Art

Some of you know that I graduated from BYU in art.  But most people are surprised when they find out that I love art, can do art, etc... because I'm not crafty or the artist type that dresses in cheap but fun clothes... My favorites are stonework, bronze casting and painting.  I honestly don't have very many pictures of my work... I should go around and take some now that I have a good digital camera to take them with.  But here are some samples of what I've done.  Other things that I don't have pictures of but that I've done are lithography, watercolor, oil painting, clay, broze, plaster, digital art, photography, etc...  

"Jake" 2004 digital watercolor

 "Flowers" 2005  watercolor (bad picture but I didn't want to take it out of the frame to take the picture.)

 

"Zanzibar" 2005  watercolor

Me defending my final projects 2006

Me oil painting while Jer read to me 2005

This one isn't mine... a classmate did it and I thought it was hilarious!  The tv still worked too so it would show static if he plugged it in.

Shameful hair facts

In a world that you can't step out the door without your hair done and your makeup on...  here are some shameful facts about my own hair/makeup habits.

1.  I have never owned nor had the desire to own a hair dryer, flat iron, or curling iron.

2.  I have only ever had highlights done in my hair once... and that was because the lady owed me money.

3.  I have never owned makeup other than mascara, eyeshadow and lipstick. 

4.  I only wear makeup about once every couple of months.

5.  I've had the same lipstick for 5 years now and I've had to through away my last two things of mascara while they were mostly full because I had each of them so long that they started growing things in them that made my eyes start itching. 

6.  Most of my eyeshadow was inherited from my older sister as she gets tired of them. 

7.  I had a perm once and one side didn't take and so the one side of my hair was flat while the other was rather fluffy.

8.  The only times that I have used base and rouge were during plays that they had someone doing my makeup and for my wedding for which I also had someone else do my makeup.

9.  I've never plucked my eyebrows to shape them... only to get the stray hairs in between on the bridge of my nose.

10.  The only reason that my toe nails ever get painted is because my sister paints them sometimes when she comes down to visit and my 11 year old neighbor started a "nails and massage" business and I can never turn away child businessmen/women.

Now that you have more information about my personal hygiene than you ever would want... please don't think too badly of me.

Music and Ada

I teach piano lessons all Tuesday afternoon... so it puts me in the music mindframe... as well as Ada.  Not to mention that her favorite and almost exclusive tv watching is Little Einsteins which is based around music.  But here are a few of the things that this 2 1/2 year old does.  She can keep a rythm.  She can show you the A and the C keys on the piano.  She'll clap out timings (not always correctly, but it's cute to watch... she picks up my flash cards, finds the ones for timing and starts clapping.) She sings and will follow along in a book as long as it has music.  She tells me which songs go "quickly".  She plays the piano, pauses to stand up, turns the page, sits down and keeps playing.  She's started taking sticks and conducting.  She makes me sing loud and soft by making her hands higher and lower.  But my favorite is... we were eating at a Chinese restaurant and she found some chopsticks.  She put one up to her chin like and violin and the other she used as a bow and started bowing back and forth saying, "Look mom!  I'm playing the violin!"  Cute!  (I think she got this from playing the violin with my mom the other day.  My mom was brave and even let Ada hold the bow pretty much by herself til she got a little wild with the bowing... )  I think I need to start thinking about what kind of music lessons she might like and whether or not I'm brave enough to teach her piano or beginning cello/violin.  I think she's really young for all that, but she sure enjoys it enough to start considering it.

Just a post cause I want too...

Well, since I use this as more of my journal and less of a "for everyone"... (I doubt that more than 10 people ever really read this)... I've decided to try to post more often.  I'm sorry to those that get this by email, and if you want me to take you off my email list, please let me know and I will.  I just figure... I enjoy blogging so much and it's fun to read back through everything in the last two years and I'm so glad that I wrote down things from my kids, etc...

Today we played Candyland.  I know... the box says 3+ on it, but when do I read boxes and Ada is my "game girl" anyways... we play Uno, Memory, Candyland, Mancala (though she doesn't quite get the rules on this one... but she asks for it all the time because of the marbles), and anything that I don't care if she gets distracted from or that Sammy might lose pieces from.  She also likes to decorate Darby's room on the Disney Playhouse website and play one of those freebie games that they used to give out in cereal boxes... this one stars Nemo and was given to us by my parents.  When we bought Candyland I had given her the option of that one or another one that said it was for 2+... Ada choose Candyland because of the Queen Frostine lady on the box... it's really funny because she was the reason that I liked that one growing up... hmmm.  Is she a girl?  Yesterday we went walking with our Haitian neighbor.  I love her to death, but she makes me feel guilty sometimes that I'm not as open and giving as her.  You have to be careful with compliments because she'll just give you whatever you just complimented... We helped them move in while Ada was only a couple months old and she considers herself a second mom to her.  The only real "giving" we've done for them outside of church is giving them a loaf of Jer's homemade yummy bread.  But she's given Ada toys, clothes and us fruit and me a skirt and shirt from her daughter's desiging line called Mikarose.  She also made us a Haitian dinner (we did bring dessert to that one though).  I think I'll have to do something special for her... but I don't know what.  I tried to cut Sammy's hair.  Nothing too drastic, but just enough so that he doesn't have a rats tail and you can see his ears.  I'm starting to get okay with simple haircuts, but I'm definitely not a hairsylist...I'm thinking I'll have Mesh cut both my kids hair when she cuts mine.  That'll be different for all of us, but I trust Mesh.  It seems like everything she touches turns out cute.  The big question will be my hair!  AHH!  Right now it's past my waist and I've had long hair for about 15 years... with a brief short hair cut while Janelle and I lived in Kenya... I'm fatter now and I'm not sure that short hair will look good on me... but it takes me almost 10 minutes to comb my hair out and all day for it to dry... not to mention the fact that Ada likes to comb it (ouch!) and that Sammy likes to yank on it.  Oh well... we'll see what Mesh comes up with.

Primary

Primary was exciting today... first of all, I was the only teacher with eight 6-7 year olds for the first hour (Sharing Time).  So I spent the hour saying things like, "Go spit your gum in the garbage please." "No talking during Sharing Time." "Why don't you sit over here." "Don't pinch please." etc... But my favorite part was during our lesson.  We had a visitor... she is a really cute little girl with lots of curly hair and very spunky.  There was a question that she started bouncing in her seat and said, "I know the answer because I'm a smarty pants!"

Ada's pretend phone conversation

So I over heard Ada on the "phone".  She was holding her hand to her ear and saying, "Hi!  Um... okay.  Because.  We are. Ummm... Because we can.  Ummm... " Then she turned to me and asked me if we were going to grandma's house.  I told her not today so she turns back to her phone, "No... umm... okay."  It really sounded like a one sided phone conversation.... That must be funny for a toddler to watch mom or dad on the phone and not hear what's going on on the other side.

My cute kids

I just have to say it over and over... my kids are cute! 

Ada... every time I have to tell her no more than once and she finally decides to go with my decision always says, "Okay, okay, okay."  It's always three times and she says it really fast. 

Trying to help Ada be happy today I started teasing her and saying, "Guess what!" "What?" "Chicken Butt" "Guess Why!" "Chicken Thigh".  And she looks at me very seriously and says, "Mommy no Chicken Butt.  No Chicken Thigh."  So, my question here is who's the mom and who's the child?

Sammy... feeding him today was really funny.  He was so intent on being fed that the only move he'd make was to open his mouth.  His hands were very carefully kept on his tray and he wouldn't even giggle when I was trying to make faces and noises at him... dead pan.

Small rant

So I have a small rant to make... you can listen if you want but it's really just the same old argument again. 

I hate when people say that you are stronger in the church if you live outside of Utah.  I hate it because I really don't see it as true.  You are as strong in the church as you want to be whether you live in happy valley or not.  I've lived in Utah, Wyoming (briefly), Ecuador, Kenya, and stayed long enough in Germany to participate in their YW program and play the piano for their Primary a couple of times.  There are "good" mormons in each of the areas I've lived in and "bad" mormons as well.  The difference that I see is that in Utah there is more of a cultural pressure to attend church even if you don't live like a "good" mormon.  I imagine that combined with the fact that you live farther away from your Ward/Branch members and so have fewer neighborhood disagreements and that you rarely see the "bad" mormons in sacrament meetings you have the feeling that you have a stronger testimony outside of Utah.  I will give you an example that's opposite.  In Bahia we had three hundred people on the membership list for the Branch... yes, Branch not Ward even with three hundred members... that's because it was a rare occasion that we'd be able to get over 90 people to our Sunday meetings.  (We got 100 to come to the area Conference by visiting every single house and making personal invitations.) Most of the members still lived in the area.  We even tried focusing on reactivation and retention instead of baptising... Maybe 30 of the people on the membership list didn't actually live in the area anymore... but the rest just stopped coming to church.  The ones that came to church faithfully had strong testimonies... but does it make your chances of becoming a strong member of the church increase or decrease if feel more peer presure to attend meetings?  I think of all the times as a teenager that I just came to church because my family was coming or because if I didn't my friends would ask where I was on Sunday.  It bought me the time and put me in situations where I could build my personal testimony.  And that's coming from the daughter of two good parents that taught her the gospel, and whose dad was not only a Seminary teacher since before she was born but also in the bishopric since she was 5.  I don't regret being brought up in Utah Valley... in fact, I want to raise my children here because I feel like there are fewer physical dangers (at least from big cities and certain countries) and because they are going to have to build their own testimony wherever they grow up anyways... and because both my kids sets of grandparents are here... how often can you live within 10 mins of either grandparents house?

cousins

I took a couple of pictures while my niece and nephew were over... they were cute so how could I resist?

She'd just woken up from her nap... but look at how grown up she looks!  I'm totally amazed!

This wasn't from the same day... but I think it's cute anyways!

girls day in

Ada's been really jealous and grumpy from all the attention that I've had to give to Sammy in the last two months... so I decided to do something fun with her.  She's been playing with everyone's barbie dolls... and she likes princesses... so I found some princess barbie dolls at Target for $10... and we watched Mulan and Little Einsteins while Sammy napped and played on the floor.  Ada had fun trying to get the dolls to hold hands and just giggled when I used Mulan to talk to Tiana.  I think she had fun.  I'm not sure if it did any long term fixes, but she had fun for a couple of hours!

Pictures

Well, it wasn't really an official photoshoot... we were in the church gym... yuck, but here's what we ended up with.  They're okay, but not the best I've ever done.  I suggested a few places for better pictures, but they didn't want to go through the hassel of dragging everyone somewhere else.

This one turned out the best out of the single family portraits that I took.  I think it's because I know all the kids and so they were willing to listen to me and look at me. (Except the one boy in blue of course... he didn't want to smile for any of the pictures except the funny face ones that we did!  Kind of ironic.)

Grandma with all the grandkids

The wholes family

Now that I look at this one... I want to put the little boy on the left into the space on the right between the other two boys so that they are in more of a crescent shape around dad.  Well, now I know for next time.

On this family... I counldn't get both of the girls to look at me at the same time... this is the closest that I got.

They were cute, but the little ones didn't want to stop wiggling and the two older ones didn't really want to go where I asked... so the composition isn't good, but at least they're all there!