miscellaneous Monday

1. Thank you to all of you who have prayed and wondered about my mom. All of her tests proved inconclusive, and she checked herself out of the hospital on Friday. She has a referral for a specialist, and we are hoping and praying that she doesn't end up back in the E.R. She is thrilled to be out of the hospital, and is back at work with a (hopefully) limited schedule.

2. Here is a picture of Marc painting over the last of our old gold color! His painting job is finished, but mine has a loooong way to go.

It's been sheer chaos here for quite some time.

3. While the bookcase was emptied and pulled away from the wall, we decided to fix the outlet behind it so that we can finally have a functioning lamp there again!

I googled how to replace an outlet. It looked like a piece of cake. It wasn't exactly a piece of cake, but Marc did it! (I had to document him being handy.)

4. I am struggling with motherhood right now. I am questioning whether I am really the right mother for these three children of mine. I just can't seem to figure out what to do, what to say. I definitely do not have the answers. Jill reminded me that I am in Parenting 505, but right now I fear I am failing the course.

Women's Conference

I can't believe it's been almost a month, and I still haven't done this post! (It took me awhile to recover from April.)


This year, Women's Conference weekend was different than in years past. In addition to being with Jill and Kristi, my mom, my aunt Denise, and my cousins Emily and Charlotte all came to town!

{name tags that were left at my house}

So this year, I could look down the row and see 6 women that I love and admire! Pretty cool.

I think the best thing about Women's Conference is being with so many other women who are seeking knowledge, want to be uplifted, and are striving to be better. Being there with women that I really love is a wonderful feeling.

I've only been able to attend with my mother once before, and that was in 2000 (Grandma, Denise, and Jessie were also in attendance then). Mom stayed at my house, so we drove together, and pretty much went everywhere together. She lives in Pennsylvania, so it's not often that I get to spend so much time with her! (I love her handwriting.)

I think we ran into Patsy and the Centerville girls 4 times in different places the first day! Pretty surprising when you take into account the other 26,000 or so women who were there.

A trip to the BYU bookstore is requisite, despite the hordes of women and long lines everywhere. Jill showed me these books she picked up – I thought it was funny that she was buying these reference books, but when I loaded this photo it became even funnier to me because I noticed the "do you still have a crush on him?" and "horoscope inside!" headlines. (On a math book??)

My mom's outfit was too cute to be sullied by her name tag around her neck, so she fashioned a way to attach it to her belt! (I've never even thought of that.)

We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner one night with Shannon and Heather, also in town from Pennsylvania. It's always fun to meet blog friends in person!

I think I like this photo even better than the first one. These two were seriously cracking each other up (and the rest of us as well).

My favorite pizza: pear/gorgonzola/hazelnut. Seriously so good.

One night we went to the free concert on campus. We've never done that before! Parts of it were good, other parts . . . not so much. We all agreed that it was far too long, and Jill and I couldn't help thinking longingly of relaxing at home in our jammies.

I was loving this weather, so of course my mom was completely freezing.

This is what we woke up to on Saturday! April 30th. It seems like we get a big snow every year when the tulips and the trees are in full bloom.

I felt sorry for this little guy – do you think he was surprised?

Eva was thrilled that Grandma and Grandpa were here on her birthday.

I took her shopping to get things for her friend birthday party, and we went to watch Max play at the state orchestra solo/small ensemble competition. (He did wonderfully well.)

We had belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for dinner. (Nothing like having dessert before birthday cake!)

Ken was on her list, but I didn't know she would be so excited about him!

She put on quite the fashion show to model her new clothes (mostly from Grandma).

I made chocolate angel food cake. I don't make this cake very often, and I didn't know about the trick of making the frosting the day before (I always make the cake the night before) so that it is easier to frost. Next time!

We took my parents to the airport the next day. I hate saying goodbye. Whenever they leave, I kind of feel like someone pulled the rug out from under me, which is not a good feeling.

Isn't my mom darling??

Creative Friday x5!

I resolved to catch up on Creative Friday today. I knew I'd gotten behind, for one reason or another. But I thought I only had 3 times to document! Not 5!! Good grief. So, here goes:

1. March 25th

Jill brought a plate of her scrumptious homemade cookies. I really have a hard time sharing these with my family.

So pleasing!

I worked on new birthday tags...

and birthday gifts (coasters). I love fabric as much as I love paper -- they're all textiles to me.

I can't remember anymore what it is that Jill wanted me to try to include in the background of this self-portrait, but I know for a fact that it was not that attractive asphalt!

2. April 3rd

This captures perfectly how we feel whenever we get phone calls during Creative Friday. I'm usually the one who gets calls since we're most often at my house, but this time I was able to catch Jill's impatience. Is it wrong that we don't want any more interruptions than necessary?

This pretty card of Jill's with matching envelope was oh so pleasing to me.

This cracked me up. Jill was doodling and then complaining about how much she hates her doodling. I know what she means, because I get a little irritated with my doodling as well (so meaningless! so repetitive!), but of course I had to document the source of her irritation.

Both in pretty good form. (but me with no lipstick! what the?)

3. April 10th
Jill elected to continue with Creative Friday during the week she was so sick.

This sad sight should have no place at Creative Friday...

Jill cut a bunch of labels. Does anyone else find those little slivers of curling cuttings as compelling as I?

At one point I looked up and saw Jill writing her cards like this. Now there's a sight I'd never seen before -- such a sad commentary on the state of her health!

Yet, look how cute she managed to look, even while sick! (and what am I looking at??)

4. April 17th
Last week was Spring break, so all the kids were able to get together as well. Eva was thrilled to do play-doh and dinosaurs with Whitney, and the big kids played board games and basketball. So fortunate that the mid-week snow had melted!

Jill brought this lovely Easter candy. (Why is it that candy in seasonally appropriate wrappers seems to be even more irresistible than usual?)

I love these!

I didn't even have the energy to put makeup on, even though I knew Jill would still want to take a self-portrait! I told her to focus on her correspondence and to try not to look at me. So scary.

5. April 24th
Today Eva spent a lot of time sitting next to me and asking me innumerable questions. Why do small children ask questions they already know the answer to??

I helped her to discover that she can get on and off the trampoline by herself and thought that might provide some quality quiet time, but her jumping session was all too short.

invitations in progress (this photo's for you, Kristi)

completed invitations (this photo's for you, Jess)

I love Jill's photo cards.

Not a good week in terms of peace and quiet, but at least both of us are feeling much better!