Soccer Moms!

So I had to put a shout out to our soccer team, the "Leftovers". This was taken after our first big win. Yes, we went 3 games without scoring a goal. Most of us have never played soccer before so it's been pretty fun(ny). Way to go girls!

Sleepy?

Sometimes you just need a nap and can't be bothered to stop playing to do it. This is how I found Emma the other day. The funny thing is that about 10 minutes before this I asked her if she wanted to go down for a nap. "No mommy, I'm not tired at all!" She slept like this for over 2 hours.

Tagged!

So I've been tagged, sorry it's taken me a bit to get to it Jill! I think I did this a while back so I will try and think of some different and Oh So Interesting things about me :)

1 - I cannot stand the words "cankerous", "crusty"(unless referring to bread), "moist", and "festering". Just to name a few, my repertoire of disgusting words is ever-growing as Justin is so sweet to share many from his medical books. I will spare you the worst of them, as this is a family blog.

2- I have lived in Utah, Connecticut, Delaware, Chicago, Israel, France, San Francisco, and Portland. I LOVE to travel, it is actually a really big obsession. We don't do it too much these days but I dream about it constantly. I love to learn about different cultures, try different foods and meet new people.

3- Justin and I would love to do international medicine in the future. We had the chance to go to Ethiopia for a few weeks to do Ophthalmology research and humanitarian work. We loved it and feel like that is part of our life's mission.

4 -I am always changing my hair style and color. I get an idea in my head and can't get it out. I've had blonde, red, black and now brown. I am really trying to keep the current one for a while. It's killing me though.

5 - I fell in love with Justin at first sight. We met at the Freshman orientation dance at USU and I asked him to dance. We dated for 2 years, waited for eachother on our missions, and have now been married for 6 wonderful years.

6- I love to clean! Whenever I feel down or upset, I vacuum. It is amazing what it does for me. I never feel better than when I have a clean, organized house. Not that it is always like that, but I would love for it to be.

7- I am playing soccer for the first time in my life. I have never played soccer before except for a few pick-up games in France. I am playing on an indoor team with some girlfriends here in Portland. It is so much fun and I'm so happy to pick up a new sport at age almost-30. I scored my first goal last night!

Okay, way more than you ever wanted to know. I tag all of you! I love to hear things I may not have known about you!

Before and After

So, here's my attempt at being very HGTVish with the before and after shot. We have been struggling with this one wall in our house/apt./duplex (I never know what to call it), our home! We just have not been able to figure out what to hang on it. We also struggle with the "brown factor" and have in fact deemed our home the Brown Wonder. We love it, love it here. But the fact remains that all is brown. The walls, the carpet, doors, trim, cupboards, you name it. It is also a fact, in case you haven't heard, that it rains quite a bit here in Portland. So, living in the Brown Wonder in the rain can start to feel a little dull. I needed a little color. Now I didn't want to exert to much time or money on a rental so we decided that maybe just the wall could use a splash. Well, I thought, why not bright orange. I love orange. So by then I couldn't be stopped.

But then, what to hang on the orange wall. My sister-in-law gave me these fabulous old windows, thanks Meg. I knocked out the glass and spruced them up with a little spray paint and crackle glaze to make them look old again. Justin had the fabulous idea of filling the panes with happy fabric. I don't think he actually said "happy fabric" but that was my interpretation.

Here is the result and I have to say that it has made me extremely happy the past 4 days to have an orange wall in my house. Now if we could just do something about the ceiling fan . . .

One of my other projects since we moved in was painting this table black and recovering the seats. We are hoping soon to move to a bigger table that actually allows for plates and food on the table at the same time. But this one has served us faithfully for 6 years of marriage and with the new look has let me hold on to it for a little longer.

This next project is New Year's mania taking hold of me. We went from a chart-free home to a chart-run home overnight. But it is wonderful and is helping us all stay in line. We have the Prayer chart, Family Home Evening chart, Chore charts, and schedules for each of the girls. The schedules have been so great for the girls. I used to make these with my special ed students all the time and they have been a dream with my girls too. It keeps them going with what they need to be doing and helps me to follow through too. Plus, they get to reward themselves by putting the activity in the happy or frowny face bag when they've completed it.

Blogger Slacker

I have been a major blogger slacker lately. Things have been really busy since the New Year (aren't they always). But I have been busying myself lately with a lot of projects, painting, reading and organizing. The usual, I know, but I've been doing even more than usual lately. So, I decided I would combine the two and post a few of my projects on here for posterity. Okay, mostly just for my benefit so I can keep a photo journal of them. Here are a few to start!



These are the elf tea towels I stitched for a Christmas present. I loved these patterns, I thought they were so simple and sweet. The great thing is that there are so many crafty people out there that post patterns on their blogs now so I can benefit from their creativity.


This was my favorite Christmas project. I made these capes for the girls. They were a major pain since I made them out of satin - but they HAD to be shiny! They are reversible. So the one side is the princess crown with their initial and the other side is the lightning bolt if they want to be a little more superhero. They LOVE these capes and wear them all the time. I'm glad they liked them since they took quite a while to make. Okay, more to come . . .