I'm afraid I have raised a...

CHICKEN-ANNIBAL

And to her detractors she says:

Photo Shoot

I was involved in a photo shoot today.


It went a little something like this...






Ethan: Mom say cheese...(pause)...say CHEESE Mom...(pause--urgent)...SAY CHEESE MOM!

Me: (grumpy voice while I attempted to put his shoes on) cheese

*click*

Ethan: Say crackers...

Me: Crackers. :)

*click*

Ethan: Say Pig Mom...

Me:(giggling) Pig!

*click*

Ethan: Say DUCK Mom!

Me: (Definitely smilling now) DUCK!

*click*

How exactly should you smile when you say duck???

Photographer turned subject...

Impatient

I'm an impatient learner. Yep that's right, I hate things that take a long time to master. Probably the reason for my dabbling in a lot of things but master of none. I, however, am determined to work on this little character flaw of mine. I want to become good at something...not just good...really good. So bear with me. My chosen outlet for this little character building exercise is photography, which includes post production...or in other words photoshop. I just got Photoshop Elements a couple days ago and have since spent much too much time playing around with it. The nice thing is I happened across this fun little (big) blog and the author's easy to understand tutorials. Here's my first attempt that I feel is at least post worthy. Please remind me that it takes time to get good at hard things. :)

Straight out of the camera shot

Tinkered with shot

Well it will be a long path, but hopefully it will be fun too!

10 Random Reasons I love my Dad...Happy Birthday!

In honor of my Dad's birthday today...shh don't tell but he's 81, I have decided to share some random memories of why he is the BEST Dad in the world...and he doesn't need a shirt to prove it. Well he wears shirts, just not the one that says "Best Dad in the World". Ok, Ok now you are making me feel guilty...maybe I'll get him a mug. Anywhoo...

Sierra & Grandpa at Sierra's Baptism

1. I got a speeding ticket when I was 17 just a few measly months after getting my driver's license. He didn't yell, he didn't lecture me, he didn't even roll his eyes and laugh...or go on and on about how much our car insurance would go up. He quietly let me take care of it myself. He later told me he wondered if he should help me pay it...I'm glad he didn't though 75 smackers was a tough blow, I learned way more than from my Dad then I did getting the ticket. P.S. If your friends in the backseat are not wearing seatbelts, it doesn't help for them to buckle up after the fact...the police have eyes you know.

2. My Dad drove across the country on multiple occasions with me and one brother or the other. One time it was in a old broken down red Chevy pick-up truck. Held together by rust, my Dad fashioned a bunk bed across the back and the three of us slept in it on all the KOA's between Utah and Quebec. Because of him I know paper factories stink to high heaven. Minnesota has forests and forests of trees planted in perfect angles, the best side of Niagra Falls is the Canadian side, ordering food in French in Quebec is not necessary if you go to McDonalds, Maine is ABSOLUTELY beautiful, Michigan has TERRIBLE water, Boston has crazy roads--AND parishoners had their names on the pews at the Old North Church. I guess sitting in the same place every week at church is not such a new thing. Thanks Dad for incomparable memories of that trip, as well as visiting Williamsburg on Christmas Eve, driving through West Virginia and getting sick on chocolate peanut butter ice cream, driving down the east coast looking for a motel that didn't resemble the one in Psycho, eating pecan pie at the home of a wonderful southerner simply because you had served your mission there, getting to see where they launched the space shuttle, dipping my toes into the Gulf of Mexico, driving up, down and all around through Texas and putting up with me tipping the border agents off to our smuggled Florida oranges and grapefruit at the Arizona line. I have never received a better education than I did on those trips...they truly framed the way I looked at life and people. I can't say thank you enough.

3. Buying ice cream for us simply because the 0dometer in the car had turned over another 10,000 miles.

4. See how I got him up in the middle of the night to rescue my friend's car from the snowdrift in my front yard.

5. Eating waffles with you down at the Old Glass Factory while you tended the furnace and NOT yelling at me when I let out a blood curling scream as a snake scuttled across the floor while you were on a business call.

6. Taking me to church wherever we happened to be. Whether it be a Catholic Catherdral in Montreal or the local LDS wards in New England, or Alabama.

7. Driving me up to Beaver Mountain because I couldn't go skiing for perfect attendance day ( I think I missed one day for a funeral) then coming back up to pick me up. Then...feeling bad for me because I had second degree burns and blisters on my face because I didn't use sunscreen.

8. Going to all my parent teacher conferences even though you knew there weren't any big problems.

9. Camping..at Sunrise, Tony Grove, Arches & Zion's National Parks and instilling in me the leave it better than you found it philosophy.

10. Putting up with endless sleepovers, taking my friends swimming with us at USU, trying to help with my homework even though you were so tired you usually fell asleep. And most of all believing in me. I don't remember a time you ever said, no you can't do that. I always felt like I could accomplish anything.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

What have you done?

Rules: Anything you have done has to be in colored, bold, and/or underlined. Mine are in white. I've noted Bucket List items in yellow.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (Clarinet and Bassoon--not at the same time)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (Almost every August at my family reunion)
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a Praying Mantis(Well it jumped on me..I might of screamed, but it wouldn't come off)
10. Sang a solo (I'm counting this one because when I sang with Emily, I had to sing my own part)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (would like to...but not dying to)
13. Watched an amazing lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (Currently learning photoshop--does that count?).
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (No but I've urged others to do so...Mental Health Day)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a Marathon (no way)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (To Alaska)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (even cooler from the Canadian side)
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (ASL and Japanese)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (yeah probably)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (The Savanna specifically I want to go...and Botswana)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea diving
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China( I think I want to see it...going to China scares me)
57. Started a business(3 actually)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia (not visited, but I had 3 Russians live with me)
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (bought them)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a motorcycle(hated every second of it)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (in 11 days)
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (started to...but haven't finished)
86. Visited the White House (went on the tour...can't remember a thing except waiting in line to get in)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (didn't kill it, but helped pluck--yuck)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (sat in the jury BOX...field trip with Emily)
91. Met someone famous( I'll count this)
92. Joined a book club(13 years and going strong...miss you Brenda)
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone (FINALLY!)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Visited Italy (Tippy top of the traveling wish list)

Done: 42 Bucket List: 20

The Secret Librarians Don't Want You to Know

Guess what? There is a whole big section of books in the library that are REALLY cool. Like super duper cool, but, the librarians don't want you to know about them. Do you want to know how I know? They file them with big long crazy number strings that make absolutely no sense. UNLESS of course you happen to be a librarian...or you actually paid attention in 5th grade when you learned how to use the card catalog.

The Dewey Decimal system, I have recently learned, was created by Melvil Dewey. Melvil, that's right, sounds like a librarian doesn't he. He wanted a logical easy way to classify books so they would be easily found and returned to their place. I used to think he did not achieve his dream. I remember 'learning' the system and it was usually associated with researching some boring subject and writing a report.

I am guessing that SOME people were not so book snobbish as I was as a child and did venture into the non-fiction section farther than the nearest World Book. But, I was not among them. In my my mind the equation went something like this:

Non-fiction = BORING!!!!

Oh the things I missed out on. I really did not grasp all the great books for kids hiding amongst the numbers until Tim came along. I had to bribe him to read a FICTION book. He was a walking encyclopedia and would camp out in that ever elusive library section.

BUT, now that I get to pretend I'm a librarian, I am actually learning the basics of the Melvil's categorization...and while I'm still not sure I understand his motive for putting things where he did, (See here for an explanation of the categories) I am starting to understand where to look for things.

Despite, my somewhat tongue-in-cheek approach here, it has been fun to really delve more deeply into the gems found in that 'other' corner of the library.

Check out some of the non-fiction nuggets we found yesterday at the library...

For Ethan:

YES! Diggers, dump trucks anything that is big and moves and makes clanking sounds is WAY up there on the favorite list right now. I think these type of books are ones I most often overlooked before. Of course there are similar books in the fiction section, but there is a bunch of untapped resources for even little guys in the non-fiction section.

These books were great because Sierra DID need to do a report on Frogs. We could of course, and did, use internet sources but there is something about holding a book and turning each page that helps the learning really sink in. The book 'Frogs' by Nic Bishop is one we actually own, but it was at the library too. I don't think I have ever seen a nature book with more beautiful photographs. Whether you like frogs or not, want to learn about them or not, I highly reccomend it for the photography alone. And it has great content as well.

Recently I checked out 7 or 8 books on the Grand Canyon for my kids to read, and be read to. It was really cool to have so many books on the same subject to peruse at the same time. Maybe, I'm slow, ok probably, but having multiple books at a time on the same subject really helped us see different dimensions that we wouldn't have seen before. We did the same thing with knots when Savanna learned to tie her shoe. It is a practice that I intend to keep up because it was, in short, a blast.

So...all of you that already KNEW the virtues of the 'boring' section of the library you can stop giggling under your breath now...and those that didn't go check it out! It's alot of fun. And all of you--let me know what you find. :)

Grocery Store Baggers

I'm pretty capable. I can schlop a 25 lb bag of sugar in and out of a cart without too much lower back pain. BUT...if I DON'T have to do it...its all the better right? So lately I've been stocking up on some food storage items. 45 lbs of wheat in a giant tub x 4 (well not so much giant as comfortably huge) takes some muscles. So I'm checking out, there is no bagger but the checker, and HE asks if I would like help out to the car. Sure I say...so he calls for a bagger to come help me. How come all the baggers assigned to help customers to the car are maybe 18...maybe weigh 100 lbs and maybe look like they could heft a box of Wheaties?

At that point I have 1 of two choices...let the poor wispy girl try to heft my 1 month (for 7 people) supply of wheat while I look like a lazy middle-aged prissy woman. OR...help her heft the grains into my trunk. Then she is left wondering...why am I here again? Good question.

Then there is the awkward moment where we decide if the bagger or I should push the cart to the parking lot. The dance begins as I reach for the handle to start pushing at the same time the bagger does. What would Miss Manners say? So if the bagger DOES push the cart I'm left wandering around with my receipt and nothing to hold on to. I have to play tourist guide to point out my car and hope that the 3 yr old in the child seat doesn't decide to start his power kicks...again. For as you know there is no more lovely a sound to a 3 yr old then the banging of metal against metal when applied with pressure from a 3 year old's shoe. 'Watch out...he may get you in the gut'

The one...good...and nice thing about having the bagger accompany you is SHE will take the cart back. It's against my 'religion' to leave a cart in the parking lot. I admit I have 'sinned' before...but only in Wal-Mart's parking lot where the cart returns are about as close as the equator to the north pole.

Is this why they invented online shopping?