Monday, April 27, 2009

i may not be a lot of things...

i may not be as witty as her
i may not be as funny as her (or her kids!!)
i may not be able to sew like her
i may not be as talented as her
i may not be as fit or healthy as her
i may not be as crafty as her or her
i may not be as brave and hard working as her
i may not be as awesome as her or her
i may not be as brilliant with a camera as her or her or her
i may not be as super sweet as her or her or her or her (i know her blog is private, but she's just the sweetest!)
i may not be as good a friend as her or her or her
i may not be as completely inspirational as her
i may not have an awe-inspiring testimony in the face of incredible heartache like her
i may not be as creative with my children as her
i may not be as simply lovely as her
i may not be as sensational a mother as her or her or her or anyone listed above or all of you!

I know so many stupendous people! Sometimes it's hard not to compare myself and feel a little down. But lately I've been thinking that it's all okay. I'm so lucky to know each of you and to be able to learn from you! And I'm so lucky to be me! I'm so lucky to be a work in progress, trying to be a little more like each of you every day. But especially to try a little harder to be more like my Savior every day. It's the least I can do to show my gratitude for my greatest blessings:

my best-in-the-world husband
my cutest-in-the-world kids
my couldn't-come-any-better family
and YOU!!

********** if you're not listed above, don't worry! it's simply that i didn't have the time to go through everyone of you! listed above or not, i'm lucky to have each of you in my life**********

Saturday, April 25, 2009

{answers}

as promised...

Ruth: I want to know how long you've been vegetarian and why you made the change. Plus, is it cheaper? More expensive? About the same? Is it just you or your husband and kiddies too?

Well, I started eating as a vegetarian in January of this year. I just wanted to try it out. I didn't really know how long I would do it, but I wanted to try for a year. I lasted about two months. :( Actually, I sort of ate chicken by accident and then just went down hill from there. To be honest, I think I'll probably go back to it. I really, really enjoyed it. I felt so much healthier. I am not eating anywhere near as much meat as I used to. I eat eggs and nuts and seeds and beans for protein instead. As for cost, it was about the same for me. You save money on meat, but if you're eating fresh produce a lot of the time like I was that can be a little pricey. The kids and my husband didn't do it. Although because I was cooking vegetarian meals they ate much less meat. They really only had meat when we went out to eat. Or a hot dog or deli turkey sandwich on occasion. Talking about it makes me want to do it again, for longer. :)

Linda: Wow, thanks pretty gutsy! lol. Ok, so I'm dying to know how/why you decided to elope. Spur of the moment/lifelong dream?

Ha ha ha!! Personal answer, but I'm an open book. So you all just have to promise not to judge me!! Jason and I were engaged in April of 2004 and scheduled the Mount Timpanogos Temple for August something. On May 19th I was in Rexburg visiting him and we....well, we made a mistake that night and went a little too far. :) We stayed up the whole night talking about what to do. Should we just have a civil wedding? Should we postpone getting married for a year so that we could be sealed in the temple? I don't think either of us wanted to wait. And we didn't think it was a good idea. I didn't want a civil wedding where everyone would be sitting around whispering and wondering about whether or not I was pregnant. (I wasn't). So we decided to elope. We said we'd work as hard as we could to go to the temple as soon as possible and then we'd have a celebration then. And we did! :) Jason had to work on the 20th, so I picked him up after work and we went to the mayor's office in Rexburg, Idaho. Two of the young secretaries were our witnesses. I was wearing jeans, a t shirt and my boots. We stayed a couple of nights at a Days Inn in town for our "honeymoon". Then I had to go home and tell my family.

Funny story: The week I went home my family had a vacation planned to go back east. My little brother was leaving on his mission and this was our last vacation as a family for two years. My ticket was already paid for and Jason had to work. I didn't want to take away from celebrating my brother leaving, so I kept my mouth shut. I spent about a week and a half with my family in New York, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. while Jason stayed in Idaho and worked. Miserable way to start your marriage!! :) When we got back, my brother had his "farewell" and a big dinner. A couple of days later he left for the MTC. I finally told my mom that night. I didn't know how should would react. She just sighed, looked at me, and said, "Well. What are you going to do?" I cried. I hated that I had disappointed them.

I packed up my things and moved to Idaho the next day. On June 13th I took a positive pregnancy test. I remember being so grateful that Jason and I chose to get married. Of course I wish we had done things right the first time! But I was so glad that we were married when we found out we were having a baby! I was so grateful that she could never question our reasons for getting married. It was our choice. Not because of the baby. Maybe that's a silly thing, but it made me feel so grateful.

On May 20th, 2005 we were sealed in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. Lots of family came and we had a big family dinner afterwards. We hired a photographer since we hadn't had wedding pictures. Payson was 4 months old. (She came one month earlier ON our 8 month anniversary. Honeymoon baby FOR SURE!) She is what I remember most from that day. Kneeling across from Jason and holding her sweet little hand. She looked so beautiful in her white dress! She just grinned at everyone the entire time. I bawled like a baby.

Anyway, that's our story!! :)


Randi:
I want to know exactly what you think of me. Haha! ;)

Randi, I think you are so gorgeous and such a doll!! You amaze me with the way you handle being a single mom and student and working and everything else! You're incredible! I know I couldn't handle it so gracefully! That said, I think you are quirky and goofy. I just love your guts!! :)

Clerissa:
Curly hair, love it or would change it?

Ugh. Depends on the day. :) Really, I love how unique my curl is. I like that I get compliments ALL the time. :) But it's high maintenance hair and can be a serious pain!! It's coarse and frizzy and dry. I do love that I can straighten it to change things up, but it takes me an hour. So that's a bummer. All in all, I figure if I had something different I would probably have complaints about that too. So I have to say that ultimately, I love my hair.

Camille:
Hhmmmm...Do you want to have more kids? (That might be too personal, but you said anything, right) I'm just curious...

Not too personal at all!! Like I said before, I'm an open book! Definitely want more kids!! When Jason and I were dating we were driving down I-15 one day and saw one of those 16 passenger vans. I told him that one day we were going to need one to hold all of our kids. I was pretty serious. After having Payson I told him we'd just take them one at a time. :) But the honest truth is I want loads of kids! As many as I can handle. No particular number. Right now I'm completely baby hungry. We're waiting until the end of the year for a few reasons. (One being that I refuse to go to Disneyland in November and not be able to go on any of the good rides!!) But I can't wait to have more! I love being a mommy!!

This question was emailed to me on facebook. :) She shall remain anonymous, but: I was just wondering if you ever told Devin (McKenna's brother) that I liked him. :)

Ha ha ha ha!! Not that I remember. I'm not that mean!! Can I, though? ;)

Hillary: Hmm. . . besides family accomplishments, what are you most proud of?

That's a hard one!! Good question! I honestly don't feel like I've accomplished much else. Some might say that's sad, but it's all I wanted. I got married when I was 20. I didn't finish college or get my cosmetology license. I was a mom by the time I was 21. I don't work. I haven't really "accomplished" anything. At this point, I'm still a work in progress. Who knows if I'll ever do anything great with my life. But I'd have to say that my life is pretty great! I love my family, siblings, husband, kids, parents, cousins, everyone. I have amazing friends, both online and in the real world. :) I guess if I had to pick something non-family related, I'd have to say my writing. I always liked to write growing up and was published for writing contests a few times. I won money and even got an award from President Clinton when I was in Junior High. I haven't written much since I've been out of school. When Payson was born I wrote a poem for her. And other than this blog, that's about it. :)

Those are all the questions you asked! That was kind of fun for me. Hopefully for you too. If you thought of anything or come up with anything in the future, keep it in mind! I'll probably do this again!

Friday, April 17, 2009

{ because i'm in the mood }

ask me anything


seriously


go ahead


nothing's too personal


and if it is, i'll just come up with some witty answer and ignore the honest truth


i'll post answers in on the 25th, that gives you just over a week to come up with anything you might want to know about me


everyone's invited!


friends. family. strangers. everyone!


can't wait to see what you wanna know...

Sunday, April 12, 2009

happy easter?

This morning we woke up to find that one of our butterflies had hatched! Perfect timing! Right on Easter morning! And just a couple of hours later a second hatched. (We're still waiting on the third).

After finding our pretty little butterfly, I went to the cupboard to get breakfast for the kids. And what did I find?



happy easter??

Friday, April 10, 2009

{making my house feel homey}

We're back from Utah! We were gone 6 days and it was WAY too short. Too many people that I wanted to see or just spend more time with and I didn't get to. :( But I'll be back again in less than a month!! Thank you cousins who are all getting married and giving me an excuse to visit with everyone!! :)

Our trip was great. I didn't take a single picture. Way too busy for the camera. (or I forgot it).

We partied all night at Tristan's killer reception. We shopped with Grandma and the girls. We watched conference and ate way too much delicious food. We played freeze tag, red light/green light, mother may i, and jumped on the trampoline like crazy people. So much fun. My family is seriously the coolest.

One thing we did, that I will eventually have pictures of: Long story. Are you ready? For those of you who have not been to my parents' home, let me paint you a picture. First, they bought the home because my dad loved the property. Huge yard, pool, pond, gazebo. It's fun. And beautiful. And they keep improving it. I love it. Anyway, my dad told my mom that if she would let him buy this house, he would let her do anything she wanted to it. So they basically gutted it. I wish I had the pictures to show you the before and afters, but alas, I do not.

Now, upstairs, there is the living room/formal dining area. My parents master bedroom and bath. The family room/kitchen/breakfast nook area. Laundry room. Mud room. Garage. Half guest bath. Entrance. And then there used to be two bedrooms, but my parents had the wall between them knocked out and made it into one big huge bedroom for my two little sisters. Oh, and their bathroom.

Downstairs there are two storage rooms, a large family room, the playroom (under the stairs), computer room, my dad's office, my old bedroom and bathroom, the exercise room, and then two bedrooms with a jack-and-jill style bathroom between them. Those were my brothers' rooms.

Now that both of my brothers and I have moved out, my parents have been doing some rearranging. They had hardwood floors put in upstairs. They repainted the girls' bedroom, added more molding, and put a fireplace in it. It is now my dad's new office. He liked the idea of not having to take clients all the way through the house, downstairs, and to the back of the basement. They also added a desk in his office for my mom, so they can hang out more. Precious. :) So the downstairs office is empty, waiting to be redecorated. It will be a guest bedroom. My room has remained the same. That's where we stay whenever we visit. And anyone else for that matter, because it has been the only guest bedroom in the house until now. The girls have moved all of their things into the boys' old rooms and are in the process of redecorating as well.

Really, I could make this story so much shorter (be leaving out all of that) but it's my blog and I don't want to. :) So there.

Anyway, Madie is keeping Brennan's old furniture because it's fairly new, in great condition, and matches the new decor. Maren, however, is getting new furniture. Who knows where Devin's old bed will go. Madie's room and my old room have queen sized beds. The new guestroom will as well. And I'm assuming they'll get one for Maren. This is so that in the future when we all return home for holidays and whatnot we'll have somewhere to sleep with our hypothetical spouses. Or real ones, in my case.

Sooooo, in Madison and Maren's old bedroom upstairs they slept in matching twin beds. These beds were the beds Devin and I slept in growing up. Eventually Devin and Brennan shared a room and the beds stayed in my room. When the little girls were old enough I got my queen bed and they received my old beds. I recently learned that before they were mine they belonged to my grandparents on my dad's side. They were his beds growing up, and his sister's before him. We're not sure before that, but I plan to ask each of my aunts and uncles if they know (since both of my grandparents have passed away) to see if they were in the family beyond that or if they were purchased new. But as far as we know so far they are at least 50 years old. Still in great condition and beautiful!

The reason behind all of this useless information? (Useless to you, anyway). Now that my parents have redecorated and rearranged so much they have no space for these beds and I have inherited them!! And one of my sisters' old dressers as well (which matches the beds, although it is only about 10 or so years old).

We only have one car (which is FINALLY out of the shop, by the way!) but it's not capable of towing anything. We thought about renting a truck and borrowing a trailer from someone in the ward to haul the furniture back with, but rentals don't have hitches. We looked into renting a uhaul, but that was going to cost over $400. I'm too cheap for that.

So instead, we woke up bright and early Monday morning, loaded up my dad's trailer, and drove the 3 hours home in my parents' Denali. :) We unloaded the furniture as quickly as we could. Between my two wimpy arms and Jason's one good one, we got everything up the stairs and assembled in just about an hour. I was impressed with us. Then Jason drove the 3 hours back to my parents' house, dropped off their Denali and trailer, hopped in our car, and drove another 3 hours home. Fun day for him, right?

Well, along with the dresser and beds we received mattresses, box springs, sheet sets, pillows, and everything! All fairly new (5-7 years old) and it great condition. My mom quilted matching bedspreads when the girls were younger. They're beautiful!

So we took the toddler bed out of Payson's room and put it into Jack's room for when he grows out of the crib. She was growing out of it anyway. I bought some curtains, a lamp, and some framed pictures to match the bedding and got everything in place and hung up.

It looks so perfect!! I love it! And Payson loves it. It's so fun to sit on her bed with her at night and read stories and say prayers. It reminds me of doing the same with my parents growing up. And then when the beds belonged to the girls, Sunday nights my mom or dad would go in and lie on one of their beds with one of the girls and read stories from The Friend. Whenever we were over for Sunday dinner I would lie on the other bed snuggle with the other sister and hang out with them. And now I get to make memories with my daughter on these beds as well. I love that!

I want to post pictures, but the room has to be completely finished first! I'm trying to find a bookshelf and a few more things for the walls and then the room will be completely finished. The bookshelf I want is in Salt Lake, so I'm hoping when I'm in Utah for another cousin's wedding in a couple of weeks I'll be able to grab it. And on that same trip I want to grab some stuff from a few boutiques to finish it all off. Or maybe I'll get impatient and just make a weekend trip to Utah to shop, shop, shop!!

You might think I'm a little over excited about all this. And you're probably right. But I'll let you in on a sad little secret: Since we've been married I have only completely finished decorating one room ever. And I've never completely unpacked in any of the apartments we've lived in. There have always been boxes somewhere that I planned to go through "at some point". And as for the decorating, I either didn't know what I wanted to do or we couldn't afford what I wanted to do, so it was always put off as well.

When we lived in Lehi, I finished the family room area. I wanted at least one room to feel homey when we had company over. But that was a much smaller place than here, so now this room feels empty again. :( But oh well, I'm just working on one room at a time. Getting all this new stuff for Payson's room has given me new motivation and inspiration! (And a great budget, since so much of it was free!!) :)

So as soon as I finish Payson's room, which should be pretty quick and inexpensive, it's on to the master bedroom. I feel like after 5 years I deserve a nice room to relax in. :) Then I'm torn between finishing downstairs or Jack's room. I have a good idea of what I want to do in both, but Jack's will definitely be less expensive, so I could finish it more quickly. On the other hand, more people see the family room, so I'd like to get that one in order.

But anyway, I'm having fun coming up with ideas and watching them slowly come to life. I don't have expensive taste. (I bought payson's curtains, lamp, and pictures all at Walmart). But when everything is put together and organized everything feels so much homier. I relax a little more. The kids and I have spent so much time playing in Payson's new room this week. I love that!

So stay tuned for pictures of Payson's completed room, as well as the rest of this place, one room at a time!! Oh! And if you have any suggestions of great online stores and boutiques for furniture and home decor that isn't terribly expensive, please share! I'm learning (as I live in the middle of nowhere) that online shopping is usually my best bet! :)