A Completed Project!

Well, wonders never cease. This past weekend, I went to Boise with three projects in tow and I actually completed one of them. Becky turned me on to making easy bags from placemats, so I bought the stuff I’d need to make three of them.

The first one was a bit disappointing because I found out part way through that the placemats were not even close to the same size. I had measured the handles from the outside of each placemat, so they didn’t match up after sewing. Realizing that all the placemats I bought were different sizes, I decided to make two small bags instead of one larger bag for the next undertaking. I thought the small bags turned out great. I gave them to my nieces Mackenzie and Abby for scripture bags for church.

Then I made the last bag, knowing that the placemats were different sizes. It was a lot easier, because I just eyed everything in since it wouldn’t line up anyway. It turned out much better than the first one.

While in Boise, I also visited my friend Andrea. Her ward had been making these and she made me a really cute bag too. So, I came home with three finished bags and gave two away. Oh, wait. I had to make one more small one. When Brooke didn’t have one, she got mad, so Mom found an old placemat and I quickly sewed one more smaller bag. Yay! Finished projects! (Of course, I didn’t even start on either of the other two projects. Hah!)

Wanna Laugh?

Seriously, I laughed out loud at work while reading this. I found it while blog hopping and enjoyed every bit of it.

Choosing Between Good and Good

When I was a little kid, I remember hearing lessons in Sunday school about making choices. At the time, I was told that there was always a good and a bad choice and I had to make the good choice. Bad choices have consequences that I might not like, so I shouldn’t choose those. Well, now that I’m a little older, I realize that it’s not that simple. Far too often, I’m faced with choosing between two good things. And I don’t mean choosing between Peanut Butter Fudge and Pralines ‘n’ Cream at Baskin Robbins. I mean having to make hard choices about who I disappoint this time because I need to be in two good places at once.

I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes when I have to choose between being in one of two places, it’s because I double-booked and it’s really my fault and the bad choice was not looking at the calendar in the first place. I could write an entire blog about how I do that way too often. That’s not really what I’m talking about here though.

This week I am faced with the choice between two good things. I committed to going to a visiting teaching workshop at church on Tuesday evening. I even signed up to bring a veggie platter. Yesterday, the DH found out that our ward had an assignment at the temple on the very same evening. The DH is responsible for making sure that three couples are able to meet the obligation. That’s no easy task when there’s a visiting teaching workshop the same evening that most of the women are attending.

So, it looks like I get to choose between fulfilling a temple assignment or attending a visiting teaching workshop. They’re both really good things. Of course, when it comes to priorities, I have to go with the DH. Even though I don’t think the temple is necessarily the better choice, it is the place that my husband wants me to be. For now, that trumps everything else, so that’s how I’m making my decision. Perhaps the blog entry should be about prioritizing. It usually does come down to that.

Girls Night Out

I know some pretty amazing people. I feel really blessed to have good friends all over the place. Some of the fun women that I’ve become acquainted with in Seattle got together last night for a Girl’s Night Out. We had a great time. An Ordinary Mom, Jamie, and Lizzy are all here in Seattle. Hope came from Vashon Island and Becky came up from Portland. I’m grateful to Becky for arranging the outing. I hadn’t seen Hope in ages and hadn’t seen Lizzy in way too long either.

We had dinner at the Azteca at the mall. We talked and laughed and ate great food. After enjoying about two hours together at dinner, we hadn’t had enough, so we went into the mall. An Ordinary Mom and Becky found delicious smelling body butter while Lizzy and I found fun makeup at MAC. The woman helping us was fabulous. I showed Hope the fun features on my new hybrid car and then went home exhausted.

The evening got me thinking about all my great friends. I enjoy so many of the people I’ve met in Seattle that have moved away. As much as we hate to see them go, it gives the DH and me a reason to go to a lot of new places to visit them, so it’s a good thing.

I miss Catherine in Nashville and Camille in Springville. They are some of the best roommates I ever had and they have wonderful husbands and children now that I enjoy as well. I haven’t seen either of them since my wedding and I want them to get to know my wonderful husband too. Too bad he isn’t named Paul like both of their husbands.

I miss my really good friends in Boise too. I’m so blessed to have friends that I’ve known since I was small who I can still get together with now and enjoy as if we had seen each other yesterday. Andrea and Kathy are two of my favorite people and I’m so glad both of them moved back to Boise after years away. Maybe I can join them in the return trek to Boise at some point, but not today. Instead, I’ll just go visit. I’ll see Andrea’s new baby next weekend, and I can’t wait.

I also have amazing sisters-in-law. I don’t think I could have been happier if I’d hand-picked them myself and I’m especially lucky to have one here close by.

I guess this post is sort of connected to the post about my “Person” in that I’ve been thinking about the huge web of folks who support me in my life. I’m so glad there are many friends out there so I never have to worry about being alone. Here’s to all our friends, however we know them. Who are your friends and why do you stay in touch?

What? Me, Thinking?

I’m so honored to be included in The Duchess’ Thinking Blogger list. How very cool is that? I think so highly of her and The Duke that it’s cool that she would be so complimentary. I really value her opinion and I know she’s no slouch. You might even enjoy looking at her blog, Yarnation, if you haven’t linked from my blog to hers already.

These are the rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (silver version, gold version)

Like The Duchess, I read a lot of blogs. Many of them make me think, so I’ll try to choose five. It’s tough, but I’m up to the challenge.

An Ordinary Mom – She’s in a very different stage of life than I am, but many of the things she writes about are so universal that I can’t help but enjoy them and even respond. I also think she has one of the most wonderful families and I appreciate her sharing her challenges and joys with us.

Feminist Mormon Housewives – This is a big blog that covers a lot of area. It makes me feel like there might actually be others that think like me at the same time it makes me uncomfortable. And the discomfort is that really great kind that you get in a good college course that challenges your way of thinking and makes you ask yourself why you have the notions you do.

Dooce – She’s a great writer and I feel like a huge voyeur watching her life. It’s OK though. She likes it that way.

Anna Maria Horner – She makes me think I might be able to do some of the really cool crafts that she does. I have a million ideas when I read her blog. I haven’t done any of them yet (see my five obsessions blog to understand more), but I love all the cool things she does.

Mental Tesserae – She’s a humanities professor and mom of four that never quits with the interesting information and insights. I love seeing her choices of art and the connections she makes between art and life. She’s also a fabulous writer and I would love to be half so talented. I'm usually just a lurker on her site, but I really do love it.

Well, that's my list. There are so many others, but maybe they'll have to just wait for another good post.

Five Obsessions

obsession: 1. Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety. 2. A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion. 3. A perfume by Calvin Klein.

An Ordinary Mom tagged me for the obsession meme. I am supposed to list five things I am obsessed with right now. In no particular order...

• E-mail and blogs – it’s a little embarrassing to say that I check e-mail and blogs too many times a day, even when I’m not working. As an example, I checked my hotmail account at least four times while out of town in Chicago last week.
• Watching Gilmore Girls – It must be an obsession when the writing has become so horrible and the characters so morphed from the ones I grew to love at the beginning of the series, but I still have to see every episode.
• Shopping for shoes – I don’t always buy and I just can’t bring myself to pay more than $100, but I love to buy shoes and you can tell if you see my closet. I’ve tried to channel the obsession in $5 flip-flops to decrease the cost of this particular obsession.
• Checking my bank balance – So, this one is just plain weird. I know. It’s not like it even changes that much in 24 hours, but I have to check it at least once a day. I think I got paranoid at some point about someone getting access to my account and stealing all my money, so I have to keep my eyes on it at all times. Or maybe I’m just a little obsessed with my bank balance.
• Starting craft projects – You’ll notice that I didn’t say finishing craft projects. That’s not what it’s all about. Sometimes someone else finishes the project for me, sometimes I abandon it altogether, and sometimes I actually do finish. The rush for me is in the planning and the starting, but not so much the execution of the project. Bummer for me since I’ve started some really amazing projects.

Now that I’ve shared my obsessions, I’m tagging five more bloggers for the meme. What do you say Daddy Shark, Annzy, the SIL, the other SIL, and Lizzy at My Ice Cream Diary? Will you share your five obsessions?

Who's Your "Person"?

I've been watching Grey's Anatomy and they talk about their "Person" quite often. It's the person who is not your spouse or girl/boyfriend, but the person who you want to go to first to tell when something really great happens or really horrible happens.

I've been thinking about who my "Person" might be and I've had a hard time deciding on just one. When the DH proposed, my "Person" was my mom. When I got the job I have now at MS, my "Person" was Sam. When I got rear-ended on the freeway, my "Person" was the DH. I also realized that it has changed over time. There may have been that one "Person" in the past, but now I have a really great collection of people that I want to share my life with. It makes me think that I don't really have just one "Person" and I think that's OK.

I'm not sure I have a great answer, but I'm curious about you. Who's your "Person"?

The Sister Who Sews

I just have to share my sister's awesome talent. She's amazing. Check this out on Girl Who Knits. She's the blessed recipient of my sister's talent for making magical quilts. And this quilt was made for another lucky soul. Annzy rocks. And sometimes I benefit from her talents too. I've recieved some lovely crafts from her. Yay! Kid sisters who craft are the best.

Easter Morn

We woke to a beautiful Easter morning today. Of course, since it's Seattle, it was short lived, but beautiful all the same. The Easter bunny visited us with a bunch of sugar-free candy and chocolate and we had a lovely church service. I especially enjoyed the talk about looking at how the different Mary's reflected on the Savior. It was lovely. We've also enjoyed a really nice easter meal of ham and scalloped potatoes (my first try at making potatoes that way!) and had friends over for sugar-free pie in the evening. All in all, it was a wonderful Easter Sunday.

Leaving Las Vegas

Our last day in Vegas was really fun. We started the day with pedicures (though Patrick passed on that -- I don't know why). I got the retro flowers to go with the Beattles' LOVE theme. My feet were so soft and it was nice and cheap.

Then we had some of the best sushi. Who knew you could have great sushi that far inland? We had a lovely afternoon and then had a great dinner at Chicago Joe's. It was great Italian fare and we all left fat and happy.

After dinner we went to the strip and to the Bellagio hotel to see the Chihuley glass sculptures, the flower sculptures, and the choreographed fountain. The fountain was pretty amazing and we almost got to see a girl fight. A German lady and a Latina woman got into it right in front of us, but stopped short of fisticuffs. Good times!

After another short night, we flew home on Tuesday morning. I was so glad to sleep in my own bed Tuesday night!

Valley of Fire

I love seeing petroglyphs. It's kind of a wierd thing, but I really do love it. On Sunday, we went to the Valley of Fire, not too far outside Las Vegas, so see the rock formations and petroglyphs. The rocks are all dark red and look really cool. There are all different formations and we took a very small hike to see some petroglyphs.



The petroglyphs were really amazing. I just wish we could tell what story was being told. After that, we went back to a great bar-b-que of steaks and corn on the cob. Add watching conference to that and you get a great sabath.

Viva! Las Vegas

We're still talking about Vegas, but it's a day later. On Saturday, we drove to Prim and rode one of the best roller coasters ever. It goes 85 miles an hour and has a 250 foot drop that feels like a huge free fall. The free fall probably lasts 8-10 seconds, which is eons in roller coaster time. I loved it!

That evening, we went to our second show, Mystere. It was really different from LOVE. It had really cool ethereal music and great acrobatics. The costuming was surreal and it was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed it and decided that it doesn't really compare with LOVE. They were both great in really different ways.

LOVE is All You Need

So, the DH and I took a trip to Las Vegas. Everyone we work with thought it was silly to was Vegas on two non-gamblers, but we had other plans. We flew in Friday morning and basically hung out doing nothing for most of the day. We did eat breakfast at a really tasty buffet, then took a mid-day nap. The DH had to have Del Taco for dinner. He's pretty easy to please. We did a session at the Las Vegas temple (beautiful!) and then hit the strip. Now, that's a funny sentence when you put it together that way.

We went to The Mirage casino, got some popcorn and diet coke, and went to see Beattles' LOVE from Cirque de Soliel.

YouTube video from Beatles' LOVE

It was amazing. It gave me goose bumps. We both really like the Beattle's music, so we knew we'd enjoy that part, but the rest of it was beyond our imagination. They do amazing things with costuming and acrobatics, not to mention the imaginitive coreography. The tickets were very expensive, but we think we got our money's worth and we'd definitely recommend it to anyone making a trip to Vegas.