Friday, February 27, 2009

love




I love so many things in life but the one thing i love the most is my husband....

i am amazed daily at the love and kindness chris shows me. he has taught me so much. i am so lucky and blessed so in celebration of these lovely five years that we have spent together i have written the following..... we have had our fair share of arguments, disagreements and out right fights but i love him so much and look forward to the lifetime that we have ahead.

1. stability: i am in love with how calm and stable chris is ALL the time. i am -to say the least a little high strung and chris keeps me grounded and always tells me "it will be ok." And it always is ok in the end. He just keeps such a great eternal perspective and i know that i can tell him my fears and dreams and trials and in the end feel strengthened to endure or work it out! He is my rock.



2. dedication: chris is so determined to finish what he starts. he is committed to me, to his job and to his calling. he is willing to support me in ALL that the YW do, all that I need to do for work and in all the crazy ideas that i come up with. Chris is committed to love, support and care for me even when i am grouchy and mean. i also appreciate that chris is smart (nerdy) and has and will continue to spend hours planning for our future; savings, retirement, college & mission funds for unborn kids as well as paying off ALL debts even our mortgage. I love to dream about our future and what we have ahead of us. I know that he will always be with and is determined no matter what happens that we will be ok and make it through--together.

3. unconditional: i am myself with chris. goofy, silly, mean, crazy and sassy! I love my pjs and wear them way too often, i hate doing dishes (so he does them most of the time) i am constantly coming up with new projects or assignments or jobs that inevitably mean that he will too. so despite all of these things he loves me! and probably loves me because of these things.

4. so much fun! and lots of laughing: Chris lets me be me and has always loved for me for who I am not what I look like or what i have done. He goes to YW events and we laugh. We love grocery shopping and it is fun. We just have a good time no matter what or where we are! I once told him that i could not take him every where because some people just do not understand his wyoming humor. the truth is chris is chris; what you see is what you get. he is always that way and treats everyone the same. i admire that in him.

5. Faith-in me, in our Savior and in our life together. he is always reminding me that he is on my team and we will be ok no matter what we face. he is strong and solid. he has taught me so much!

Happy Anniversary!



this was our night!

a flat tire, freezing rain

but also a fabulous dinner out + movie! in the end it was the best way to spend an anniversary--together!


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

spt

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
spt-resolve to record everyday experiences that i love!


we love our little temple. it has such a special spirit as it overlooks the sacred grove and remembers where the kingdom was restore in full. we have had amazing experiences, crazy youth trips and so many answers have come to us within the walls of this little building. i am grateful that we live so close, that we can go often, grateful that we can gain knowledge and understanding. and will be forever grateful that for two years we spent every friday with many others that became our family. it was what brought both of us through those difficult years; serving, learning, loving and soaking up the spirit. what an amazing experience.

we love you little temple and hope to have many more memorable experiences that we will treasure throughout eternity.
to ensure that we attend every month we decided we would simply choose a day that will be our temple day such as the 3rd saturday and then before we leave that day we just reschedule the next month. it makes the commitment to serving every month so much easier because it is already on the calendar. kinda like fhe-it is on mondays and we just do not schedule anything else that day.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

words i want to live by......



my hope is that we can all judge a little less, love a little more and never feel alone...
the more experience i obtain the more i have come to see that everyone is struggling with something. the struggles can vary so much from one another but we are more alike than not.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

spt



april 1990, 9 years old
huntsville, al

(i love how crazy my name is at the top-so cute)






i have always liked watercolors but find it hard to find time to paint. i feel a little out of practice but love the time i could spend doing it. i know it is not a picture of me painting but i wanted to remember how fulfilling it is to paint. some of the color is missing since it is just a scan.

Monday, February 16, 2009

quilt

maybe i should say quilts.....


i love, love the colors of this one. it might be my favorite.


you can see the hand quilting on this one. stitched in the ditch along the squares.


sorry for so many shots of this silly quilt but it took too many months plus it was a lot of firsts for me so I want to remember it.


In this one you can see the fun candy cane stripe fabric along the edge.




I got a little sick of looking at this fabric and so put it away for a little bit. I have the day off without Chris so I was able to do whatever I wanted. I just had the binding to finish and even though that is a small task I hate doing the binding. It never turns out right.....But I think I did well (i am trying to not find the flaws and just enjoy the process). It was a lot of fun. And i am pleased with the quilt!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

more projects



i saw this amazing headband online the other day but it was $35 so I decided I would make one of my own for the 40's dance that we had for valentine's day. it took some adjusting but i like how it turned out. and it matched my dress so well.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

tender mercy

In June we had a family reunion where my mom brought some of my grandmother's things for the grand kids to divide. She passed away the summer before last. One of my top and first choices was a set of glass trays that she had used for bridal showers, baby showers, special occasions and such. There was a big box of trays and glasses. I was not sure what I would use them for but I remember them sitting in my grandma's china cabinet.
Chris and I flew into Denver from NY, rented a car and drove to Lander to see Packers and then back to Denver to fly home. It was a long trip so we had the boxes of items from the reunion shipped to Rochester.
It arrived a few weeks later but the box was dented in several corners and inside the trays were shattered in pieces! not a few cracks but in teeny-tiny pieces...I was devastated and cried for days! I would not throw the box away and we even moved it; pieces and all to our new house.
So a few weeks ago Chris and I stopped at the VOA (the NY DI) and as we looked around I stumbled upon the same exact trays and cups that my grandmother had! I could not believe it and they were sooo cheap. I bought all of them! I am still so happy and cannot believe that I found the same ones....

so here it is-- the exact same tray! can you believe that......


Now I just need to have a party of some sort to use them and celebrate!

v-day dance


this is our branch president and his wife...it was so fun!!


saturday is our big valentine's dance with three stakes, so tuesday night we (meaning chris + i, but mostly i) decided that we would paint a picture board for the youth to stand behind or in front of for pictures. we found a few funny pictures from the 1940's, which is the theme of the dance, but this one stood out because the youth are familiar with superman. i hope they like it anyway. it has been really fun to do because i have never done anything like this. i like painting and all things related but this is HUGE and has been time consuming along with everything else to get ready....I just hope that I can pull it off....Happy Valentines Day to us!


At least Chris will be dancing with me for V-Day!!


and yes this is our crazy empty and bare basement floor but it could not be more perfect for things like this.

so cute...


it is finished + was so simple...



I added the link if anyone is interested in order the panel and making one themselves!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

spt

tuesday, february 11--resolve, i resolve to take more pictures of the everyday things i love to do


one of my very favorite things in the whole wide world is to talk with my husband. we can go to bed early and suddenly it will be 1:00am simply by chatting. chris likes to think that this is mostly because i like to talk but he does his fair share. i love sharing our testimonies, stories of trial, faith and as much as i think i know about chris i am constantly surprised at the amazing person that he is. he listens to my crazy dreams and helps me calm down to even go to sleep. i wish that this time could stop and that we had more time to do it.

this tuesday i woke up early to do a quick run, then off to my class by Cornell-family development credentials. it has a wonderful curriculum but sometimes the class gets out of control with personal discussions and stories. this week we talked about communication skills specifically confronting "hot topics" with clients.

i was lucky to have time to swing by the house for lunch and then off to the office to finish paperwork and for two family visits.

then home for a quick dinner with chris. we had some dishes left so chris finished those and i made dinner. he grabbed the ipod and played some of our favorites. at one point we ended up dancing in the kitchen in the middle of dinner and dishes. it is one of my favorite memories that does not happen often enough either. we have been creative with meals lately but love the quick and easy ones. tuesday was a simple Caesar salad-yum! i headed to the church for a ym/yw committee meeting-always exciting!

i got home in time to say goodbye to chris as he slipped out the door to play football with a local team he formed with co-workers. literally we slipped pass each other. i did some house work and sent some emails about yw things and then off to bed when chris got home at 11:00pm.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

spt

tuesday, january 27th i resolve to take more self portraits doing everyday things that i love + with people that i love
tuesday, february 3rd--resolve to take more self portraits doing the things i love...


this is harder than i thought it would be to take pictures of everyday things we are doing once a week. i think looking back i will really like it. it is also hard to get pictures of myself because i am usually the one to take them or we snap one of the two of us.



while shopping in utah with my mom we saw the cutest little fabric book but they were out of the panel so i searched online and ordered the panel. it is soo cute and easy to make. i have done pieces when i have five to ten minutes here and there.


i did not get very far but it is cut out! i love to sew and love to find different and unique fabric and patterns.




although sometimes i do get discouraged and frustrated by trying new things. I actually really enjoy the challenge. I love finding new patterns and thinking i can do that! And it does not always work out the way that I imagine but I would rather try and fail than never try at all. so one of my resolutions is to try new things and document it. (one of the problems is i want to try so many things)



this second project has been in the works for a few years...yes. years. i decided to hand quilt it and it takes an enormous amount of time but i am determined to finish it! it is fun and i think i have gotten the hang of it. i want to finish it this year!