Tuesday's activity

This evening Sara and I baked two kinds of cookies and watched "White Christmas". We made shortbread cookies with a big chocolate kiss in the middle (cookie mix from Target), and then we made my Aunt Vickie's sugar cookies. She always made them Santa faces and added coconut to his beard, but I only had a snowman cookie cutter (and no coconut). David and Dallin were watching some other movie and Lauren was babysitting. Tomorrow, the plan is making fudge and then boxing up some goodies to take to friends. Oh, and start on our holiday puzzle. I used to hate puzzles growing up, but we've been setting one up at Thanksgiving or Christmas for the last few years (since the kids are old enough to help and not just lose pieces!). Tomorrow evening is a party/dinner at a friends' house. There will be 9 families there. All but one of the families are from our ward. The one that isn't from our ward is from a neighboring ward and are brother/sister-in-law with the party hosts. Should be a lot of fun. Good food and company and a gift exchange for the under- 20 crowd. The hostess, Cheri, assigned each of the kids another child of similar age to buy a $5-6 gift for. My goal is to remember my camera! Hope you are all having a relaxing, joyful holiday!

Monday's activity

While David, Dallin and Lauren went to finish up some Christmas shopping, Sara and I worked some magic. We turned this:

into this. We had a fun time, but neither of us knew how long it would take. After sticking the sides together, we had to wait an hour to put on the roof. Then we had to wait 2 hours before decorating. And, of course, decorating it is the most fun part! Sara was in charge of decorating the roof and I did the icicles. We worked together on the windows and door.

Happy Birthday Dallin!

Today is Dallin's 15th birthday. He's such a great kid. I'm glad he's my son. I love him more than he can imagine. Here's a picture of him when he was 6 1/2. We were at the Oregon Coast on a little weekend getaway.

The other picture was taken at the beginning of October right before a stake dance.

Here are some things about Dallin:

favorite movie: Breaking Away and School of Rock (for the Jack Black quotes)

favorite drink: Dr. Pepper

favorite color: green

favorite college: University of Oregon

favorite sport to watch: cycling

favorite sport to participate in: cycling

favorite thing to shop for: shoes

favorite day of the week: Saturday

favorite food: Mexican

favorite holiday: his birthday

favorite class: geometry

what book are you reading: Into the Wild

favorite outing: Iron Maiden concert w/Dad

favorite scripture: Matthew 5:14-16 (you'll have to look it up!)

Have a great birthday Dallin! I love you :)

I just purchased a very cool mini album kit from my friend, Donna. She has them for sale on her blog (www.donnasalazar.typepad.com). I'm excited to get it and get started on a little album about the things I love about Christmas. If you are interested in buying one, get it quickly. I think she only has a few.

I've been trying to look for some Christmas gifts at Etsy (www.etsy.com). I want to support the "small" business people as much as possible. Don't get me wrong...I love Target. But if I can find something I want from a smaller place, I'll buy it there. Even if it's a little bit more expensive. I did find a birthday gift for Dallin on Etsy. I'll post a picture of it after he opens it. His birthday isn't until Tuesday, though. Is the suspense killing you? I thought so. But you're going to have to wait.

Here are some pictures of decorations I've got around the house. Sorry about the blurry ones! This year, I've added lots of glittery stuff. The star on the top of our tree is so sparkly: beads and sequins. I love it! It's from Target. Oh, and the glittery red trees on the dining table are from a second hand store...love that! Hope you are all enjoying the season!

I'm getting sick. Yuck! My throat started hurting last night and I woke up several times during the night with my throat and my head hurting. I should've rested more today, but I did do a little Christmas shopping. Some online and some at Target. Now I'm wishing I had stayed home and slept. I need to rest tomorrow because tomorrow night is a birthday party for Dallin and two of his friends. We are celebrating all three boys' birthdays. They have Nov, Dec and Jan birthdays. The party is at our clubhouse. There will be pizza, soda, cake, loud music (the boys all put music on their ipods to be played on a Bose speaker), dancing and swimming/hot tubbing. The boys printed 100 invitations and passed them all out at school. And they've been telling people to bring friends. I hope we have enough food! But when you have a party, don't you usually only get about 40% turn-out? We'll see tomorrow night! I'm so glad we have the use of the clubhouse. I may have to take some Thera-Flu before the party. There will be another mom there with me. Hmmmm...2-4 adults and who-knows how many kids...we didn't plan that very well, did we?

beautiful bright snowflakes

I went shopping on Black Friday and I found these fantastic snowflakes at Michaels. They came in pieces and with the pretty brads. They can be put together however you like the colors. They're bright and sparkly and beautiful! I love them. I love the colors so much, I'm going to buy some new Christmas ornaments in turquoise and gold and green. I've got lots of red already. And I'm buying another package of these snowflakes! I think they are from K & Co and they're $9.99 for a kit that makes 12 snowflakes.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. Lots of food and relaxing and my brother, Dave! It was so nice to see him. We hadn't seen him for about three years. He drove down from Provo on Wednesday and left to go home on Friday. We wanted him to stay longer, but he had a long paper to write that's due on Monday. We put the extension in the table and the kids set it for us. We had a free-range turkey, mashed potatoes (with sour cream, butter and cream cheese whipped in), sweet potato casserole, homemade cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, rolls, gravy and, of course, sparkling cider. For dessert we had apple, chocolate and pumpkin pie.

I'm so thankful for my family and friends. I'm grateful to have the gospel in my life. I'm grateful for the scriptures and the examples of the people from the Bible and Book of Mormon. I'm thankful for all of the little convienences that we have like dishwashers, washing machines, cars and bicycles, cameras, phones, computers. I'm grateful for doctors, teachers, police and firemen. I'm grateful for the men and women who have and are serving our country and putting their lives on the line for freedom for us and for people not from our country. I'm thankful for a living prophet. I could go on and on. I'm thankful to my Heavenly Father for all of the blessings He has given me and I hope I'm living a "thankful" life. What are you thankful for?

New niece and nephew

My brother and his wife have two new babies. Macie and Zeke join 6 older brothers and sisters. Whew! I'm tired with three! Anyway, they were born Nov. 21. Congratulations Dan and Timani!

Scrappy stuff

I pulled out my scrapbook stuff on Saturday evening and it's now Monday morning and it's still spread out on the dining table and surrounding floor. I don't have a scrapbook room, so I keep it packed away and have to get it out each time i want to scrapbook. Needless to say, I don't scrap as much as I'd like to. But when I do get it out it sometimes stays out for 2-4 days. I've done 14 pages. I had a bunch of photos of each of my kids that I wanted to do something with, but most of the photo didn't warrant a whole page to themselves. So last night I did a sort of collage page for each one of them and we all love them! The kids really liked all of those pictures together. It's fun to see pictures from baby on up all on the same page. The pages were very easy. I chose my photos, then used a 2" square punch to crop the pictures. Then I just laid them out grid-like on cardstock. I filled the empty spaces in with patterned paper, buttons, bling, etc. It was exciting to get so many photos scrapbooked in one sitting and I think the pages look great! I made another quick one (the layout idea came from an online scrapbook gallery) with a pic of our pumpkin patch trip last year. The other page I've posted is also one I made last night. Dallin and two friends were invited to an 80's themed 16th birthday for a girl from church. Everyone was supposed to dress 80's, so these characters went as The Beastie Boys. They thought of some other things to wear, but their budget was small and they couldn't buy suits or HazMat-type jumpers for $10! They looked great and the adults that were there (at the party) knew exactly who they were supposed to be.

Finally!

OK, two things: Did you notice my new pic? I've got a new hairstyle again...it's a sickness. About a week ago, I got it cut and weaved. I got ready for work on Monday and had some time to kill before I needed to leave for work so I took some pictures.

Second, we got a new laptop. Our other one had to be fixed 3 times in about 6 weeks and on the fourth time (all for the same issue) they decided to junk it and give us a new one. Thank goodness we bought the warranty. I like this new one much better. I didn't realize I didn't like the other one until we started looking around at the new ones. And I finally got our desktop out of the box it's been packed in for two years (since we moved here) and set it up at our desk. I bought a network cable and hooked it up to our wireless connection. So now we have two computers that have internet access. I know I'm behind the times just getting two computers in the same house, but it's exciting for me!

We finally got our computer back yesterday. It's been in the shop 3 times in the last 5 weeks or so. Best Buy told us if it happens again, they will get us a new computer. It's been the same problem each time. It won't charge. They've changed the mother board twice. It's good to have it back!

Interesting to watch election night, huh? We started with CNN, switched to a recorded SNL Presidental Bash and then back to CNN. I didn't vote for Obama and I was a little worried at first, but after talking to David, I feel much better. I do think he will be good for the mood of the country. I think he will be good for our associations with other countries. I don't think he's going to make any huge changes. There is too much chaos right now for him to be able to do that. We have a government that is balanced. Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. All meant to work together and to make sure one branch doesn't have all of the power. I hope he is serious about reigning in the government spending (and I do believe he is). As for his questionable associations: he will not have them in his cabinet. We are going to have some rough years, but seriously, would they be less rough if McCain were in charge? I highly doubt it. The republicans have not done a good job in the white house recently and the people know it. The largest increase in government since Lyndon Johnson? Really? Anyway, I've talked to David and prayed about it and I feel fine! I think it's fantastic that we have a black president. I think it says a lot to the rest of the world. Enough about that!

I'm so excited! I'm finally going to spend an evening scrapbooking at the Red Bee! Yea! We have a design team meeting and then after that there is a crop until midnight. I need to get some recent photos printed. I need to get better about posting layouts.

David's brother Daren is coming to visit for a few days this week/weekend. That will be nice. Not sure what we have planned. I'm leaving that up to David.

Well I've got laundry and a dirty bathroom calling my name, so I'm off!

Grandma's visit

My mom came to visit us a couple of weekends ago. She drove down here (by herself) from Eastern Oregon. After she left us she drove to Las Vegas to visit her aunt/uncle/cousins and then on to Provo and Tooele to visit my brother Dave and his girlfriend and brother Dan and his family. I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to. I just forget! Mom made apple butter with the girls and also brought them an ice shaver for snowcones (and about 4 different syrups). It was nice visiting with her. We didn't really do anything exciting...just hung out and relaxed. I hope she had a nice time. We are really enjoying the apple butter Mom! Thanks!

I'm thankful for: my Mom, my good childhood, rain

Update coming soon!

Sorry I haven't posted anything for almost a month. Our computer has been "in the shop" for 3 weeks! I've been able to check my email at work a few times. I'm hoping to get some new pictures up today. Stay tuned!

NOTE: These pictures are supposed to be at the bottom (that's where they fall in the story).

Yesterday David and I spent the morning spreading the word about Proposition 8, which will be on the ballot here in California in November. We knocked on a few doors, but people weren't home. We are working with the "Yes on Prop 8" campaign. Prop 8 is an amendment to the state constitution that says, "Only marriage etween a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It's the same wording as Prop 22, which was passed in 2000 by a 61.4% majority. It was overturned by a 4-3 vote of the California Supreme Court and that's why it's on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. If the people vote yes, it will re-establish traditional marriage as the law. A no vote will allow the legalization of same-sex marriage. It's about preserving marriage; it's not an attack on the gay lifestyle. It wouldn't take away the legal rights of same-sex couples. Under California's domestic partner law, they already have (and would keep) all the rights that a state can grant to a married couple. If this amendment is not passed, teachers could be disciplined and dismissed if they do not teach that both are equally approved in society. (They are required by Education Code 51890 to instruct children about marriage in health education class.) Also, churches that are open to the public (almost all) would be required to perform marriages for same-sex couples if asked, whether it goes against their teachings or not. If they refuse to perform those marriages they will lose their tax-exempt status. If you are interested in reading more you can go to http://www.protectmarriage.org/. Anyway, we are just trying to figure out which voters are yes, no, or undecided. We were not trying to talk anyone into changing their minds. Since we didn't have much luck at the doors, we came home and called people. That was better, but we still had to leave quite a few messages. The responses were mostly positive. Between the two of us, we were only hung up on 3 times. Not bad. I'm not sure exactly how many phone numbers we called, but it was over 60 for sure. In case any of you are wondering: The members of the church in California have been encouraged by the First Presidency to donate our time and money to this cause. As most of you know, the church does not ever tell us (or even suggest) for whom we vote, but because this is a moral issue, the church has taken a stand. I hate to think what this might lead to if it is defeated. We have been asked by the man on the watchtower to really get involved. I am so grateful to have a prophet that we can look to for guidance and direction. I'm grateful for the scriptures and the lessons we learn from reading about people who fall away from the teachings of the Lord.

Back to the story:

So when we finished with that David started cleaning out the garage. How do we get so much stuff? He had a garbage/recycling pile, a give away pile and a keep pile. He hung more hooks for bikes, reorgainzed cycling gear, tools, nuts/bolts/screws, etc. He was out there for hours (and I helped some, too!). It was really hot. After he finished the garage we went to Target for a few things. Well, David has a driving game for the Playstation and for his birthday I gave him a steering wheel/pedals for it. He's been holding it on his lap which isn't ideal when you are trying to race a super car. At Target he found a black wooden TV tray and a black folding chair with a cushion. When he got the steering wheel attatched to the tray he realized that it was a little heavy on that side. So, (joking) I said, maybe you should put a big soda and a plate of nachos on the other side to weigh it down. Five minutes later, and his problem is solved. Notice how close this set up is to the TV.

Can anyone tell me how to get my photos in places other than the top of my post?

First day of school

Well, it's come and gone. Sara loves her teacher. She's tall...6'1", and is "super fun!". Lauren's favorite class is yearbook. Dallin likes high school. He refused to let me get a picture of him and I didn't have the camera ready so he escaped before I could get it out!

Our adventure with friends

Our very good friends, Chris and Michelle, flew down from Portland to visit us for Labor Day. We had a wonderful time and we picked up right where we left off! Sara loved doing word searches and crosswords puzzles with Michelle. On Saturday, we all got on bikes (thank goodness for our little "bike shop" in the garage) and rode 15 (yes, 15) miles to the beach. It took us an hour and 45 minutes to get there. Chris rode one of David's bikes, Michelle rode my bike, I rode Lauren's mountain bike, Lauren rode her cruiser, Dallin rode one of David's bikes (not sure why, as he has four of his own), and David rode the extracycle with Sara on the back. We had all of our baskets filled with sunscreen, snacks, water bottles, and towels. David had more of all of that and a beach blanket and beach umbrella. We rode on the Mountain-to-Sea Trail that passes right by our house. We played in the water, went to a pizza shop and an ice-cream shop, sat on the beach and read books and magazines and played in the ocean some more. Then it was time to get back on the bikes and ride home. It only took an hour and 15 minutes to get back. So we rode a total of 30 miles that day! It was so great! And no one crashed or had any bike trouble.

I'm thankful for great friends, a beach close by, and bicycles.

She's discovered a new talent

On Wednesday night at Young Women's (church group for girls 12-18) a woman in our ward that does cake decorating brought her "tools" and taught the girls basic cake decorating. They all loved it. Lauren would like to keep practicing. She really enjoyed it and as you can see, she did a great job on her cake! She wants to make her own birthday cake this year. Each girl got to take home 2 frosting bags and 4 decorating tips. I see more cakes in the Davidson family's future!

I am thankful for: 400 count white sheets, dentists (we've been getting our teeth taken care of), good friends.

Back to School

Well, it's that time of year again. Schedules, new teachers, early to bed, early to rise, brown bag lunches, new clothes. School starts for us on Sept 3rd (next Wednesday). I have to go to work today and tomorrow for a couple of hours each day. Just need to start getting the library ready. I will have a couple of weeks of school without students so I can finish up anything I need to. I should have several boxes of new books waiting to be catalogued when I get there today! Yeah! It's so nice to be able to spend thousands of dollars on new books and not have my bank account go down!

We registered Dallin and Lauren last week. Dallin is excited for high school. He's running cross country and they started practice this past Monday. 7-9 am. Today they ran on the beach. I had to take him there so I stayed and read and took some pictures of the ocean (above). He likes his schedule. The entire school has to read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd by the beginning of the year because they will be tested on it. I'm also reading it. I like it, but am failing to see why, of all of the books that could've been chosen, this was it. To me, it seems like a book that most young men are not going to connect with. The girls, yeah, but since studies show that boys reading drops off more than girls after fourth grade, let's try to choose something a little more "relatable". It was a summer reading assignment after all. Anyway, he'll be getting up at 5:30 for seminary which starts at 6 am. I feel for him as I went to released-time seminary (it was part of my high school schedule of classes). For anyone who doesn't know, seminary is basically a Sunday School class that high school aged kids take, generally Monday-Friday while school is in session. During each of the four years, they study a different book of scripture: New Testament, Old Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants. It's a great way for them to start off their day, before heading into the craziness of high school living. Dallin is looking forward to it, but not the early time!

Lauren likes her schedule. She's on the yearbook staff this year and is very excited about that! She's also taking a cooking class that will be fun. She's scoped out her locker and it's at the perfect height. Last year her locker was on the top row, so it was a little hard to reach, but this year it's one row down and it's perfect! She has PE 4th and is a little worried that it's going to be too hot. Last year she had it 2nd period and it was just right. She'll live, though! She will be taking two dance classes/week and takes tennis lessons (through a family friend...for FREE!) once or twice a week.

Sara will be meeting her teacher on Tuesday at an ice-cream social. I ordered her supplies to be delivered to her desk. It's so nice. We go to a specific website and tell them what grade, what school and pay and the supplies are waiting for the student on the first day. No hassle school supply shopping...I love it! It was a little more (maybe $10) but it's a fundraiser for the school and I didn't have to drive around or fight crowds! Last year she was in the Earth Club after school. This year she wants to take the pottery class. It's one day per week. She is also taking tennis lessons and she wants to go to the Olympics in 2016. Keep practicing Sara and you can do it!

I'm thankful for seminary, Katherine (our friend and tennis teacher) and dishwashers (mine is running right now!).

Junior Track Nationals

This week is Jr. Track Nationals. Dallin has been looking forward to it for a couple of months. We are lucky enough to have it in Carson this year. Last year it was in Colorado and the year before it was in Pennsylvania. My pictures are not very clear. The first is Dallin on the track warming up and the second is a shot of the infield where all of the cyclists are set-up in little waist high "cubbies" made of fencing. Dallin and two girls are the only members of their team (Sho-Air) that are competing. They are sharing a "cubbie" which is nice because we don't have to bring everything. We share a trainer (for the kids to warm-up or cool-down on), chairs, bike pump, etc. He's already competed in one race. It was a 200 meter sprint qualifier. There are 31 kids (for all over the country) in Dallin's age group. He got 23rd and took .3 seconds off of his previous best time. That doesn't sound like much, but it's quite a bit in that short of a distance. He was very pleased with that. Dallin is 14 and because he turns 15 during 2008 (Dec. 16), he has to compete with boys that are 15 and 16. That's the drawback of a December birthday...sorry Dallin! He's got three races left: 500 M Time Trial (alone on the track...just against the clock), 8K Scratch Race (mass start...1st, 2nd, 3rd place), 15K Points Race (every ten laps the 1st-5th place crossing the line get points and at the end of the race the rider with the most points wins). The last one is pretty fun because the winner of the race may not have crossed the line first during the race at all!

Good luck Dallin :)

Pictures

Here are some photos from the last month! Hollywood, best friends, beach trips, birthdays, cousins and lots of fun!

Summer

It's so nice to have a summer break. We've already done a lot of "going". Lauren's best friend, Anna, came and stayed with us for two weeks. She lives in Oregon. While she was here we went to the beach, a swap meet, the mall (a couple of times), Knotts Berry Farm, Beverly Hills, Hollywood (Mann's Chinese Theater and Walk of Fame), swimming (a lot!), out to eat (too many times) and got haircuts. We also went on bike rides and shopped at the Marketplace. While we were at Knotts', I spied Snoopy and made all four of the kids get in a photo with him. I think they did it only because I had taken them to Knotts and it was the least they could do, not because they wanted their picture with Snoopy.

The girls and have the dining table completely covered with scrapbooking supplies. We scrapped on Sunday night and a little bit today. We've left it out because we are planning on doing some more tomorrow. I'm trying to work through a lot of my supplies. I've gotten rid of a lot, but when I sit down to scrap, I realize that I still have too much!

This is a short post, but I'm getting tired, so off to bed for me. I'm thankful for: Air conditioning, sunscreen and Costco potstickers.

Here's the bookshelf I want. I got paid a couple of days ago, so I think I'm going to buy it tomorrow. I really like the red. I don't think it's something that my sisters would pick for me :) I've always been more into neutral colors. But I think it will look great!

I've got the painting done. I absolutely love my kitchen color! It's called Paradise Valley. It's a green color. The new carpet is in. Most of the furniture is back in the house (including the new stuff). I still need to put stuff up on the walls. I think I'm going to buy a couple of canvases and do some of my own. Still not sure what, but I'm looking for ideas.

I'm itching to do some scrapbooking. All of my stuff is still in the garage, but I'll move it in this weekend.

Tonight was a baptism at church. I don't think I've ever been to a Wednesday night baptism, but it was great. A nine-year old boy who's family doesn't come much decided he wanted to be baptized. There were a lot of people there. I was in charge of the refreshments. We had brownies, cookies, ice water and raspberry lemonade. Healthy, huh??? Speaking of healthy, I'm so excited to be able to go to the farmers' market this summer! I love fresh food. I only have 4 more days of work. Wow! This year seemed to go by fast!

Dallin is looking forward to high school. He isn't looking forward to 5:55 am seminary. Seminary is basically a weekday "Sunday" school for high school students. It's not required, so the kids that make an effort to get up early and go deserve a pat on the back. Each of the four years of high school is spent studying a different book of scripture. One year it's the Old Testament, then New Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants. I loved seminary. I really learned a lot and my testimony of Jesus Christ grew so much then. I was luck enough to be able to attend release-time seminary, which is when you take it as a high school class. I think it was 3rd period. We had a seminary building (converted house) right across the street from the high school. Don Davis was my seminary teacher. He was really good. I wonder what he's doing now. Ann-Marie, do you know?

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to go to my room and read some Mary Higgins Clark and then hit the hay! Goodnight!

I'm thankful for: the Gospel, southern California weather and watermelon.

I must be insane and new furniture

I painted our kitchen, dining area and living room (basically all one room) and our hallway in Novemeber. I painted it a beige-khaki-tan color. Well, I've decided I want a little more color in our living space. Color makes me happy! So, I'm repainting. Yes, I'm crazy! Six months and I'm doing it again. I'm going back to a light colored wall...saffron ivory. It's basically a white with a bit of yellow in it. We don't get a lot of sun so I thought going really light would be good. We are getting new carpet on Monday. We just bought a new sectional sofa (delivery is next Wednesday!) It's a brown color. I know, I know! I said I like color. But, I want my big stuff to be neutral because I like changing my mind and my rooms almost as much as I like color. So, here's the plan: Saffron ivory walls in the living/dining area, fun green walls in the kitchen, brown sofa, colorful pillows, curtains and artwork. I hope it turns out as fun as it is in my head. I'm trying to get all of the painting done before the new carpet comes. Oh, and we are getting a new mattress delivered tomorrow...can't wait for that! We also bought a new dining table and chairs. I've never had a brand new dining table. The one we are using now was a Goodwill find several years ago. I paid $80 for it. Repainted it and recovered the chairs (a couple of times). The new table is counter height. It's perfect for us, because Cooper (our dog) likes to put his front paws on the edge of the table and lick up anything left on the table - yep, disgusting! For those of you that have eaten from that table, you can stop dry heaving because I do disinfect! Anyway, it will be nice that he can't even reach to put his paws up on the table. And perfect for standing and scrapbooking!!!
I'm counting down the days until summer vacation! Still loving my job, but I'm ready for some relaxation :) I wish David could take some time off this summer. He's sick today. He went to work because he has this big presentation tomorrow that he had to prepare for. I'm not sure what tomorrow will be like for him, though. As soon as he got home today he took Nyquil (is that spelled correctly???) and went to bed. Poor guy! He says he has to go to work tomorrow.
I'm getting tired, so off to read a little and then hit the hay - last night with this mattress. Today I'm thankful for: sunny days, paint rollers, Sprouts (farmer's market grocery store)

Thankful

My sister, Natalie, reminded me that I didn't post what I was thankful for. I'm still working on making this a habit! So here are six things I'm thankful for (3 for my last post and 3 for this one):
1. My sister, Natalie
2. rain
3. libraries
4. pink nail polish
5. contacts (and glasses, too)
6. Fridays!!!!!

David bought an xtracycle. It's a "thing" that you add onto a regular bike and it makes the bike longer and able to carry up to 350 pounds. There are bags that you can put stuff in and a seat that will hold two people (in addition to the driver). It's awesome! David took Sara to the beach on Saturday. They took towels, a beach umbrella, snacks, blanket, books/magazines. They left our house around 8:30 am and didn't get home until 6 pm. They rode a total of 30 miles! Sara loved it. I think this is something we will do on a Saturday with all of us. Not all on the extracycle, though!

Busy

I've been soooooo busy!!! I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. I'm writing this just before heading out the door to go to work, so it'll be short. I wanted to post a couple of pics of my bedroom makeover. We've been needing an office space, so I created one in our room. I really like it. I have scrapbook stuff in all of the drawers of the desk. You'll notice in one of the pics I still need to find a home for a few things. But it's coming along! And I really need to update my blog photo. I don't like that one. I'll try to get that done as soon as I can. I've been working on a scrapbook for an auction that the young women in our ward are doing to raise money for camp. The auction is tomorrow night, but I'm almost finished. I'm teaching a scrapbook class (Mommy and Me) on Saturday and just picked up the product yesterday! I need to get everything into kits by Saturday noon-ish. Tonight I have a Stake Primary meeting. I also need to get Dallin to a doctor appt and Sara to Activity Days today after school. Hmmmmm...I guess I need to figure out something fast for dinner, too!

I'm going to try to start something new (inspired by a blog I read). I'm going to post 3 things that I'm thankful for ever time I post.

I'm thankful for...art, straightening irons and the birds chirping outside my window.