Edits

I decided I'm also going to use this space to put up some of my cooler edits. It's okay if you aren't impressed. Just so you can see what I'm doing when I'm suppose to be doing housework.

Ryan thought I should stop making my little boy into a fairy, so I made me one instead!

Ryan and I in EPCOT the left is the before and the right is the after my digital makeover. I actually thought the picture was pretty good to begin with, until I started fixing things and realized all my flaws. I suppose that is the down side to digital make overs, but anyway, Here's what all I did:

• Took out some red
• No more shiney spots, softened wrinkles
• Whitened teeth
• No dark circles under eyes
• Plucked my eyebrow
• Then just for the fun of it I added some make-up to me. More than I would probably really wear, but added some lipstick, blush, eyeshadow and some fake eyelashes that I didn't get quite right cause Ryan came home and wanted some attention so I had to hurry to finish.

I think it looks fairly natural really, but if you get close enough you can definitely see that it was fixed up, but this was my first try. Fun anyhow!

Sleep Walking

So the wierdest thing happened last night. Let me back up just a bit, sometimes when Jaden is sleeping at night he does this thing where he gets up on all fours then collapses, then does it again and again. He never wakes up. I think it's sleepwalking.

Well last night I heard him doing this so went in to check on him, but then he started screaming, so I picked him up to calm him down, but he continued to scream. I could tell he wasn't awake. This went on for quite awhile so Ryan came in to see what was going on. Jaden doesn't usually scream none stop, and he never has before at night. He never even tried to put his thumb in his mouth like he always does when he is distressed. Whether in our arms or in his crib he moved around like he usually did when he cried, but never woke up.

Ryan turned on the light and tried to get him to wake up with no more luck than I had. Though he was still screaming Ryan put him back in the crib and wrapped him up. We watched him cry and squirm for awhile longer then finally he opened his eyes and sat up and just looked at us like "what's up guys?" We wrapped him back in his blanket and in five minutes he was back asleep and we had no other problems that night.

So what's up with the sleepwalking night terrors? Is this normal in babies? I don't like it. I think it's creepy and I feel bad that I can't comfort him when he's scared. Ryan said that he had a few sleep walking incidents when he was younger but hadn't had any since.

If your baby has done this or know of one that has please let me know. I'm curious to know if this is normal or something I should be worried about.

Quote - Friends

"Friends are those rare people
who ask how we are and then
wait to hear the answer."

~Ed Cunningham

Write On!

I've started my writing class and so far have found it quite easy. I take an hour each morning to write before Jaden gets up. The writing part was easy, but now I'm to the hard part. Cutting. My first short story is suppose to be between 500 and 750 words. You would think that gap would make it easy, but after cutting the fluff I'm at 820 words. Eh! I'm good at adding, became a pro in highschool for paddding papers, but omitting pieces of my story hurts! I suppose that's why when you get good you get an editor to do it for you. I'm attatched to every piece. I'm to the point where I may just delete a whole character to thin it out a little, and I'm not even sure that will be enough. Sheesh.

I suppose I should get used to this. If I plan to submit short stories for children's magazines I will have to keep my story to a very strict word count. And I really hope to get to the point where I can do exactly that.

Working Together

There's a lot of reasons a marriage doesn't work, but I think there are a lot more reasons why a marriage does work. One of the things that I enjoy is that we often do the daily chores together. Such as: Cooking dinner, doing the dishes, & putting the dishes away. We do the housework together also, though not as much as we used to. When I was working we split it up, but now that I'm home all day I clean the living room, kitchen, dishes, sweep, mop,vacuum, and feed the rabbit every day.

I also do laundry 3 times a week. I know, a lot huh? With Jaden's clothes, blankets, bibs, burp rags, towels, & washclothes he makes quite a lot of laundry all by himself! So I do his laundry twice a week and ours once a week....anyway, Ryan doesn't really touch the laundry. Too many clothes with specific directions. Hand wash, wash but don't dry, hang dry, lay flat to dry, and then Jaden's stuff takes quite a bit of finesse to get those stains out.

That was a little off topic, sorry I just hate laundry, it seems to be the bane of my existince and is never ending. But back to working together... Ryan cleans the bathroom on the weekends so he still helps out with the housework that way too.

We fell into this routine quite naturally. Not really a surprise. My parents often do many chores together as well, and watching Ryan's parents I can see that they do as well. This has been a great benefit to our marriage. Had Ryan decided that it was the woman's job to cook and clean we would have been in trouble long ago. Being home while he's at work I do take on more cleaning responsability as well as taking care of Jaden, but Ryan still doesn't expect me to do it all on my own and is never upset if cleaning takes the back burner to something else that came up suddenly.

I'm so glad for his help and patience. Not just splitting up housework, but doing it together makes it far more enjoyable...or at least bareable. Just a thought from the happy homemaker battling laundry today.

Blackfoot a Haven?

As I mentioned in my other blog, we went home to Blackfoot for the weekend. The wide open spaces on the road once we pass into Idaho is a breath of fresh air...literally! No smog, no traffic, no road construction, no roadside barriers with semi-trucks on the other side to give you claustriphobia. A physical as well as emotional relief comes from traveling back to our home town.

As if just getting out of the city wasn't enough, we have so much family there. Ryan's parents, 3 brothers with their families, and sister with her family are all there. My parents, brother, and grandparents are there. And we both have many aunts and cousins there as well. Some people may not feel the pull of their roots, but Ryan and I do. We need to be with our families we need to spend time with them and feel their love and support of us. Plus their just fun to be around. Gotta love family game nights.

We must not be the only ones who feel this way about Blackfoot because we have quite a few friends still around as well. We had so much fun playing games with my best friends Sara and Josh and their Husband and wife.......did you fallow that? These are only a few of the friends we still have there. Granted some are moving, like to Montana or here to Utah, but we still have some that have decided to settle there. I have such a social personality that being with my old friends is also a great renewal for me.

We hope to move back to Blackfoot someday, but till then we'll just have to make due with renewal trips. If we didn't get a chance to see you this time maybe next time!

Quote - Within

"What lies behind us
and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to
what lies within us."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

New and Improved

I get so excited about trying something new. Whether it's just a new computer game or something more substantial such as taking a class to write children and teen literature. I'm hoping the newness of that doesn't wear off too soon. I need the rush and momentum to carry me through the class. I hope to finish in one year rather than the two years allotted.

I have a friend that is getting ready to try her hand at photography. It's not even me and I'm still really excited. Maybe cause I'll get more pictures out of the deal. I love pictures!!! Plus I get to hone in on my adobe skills so I can teach her some fun editing stuff. I love playing in adobe but don't always have much reason to so I jump at the chance.

Even when I figured out how to do my own background and headers for this blog I got so excited that I had a difficult time sleeping. I just wanted to get back on the computer and try it some more!

In a life that is pretty much the same every day it's these new things that give me a spark! Or I may just be crazy.

I think it's good to try new things every now and again. We have so many options in this world. So many things to try. Go out and learn something new! If you've wanted to try gourmet cheeses go get you some cheese. If you want to have a venus fly trap as a pet, go get you that plant. If you've wanted to learn how to yodel, go yodel my friend! Anyone know how you learn to yodel? I would like to try that one myself.

Another spark in my life. Going home to Blackfoot this weekend! Yay! I'll see you there! Learn how to yodel so you can teach me!

Time Flies

I think time is very fickle. In theory it is the same. 60 sec. in a min., 60 min. in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 28/30/31 days in a month, 12 months in a year. But I have never felt like time is that consistent. When I was younger a day was 40 hours, a month 200 days and a year.......eternity. Now it seems as if a day is 5 hours, a month 12 days, and year 5 months. What has changed? Has time changed?

When I was pregnant with Jaden those months dragged on and on time growing slower and slower the closer I got to my due date. Today Jaden is 7 months old. 7 months! Where did that time go? Surely my baby has not been out in is world almost as long as he was inside my belly?

On that note...surely we have not nearly been married as long as we were in high school. surely Ryan isn't coming up on his 10 year high school reunion in just a couple years! What happened? Who sped up the galactic watch only to slow it down at the most inoportune moments?

I'm amazed at the changes my baby has already made. In the past 5 months he has changed so much that his newborn pictures look like a completely different baby than what I have now. And yet I have changed so little since I was 16! Okay sure, my hips are a little wider, my stomach a little poochier, my thighs a little thicker, my hair a little longer, my boobs a whole lot bigger...not an improvement in my book, but Ryan seems happy with my changes. But to look at me then and to look at me now one may think only a couple of years had passed. Not 8!

So does time go slow when we grow so fast then slow down when we stop growing? Then is time not really standard for all but relative to age, position in life, activity at the moment? I think so! Take that mathmaticians and figure it out! Time is more relative than we ever thought!

I'm just grateful for the time I have. No matter how relative one thing is certain, in this life time is finite. I wish I wasn't so wasteful with my time. I'd like to say I am going to change and become more productive with my time, but that isn't true. All I can say is that I am grateful for my time. Fast or slow I'm having the time of my life!

Digit Detail

When Jaden is in a good mood and just playing on the floor he'll take the time to examine his fingers or toes. He moves them slowly watching what they do or he carefully tries to pick something up out of carpet. He's almost got the thumb working to pick up any piece of string or lint that has managed to escape the vacuum. He also is already using his toes to shift his balance as he stands by the couch. Those fingers and toes are truly beautiful in function as well as design.

I think we take advantage of our undernoticed digits. Such as the way my fingers are typing away right now, or when you peel a banana, or balance on one foot. What a remarkable thing it is to have fingers and toes.

I love to look at the world through my baby's eyes. If we learned to appreciate things like babies do we would realize how truly blessed we are just to be who we are and have what we have.