Sweetness in Seattle

On Friday, I flew to Seattle to meet Darwin, who was on his way home from being in Florida for two weeks for training. I usually don't have the opportunity to get away with him when he is out of town for training, but he always asks me to go with him. I took him up on a small piece of the offer and met him for the day in Seattle before flying back home with him Saturday evening. He arrived around 9pm and was able to pick up the rental car and check in at the hotel before coming back to the airport to get me at 11pm. We stayed at the Sierra Bellevue Hotel (which I would recommend). We got up the next morning and drove 1/2 a mile to the Seattle Washington Temple. We did two sessions back to back and then we headed out to IKEA for lunch and shopping before returning to the airport to fly home.

I love going to the temple. This was the first time we have been through the Seattle temple together. I have actually been in the Seattle temple before. When I was a little girl, I went to the open house there in 1980. I remember wearing the shoe covers on my feet, and I remember seeing a sealing room with the giant chandelier and the mirrors...and being disappointed that President Kimball (the prophet at the time) was not in there. I was sure he was going to be in the temple! I also remember green carpet, but the carpet isn't green...it is a gold/tan color. Something that I didn't remember that I think I should have remembered was there are 4 sets of escalators in there! You would think a 6 yr. old would remember going up and down moving stairs...but nope!

Something that hasn't ever happened to me before during a session, happened this time through. The first woman I went through for was VERY excited to have her work done. I'm not sure how to write it...especially in a public blog, but I just felt her excitement for the entire session. It was an awesome experience. I'm so glad I was able to go there this week and partake of the blessings that come from attending the temple.

Darwin and I in front of the Seattle Washington Temple.



Seattle Washington Temple

There were three statues on the temple grounds...this one is my favorite.

We also had the best time in IKEA. I really do love that store. We had swedish meatballs for lunch and got to spend almost 2 hours wandering around. We bought $130 worth of small things that would fit into our suitcases, and salavated over the stuff we wanted and couldn't fit into a suitcase! Our kids had a blast staying over at our friend's home for the night. We don't ever do sleepovers as a family rule, except for cases like this one, so the kids felt like they were being treated just as much as we did! I am so thankful for their family and the friendship we have with them.

Well, I'm off to get something done! Wish me luck!

i made SOCKS!!

This is my first pair of crochet socks. I started on them during Thanksgiving (??) and finished them today. Of course I haven't been working on them continuously since that time, but they did take several hours of work. With homework, a family, three started and unfinished quilts, and life going on...they took months to complete. I am happy that I finished them though. Once the first one was done, I really didn't want to do the other one...hehe!...but I can't just wear only one sock around! Oh, and with the last picture...it took me SIX shots to get a picture of the bottom of my own feet! It was harder than I thought it would be. =)

Pinewood Derby

Caleb participated in his final pinewood derby in Jan. I was really sure that last year was his final derby, but this pack up here does theirs a lot earlier in the year, so he got to do five all together. It was two days before he turned eleven. This year, he made a tank, and came in 3rd place. He got a trophy and a big ribbon. I was at school so I didn't get any pictures, but he and the rest of the family had fun. He is now going to eleven year old scouts, and is finally wearing a tan Boy Scout shirt. He has had the same blue shirt since he was six and in Tiger Scouts...it was giant on him then, and just barely fits him now.

Adoption Blog

I stayed up tonight and put together this adoption profile for our family. It is mostly just so I (and YOU!) have a place to refer potential birthmothers. I don't intend to update this very often, just as needed, but feel free to browse it and share it with those who may have a need for it. I am hoping that our adoption worker has received our last referral letter...it has been mailed...and that we can FINALLY get back to waiting. I'm not sure what happened to our parentprofiles site, but it won't let me log on to it anymore (they took us offline while we were being updated, and for awhile, I was able to log on and look at stuff...but now it won't let me do anything), and LDS Family Services is switching to a new and improved website in the very near future, so we are kind of without a web based referral spot at the present. I may add a few more things, and tweak a few more, but this one won't disappear like the others! =)

Photography class

I am taking a digital photography class this semester. This group of pictures was our first assignment. It may look completely boring and pointless...but I was very excited to learn it. This lesson was on taking a picture with the correct exposure settings. Our assignment was to take pictures of a black object, a gray object, a white object, and then pictures of the three of them together. He wanted the object to fill the full frame, and take one regular point and click picture of each one, and then change the camera settings to correctly expose the picture, so the black object was really black and not a form of gray or brown...and the white object was really white and not an off white or gray. I have never changed the settings on my camera, so this was fun to do. It's kind of an uninteresting post, but people ask me how school is, and I can actually show my work for this class, so there ya go! Oh, and the reason my white looks slightly pink or orange has to do with shooting in florescent lighting.


Original Black Object

Under exposed by 1

Under exposed by 2


White overexposed by 2

White overexposed by 1

Original white object


Gray under exposed by 2

Gray underexposed by 1

Gray overexposed by 2

Gray overexposed by 1

Original Gray object


Contrast underexposed by 2

Contrast underexposed by 1

Contrast overexposed by 2

Contrast overexposed by 1

Original Contrast of objects

Happy 11th Birthday, Caleb!

Caleb had his birthday this past week and he is now 11. He was supposed to be born on Feb. 19th, but he was anxious to be out. He spent 8 days in the NICU, and we were so relieved that it wasn't anything serious, just a little breathing difficulty. He is a great kid, and we are happy to have him in our family. He chose to go out to Bullwinkle's Pizza for dinner, and we let all the kids play a few of the arcade games they have in there.

This was Caleb's favorite present. It is a Bakugan. I'm not really sure what they do, or what the hype is with them, but they are THE hot toy here. I've looked for them several times, and have only ever seen this one at the store in the 3 months I've known about them.


The cake.

The boy with the cake.

He blew each candle out individually! It was pretty funny when we told him he didn't get his wish, because he didn't do it in one blow...I don't know how he didn't know that "rule". Do you also love London posing in the background....lol!

The story about the cake is...I knew that we had a cake in the cupboard, because I could see the side of the box. What I didn't know is that it was a strawberry cake (ie and pink cake) and that just wasn't going to work. I added a ton of yellow food coloring to the batter to make it orange, and then we put blue frosting on it, so it could be a BSU cake. =) He thought that was pretty cool.

They must have got this from me...

What is with all the big hair around here!?! Brooklin is constantly giving herself giant hair, and last week, we put London's hair up in these twist things (I didn't take a picture of them) but when we took her hair out and brushed it, she said "Now I look like Brooklin". All I can think of is they must have gotten it from me. =) The sad thing is I did my hair that way to look GOOD...and they do it to look funny!

Brooklin and London with big hair

London with "Brooklin" hair

Me at the age of 15...my sophomore year of high school. Go ahead and laugh, =) I know a lot of you (girls) did the same thing every day....rat, tease, blow dry, and use endless cans of aquanet. =)