Okay..Now I'm Excited!

Creativity Alert

Kathryn's post reminded me that I haven't yet reported on my Creative Project #4 for the month of March. I am trying to keep up with my goal to do at least one creative project a month for the entire year. This latest was a favor to my hubby....he is a model railroader and he's been working on these smaller t-trak modules, so I have been painting skyboards for him to match the scenery on the layout. Don't tell him, but I kind of enjoy it....it's been so long since I painted. And these little projects are not too long, so I can do them in my spare moments.

My Famous Hubby

Scott was featured in an article in the Friday Spectrum...in the "St. George Neighborhoods" section. We almost missed it since we don't get the paper and it wasn't in the online version. Luckily, a friend of ours (who got it in his mailbox??) let us know and Scott was able to pick up a copy! I'm going to try to post the link if it is ever published on the web...or I will scan the article and post it here! (Scanned & Posted on TheTechfamily.com)

We are pretty proud of Scott! He deserves the kudos!

This Is For The Birds

The past two days we have had some migrating birds swarming the skies above our house. I don't know what kind of birds they are and this video is not easy to see, but it has been fun to watch...just don't stand with your mouth open! The streets and driveway are getting very spotted. (They are little blackish birds with white under their wings and they look like a boomerang shape when they soar....if anyone has a clue...let us know!)

Twilight Party

Well, unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the Twilight DVD Release happened last week! I pre-ordered my DVD from Amazon. They were offering a free Online Rental code to watch Twilight immediately, just in case the mail was delayed. (It's a good thing I did too, since I didn't get my DVD until Tuesday....4 days waiting...so tragic!) But, the wait was worth it and now I can get my Forks Fix anytime I want...and to make it even sweeter...Scott ripped the DVD and converted it to a file I can watch on my phone...anytime, anywhere! Nice.

I'm also grateful for my friend Josie, who hosted a party for all our fellow Twilight Buddies at her house Saturday night! It was so much fun. There was lots of yummy treats...I dubbed my Bugle treats "Fang Faddle" in honor of the occasion since the Bugles were kind of fang shaped...and much laughing and loving Twilight!

In no particular order, the party attendees included: Me, Josie, Annette, Melanie, Katie, Stacie D., Staci S., Trit, Ashley, Kathryn, and Lyndsi....hope I didn't forget anyone!
Pre-party festivities...we sat around, ate and chatted for almost an hour and a half, before we started the movie...I'm surprised we could all wait that long! It's a good thing I watched it earlier that day! So much fun...can't wait for next time!

More Spring Break Adventures

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We had such a great time at Snow Canyon. It was fun to get away from our TVs, computers, blogs, facebooks, video games and mp3s. We just spent time being together, talking and laughing. I was even laughing at 3:30 in the morning when I got lost on the way back from the bathroom. I was standing in the middle of a field in the dead of night and I couldn't find my way back to the tent. I finally had to retrace my steps and found that I zigged when I should have zagged. The scenery was spectacular and we even enjoyed having Blackberry along with us. He slept in the girls' tent and he was a very good (if dirty) dog. We are planning to go again sometime...and it makes me look forward to Girls Camp even more.

Zion Conference

I was lucky last week to attend a conference at Zion National Park...I talked my family into coming out and spending the last night with me. We had fun exploring the Virgin River and during my classes on Friday morning, Scott and the girls went into the Park and hiked the Emerald Pools trail. We're planning to go back again, since I won a free night at the hotel and we have the 7-day pass. This is just the beginning of our Spring Break Activities...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Family Night Friends

We had one of the sisters in our ward, Sister Pam Jewell, invite us to her house for Family Night tonight. She said she tries to invite one family a month, to get to know everyone, which I thought was an awesome idea!

She took care of everything...we just showed up and helped a bit with the lesson on Prayer. She planned some fun activities: a tag game and painting prayer rocks, and we ended the evening with brownie sundaes! A much better treat than they would have gotten if we'd stayed home.

We had a really great time! Thanks Sister Jewell! It was fun to get to know you better.

SUPAF Awards Video

SUPAF Awards

Last night, we attended the SUPAF award ceremony. Taylor recieved a $50 scholarship from the St. George Exchange Club for Outstanding Talent! Several of the students played their pieces for us and many thanks were given to the people who helped with the festival. I'm so glad they do this for our kids. It's so encouraging and supportive!

I'm posting the video of her getting her award...I just started recording in time to hear her name announced so it's a little abrupt...but fun nonetheless....and I've posted pictures of Taylor with the President of the Exchange Club, Ryan Robison (who happens to be a friend from our Ward as well) and with her favorite band teacher from 6th grade, Mr. Winslow, who MC'ed the event last night. We are thrilled with her award, but even moreso with her talent and determination to do her best! Great job, my girl!

Tay and Dr. Robison

Tay and Mr. Winslow

Soccer Stars

Message Received

Okay, first of all, I have to thank all my dear friends and family who encourage me when I'm feeling a bit down, as evidenced in my last blog post. And, secondly, I have to say how grateful I am for the ways that the Lord blesses and teaches me...it should not continue to surprise me that He always sends me a personal message when I need it the most. This happened to me again today....

My alarm clock is set to BYU radio, and most days I am glad of this--there are the occasional mornings when I wake up to synthesized 70's Afterglow weirdness and that always puts me off,--but today there was lovely music to wake me, a selection of scriptures as I dressed, and a conference talk by Pres. Henry B. Eyring called "O Remember, Remember" that started just as I was heading downstairs. I love Pres. Eyring--mainly because he makes me feel better about crying everytime I get up to speak and if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me--so I paused to listen.

He was telling a story about coming home and passing his Father-in-law who was there working on a project for their home. He thought how grateful he was for the service his Father-in-law was giving him and then he heard a voice in his head, not his own, that said, "I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down." Well, he went on to talk about how the records we keep of everyday simple things that happen in our lives will someday benefit our children and those who read the things we write. He said how from that time on he would ask himself how he had seen the hand of the Lord in his life that day and write down his thoughts. He challenged us to find ways to remember God's kindness in our everyday lives and in doing so, our testimonies will grow and we will be blessed.

I feel like these few minutes that I spent listening to the radio this morning gave me the answer to the woes of my previous blog entry and to the feelings that I've been having recently that I'm not finding enough joy in my life. I am so grateful for our living prophets and for this reminder that whenever I forget to acknowledge the Lord in my life is when I start to feel dissatisfied and down. I'm grateful that the Lord sends me these messages, personally, so that I can find happiness in the everyday, simple joy of living.

So, message recieved. From now on, whenever I feel like there isn't anything to blog about, I know what I need to do....remember how truly blessed I am and post it!

I'm Not Blog-Worthy

I don't know what it says about me that I have begun judging the majority of my life by whether or not the things that I do are blog-worthy. It seems like I have had a week or so without any major bloggable events....hence the lack of posts....and unfortunately this makes me feel like a Major Loser. I kind of lost my camera too, which makes it even worse, because then I don't have any blog bites AND I have no pictures to document the activity, or lack thereof.

This is not to say that nothing has been happening in our lives, because I'm sure we've been very busy....we've had Dr. Seuss week at school, SEP/Parent-Teacher conferences, meetings, date nights, great spring weather, the dog got a haircut. But....No Pics + No Post=No life...or something like that. I'm sure other blog addicts must feel the same way.

I'm thinking I need to do one or both of the following: 1) start making every day more blog-worthy by doing fun, important, interesting and exciting things and/or 2) accept my occasional lack of blog-ablility with stoicism. Either way, I'm in need of an attitude adjustment.

Hopefully, I'll have something worth blogging about soon. I'll post when I do, or if I don't, I won't but I'll try to feel better about it....