Spring inside and out...

Spring outside.... trees in bloom, herbs and raspberries coming back after the long winter, daffodils and hyacinths showing their faces, while the tulips are on their way. (Our house faces north which means my bulbs get a late start.) And some pansies waiting to be planted in a porch pot.

Spring inside..... Easter eggs on trees and in table displays, bunnies on bookshelves, forsythia branches in the living room. Fresh tulips on my beside table and some lilies on the kitchen counter and on the fireplace hearth. Ah, how I love fresh flowers!

Lilian and I got all crafty yesterday. Paper mache eggs painted white with black letter stickers on them. We screwed in some eye hooks and attached some twine so that we could hang them somewhere if we wanted. But for now, I kind of like how they look just sitting in an egg carton on my apothecary chest in the living room.

Taste Testing

Walking through the Gateway on Saturday night after a yummy dinner at Biaggis, Bryan and I passed a new store we'd never seen before. Bryan glanced over, slowed, and eventually came to a dead stop as he took in the name of the store and the little bit of a view that he could see through the front window. "I've got to check this out," he said as he he led me towards the door. Table after table of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. With little plastic cups so you could smell and taste. Now, I've never been to a wine tasting before but I can only imagine it has to be somewhat similar to watching Bryan swirl the olive oil/or balsamic in his little cup, smell it with his eyes closed and then taste...accompanied by descriptions of the various flavors in each. Bryan takes his olive oil seriously.

In discussing price with the owner of the shop Bryan learned of a discount if he bought at least a dozen. He looked over at me, his eyes full of hope. "Think of all the awesome salads we could make with these!" he persuaded. He looked so darn cute...his face full of excitement. How could I say no? So while Bryan was trying to narrow his favorites down to just twelve, I went across the street to Starbucks for a "tall" hot chocolate. And it made me laugh a little bit. Being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) we abide by the Word of Widsom...which means we don't drink. Wine, coffee, etc. So Bryan's wine tasting look-a-like and my little side trip into Starbucks struck me as really humorous. Maybe in a different life Bryan would've been a wine snob and I would've been addicted to my morning cup of joe.

(It's been less than two days and he's already used two flavors....)

Favorite Photo Friday: Main Street Palmyra

October 2006
This is a picture of Julianne overlooking Palmyra (New York) Main Street from the windowsill of the Grandin Print Office..the place where the Book of Mormon was first printed. I like this picture for many reasons...
I like the dark shadows all around the window.
I like Julianne's profile.
I like that the window is paned so the outside view is cut into sections.
I like the old fashioned building across the street.
And I like the memory of the pizza place next door that had, according to Bryan, the best bleu cheese pizza he has ever eaten.

Too well?

I was watching a movie recently. "Date Night." You know the one...that comedy with Tina Fey and Steve Carell? The whole premise: Feeling that they are a boring married couple...efforts to spice up their marriage with a fancy date in the city end up going terribly awry. Hilarity ensues and the shared experience of this nightmare of a date ends up bringing them closer together.

ANYHOW...what stuck out at me was a scene near the beginning of the movie. Some friends of theirs have decided to divorce. One of the reasons behind the demise of their marriage, according to the wife, was that they knew each other "too well." That she knew all her husband's habits and quirks...as did he of her. I'm guessing this means that, according to her, there was no spice or mystery in their marriage anymore and she felt that things were flat and boring. And yes, I get that it takes work to keep that marriage relationship fresh and alive so as not to become only "excellent roommates."

But honestly, when I watched that interaction between the two wife characters, I thought to myself, "They've got it all wrong!" Having someone know me that well...all my habits and quirks, and me knowing the same about him? Well, that sounds rather heavenly to me.

I love that Bryan knows my favorite song is "Forever Young" and that I crave sushi any time of the day or night. He knows that I don't deal with heat well and if I'm mowing the lawn on a hot July day, I'm going to come in grumpy. He knows that if I'm talking on the phone with my Dad that I'm going to be a LONG time cause I get my chattiness from him. He knows that I will get irrationally upset when we don't get snow in winter. He knows my dreams of someday singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and he knows that I'm absolutely terrified of snakes.

And I know that when he has a headache, if I rub his head it helps. I know that he is determined...if he has a hankering to learn something, he WILL learn it....from wood working and guns to music theory, juggling, magic and cooking. I know that one of his favorite foods is garlic...just plain fried garlic. I know that he loves mixed martial arts fights and horror movies...but also that he will always laugh at Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day." I can tell when he is stressed. I can tell when the noisy chaos of 4 kids is getting to him and he is trying to hide it. I know his silly side that very few other people ever get to see.

Personally, I think getting THAT close to someone, knowing someone THAT well, feeling THAT comfortable together...is one of the very best parts of being married. I feel very thankful that I have that kind of relationship with Bryan.

"Say Cheese!"

Years ago, after numerous school portraits that were marginal at best, I decided to start taking the kids down to Target once a year to get their pictures taken. No offense to the photographers from Bell Inc...but when you are charged with taking pictures of over 700 kids within a few scant hours, well...as long as the kid looks somewhat decent and isn't closing his/her eyes the picture is counted as a success. "Next please!" That works okay for Brandon...but apparently my girls need a bit more coaxing to get a good shot.
The only downside to Target...I actually have to make the appointment and get the kids there as opposed to the photographers just showing up at the elementary school. Because of this, unfortunately, I'm a bit overdue...the last sitting was in January 2009.
The time off during spring break seemed to me to be a good time to rectify this procrastination issue. (Brandon didn't join us, having just had a photo shoot with his gym.)
Here are the results:

JULIANNE

LILIAN

REBEKAH

Making the best of a snowy spring break...

Plans involving bike rides, yard work and picnics at the park apparently were not in the cards this, the week of "SPRING" break {grumble, grumble}. Instead, after watching it snow all day, we decided to make a snowman. And then have a really big snowball fight.
Two thoughts:
1. If ever gymnastics doesn't work out for Brandon, he would make an awesome pitcher for a baseball team. I think I may have bruises where he nailed me with hard packed snowballs...
2. I'm going to claim running through the snowy backyard, ducking and dodging, bending down to gather up snow as I ran, throwing snowball after snowball...as my workout for the day. All agreed? Thank you.

Bowling

The lovely Spring Break weather {insert sarcasm here} was making it impossible to spend any sort of time outside today so we decided to go bowling. It's been years since we last bowled. We had to explain to Lilian what bowling even was...she had no idea. Even Brandon had to be reminded to bring a pair of socks (he was wearing his new five finger shoes) because he forgot that you are required to wear those awesome bowling shoes! {More sarcasm...}
Lilian loved her shoes...thought they made a neat tap shoe type sound on the wood. Which meant that she did a happy dance for each and every pin she knocked down.


BOWLING STYLES:*Rebekah had this kind of flick of the wrist, palm down sort of bowling style.
*Julianne kind of speed walked up to the lane but right as I thought she was about to let go of the ball in one smooth move, she would stop and practically throw that ball down the lane like she was pitching in a baseball game.
*Brandon was our left handed, spin-meister. The ball would ricochet back and forth between the bumpers like he was playing pinball. Worked really well when he had a split.
Lilian, of course, used the metal rack. Which, we were disapprovingly told by the bowling employee, were supposed to be for handicapped bowlers. ("My grandchildren have been bowling since they were just 1 year old and they NEVER used the rack. But parents today...." accompanied by a couple of shakes of the head and some tsk, tsk noises.) Um...we decided to use it anyway.Julianne was kicking our trash until I got my groove on. All those high school bowling lessons came back to me and I started to get strike after strike. I'm not sure I have EVER bowled that well! I still remember the night back in college at the Sno-Cap Lanes in Ephraim where I bowled so badly that I was entertainment for the entire alley.

We had tons of fun and laughed A LOT. Can't wait to do it again...next time, with Bryan in tow. I have this feeling that he will very calmly and decidedly beat the pants off all of us.

Princess playlist

This girl loves her Disney Princess music. See that bright pink button? It plays one song per princess doll....and Lilian was pretty obsessed with it. The only way I could get her to leave without drama was to promise that we'd find some princess songs on itunes when we got home and make her very own playlist on the computer. (Hard to tell since it's a still picture, but Lilian was totally jamming out to "I'm Almost There" from Princess and the Frog.)

A few hours, dinner at Pei Wei and dessert at Yogotogo later...I kept my promise.
She listened...and listened...and listened all evening. And this morning it was the first thing out of her mouth. "I want to listen to my music!"

Yogotogo

It's spring break. Even though the weather isn't playing nice, we still decided that ice cream...well, frozen yogurt to be exact... should play into our plans this evening. Yogotogo is one of those places where you load yourselves up with however many flavors and however many toppings you want, then head for the scale and pay depending on the weight. After seeing Brandon's concoction spilling over the top of his cup, I was starting to worry that it might put me in debt...or at least get him on the winners wall with his picture in a place of honor, announcing those with the heaviest, and therefore most expensive, yogurt creations.

Julianne's picture is there from a previous trip to Yogotogo with friends. Their goal that day had been more than just eating some yummy frozen yogurt. Yep...first and foremost their aim was to land themselves on the winners wall by each pitching in enough money to create a truly worthy {heavy} yogurt treat.

Brandon, luckily for me and my wallet, didn't come close. He must've covered his yogurt with lightweight toppings such as sprinkles, marshmallows and whip cream!

A good time was had by all. We left with happy bellies and smiles on our faces. (And then froze all the way home....)

ESSENTIAL

During the October 2010 General Conference Quentin L. Cook gave a talk entitled "Let There Be Light." It mostly centered on protecting our families and communities from Satan's influences all around us...how to keep that light despite the dangers we face in the world today. One quote jumped out at me like a big neon sign.

"Weekly Family Home Evening and daily family prayer and scripture study are essential."

Yep. That's it. Seemingly, not too earth shattering, right?

Interestingly enough, at the time I didn't remember too much of the talk and actually had to go back and re-read it to try and figure out what the quote was even really about, why it had affected me the way it had.

I mean, it's not new revelation or anything. Having FHE, family prayer and scripture study...well, yeah, we all know we should be doing that.

I thought about it for days, even asking Bryan what he thought. He said that if something an apostle had said had jumped out at me, then no matter how simple and obvious it seemed, there was reason behind it. I finally figured out that it wasn't necessarily the actual quote...it was the word. ESSENTIAL.

Family Home Evening, family prayer and scripture study...it wasn't just something we should do. It was more than just a nice thing... much more, even, than being important. It was ESSENTIAL.

So a few months later when it came time to make New Years goals/resolutions I decided to again have one word be my goal, my motto or focus for the year. (Last year's word was Balance). I knew immediately that my word would be ESSENTIAL.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what things needed to be ESSENTIAL (ie: more than just a nice thing) in my life. Of course FHE, family prayer and scripture study were on the list. But also having dinner as a family. Frequent dates nights with my husband. And, maybe strangely, excersize...not so much about losing weight but being healthy and taking care of my body.

So we're now 3 months into 2011 and 6 months from the original conference talk. How am I doing? I have to admit that it's been a bit of a roller coaster. I have good weeks and bad weeks. I guess that's how things tend to roll with most goals. But I'm working on it.