Pictures!

We finally got family pictures taken, for the first time ever. Actually we got them taken in November, but I just now got the digital files to post. They were taken in our back yard, which was really cool. I didn't know anyone up here to get photographer recommendations from. I did ask for one recommendation from a friend, but I tried that photograhper twice, and they never got back to me. So I was on my own. I found this guy online, and he was having a 30 year anniversary sale and everything was half price. Awesome! Brooklyn would not let him take her picture (notice the props in the pictures we had to use to get her to sit still). The poor guy was chasing her around our back yard for and hour and a half. We tried everything. He even asked me, "Has she ever been photographed professionally?" I said "no". But I swear it was just a phase, she wouldn't let anyone take her picture then, and now she will totally ham it up for the camera. Anyway, Yea, now we have family pictures!

Tag, I'll bite

This is my first Tag


A. The rules are posted at the beginning.

B. Each player answers about themselves.

C. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people, posts their names, and then goes to their blog to let them know they've been tagged.


5 things I was doing 10 years ago


1. Getting ready to go on my mission. I left in April, I went into the MTC the day after my last final. And although I'm trying to cool it a little, I still seem to run my life this way. I was in charge of scheduling our flights back from Europe 3 years ago, and I booked the flights so tight that we were running the WHOLE way, and we still missed two connections. It was really embarrassing when they had to do an on spot search through my luggage and found my dirty undies (G's).

2. Trying to get in all the dating I could before the mission. I think it worked. There were a lot of boys at my farewell, and two of them were in the MTC with me.

3. Attending the Y.

4. Living with my folks to save money.

5. Working at Office Max in the Copy Center.


5 things on my to-do list Today


1. Laundry.

2. Find a dentist for our family.

3. Train Brooklyn to stay in her room at bed time. (So far we've been lazy parenting and just locking her door, she usually plays in her room for a while before falling asleep.)

4. Do physical therapy with Devin. He is caught up, but we still have to work on the bending and twisting at his trunk.

5. Take the garbage to the curb. Tomorrow is garbage Day!


5 snacks I enjoy


1. Doritos, I'll eat the whole bag if I'm not careful. Damon loves them as well. I asked him not to buy them any more (due to the above mentioned habit), and he accused me of trying to change his eating. I tried to convince him this was really for me, and not for him.

2. Oreos - another weekness.

3. Kettle corn, Damon converted me.

4. Cookies and Cream Ice Cream, again Damon converted me. This is the yummiest when you eat actual oreos and the ice cream together, yum.

5. And of course chips and salsa. They run though my veins, I swear.


5 things I would do if I were a billionaire.


1. Freakin' relax about the bills.

2. Pay of all debts, and all those of my loved ones.

3. Travel, of course, I haven't been able to feed that addiction in a while.

4. Charity and Research, wouldn't that be great?

5. Invest, I have to say it, Damon has brain washed me.


3 bad habits


1. I can't stay focused on one task, it's like I've become too good at multi-tasking. Thus, I can't get anything done.

2. Getting uptight if we're late. I'm working on that one, because I'm married to Damon, and he is ALWAYS late.

3. Picking at Stuff also. Damon and both of the kids hate it. Damon said he is going to create a ball that just has stuff I can pick at. I imagine it would be something like catnip for women. I wouldn't be able to stop until it was all unraveled.


5 jobs I've had


1. DMT publishing. I loved it, I designed the book covers, and such.

2. Bear West Environmental Company. I was a part time secretary, and mostly I just surved the web.

3. Nomen Global. I taught English as a Second language, but I only taught one semester, because I forgot to give them my upcoming semester schedule, so they didn't give me any classes on the schedule. Oops.

4. Mstar.net. Liz Hutchins got me this job/internship. It paid more than the job I have now.

5. Office Max. Fun and Interesting. Got my start in the copy business.


5 things people probably don't know about me


1. I love to make lists, because I love to cross things off them when I get them done. Does this say anything about me?

2. I think books are sexy. I love the way they look on a shelf, especially fiction, because that's what I read, and they have the best cover art.

3. Damon and I made out on a park bench in Italy.

4. I smell books. Actually, I open them and smell their pages. A habit I picked up at DMT because you can tell if it was printed on a press or a copier.

5. I always, always read the publisher's page in any book I read, even children's books. They are very interesting.


The truth is I only know 3 people who blog. And I only tonight discovered that Terra blogs, so I tag Terra and Chantal.

Valentine's Day Treats

I made Damon some chocolate covered brownies for Valentines Day. The guy loves brownies. I've included the picture of what the instructions showed the finished product was supposed to look like, and how mine turned out. Not too bad, just bad enough to laugh at. I covered half of the brownies in white chocolate, and half in regular chocolate. Then I was supposed to drizzle the opposite color over them (see picture). My drizzling was more like clumping. I put the best ones in front in the picture. So I'm not a total disaster in the kitchen, right? I can make dinner, but for some reason baked goods give me a hard time. You know the saying "made with love from Sally's kitchen" (or whoever). My little joke is that when it comes to cookies especially the saying changes to "made with stress from Rachel's kitchen". Seriously it is stressful for me to make cookies, they rarely turn out right. Oh well, maybe the oven's temperature is just set too high.

We've been sick, but we still have a cute photo.

I was sitting on the couch reading to Brooklyn, but my voice was totally gone and reading aloud was starting to hurt my throat. So I told Brooklyn I had to stop reading because I had lost my voice. She got up, followed me into the kitchen, and told me she would help me look for it. How cute is that?

I've been sick most of this winter. I'll spare you the details, the latest stories, trust me, would just be too much information. So now I'll just continue to shoot salt water up my nose like the doctors have told me to because I have a sinus infection. Seriously, I never knew about this practice until about a year ago. Using a medicine dropper to shoot salt water up you or your children's noses? What is this? TMI? Sorry.

Romeo and Juliet

My sisters, Becki and Deborah, and I went to the ballet! We went to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet in downtown Seattle. Actually we didn't see the actual performance. We went to what is called "five buck fridays". Once a month the company does an in studio, 1 hour long performance of one of the acts of the upcoming ballet. They set up 3 rows of bleachers for the crowd. It was awesome to see the dancers so close. I liked looking at how muscular their bodies are. No one has a butt like a ballet dancer! It was cool to think that dancing is their career. Deborah told me that this particular company sets up a fund for their dancers so that when they are done with their short ballet career (probably 10 years), they have money to go to college for their second career. And I learned that the score to the Romeo and Juliet ballet is always the same, like The Nutcracker or swan Lake always have the same score. It was very cool. Thanks for taking us Deb!