Psych!

We aren't really gone yet. We should be. But we aren't. We are sitting at home waiting for tomorrow to come bright and early. Our flight was delayed coming in from Salt Lake, which made our flight going out very late. It was late enough we were going to miss our connecting flights, and they couldn't get us on any other flights. Thank you Delta. They sent us home, we are going back at 4 AM tomorrow to catch a 5:30 flight. Seriously who gets up at that hour? Evidently us. And we get a great flight plan tomorrow.. seriously wonderful. We go from here, to Salt Lake, to Atlanta, to Indianapolis. At least we are getting frequent flyer miles for ping-ponging across the country. And our trip is going to be oh so quick now. We are flying home on Thursday as originally scheduled. Chaos I tell you. Pure chaos.
On the bright side I get to spend all day with the man of my dreams on his birthday. I am a lucky girl!

FYI

• I will be MIA.
• We are going to Indianapolis to show the kids around, and to show them the new house!
• They can't wait to get on the airplane!
• Randy is celebrating his 31st Birthday on Tuesday, April 1st.
• We didn't want to miss his birthday and since he has to work in Indiana this week; we get to party in Indiana this week.
• I will be back late Thursday.
• Don't miss me too much.
• Have a fabulous week.

Year's Supply

I read Tiffani's blog and she had talked about food storage.. it gave me an idea to blog about.

Want to see my years supply?



A year ago I decided in a few weeks time I would buy my food storage. My parents are on a service mission at our local cannery and had been telling me I needed to get it done. I took the money and decided to go and do it.



It was such a great experience, I took Little Miss with me and she was a terrific helper. It was nice to go and buy all of the basic necessities for one year for my family. And now that I have it I feel so accomplished. I was transferring some of my items this week from bulk to buckets and I felt so excited that I know we are truly prepared. We wouldn't have a lavish diet but we would live for one year.

I am so excited when I go in and look at all of my food. We had an great 3 month supply but I have been dwindling it down since we are moving and I will restock it once we are settled in our new home. I am thrilled to know I have the sugar, milk, grains, legumes, that I need. I still want to add more to it, but we have what we have been asked to do.

And my little plug. If you have wondered about doing food storage, do it. You will be so very blessed. I have such a testimony of having your years supply and also of having your 3 month supply. We have felt so blessed by having this and feeling like we are prepared. I didn't have to strong desire to care about it until I did it. And I love that with our 1 year basic they aren't saying we have to constantly rotate it, it is good for 30 years! And then I have my 3 month stuff that I rotate. And your basics for a family of 4 will cost under $1000. Quite the bargain if you ask me.

I am looking forward to building up more three month supply again it is always nice to have extras of peanut butter on Sunday when you realize you are out. It has saved me many times.

While in the Shower

Little Miss came in Mommy, can you be done? Can you turn off the shower? I peaked my shampooed head out and asked what was so urgent. She looked at me and sweetly said Mommy I want snuggles.
Isn't she the cutest!

The Strength of You

The Strength of Youth pamphlet is one of my favorite things published by the Church. Recently at our Worldwide Leadership Meeting Julie B. Beck was talking about how it is the Strength of You. I have been thinking about this. And thinking about the meaning of what she said.

This is something that we teach the Youth of the Church so that way they have all of the tools they need as adults to go into the world and raise righteous generations. I don't know that I appreciated this doctrine nearly enough as a youth. Now as I teach the youth of the Church I see the valuable tool that it is. It is something we teach the youth so they will live it forever. It doesn't just apply when we are young. It is for all of us.

We taught at a Conference this past weekend and we talked about it so much. I spoke to them about the importance of modesty.. I don't think that it can be taught enough! Explaining to the kids this isn't just guidelines it is scripture written by our Prophets. I know I have known this but it spoke to me even more. Our leaders have blessed us with scripture to help us in every situation, agency, gratitude, education, family, friends, dress, entertainment, music, dancing, language, dating, sexual purity, repentance, honesty, sabbath day observation, tithes, health, service, and faith. They have helped to clear the grey areas and have given us guidance and right and wrong. The path has been marked so very clear. I read it and think that it should be so easy, but sometimes it isn't. I re-read the pamphlet and I have been trying to apply it to my life even more. We can always do better, try harder. With it mapped out so clearly it should be easy right?

And my favorite part, because I feel so strongly about modesty.

"Never lower your dress standards for any occasion. Doing so sends the message that you are using your body to get attention and approval and that modesty is important only when it is convenient.
Immodest clothing includes short shorts and skirts, tight clothing, shirts that do not cover the stomach, and other revealing attire. Young women should wear clothing that covers the shoulder and avoid clothing that is low-cut in the front or the back or revealing in any other manner. Young men should also maintain modesty in their appearance. All should avoid extremes in clothing, appearance, and hairstyle. Always be neat and clean and avoid being sloppy or inappropriately casual in dress, grooming, and manners. Ask yourself, “Would I feel comfortable with my appearance if I were in the Lord’s presence?”"

Trunky

You know when missionaries are counting down the days until they go home. That is where I am at. Counting down the days until I move. I am seriously ready. And before you get me wrong it isn't that I am wanting to leave my family and friends and where I call home. I am just ready to go do the next thing. We know where we are living, we know when we are moving, we know how we are getting there. Now we just need to do it.

Before I go I hope I get a chance to see many of my friends I rarely get to see. I would to do lunch, run to Target, or just get a chance to sit back and chat. We are under 4 weeks until our move day. How crazy is that! And next week we aren't even here.

Randy and I were both talking about how ready we are to move forward. We feel like our lives have been on hold as we have waited to find out what the next step was going to be. And things are all finally in place and we are just ready to move forward and get started on our new adventure.

Easter Pictures.

I took the CUTEST Easter pictures today. My kids looked just adorable, and Little Miss had on her new dress I made her, and Little Man looked super cute. It was great.
I went to upload them and my CF card was corrupt. All images are now gone, I am ticked, sad, on the verge of tears, and ready to scream. I am in mourning. Stay tuned for some "fake" Easter pictures. Hopefully on "fake" Easter it will be nicer weather.

Photoshop Before and After

I have been contemplating showing some Photoshop stuff. And today I decided I would show a before and after of a pictures SOOC (Straight out of camera) and then what the edited version looks like. This is Misty, my wonderful very pregnant friend.

This is the before. The composition works, but the colors are blah. I take my pictures in manual. I adjust my settings and override the cameras standard settings to get better exposure.

First thing I did as an unsharp mask, it actually sharpens the pictures. Then I crop the picture. It needed to get rid of some of the excess that didn't add to the picture. I have Photoshop CS2 that I use to edit, (CS3 is in the mail, I can't wait!) Any who.. I cropped it, then I did adjusted my levels, just slightly to brighten the skin.

(this has been sharpened, cropped, and levels) And then I use the curves tool. It adjusts the contrast a little, and helps to brighten it up a bit. I do a very small s curve in the lower left hand corner staying in that bottom square. It is very slight.Then I add my color balance, I add more red and yellow to warm the picture up. I do it for the highlights, midtones, and shadows. See how much nicer it looks?Then I use a lasso and lasso around Misty and feather at 250, and then select inverse and adjust my levels with the slider on the far left to intensify the colors. And this is my finished product.

Part of editing the pictures and using the 'digital darkroom' is what helps to make your images go from blah to wow! Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you want more like this!

Happy Friday!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is my Mom's birthday. I have mentioned several times how much I adore my Mommy, and how wonderful she truly is. I am planning on spending as much time with her as possible today. She has practice for the symphony tonight so we are doing the family shin-dig tomorrow. I went looking through my pictures for pictures of my Mom and I together, this one is almost a year old. Looks like it is time for a new one!!

I won't tell her age, because she is so not happy about it, and I am going to respect her by not telling everyone her age.. I think that is a first for me! I am so proud of how gorgeous my Mom is and how great she looks for her age I tell everyone because it is shocking, but Happy Birthday Mom, today I am keeping your secret.

Here are six things I love about my Mommy.

1. She is a phenomenal violinist. I could listen to just her play for hours. I love playing with her. Music comes to life when she plays.

2. She is kind.

3. She is the best self-sacrificing Mother.

4. She makes her Grandchildren feel like they are the only thing that matter. The world stops when she is with them and they know how much she loves and adores them.

5. She is FUNNY!

6. She is a great example of the type of woman I hope to be.

I could go on and on and on. But those are a few things I love about my Mommy. I am grateful to have spent so many years with my Mom on her birthday, and every other day. I have 30 days until moving day..(yes it is always hanging over my head. ) I plan on spending as much time with her as possible. We went to Spokane together on Tuesday and I am taking her shopping today. Hopefully I will get a good dose of Mommy before I leave.

Happy Birthday Mommy! You are the Best Mom I know. I am grateful that I am your daughter, and that my kids get to call you Grandma. Love you.

Constant

Today I went to my rheumatologist. It was my last appointment with him, and my next one will be with my new Doctor in Indiana. I am quite attached to Dr. Craig, and that might sound a little weird, but I am. He is who diagnosed me with Lupus 10 years ago. I knew him when I was still a Senior in High School. He has been my doctor dealing with all of my issues with my health. He kept tabs on each of the problems I had while pregnant and is one who seriously talked to me about the reasons I needed to be done. I trust him fully to keep me healthy and to do what is best. When I look at the last 10 years of my life it has been crazy and ever changing. This is the one thing that remained constant. I had a Dr I knew and trusted more than any other. He has an awesome Nurse Debbie, who knows when I call needing help, I really need help. It has been the same and one of the only things that has stayed that way for 10 years. As long as I have dealt with this disease. It was sad to leave today, they wished me well and gave me a hug and made me promise to come back and visit with my kids. I almost teared up when I left. It is always a familiar place and somewhere I feel okay. They know all the crazy things wrong with me, and are able to laugh at it with me and keep things light and help me to deal the way I do. I don't know many doctors or offices that help people as much as they do. It's been the constant in my world when everything else is always changing. It's been a good ten years.

Blah.. blah.. blah..

Yesterday I pouted. Really I did. We all have bronchitis, thankfully we are all on meds an getting better. We sat at home and I realized that in 5 weeks, I won't be here. Sad huh? I pouted.

Today, I have been productive. I locked in our interest rate, and found out we get to re-lock one time if rates drop! And Merck bought our rate down a little!!! I talked to the movers to schedule the moving date. One month from today is what it is looking like. *sigh* I am excited but not. Does that makes sense?

Want to know my schedule for the next month. This week Randy is home. Next week he is in Pennsylvania for training. The week of April 1st we are all in Indiana. The next week Randy is in Pennsylvania for training, and then he is home and we move the week of the 17th. Do you see how quickly this is happening? Do you feel overwhelmed for me? You should! :)

While in Indiana I loved it. Really it was nice. I just wish it wasn't all the way over there. Seriously it is in the Eastern Time Zone. That is FOREVER away. Part of me just wished it was at least in Central Time.. I don't know why I think that would be easier but I do. At least we will get to fly back and forth. I already have one flight with the kids booked home.

I love the house we are moving into. Really I love it. I love that they don't have fences. It is just pretty and the lots are nice sized. We are going to put in the underground electric fence for our dogs. They should do well with that. (We hope!) They are getting older and lazier. (Sage turned 3 yesterday!) And the kids thankfully stay in the yard now.

Some great things.. so I am not negative or pouting.. because really today is better it is just sad to leave what we know as "home". Wonderful restaurants. I mean WONDERFUL! The shopping is awesome. My mall has Saks in it! How cool is that? Costco is close!! YIPPEE!! The manners, and a little bit of Southern Hospitality. Yes Ma'am and No Sir. I want my children to pick up on this. The schools are some of the best rated. It is one of the best places to live in America! They have the best Children's Museum in the World. Everyone told me that. They have a zoo! With dolphins. We can go to a Pacers game.. okay we can go cheer for the Sonics. And I know two nice women there both named Emily, so I won't confuse their names!! I think once it is done and we are there it will be easier.. right? The main parts are figured out.. now it is just getting there.

Back!

We had a nice time in Indiana. It is flat there. Very flat. I was surprised. And there are cornfields and ponds everywhere. Tons of trees, and just quite different from the two colors of greenish-brown, and brownish-green here. We looked at several homes, I had vowed we would not buy a home on this trip, this was purely just to get acquainted with the area.

We saw several homes I was not interested in at all. I thought I would be, but they were not desirable. And then we pulled up to a house and I thought this is nice. We went in, it was nicer, we toured the whole thing and I knew I was in love. I told Randy when we came back in a few weeks with the kids we could make an offer.. no one else would love it like I did right? We decided to go through it one more time and after going back, I knew it was where we were supposed to be. It was the neighborhood, the house, this was going to be our home. We decided to make an offer. And after some negotiating, we are under contract with our new home in Indiana, far far away. We are excited, and looking forward to the move. It helps knowing where we are going and starting to feel things falling into place.

About Indiana, the people are nice. So nice. Seriously I was so impressed with people offering to help us get to know the area, giving us their phone numbers and email addresses in case we have any questions. Those who know me well know that I talk to anyone anytime about anything. I fit in there, everyone there does it too! They wave at you driving down the street, they talk to you like they have known you forever. It was awesome!! Evidently I am a Midwest girl who didn't know it!!

Get ready for picture overload, we love this house, and it fits all of our requirements and then some.

The Details

Or at least a few of them. Our house goes on the market officially tomorrow. It is so surreal to me. But we are excited and looking forward to the next stage.

We are going to Indianapolis this week. I was supposed to go to Spokane this weekend, but we need to go look for a home and where we are going to live. (Sorry to all of my friends I am ditching.. hope you still love me.) We get two trips, this week and again the first week of April. I am excited to go see Indiana, see where I am going to call home. It will be Randy and my first trip to Indiana. Is it crazy to agree to move somewhere you have never been?

The question most asked, when do you move? I like to say 8 weeks. It is a good answer, and one I might continue to use for the next 8 weeks. Realistically though we should be moving in less than 6 weeks. It is quickly approaching. That is part of the reason we are going to Indianapolis this week, before long we will be on our final flight there.

I am getting much more excited. There are so many great opportunities and I am just so excited. I am extending an invitation to all of my friends to come visit me. You know you want to! I have had several of the Young Women I teach and have taught tell me they are coming to visit me. I seriously hope so.

Thankfully I already have a trip planned to come back home in June. I have a wedding I am photographing and they want ME so I am flying back with the kids so I can capture their special day.

Good news.. we don't have to pack a thing. If we pack it it won't be insured. Moving will be quite simple, we get our suitcases and go the airport with our dogs and fly to our new home. Our van and belongings will come shortly after. Could it be any easier? I don't think so. Here is to a stress free move!

What I Like About ME!

I have mentioned before I like myself. And I was reading a couple of blogs and decided I would join in. Because lets face it this is my blog.. and well I like to talk about me, who doesn't! :)

Little Man took this picture of me.. it makes me laugh, because I am so not this serious, and I realize I am no longer this teenage bride.. I am almost 28!

But check out that picture, do you see my neck? I always thought I had a short neck, but I don't. It is a long slender neck, and I love it. And it just makes me feel HOT! Everyone likes to feel hot right?

My hair.. I used to straighten my hair ALWAYS. I never wore it curly. Then slowly I would do it on occasion curly, and now it is rare that it is straight. I love my curls. They are fun and so me. Always random and never quite the same. And I can't forget the color.. I love how dark it is, and the contrast it is to my light eyes.

My hands, I have long fingers, and long slender hands. I can reach two keys over an octave on the piano, I can palm a basketball, and my hands are bigger than my husbands. I love that they are long.

My scars on my body. If you look closely in that picture you will see one at the base of my neck. I love it. All of the scars from my surgeries I have had I look at with pride. My body struggled through many things and I came out on top. I can do hard things. (I especially have to remember this right now as I am preparing to move away from my family.. cue the crying.)

I like my lips. I have always been told I have perfect pretty lips. And the edges almost always are curled up.. life is too fun to not smile and have a terrific time.

And I love my eyes. They are blue or green depends on what I am wearing. They are light, and they are like that of my wonderful Mother.

It was supposed to be five things, but I got carried away. As I have said before it is important to like ourselves. If you would have asked me two years ago what I liked about myself I would have said my clothes that cover up my body. I have watched women with confidence in who they are and the people they are becoming and have been in awe. Many of my friends have been these women who just are so confident who they are. I decided I needed that in my life. I needed to know who I was, and that by knowing that about me, I would like me. I learned I am a Daughter of God. He loves me. He made me just the way I am. He didn't make me to look like some girl on the cover of a magazine, or to aspire to look like someone/something else. He made me perfect in His eyes. I realized that finally. It only took SEVERAL years. I realized it when I looked at my own daughter and saw how absolutely BEAUTIFUL she is. And realized my Mother felt the same way about me. I would be greatly saddened if my daughter ever felt she needed to do things to change herself to be beautiful. The media has twisted what true beauty is. I love how Danyelle talks about how she despised her nose, but now loves it. That is an awesome thing and something I hope we as women will do. Embrace ourselves for who we are, not what we think we should be. We are made unique and beautiful and individuals.

Embrace yourself, what do you like about you?

The Slump...

My Blog is in a slump. It has been for a month. I have had pretty much just one thing on my mind. I am moving.. where? when? why? blah.. blah.. blah. Really I only have one thing I want to blog about and who all wants to hear about me moving to Indiana.



Now I know the where, and pretty much the when, and the why because the boss said so.. and well so did the Lord. My questions are answered.. kind of. But then it opened up a whole bunch of knew questions. What house, which city, schools, church, shopping, and the list goes on.



I am asked if we are excited. I will be honest, the opportunity for Randy's job is totally exciting! And really we feel so incredibly blessed to have been given such a wonderful promotion. The adventure is exciting, the chance to live so close to so many Church history sites is exciting. We are going to be close (well driving distance) to where Randy served his mission! How cool is that! There are so many things we are so very excited for. It is a new adventure, and we love adventures. They have a zoo there, and the best Children's Museum in US there. Everyone is telling me all about it. We will have amazing experiences there, I have no doubt. And I am going to live outside of Washington State for the first time! So yes we are excited for part of it.



And yes I am very sad to be leaving my family. We have been blessed to live close to family for so many years that it will be hard to not have them close. My Mom is one of my best friends. I don't want people telling me how it is good to be away from family, I get that we cleave to our spouse and our children our little family unit. But I like having my Mom around. Thankfully we will live near a big airport, so flights shouldn't be too bad. We have our cell phones, the Internet and web cams that we can use. It will all be okay, but I do know that this will be hard.



These are the things that are going on in my head daily. Am I strong enough to do this? Does the Lord really think I can do this? Will my kids handle this okay? Is this going to be our forever home? What next? HOLY CRAP IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING? What happened to my life as I knew it just a few weeks ago?



The Lord has blessed me with quiet reassurances that this is indeed what we are supposed to do. I can do this, and it will all work out. I know this. It is still sinking in, and I don't know that I will fully comprehend it until I am there. I do know that I am truly grateful that the Church is everywhere. I will have a ward family instantly and I will have a place to call home. The Lord has a reason for sending us to Indiana, and hopefully one day I will fully understand them. But for now I trust Him. I am thrilled for the opportunities that Randy has with his work. Seriously we could not be more blessed. And I am thankful I am not a pioneer or it would take me three years to get there and I would never see my family again. I feel blessed in so many ways, and we have truly felt like we have been so blessed and have had many things so inspired throughout all of this.

*Beware if you don't want to read more or learn more about this you might want to avoid my blog for a while. Hopefully you love me enough to want to hear all of the gory details!

MLM Returns!! 6 Word Life Memoir

My Life Monday is back! Are you excited? Because I am excited. I love love love love love love love love love love love My Life Monday! Understood? Great!

Today's topic is 6 Word Life Memoir. I have felt stumped.. and unsure.

I am choosing It's the Little Things that Matter.

In my life it always seems to be the little things that make a difference. It never fails that when one little thing gets thrown off my whole life gets out of whack. When I take time to take care of the little details that keep everything together my life is better. I apply this to the Gospel and the way that when I skip a scripture study I notice. It matters, it changes my day and I don't feel the Spirit as strong. When I take time to listen, to stop, to be aware of the little things in my life I feel so blessed. The small things move mountains for me, and help to keep me grounded.

Now go to Rachelle's blog and join in!