Writing My Story . . .

Simple Things . . .

I'm moving to a new blog address.  Please find me now at Simple Things .

Modblog

Coming in January, I will be getting a new blog look.  Modblog ia a great opportunity for you to get free blog designs for personal use.  The designs come with tutorials on how to use them which is so helpful for the not so savy blogger like me.   If you are thinking about blogging or want a new look to your blog, check the adorable designs out @ Modblog.  (BTW, Josie also designs for web businesses.) 

 

 

More on Fall . . .

     Here are the rest of the photos I wanted to share from the last few months.  The first ones were taken by Deita Jensen from Thatcher, ID.  Jack had asked for pictures of us last year for his birthday.  I am a year late but I have issues with being photographed so I'm thinking he should be happy that I am only one year late.

The following photos are of Isaac's bowling birthday party and of his soccer games.

The last photo is f Sal and Meg at the Rexburg temple.  Such an incredible day!!

Good-bye Autumn

       Now that the year has drifted into December, I have to make myself acknowledge that fall is over and winter has officially arrived.   I loved all of those crisp, sunny autumn days this year (sigh).  I'm sharing with you a photographic tribute to some of our happy fall memories.  Hope you enjoy.

1.  Harley James 

2.  Tanner's football (#70)  (Yes, he is the one holding onto the other player's facemask.)  (And, yes, the ref noticed that.)

 

3.  Hannah's 1st day of school

 

4.  Halloween  (The layout idea was taken from a layout in Creating Keepsakes.)

Do you love Isaac's rendition of Troy Polamalu?  I still have a few more fall pics that I want to share, so they will be forthcoming.  Also, on a happy note, tonight's Freshman basketball game against West Side ended with a score of 49-35.  Go Bears!

Happy things

I'm thinking of only happy things tonight.  Thought I'd share some of them with you.

Hannah and I spent some time with this expressive little man, his sister, and his parents last Thursday night.   Love doing this!!

 I  bought this from Garnet Hill today.  Definitely was in need of some retail therapy. ( Wish I would look like her when wearing it.  But I'm pretty sure I don't have enough money to buy that.)

And tonight, instead of ironing and washing the dog, I'm going to go for a run and then work on this album by Katie Watson while listening to my new favorite song by Josh Turner (thanks, Jim). 

Married to an Ironman

     Can I tell you how much I worried about Jack doing this race?!  Our weather does not permit Jack to train outside or in lakes or reservoirs in the months prior to May 1st.  Most of his training on the bike was inside and his swimming was at Lava.  One day, a few weeks before the race, he went to the American Falls reservoir to try to swim but it was 44 degrees and gave him a headache from the start.

     However, he was very well trained anyway and finished the race with energy to spare.  The next day, he got up, ate breakfast and we went to church.  No real soreness or tiredness.   For those of you who do not know the distances for an Ironman, there is a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike, and then a 26.2 mile run.  The bike course was a double loop, up switchbacks on an old volcano road with a 10% grade plus the bonus of a windy day.  Jack's time was 13:31:15.

 

There were about 2000 participants for this race and about 6000 spectators.  This is after the gun was shot.  Notice that many swimmers haven't entered the water yet.  Lots of them were worried about being in the water too long and hypothermia.

 Jack is in the silver helmet and long leggings.  This point was the transition between bike and run.  Lots of athletes had the hardest time keeping upright and walking after getting off the bike, let alone beginning to run the marathon portion.

It was a little after 3:30 in the afternoon when Jack began his run.  We had taken him to the bus at 4:30am to get his ride to the reservoir.  He finished at 8:31 pm.  His overall rank was 611th out of the 1900+ who actually finished.  Congratulations Jack!! We are proud of you.

    

Something worth sharing

     If you read my blog, perhaps you have noticed that I read NieNie Dialogues.  This is an incredibly inspirational blog by a mother of four, Stephanie Nielson, who was in a near fatal plane crash in 2008.  Her body was badly burned and her struggles have been enormous.  There is a new Mormon Message highlighting her story that I wanted to share with you.  It is a little long but so worth watching.  Please click on the link below and enjoy.

My New Life

Born 2 Dance

     It was obvious to Jack and I on Saturday that our littlest girl was destined to dance.  Hannah had her last performance for the year at our local dance competition and she was so into it.  She loved every moment and was thrilled to receive her first participant trophy.  Do you love those costumes?

     Notice Jocelyn's tiara!  She took 2nd place on her Solo.  Jocelyn and Charlotte have worked so hard this year in dance and their performances were awesome.

A Thanks to Craft Gossip

     This week I was ecstatic to be the layout for Francine Clouden's Inspiration du Jour on her website, Craft Gossip.  Here is the layout she featured:

The link to her site is here.

     For this layout, I used  mostly American Craft's Dear Lizzy products.  These products, particularly the fabric paper, are so fun to work with.  If you would like to look in on Write. Click. Scrapbook. and read an article about Francine's creative space in her home in France, go here.

Happy Earth Day

Here are 5 random facts about our Earth Day attitude:

1.  We drive an hour and a half about once a month during the winter to take our recyclables to be recycled.   Our local recycle plant is only open in the summer.

2.  We grow a garden every year.  We love garden fresh vegetables.

3.  Scrapbook.com will plant a tree in Honduras for every order they receive in the next 6 days.  Of course, I had to do my part and place an order.

4.  It has rained the last two days and our little part of the earth is finally turning green!!  My newly planted tulips are breaking ground.

5.  Being a scrapbooker, I'm always concerned with what to do about all my extra scraps.  In trying to be more aware of being wasteful, I created this layout (lifted from the very talented Michelle Lindenmayer)  and used the scraps to make Hannah's birthday poster for preschool.  (Notice the little blue Easter chicks she insisted on having on the poster.)