The Chosen One

I've been wanting a new camera for a while, at least since last year. I had hoped to buy one before leaving for the Czech Republic.

The problem was my budget was not wanting a new camera.

A garage sale was in order.

Last year I had a garage sale and made around $400--enough to pay part of a new digital camcorder, this year my goal was to make enough to pay part of the cost of a new dSLR.

So in April I partnered with a couple of friends at our neighborhood's bi-annual garage sale. We set up at one friend's house in a prime location at the entrance to the neighborhood and hoped for the best.

Let's just say at one point the first day we had 27 cars parked in front of her house.

I made $1100.

New camera? Done.

The hardest part was trying to decide which camera to buy. I narrowed it down to two: the Nikon d5000:

And the Canon t2i:

They're pretty similar cameras, so I spent the last month talking to as many people as I could trying to get a feel for which one would be better. I talked to friends, people at camera places, friends of friends, looked at reviews online. The conclusion? I learned that you're either a Nikon person or a Canon person!!

What to do??? No clue. I've had both a Nikon and a Canon and I really don't have a preference, I mean, a coolpix versus a powershot?? Ummm, not much to compare.

Knowing I'd be tied to this camera for a really long time made it a hard decision (maybe it's my committment-phobia? Ask Chris about that one). But also knowing that this week I'd have a lot of times when I would want my new camera and knowing that we leave for Florida next week I HAD to make a decision.

I finally decided on the (drum roll please)............................

NIKON!

What pushed me over the edge? Was it a sense of practicality?

Costco had a great deal on the Nikon with two decent lenses, SD card, and bag. The Canon was about $200 more.

I also realized that if I bought the Nikon I would have enough money left over to buy myself:

a kindle:)

Strawberry Season

Hooray! It's finally strawberry season at our house!!

For the past few weeks Abs has been checking our plants every morning and every afternoon to see if any strawberries are ripe. She even dubbed one her own, and kept vigilant watch over it, waiting for it to completely turn red.

Well, a couple of days ago she found out the birds had eaten it! What a disappointment.

Fortunately, there were others to be had...

And many more still to ripen...
Unfortunately, our strawberries are turning out to be TART! Which means lots of sugar is needed to make them edible or we're going to have to make them into freezer jam.

Either way, I love strawberry season!

A Little Gratitude

Some days all it takes is a little gratitude to change your perspective.

Take yesterday for example.

I ran for a wide shot in tennis, hit it back, started shuffling back to the center of the court but didn't look where I was going and tripped over a ball (side note here, during matches I'm always careful to keep balls off the court, but just hitting I don't normally mind balls around, I'm used to that).

In slow motion (because that's always what happens) I fell, landed directly on my knees then stopped the rest of my body with my hands.

Ouch. Let's just say that it hurt and if you've ever fallen on a hard court you know what I'm talking about. Really, I felt stupid more than anything else, though, and if you've ever fallen while hitting you know what I mean.

But anyway.. I kept playing ('cause that's what you do unless you're truly truly injured). I figured my knees would ache a little bit, but be fine in an hour or two.

Well, an hour or two later they were puffed up and bruising and it hurt to move at all. When I got home, I thought I would get off my feet for a few minutes and rest my painful knees.

Then Lisi started throwing up. Everywhere.

Have you ever tried to get on your hands and knees to clean your floor when just pushing on your knee with a finger makes you want to jump through the roof?

So you can know that I'm not being a complete whimp, here's my left knee...

And the right one...Kierst says they look like blueberries...
So, anyway, I was feeling a little sorry for myself after trudging painfully up and down the stairs all afternoon. During this pity party my mom's lesson of gratitude hit me like a brick:

Be grateful for what you have.

It could have been a lot worse, only having bruised knees was a blessing, (albeit a painful one), I could have sprained an ankle or foot or worse, cracked a bone and then we would have been at the ER when Lisi threw up and how awful would that have been?

Lesson for the day: a little gratitude can go a long way.

15 Years Today

Fifteen years ago today Chris and I were married in the Boise, Idaho temple.

I know it's cliche, but it really has flown by.

What can I write about our time together, 15 years seems like hardly any time at all. They have been filled with joys, sorrow, worries, happiness, work, tears, smiles, laughter, and most of all, love.

In 1995 I couldn't have projected how my life would turn out 15 years later. We've taken paths I never could have thought of, and things both good and bad have happened that I never would have guessed.

The one thing that I know for certain is that I can't imagine not having Chris in my life.

What more can I say than that?

Happy 15th to my main man. I love you.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is the day when I feel happy, guilty, wonderful, pampered, and most of all, GRATEFUL!

First and foremost, I'm grateful to be a mother. That I'm lucky enough to have three children, and even luckier that they are all healthy. To top it off, my oldest one made me an omelet this morning for breakfast--and it was delicious!

I'm happy to be a mom, I loved opening my Mother's Day presents from my children, and proudly wore the jewelry they made to church today. And I felt wonderful watching them sing to me from the stand.

I feel guilty, just because I'm a guilt-monger and always know that I can do a better job as a mom. In our last ward, and I loved my old bishops and bishoprics, so please don't take this as derrogatory towards them in any way, shape, or form, I'm just vocal about my opinions, but every year we were given a pamphlet, yes that's right, a pamphlet for Mother's Day, that told us how wonderful we women are. Talk about guilt. When Chris got put into the bishopric he made sure we received chocolate for Mother's Day. Good man.

I feel pampered today because although Chris had to work all weekend, he made sure that my Mother's Day gift arrived fresh. Fresh, because he bought me a dozen gourmet cupcakes from a new bakery. Yuummmmmy!!! He knows my penchant for gourmet cupcakes (and that when we go to Seattle I'm willing to drive 45 minutes just to get my favorite ones).

Today's also a day when I feel sad because I miss my mom. I try really hard not to dwell on how much I miss my parents, what good does that do? But today I feel the need to reflect on my mom.

Here's a picture of her taken when she was dating my dad. Isn't she lovely??As I was looking through my pictures I realize how few I have of her that are digital. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the ones I do have, we just bought a new scanner, so I guess I have my work cut out for me!

Here she is at my sister Natalie's wedding.
When I think of my mom, this is how I remember her:

My mom was a determined and opinionated person, I think she had to be, to make it through the life she was given.

Growing up, my mom taught me a lot of lessons. She taught me to be friendly and kind to everyone around me, she made sure I didn't leave anyone out. She was always a lot of fun, no matter what the situation, and taught me to laugh. I can't think of one time growing up when she complained to me about how hard her life was, and mind you she spent over 20 years in a wheelchair, and most of the time was in pain. Now, being a mom, I'll bet she was frustrated that she couldn't do what she wanted to for her children. But every day after school and sports I would sit on the bed next to her and we would talk. She got me interested in politics, dance, music, and tennis, just to name a few. She taught me to have an opinion, speak my mind, and she was always an example of being a missionary. To everyone she met she testified of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and faith and how Jesus Christ is our Savior.

This is a really poor quality picture of a picture, but hopefully you can see my mom's smile at my wedding, her smile lit up her whole face.

Here she is with Kierst (3 at the time), and Abs (6 months). They were more than happy to jump on her bed with her. Kierst spent time cutting paper and coloring pictures with my mom, she was a very good artist, and did excellent needlepoint, cross stitch and crochet. It's hard to think of a time when her hands weren't busy working on something for someone.
About 4 years before she died, she had an MS episode that left her a changed person. It paralyzed her hands, her other leg, and left her with dementia. A year after she moved in with me she had another episode that left her unable to swallow, and barely able to speak. Here she is looking at Lisi for the first time, just after we came home from the hospital in March 2006. You can see how changed she is.

One evening, about a month before my mom died, I was sitting next to her bed when she suddenly started talking to me. It was like I was talking to my mom 5 years earlier, she was coherent and could talk easily. It was wonderful, we used to talk on the phone every day. After about 3 hours, she said she had to stop, that she was too exhausted to talk anymore. Then she told me she was ready to go and join my dad.

The next day when I was feeding her she was mad, it came out that she was mad that she was still alive! That tells you how determined my mom is!

I miss my mom terribly, I miss her smile, her laughter, her jokes, her advice. I wish she were here to see her grandchildren, to enjoy their lives and feel their love. I can't wait to see her again, when we will run and jump and dance together.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I'm so grateful to have you for my mom, I couldn't have asked for anyone better.

Spring Garden

I love when spring finally arrives, warm weather, rain showers, and best of all, everything blooming again!

Last fall, missing the spring flowers from our old house, the girls and I planted over 100 bulbs. We anticipated them all March, and when we came back from Europe we found crocus shooting up out of the snow!
By the end of March, the hyacinths had bloomed, filling our entryway with their sweet fragrance.By Easter the daffodils had erupted, along with a variety of tulips I've never tried before, called parrot tulips, they were stunning.
Last week I found one of the roses open in front of our house--summer is on it's way!

We did a lot of landscaping last year, building a retaining wall and putting plants in around the house like mock oranges, and a lilac bush. It's been delightful watching them return from their winter hibernation, really it's thrilling as each one pushes out new leaves and buds.

I planted this last summer after it had finished blooming and I wasn't sure what to expect, so it was a pleasant surprise after the tulips had died.
We always know our hostas will come back. These were transplanted to our home in OP from our house in Missouri. The creeping myrtle is actually from Chris' grandparents house in Utah, replanted at Chris' parent's house in Missouri, to our old house. We dug it out when we moved to KS, it hadn't done very well at our other house but we can't keep it out of the grass here!

We're most excited about the rhodies coming back. We had purchased the largest ones we could find, Chris meticulously mulched and cared for them last year, and a couple of days ago they started blooming. Yay! They made it through their first winter without dying!

Of course, the bugs seem to like their leaves, we just can't find out which bugs have attacked it.

At least the bugs haven't destroyed them like they did to Kierst's columbine plant. A week ago it was green and thriving. Some kind of bug has stripped it down to nothing. Pretty sad.

Kierst has a tiny spot at our house for her garden, it's only about 1X2 feet, because that's all the room we have, our lot is pretty small. She begs and begs to plant vegetables, not realizing that those kind of plants need a lot more room to grow. We need Grandma and Grandpa to live closer again!

My favorite part of our house is the perennial garden. Parts of it have come back and others have died off, I love seeing what will happen in the spring.

This year one of the perennials seeded and new plants have come up all over the garden. I think it's a type of daisy, but I don't really know! We'll see when they start flowering!

We grow a few herbs along with a few vegetables at our house. This oregano has been around for a few years now, it comes back stronger every year, and like the creeping myrtle we can barely keep it under control!

Usually we drive up to Jamesport and buy our tomatoes, peppers and herbs from Amish greenhouses, we're picky about the varieties we put in our garden. This year we decided to support the scout fundraiser instead and buy from them.

Sorry scouts, but the tomatoes and peppers were pretty puny. We hope they make it. This is our "mortgage lifter," it's got a long way to go before it does that!Because our kids missed the strawberries at our Missouri house, last year we brought back strawberry plants from Jamesport. Looks like they're thriving. Abs goes out every day to check on them, you'd think she likes berries or something.

There's just something satisfying digging in the dirt, pulling weeds, and watching all the work turn into something beautiful.