President Hinckley

Like many of you, I'm going to miss this man. What a great example he was to so many people.

I bawled my eyes out the first time I saw this picture and it was the first image that came to my mind when I heard the news of his passing. He will be missed...

the blues

It's Thursday and time for a recap of last night's Project Runway! Who doesn't love denim?! I was so excited about this challenge I could hardly stand it. I was ready for them to create some cool pieces and they didn't disappoint.

Chris' dress was ok. I really like his personality. My favorite part of the show was when Christian was whining and he said, "Give him a bottle and send him to bed." So true...

Rami puts together some really classy pieces. I loved the detail of the zippers and the button detail on this dress. I really liked it. I know he was running out of time but it made me really sad to see him design this great dress and then use a hot glue gun to attach the buttons.

Victorya's dress didn't have the "wow" factor and therefore she was eliminated.

This dress is my favorite of the night. Sweet P has done it again. It was looking "hippy, dippy" as Tim Gunn called it and then she cut the dress short and it looks awesome! Great job!

Jillian has some good ideas and she's still my favorite but last night, she kind of bombed. I liked the idea of the little red tabs on the shoulder but it just didn't turn out. She did the coat last week and then again this week...I'm just glad she didn't get the boot. Next is Ricky's dress. Cute dress. I was starting to lose interest in Ricky but with this dress he has redeemed himself. Christian designed jeans and a jacket. He is such a diva but he's talented. You can't tell in the picture but these jeans that he designed were cool and original.

Happy Thursday!

FYI

The new season of Trading Spaces with Paige Davis will be on Saturday at 10 pm on TLC!

don't sweat it

Back in 1998, I picked up a book that continues to open my eyes and is one of my all-time favorites.

This little book is just full of good stuff and it reminds me that I need to take a deep breath and to not "sweat the small stuff".

This last week, I was thinking back to when Aaron was in graduate school and I was working full time at NuSkin and Braden was just a baby. We didn't do day care so Aaron and I juggled Braden back and forth between our schedules, we never saw each other...it was the toughest year of my life thus far. I would read this chapter to keep some perspective in my life. I just wanted to share it with you...maybe it will help you as much as it has helped me.

Be Happy Where You Are

Sadly, many of us continually postpone our happiness-indefinitely. It's not that we consciously set out to do so, but that we keep convincing ourselves, "Someday I'll be happy." We tell ourselves we'll be happy when our bills are paid, when we get out of school, get our first job, a promotion. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough- we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. And on and on and on!

Meanwhile, life keeps moving forward. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than RIGHT NOW. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred D'Souza. He said:

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness, Happiness is the way.

thursday morning

i love thursday mornings. I have a routine: go to the gym, get the kids to school and then come home and watch Project Runway.

What is it about this show? I have to say one of my favorite parts is when they go to "Mood" to get fabrics.(Going shopping for fabric makes my heart happy) I've never been to New York but someday when I go, "Mood" will be the first place I want to go.

So Kit gets the boot, sad to see her go. I know the judges hated her dress but I liked it. That fabric is adorable. I love the trim but the thing about satin, it's very unforgiving. If it's not sewn well, it shows.

Chris and Christian did an awesome job. This dress is 45 yards

of fabric! Very original and they worked great together.

I also liked Sweet Ps little dress.

I'm pulling for Jillian, she did great this week too.

Wes, Ricci, Hunter and Gavin came down last weekend for a visit. I love having people come to visit, I miss having family around. We had fun and I ate way too much. They couldn't get enough of the sunshine. Yes, the summers here are pure hell but the winters are beautiful.

My dad had surgery Monday on his right shoulder...again. He had the surgery last spring and it was just healing up. He was working about a month ago and heard a 'pop'. He's home recovering and doing well. Mom is taking care of Dad and "holding down the fort" as she says. She's a trooper

Thanks to Casey and Alisha

Just want to say Thanks to Casey for the new blog banner she made for me! Casey is a next door neighbor/friend to my bf Amanda.

The picture on the right was taken back in 6th grade. Permed hair and some messed-up teeth...those were good times. I remember picking that shirt out at Christensen's (one of the only clothing stores in Vernal at the time) and when I found that pink pin to go with it, I was ready to go! The reason I'm posting it is because I'm in the process of scanning and fixing some of my old school pictures that I found at my parents house while we were home for Thanksgiving. I'm doing just a few pictures at a time, I don't want to overwhelm myself.

My Photoshop savvy sis-in-law Alisha is helping me fix a picture that I thought was ruined, I love technology. It was a newpaper clipping that my mom taped in my book with Scotch tape(that is a swear word to scrapbookers everywhere) and she did such a great job fixing it. I'm trying to learn Photoshop myself...there are so many cool things you can do. But for now, Casey and Alisha are hooking me up so Thanks!

Hello 2008!

Happy New Year! I still can't believe that it's 2008 already. We brought in the new year with Heston being sick :( I took him to the doctor yesterday and he has an ear infection in both ears. The doctor said he only had 1 ear infection last year so here's to hoping this will be the only one for this year.

Christmas was awesome and really low-key for us, it was nice. After Christmas, we've just been enjoying each other. There have been a couple of times when I've almost lost it because I'm not used to having the kids home all day (how do people homeschool?!) but honestly, we have had such a great vacation just hanging out and playing. Not rushing to a practice or being on their case to get homework done, it's been enjoyable.