she started walking

Those were not her first steps but yesterday was her first attempt. She likes it but is getting daring. I guess that is just how she is. Alexander likes her to walk to him but then he catches her and slams her on the ground.

Today

Sorry about the previous stressed out post. I think I was thinking about it all because I went visiting teaching this morning (for the first time here slacker I know) but my companions house was totally spotless and then we went over to a lady we visit teach and her house was totally spotless more than the first and I kept wondering how they accomplished that (they both had 4 little kids each) and one was pregnant. But then the one kept saying how she didn't want the kids touching the coffee table because it was all scratched up from her kids already. It look super not scratched and in mint condition. I guess that is how it stayed so clean there. I I decided I don't want to be stressed out that much even if my house would stay that clean. I am going to try to be happy with my half clean house all the time and not let it get to me and just try to enjoy my little ones. Thats what its all for right?

All in a days work

Eva and Alexander fighting over the "Toy". Eva wants Alexander out of there and is trying to squish him but she doesn't weigh very much so its not working. Hence the fake crying face.

I feel like I spend my days cleaning up and thats it. Do you guys ever feel this way? I clean and clean and put away and it all spews back out within the next 30 minutes. It makes me feel crazy sometimes. Sometimes I just brush it off and wait until its bed time to attempt a clean up. I like to try to have things cleaned up when Daniel gets home though(anywhere between 4:30-7:00) Not that I want him to think I have been cleaning all day but I know I appreciated a clean house when I got home from work (when I worked). So I put the kids down at the same time around 3pm and try to be like the Tasmanian devil and clean the whole house, dishes too and start dinner. Some days this works some days not.

I feel as though I shouldn't let the mess stress me out but it does. I was reading woman's day and it said the top 10 stresses that apparently are worse for your health than the big stresses (losing a job etc) are:

1. Unreliable friends or family people who say yes and don't show up or don't do it
This one doesn't really apply to me here because I don't have any family here. Although flakiness has always been a pet peeve of mine and I know when I get flaky I am annoying people.

2. Rude encounters of the sales kind
This one does stress me out a ton. When I am shopping and the people are rude to me I get irritated because why are they like that? The advice in the column was just be nice yet assertive to the cashier and ask them why they are so rude. Does that really sound kind? It sounds like a fight to me, but it says usually someone was rude to them so they are rude to you. Sounds like a traffic jam to me.

3. Does anyone else see the mess
This stresses me out big time. Messes everywhere at my house. I could care less if someone elses house is messy but if mine is I have a small panic attack everytime I look at it. I am never expecting anyone to come over but the mess still picks at me until I clean it up.

I am a list checker. I make lists on paper and in my head and a mess on the floor is just something I can't check off the list. Drives me bonkers! That is why I am always doing so many projects. I need to check them off the list. I look in the garage or on the wall and see I have something unfinished and I need to finish it so I do.

4. If you need help please press 1
These make me so irritated. As soon as I hear the automated response I regret calling because I am always in a foul mood afterwards. I even HATE using calling cards because I usually have to do it 3 times to get all the stupid numbers right.

5.Can I get a little Quiet
This is quiet time that moms need. It says you can't de-stress with all the nutsos around you making you crazy. You need your own time! I believe this very much. I don't think its being selfish because I know if one of my children won't take a nap and I don't get that "free" hour to clean or read or project or whatever I am extremely irritable with the kids and Daniel. So it really pays off to get this quite time. You are nicer and get more things done when you get this time. The Magazine says usually moms only get this during shower time. Kind of pathetic but its true for me sometimes. Although the kids are banging on the door and crying outside the door when I take showers so that doesn't count at all.

6. my husband drives me crazy
It says some of the stuff that attracted you to your significant other generally turns annoying after a couple of years. It says the key to success is not having all the same traits and being different from each other. The cure to this is supposed to be don't let the little stuff bug you because its not really that important (for example Daniel doesn't seem to know the purpose of a laundry hamper) I am learning with this thing as I am sure everyone is.

7. packing in too many to-dos
I suffer from this only a little bit. I pack in to-do's to make myself think I accomplished something that day for my sanity's sake. It said some people have their entire day (hour to hour) planned and when something goes wrong they have a fit. I definitely don't suffer from that. I hate being late but have hardly anything scheduled anyway.

8. Who's that frump in the mirror
I believe this one. When I look like crap I feel like crap. I used to think (when I was a freshman in college and younger) it was silly to get all dressed up each and every day and why put on tons of makeup just for a regular day. Now that I have children and lack sleep at times and well everything else I appreciate dressing up and putting some makeup on. Obviously not a lot of makeup but some because I feel like I can accomplish everything when I am completely ready for the day.

Cure from this is supposed to be invest in a great hair cut, 5 minute makeup routine, some funky jewelry and thats it. It says you can still wear your all black outfit or jeans and t-shirt and just stick a great necklace on and feel great. I believe this... a little bit, it takes time to get positive self image if you don't already have it.

9. Is anyone listening?
No one does anything you say or responds to you in your household. I feel this one all the time. I feel like the wall is better conversation in the daytime sometimes. Thats why I blog actually to feel connected to the outside world. I haven't found any great friends here really so that sucks but I haven't tried at all. I don't think I care if they listen just respond.

10. Eating too few calories.
Yep moms starve all the time (and so do non-moms) so busy on the go everythings going on and it makes you more stressed and grouchy. But it says sugar when hungry instead of complex carbs make you grouchy too cause they give you the low and the fat.

Cure: eat healthy don't count calories just eat healthier. Easier said than done. I know just throw in veggies. If no one in your family eats veggies (no matter how much you force or try to trick them) Its hard making a whole meal out of them just for yourself. That would be two dinner makings and who has time for that?

So many tell me: make it and if they don't eat it too bad. Um have you seen Daniel? He can't afford to skip meals in the work he does. The children tend to scream all night if they go to bed hungry.
Anyways totally random. I saw most things on this list as stresses for me so I guess I need to learn how to chill out or I will get bad health from it. The problem is how do you chill out when vacations and "doing nothing" Stress you out?

Project: Eva's Music Box

I didn't take a before picture for this one. It was brown and I didn't like it. It is supposed to be for displaying photo's but I wanted to make some "magazine art" instead for it. It's going to go in Eva's room. I have some butterflies in Eva's room so I made it the constant in the mini magazine art. Its just a music box that you can store little things in.

Happy Birthday Matelita

Happy Birthday Lete! Its your sweet 16 . Be sure to wish Lete a happy Birthday here.

and Happy 24th of July

Happy Pioneer Day to all who actually know what that is. We are going to a ward BBQ tonight and we actually decided to go "swimming" in our little pool. Usually I garden or clean around them but I have been feeling rather frazzled so I figured I would soak up the sun with them.





Eva has 10 swim suits that she currently wears. I know that is way too many. I think they are so cute. I got this one in Guam at that Saturday Dededo Flea Market. Its homemade. I just love it. Its little short bottoms to make it extra modest. I love the back too.

Sunflower harvesting

We harvested our sunflower. It had so many seeds in it. We are going to plant more sunflowers next year. Are you supposed to bake them? I ate a few yesterday and they tasted fine to me. It took a long time to pull them all out but afterward it looked like this

Weddings

So my friend Brittany posted this on her blog today and I thought I should too because it made me happy. Don't you just love fun weddings with dancing?

We went walking the other day by the river and there was an Indian wedding going on close by. I could hear the music and it made me so happy. They were doing the part when they put the bride on the horse and everyone else dances over to where the ceremony is going to be (I don't know if that usually happens but it did there) anyway so EVERYONE was dressed to the 9's in their colorful clothes (I don't know what the outfits are called, help me out here Melanie). I love Hindi Music!! Anyways so I chatted Daniel's ear off about how I love weddings. He is not a big fan unless its got fun music and he knows lots of people. I LOVE weddings. I love to see the decor, brides dress hear the music see the cake. I think they are so fun and sadly the last wedding we went to was before Alexander was born. Now Binni and Kristine are getting married TOMORROW. So exciting. Hopefully they will post pictures, lots of pictures. Oh and Ricky is getting married in September and we are going and I am so excited! Daniel wasn't sure if he could get off to go but I insisted because I want to go to a wedding especially one of Daniel's child hood friends. Especially because its only 5-6 hours away. That is one reason I am glad we aren't in Guam, now we can go to weddings (we missed Andrew and Carly's which made us sad)

Anyway enjoy the Youtube clip. Its fun!

Great inexpensive art site

I just found this site. Well I found it from Kate at Centsational Girl It has beautiful photo's! Its Tim Irving and he does a great job. He is trained at art schools in England. You can buy his prints at his etsy shop . Just go look at them they are amazing and very inexpensive! AND free shipping anywhere in the world. I think this is perfect for wedding gifts for those living abroad and I want to send one to Binni and Kristine but I don't know their taste. If you read this maliana or Unnur let me know which one ok. Sorry for the random post but they are just so beautiful!

Miriam

today

I put the rest of my books in the bookshelf and the big Tupperware boxes were left out so Eva found a new toy. She dragged it all over the house put toys in and sat in there giggling to herself all day long. She even took snacks in there as you can see by her mouth. This was during Alexander's nap. She just plays all around the house while he sleeps.


We also got a new member of the house hold. His or Her name is fishy. We found the little bowl at a garage sale on Saturday so Daniel came home with a fish today and Alexander loves it. I asked him his name and he wouldn't budge on fishy. He sits on my new bookshelf.

The lamp table

I decided to participate in Metamophis Monday with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch
You do a before and after of a project so I decided to do this one today. I think its fun to see other peoples projects.

We got this ugly little table in a storage unit. It was so ugly but I needed something for our lamp so I just used it in its ugliness. I decided to paint it and put a damask print on it and I like it now. But so do the little ones so if it gets ruined it should be ok because it started out so ugly. Nothing lost really.


70's






Now



If you can't tell I am really liking the Damask styles. I want it in the living room. We used to just do earth tones in the living room because that was what we bought and received but now I want sharper colors.

I plan on doing a project pertaining to this with my two book shelves. I have an idea in my head but I am going to google around and see if anyone else has done it and what it looked like.

materials used:
220 grit Sandpaper (just to get it rough enough for the paint to stick)
black paint
white paint
foam craft brush
card stock and internet stencil
Stanley knife

Our Camping Trip

This is Daniel blogging just so everyone knows. I am taking some vacation days and we are going up to see family in Utah and then we are going camping in the San Juan National Forest. I am really excited about it. We plan on visiting Mesa Verde National Park, going to see some old mining towns in La Plata. Here are some links to pictures and stuff of where we are going and what we are going to see.

This one is a map of the San Juan National forest and we are going to be camping at campsites #20 or #35. These next 2 links are the descriptions of where we will be staying.

Snow Slide Campgrounds

Kroeger Campgrounds

Here is a link to Mesa Verde national parks website.


Miriam says I have to explain what Mesa Verde national park is. It is old Indian ruins of the Puebloans Indians. You can read about on the website. Here are some pictures of it.







And here are some pictures of the area we will be camping in. It will be beautiful. (Most of them are links)

Beautiful Camping Area

Another Beautiful Photo

Yet another


Oh and if we have time and it fits in our Budget we are going to ride the train from Silverton to Durango. Here is a picture of that.

Just one of those days

Today started out wonderfully! It was somewhat cloudy this morning so not too hot. I woke up at 6:30 and figured I might as well get up. Alexander was already up wandering around the house so I figured I would make breakfast and get him ready. I made scrambled eggs and sausage and got the table set up for the kids. Then I got on the computer and made an Alexander photo album and a wedding album (I know 4 years later, oh well at least I did it) I already made an Eva album and took it to make a photo book at CVS so I was going to take more in to do today. Daniel and I had already discussed hitting some garage sales last night in order to find some camping equipment for our up coming camping trip (we have nothing for it) so I went and got Eva and got her ready and gave her breakfast. Daniel woke up and we got ready and we didn't leave the house until 8am but that is ok.

We drove to all these different garage sales and really scored actually. We have been looking for a lawn mower since February. I wanted one of those ones that you just push without gas and we found a pretty new one (taskforce 227683 with a grass catcher). The price tag said $30 so of course Daniel paid $20. Then we found a 5 man tent for $5 which is perfect (we are going to put it up tonight to see how it is) so then I found a bookshelf that matches the one we already have for $10 and some lady gave Alexander a box of toys for $2 (he now owns a light saber, many dinosaurs, many shrek toys, a new chevron car, other random crap and a book on potty training) he was in heaven so everything turned out well we got some great stuff and some we needed. So we get home at 11am and put Eva down for her morning nap. Daniel mowed the lawn and really likes the lawn mower. I cleaned the book shelf and put books in it. Alexander stabbed me every twenty seconds with the light saber. We were all in our element.

We had previously decided to sell our Murano so I took it to get shampooed last night and we were going to take it to car max this morning to see what they said (I bet it will be super low but we always like to check all options) So Daniel left to go there.


8 minutes later I get a frantic call from Daniel "GIVE ME A NUMBER NOW I AM BROKEN DOWN ON ALAMEDA IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD" I respond "what number? Geico or a tow truck" he responds "ANY NUMBER ANY NUMBER, SOMEONE JUST STOPPED TO HELP ME. CLICK." (everyone who knows Daniel can imagine) so I proceed to call Geico and see what they do for tows. I have them call Daniel. He calls me and tells me he might just be out of Gas and I need to pack up the kids and run down there. So I do. We get a little tank from Lowes (right next to the broken down Murano) put Gas in the car. Nope its not the Gas. The car will turn on, make a sick noise then turn off. So we call the tow truck for Geico. Lucky us its free. Its going to be an hour so we go get wendies and sit in the back of the truck eating lunch waiting for the tow.

Tow truck comes takes our Murano to the Nissan Dealership just down the road. I remember all the times I have seen my murano on a tow truck and begin to hate the stupid thing. They can't look at it today but for sure Monday. I am so used to stupid car things that I am not even phased. So we drive home its 4pm by now. I am going to clean the house give bubba a bath put kids down for a nap. As soon as Bubba gets in the shower (his first by the way) Daniel gets a phone call and is happy. This is shocking enough to me. He says "the air something blah blah blah (I phase out a little bit until I hear this) so its a recall and its all free" YAY! Another recall and I don't have to pay for it.

We threw cloths on the kids and got back in the car got to the dealership and picked up the car. What a freaking day. Shockingly no swear words left my lips today and it turned out to be a wonderful day instead of the crappiest of my life. It was dejavu from the last day Kathryn and Ralph were visiting us in Guam.

What a day, what a day.

P.S I am really starting to love Nissan Dealerships and hate Nissan vehicles. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

Thanks Melisa for finding the Nissan dealership number for me even though you were at the park! Life saver there!

mini morning project for my bedroom

I wasn't going to do this project but I got bored (not that I don't have a million things to do like clean well that's the million things actually) I decided to play with this thing that I believe is called a tea tray or something.

(as you can see I had already started cleaning it up)


I found it in the garage left over from the storage unit. Its really a piece of junk (not a fan of dolphins or splotchy white and blue). So I was just going to sand it and paint it black. Well there was this huge layer of glue or something and TWO different hodgepodge things underneath it.


Who would have thought? Anyway so I started ripping it all off and denting it and all kinds of stuff (its sort of distressed, not really but sort of) then I sanded it all down.


By then I decided I wanted to put it in my bedroom (its a small one for the closet to put perfume on) so I painted it with some of my already own it paint and decided I wanted damask pattern on it (I love that look) I didn't want to go find a stencil or wait for one from online so I just googled free damask downloads found a sight that had them as long as you don't sell them and I printed it on card stock. Then I slowly carved all the little pieces out with a Stanley knife. fit it in the tea tray


got my sponge brush and brown paint out and filled it in. Voile I have a cute thing for my room. I love how it turned out.


Yay and really free for me.

Sarah's Bookclub

I wrote my first review for Sarah's book club on The Zoo Keeper's Wife today. Don't worry I toned it down and didn't try to kill Diane Ackerman with words. I was just going to tell you guys you should join the book club (especially you Line you would like it). It gives you an opportunity to read books and ponder them. I like doing that. If you are scared to write a review (like I am) the key is to keep a little notebook or sticky pad while reading and either write down the pages and areas that stuck out to you or stick the sticky in the book and write your thoughts on it. It makes it so you can remember the things you loved and hated about the book and then you can just write it and elaborate later. Different things stick out to different people so its nice to share perspective with others and see other things you may have missed. The beauty of blog bookclubs is you don't have to stand up and give a speech about it and you can organize your thoughts better. Plus it makes it feel like you are out in the real world letting your opinions be known even though you are stuck at your house because your children try to be as bad as possible when you leave the house.

Anyway check out the Bookclub here oh and my review here


Thanks for making this book club Sarah!

She loves shoes

Eva was clingy all afternoon only wanting to come to me not dad. I was trying to get dinner ready so I put her down she cries and finds one of Alexander's crocs puts it on and smiles. No more crying. So I went and got her crocs and she put them on and just loves them. Totally happy now. I know how she feels shoes make me happy too.

Rag Rugs

Has anyone ever tried a rag rug? I just read some instructions and it doesn't look too hard, time consuming but not hard. I want to do a red one. Maybe in the next couple of weeks. Daniel absolutely hates them but no harm done in Eva's room right? Has anyone ever made one?

20 minutes ago

Just took a picture of the lil ones after the bath

A book

Ever since I made my goal of 4 books a month I have done it. Its actually a lot easier than I thought. Well it is if I keep 3 books going at a time because if one gets boring I rotate. However I am stuck at the moment because I am reading A Zoo Keeper's Wife with Sarah's book club. Its the first time I am actually reading the book in the right month.
I got so excited because I finally got a library card and they had the book that the book club was reading. I was even taking notes like the good old BYU days so that I could contribute with some sort of small review but I am having the hardest time reading this book! I was going to try to finish it in 3 days 100 pages a day (reading during nap time and at bed time) Well that worked for one day but then it stopped. I can barely get through 3 chapters a day!

I usually love books and anything to do with WWII but I think she could have written the book better than she did. I think in the writing world the fault would fall on the editor here. I find that when an author writes 3 GREAT books (or at least books that make it onto the New York Times Bestseller list) the editors tend to hold back or I guess they have to and give the author complete freedom to do whatever they want which is fine but this book has no flow at all.

When I finish a chapter the next just jumps to where ever land and I can't tell whats happening next with out the help of the date. It's getting frustrating. I still have 130 pages left.

This happens in many historically driven works. I have read many of these and its sad really. They do soooo much GREAT research and find all these great little tidbits that are fascinating but some of this has no relevance to the whole. They want to show off all their research so that they personally don't feel they wasted their time doing it all but it really takes away from the whole of the story. I can understand wanting to feel rewarded for all that research, all the sleepless long nights of reading over journals and memoirs, but honestly I feel like I am reading a 2nd draft here.

I remember getting drafts back saying cut cut cut cut all this and that expand on these parts and it will make for great reading. So many get stuck during this process, they don't want to leave that tidbit behind because they worked so hard on it. They don't care what the professor/editor says its important to the story. No its not. While interesting it is taking away from the story and making it impossible for the reader to finish the thing!

I feel bad writing that but its true. There are some great things in this book (such as the research) but its just so hard to read. When writing people need to remember you do all that research so that you can write and know what you are writing about. (no false statements) YOU the writer need to have the whole picture in your head while you write the story. Your story needs to be its own story that continues to flow until you hit the end. Stop throwing in all the random little things. Show those random little things in a different way a way that flows smoothly.

If you read a lot (especially non-fiction) you have experienced this especially with books written about historical figures by a complete stranger who's only insight is mountains of diaries, clippings and memoirs. I know I should give them some credit, its not easy writing about a complete stranger and having to guess their thoughts and motives behind their actions but if you want to tell a story (which is what books really are fiction or non-fiction) stick to the relevant characters not every single person that pops up in the diary or memoir its distracting.

You know when someone is telling you a story from the other day and they start name dropping. That's what was happening in this book.

I feel this book should really be called: A chronological record of the people and animals who came in and out of Antonina Zabinskis life during WWII in Poland (She was a Zookeeper). I know that is way too long but you would know what you were picking up.

From the title and description I was expecting more than I am getting. Oh Well.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't finished so maybe the last third of the book will tie it all in. Oh and I am biased I don't usually like books so vastly based on animals. (at least I am being honest here)

Sorry for the huge vent but Alexander didn't care to have a discussion about it so I figured I would vent it here. That's what blogs are for right? Opinions and updates a little view into someones mind.

Alright I am done with the vent. Have a nice day.

The lil table is finished!

The little table is finally done! It drove me crazy and its done now. I just went with white for now because I am trying to think of the future and I want the walls in my bedroom to be a gray blue so for now this is it. It looks the same as the wall but we are permanently in the house.


This one is my inspiration for the white furniture. Its a Lowes advertisement.

We went for a drive

We went for a drive up into the mountains here today and it was fun. The roads were all rocky, dusty and bumpy so i thought I was in Guam in the beginning. Then there were beautiful meadows and I thought I was in Utah and then when we got to the top I realized we were in New Mexico. You can drive to the very top on the mountain! You just stop and look down and its a great view. I started to feel light headed and so did Daniel. I guess we elevated too quickly because I thought I was high and going to pass out. It was 10,000 something feet. Soo high. Well it felt high because we didn't have to hike at all. Here are some pictures from the day



This last picture is just of the valley. See the river and all the trees on it. Its beautiful but also see all the dirt and nothing there, that's a reservation. The rest is Albuquerque, Corrales, Bernadillo and Rio Rancho. There is an excavated patch of dirt in the upper right corner quadrant and we live about four city block sizes over. Isn't it weird how just all this land is blank nothing there. Weirdest thing to me because the rest of it is all pretty excavated.



That was our day (so far) It was fun to go up I had no idea you could drive all the way up there.

DecorativeTastes

I have been looking at different blogs all over the net today that have to do with thrifty decor, decor in general and re-doing furniture. I just wanted to randomly and loudly wonder why people like certain things. Now if you like it please tell me why. I know there are many things I love in my house that most don't understand. Such as my Chinese table that I got from Andrew and his room mates after they were all done liking it (I loved this the minute I saw it 5 years ago).

My blue fish bottle soap dispenser.

My wind chime thing I got while in California with Michelle at an antique shop and well many other things I have picked up a long the way. I understand why I like them because I do and they fit my taste but after looking at many blogs from all over the place I found 3 kinds of decor that kept popping up over and over again. I just don't understand at all and I wanted some insight on the idea behind them. I am not trying to offend I understand most decorative ideas some are cultural, historically significant, In at the time, heirlooms but I just don't understand these:

1. copper stars



2. bunny figurines

3. Gold Urns

That copper star retails for $397. WHAT? Is there something cultural behind this? I have never owned a copper star (actually thats a lie I have one I got from R.S years ago as a little Christmas ornament) But I have seen these all over the web people stick the giant star on their walls and I just want to know its significance. Please? The first time I saw one was on my neighbor's wall in Utah and I just got curious and forgot about it and then while researching stuff this morning it kept popping up so I want to know why.

The bunnies only make sense to me for Easter. Although perhaps its one of those things. I used to like butterflies but only like them for prints on the wall now and I have gotten rid of most. Some like frogs, bears lady bugs etc. is that what is behind them? Although I didn't see any of those other things collected only bunnies. At least 50 sites with people collecting bunnies. Now that cute little green bunny seems kind of collectible, the green is in and if its on a book shelf and only one but then I saw This:


Thats a lot of bunny to me, where do you put them all? But THEN I saw This:



These people collected so much bunny that they called it a museum. It doesn't look as calm and serene as a museum it looks scary. I hope this never happens to me. I have started to become somewhat of a minimalist and I hope I can keep the habit.

Now the Urns don't make sense to me either. I can understand out in the garden with a pot in it but thats all even then its seems like a strech. Its kind of gaudy, like a 50k diamond ring.

Anyway if you have these things in your house please let me understand them.


Oh and the way I became a minimalist from a not so minimalist was by moving from country to country and marrying Daniel. When we were first married I was not allowed to buy anything decorative unless I could tell him then and there what I was going to do with it.
Which includes:
Where is it going to go?
What is its purpose?
when am I going to have it up and running?
what color will it be?
when is my project deadline?
can I afford this right now or ever?
How long will this stay stylish to me (this is one I added)

and I am sure there are many others.

If you want to become a minimalist just answer those questions on decor, thrift, garage sale and anything else purchases and you will find yourself with hardly any stuff. It keeps your house clean and your style less cluttered (don't get trapped by the term eclectic, there is such thing but too many say their style is eclectic when its really just a bunch of random stuff jumbled together that they can't bare to throw of give away)

Just watch an episode of "Clean House" on Style and you will see why hording is bad.

So please help me out on understand those three highly collectible items.

This week...

I have been in Reading Comatose and have been framing photos this week. I really want to finish my table the little one but I keep putting it off and not setting the goal. I want to finish it by next week. I wish I would get motivated.
I found these last two prints in some frames from a storage unit and I just love them. I need to frame them but I haven't found the right frames yet. I am starting to like the mint green color behind them. They remind me of a Japanese garden.

Their Favorite thing to do lately

This is what they like to do. I had this toy box in the living room to start with, then the dining room so I finally put it in Eva's room and they still just empty it out. Drives me Crazy at least its in Eva's room now.

Here's Eva.

Pseudoscorpion

I found one of these on Daniel's shirt and almost had a heart attack. I thought it was a scorpion but its only the size of a tick and as you can see from the title it is not a real scorpion only looks like one in tiny form.

To get a better perspective on its size the white stuff in the back is the weave on the paper. So its pretty small but what would you do if you saw this really weird scorpion bug looking thing?

Daniel says its also beneficial to have around because it kills lice and other parasites. Thats great to say but it went to dead land as soon as Daniel got home to kill it.

Happy Independance Day

We had a great weekend. Lots of great Fireworks in New Mexico. Alexander loved them. We were driving home last night and people were shooting off the big fireworks because they aren't illegal here so every time he saw one he pointed and yelled "beautiful". He had a lot of fun except when Daniel lit the little ones off at home. He wasn't a big fan of them being close to him and he would cover his eyes or mouth every time (I don't know why he didn't cover his ears).

Anyway here are some pictures from the day. We had a big rain storm and sun showers so there was a hug full rainbow (you can kind of see it from the panoramic, sorry they are so small I don't know how to fix that) It was beautiful.


I went outside to take the picture and Eva and Alexander thought it was an invitation to come play out in the rain. It was fine until Daniel showed them the little pool was getting water in it. Then Alexander got in fully clothed and so did Eva. She just went right over the edge and flopped in. Quite the daredevil and then they just splashed and played.

We figured the little pool would be a good investment for the heat that is here already. I think they will be in it everyday. Right after church Alexander asked me to take off his shoes I told him I would but he wasn't allowed in the pool today and he got pretty upset. Oh well probably tomorrow. It was a great weekend of yard work, cleaning and relaxation.