Happy Birthday to Tawnie Pooh!

Hi Tawnia! Happy Birthday! We hope you have a great day!

Love, Eric, Laurel, Stevie, and Allie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAWNIA

You asked how I've seen the hand of the Lord in my life. One very special way is through you. You always set such a fine example for me by being so faithful. I loved what you told BYU when you turned down their offer for grad school. The reason was prayer. That's the way you live your life and I'm so proud of you for it.

May this new year of your life bring many exciting adventures. I'm glad you've had this time to be home but I know that it's time for you to leave again. Remember that we're always here for you.

Love always,
MOM

A job

Yes, I finally have a JOB! An actual job!

So today, while I was baby-sitting a couple of girls for a sister from the ward, Mom came in with the phone. I'd been interviewed for this housekeeping position on Monday, and I so hoped to get a job. (Seriously, I even applied for the position of sign post . . . er, holder.) It was getting frustrating. (I apologize to those who had to put up with me.)

Anyway, the woman on the other end didn't say I got the job; she just wanted to see me this afternoon. Actually, she called in two of us. Originally she was going to hire only one part-time evening housekeeper, but she couldn't decide between me and another candidate, so she decided to hire us both. Only I have a day position instead of evening. I'm very happy. Relieved.

Think what I can do with all that money. Pay off student loans. Get a library card (where I could check out more than one book at a time). Give Mom and Dad some money to pay for the roof over my head (literally). Buy me some chocolate. Go splurge at the bookstore.

Hand of God in my life...

Thanks Tawnia for the great reminder of Pres. Eyring's talk, and the invitation to share a recent miracle or two.

I've seen the hand of God in my life a few times in recent days. One that I'm willing to share has to do with the Project Management Professional exam that I took last Friday. I went into the test a little shakey. They say to get a good night's sleep, etc. and I tried, I really did, but it didn't happen. So the test started around nine thirty, and I had four hours, including fifteen minutes for a test tutorial at the beginning. So I had until one forty five. But I thought (originally) it would only take me three hours to take the test. I was wrong.

When I had a little over an hour to go I was hungry and tired and sure I was going to fail the test. I started to think about what I would tell my boss and how I would study differently for the retake.

Then I prayed. I had the thought enter my mind that I should just do my best and keep working on the test and not give up. And so I did. I used every last minute of that test (I think I stopped it with 17 seconds left).

And I passed.

New Question

Since no one else is putting up questions to try and keep the blog going I guess I will.

Here's a question for the week.

How have you seen the hand of the Lord in your life lately?

And if you haven't then start looking!

Love,
T

Accepted

Now I've been accepted to two of the three schools I applied to. Should make the decision interesting. For more perspective on this please read my personal blog. I hope you've all been invited!

for old times' sake

With the sudden explosion of spring here (it seriously seemed like it was overnight), I've been going around singing, "Spring is here, spring is here, life is skittles and life is beer. I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring! I do! Don't you? 'Course you do ... "

So for old times' sake, here are a couple of videos of those Dr. Demento show performances we all thought were so hilarious ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TytGOeiW0aE

Call me juvenile, but these still crack me up!

Things I'm proud of...

Well, I'm proud that I graduated college, that I married a pretty stinking awesome fellow, that I have two stinking amazing babies, and that I'm posting on this blog. And my playhouse - I'm proud of how things are coming, and that I went and re-did like half the stuff I'd already done.

I'm Happy to Report

I've been exercising 30 minutes every morning. For Christmas, Aaron brought the girls a Disney DDR that plugs directly into the DVD player. I've been using that nearly every day for the past month or so. I don't know if I've lost any weight to speak of but I'm working on it. And, of course, my best accomplishment is my beautiful children and my beautiful grandchildren.

what makes me proud

Good question Tawnia. I think it's a good thing to get my mind off what makes me worried. It's a lot like counting my blessings actually, and since I didn't really do any of these things without help (divine and other), it's the same thing. So these are what I'm proud of right now...

- Being the father of two beautiful children
- Buying a house
- Conducting a ten minute meeting this afternoon (short and sweet. oh yeah)
- Reading War and Peace, Ulysses, and Infinite Jest (long, complex, and long AND complex respectively)
- Laurel wants me to help with dinner so I'd better go...

Wahoo!

I got accepted to BYU. Hopefully I'll hear back from USU by Monday. Then comes the fun of deciding where to actually attend.

And that is what I did that I'm proud of this week (the getting into BYU part.)

Emily's plan

Hi, family. Well, it looks like going directly to a publisher isn't going to work, but at least that pushed me to hurry and finish a decent manuscript. So now my plan is to look for an agent to sell my book. I did an initial search on Saturday and made up a list of possible agents, particularly those with a strong interest in fantasy and young adult books. I have ten on my list. Next, I prioritized them and figured out what each one wanted (a query letter only, or if they want the first five pages -- it varies a lot). I've also written a rough draft of a query letter.

I still need to go over my novel yet again and polish up a few points.

Wish me luck.

recently

I finally baked bread by myself.

 

I cut Summer's hair. 

 

Marnie needs her first major haircut pretty badly, but she's tough to get to hold still to even trim her bangs (which also needs to be done). We'll see how that one goes.

my special thing

I posted on this blog. Now I can smile and say, "I did that."

I did that!

Check out my art blog and it's full of creations that I'm very proud of. I do love to show off my artwork, especially when pictures turn out just right. Like my latest picture of Henry. Or the watercolor dogs I just finished (one will be posted shortly).

Whenever Aaron gets home from work, I basically have to give him a tour of the apartment, and show him all the little things that I got done throughout the day. He needs to know where everything goes anyway, so he can start putting things away himself.

Hello? Hello?

So I left town and the blog died? Well, Trina posted one thing, but everyone else just quit. I had even posted another question and everything.

Now I know that we aren't supposed to be prideful, but we all have little things that we've done that make us smile. I would have to say that my "proud" accomplishments of late are knitting a purse and a wallet. I think they are pretty cool and I showed them off to everyone while I was in Utah. My proud accomplishment of last year was learning to solve a Rubix Cube... but I've forgotten how to do it since then. I need to have Clarissa re-teach me how to do it.

Are there any other random questions that people are going to ask in order to keep this blog going?

emailing pictures

Did I ever send ...

Mom: pictures of the girls' stockings? And then the one I got of all 4 kids stockings before we filled them at Eric's? I think you said something about not taking pictures of them before you sent them, and I was supposed to send them to you.

Eric: pictures from Christmas Eve in Colonial Williamsburg and Christmas morning? I got 2 of Stevie in the foot stocks that crack me up (one is Adam's current profile picture on Facebook). I also shot a bunch of Allie with Summer and Marnie all playing with her tea set while you were occupied with Stevie and his Buzz Lightyear stuff.

Tawnia: pictures of the girls with their blankets you made on Christmas morning? I wrapped them and put them under the tree.

I don't think I sent any of these. Sorry about the lag time. I was just looking through my photo folders this evening to see if there was a more updated picture of me with the girls for the sisters blog (the picture there is from last Easter - almost a year ago), and remembered about the Christmas pictures.