My life 250 words

Born in August of 1986 to parents who had tried for years to have a baby, I came into a world of logging trucks and sawmills under the great beauty of Hudson Bay Mountain. Northern British Columbia Canada was my home for the first 2 years of my life. After my parents’ divorce my mum, little brother and I moved south to a tiny town called Fruitvale where I started school, learned to ride my bike and made many a snow fort. Then my mum met someone and we embarked on a new adventure: the US. I was 9 when we moved and the size of my family more than doubled. When I was 11 my youngest sibling was welcomed into the world making me the oldest of 7 kids, including step and half brothers and sisters. I remember riding horses and swimming and bike rides and choreographed dances. I remember always having a friend. In 2000 I was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness and made it my goal to pioneer when I was done with high school. I graduated 3^rd in my class, sang at our graduation ceremony and became a Pioneer. Many obstacles were faced; including a horrible car crash that left me wheelchair bound, but the blessings outweighed them all…like Pioneer School. In 2006 I met the man who would become my husband. We celebrate our 6^th anniversary next month, and there isn’t a day that goes by when he doesn’t make me smile.

“Blog Everyday in May” challenge. Day 1: Tell your life story in 250 words or less.

My hope for May

Let me just put it out there that I super-duper miss blogging. And not just the pictures and the stuff and the people I connect with, but most of all the writing. I miss getting my words out of my head and into a more tangible form. 2013 has been pretty empty on the blogging front…

And then the other day I saw that Jenni over at Story Of My Life put together a big lists of prompts to encourage blogging every day in May. She has inspired me to get back to the heart of why I love blogging and writing. So it is my hope to complete each prompt and have a complete month of posts every day!

Interested in blogging along with me? Come see the list of prompts and get in on the action here. I am really looking forward to this and hope that you’ll stop by during the month of May.

See you tomorrow!!

Around here

What’s on my….

VANITY: A bookmark with a scripture on it I was given at my grandmother’s memorial, a photographer’s business card, 3 bottles of perfume and the elephant necklace Marta gave me.

PERSONAL TO-DO LIST: Get back to blogging more, taking pictures with my big camera, finish last week’s Project Life spread and hug my husband…that’s an important one!

FRIDGE SHELVES: Rice milk, Spanish olives, homemade Caesar salad dressing, cream cheese with no bagels to put it on and eggs for Chris that I wish I could eat too.

ITINERARY: Opening weekend of Fahrenheit 451 (the play Chris is in) and Special Assembly Day all in the same weekend. Also looking forward to our employee appreciation even in Spokane in May and then heading up to Canada in June for our anniversary and the convention.

FANTASY ITINERARY: Sleep… perhaps on a cruise ship.

PLAYLIST: Kacey Musgraves and episodes of The Voice.

NIGHTSTAND: Vicks vapor rub to help me sleep and all the bobby pins that I take out of my hair. That’s where they end up. And everything else has been moved to “puppy proof” the bedroom. He got to my glasses…that didn’t make me too happy.

PHONE: Pictures and videos of my puppy. Texts from my mom and my love and messages about my cousin’s new baby girl.

TOP 5 LIST: 1) Working from home full time. 2) Recognizing contentment. 3) Enough time and money to make our house into what we imagine. 4) Health for me and my husband. 5) Being brave.

BUCKET LIST: Take Chris to Maui. Write music together. Spend more time with my family. Try different types of food.

MIND: Medical bills piling up. My huge to-do list. Looking forward to visiting and sitting by my mom at the assembly on Saturday. Hoping to get to Wenatchee to see the new baby. Wishing we could put a fence up in our yard.

WALLS: I have my clock collection (but pared down quite a bit) in the living room and a big inspiration board in my office.

LIQUOR SHELF: Wine from our wedding with special labels, some Captain Morgan’s and Fetzer Gewürztraminer (my favorite).

LAST CREDIT CARD STATEMENT: Car tires and alignment and groceries.

SCREENSAVER: The fliqlo clock. I love the simplicity of it and haven’t changed it in years.

TV EVERY NIGHT: We don’t have regular TV anymore, and we rarely watch it during the week (which was the point of getting rid of our Dish). But I do catch some shows on HULU. I’m liking Go On and Nashville right now.

A fun fill-in-the-blank post idea from Kal. What are your answers?

Project Life: my beginnings

For a long time now I have watched many different people (Ali Edwards and Elise in particular) work each week on their Project Life and share their pages. This concept for memory keeping created by Becky Higgins just really speaks to me. I have been inspired and wanted so badly to start on my own. And then with the world premier of Project Life on HSN I was able to! I got the complete kit for an incredible price and jumped right in.

So now its my turn to create and share and cultivate and record. I am so excited!

I decided to create an intro page as if I had began the project at the beginning of 2013. I don’t know if I’ll go back and document the first three months or not, but I wanted to leave that option available to me. I went back and found pictures of both of us from the beginning of the year to add. Went with a color scheme that spoke to me in the moment and I love how it turned out!

I got my kit in the mail with perfect timing… April 1st. And so here is my full spread for Week 14 of 2013.

I used a few cards from the Jade core kit and also just some of my stash. I like the idea of letting the week dictate the colors and embellishments that I use. That is working pretty good for me so far.

This week included getting my Project Life kit in the mail, playing with my puppy and his (totally needed) haircut. Chris went to the meeting in spite of dealing with the extreme pain of his kidney stone and gave his Russian Bible reading. So proud of him.

The second half of the week included an email from the Regional Manager at work that made me laugh out loud. She even used my “exaggeration” phrase! The journaling block tells the story of the guests we had for the weekend. This week I also went to the brand new Ross store in Moses Lake and bought us a new bed set. And then I got to go with the Bosnar family to their daughter’s performance of Die Fledermaus, a hysterical operetta. The Capital Theater in Yakima was spectacular and Ri completely stole the show. It was a very enjoyable evening.

One thing that Elise included in her Project Life during 2012 were these great quote cards. After the year was complete she shared a download of them all and I am excited to incorporate them into my Project Life pages this year.

I love the one I used for Week 15. I thought it matched perfectly!

Chris’ parents were visiting us for the week and they put in a small square of sod in the backyard for us. Its been an empty weed patch since we moved in (almost 2 years ago already) and just this little touch of green made me so happy! I got new glasses from Firmoo.com again, and I think these ones are my favorites! And I just had to take a picture of these incredible trees…really shows that spring has arrived in our town.

During the week we enjoyed lots of good food and conversation with Chris’ parents…and from one such night this quote came from Glen. One of those “you had to be there moments” but its going to be an inside family joke for many years to come, I just have a feeling!! We were also so grateful to them for buying us a new washing machine. Both of our appliances died on us recently and we’d been going to the Laundromat. We had a set given to us from some friends, and the dryer works awesome! The washer…not so much. So Glen and Christa generously got us a new one. It was delivered on Friday and I was so happy to do laundry at home again!

Saturday we spent the afternoon with our friends Harold and April. We went to the new burger restaurant in Moses Lake and then saw Jurassic Park in 3D. Such a fun night!

And now I’m all caught up. My plan is to share my pages every Sunday. So next week I’ll have Week 16 up. This will give me an extra week to create my pages and prepare them to post. I am excited to be scrapbooking and creating again. It is a fun place to keep and save all the little things that we celebrate together every day. Thanks for taking a peek! 

Have you started Project Life yet?
What is your favorite part of the concept?
Thinking of starting?? Don’t wait! Just do it!

The days that make you smile

I have had a some really great ones lately…days that make me smile so hard my cheeks hurt and pray in thanks of the wonderful ways that God makes things happen.

I am grateful for goose bump moments and connections that you never thought you’d make. For phone calls that change the momentum and direction of life and bring everything into perspective. For visits with family and generous gifts that make a hard thing a little bit easier. And for new glasses….they’re not ‘rose-colored’ but things sure do look brighter as I look through them.

Incredible opera productions are making me happy, and time spent with friends, and the beginning of spring, and eating amazing food, and coming home to a little bit of a lawn started in the backyard. I love grandma’s that bring little puppies new toys and work opportunities that speak to my heart. I savor the chance the slow down and take it all in for just a moment and write about it…these days that make me smile, and…

The way he loves me through it all.