4th of July in Provo...

Since I know I am not going to be up at 5:00 AM this 4th of July due to...being due, I decided to post one I took from last year from the Hot Air Balloon fest in Provo, Utah which is really quite spectacular. If you have time to work this into your July 4th schedule (come on, what else do you have to do at 5am...unless you are "due" too), I would strongly suggest it. And if you can get the kids outta bed, even better! It is quite exciting to witness. My kids loved it and I was beyond camera happy.

Been sick....

So much for photo of the day and daily posts. I have been sick with the pregnancy bug of vengeance. I really have been sick for 8 1/2 months but a couple days ago it was like the heavens opened and lo and behold I woke up in the morning and didn't feel like puking. So I'm back! I have a six pound baby inside of me that is squashing my insides but I now think I just might be able to conquer the world because I am not nauseated anymore. I really couldn't tell you what exactly happened to make it go away. I've read thousands and thousands of websites and books about how to get rid of the pukies when you are pregnant. The only thing I have found to work is one day you just get lucky or you have the baby. I will say Preggie Pops are a nice treat and for some odd reason they help. They don't get rid of it, but they do help. So go to Amazon.com and buy some for yourself if you have the preggie pukes, they may just save you in the check out line in the grocery store when you get the wiff of the awful cologne the guy infront of you is wearing....

Rain, Big Belly and Photoshop

It has been raining all day. Not just the kind of storm that blows through for a couple hours. No, all day, non-stop, when I look out my window I can see the little sheets coming down and bouncing into puddles all over my sidewalks. I used to live in Vancouver, WA. It was like this every day for most of the year, except for the summer, which was heaven. Nothing is more beautiful than the northwest in the summer time. Anyway, this reminds me of Vancouver, and then I am reminded of my dear friends who live there that I never get to see anymore. *sigh*. We have moved three times in the last 4 years, that is too much. Although I don't regret it because of the wonderful experiences we have had along the way (aw gee).

My belly is getting bigger. Everyone keeps telling me that I look small for how far along I am. So I took it upon myself to lay on the couch with a tape measure and measure my belly from the top of my uterus to the pubic bone and I measured 35 cm exactly. Being as I am now 34 weeks and 3 days, I'd say that's right! I am right on. Perhaps everyone who sees me remembers that I gained 70 pounds with my first pregnancy and 40 with my second. And being as I have only gained 12 this time and I am not the huge whale I was back then...maybe I look small. In which case, I do not mind looking small.

Since it's been raining I have been playing with photoshop. I love photoshop. It seriously wastes my time but boy do I know how to do some cool stuff. I found a great site for brushes. If you are into photoshop I suggest visiting and downloading them, they are free.

www.obsidiandawn.com

Cheers!

Photo of the Day

Perhaps I should just always have a photo of the day, it's just too much fun not too. This was a crazy day. My son ran over the Comcast cable with the lawn mower and shut off our cable, telephone and internet in one big swoop which sent me into a panic because what do I do without those three very important things. So I did laundry, shocking, I know. And then I went through my recipe books and thought...hmmm, that'd be a good one to make. This is something I need to do more of so that I am not stuck at the grocery store wondering what to buy. Or when I get home and I go to make dinner, wonder...now what the heck did I spend $150 bucks on if I don't have a thing to make for dinner. Menu planning...must do more of this. And I am proud to say I have the next two weeks planned.

This is a photo of the Mt. Timpanogos temple in Utah. It's really a beautiful place and I needed to get some shots of it for my digital design business. I like this one a lot. Again, must picture an 8 month pregnant lady lying on her side in the grass to get this perspective shot. Never mind, must not picture that.

Photo of the Day

Be your own kind of beautiful.

Enough said.

Homemade Puppy Costume

I guess I didn't get the note back in February that told parents their preschool child must have an animal costume for the end of the year program in MAY! So when I realized I had 24 hours to come up with an animal costume, and my son insisted he wanted to be a puppy, here it is. I thought I would share because it really wasn't that hard. First I started with black shorts and a white T-shirt. I glued with a glue gun (much better than that fabric glue that takes forever to dry), black spots that I cut out of felt on the shirt. I had a white baseball hat which my son wore backwards with a spot covering the front hole. I cut out two ears from some fluffy fabric I got at the fabric store and sewed the fronts to the backs (this is optional, glue would also work fine). I sewed the ears onto the side of the hat. Black socks on his hands and feet for paws, and oh yes, I did sew a tail on the back of the t shirt. I drew a nose and freckles on his face with black eye liner. Now this would actually look a heck of a lot better and be easier with a black or white jogging suit in which case you could use the hood of the sweatshirt to sew the ears too....however, it's May, and all the stores are now selling summer clothes, not sweats, so I had to deal with what we already had on hand. So there ya go. A homemade costume that looks adorable and costs maybe 5 bucks (if you have to buy a shirt and fabric which I did). Cheers!

House Cleaning

I hate to clean my house. I know that if I slave away at cleaning my house, within a few hours it will probably look worse than it did before I started. I think this is because I always clean on Saturday when the kids are home. Therefore by the end of the weekend the house is a disaster again. I should really clean the house on Monday, the beginning of the week when I know that they will only be home in the afternoons. Of course I realize this now that school is out in three days. (sigh)

Photo of the Day

How can I not get out and get some good flower power shots now that spring has sprung and summer is just around the corner. The flowers were beautiful. They looked like they were made from tissue paper and couldn't possibly be real. I say that because I once had to make flowers out of tissue paper for my son's school play and they were supposed to look like this. But mine didn't. I tend to screw anything up flower related, except when it comes to photography. Every year my kids get me flowers to plant for mother's day, every year by the 4th of July they are dead. I don't know how I do it. These flowers were not in my yard but in a park, up in a flower bed on top of a wall. Now that you know I am 32 weeks pregnant you can only imagine how attractive I must have looked trying to capture this image. But too bad, I don't have a picture of that.

Happy Anniversary to me

Today is my anniversary. I have been married to my wonderful husband for 9 years. It's been the longest 9 years of my life. Not in a bad way. I mean I just have gotten to a point where I don't quite remember what it was like to not have my husband in my life since now we've been together for actually 10 years. When I married my husband he had a five year old son, whom I adopted as my own and gave him all the love I knew how to give to a child, being as I'd never been married nor had a child before. I was quite naive about it all and now he is 14 which makes me absolutely the oldest 33 year old on the planet. Being an adoptive stepparent is emotionally exhausting. There is absolutely nothing easy, nor any word in the English language to describe what it is like to raise somebody else's child. Especially a child who spent the first 4 years of his life raised in a way I would never raise my child. But that.....is another post.

At our 7 year anniversary my husband pointed out to me that he had read somewhere that if you make it to 7 years then your chances of staying together for the rest of your life increase dramatically. Well, we've made it to 9, and I must say our chances of staying together continue to increase. Not that there was ever a chance we wouldn't stay together....except for the few times I had had it with his son... I am happier today than ever to be married to such a great man and I do mean that. And if it's possible I think I might love him more tomorrow than I do today. I know the secret to a successful marriage, I really do. Maybe someday I'll share it.

Texas Courts...

I have been following the whole polygamist raid going on in Texas. I am not sure why I am so fascinated with it. Not fascinated like, hey, I'd like to go be a polygamist, but fascinated by how these people live and how completely brainwashed they seem to be, but yet there is something so innocent and kind about these mothers. Don't get me wrong, I would never support any group that promotes abuse, but I see these women on the news and they seem so quiet and calm and I have to think they are good mothers. But then, what good mothers would allow themselves to be married to a man that already has a wife? Anyway, today there was an appeal and it seems that at some point in the near future these mothers are going to be reunited with their kids. I couldn't imagine someone taking my kids from me. I would literally be devastated and probably resort to kidnapping or something just to get them back. I try to think what these women must be going through. It's not about how they dress but it's the way they think. They really believe that their way of living and their practices are going to get them into heaven first and highmost. Well, what about the rest of us? And that means we are all going to hell? I can't believe I am going to hell. Not when I have done a hell of a job trying as hard as I can to be a good person, raise my kids to be good people and follow the laws and rules of life--even if some of them bother me. I can't imagine a God who would send people to hell and give others highest glory for separating themselves from society on a big ranch and marrying each other, and having loads of kids. I do believe in God, and I believe he is merciful. I also believe that nobody is perfect and that God understands that. I mean he has too. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am glad these mothers will have a chance to hold their babies again, but I really don't get the rest of it.

32 weeks

I am 32 weeks pregnant. I am due July 14th. But what is a due date anyway? You always hear that you are pregnant for 9 months. Well anyone who knows anything about being pregnant knows that you are actually pregnant for 10 months and that you never actually have the baby on your due date. By the time your period is overdue you are already 5 weeks into your pregnancy. I have been throwing up since I was 5 weeks pregnant. You do the math. I have been throwing up for 27 weeks, or approximately 6.75 months. And I have done this now three times. This because some women, I must be one of them, have the ability after about three years to forget how awful throwing up while pregnant is, and then they desire to have another one. I desired to have six kids. My first was handed to me in court after I married his father (my husband today who continues to be the love of my life), and I became an adoptive stepmother--easiest pregnancy and delivery. My second, my firstborn, made me forget every moment of pregnancy sickness the moment she could smile. My third came along three years later, not making me as much sick as I was a worried nervous wreck about his health (he's fine by the way). So after 5 years I desired a 4th. And now at 32 weeks, I desire to meet this sweet baby who continues to use my lungs as a punching bag and then I desire to have no more. I have written down in detail why I desire to never be pregnant again and sealed it in an envelope which I have given to my husband, only to be presented to me in the heat of the moment when I say...wouldn't it be great to have a baby in the home again? at which time he will clobber me over the head with it and leave me dejected in bed while he goes and takes a cold shower.

Lookin' kinda dumb with his finger and his thumb...

My five year old asked me today, "What is a loser?" Wondering where he'd heard it from, (because how could such a detrimental word be spoken in my home?) I tried to think of a good explanation knowing full well it either came from my 14 year old or SpongeBob. Because he's into cars I explain that two cars are in a race and one is speedracer. Speedracer goes faster than the other car and crosses the finish line first, therefore the other car is the "loser". No....not what he wanted to hear. What is a LOSER? You know like when someone says You're a loser! Okay, well, it's when a really mean kid hates your guts for whatever reason and basically tells you that you suck as a person by calling you a loser, meaning you are not a winner, meaning we think you are extremely un-cool. And how do you put that into words for a five year old? I didn't. I said, "Here honey, is a cookie fresh out of the package, let me turn on PBS kids for you and when your brother gets home he's grounded."