

In front of the Conference Center
Headed in to get out of the heat

In the bathroom in the Conference Center.
The girls loved that they each had their own bathroom and then they each had their own sink.
3rd floor of the Conference Center

Looking out at the waterfall

On top of the Conference Center in the garden


In front of the temple at the reflecting pool

Our Forever Family-in front of the SLC temple

Yes! Zach is now 3" taller than me,

But he will always be my baby boy...

On the 26th floor of the Church Office Building-looking west over SLC

In front of the waterfalls outside the Church Office Building

In front of the Christus in the Visitor's Center-my most favorite place ever!

Funny side note:
We were sitting in the shade next to the church office building watching people take pictures. This family gathered on the stone for a family picture in front of the temple and I thought, "Holy Cow. That woman has alot of kids." I counted all her little ones and she had 5 children. Funny, I'm crazier than her, I have 6. I love that I don't even have a clue how big of a scene we must create when we go places.

Thanks Mark and Julie and kids for the best day ever!

Memory Tag

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. I can't wait to see what people remember.

***Isn't this cute? I tag EVERYONE!!!

Visiting Graves

It was very muggy in SLC on this day. We were hot and this cemetary is full of lots of hills and very uneven ground. We only went to a few headstones that were close to the road. That was enough trekking for us. Finally Kate sent us the message that she had had enough and we headed for lunch.