Merry Christmas

Every time Christmas comes around, Amy Grant's  "Breath of Heaven" is one of my favorite songs to play. About 15 years ago, while I was attending LDS Business College, I had this wonderful Old Testament and choir instructor, Sister Margot Butler.  One day, a few weeks before Christmas, we were sitting in choir practice, and Sister Butler brought a CD to play for us.  There was this beautiful painting of Mary, the mother of Jesus on one of the walls of the choir room. Sister Butler asked us to look at that painting as we listened to the song. I wish I could find an image of this painting on the internet, but have never been able to find one. Anyway, I think that painting is an accurate depiction of the following verse in the song:

Do you wonder

As you watch my face

If a wiser one should've had my place

But I offer all I am

For the mercy of your plan

Help me be strong

Help me be

Help me

This video takes me back to that time 15 years ago, as I listened to that song, trying to imagine what Mary thought and felt as she was told of the mission she was to fulfill. 

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  Ours was lovely.

As for my Book of Mormon challenge, I have fallen behind (not to proud of that, hence the small font), but I am working on catching up.

I will

How long has it been since I read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover?  Ohhh, probably some 20 years or so.  There, it's out in the open. I haven't read it all the way through since my seminary days.

Last Sunday, our bishopric issued the challenge of reading the Book of Mormon in 30 days.  One of the best ways to keep the Christmas season focused on Christ, as it should be.  I've decided to take up the challenge.

I'll keep you posted on my progress...

Misconstrued

Andrew:  Amber, can you get Daddy's boots?

Amber:  Your boots?

Andrew:  Yeah, can you get Daddy's boots?

5 minutes later...

Amber:  Here you go!  Here's your boots!

Happy (Quarantine) Birthday!

I meant to do a birthday post for Amber last week, but as some of you may know, we've had a flu outbreak in our house.   Number of victims: 2 (Bucky and I *seem* to have escaped it - *seem* being the operative word). We've barely left the house or allowed anyone to come in for the past 7-10 days.

I was just thinking, this time three years ago, we had just spent our first full day home with Amber.  It's so crazy to think it's been three years!  Just yesterday, I was going through Amber's box (my collection of stuff from her first year), and found this:

 I remember we (well, I) had a whole list of names before she was born, but we couldn't decide on one. Andrew hated the ones I liked, and I hated the ones he liked.  I had been playing with my mom's and Andrew's mom's middle names, but nothing seemed to come together. I found the name Amber in a book and added at the top of the list.  Then one day, Andrew told me "How about Amber Marie?" And that was it.  He had it written on that same sheet of paper:

Anyway, I had also planned on having a small birthday party (more like a big playdate) for Amber on the 9th  but that didn't happen either because Andrew was already sick, and Amber was getting sick, so we'll see when I can do a "Better-late-than-Never" party.  In spite of feeling sick, Amber had a good day. She spent the morning at Tammy's while I worked in Cascade and then, once Andrew came home that evening, she opened presents and her awesome Daddy made her a cake.  Check it out...

Sprinkles as far as the eye can see, inside and out...

A birdseye view

Amber had already received a couple of birthday gifts from  my parents while they were in town last weekend (more on that in another post). They got her two new friends, Buzz and Woody, and she's been playing with them since she got them.

This just means they're friends, in Amber's world. No funny business...

And  they also gave her a pretty pretty princess (as an old friend of mine used to say)

We got her a goofy elephant and a bunch of whos...

 

and some flying friends too:

It was a nice, quiet birthday, and it was great!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,

 

I remember...

I spent a few hours this afternoon writing down my memories of September 11th.  Then I hit Publish and realized I had been logged off from Blogger for who knows how long.  I took that as a sign. Maybe I'll share those memories another time.  For now, it's enough for me to know that I haven't forgotten...

True Love is...

Missing out on seeing these guys in concert...

Slipknot
This is the only photo I could find where they were not wearing make up.
When they do (wear make up) they're SCARY!

... so your wife can meet this guy...

Blake Shelton



Thank you, Honey! I love you!

Spring and Summer Photographic Overload

Here are the long ago promised pictures from the past few months (April through July). Click on each picture to see the album for the month.

April '09

May '09

June '09

July '09

I'm still in the process of downloading the pics from our trip to Seattle (at the end of July), so those will come a little bit later (hopefully not in another two months, haha ... no, really).

Back again...rambling on

As usual, every few months, it seems I (we) fall off the face of the Earth, in blogging terms. I suppose I could say I have a valid reason for slacking off on my blogging duties, but I'd be lying, because I don't, really. I can't say nothing exciting has happened in the last 2 months, because we've done plenty of fun stuff. I can't say "I simply don't have the time," because I do, in fact, have time. I just seem to spend most of it checking out other people's blogs and playing on Facebook.

I have never been a good/consistent journal writer. I have never been a good writer, period. You've heard that saying: "Those who can't do, teach." Well, in my case, it would be "Those who can't write, translate," or interpret, in my case. In college, I had a hard time writing a cohesive 5 page paper. 5 pages! Can you imagine me going on to grad school and trying to write a dissertation? I mean, have you seen most of the posts on this blog? 2-3 paragraphs tops. I guess my dreams of being a Dooce /CJane /Amelia are now dashed. * (sad, so sad :P)

I am back, nonetheless, and there will be camping, spring and summer pictures coming up soon.

* If you don't know who these bloggers are, the first two are well known cheeky / sarcastic / entertaining bloggers that have a fairly large followings in the blogosphere. The 3rd one is my sis-in-law, and those three adjectives I just mentioned apply to her blog as as well.

If at first you don't suceed...

So, I have a mini-vacation of sorts this week and decided to try something new: making bread (in this case, rolls). It may not seem like that big of a deal, but you have to understand, the last time I tried making bread I used a bread machine, and the bread came out so dense, the paddle got stuck inside the "loaf"(if you can call it that...). Traumatic indeed.

Well, this time things went much better...


I think I'm now ready to take on Allison's freezer jam :)

Popcorn - Take # 24

Hi again! Yes, I know, it's been a while :)

Well, here we are, and as you can see by our layout,
Spring is almost here!
So, to usher in the new season here is
a little performance by Amber.

(it took a while to get it on film, hence the title of the post)

A little perspective

So, last week I had one of "those" days.

First, I had get through 90+ minutes of this to get to work...

while loaded up on some of this stuff, thanks to a miserable cold...

and, to add insult to injury, I opened my purse when I got to work
and found this had happened to my new phone...
(red marking added for emphasis ;) )

Funny thing, it only took five minutes of this to get me back into a (very) good mood...

Wha..?! I'm up, I'm up!

This picture is from Christmas morning (2008)
but it's very close to what I see every morning around 6:30 a.m.



Let's face it, I am not, never have been and never will be a morning person. And Amber seems to have inherited that tendency from me . I drag myself out of bed every morning and, after getting a few things ready for the day ahead, I go into Amber's room to wake her up. This usually takes about a minute or two. . .or five. I usually sit on her bed and start calling her name softly a few times . . . nothing. Then I give her a few kisses... nothing still, and then suddenly she bolts up, bleary-eyed, hair pointing every which way, and looks around as if saying "what happened?! wha..!? I'm up, I'M UP!"

Poor child, she is so used to waking up at 6:15 a.m., when darkness still reigns both inside and outside our house, that the other night I went to check on her before heading to bed, and as I moved her around to rearrange her covers a bit, she sat up and started trying to get out of bed. It took quite a few "no, no, it's ok, go back to sleep. Mom's just checking on you," but she eventually curled back up in bed and went to sleep. I gave her a kiss, and as I was walking away I heard "love youuu." :)

Travel Log

We are back by popular demand! (you know who you are ;) ) Amber and I had a chance to spend a week's vacation in unusually sunny Seattle last month. Here's what we did...

SATURDAY (JAN 17th)

We flew up up and away, above a cloudy Boise sky

Landed in Seattle

...then went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa

SUNDAY

Got ready for church (and checked on everyone else).

Amber caught up on some family history...mostly about herself :)

After church, we went for a walk with Grandpa

... and hung out at the park.

MONDAY

My dad didn't have to work that day, so we went to lunch.

Amber got not one but two balloons (to the envy of a little boy sitting a few tables away).

We spent the afternoon watching a movie (or 2 1/2),

and rented one of these to get us around town for rest of the week.

TUESDAY

Amber got this

... and I got this

... before sitting down to watch this.

Later on, we picked Grandma up from work and went off to play


We took some time out to fly a helicopter

... and go 4 wheelin'.

WEDNESDAY

Amber went horseback riding for the first time and love-love-love-loooooved it

That evening, she and her cousin Jack spent some quality time at Red Robin.
(and yes, that was the second time we went there in one week :) )

THURSDAY

Thursday it was time for a playdate for Jack and Amber.

... and me too!

Yes, those legs you see right there belong to yours truly. :P

FRIDAY

In the morning, we went here --> http://www.kcls.org/covington/ to get my mom a library card.

We spent time shopping and doing some more of this...

took "him" back...

And went to dinner here

SATURDAY (JAN 24th)

After a nice bath
(NOT the first one that week, just the only one I actually "documented")

We packed up and headed over to the airport.
Amber had a chance to spend time in the airport's play area.
(Thanks, Mr. Friendly TSA guy, for telling us about it!)

And off we flew back to Boise!

Hopefully, this post means I'll be updating the blog more often than every 3 weeks, but don't hold your breath :P

... AND HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!