the end of november, really?

it’s is hard for me to believe that november is pretty much over.  I mean, it went by so fast!  it helped that I was a single mother for nearly half of it.  those were days that I prayed would pass quickly.

so here we are, at the end of the thankful train.  not sure I got out all that I was thankful for, I know I didn’t post every day like I wanted to.  but hey, there is always next year, right?

I am thankful for the gifts and talents I have been blessed with.  there are many things I enjoy doing, and most of those things are to the credit of others teaching me how to do them.  I am thankful for many creative people in an inspirational world, who share, teach, and inspire me daily.

here’s a couple of layouts with products from some pretty amazing talented women.

(click on images for full credits.)

so if you love what you see, there is a pretty amazing sale going on at jessica sprague.  save up to 35% on product and 20% on classes (even the new ones)!!  they would make some pretty fun gifts..  for you or someone you love.

not to mention a FREE holiday class.  she does this every year!  how sweet..  it starts monday, so go register!

(click here to register.)

now go tell your friends!

not so great with the follow-through.

so I realized, I said I was going to catch up on the picture-posting, and well, I haven’t.

I could toss out any number of excuses, the effects of a head cold, the effects of little people when they are sick, holidays, houses, global warming..

but really?  like any of those have stopped me?

(okay, maybe a couple have aided me in my failure..)

so I am going to attempt to rectify this situation.  and I will do you one better than that, I will even get a thankful thing out too!

what better way to start than to start off with my best friend.  mostly because she is my best friend, but secondly because she is amazing, and so is her family.  and then, well, because she is my best friend.

I am so thankful (if you can’t tell already) that she is part of my life.  I am so thankful to have her right next door pretty much any time I need her, or anytime I just want to be near her.  she was my sanity while merrill was gone for two weeks (far, far too long a period of time for that man to be absent), and she has been the sidekick to many of my creative projects (many of which were undertaken while merrill was gone).  she is there to listen to me, talk me off of a cliff, ledge, or any other bad spot in life.  we laugh a lot and she never makes me feel guilty about my choice in food groups (sugar anyone?).  my family loves her.  partly because she notifies me when our favorites have gone on sale at a local store, but mostly because she helps me maintain my sanity.

I am thankful for her family too.  I love her kids!  we enjoy double dating when we can, and love getting our families together (although it has been a while..).

I am thankful that she asked me to snap some new family pics this fall.  it is always a good time with them.  it is quite an honor to capture a family, especially when it is one I love so much!

love ya ju!!

   

little lynnie turns 9.

I was a little (and to say a little, is totally understating it) shocked to think that it has really been 9 years since this kid has entered our lives.

I like to relive every moment of her entering our world, reliving that moment when she made me a mom.

gosh that was awesome!

today, I am thankful for her.  she is turning into such a little lady!  I mean, she really was all along.  sure, she had her dinosaur phase, her super-hero phase, but all the while, underneath it all, she has been a girlie girl.  she called lip-gloss and lipstick, “glip-gloss” and “yip-stick” for the longest time.  she never went anywhere without it.  still doesn’t.

lynn, I love that you love to read, even if it is four different books at a time.  I love that you sing, no matter what.  even if your friends (or family) give you weird looks, you belt it out.  you are silly.  I love it when you are tired, and something really tickles that funny bone of yours.  that giggle is awesome!  I will buy you orbit gum just to hear you do your own version of an orbit commercial.  that giggle again…

I am thankful that you are such a great help with your younger sisters.  I am so happy to see you take peyton and give her make-overs.  I love seeing that special relationship that you have with her.  I am so happy that you and ashley are so close.  even on the worst days, when you two swear that you will never play with the other one ever again, we can find you two snuggled up together in one of your beds.  sometimes you are even asleep!  you have inherited my gift of gab, and it is quite entertaining to have you talk, non-stop, as soon as you are in the door after school.  I love that you have also inherited my love of carbs.  a roll with butter should be considered part of every meal, especially your sack lunch (which is a sandwich, drink, sometimes chips, and cookies).  I am thankful that you give everything your best, that you can be so stressed over an up-coming test, but you get 100s like it’s nothing.  you give it your all.  I know that you and your dad are best buddies, you almost couldn’t survive with him gone for two weeks, but I am thankful for the relationship that we have and that is growing everyday.

I am thankful that it was you who grew in my belly first.  you that we get to practice all of our parenting skills on.  I am thankful that you are such a good kid, and we don’t have to practice too many things on you (ashley bears the brunt of that, that darn kid).  I am thankful for your bedtime kisses, your spontaneous hugs, even though the top of your head is getting ever closer to mine…

I am thankful for how persistent you are at everything you do.  even if that means practicing your cartwheels inside the house, in the family room, when I have asked you not to, repeatedly.  but you don’t give up!

besides the fact that you look just like your dad, you were meant to come to this family, and I am thankful, above all, to a loving heavenly father who trusts me (somehow) to be your mother. 

I love you.

a funny story to tell.

so I will get to a funny story in a minute, I ought to catch up on those thankful bits and pieces.
- so thankful for date-in nights with merrill.  chinese take-out and a flick, time with him, awesome.  I should also note that nachos and and a flick on upstairs in the loft for the kiddos is a necessary addition to that awesome date night equation.
- sundays at home with the family.  all is quiet in the house, and we just get to be together.
- I am thankful for the talents I have, for the information that is available for me to add to those talents, to strengthen them.
- I am thankful for two days of school this week!!!  (although I am questioning if I will make it through…)
- I am thankful for this time of the year, for the holidays, the coziness of home, the baking…  having everyone together.
so here’s a funny story:
a friend of mine from school asked if I would take some family pictures for her.  I have taken her boys pictures a couple (here and here) of times already, and they are hilarious!!  I would just love to photograph ryker’s expressions and drake’s eyes all day long….  anyway, she wanted an orchard, but we were coming up short on an awesome orchard, so we opted for some old (or not so old?) tracks up the canyon.  I have been there MANY times, and have only seen a train once.  no problems.
we were not on the tracks (at the time) but a little close, and we had an engineer yelling at us and blaring his train horn.  how could we tell he was yelling you might ask?  head, hanging out of the window, arms flailing, mouth going..  he was yelling.
we continued on with our little shoot only to have a union pacific official come to visit us, make sure we were being safe and give us a heads up that the engineer was calling the sheriff. 
our shoot ended a bit prematurely.
now I am not downplaying the safety issue or anything.  I felt like we were in a safe spot, like I want to kill my friends?  but I do understand how these guys would be extra nervous what with all the accidents that have been going on with trains+people lately.  I would be ticked too.
so we had to do part two.
just a few of my favs:
(and by few, I really mean more than a few.)

a few things to be thankful for…

- the snow falling right this second.

- a husband to back me up when my voice doesn’t sound stern enough.

- tissues.

- triaminic (in both the day time and night formulas).

- bubble baths.

- my new, uber-organized laundry room (it’s awesome I tell you).

- three little girls, who, despite being sick, and all of them being home, are pretty alright.

- cousins who share their babies with me, especially their milestones.

it’s like christmas at the pitcher house.

seriously.

it started with snow, and then I started in with the christmas tunes, and movies (and for all the bah-humbuggers/grinches, I have a totally valid argument for that, to come later..), and then the scentsy scents, and well, the best present of all…

merrill came home!!!

(it was only two weeks…  two very long, much TOO long weeks.)

I found ways to kill time..

painting a couple of rooms.

re-doing my picture wall. 

painting a bookcase in the living room.

re-arranging/re-working a couple of rooms.

taking apart and fixing my dryer.

a couple of photo shoots (one in which we had to leave quickly, before the sheriff arrived).

editing photos.

(which I need to catch up on posting, like desperately.)

playing with the girls.

playing just dance with the girls.

watching movies with the girls.

putting little girls to bed early so my brain and emotions could have a release.

and some scrapping…

exciting news at jessica sprague:

pink paislee has joined the ranks of awesome designers there!!

 

darling stuff there..

(click on layouts for full credits.)

and then there is some new lovely goods from miss samantha walker.

the name of the paper pack I used for this layout is “foundations gray baby”.

and well, if you know me, ever been to my house, you’d know just how much I adore babies and the color gray.  I would have painted the whole first floor of my house gray while merrill was gone if I could have also refinished the cabinets.

(but I am not that crazy.)

I will have to post pictures of what I did while the husband was away (for far too long I might remind you again..) soon.

so to catch up on the thankfulness:

friday-

so very thankful that I have lovely pictures of the temple to display in my home.  so thankful to have them so abundantly and so near us.

saturday-

I am thankful for my body, for my health and strength, and ability.  thankful for the fun (and exercise, and sometimes bruises) I get with good girlfriends playing volleyball.  (BEAM!!)

I am thankful for the snow today, and for the “elf” soundtrack.  (I will really have to get into my completely valid reasons why christmas is coming before thanksgiving in this house.)

I am thankful for red bull.  you see, I was awake at 5:45 and could NOT go back to sleep.  I was excited for volleyball, thinking of the finishing touches for a few projects, and mostly because merrill was coming home that night.(!!!!)

no napping.  too excited for napping.  thankful for red bull.

I didn’t tell the girls about merrill coming home until an hour before we left to get him from the airport.  their squeals of delight were awesome (and reminded me why I waited to tell them).  I was so thankful, that despite the snow, and many accidents throughout the day, we made it to the airport safely and in time.

that reunion was so sweet!

so thankful that he made it home, because if he hadn’t, I would have lost it.

for real.

sunday-

so thankful to have my WHOLE family under the same roof to enjoy the evening.  incredibly thankful for the many prayers that were answered over the course of our two (way too long) weeks.

I think bonus is the word of the day.

so here I am, at the end of the day, not one, not two, nope, not even three days later.

today I am thankful for things that one might call shallow.  but aren’t all things in life that either make life easier, us happier, blessings?

that’s what I thought.

so I am going to count them one by one.

so today I am thankful for the ogden rescue mission’s thrift store.  I found a nightstand for peyton’s little room and I scored a bonus chair!  (merrill will undoubtedly shake his head at yet, another chair.  this one has taken on a new identity of glossy black!)  bonus on top of that bonus, my purchase was an additional 25% off the marked prices!  bonus bonus.

I needed something to go by her bedside to hold a few special items and I didn’t want it to be just anything, I also wanted it to be a certain color.  so there ya go.  thrifty finds!

(I am still kicking myself for not buying a small statue for $7 that was of a couple, the woman sitting in a man’s lap, they were passionately making out.  would love to have that in my boudoir!)

the other thing I am thankful for is my introduction to polycrylic top coat spray.  I recently heard that polyurethane yellows (gross) but polycrylic doesn’t, and as a bonus, it is more durable.  has a harder finish.

then, as I moved on from this miracle in a can, I was thinking I would get me some cans of white spray paint.  I wanted this nightstand to be high gloss.  I thought I knew just what I was going to get, when an extra tall can of glossy white spray paint grabbed my attention (and my heart as I would later discover).

high performance enamel.

professional results.  (bonus.)

high durability.  (bonus.)

high gloss.  (hello, bonus!)

dries in 15 minutes?!  (holy bonus of all bonuses!)

dude, you so had me at high performance enamel.

this stuff is amazing.

I am so thankful for it.

it makes a lovely combination with my polycrylic topcoat jobber.

so you see, these seem to be a bit shallow.  but you weren’t in my head, dwelling on a night table for my sweet youngest baby.  finding things that were waaaay too pricey and oh, so not right.  then to find this?  and you will remember, I am sure, the sweet baby is 3 going on 4, and well, we need high durability like lindsay lohan needs to rewind the past 6 years of her life (know what I mean?).

so answers indeed.

blessings all around!