Blossom

Did Blossom wear hats like this? (remember that show?) That's what I think of anyways when my kids pull this out of the dress-ups. Miss G is my least girly girl but it's in there.

"I could never marry you!"

When I was in high school I remember being at a friends house and we were making pizza's. I spilled a little cheese on the floor and continued making my pizza when I looked up to see one of the guys looking at me shocked- "aren't you going to clean up that cheese you dropped?" he asked, I was a little surprised, and I said "well, I'm probably going to spill something else so I'll just clean it all up when we're done." He kept that same shocked (maybe a little disgusted too) look on his face and said, "I could never marry you- 'why should I vacuum today, it's just going to get dirty tomorrow!'" I laughed and picked up my spilled cheese, but I was pretty mad about it. He didn't know anything, what a jerk to say something like that! But I have come to realize, he was pretty right about me! I totally feel like that now- why sweep the floor after lunch when I know in a few hours it will be covered with dinner! Why do I bother shining the bathroom sink and cleaning the mirror when someone is going to go wash their rocks in the sink and get muddy water all over the counter and mirror before I even get to enjoy it being clean? My days are an endless cycle of re-doing the things I just did! My kids make messes faster than I can pick them up and sometimes it just seems really pointless. (Can you tell it's been one of those days???) I know that every mother has to deal with this, and I am quite sure there are even some that can do it cheerfully and just whistle while they work but I'm not there yet.
Ok, now the reason I'm sharing all this, I got my Monday Morning Motivator e-mail from Hannah Keeley and I swear, every week it's like she's been spying on me and her messages are directed to me! They are always uplifting and encouraging and sometimes pretty funny too. Here's the part that struck me today:
"[Life's] a process, not a product. There's no joy in letting things remain static. The image is just an illusion. Groceries were not meant to line shelves. Floor were not meant to stay clean. Life is messy, and if you're not getting messy, then you're not really living." then "In every action and in every reaction, we are creating something huge, something great that will last beyond our own lives. The activities that we do as moms, day in and day out, are meant to be impermanent. But what they are building will last forever. "
Well, that sums it up! I highly recommend joining her MMM list, I only get one e-mail a week from her and it's always awesome. Click HERE to sign up! Thanks for making it through this long post!

I've been away for a couple days...

***UPDATE! I accidently linked to the wrong bean salad recipe below! Click HERE for the good one! Sorry about that!***It's been too hot to blog. And I needed to get some stuff done around here- it's been hard to get back into a routine after being on vacation. I made this yummy black bean salad the other day to go with dinner, and it was even better for lunch the next day scooped up on tortilla chips and I was excited to share it. You can get the recipe HERE. (sorry about my crappy pictures, I need to take a class or something)And I went and saw the Harry Potter movie and it was really good! From someone who doesn't usually like "that kind of stuff" really, go rent or borrow the first 4 and watch them, then go see this one! You readers really have me thinking about reading the books too, but only after I have seen the movies because I don't want to be disappointed! I love the mystery and adventure, and like to think about all the spiritual parallels of good vs evil, finding your gifts and using them for good etc- good stuff!

Lighted Fabric Flower Garland from All Sorts- and bunko secrets for Shauna

Oh no, it's nearly midnight and I am going to have to force myself off the computer- I've been surfing through craft blogs for hours now and my head is spinning with fun pretty ideas! I just had to share this fabric flower garland from All Sorts: I learned how to "Pop Lock and Drop it" at bunko tonight thanks to Gina. Well, ok, I can't actually do it, but I'll be listening to her hip hop cd and working on my moves. Shauna- Debbie and Lindsey missed you when they performed your old dance routines!

"Miss E's just curious mom, like George."

What if I squeeze some toothpaste in the drawer?
and how about on the floor?
OR wouldn't it be great in the bathtub?
or on the side of the bathtub?
I wonder if I could fill my whale?
And we must have some on the faucet!
What a lovely hat it would make for Ms. Purple Ducky.

You seriously have to check out Glitz!

I am not just saying this because Ginger is my sister in law- these girls are seriously talented and have come up with some GREAT products! My favorite is their CD's. Look at these cards all created using the printable card cd. (borrowed the pic from their blog)Click the picture to find out more. They also have cd's that have their paper collections and embellishments and you can print them on your own textured cardstock, transparencies, vellum or whatever you want to use- how fun is that? Go check out the Glitz It Now Blog HERE and leave a comment to be entered to win the Summer Crush collection on CD. I haven't seen cd's with designs as beautiful as this. You don't need to have fancy editing programs to use them. Good luck in Chicago this week Ginger, Laura and Erin! I can't wait to see your products on store shelves!

I might be a Harry Potter fan

I decided I really want to get into Harry Potter. For some reason I had not been able to make it through an entire movie without falling asleep so this week we have been watching them- and Sam made me stay awake. (well, I fell asleep at the end of #2 for a bit) BUT I really liked the last one, the Goblet of Fire, and now I actually know some of the characters names besides Harry, and I am ready and excited to go see #5 for date night this week! Has anyone seen it and want to give me their review? Maybe when Miss B gets a little older we can read the books together. I don't usually like movies with weird looking people or creatures but I think I like these ones now.

Super Cute Desktop

Shabby Miss Jen has the prettiest blog- I downloaded this Summer Desktop from there a while ago and finally got around to sticking some pictures on it and putting it on my desktop and it's so fun to look at! You can get it FREE from her website by clicking HERE.

Christmas in July

I came home from vacation to a big stack of catalogs hoping to get me. I started going through them last night and got some good inspiration of things I want to make. The first one is a ribbon garland from Current:

I think you could make a really cute Halloween garland with the same idea, just dangle some chipboard pumpkins or something? I don't know but it got some ideas rolling. Then I saw these: What a cute way to package popcorn for your neighbors or something- it seems like the Target dollar spot always gets cute buckets that would be a good size for something like this. Anyways, I realized last year, that if I plan to get crafty for Christmas I need to start much earlier than December, like July I guess.

More Maui: If you plan to visit...

I was a little out of it yesterday with the 3 hour time difference and a short night spent on an airplane so I left out some fun stuff! We spent a lot of time on the rainy side of the island because that's where we stayed. My inlaws live near the beginning of the road to Hana- just past Paia. (You guys are the best- thank you so much!!!) It's cool and rains a lot over there and it's so green! We haven't driven down to Hana yet but I think it's something you should do if you don't have kids with you. It's a beautiful drive on windy roads and when you get to the end there is the 7 Sacred Pools and my brother said that was his favorite part of their trip- hiking the pools and waterfalls. We only got as far as the Bamboo Forest which is amazing and fun & easy to hike through. I think honestly my favorite part of the whole trip was sitting out on their upstairs porch on the swinging bench reading. It's an amazing view- I wish I took a picture of it! My favorite places to eat over there are Colleen's in Haiku, Cafe De Amis in Paia, (yummy crepes!) Flatbread Company in Paia, and the Fish Market also in Paia. Everyone says Mama's Fish House is divine too but I like most food and that place is a splurge so we haven't tried it yet.

I paddled a canoe! The Kihei Canoe Club lets visitors join them and for a donation and you get to paddle out and look at the sea turtles. I was a little nervous about it but it was really fun- along with some awesome, huge sea turtles, we even got to see a dolphin swimming all around us. They say that's rare so it was pretty cool. When we were over there, we drove down and saw the lava flows. I love that stuff. There is really good snorkeling over there too but it was pretty cloudy and we were tired so we skipped it.

Then we had breakfast at Longhi's in Wailea and everything was so good!

There were a lot of places to shop but my favorite mall was Whalers Village in Lahaina. They have a couple really fun stores I haven't seen anywhere else- Cinnamon Girl and Sand People & Sand Kids.

Being in Hawaii, I really wanted to have the Luau experience and Sam's parents said that the Old Lahaina Luau was the best one so we did that and it didn't disappoint! They give you lei's and tropical drinks as soon as you walk in, then you can walk around and see some of the local crafts and listen to a great band. We forgot our camera but luckily there were people taking pictures you could buy.Then there is a huge dinner including the pit smoked pig. If you like seafood you will especially like it. And as many fancy drinks as you can handle- our favorite was the Lava Flow. (ours were virgin of course) After dinner there is dessert and a fun hula show that tells some of the history of the island.

A really awesome show you should see is Ulalena. We took the kids last year and they even enjoyed it. It has beautiful music and amazing dance, and tells some history of the island too. I don't know how many times Larry & Michal have gone but they have to take everyone who comes! We ate at Bubba Gump's over there- which is one of the only restaurants we found that actually has Dr. Pepper so that was a big plus!

Ok, now I think I covered everything! I can get back to the piles of laundry...

Back to the heat...

We're home! We lasted a week away from the kids and everyone survived! I have to admit, once I stepped off that plane in Maui, I really didn't miss the kids until I got to the airport to come home. Sure there were a few fleeting moments when I saw a mother with small children at the beach or something, but it was great! It is nice to be home with them again though. We brought home t-shirts, hula costumes and clip on earrings.We had a great time- Maui is so beautiful! Mountains, desert, rain forrests and beaches... We did a lot of relaxing, some shopping, and good eating.Besides spending time at the beach, we hiked the waterfalls in the bamboo forrest. (and got totally rained on!)We drove to the top of Haleakala (10,000 ft volcano) Up above the clouds we had a great view of Maui and could even see over to the big island. We also went over to the Iao Valley, another beautiful spot. (Kyle and Ashley here)And did you know where pineapples come from? They grow in these fields- not on trees like I thought. Kyle found this guy running around one night:Besides catching creepy crawlies, Kyle is the guy to have around if you happen to be in the market for some "Maui Wowee"- he had people trying to sell it to him everywhere we went! Only one guy offered it to Sam.

Guess where I'm off to!

I've been MIA this week because I've been running around in circles trying to get ready to go to Maui! It's our 9 year anniversary and we've never left the kids to go somewhere together, except once when Miss B was like 2, we spent a night away in Tucson. Needless to say I am SO excited! Sam's parents live in Maui when they don't live across the street from us so we are going to stay with them and bringing our best friends, Kyle and Ashley with us. They will be celebrating their 11 year anniversary this month. Didn't we look like little kids? Our kids can't believe that their daddy used to have hair!Here's the extent of my creative efforts this week- I got these great Hula Honeys postcards last year and I love them too much to use them but I finally broke down and put our address information on the back and had them laminated to make luggage tags.

I am sure my kids will be fine but tonight the anxiety of leaving them is setting in! So instead of packing, I am blogging!

I need some stamps

The post office was closed by the time I made it over there today so I checked out their website and look at these fun designs! (new to me)
I love to have something fun to stick on the envelope when I mail something! In case you didn't know, you can order stamps online from www.usps.com and they only charge you $1. And then your kids won't be running wild around the post office.

How Clean is Your House?

Have you seen this show? I just discovered that I actually have the BBC America channel but my mom is obsessed with it. It's entertaining. These 2 ladies go into these DISGUSTING houses and help the people get them cleaned. This show is not for those with an active gag reflex. I watched it today for the first time and I did feel much better about the condition of my home, and also I felt the need to get some cleaning done. And I was especially glad that I don't have any inside animals.

Beach Party! and the rest of the weekend...

I can't believe I am the mother of a 6 year old! I love Miss B so much- she has this very kind, sweet nature about her and she really just wants to be good. She has picked up on some attitude this last year but I think it's mostly a show or experiment to see how people react. Her party was Friday and it was a little crazy but she said it was "the best birthday party ever!" It was my first attempt at a "big kid, drop off" party- usually we have family and maybe a few friends over but the kids and parents all come, so this was an experience. We did it in the middle of the day and it was hotter than hot but the kids who enjoyed the water were fine. I was happy with how the cake turned out but I bet there is a better way to do the straps- I couldn't make them stand up- maybe if you used toothpicks on the ends? I don't know... the "sand" is brown sugar.Miss Bhad a lot of ideas about what she wanted at the party, but one of the easy ones was orange julius with cute tropical straws.I ordered some cute under the sea scene sticker activity things that I was excited about but I got my order the day before the party and they left them out! We had a pool with a slide and a couple sprinklers and a slip n slide but I wanted a couple other things to do. The only other activity we planned was digging for sea shells in the sand- I got a cool bag of them from WalMart and we buried them in this cheap plastic pool- it was a hit.Miss E also chose this day to decide she is ready to potty train. I don't have real high expectations but she has gone a couple times in her pretty little potty chair and I don't want to discourage her. This day, she had one success, and then later (2 different times) she came out holding her diaper telling me "I spilled water!" which means she peed somewhere. So she knows to take off her diaper, but she hasn't quite made the connection to wait until she gets to the potty for that. So I spent some time cleaning up, and even more time sitting in the bathroom waiting for her to try, so my morning was a little rushed. After the party I had a debilitating headache coming on so I just laid down on the couch and stayed there for 2 1/2 hours. Then I took an Excedrin and wondered why I didn't do that to begin with. I recovered and the day ended pretty typically for a Friday night- playing Progressive Rummy with the Mann's.

Saturday morning, Sam took Miss B out to breakfast for her birthday, then we all went to a baptism for a man in our ward and it was so great to see him and his enthusiasm for the gospel- he just seemed to be glowing he was so happy! Sometimes I take for granted the blessings the church brings to my life and it was a really sweet experience to see him and hear him tell about the joy and peace he now has in his life. Sam was conducting so I sat in the back row with the girls expecting that we would have to duck out at some point but they were all really good surprisingly! After that we went out to the Beach Park and met some families for another crazy hot afternoon full of sun and water. The kids had a blast and Miss E probably drank a gallon of that chlorinated water.

Free Picaboo Photo Book

You've got to go check out Picaboo! You can easily create a photo book with their free software and then they will print it and ship it to you. They have tons of backgrounds and creative photo clusters and you can drag and drop your own backgrounds too if you want. Here are the coupon codes I saw on Coupon Sense:

1. Buy one large book, get one medium book free. (prices vary depending on size from $9.99-$29.99) Code: 1PB1GF-CB
2. Free 20 page book. Pay shipping $8.99 shipping only. Code: 1PFLGB-BBC
3. Free shipping- Code: 1PFGSH-AP or 1PFGSH-P

Now I just have to decide what I want to make a book of! Check out their Idea Center for some really great ideas and examples. (that's where I snagged these pictures.)

Invitations

I will stop talking about my crazy electrocution experience now- I promise! Miss B said she is getting sick of hearing about it. I do have to add that the chains on the fence that goes past the tree were actually WELDED to the fence after this- that's how hot it got! And now I'm done. I will not dwell on all my worst case scenarios, what if Sam was out there, or that my brother had been working under that tree an hour before, or what if someone had been leaning on that fence, or if the irrigation was out in that field and the kids had been playing in it like they were a couple days before... no more.

Whew! I wanted to show some cute invitations! The first one is the one I did for Miss B's big girl beach birthday party this week. (copied from the one I made at Love Notes) The second one, Ginger made for a family Father's Day party. It was like getting a little present- I loved it!

I wanted to wish the fathers in my life a happy Father's Day! I feel so blessed to share my life and family with Sam who is such an incredible father to our little girls! He works so hard and shows them in everything he does how special they are to him.
And of course my dad! I can't believe this is the earliest picture I have of him in my scrapbooks. He was so busy with school and work and church callings but he would take time out of his Saturday's to take us each out on "dates". We got to choose the activity and spend one on one time with him. I remember looking forward to it for weeks as there were 6 of us!
Here's a more recent picture of him with my baby- he's also a wonderful grandfather!
I feel so fortunate that my girls have these wonderful examples of good men in their lives that will hopefully set a standard for them! Happy Father's Day, I love you!

Explosion outside my window

This will give you an idea of what I saw out my window- I found THIS VIDEO on YouTube. This lasts a lot longer, but watch till the explosion near the end, I think that's similar to what I heard and saw.