Lessons learned.

It's so much fun to play with my kiddos on the floor. Elijah giggles like crazy when mommy crawls after him.
I'm not sure he knew what to make of it when out of the blue I stopped pursuit, made a funky garbled "aaaggh" sound and rolled onto my back clutching my left knee while fighting back tears.
I had swung my leg around, stubbing my knee on one of my 15 lb. weights. It's throbbing and turning a nice shade of purple.

Some important life lessons learned here:

1. Clean up after yourself! I should've put my weights away last night.
2. A stubbed knee hurts like a bugger. Worse by far than a stubbed toe. Trust me.
3. Laying on your back in the middle of playing chase with youngsters is an open invitation for full on attack. I was sat upon, drooled upon, kissed, poked & tickled. I basically got to be a jungle gym for my little monkeys. (LV couldn't resist helping his baby brother out.)
I must admit, it helped get my mind off of my knee.

I'm off to find some sort of ice pack.
Have a great day!

Beautiful Day

Hooray for another sunny day. Loving this weather!
It's been a long but good Sunday.

I slept in. A beautiful thing any day.
We all made it to church. It's been awhile since all 6 of us went. It's been a winter full of sickies, but none today! Hooray!
Elijah slept through most of church.
I got great cuddles while he napped. :)
We had yummy chicken enchiladas for dinner at Vern's parents' house.
Vern got to talk to Julie and Kyle.
Played in PS with some of our pics. (So much fun! This one of LV last summer made me smile.)

Well, Elijah's asleep on my lap & Vern fell asleep on the floor in front of the tv watching a movie. I guess I should try to get the three of us into bed.

First though, my lovin' today goes to my daughter...

Kirsten is so smart & talented. While she drives me nuts at times I love her so much and think she's such an awesome kiddo.
Love you Kirstie-Leigh!

Up all night again.

For a good reason though. I've been exercising every night after everyone else goes to bed. Just me, my step, pilates dvds & my weights. Love my weights. So fun!

We accomplished some fun things today.
~It was beautiful outside and I got to leave the house. (A rare thing of late.) Go me!
~We bought a plunger. Woohoo! Exciting, I know. I can't believe we've lived here all of this time and didn't need one before now. (Must've left our old one behind when we moved.) Talk about blessed! lol
~I also got a cute pink shirt, a new stapler & a case of V8. Mmmmmmmm...
~Finally got my wacom tablet installed. (I've had it for more than a year. It's so much fun to play with!)
~Brandon won his basketball game this morning - he's going to regionals. Cool!
~I spent time with Vern & my kiddos, worked out and even played a bit today. All makes for a great day & a happy April.

Today's lovin' goes to my SIL Lauren. She's a very cool aunt, and such a fun little sis.

I took this pic of her at Brian & Beth's wedding last May. Such a pretty girl!

Living with a Jedi Master

...is dangerous business.

I have stubbed my toe on,
been whacked in the head by
and sat upon
3 different lightsabers today.

Owie.

Since when does no mean yes?

Ah, Spring is coming. The phone calls have begun. So far I've turned down 4 weddings this month. I'm still officially taking a break and am happy with that decision. There are some things that really need to happen before I follow that path. Important, necessary things.

Yesterday though, in a conversation where my initial response was "I'm not doing any photography work right now" I still ended up with a tentative family shoot. I hung up the phone & shook my head. What? I thought I'd said no. I guess "not at the moment" isn't enough of a no for a shoot that is months away. Fair enough. And it could be fun.

Then today a family friend called. She has a wedding coming up. Am I still taking a break? Why yes, I am. So we do a bit of a consult instead. Um, the bride & groom are still planning to call us. A wedding in May? But I'm taking a break. Really I am. Still taking care of loose ends from past stuff, trying to regain focus and figure out how everything really works with four kiddos. I'm not sure we'll be ready by May. I'll have Vern be the one to talk to the couple. He'll know how to consult with them & help them - possibly without picking up a camera. lol

The reason for the break? Stress levels, health levels and a near breakdown during/after last season. A period that was so close to burning me right out. Still working through some things. Photography is a part of me and is still what I want to do. First though, like I said, some things need to be taken care of. If I'm going to continue to do this I need to do it right. That means time out to tie up loose ends and get things ready. Then some time in the future we'll blast back into the scene & do it right. Should be fun.

Meanwhile I ought to practice saying no. (It can be really hard when people you care about want/need your help. I have a hard time not stepping in to do things that need to get done when asked. For friends, family, and so on - pretty much anyone who asks and is really in need. In some cases I'm not sure an absolute no is in me. Agh. Good thing there's Vern.)

There. Typing this was therapeutic. I do think Vern needs to field all phone calls from here on out though. lol

That's it - we need tivo.

I watched AI tonight during primetime thinking I could watch figure skating at midnight. Um, no - they didn't start the encore performance until 1:00 a.m. It's going to be a late one folks. But I'm determined to see how things turned out for the ladies tonight for myself. I carefully avoided all sources of news and everything. Now if I can just stay awake. Elijah's up too. Should be fun. :p

I'm glad the week is almost over. It's been a long one. The highlight?
This:

See that chocolate shake baby? Mine all mine. And a yummy ceasar salad in the bag. Love it when Vern walks in the door bearing treats. I'm not sure that he loves that I happened to be sitting there with the camera, but hey - worked for me. :)

Ooooh, skating's back on. I'll end with a fun Elijah pic for now, and my lovin' today goes to my mom-in-law Nina.

Look at that laugh. Love my baby.
And I love this lady. Nina is the most giving, caring, sweetheart of a person. I'm so lucky to have her for my mom-in-law.

Not fishing, silly searches & my vote.

Just sharing some random thoughts. I sat down at my computer wondering what I should blog about & these things came to mind.

So last night in the van on the way home from Vern's parents' house this guy on the radio said something negative about his wife. The sentence went something like "I married a _____ type of woman."

This is the conversation that ensued.

Me: "So, Vern, what kind of woman did you marry?"
Vern: "Ha. No way am I going to answer a question like that."
Me: "What? I just wondered what you'd say. That's all."
Vern: "You're fishing. We're not going fishing. I'm not going fishing. I have nothing negative to say here."
Me: "It doesn't have to be negative. Just 'cause that guy's comment was negative doesn't mean yours has to be."
Vern: "Hmmm... Okay."
He thinks for a few seconds, then smiles, and laughs.
Me: "What? You had a thought. Share it. Pleeease"
Vern glances at the kids & says "I'll tell you later."
Me: "Is it a response to the question?"
Vern: "Yeah."
I'm sitting there, wondering what on earth his response could be that he a. laughed and b. wouldn't tell me in front of the kids. I still don't know. He hasn't told me yet. Anyhow, we continue...
Vern: "What kind of woman did I marry. Let's see... She's headstrong but doesn't always know what she wants."
Me: "Agreed. I have no idea what I want most of the time. See, that wasn't so hard." Still silently wondering what the first response was that made him laugh.

I have a smart husband. He's such a tease, but I suppose he's a smart one.

When I asked him later what the thought was he said "I had just been thinking you were going to ask me and I honestly am blanking. It'll come. I'll tell you as soon as I remember." I'm still waiting. I guess I should be glad he played at all.

Any guesses though? lol I'm lost and way too curious.

Oh, and be careful what you search for on the internet - you may accidentally stumble across my blog. lol What kinds of search terms will get you here? You never know. According to my web counter it could be just about anything. Here's the list of recent search terms:

carolina chowder Elijah's (MSN)
my-yummy-lunch (Google)
Kristi daycare (MSN)
flat-out silly (MSN)
kirsten's room (Google)
April Petersen (Google)
cupid's mix m&ms photos (Google)
Friday night boredom (MSN)
Stake Dance (MSN)

Well, the person searching for my name may have actually found me on purpose. I'm not so sure about the others.

At least I found a use for my web counter. lol

Oh, and today's lovin' goes to American Idol. I'm lovin' this season so far! I'm totally rooting for Taylor Hicks. I'm liking some others too (Chris Daughtry! Ace Young!) but if I were to call in a vote at this point it'd go to Taylor. I just like him.

Happy Wednesday!

Another Monday?!

I swear, these weeks have been flying by.

Thank goodness for family. Today it was Vern's sister Lauren to the rescue. Kirsten & little Vern are off having fun sledding with her, and I'm having a much more relaxing day than I'd anticipated. (Thanks Lauren!)

If I could be anywhere at the moment though, I'd be in Canada house in Torino watching the women's gold medal hockey game. Not because I'm a huge hockey fan, but because it's so much fun to be a part of the excitement. Believe me, the Molson Canadian & Labatt Blue are flowing, and those people are having some fun cheering the team on. It's just as much fun to watch the people as it is to watch the game. lol Go Canada! I'm having fun playing with Elijah & watching the game on TV though. He's at least as entertaining as a drunk Canadian. lol

With the young kiddos out having fun Brandon and I have been able to get a fair amount of household chores done. The mountain of clean laundry is taunting me. Ugh. I'm considering waiting to see if Vern will help fold it all tonight.

Today's loving goes to my B. He's so good about helping me. Elijah is lovin' the attention he's getting from his big bro today too. Thanks B! Love you!

B in action. Don't mind the ugly, outdated kitchen. If we ever decide to buy this house those cabinets/that countertop will be the first things to go.

And I'm trying to teach the boy where his waist is. Teenagers and their silly tendancies. I guess this look beats some of the stupid stuff that was in when I was his age.

Saturday

It's been a good, quiet day for us. We slept in. (Well, most of us did.) We went out for brunch. (Yum!) I had a late afternoon nap & then doodled with Kirsten this evening. Now I'm just waiting for Brandon to come home from the stake dance. I have my blanket, some hot chocolate (it's Erica's fault tonight) and a Norah Jones cd.

Vern went to bed way early. He finally has the icky nausea/tummy bug that has swept through our household this week. I'm just barely feeling better, so he'd better stay far far away from me.

I need to declare some love.

Nope, this isn't a declaration of my love for roses. (Though I do love 'em.) It's for my brother-in-law Kenyon, who brought me & Kirsten each a rose on Valentine's Day. What a sweetheart.
Thanks Kenyon! Love you!

Bored

Vern is playing some new video game.
Kyle & Julie haven't been logged into teamspeak when we've checked. (Miss them.)
The kids are asleep.
I'm kinda bored. Yep, this would be Friday night boredom.
That seals it - I am so not cool.

I actually pulled out some pictures and considered scrapping. (Crazy, I know. I have decided I need to do some scrap-related-shopping before thinking like that again.) Instead I spent a few minutes in photoshop playing with brushes, fonts, a picture and other things that make me happy. I am no digi-scrapper, but I can see why others have fun with that format. I spend enough time in PS as it is though, tHanK~YoU~vEry~MuCh. For tonight that's okay. It's fun to create in any way, shape or form when one is bored.

Tonight that'd be me.

11 months, baby!

I have a raging headache this evening, but had to take a minute to post a picture of my sweet Elijah on his 11 month day.

Yes folks, one month from now my baby will be 1 year old. Waah!!! Almost as crazy is the thought that 3 days before Elijah's birthday is little Vern's. He will be 5. Oh my. Double Waah! He's still a little on the sick side, so I'll take some pics of him another day. Here's Elijah's grin though. So cute. :)

Oh, and my lovin' for today goes to my camera. A Canon 10D. It allows me to take pictures in the cruddy light down here so that I can do my lovin' posts. I've been wanting a 20D forever, but must say that my 10D has served me well for a very long time. It's been to so many weddings and enabled me to capture a gazillion shots of my kiddos, freezing moments and capturing expressions that will make me smile forever. Here's me & my camera- an old mirror shot. (It was all I could find. I was taking a pic for my squirrely avatar after a new haircut. Silly LV wanted in the pic too. lol)

Brrrrrrrr...

It's so cold & snowy today.

Little Vern has laid in the same spot all day, after throwing up all morning. Poor little guy.

Vern came home grumpy. Maybe I should give him his Valentine's day gift. We didn't get around to it yesterday. (He bought it for himself but I get to wear it. Well, I suppose he could, but that would be flat-out silly.)

Along the same lines, I was spoiled rotten last night. What does a smart man like Vern get for his stressed out wife on Valentine's Day? I am sooooo not telling.

Well, in honor of the cold wintry day, I just took a picture of my favorite warm-me-up thing in the world. My humungo mug full of hot chocolate. Mmmmmmm... This is what get's my lovin' for today's post. :)

ROFL

Um, thanks Julie! I think...

Ten Top Trivia Tips about April!

1. April can taste with her feet.
2. In Chinese, the sound 'April' means 'bite the wax tadpole'.
3. Tradition allows women to propose to April only during leap years.
4. In Japan, April can only be prepared by chefs specially trained and certified by the government.
5. It takes forty minutes to hard-boil April!
6. More people are killed by April each year than die in aeroplane accidents.
7. The difference between April and a village is that April does not have a church.
8. Some hotels in Las Vegas have April floating in their swimming pools.
9. April is actually a vegetable, not a fruit.
10. April can grow up to three feet in a 24 hour period.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Delayed Reaction

Sometimes I'm so slow. Erin tagged me with this 2 weeks ago. Sorry Erin! I had thought this one looked like fun when it went around. Now I'm less sure. lol I will be holding my breath in case anyone actually reads it.

The rules for this particular tagging are as follows: Remove the blog name in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add yourself to the bottom slot.
April
Holly
Kristi
Erin
April P.

Then you get to select five people to pass the love on to. I can only think of 2 people I know for sure who haven't answered this yet. But if you read this and you haven't, you're tagged too!
1. Robin
2. Julie
3. you
4. him
5. her

Here are the questions.
What were you doing 10 years ago?
February 1996. That was when I met Vern!
It was a tough year for me. Boy trouble. Lots of it. A single mom, I lived at the gym, hung out with Vivian, and was dealing with the aforementioned boy trouble. (7 boys. Some of whom I was trying to avoid, one that I was trying to get over and one I could have had sent to jail.) I was confused & not having fun. Being kissed by 3 guys in one day was a little traumatizing. :p There's only one who's name I can't remember. I think of him as the Elvis guy. Met him at a stake dance & he wouldn't stop calling. He sang me Elvis songs. Weirdo.
My saving grace through that time was that I had amazing friends. Vivian, Wil & Vern.
Anyhow, on a night that I should have called the police it was Vivian & Vern that helped me through it. He was like my knight in shining armor and absolutely the opposite of every other guy. (Physically fending off the others & wondering why Vern wouldn't even sit next to me at the dinner table. lol) When he got transferred to a different area before leaving Toronto, what he wrote as parting words sums up that period perfectly. He wrote "Don't let any dumb guys do any stupid stuff." Profound, huh. My sweetie. He came back to Utah in May, came back for us in August, we were married in October.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Last February - I was eight months pregnant with Elijah and oh so sick. I kept losing weight at the end because of the gest. diabetes. It was a little scary. I was playing WoW, having lots of baths & trying to deal with back pains. That was my most difficult pregnancy.

Five snacks you enjoy (in no particular order, as all snacks are created equal):
Black licorice (Bassetts Allsorts or Good 'n Plenty)
Yogurt blasted Cheerios
Chocolate covered pretzels
Junior Mints
Wheat thins

Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyrics:
(I learn lyrics quickly and sing along to almost everything, all the time. Just ask Vern. But these are the first five to come to mind...)
Somebody - Depeche Mode
Welcome to My Life - Simple Plan
Pinch Me - BNL
Hotel California - the Eagles
Sweet Child of Mine - Guns n Roses

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
Have zero debt
Become an American citizen
Take my kids to Disneyland
Get Vern regisetered for school.
Go somewhere like Hawaii, relax, tan & swim. Ahhhhhh...

Five bad habits:
Snacking at my computer.
Staying up way too late.
Swearing. Working on it. Really not proud of this one.
Losing touch with people I care about.
Junk food.

Five things you like doing:
photography
walking
working up a good sweat at the gym
reading
snuggling, cuddling, holding loved ones close.

Five things you would never wear, buy, or get again:
um, legwarmers?
biker shorts
tube tops lol
flourescent clothing of any kind.
mini skirts that get thank you's from boys at school. (My most embarrassing story, trust me.)

Five favorite toys:
1. my camera
2. photoshop
3. teamspeak
4. my computer
5. my step

First time you drove a car:
I scared Keith to death in his red mustang. lol

First time you scrapbooked:
When Wendy bought me a buttload of supplies for my first anniversary. It was geared for my wedding album, but I did Kirsten's baby album first. Whew.

First time you got on a plane:
Big plane? Vivian bought me airfare for my birthday to come here for a week in July '96 & meet Vern's family and spend actual time with him. (I've said before, our courtship was pretty much long-distance phone calls.) It was the most generous and amazing gift.
Small plane? When I was a kid my mom dated Roy, who had a little 3 seater plane. We flew all of the time to secluded lakes and such all over Northern Ontario. Such good memories.

First time you shaved your legs:
I have no idea. I'm not very hairy, but have shaved for as long as I can remember. Must not have been monumental.

First time you put on make up:
Junior High. That white-pink lipstick was in & lots of eyeliner. Just like this:

First time you moved out of your home:
I signed the lease for my first basement apartment when I was 16. I went home when I had Brandon just after I turned 19, and again when he was 1 and Keith & I broke up mostly for good.

A few things.

First, happy Valentine's Day to anyone who reads this blog.

This holiday means more than chocolate & flowers to me. More than I love you, it holds memories & emotions that are important and intensely personal to me. So forgive me for skimming as I share just a few things that make this day a special one for me.

Okay, so the chocolate & flowers count for something.

Three years ago on Valentine's day we lost baby #4. I remember that day as though it were yesterday. It wasn't my first miscarriage, but it was devastating. Heartbreaking as that was for us, it strengthened us. Valentine's day is almost like a birthday in my heart for baby #4. Love you baby.

Somehow, throughout my teens & early 20's I never managed to have a boyfriend on Valentine's Day. Whenever there was a January breakup I'd just laugh it off. It felt like a curse at the time. It turned out to be a wonderful thing. Vern got to be my first Valentine. I wish we shared more firsts together, but sadly he missed so many of mine. Our first February together we'd been married for 4 months and I was 3 months pregnant. Vern bought me roses, as he has every year since.

I love that man.

My post for today wouldn't be complete without a picture of him for the February declaration of love thing I've been doing.

Who else would I give my lovin' stuff to today? I took this tonight while he played online.

Love this man. Love that smile. Love his dimples. Love that 9 years later he's still good to me.
Once again, I must admit, I am a lucky woman.

It's time.

The state of my house is quite literally driving me insane. I've been on my kids, trying to get them to help out & it's not going very well. It's time to just roll up my sleeves & get it done. Tonight this household will be a much happier one than the last few days. The house will be clean & mom will (hopefully) be able to relax. Wish me luck!

lovin' stuff

I love lilacs. They make me think of my mom. I used to love bringing her home bouquets when I was little. They'd make the house smell heavenly. Mmmmmmmm...

Some day - when we own a house - I will have my own lilac bush.

Multi-tasking

I'm sitting here with my dvp, my book & a small bowl of yogurt blast cheerios enjoying the olympics. I adore the winter olympics. It was amazing to host them the last go round. (Getting into Canada house was the best!) I'm loving watching them in the comfort of my jammies this time. And I get to double-root once again! (Rooting for Canada & the US. Fun!)

Well, after having this entry sit here for almost an hour I'm realizing that watching the olympics, reading and trying to write a blog entry all at the same time doesn't work so well. I think I'll just post my lovin stuff & leave it at that...

For yesterday's I think I'll declare that I loved the opening ceremony. Thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Well done.

Some Thursday Lovin'

I love baby skin. Soft yummy baby skin. Mmmmmmmmm....

Especially this little guy's. :)

Grump

A sleepless night, chocolate withdrawls (I've been behaving & it's killing me), more messes than I could clean in one day, children who bounced off the walls until they collapsed in their beds - all factors in what was a grumpy April.

I say was because Vern came home with a new book for me to read, Kirsten played with LV and made him happy, little Vern gave me a big going-to-bed squishy hug, Elijah's asleep on my lap & Brandon had thirds of the soup I made for dinner.

I can't claim to not be a grump at all, but at least I'm much less so thanks to my sweet family.

Oh, and I still want chocolate. lol

Good news - my squirrely friends have started planning a weekend get-together for early August. An all-adult, all girls weekend away? I am so there. Something to look forward to. :)

Oh, and my picture for today:

Oh man, I love this face. I love this silly little boy. Little Vern. Such a sweetheart.

lol a new addiction

So I went to check if the links worked and ended up looking at shoes again. I only own like 5 pairs of shoes - I'm not a shoe junky. I, um, must need some new ones. Can't-stop-looking... But don't these look so comfy?

Zoom...

It's Tuesday already?! Sometimes it amazes me how quickly days fly by.
I've been around, not particularly busy or anything - just plugging along. Yet the last few days are a blur of sorts. Maybe I'm just not waking up entirely. lol Elijah has decided that it's fun to be wide awake & playful from midnight until 2 am. That's been fun.

I did manage to fold some laundry this morning. And yesterday Carin posted a link to some cute shoes on Zappos on the squirrely boards. I ended up spending a small chunk of my afternoon looking at shoes. Turns out I could easily make us broke if I decided to become a buyer of shoes instead of just looking for fun. I mostly looked at sandals, and there were several pairs I really liked from my usual chunky styles to these which I thought were pretty & liked enough to remember the style name & price tag for future reference. Not my usual thing - hey, I'm short, chunky shoes are my friend. lol

Thanks to not blogging these last few days, I'm behind on my lovin' stuff. An easy first? My chunky shoes. The rest are self-explanitory...


I love my shoes.

I love technology, the internet & teamspeak - the stuff that enables me to talk to far-away friends on a daily basis.

I love watching my babes grow up. They change & grow so fast. Elijah will be 1 next month. Look at this big boy!

(Oh, and I must thank Carin for changing how I look at the frosty picture. lol...)

Is this thing on?!

Blogger seemed wonky yesterday so I didn't post. Seems to be working again now though.

The coolest thing happened yesterday! I get to talk to my brother on the phone! I can't remember the last time I heard Aaron's voice, but it's been a very long time. Years. My mom always keeps me posted on what's going on with him, but I can't even put into words how awesome it was to talk to him. Things happen when you don't go home for 10 years. Life goes on. People I still picture as teenagers are married and having children, and my baby brother is a man. A good man. I'm proud of him.

Without a scanner I can't share a picture of my brother, but he's my first "who" for my declare the love February. Love you Aaron!

And for today's lovin' I'll share a picture of Toronto. I love the city I grew up in. I love the streets, the people, the food - it was a fun place to spend the first 23 years of my life, and so many people that I love still live there.


This cool shot of my hometown came from this site.

Frosty Thursday

It's been a must-have-chocolate sort of week. A little stressful, but almost over. Hooray for Thursday. And for my big bag of pink m&ms that is almost gone.

I think that today I will declare my love for these...

The pic is off of the Wendy's website, I just added the mmmmmmmmmm...

Happy February!

I can't believe it's February already! I'm celebrating by enjoying the *Cupid's Mix* m&ms that Vern bought me the other day. Mmmmm...

I think I'm going to celebrate this month on my blog by posting a picture of something I love each day.

Feb 1st.
I love Kirsten's artwork. She is always drawing, painting, doodling or creating something. Makes me smile because it's something I did as a kid. (I still do, actually.) She drew me this fairy almost a year ago, and it still hangs by my desk.