Santa came!

...and brought me a Nintendo DS with 9 games!!! How stinkin cool is that? My favorite game so far?? My Sims Kingdom

What did Richard get? Some Star Wars figures and ... a new truck. Well at least new to him. And he technically won't get it until Monday but it still counts, right?

I'm so grateful for the Savior in my life! The Savior is ever so much more important to me than Santa. Santa is very cool but not as amazing as our Savior.

Merry Christmas

I haven't much been in the mood to blog lately, which is kinda sad because this is pretty much my journal right now. But I have the day off today and so I will blog.

I collect nativites. I think probably because my mom collects nativites I decided it would be cool if I collected nativites. This year (prior to Christmas a whatever that might bring) I have 36! Pretty dang cool if you ask me! I know that I will get at least 3 more for Christmas (because I bought 2 of them and Richard bought the third and told me about it). I don't know why it's so dang exciting to me but it is! This year I decided to do an ethnic display. I have Thailand, Brazil, Jerusalem, Africa, Ireland, and one I can't think of where it's from. (I have a Japanese one too but I displayed it last year and didn't feel like it again this year.) I really wanted to display my snowmen ones but ran out of room. I've got 5 nativity ornaments on my super pathetic tree.









It's kinda funny, I've been to several friends houses and seen their amazing beautiful Christmas trees (especially Amy and Jayne). Then I look at ours (which I will NOT be posting any photos of) and actually start to laught because it's so sad looking!!

Well I just found out that my hubby gets to come home from school early. Hooray!!! So I'm going to log off now. I hope everyone's Christmas is really happy and that people think about Jesus. Hooray for Jesus!!

I'm thankful for...

Kleenex, Sudafed, a good night's sleep, my sweet honey, our 4 doggies, ice cream, toilet paper, good books to read, Joni (who I miss), the color pink, printers, the internet, lds.org, tools to help me prepare my talk on how gratitude brings us closer to the Savior, my mom who I miss dearly, my dad who I miss talking to on the phone because I don't call him and he doesn't call me, my siblings and their families, getting to know Jayne even better, dress-up clothes, man - I really am thankful for dress-up clothes, seam rippers, Double Stuff Oreos, face paint, telephones, especially cell phones, shoes, effective flea treatments, scriptures, couple scripture study every night, saying prayers, knowing that Heavenly Father really does love me, Disney princesses, dog harnesses, the option of adoption, garden gnomes, clean air to breathe, good food to eat, clothes that fit, a house of my very own, budgets, pianos, singing, dancing, acting, psychiatrists, mental health medication, sunny days, rainy days, cars and gas to go in them, a million other things that I would type if I weren't feeling so sick, and finally... blogs!

Thought on my "masterpiece"

Honestly, I think it looks better in person than in the photo. So if you ever get the chance to see it, be sure to do that.

Finished masterpiece... or something

Okay so here it is. I won't be going to art class for this session, but I decided that I want to start a new painting so I wanted this one finished. Um, I'm thinking if you click on it, it'll enlarge and you might be able to see it better.

Not too shabby for my first painting. If I do say so myself.

Oh and here are our doggies all dressed up!!

Annie



Molly



Tally



Angus



I really wanted a photo with all of them but it just didn't work out. (Richard totally wouldn't help me at all. He said he did his helping when he waited in line at Old Navy with me for 40 minutes. The costumes were on sale for 2 dollars each - the only reason we got them.) I love my sweet doggies.

Halloween costumes

Here we are in all our glory.



I've got a serious expression on purpose.



A little closer.



Just my honey.



After we took the horns off. (Yes he did shave his head again and yes we used super glue again.)

I really do love that we are such fun dress-up-ers.

Just a little sneak peak

Our Halloween costumes this year will be something like these:

Art... again

Okay so I hesitate to even post these because I feel like I didn't make that much progress and the photos aren't that good.

Funny story - my brother hates this painting because it's off center. And my mom really dislikes a purple flower (I didn't ask which one).

Apparently, this is actually a difficult subject so that makes me feel slightly better.

Class #6

I spent the ENTIRE two hours on the vase. I'm not going to lie - I think it looks cool. Even a little glass-like. Oh and actually the last 10 minutes were spent starting the shadow but just starting it.

I think I'll work on the flowers next. But not next week. I will be missing class. :(

Oil painting class #5

I worked on the table and some flowers tonight. So far I'm not a huge fan of my flowers. Maybe I'll like them better next week...

Wow an actual blog post??

So I feel like blogging this morning. I'm not really sure why - I don't have anything special to blog about. But it's fast Sunday so I feel like I have a few extra minutes. Last night was the Relief Society broadcast with a stake dinner beforehand. It was nice. Unfortunately I had a difficult time focusing during parts of the broadcast. I did enjoy it however. I saw a girl that I knew in the single's ward like 5 or 6 years ago. She had a baby with her. I said "oh she's cute". Her response was "thanks, how many do you have now?" Uh... none. Thanks for reminding me. Not that I haven't already been thinking about that a lot lately. Obviously she didn't mean to make me feel bad but it's still hard when people say things like that. I keep telling myself that the older I get, the less I want children. But then I'm in sacrament meeting and look around and realize that I really do want them - a lot.

So anyway, new topic because that one is making me sad. I'm totally loving being in the YW Presidency. I'm really enjoying working with the sisters I'm working with. They are such neat ladies. We've started walking together in the evenings and I LOVE it. Sometimes I feel a little on the outside because they interact more often because they are both stay-home moms. But then I realize it's just not that big of a deal and if I were a stay-home mom things would be different for me too. I'm so so glad to have them as friends.

Oh and I've been meaning to update you on Richard and his schooling. He LOVES it. (And least I think he loves it.) Everyday he comes home and tells me about something new he has learned. It really seems like a good thing for him. Even when everything else is rough he still seems excited about school. My only concern is with the type of people he has to interact with everyday. He says that most people are nice and not bad but right now he's sitting between a couple of people with foul mouths and foul minds. Such a bummer that he has to deal with that garbage. My hope is that he'll be able to be a good influence and that ultimately he'll be able to find a job where people aren't like that. It's still exciting stuff though. Hooray for school!

Oil painting class #4

Okay so recognizing it's a little pathetic that my only posts are for this class - here's an update. Today I worked on the top background and the stems in the vase.

I'm really enjoying the class. And I'm learning to mostly use my left hand - kinda cool.

Oil painting class #3

Okay so tonight I got to fix the shape of some of my painting and paint in some flowers.

What do you think?

Hooray for oil painting!

Okay so this is going to be short because it's late, but oil painting class was great today!

Here's my sketch:



And here's what I started painting today:



It will be interesting to see how it changes as it progresses. The tescher says there will be several layers of paint before I'm done.

Frustrating!!

I just spent the last 30 minutes writing a really thought provoking meaningful blog. When I hit Publish Post it took me to a screen indicating there were multiple edits on my post and to try again. But when I hit the back button - it erased my entire post.

Really?! My 30 minute thought provoking post just got deleted?! You've got to be kidding me.

So pretty much I'm too irritated right now to re-type it. So maybe I'll be thought provoking another day.

Arrgh!

Oil painting class

I'd like to dedicate this post to my brother Jonathan. heh heh

Well, it's been several days since my oil painting class but I haven't made the time to blog about it. So hear I am.

I expected to get there and bust out my paints and get to work. Not so much. First I got to paint a color wheel. The very nice teacher lady gave me some paint and had me mix my own purple, orange and green. I got confused on the paper that she gave me and my purple turned pretty brown so I had to re-do the purple. Oh and brown - red, blue and yellow equal brown.

Then I got to read a page about colors and paint the colors on the page. Then I got to experiment with shades of colors. I got to mix the colors with white and with black.

I'm not going to lie. It was a little boring. But I guess you have to have the basics before you jump in, eh? After the worksheets the very nice teacher lady checked my supplies. They mostly got approved except for one thing - which means she should update her supplies sheet because that's why I got it. And I decided to switch out one other thing so I took 2 things back and got 14.81 back then I spent 14.80. That's right - I saved a whole penny!!

After she checked my supplies, we went through my 50 print outs of possible things to paint. There was only one out of all of them that she thought was appropriate. So my assignment this week is to draw it on a piece of paper and maybe just maybe next week I'll get to paint!!

Lunch time antics

How's this for a quality phone camera pic, eh bro?

Pirates

Yeah so, this week I dressed like a pirate at work. My team had mismatch day but I felt like being a pirate instead so I was. There is a delightful woman at work who has a parrot on her desk. (Apparently it had been in a flower arrangement from Allstate at a funeral and she was so horrified that she took it out of the arrangement and brought it to work.) So I borrowed her parrot.


I totally should have cropped this pictures but oh well!



We're searchin' for treasure ye scurvy swashbucklers!



Me and Kiwi posing



Doesn't Kiwi look like a sloth?



Oh wait - one normal smiling photo so that people know I'm not like that ALL the time.

Then there was a book fair at work where the proceeds help our service organization at work and I totally bought a book about pirates. Pretty dang cool


Arrgh matie!

Cool stuff

Next week I'm going to start an 8 week oil painting class. I'm sooooo excited about it. This will be my first art class since the 7th grade.

I was pretty much just looking through the city magazine looking at the classes at the rec center and decided to take a painting class. Pretty random but cool.

Richard went with me to buy the supplies last night. The supplies are SO DANG expensive so I really hope that I love it. I'm pretty sure I will though. My ultimate goal is to paint a 30x40 millenium falcon for our living room wall. It will rock.

I'm really excited about it. Yay for painting.

Four years of wedded bliss

A text conversation:

Her “Happy Anniversary!!”
Him “It sure is”
Her “Four years of married bliss”
Him “Many more to go”

Awwww, how sweet is that?! Can you believe that Richard and I have been married for 4 years? Sometimes that seems long and other times I think “only 4 years?? How is it only 4 years??” They’ve been good years. Hard years. Fun years. I’m thinking we’ve done pretty good so far.

And let’s just make the anniversary blog post a little more fun. Richard starts school tomorrow! He’s going to go to Lincoln Tech and become a master mechanic. We are soooo excited. It has all just fallen right into place. I think it will be really cool to have him enjoy his school subjects everyday. I’m very hopeful for a tremendous outcome in 54 weeks.

Happy day.

Family photos

This isn't all of them. Just a few to share.


The whole fam

The Oregon cousins

The Bedford cousin (he came up with his own pose.)

The Keller cousins

The crazy fam

The crazy kids

A super cute one of me and my honey

Feels like forever

It's only been a couple weeks since my last post but it feels like forever.

Richard and I participated in a delightful family reunion for my mother's family. It was up in Utah in a rented ranch house in the mountains. We had a lovely times. We drove the 21 hours straight through. There were two cars that caravaned with 7 licensed drivers. On the way there I drove for 5 hours then Richard drove for 12 hours then I drove for 6 hours. In the other car Mel drove like 13 hours then Mom (I think) drove the last 8. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was surprisingly enjoyable. This is the trip that I have decided that caffeine doesn't do anything AT ALL to me. My family members took those 5 hour energy drinks loaded with caffeine and either felt awake or super jittery awake. It just gave me a stomach ache. I kept waiting to feel "more awake" or jittery or SOMEthing but . . . nada. Weird eh?

I'm sitting here thinking about the trip and can I tell you one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip for me was the sleep! I got to sleep in (a little) AND take naps. How stinking cool is that!? I loved it. I wish I could nap at work. It would make my life so much more enjoyable to not be constantly tired.

We stayed at my grandparents house for a couple days prior to the ranch house. Man, it was good to spend time with them. When I went to BYU I got to spend some time with them. They are two of the most amazing people I have ever met. How cool that I am related? This has been the first trip that it has really struck me that they are starting to get old. I think they are in their 70s. They are just so active and fun that they just don't seem old to me.

The ranch house was HUGE like 12,000 sq feet or something ridiculous like that. It was 3 floors - 2 story with a basement. Living in TX I forgot how cool having a basement is. Literally cool - like 5 or 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. Richard and I were the only grandchildren to get a bedroom. I'm thinking it was because I was the oldest married grandchild (there was only 1 other married grandchild who came). Sweet sauce for being the oldest, eh? The cousins age 15-26 slept in a room my sister named the "Orphanage". It was like 8 twin mattresses on the floor. Pretty funny. I think they had a great time though.

Oops... I just realized that I have things to do and places to be so I'll have to continue this another day.

A note especially for Sally

We DVR'd this week's Wednesday night episode of SYTYCD. It was a very good episode. The most amazing samba I've seen on the show and a great jazz number symbolizing addiction. I will put it on DVD for you. Only I'm not sure how so I'm not sure when you will get it exactly.

But record and watch NEXT Wednesday's show because they are down to the top 10 and that is when they start trading partners and mixing things up. That's always fun for me to watch.

And for my friend who was waiting for Phillip to go - I did not say he was a great dancer. He excells in his style and most stinks at the other styles of dance. I loved Phillip initially because of his delightful personality. Now that I realize that he is the only untrained dancer on the show, I love him even more for what he symbolizes. And now it makes sense why he struggled in the other dance styles. Can you hear the intensity in my voice? Good grief - just a show. Why do I love it so much? I think because I love dancing so much. I miss being a dancer.

SYTYCD

I can't believe SYTYCD is what is bringing me to post.

I seriously love this show. Tonight they came down to the top 10 dancers. I totally agreed with girl they elminated but I am bummed that they elminated Phillip. He has so much more personality and is so delightful to watch. And finding out that he has no dance training makes it even cooler.

Selling our Twilight Truck 1966 Chevy

Do you love the book and movie "Twilight"? Well then this is the truck for you!!

You (or someone you love) can be the "Bella" of the ball with this 1966 Chevy truck. While Bella's truck is technically a 1960-1964 model, they are awfully close! I'm attaching a photo of her truck (the orange one) and our truck (the gray & some black one). It obviously needs a coat of orange paint and a little body work to make it your dream truck, but all the inner workings are new and good to go.

We put in a new carb, new tires (Hancooks), new alternator w/belt , new distrubtor/wires/plugs/coil , new wiring harness, main, rear, engine, etc , new front windshield and gasket (rust removed and primed black), new water pump and hoses, new shocks (gabriel ultras), new ultra white headlights, new exhaust and muffler, and new battery and cables.

It also comes with original 1966 farm truck plates, original hubcaps, extra doors, hood, grill, fenders, carb, steering column and a new radiator that hasn't been installed yet.

It has the 250 and 3 on the tree combo with 124K original miles.

We're asking $2500 (and we've put WAY more into it than that!). Seriously amazing truck!! Call or post a comment to come take a look...

A Father's Day Post

I have a really neat Dad. Growing up it's always been easy for me to think of a Heavenly Father who loves me because I have an earthly father who loves me.

Richard and I sent him a cool musical card. It had Indiana Jones on the front and when you open it you hear the Indiana Jones theme. I can't remember the exact wording but it's something to the effect of "To a really cool father..." "Who does his own stunts."

Totally fits my dad.

I'm grateful to have such a neat dad. I'm grateful that we continue to become better friends. I'm grateful my dad and husband are such good friends.

I love you dad!

Pre-YW camp post

Tomorrow morning bright and early I'm off to YW camp. I have so many fun things planned and I think it will be great! I'll be sure to post when I get back so you can hear ALL about it.

Teaching 3rd grade is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do

I got to teach 3rd graders all about cities through the Junior Achievement program today. This is my 3rd year to do it. It is soooo rewarding for me.

I left really really early thinking I would get there 30 minutes early. But a huge wreck made it so I got there EXACTLY on time. Man!

I walked into Ms. Barrio's class and she introduces herself with a very strong Spanish accent. I look around the room and realize that all the children have a darker complexion than myself. Hmmm, interesting. So I go to the front of the room and introduce myself as Mrs. White. Ms. Barrio then says, "Oh. None of these kids speak English, didn't they tell you?" As I pick my jaw back off the floor and get a little nervous about how the day will go, the entire class (including the teacher) starts laughing. It was a joke. They ALL speak English and are additional proficient in Spanish. I find out later that they switch teachers every other week. One week all in Spanish and one week all in English. (There is a 2nd half of this group who are mostly not Spanish speaking who are in the same program. It seems kinda cool for the kids to be able to learn through total immersion.)

The class is absolutely delightful. The entire day. In fact, they invite me to come outside and eat lunch with them and everything. I loved it and I look forward to another fun JA experience next year!

Additional note on the craft

We came up with several ways to attach the pen (like taping a piece of ribbon underneath and tying around the pen, but because the holder is at a slant the pen rests perfectly there on top.

And Caroline said I should put this on Etsy. What is Etsy? Apparently I am out of the loop on that one.

Tutorial (especially for Meredith)

Buy you a $1 plastic frame (front photo)


(back photo)


Turn it upside down and lay it on it's side.

Pick some fun paper & cut to fit.

Take off the last 2 pages of the sticky note pad (because for some reason it tends to lose half the pad if you leave the brown backing on it). Use a piece of double side tape to adhere.

Add cute embellishments. And either buy cute pens or unscrew the pen and put a piece of sticky note or matching paper to match the pad. This is the only tall one I've made. All the rest (which here are some more examples) are wide. The following examples are thank you for my choir peeps for their hard work on the black light song.

These are my ones for boys.

I hope you have as much fun making these as I have!!