Julianna. . . .

Here is your layout. In real life there is a fun glittery look to it. . .just doesn’t show up in the photo. I have to say I’m having so much fun with these layouts.Just a note for my scrapping friends about these wall layouts. . . .I cut a piece of foam core to put behind the textured background so that when it hangs on the wall it stands out a bit. On the back of the foam I put 15-20 Scotch Clear Mounting Squares. They don’t ruin the wall and they hold things up very well if you use enough. Then on a few smaller areas (like the flowers on this layout) I put some pop dots behind the background sheet. The pop dots I have are safe for your wall (sorry that I don’t know the brand) and they help it stand out evenly. Another thing to note about wall layouts is that because of the vertical pull, you need a very strong tape. I use a knock-off brand of Wonder Tape. Stitching things together, attaching with brads or eyelets are also good options. And of course with wall layouts, you can add as much dimension as you would like. My wall layouts are one of my most-commented-on décor. Can you tell I love these things? So fun!

It was inevitable I suppose. . .

So I was looking at fabric for curtains for Cache’s room. I found a masculine stripe that had the two colors in his room in it (which I thought would be difficult)—and as a bonus, the fabric was quite curtainesque. So I got a swatch and brought it home. It ended up being a perfect match and I wished I would have gotten what I needed while I was there. When Cache got home I told him I put a sample on his bed. He went down to look at it. When he came back up he asked “Is this it? Are you serious?” LOL! I can read in between the lines. . . loud and clear I heard it: You are old and out of touch! At least I’m acting my age! Ha ha.

Tag and T.U.S.H.

To steal a phrase from a blog I frequent, I am T.U.S.H. (trapped under something heavy). And that heavy thing is a ginormous to-do list. So I have banned myself blogging for a bit so I can make some progress on it. . . First on the list is 6 college credits that I need to keep my teaching certificate current. I have been very excellent at procrastinating, if I do say so myself. So right now that's not a pretty picture. Also on the list is writing the Primary program. Ours is always mid September and in order to get things worked out with the music people and get approval from the bishopric, now is the time it has to be written. I also am decorating teacher's doors next week for teacher appreciation week. And instead of exchanging Christmas gifts with siblings, my family has gone to giving something handmade in June at our family reunion. Haven't started. And there are a few other odds and ends like signing up for swimming lessons, phone calls, emails etc. on that list. SO, blogging has been restricted to a bare minimum until I feel a little more on top of things.

BUT, who can resist a tag? Alison tagged me with an A-Z Tag the other day. . . the tag is kind of along the lines of a little game that I have been going to do here, but since I don't have time to set up it and manage it like I wanted, I'm going to post it as a FAKE TAG below the REAL TAG. If you are on my blog on April 23 between 2:00pm-10:30 pm MST, you are officially fake-tagged. Honor system. If you post answers to the fake tag on your blog, leave me a comment and I'll come and check it out. So here's the real tag:

A- ATTACHED OR SINGLE: Attached
B- BEST FRIEND: Tom
C- CAKE OR PIE: Neither, but if it was a force issue, probably pie. Although an ice cream cake can be pretty good.
D- DAY OF CHOICE: all. Life is good. I enjoy every single one of them.
E- ESSENTIAL ITEM: Probably bread machine. I have teenage boys.
F- FAVORITE COLOR: green
G- GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: being a stay at home mom
H- HOMETOWN: Preston, ID
I- INDULGENCES: a nap, sure wish I indulged more often
J- JANUARY OR JULY: July
K- KIDS: 3 boys, 1 girl
L- LIFE IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT: Tom
M- MARRIAGE DATE: August 17, 2004
N- NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: 3 sisters, 3 brothers
O- ORANGES OR APPLES: oranges
P- PHOBIAS OR FEARS: snakes
Q- QUOTES: "Nothing in life is so bad that whining won't make it worse."
R- REASON TO SMILE: this picture. . . Two big brothers playing so happily with little sister(I know the photo is not great in quality but I've learned to just take the picture instead of fixing things (the blinds in this case), so I don't lose the moment)
S- SEASON: all. good and fun things happen in each
T- TAG FIVE FRIENDS: Steph, Margaret, Susan, Dustin, Kelsie
U- UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: There is dirty laundry in my house. (ha, betcha didn't know that :)
V- VERY FAVORITE STORE: I don't love shopping anywhere really.
W- WORST HABIT: Telling Tess to go ask someone else for what she wants when there are others around besides me.
X- X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND: Ultrasound I guess. Can't think of a time I've had an X-Ray.
Y- YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: Depends on my mood. Chinese mostly.
Z-YOUR ZODIAC SIGN: Libra

The Fake Tag

A- Analytic or Impulsive? I don't consider myself either. . .Tom, on the other has the Waddoups- ultra-analytic gene.
B- Book or TV? Book; couldn't watch TV to save my life.
C- Credit or Debit? Credit, but pay it off every month--gotta earn freebies somehow :)
D- Dance or Sit out? Sit out--love to watch others more than I like being watched.
E- Exact or Approximate? Depends. . . in scrapbooking, I'm pretty exact, but cooking I'm oh so approximate.
F- Fries or Onion Rings? Both, but usually order fries--cheaper.
G- Gold or Silver? Silver
H- Hamburgers or Hotdogs? Hamburgers
I- Instrumental or Vocal? Both
J- Jack-of-all-trades or One-forte? Mostly Zero forte
K- Kisses or Hugs? Hugs
L- Laundry or Dishes? Laundry
M- Manna or Moola? Manna
N- Night or Morning? By nature, night, by habit morning.
O- Online or In person (shopping)? Online.
P- Paper or Plastic? Paper--I'm a scrapbooker!
Q- Quotes or Sermons? Quotes. Sometimes my attention span is short. . .
R- Rice or Potatoes? Both
S- Stripes or Polka Dots? Stripes
T- Teenagers or Toddlers? Both, but right now my teenagers are being much easier than my toddler.
U- Umbrella or Rain slicker? Umbrella
V- Vanilla or Chocolate? Vanilla
W- Weed or Mow? Weed
X- X-ray or Ultrasound? Ulltrasound
Y- Yard work or Housework? Don't love either very much, but I've learned that neither do themselves. . . .
Z- Zippers or Buttons? Zippers

Kelsie. . .

This will be arriving in your mailbox in a few days. I need to get the mounting stuff on the back and then I'll send it off. Hope it will work for you :). I'll post the other two layouts as I get them finished. Also, I got an update from my mom on a card she sent. Her friend called her and said "Can you hear me from Cloud 9?" Too cute. She also said she was going to keep the card to read on down days. Thanks again for all of you who sent cards whether you hear about the results or not. You made a difference!

A Case for Gratitude

Kinda busy around here with the kiddies home for spring break this week (and we made a quick trip to Preston) so I don't have too much time to post, but I got these pictures the other day from Tom's mom and thought I'd share them here. They are taken in a very poor village near Guangzhou. I'm not sure what kind of feelings they evoke in you, but I kind of start feeling like I've got excess. With the help of a thesaurus, here are the words that describe my living situation compared to this: excessive, extreme, too much, unnecessary, unwarranted, undue, disproportionate, superfluous, surplus, not required, left over, spare, redundant, unjustifiable, needless, nonessential, luxury. . .

Tom's parents said that the young man that took them out to this village said that he grew up in huts such as this and now that he lives nicer, he is not any happier than he was then. . .food for thought, especially since that young man probably still lives much below my standard of living. To help with our lack of comparative gratitude, I printed this out for my bulletin board. I just keep looking at these pictures and come up with nothing to say for myself. We just have so so so much. Such a stark, harsh reminder. (click to enlarge)

Project Factory

Because I love crafty projects and love to help the kids with theirs, at any given time, we have a handful of projects in progress. Normal. But this past week I feel like we’ve been running a project factory. . . . we have even had to run the late-night shift a couple of times. While I do love a good project or two, too many going at one time tends to produce a little mayhem. And that, my friends, pretty much sums up our week. Here is a showing of what has been completed at our house in one week's time:

Beady socks for a baby gift.

Rocket (sans decals). Caleb’s class is having a rocket launch day tomorrow and he bought a level 3 rocket. . .it has taken him all week to complete. But he’s done most of it himself so I get to be impressed :).

Nice cheery springish centerpiece to brighten things up since the outside weather isn’t. (note the droplets on the window, from the snow that is coming down; I guess I get to be thankful it didn’t stick) This is just tissue paper on some twigs--thanks for the idea, Mom.

Finished turtle box. . .technically this wasn’t this week’s project, but Cache brought it home while I was taking pictures so it gets thrown into the mix. (and since this is my blog I get to bend the rules a bit :). But you can see how his ceramic pieces turn out once fired and glazed.

Marvin the Martian for a ‘bust’ (head) sculpture for Cache’s ceramic class. You can get a small idea of the mess I endure on my counter every night as he works on his projects. This is one of his hardest classes and spends more time on it than any other. (also not photographed, but worked on this week is a free sculpture of a dragon that he decided wasn't going to work so it got glopped back into a glob.)

Corn and celery made from a homemade mold for the sculpture merit badge—Cache’s is the corn, Caleb’s is the celery (on the blue plate).

Hot plate tiles. 13 cent tiles from Home Depot, Staz On ink and some stamps. Super easy, fast and cute.

And so Chandler wouldn’t feel left out, he got to do some shrinky dinks. The pen in the picture is for size reference only :).

I’ve also been working on a layout for one of my layout winners, and I’ve been cleaning like crazy because I’m hosting a dinner here for the adult ward party: “Guess who’s coming to dinner” on Saturday.

And that's all from this week's Project Factory head.

Tradition!

Does this post title make you burst out in song (Fiddler on the Roof)? It does me, for some reason.

I loved Sister Lant’s talk in conference on traditions. A couple of quotes from her talk: “Are we consciously creating righteous traditions or is life just happening to us?” “Will [our children’s] hearts and life be full of the traditions that make it easy for them to accept and follow the Lord and the latter day prophets?” Her talk has made me reflect on what we do in our house and what we can do better. Traditions truly are the means of passing values down to future generations. So I’m going to share a few ideas (some of ours and some of others) and then I would love to hear what you do, what you grew up with or what you would like to do at some point. All of us will benefit from sharing so if you feel so inclined, please share!

On the wall of our upstairs family room I have a photo collage along with the words: faith, service and integrity. For each of those values we have a quote. After scriptures each day, we recite one of the quotes (we rotate monthly). I will be honest and say that there are many a day that we hear complaints about saying the quote, but I feel like it is valuable—and now I have Sister Lant as back up (yay for back up!). After family prayers everyone heads off to do final preparations for school: making their lunch, packing their back packs etc. They are also supposed to say their prayers; often those slip. But when President Hinckley died, I started singing his song “Don’t Ever Forget to Pray” after we finished family prayers and now when we ask right before they leave if they have said their prayers, the answer is yes. Traditions make a difference.

My friend, Shauna, told in a sharing time that to gather their family to FHE they sing “Here We Are Together”. It started when her boys were young, and they still do it now that they are all teenagers!! They tried stopping at one point and the boys wanted to keep it up!)I think that is so awesome!

My sister, Danna, always puts the Primary Children’s Song CD on to play as her kids go to sleep.

Long before I married Tom, I remember his dad saying in Sunday School how his son-in-law, Justin, read scriptures to Abby from the day she was born. When I mentioned this memory to Tom, he started doing it with Tess. Now they have a little bedtime ritual of playing hide and seek in her closet, brushing teeth, reading scriptures and saying prayers every night.

So what traditions have you thought of that you would like to share? I’d love to hear them.

You might like to know. . .

That Monday, April 7th, is National No Housework Day. So are you going to celebrate? For me, while I love the idea of taking the entire day off, I hate to think of the depression that would hit me Tuesday morning if I refrained from all housework all day. I definitely can manage to not clean bathrooms, mop floors, wash windows and walls, pull down cobwebs, vacuum under furniture and clean out my fridge. But dishes will still need to be done. . . and I can't stand clutter. . . and Tess manages to make a messy mess every time she eats something . . . . and beds need to be made. . . So I guess, there won't be a full-on celebration here. What about you?

Get Inspired!

I just finished listening to this talk by Sister Bonnie Parkin on Personal Ministry. She tells some wonderful stories of apostles and prophets personally ministering to people. She also talks about each of us having a personal mission to reach and touch people. If you were motivated to make a difference by sending cards (either mine or your own) I recommend that you listen to or read it. The above link is only audio for the computer but you can download it to your mp3 or read it, but there is not a web link for those (that I could find). To find it, go here and type in "Personal Ministry" and it should come up. Then you can choose the option that is best for you. Prepare to be inspired! It is such a good talk.

The Correct Answers

Thank you all for playing . . . it was very fun reading your answers.

1. Cache is running for a student body officer under the pseudo name of Velspar. FICTION. But he and his friends made posters and flyers and hung all over the school to ‘Write in Velspar”. We have been getting a kick out of his stories about it.
2. Caleb wore leotards to school on Friday. FACT. I know, I can’t believe it either, but they had a wax museum at school on Friday and he was Johann Gutenberg and he decided to wear them under his pants so he didn’t have to put them on there. He announced at the end of the day that wearing leotards was certainly uncomfortable! (tell me something new!)
3. We have someone from China staying the night at our house tonight. FACT. I suppose this was a bit misleading as this person is not Chinese, he is Tom’s best friend from high school who is living over there. Today they are off skiing.
4. We are selling our dog. FACT. Yes, Chandler cried buckets when we made the announcement, but her digging under the fence and chewing up the neighbor’s sprinklers was the back-breaker. . .not to mention all of the other grievances we’ve had with her. We’ve made amends by promising a hamster. Such an easy trade in our book.
5. We are going to Legoland this summer. FICTION. We wish . . . however this summer is too packed with scout camps, backpacking trips, family reunions etc. that there wouldn’t be a slot in the calendar if we tried.
6. On our last trip to Costco we spent $327.53. FACT, unfortunately. BUT we did top off a lot items in our food storage.
7. I got a phone call from the school yesterday saying Chandler got hurt playing football. I picked him up, took him to the doctor and he had broken his left arm. FICTION. But see the post below to see Chandler’s April Fool’s joke on me. Too funny.
8. Tessa loves her squeaky shoes. FACT. She asks to have them on everyday—every other pair of shoes we put on her come off in a matter of minutes.
9. Tom and I are going to the Desert Star Theatre for our date in 3 weeks. FICTION. I do have gift certificates for tickets, but I haven’t booked anything yet. Guess I should look into that, but I’m guessing we won’t be going in three weeks.
10. We played ping pong for FHE games last night. FICTION. Although we often do that for games, on Monday we sculpted words from the Apples to Apples cards with clay.

Katie, according to my calculations you got 7 correct, which was the highest . . . I’m assuming you want scrapping supplies, let me know if you want otherwise. I’ll put a little package together.

April Fools by Chandler

This is the note I got from school yesterday. (Yes, there was snow to throw around.) At the bottom she had written in small letters ‘April Fools’. Cracks me up because this was totally Chandler’s idea. . .he said that after he had his teacher write it, half the class wanted one too. I fear he may be a class clown (dad, could this be your fault?).

Fact or Fiction??

Today, in honor of April Fool’s Day, I’ve provided a little game. If you would like to play, just label each of the following statements as Fact or Fiction (emails to chart@utwire.net or leave a comment). If you are the first person to get the most correct, I’ll send you a prize, it can be a few scrapbooking supplies or something more standard—your choice. (Ask any of my siblings if this prize-offering fare is part of my typical weirdness and they will confirm. Unfortunately I’m just moderately odd that way.) Answers are due by midnight :).

1. Cache is running for a student body officer under the pseudo name of Velspar.
2. Caleb wore leotards to school on Friday.
3. We have someone from China staying the night at our house tonight.
4. We are selling our dog.
5. We are going to Legoland this summer.
6. On our last trip to Costco we spent $327.53.
7. I got a phone call from the school yesterday saying Chandler got hurt playing football. I picked him up, took him to the doctor and he had broken his left arm.
8. Tessa loves her squeaky shoes.
9. Tom and I are going to the Desert Star Theatre for our date in 3 weeks.
10. We played ping pong for FHE games last night.

Good luck and have fun!!