Summer Vacation

We are just 5 days away from summer vacation this year.  Last year, my summer was filled with camps, road trips and boating.  We didn't have 5 minutes to sit and rest.  This summer is going to be quite the opposite.  There will be lots of sitting and vegging.  My kids are all old enough to help me clean up the house and we have a lot of things to do that we never seem to have time for during school.  Here's my list of things I want to accomplish over summer break.

• Study the scriptures EVERY DAY with the kids.  Might seem like an odd thing to some of you, but it's been years since we've been able to have regular scripture study together as a family, due to crazy work/school schedules.  Usually summer is when we slack off, but I'm hoping this summer will be the opposite.  I really enjoy hearing the insights my kids have about the scriptures.  They are so much smarter than I was at their age.
•  Watch at least the first 3 seasons of Monk.  We've seen every Psych episode ever made at least 3 times, so we will have to get our money's worth from Netflix watching something else that's both family friendly and entertaining for adults.  I've heard Monk fills both of those requirements.  There's 125 episodes on Netflix, so we shouldn't run out of fresh material.  And the best part about Netflix is NO COMMERCIALS!
• Splurge on movie theater popcorn at least once a week.  The weekly kids movie at Harkins should take care of that.  :)  Other movies we might splurge on this summer:  Snow White and the Huntsman, Brave, The Dark Knight Rises (can't wait for this one!), and The Bourne Legacy.  Movies I will be avoiding, even though the kids may think they are must see's:  Madagascar 3 and G.I. Joe (the sequel).  
• De-clutter my house.  We have officially lived in this house longer than any other location since getting married... and it shows.  My plan is to break the house down into several "zones" and tackle one zone each week.  
• Exercise 4 times a week.  I've been sporadic in my routine since Ragnar in February, but I'm all healed up and it's time to get back into Triathlon training mode.  Hoping to do the Mesa Sprint Tri again in the fall.  That was a great race last year and I'm looking forward to doing it again!  Any local peeps want to sign up with me?
• Play catch up with the kids church stuff.  Taylor is behind on Duty to God, Megan is behind on Personal Progress, and Ian is just barely going to get his Faith in God done before he turns 12.  Definitely need to spend some time catching up on all this fun stuff!
• Read The Fountainhead.  It's our book club book for August and the audiobook is 30 hours long.  May be the longest book I've ever tried to read.  Definitely not one I should procrastinate starting!
• Do some fun projects with my kids... we might tie dye t-shirts, Megan wants to do some sewing projects, and I've got some half finished projects I really need to finish and clean up.  And if I'm ever bored I can scrapbook.  I can digital scrap or I can work on some half finished paper scrap pages.  There's never a shortage of projects to catch up on!  Maybe I'll scrapbook while we watch Monk.... I love multitasking!

So there you have it... one more week and we'll be officially into summer vacation.  Even though I'm not going to be leaving town too much, I plan on staying super busy!

Growing Up

Have you heard of garage lighting?  It's a new fad in the photography world... and yesterday I tried my hand at it.  I'm officially in LOVE with this technique.  All you need is a garage (minus the car) and a big sheet.  I used clamps to hang it from the back of the garage.  The idea behind it is that if you time it just right... you can used a shaded garage for a studio and get amazing light.  To get the amazing light, you have to open the garage door when the sun is shining on the driveway.  The light from the driveway will bounce into the garage and give your subject amazing, soft, balanced light.  All it took was the shade white balance setting to give these portraits a warm glow that I love!

After we did the garage experiment, we went outside and did these shots in the front yard just after the sun had gone behind the house across the street.  I can't believe my luck.  It's rare that I get a cooperative child, and even rarer that I get this many good photos to show off at school.  And yes, I did show them off today!

This last one isn't as focused as I would like, but it shows off his new toothless grin.  It makes me sad to see my baby growing up... and losing those baby teeth  is a painful reminder that it's happening all too fast! 

Count Your Blessings

The other day I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone.  She lives in Idaho and is job hunting.  She saw a job a opening that she is qualified for right here in my town, here in the desert.  She's never been to visit us here, so I was describing what it's like.  (Probably not the best idea if I'm ever going to talk family into moving closer to me!)  The conversation jumped back and forth between the pros and cons of here and there and where our dream locations to live would be.  Anyway, after I got off the phone, Megan asked, "Are we moving?" I assured her that although I fantasize about moving to the Pacific Northwest (Portland or Seattle), it's not going to happen anytime soon.  She visibly relaxed, grateful that I wouldn't uproot her during High School and make her  leave all her friends behind.

This really made me think. I've done a lot of pining of late for places that are more north and more green than my current locale.  I've never been a fan of the heat, and after seven years, I still don't find the desert beautiful.  And the minute I find a scorpion or snake on our property, I'm going to lose it for sure.  Megan told me that she doesn't think the desert is pretty either.  But she loves it here because of the friends she has.  It's the people that make her love our little patch of dirt here, not the cactus.  (She has adapted to the heat very well, though, and hates being cold.)

Every time I test the waters with Eric and suggest that he apply for a transfer to Portland, he bristles.  If I mention moving in front of everyone, the kids all panic and are sure to have a night of bad dreams as a result.   We'd all love to go back to California, especially to our favorite town, Dublin, but by leaving the Bay Area, we've pretty much locked ourselves out of ever being able to return... at least until we can downsize our household and Eric no longer needs to commute to Santa Clara.

The bottom line is that I'm probably going to be living here in the Phoenix area for quite a while longer.  I need to quit complaining about the things that bug me, like the never ending summer about to begin, and just be happy with the blessings we have here.  We have a large, beautiful house.  (I do LOVE my house... and it would be so hard to leave it behind if we ever moved again.)  We have amazing friends.  I have awesome callings in the church right now.  (My favorite one is being the leader for the 4th  year hike at Girls Camp.  It took me a while work my way through the social chain to get considered for that assignment!)  The kids go to wonderful schools.  They have good friends.  We have access to everything we could possibly need... good shopping, great medical care, two airports within 20 minutes, soon we'll have 2 temples within 20 minutes... the lake is 45 minutes away and the mountains are only 90 minutes away.

Eric has talked about buying property up in the mountains and building a cabin.  I love that idea, except that it means we are 100% committed to staying in Arizona for life.  I'm not ready to make that kind of commitment.  I do love the mountains, though.  I could retire in the mountains, I think.  I just need to be patient and wait and see what the Lord has in store for us.  And maybe by the time I can move away, I won't want to anymore.  You never know... stranger things have happened!

Faves

Some of our favorite TV shows are ending for the summer and we've already resorted to watching reruns on Netflix.  Have I ever mentioned how much we love Netflix?  Particularly the instant streaming version. We get it through our DVD player in the family room and also through the Wii in the game room.  And two people can be watching different shows/movies in different rooms at the same time.  It's awesome.  But not as awesome as this show.... we love Psych!  Here's a clip from one of our favorite episodes... Enjoy!

Books I've Read

It's been a while since I've talked about any of my recent books... of course, taking 2 classes at the community college has kept me from having any time to read at all, but I have snuck in a few audio books... so I guess I'll catch up for the year so far.... here's my books for January-April.  In no particular order.....

The Race by Clive Cussler  
Another fun adventure novel about the charming, smart and just plain awesome turn of the century detective, Isaac Bell.  I've discovered  I really have a love for turn of the century novels.  Even without the British accents I love so much, I think it's just the time period that fascinates me.  (Not sure why... no running water for bathrooms or electricity yet in most of the country!)  This one was all about a cross country airplane race and it did not disappoint.  It was entertaining, interesting and exciting.  Not Book Club deep discussion material, but enjoyable fluff reading.  Details about the very first flying machines often went over my head, but I still enjoyed it none the less.

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

This was our most recent book club book.  I was only half way through the book on the night we had book club, so I didn't get to  participate in the delicious discussion about the newest Pemberley scandal.  This isn't a classic Jane Austen, but it is a tribute to her amazing works and I thouroughly enjoyed it.  Sadly, it was more from Darcy's point of view than it was from Lizzie's, but it was interesting to see how the Darcy's and Bingley's have evolved in the few years after the double wedding.  All the favorites from Pride and Prejudice were brought back, including our not so faves like Wickham and Mrs. Young.   And references were made to characters from Persuasion and Emma, which delighted me!  All in all,  an enjoyable romp through England in 1903, despite the serious subject of a murder on the grounds of Pemberley.  

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
I seem to be reading Malcolm Gladwell's books in reverse order.  I first heard of this book many years ago, when I lived in Dublin.  The dear friend who worked so hard to get me to come to Book Club chose this book once in our book club there.  I never had a chance to read it, and I was busy the night she hosted book club for this book, so I missed the discussion as well.  This book focuses on the way in which epidemics happen... like how a particular TV show becomes an overnight hit, or how fashion trends are made by such small groups.  Fascinating reading material, but not really life changing.  I guess I can rest assured that my posts on Facebook about whatever I'm passionate about are not going to start any kind of social epidemic.

A Member of the Family by Cesar Millan
Ever seen or heard of the Dog Whisperer?  This is a book he wrote for the masses to help ease us all into the life of being dog owners.  Max is our second dog, but we are the first t to admit we didn't do a great job with our first dog, so we definitely wanted  to do it right this time around.  Cesar's tips make perfect sense and really helped me understand how the "pack mentality" works with dogs.  I highly recommend his books if you are getting a dog, just got a dog, or struggle with managing your dog.

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Try saying that  title with a British accent... it sounds so much better than when we butcher our way through this tongue twister of a book title.  This book has to be one of my all time favorite books EVER.  And I don't give that distinction out lightly.  I was surprised that the format was so easy to follow, as the entire book is written in the form of letters going back and forth between the main characters as they retell their histories during the German occupation of WW2.   This is one of those books where you wish it was a real story... you love it that much!   If  I ever get the chance to visit Great Britain, it will not be complete without a trip to the Channel Islands!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Another story about WW2 from a different a angle.  I have a really hard time handling books about WW2, Nazis and concentration camps, in particular.  So I  always find it refreshing to find a book about the war that talks about other aspects of war-time life.  This book is about what life was like for the Asian immigrants who lived in Seattle during WW2.  We didn't have concentration camps, but we did throw all the Japanese living in America into "internment camps".  Not very AmericanL-like behavior.  Especially for the Japanese who were born in America and had citizenship here.  Many of them didn't even know how to speak Japanese because they'd been living in America their whole lives!  Read it... you'll love it...I promise!

The King's Speech by Mark Logue
When this movie came out, I really wanted to see it.  But my commitment to not watch rated R movies kept me away.  :(  No one is a bigger fan of Colin Firth than I am.  (And any man who can nail Mr. Darcy like he did can definitely play a king!)  When I found out there was a book, I RAN to the library to check it out.  It did not disappoint.  It was a fascinating  memoir written by the grandson of the speech therapist used by the king, Lionel Logue.  Absolutely fascinating how a self taught Aussie became such an important figure in Britian's history.  If anyone sees the King's Speech popping up on their TV guide as an edited for TV movie, I EXPECT to be told!  Can't wait to see it!

Family

Spring Break came and went faster than I thought possible.  Usually it drags on for days on end... and our spring break isn't just one week... it's 2.5 weeks.  By the end, I'm usually about ready to go crazy!

It worked out that Eric would be flying back to SFO from his trip to China during the first week of spring break, so I made plans to drive up with the kids and visit for the same week.  Then, we could all drive home together before Eric had to go back to work.

Our first stop on the long 800 mile road to home was at my aunt's house in San Bernardino.  We usually drive straight through, but I knew Eric would feel better if I broke up the drive into 2 parts.  It was so fun to hang out with my cousins... who happen to be the age of my kids!  What does that make them, second cousins?  Ah, who cares... cousins are cousins! 

Max had lots of fun playing with their dogs, Midnight and Blondie. 

The next day we drove on to Vacaville.  I'm very thankful we didn't have any suburban break downs this time around.  I didn't appreciate cheap gas in CA being $4.30 a gallon.  On Sunday after church, we went over to Jeff and Molly's to surprise their kids with our arrival.  The kids had these grand plans for a surprise ambush in the backyard, but it didn't pan out since the 2 girls were sound asleep and one of my nephews refused to come outside.  Ethan was the only one who got the ambush, but he LOVED it!

On Monday we headed to Fairfield to surprise Eric's parents.  They didn't know we'd come into town, but turns out it was challenging to find them.  After calling and going over to their house, we eventually figured out they were out on their daily walk.  So, we started driving their walking route, and finally found them about a mile from their house.  We rolled down the windows, honked the horn and waved... they were so confused... they thought someone else was waving to them, someone who looked just like me!  We pulled over and yelled, "surprise!"... and boy were they surprised!  Since it quickly turned into a rainy day, we went over to the Jelly Belly Factory with them for a tour.  We only had to wait about 15 minutes and you can't complain about free Jelly Belly's, right?

On Thursday, I went to Pleasant Hill to pick up the boys from their BART ride home from SFO and stopped in to see my grandma too.  Her health is deteriorating, so it was hard to find a time to get the kids down to see her when she wasn't in bed, sick.

Thursday night Ben came over to my mom's house to spend the night and hang out with us and Adam before he had to go back to Eureka.

On our last day we went to the museum at Mare Island.  It's filled with almost a hundred years of memories from life on the Naval Base before it was shut down in the 90's.  Now it's filled with abandoned buildings and beautiful parks.  I'd LOVE to go back next time I'm in town and do some photo shoots out there.  It's full of amazing possibilities.

I love my family... and I love Eric's family.  I feel so lucky to be a part of this big crazy group!  I just wish we had more time to spend with them all.  There is never enough time when we visit to spend quality time with everyone like we'd like to, but we do our best with the time we have.  Until next time...

Where has the last six weeks gone?

Well, I'm six weeks post Ragnar and I can finally jog a little bit without hip pain.  Finally.  And when I say a little bit, I mean just a tiny little bit.  Like jogging to the mailbox and back.  And to celebrate such an achievement I went and did something really stupid like breaking my toe.  Well, I haven't been to the doctor to confirm it's a broken toe, but I went through this whole thing with Ian and I'm 90% sure it's broken.  Either way, the treatment is the same, whether it's broken or sprained.

I wish I had some glorious story to go with my newest injury, but it was really stupid how it happened.  I was prepping dinner and asked Megan to help me clear and set the table.  We were bustling around the kitchen and my bare foot ran into her Converse shoe... the law of physics came into play since her foot and my toe were heading towards each other.  And I rarely EVER walk around my house in bare feet.  I much prefer to have shoes on.  Now I will never walk around my kitchen with bare feet ever again!

The good news is that I can almost do any activity I want as long as I buddy tape my injured toe to the one next to it.  To play it safe, I'll keep taping it for the next two weeks.  Hopefully by then, I'll be ready for my next injury... because at the rate I'm going, I'm not expecting this to be the last setback.

Since my usual routine has been somewhat displaced while I recover from all these injuries, I've been compensating by taking LOTS of pictures.  All for my class.  I haven't really done any portraits of anyone lately.  I wanted to do some over spring break while I was in California, but the rain and other issues melted my resolve and I never found a way to make it happen.

Just to prove that I've done something productive in the last 6 weeks, here are some of my favorite shots taken for my current project that's due Tuesday.

This project has been dragging on for a month now and I'll be super happy when I finally turn it in tomorrow and get to move on to the next project.  Hopefully I'll find time to blog again before I finish this class in a month.  It's been a great experience and I've learned a lot, but it's been a real time sucker!  Well, that and DrawSomething... but that's a topic for another post!