life in general

looking back

I thought it was time to post something fun.  So I'm going to do a little looking back.  Trying to remember what I was doing 10, 5, and 1 years ago.  It should be exciting -- pics and all!

10 years ago - 1996

Holy cow.  10 years ago I was a senior in high school!  This pic was taken in Dec. 1995 during my reign as Gustine High School Basketball Tournament Queen.  Yes, I reigned for 3 whole days. I remember it was exciting to win. I had to track down 3 dresses in the matter of just a couple weeks (white - made by mom; black - borrowed from church friend; burgundy - store bought).  It was fun to do the hair, the make-up, wear a crown, and be escorted in each night with an announcer proclaiming my arrival.  The not so exciting part was having to sit up on the bleachers (er, my throne) and watch basketball games 3 nights in a row.  I'm not that much of a sports gal.  So I did my best to sit up straight, smile, and occasionally throw bread (or tortillas, whatever was on hand) to the hungry peasants. 

As far as school stuff goes . . . I had already been accepted to BYU for the summer term.  I think I was about to register for my classes.  All I had left to do was sail through the last semester of my senior year.  With a T.A. period, and another period of independent speed writing (basically me, a text book, all alone in Mrs. White's office.  Did I mention there was a photocopier in there?  Had some fun with that.), there wasn't too much pressure in my life.

5 years ago - 2001

Fast forward 5 years and a lot has changed.  Now a college grad, married, and a mom.  Conner was about 2 months old.  Scott worked downtown and Conner and I basically hung out in our 2 bedroom apartment each day.  Looking back, life was very simple, very quiet back then.  I hadn't connected with any friends/moms in our new area, so I spent pretty much all of my time alone (with Conner).  We would break up the monotony by going to Target and window shopping.  Money was really tight back then -- we were living paycheck to paycheck looking forward to Scott's next raise.  Even though things were tight, I remember being happy.  We just trudged through it, thankful for all the things we did have.  About this time I also started to really get into scrapbooking.  I now had this adorable little baby to be the subject for all of my pages.

1 year ago -- 2005

This photo was taken on our 6th anniversary.  The end of January (I think the 29th) is when we found out I was pregnant with Anna.  We were very excited and it was time for number three.  Although I do remember feeling a little sad that I was going to lose my body to baby again.  I had spent the entire last year not pregnant and not nursing -- the longest stretch since Conner was born. 

As far as life goes, Conner was going to school, I was busy with my calling in Relief Society, I lead a play group each week at the church, and I had friends to scrapbook with and pampered chef parties to attend quite regularly.  Life was good. 

And finally . . . .

Today - 2006

Gave Anna a bath, watched the new episode of Little Einsteins with the boys, laughing with Anna on the bed (notice the bright new bedding -- the perfect pick-me-up for these dreary oregon winters), cleaned the bathroom, dusted, errands at Walmart, helped Conner with worksheets from his "learning book", blogging.  Leftovers for dinner.  And a pampered chef party tonight.

Life is still good.

help find ben

I posted last week about a missing friend.  He is still yet to be found.  Visit their website Help Find Ben for more information.

Ben is my dad's best friend going clear back to their childhood.  They served in the same mission, he was the best man at my dad's wedding, and he has always been in my family's life.  From when I was 3 and said I wanted to marry Ben when I grew up, to the time he taught my little brother how to bark for food (and then ended up as the best man at his wedding), and all the crazy mischief in between.

If you have a moment, please take a look at the site.  Thanks.

In case the site is getting too much traffic, here is the basic info.  There are photos and more details on the website.

Ben Brunsvik

Missing since:  January 19, 2006

Last seen driving a 1997 GREEN Ford Escort Wagon.  CA License Plate 4EOB746; VIN 3FALP15POVR155665

Believed to have been traveling northbound toward Sacramento from Gustine, CA on the morning of January 19, 2006.

Age:  49,    Height:  6'2",    Weight:  225,    Eye color:  Green,    Hair Color:  Wavy/Curly Gray

Diabetic in need of medication

back to 100%

Payton spent this weekend sooo sick.  He spent all day Saturday "choking up" (as we call it in our family -- I think Conner coined the phrase).  And Sunday he was just really tired and layed around the house watching movies.  But this morning he woke up happy and cheery -- we can safely assume that he is back to 100%.

I went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning & x-rays.  My first visit back since having Anna -- I suspected there would be trouble.  I can usually count on dental work needing to be done after I have a baby.  So I'm scheduled to come back in 2 weeks for 3 fillings that are turning to mush and need replacing.  It's a recurring joke (I guess you might call it that) in our family that I am the sole reason we have dental insurance.  Scott goes for his cleanings every 6 months and to this day, in all of his 29 years, he has yet to have a cavity or anything close to it.  Hopefully our kids inherit his good teeth.  But I do have to say that I'm pretty proud that I went the entire year of 2005 without any dental work done.  Thank you very much.

prayers needed

A good family friend from back home is missing -- last seen on Wednesday.  Last night there was a party planned for his mother's 75th birthday (whom he lives with) and he was not there.  Things are getting pretty serious.  If you could keep him and his family in your prayers I'm sure it would be much appreciated.  It sounds like the family & friends are also fasting for him.  Sooo hoping for his safe return.

a break in the clouds

yesterday the rain clouds parted for a small moment and we got this . . .

sunshine!!!  I have to guess this is only about the 3rd or 4th time Anna has seen the sunshine -- in her life!  We have had quite a long streak of rain -- up until last week there had been something like 27 days of straight rain.  I'm not sure what the exact stats are, but it's been a long gloomy winter so far.

When the sun popped out I decided it was time to grab my camera and take advantage of the natural light, taking some pics of the boys playing with their toys.  During the winter I don't take very many pictures.  We're indoors so much, the skies are usually dark, so that adds up to lots of photos that require a flash, and my boys are so white to begin with that they end up looking like ghosts in the picture.  It was very nice to experience the warm sun for a short time -- and it was a very short time, gone about 15 minutes later.  Here's a few of the boys playing so nicely.

love is in the air.

Actually it's filling up a chunk of our family room. 

Today I finally conceded.  I gave in.  And we are now the proud owners of a LoveSac.  Scott has been dying to have one for years.  His brother has one and that's all he can talk about after visiting him.  After we got rid of the old pink chair in our family room (see for the love of shorts) Scott's campaigning for a LoveSac went into full force.  I was fine with the idea of a LoveSac, but not in our current house, not in our family room -- the room where people usually gather when they come over to visit.  I just thought it would be weird to invite our guests to basically sit in a bean bag chair.  I told him for sure when we had a bigger house with a bonus room, we could fill it up with LoveSacs - no problem.  But I guess I must be getting softer in my old age and I caved in.  We are currently in "fluff" mode in our house.  The guys at the store said that after taking it out of the vacumn sealed packaging we should spend 4 days fluffing it before we put the cover on.  So in our house fluffing is translated into -- jumping off the coffee table into the LoveSac, Scott throwing the boys into the LoveSac, and even tossing Shannon into the LoveSac.  Pretty much anything goes in regards to the sac right now. 

See what I'm talking about.  By the weekend it should be fully-fluffed and ready for ultimate chillin'.  We got MovieSac size with a mocha brown microsuede cover.

We ended our little excursion with some fun for mom at The Container Store.  I picked up a big one of these to contain all of Conner's new pirate legos (from birthday & christmas).  This in medium for the brio trains that are spilling out of their current container.  And I'm loving this cute thing for stowing away my digital camera, video camera, and all the cables, cords and such (mine is in a red/pink slightly flowery print that even matches my new bedding).

I'm so looking forward to the rest of the 24 premiere tonight.  I am so hooked on that show!

7 years today

we were married on an overcast but dry day in California.  So how did we celebrate our anniversary today?  Well, by speaking in church.  Not the kind of thing you expect or hope to be doing on a special day, but it all went just fine.  I spoke on raising righteous children and Scott's topic was scouting in the church (he is the ward scoutmaster).  Apparently our talks went over really well because we got a lot of positive feedback from the members of the ward.

We actually celebrated our anniversary last night.  We got a baby-sitter for Conner & Payton at 5:30pm with the plan to bring Anna with us.  I fed her right before we left and our hope was that she would fall asleep on the drive there and then continue to sleep through dinner.  She's typically a good baby so we thought our plan was pretty secure.  But once we arrived at Benihana's for our 6:30 reservation she was completely awake with no signs of sleep in the near future.  I was excited for our dinner.  We had actually planned to go to Benihana's last year for our anniversary but our plans were thwarted when we had a major ice storm that made the roads pretty treacherous. 

So dinner was good.  Anna . . . not so good.  We juggled her back and forth, giving each of us a turn to eat.  At one point I even escaped to the women's restroom to feed her (standing up - an interesting challenge).  I have to wonder what everyone at our table was thinking about us -- bringing a baby to a restaurant like this.  But hey, she's only 3 1/2 months old, nursing exclusively, and dang it - mom and dad need an evening out! 

The best part of the evening came at the end of the meal when the waitress showed up with interlocking heart-shaped balloons in honor of our anniversary.  As the table started to clap and the waitresses went on with what I guess was an anniversary song in Japanese, Anna burst into tears!  It was quite comical.  Then the waitress put a candle/buddha thing in front of us and told us to make a wish.  Scott said, "I wish for Anna to stop crying."  Then she pulled out her Polaroid camera and took this photo -- I think it's fantastic -- what a memory.  Despite a less than romantic anniversary evening, we both had good attitudes about our "situation" and laughed the whole thing off.  I have a wonderful husband -- I'm so glad that we are together.

scrapworks design team

This afternoon I'm about to mail in my application for the Scrapworks Design Team Call.  I only read about it on the 1st (the deadline is Jan. 13th), but felt really motivated to enter the race.  I don't know that I even have a chance, or if it's a huge longshot . . . . but I'm proud of myself for completing the projects, squeezing out whatever creative juices I have in me.  I had to turn in a double-page layout, single-page layout, card, and paper project.  I thought I would share them here.  I figure it's ok, I'm not breaing any rules -- the application stated that you could use layouts that were already posted in online galleries.  This isn't too different.  I'm most excited about the paper project I made -- it's titled "a few of my favorite things".  I think I'll post all of the pages later when I have more time.

On the DT call's webpage it stated:  "We want to see you capture the color and excitement of everyday life in your own unique way."  And I feel confident that I've done just that.

**update: The Scrapworks DT has been announced.  No I'm not on it.  But it was a fun challenge.  I'm just so excited that I made something for myself -- I've got my "favorite things" project hannging on my workspace.

shannon needs . . . . .

. . . . to post.  I feel like I'm still trying to dig out from Christmas.  Trying to find places for all the new toys -- it seems there are piles and piles everywhere I look.  We had a long New Year's weekend.  Scott took a couple extra days off so we had 5 in a row with him at home.  Scott chaperoned a youth New Years' party, we put away all the Christmas stuff, I taught a RS lesson, Scott held his annual Pig-Out (6 college bowl games on tv and all the food that goes with it), I had Anna's 3-month portraits taken, Scott took Conner skiing for the first time, Payton and I went to the Children's Museum . . . . needless to say, a very full weekend.  Just wanted to pop in and say hi -- hoping to put some new pics up soon.