married... with children: Playing catch up

why does it take 5 minutes to upload 5 photos at a time on this blog? maybe that's why i've stopped blogging. or maybe i'm lazy. or maybe i don't feel creative anymore. for whatever reason though, i am posting just a couple of photos to play catch up from december to march. but due to the fact that i do things backwards, you will be getting this from march back to december....

i recently visited a blog i sometimes stalk, and felt inspired by this post:

http://suaviloquy.blogspot.com/2012/02/to-thine-own-self-thoughts-on-happiness.html

it got me right to the heart and i whispered to myself that i was gonna blog again. just a little. only because when i get obsessed with it i ignore what's important: cleaning, cooking, acknowledging that my family exists, bathing, sleeping, shopping, homework help... but not eating. in fact today i ate half a bag of trader joes trail mix. the kind that has 180 calories in 1/8 cup. i must of had 2 cups. anyway...when i blog i feel creative. for some reason. i know a lot of my friends "pinterest" now. i haven't totally gotten into it but i have a little. everyone "facebook's" too. there's just too much to distract me and pull me away from my private world so i feel like i need to be selective and really think about how i want to indulge my time, or is it waste my time, or is it invest my time?

these last 2 weeks i've been doing a little self evaluating and i find myself stepping back from hovering over people, being a busy body, thinking i need to be everywhere-all the time, volunteering, and always having to listen to music, and chew gumballs endlessly. by the way, i am sure of 2 things, by the time i am 60 i will have lost my hearing and teeth due to listening to music too loud and chewing gumballs everyday of my life. so...i have been retreating in the quiet of my home more, listening to a lot of conference talks, turning off the radio, hiking more, and trying to refine myself. i need refining right now. i can tell. stepping back gives me clarity.

well...here's a bit of my life lately:

so i had a wild hair up my own and got these creative ideas. i made these mini books for some friends. i stayed up 24/7. i LOVED it. i loved the creative juices flowing. i made them up as i crafted. THIS is what makes me happy.

so lauren has become a "surfer". who knew? her dad can barely swim and i have issues with the ocean water...

so evan is a baseball player. who knew? ian hasn't played a sport in his life and i am scared of balls hitting me in the face.

this is the card ian gave me for valentines day. at yahoo i guess they set up "stations" for employees to make cards (lame). red construction paper, a sharpie, and stickers - apparently there have been some budget cuts. apparently some husbands don't get that their wives like poems, jewelry, and bouquets from jacob maarse. o.k., honestly, i don't need a card. i know he loves and admires me. we usually don't exchange cards and gifts. i'm mostly just baggin' on yahoo. kind of... i love any and everything he gives me.

another photo of lauren with the surfers in our ward.

so this is my favorite sister missionary who served in both our wards. special bond. i cried when she left but she came back for a visit with her parents and spent an afternoon with us. i love her!

o.k. now this is a group of ladies! these are some of my "elementary" school friends! yes, way! this was our 2nd annual dinner together and it was so fun. there just wasn't enough hours that night to hang out. but boy did we laugh!!!!!

o.k., so i was supposed to help lauren with "new beginnings". she and i did the decorations and food. she made these killer sparkly-chocolate gems on top of the cupcakes! we went with the theme of the value colors and big circles. it is way hard to decorate a ward gym, let me tell you. i made the big banner and i know it looks so retarded but we had a table in front and it didn't look too bad...i got these huge lanterns and placed the name of the value on each color it represented. kinda fun.

then this was my bday with the new gals in our ward in la canada. they were sooo nice to want to celebrate it and they took me out to "dish" and gave me some fun gifts. where would i be without my girlfriends?

during my actual bday week i was in spain with ian on a business trip. seriously! i took hundreds of photos but these are only 3! the rest are on my facebook.