Seven

I got this off a different BLOG.

7 people I admire: (after #1 they are no particular order)
1. Jesus
2. Matt Ahern
3. Albert Schweitzer
4. Joseph Smith
5. Matthew Meese
6. Carole King
7. Ghandi

7 things I say often:
1. Don't be a butt-dog
2. He/She's a weirdy
3. Ella no...it's danger!
4. Let me say..."
5. You're Butt (that one's recent...and embarrassing)
6. I need some chocolate
7. Calling anything except food "Delicious"

7 things I cannot do:
1. Eat that weirdy sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and marshmellows on top.
2. Keep my house clean
3. Be in an confined area
4. Live without cheese
5. A pull-up....never have
6. Swim with my face in the water
7. Make myself wear the new "cool" metallic shoes

7 things you might not know about me:
1. I secretly think if I auditioned for American Idol I could make it to Hollywood (but no further).
2. My dream is to catch a fish
3. I really LOVE school supplies
4. I have written quite a few 200+ page books
5. I hate the freckle above my lip
6. I have been to Africa
7. I used to study fashion.

7 movies I enjoyed:
1. In America
2. Royal Tenenbaums (editted version)
3. New York Doll
4. Abotu A Boy
5. To Kill a Mockingbird
6. Unstrung Heroes
7. Cyrano de Bergerac

7 things I wish I could change in my life:
1. One word...HOUSEKEEPER
2. My back problems
3. The Chub
4. Being shy when I first meet people
5. Be financially secure (doesn't everybody want that?)
6. The times in my life when I have been silent about things that should have been exposed.
7. Our front lawn...it's so dead and pathetic.

7 books I have read more than once:
1. Les Miserbales (read 5-6 timmes)
2. Jesus the Christ (read 2-3 times)
3. The Book of Mormon (read around 20 times)
4. The Scarlett Pimpernell (read 3-4 times)
5. Northanger Abby (read 3-4 times)
6. Persuasion (read 2 times)
7. The 4 agreements (read 3 times)

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17 Months Old ALREADY!

Little Ella is 17 months old today. I just can't believe it. For a few months there it seemed to be going slowly and now it is flying!

I love our little chicken more each day and I especially love that we can now communicate quite well. She points and says please when she wants something. She tells me when she's hungry and when she wants to dance. It's so nice. She even closes her eyes, bows her head and folds her arms for prayers and doesn't stop until she hears "Amen"....we must be doing SOMETHING right!

I took a moment to jot down some of her milestones and like and dis-likes...

Says: Juice, Mommy, Daddy, Bye, Hi, Please, Amen, Ba-Ba (Bottle), Doddie (Doggie), Nainy, Eye (while pointing to her eye), No!, Yes, Yeah, Don't, Dirty, Hey!, Nanna (Banana), Three, Nine (yes...she waits in silence when someone is counting until after 8 and then says" NINE!") , Amen, uh-oh!

Likes: Dancing, Singing, Doggies, Bananas, Running, CLIMBING, combing hair, bouncing in the crib, Nursery, "Jack's Big Music Show", playing with her cousins.

Dislikes: Mushy foods, sitting still, having her hair curled, wearing shoes.

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Scrapper in Training

Have all of my Mommy dreams come true?......YES!!!

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DVD Review: New York Doll

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Well, everybody, I finally located my soul. After years of rolling my eyes while other movie watchers sobbed into their hankerchiefs our friend, Bryan Hickman, took us to see the movie "In America" and said "Emilie, if you don't cry at the end of this movie you have no soul." Well, it was one of the best movies I have ever seen, but no, I didn't cry. Was I dead inside? Last night the universe cried a resounding "NO!"

Matt, Aaron and I watched the documentary titled "New York Doll" which debuted at last year's Sundance Film Festival. And yes, Ladies and Gentlemen...I was finally moved to tears.

"New York Doll" is the true story of Arthur "Killer" Kane and his quick rise to stardom as the bassist in the legendary punk-rock band, New York Dolls, the band's rampant drug and alcohol abuse leading to the band's demise and Arthur's later conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church). The film follows Arthur as he is invited by Morrissey (a legend in his own right) to play a reunion gig in London with the "Dolls".

This film is so engaging and endearing since Arthur himself is a quiet, down-on-his-luck fellow who is sweet and honest throughout the personal interviews. The film also includes juxtaposed interviews with the little old ladies that work with Arthur in the Church Family History Library and many Punk and Rock and Roll legends who knew him or were influenced by the ahead-of-it's-time sound the "Dolls" produced in the early 70s.

The film is put together in a really fresh way and plays a lot more entertaining than your average "Rock-umentary". Despite the PG-13 rating on this film there is no swearing or violence, merely talk of drug and alcohol abuse which the band participated in during the height of their fame and took the lives of some of it's members. Go out and rent this one and see a glimpse into he life of a man who lost his life when his band failed and then found his life in a new faith.

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Summer fruit on our Trees!

Grapes and Pears and Apricots...OH MY!






We had borrowed a food dehydrator and will be making fruit leather, dried apricots and apricot jam today and tomorrow.

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Seeing "Doddies"!

Our neighbor across the street (Neighbor Steve) has 2 big dogs...Ella loves them. She always runs over to the front window and looks out to see them and points and says..."Doddy!"

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Little Feet

A picture I took today while Ella was playing on the coffee table.

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What could be more fun than.....quarter round???

Yes...we are still renovating our house. Thanks good ess the Formal Living Room is almost complete just in time for my Visiting Teachers to come over tonight! We have been finishing up a lot of projects and Ella loves frolicking amongst anything new! Today, as I was trying to cleap up the Living Room she was happily playing with....the quarter round. What's fun about that? I'm not sure, but she was LOVING it!

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Independence Weekend Craziness!

<-----Check out the Grumpy 4th of July Girl!

Whew! What a weekend we had! Here's a little rundown of the craziness!

Saturday, July 1st
Today was Canada Day. Every other Canada Day we have a Canadian feast complete with homemade perogies, kilbasa and nanaimo bars. This Canada Day?...not happening! We were so busy.

It is Nainy's birthday today and we had a whole plan that we would take her to SLC to the Church History Museum and then make her a fabulous porkchop dinner. When she came she said her birthday wish was to go to Costco. Who can argue with the "Birthday Girl"? We went to Costco and Target and it was so hot and we were so tired that we just went to Chili's to eat dinner. It was a really fun and productive day.

Sunday, July 2nd
This morning we got up early and went to have a visit with the Stake President for Matt to receive a calling. (More on that calling next Sunday) . We had planned on going to Logan today right after church to celebrate Nainy and Tanner's birthdays. Then we found out just this morning that Jon and Liz had hopped a plane from Pittsburgh to SLC for an impromptu visit. We cancelled our plans in Logan, skipped church and went right over to tea Aherns to visit with them since we don't get to see them often.
We had a fabulous time! Ella didn't remember them, but warmed up in no time. We had a nice salmon dinner and Ella got to play with her Chapman cousins. Ella also discovered a new-found love for the trampoline....I'm not liking that....DANGER!!!

We had a little birthday celebration for Dennis (June 29) and Michelle (July 4). We gave Michelle a copy of the book, "The Devil Wears Prada" and Dennis a subscription to "Consumer Reports" magazine. We had the most wonderful dessert of fresh strawberries and blueberries over angel food cake with whipped cream.

After dinner we all went to the Church park and played games and lost frisbees and got sunburned. It was a really fun day and seeing Jon and Liz was especially wonderful. They are so fun!

Monday, July 3

Today we traveled to Logan for the 4th of July fireworks from Romney Stadium. We had a nice visit with Mom, where I was mostly on the computer trying to figure out how to get my first "Design Team"assignments from Scrappy Giraffe Kits.

In the evening we went over to Jim and Gayle's for a fun dinner with their family. We brought Mormon Tiramisu, which I thought turned out super-gross, and hardly was touched....okay, I'll throw THAT recipe away. We had such a great time visiting with the Whittekers. We brought our little gift we made for Andy and Krista's little Max, which was a little time capsule box that I made from a kids shoebox and tons of scrap-booking supplies. It had a bunch of little sheets of paper cut to size inside so their family could write notes to little max and he could open it on his 8th birthday. Here's a picture of the top of the box....

After a huge and delicious potluck dinner we set up our chairs in the cul-de-sac and watched the fireworks. Ella, who LOVED the fireworks last year, was definitely more cautious this year and was a bit frightened initially by the booms. She warmed up eventually and sat mesmerized. The kids lit sparklers and Ella loved watching the sparklers lighting up the dark.

Tuesday, July 4th
This morning we headed over to the Meese's house and went to the Kaysville 4th of July Parade with them. The fun part about Kaysville is that the first half of the parade is the usual floats, high school marching bands and cheerleaders. But the second half is a city-wide water fight. Firetrucks come around and spray people and everyone busts out their water balloons and super-soakers. It was really fun to watch....yes, we only watched the water madness.

Then we visited with the Meeses a bit and headed home for the first 2 hours of together time we had had the entire weekend! We made sugar cookies of American Flags and stars and even some blobs of leftover dough which we baked and then said what state the shape looked like and labeled them with frosting. We decorated all of the cookies in red, white and blue frosting and then packed them up to take over to the Aherns. We visited with Dennis, Louise, Aaron and Michelle and then Dennis and Aaron came back to our house with us so the boys could watch the World Cup Soccer Game which had aired earlier that morning.

Whew! What an action packed and super FUN weekend!

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The Newest Design Team Member!

I got an e-mail late last night from a scrapbooking company who wants me to work for them and be on their Design Team! What?! Are you kidding me?!! You want ME???

Being on a design team means they send me TONS of free product every month and ask me to make something with those items. After I make it, they get to use it to promote their website and products and I get to keep all of the free stuff! I also write articles for their newsletter about different techniques and page ideas. This is more than I ever hoped and is a really incredible step in the world of scrapping!

Here is my new scrapbooking home. Of course I want to encourage everyone I know to join this club. I wouldn't be working for them if their product and service wasn't amazing. You can sign up for 3, 6 or 12 months of kits and the kits are a great value and are really quality. Their kits are AWESOME!!! Come check it out by clicking the giraffe below!

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