If I Will It, It Will Be So. NOT

I woke up with the worst headache and chilled.
Got up and tried to shake it off all day.
Finally realized, I must have a bug of some sort.
Layed on the couch peppered with getting up to do something or other.
Gave in.  Mike and Adrianne did the marketing.  Put some chicken and rice in the oven for dinner.
Hope I'm felling beter tomorrow.

I know I've been M.I.A.  I just realized it's been TWO weeks!

Things have been sooooo busy.  Hopefully I will catch up soon.  I've been working feverishly on my first blog book.  This has been NEW to me and I have learned a LOT.  Doing that in between everything with a housefull of people, 'shadow-leading' Christine and her friend with their H U G E apEuro final project, a trip to AZ during part of Spring Break and then bringing Natalie and John back with us at the last minute for a couple of weeks so Oma and Opa can have a little break and Robert prepares for a big trial coming up in court.

Stories and pictures coming.....

Going To Gramma's

Natalie's job ended on Tuesday.

She decided to bring John and come home with Christine and I for about 10 days.  Robert is up to his eyeballs in his case and it would give Oma and Opa a little break. 

 He was mesmerized with watching a movie.

 A bottle and his favorite blanket.  He LOVES this blanket.  Ann made it for him. He will not go to bed without it.

Christine grabbed some sunset photos on the road.  We spent most of the day in AZ and left about 4:45pm.  Just before all the bad traffic there and missing all the traffic in Cali.  We hit some pretty bad weather from Palm Springs on to home.  Rain, wind, thunder and lightening.  The baby was great on the trip and slept through most of the storm.  We got home at 10:30pm.  Duff and Shaun were up waiting for us so they could get their Johnny fix.  No one went to bed until almost 1am.

BLURB

I have spent the last 3 weeks making my first blog book.  This is a big deal for me because I am nervous of doing new things on the computer.  Kristin has been encouraging me.  'Miss'-she-can-do-just-about-anything-my cousin.  She is a good encourager!  Whenever I had any questions on what to do next she called or texted me back right away.  She likes to use Blurb, so that is what I have been using.  I've learned since I started that there are probably some easier programs that I could have chosen.  Ones that just slurp the blog all in just the way you write it and place your pictures.  Blurb does a little of that, but gives you a lot of freedom for text and picture page layouts.

I guess I don't know any different now.  I can say I have learned a LOT.  I haven't sent it to print yet because I still have some things to tweak but when I look at it in preview mode it makes me really excited to get it done.  I didn't start keeping a blog until fall of 2007, so that is what I'm working on.  You can see my personal progression in using a computer, adding pictures finally after weeks of text only, and then my progression in arranging it all in the blog book.  I got much more comfortable and bolder with my picture layouts towards the end of the book.

We had taco dinner at Lisa's tonight.  It was delicious as usual.  She made 80 tacos!  Kristin looked at my book in preview and gave me lots of pointers and things to tweak.  I would have never thought of those things on my own. 

I liked:  how many different layouts there are.  My book is pretty consistent with using large blocked text layouts.  I tried columns and they are nice, but I wanted it to be the same throughout this time.  Captions.  You can add captions to the pictures.  That was cool. The program tells you where your mistakes are. I needed that. Picture layouts.  I could make one whole page the picture or pictures or collages and the one next to it the text.

I didn't like:  that it does take a little bit of time.  It did go much faster after I figured out a lot of things and I'll probably take the same approach with my 2008 book adding some new techniques.  By the time I get to 2011's book, maybe I'll be able to feel confident in changing the page colors and all those other cool things.

I do want to ask you out there:  what are some other programs that you have used to print your blog into a book?  How did you like them?  Was the price reasonable?  Did they offer coupons? Easy, Medium, Hard?

Going To Daddy's Work

Natalie's last day of work was yesterday.

Robert wanted to show me where he worked, so we went over late morning.

John wasn't too sure what we were doing, but when Robert walked out of his office and called his name, his head swung around in recognition of his dad's voice and he lit up with the biggest smile!

"Wow, I get to see my daddy during the day!"

 Robert scooped him up and showed him all around with me, Chris, and Nats.

He has a big capital murder case he is working on.  The trial starts soon with jury selection in a few weeks.  He is one of the defense attorneys.

 This boy loves his daddy.

And any writing instrument.  One for each hand.

Rob and Nats wanted to treat me and Christine to lunch.  We decided to go to Mimi's since it was close to the office.  We took longer than we should have, but had a really good time and John was great at the restaurant.

He was not going to give up those crayons for anything.

Look at that cute chubby hand.

He ate all his mac n' cheese.

I Got A Big Surprise!

I'm staying around the corner at Lisa's.  I got ready for the day and went over to my mom's by breakfast.  Christine is staying on the sofa bed there so she can get every minute in of being 'auntie' to John.

A couple of hours into the day I went to answer the doorbell.  Boy did I get a huge surprise!  It was LINDA and DAVID!

Linda has been my sister, Lisa's, friend since they were teenagers.  She had some difficult home situations and spent most of her time at my house.  Holidays, birthdays, too.  Then we all started getting married.  She and her hubby David got transferred shortly after they got married to Rhode Island.  I haven't seen her in over 20 years.  David retired and they moved out of the cold northeast to Arizona last fall.

They came to spend the day.  I was so shocked I inhaled and swallowed at the same time and started choking at the front door.  We had a good laugh over that one.  How do you catch up 20 years in one day's visit?  You don't, but we sure tried and had the best time.  We talked and helped my mom and played with the baby and then did all those things over and over again. 

We took my mom to Fry's grocery store and Walmart.  Came home and got dinner ready.  Lisa and Craig joined us for dinner after work. Natalie and Robert too.

They didn't leave to go home until way too late, but it was worth it and so we all decided we had to do part of it again tomorrow.  They are going to come back over for dinner at Lisa's.  Kristin and Clint will come too.

Linda truly thinks of my parents as hers.  She calls them mom and dad.  She is very good to them.  Even when she lived across the entire country she always called them on holidays to check in and sent cards on their birthdays and Mother's and Father's Day.  She never expected any 'thing' in return.  It was the love and appreciation for them in helping her through really hard times that mattered.

With all of this catching up I didn't TAKE ONE PICTURE of them.  My bad.

With Opa

John and Opa (my dad, great-grandpa), have a special bond.

 They read stories.  Especially from his Dog Book.

 At some point in the day, he crawls into the toy bucket.

And then calls for Opa to come over.  He pulls out a toy from underneath him and holds it up. He and Opa have a conversation about it.  Then he throws it out and picks out another one.  They repeat this over and over until John finally decides he is done.  Opa has so much patience and understands 16 month old jibberish.

The Bath

John can play to the crowd.

He LOVES his bath-time.

The bathroom is drenched from splashing and playing.

I think it's funny that when I was a kid and when my children were little, we were not allowed to act like that in the tub at my mom and dad's house.  Now that it's a great-grandchild:  he can do nothing wrong!  Haha!

All Done.

He's cutting his first molars.

We're Off!

Chris and I left at 8:33am.  Got gas and were on the road by 8:45.  We got to my parents house at 1:50.  No tickets or cars on fire this trip.  Christine slept a lot.  We sang along to Taylor Swift and then switched it up to The Beatles and The Beach Boys.  Before we realized it, we were there.  I like being able to make it on one tank of gas.

John is SO big.  We haven't seen him since Thanksgiving.  It is hard to believe that he is only 16 months.  He is as big as a two year old.  He is in the 95th% for weight and height.  He warmed up to us really quick and then went down for a nap.

We got unloaded and settled and had lunch.

Arizona is very pretty in the spring.  Green, and some places are even 'lush'. The temps are nice.

Sunday Conference

So much hope and encouragement and reminders of who we are, why we are here, and where we are going.

I don't want it to end.  Can we have a whole week of this?!  And 3 new temples.  How exciting is that? The music was inspiring.  So many things spoke to me that I needed.

We had our conference quiche for breakfast with cantaloupe and strawberries and orange and grape juices.  Then in between sessions I put a turkey breast in the oven.  Mom Duffy used to always make them.  I have only been able to find them locally recently.  It is the whole breast section of the turkey, bone in, cut out of the frame.  It takes much less time to cook and is never dry and even has the neck cavity to put your stuffing in.  It's a special dinner without as much work.

All the kids were here for dinner and dessert and we enjoyed being together.  Thanks to the guys for cleaning up.

I Needed That.

~~Oh.  General Conference.  There is not much better.
I loved, loved, loved it all so far.  I love being cozy in my jammies.  Cuddling up on the couch in front of the tv and all our traditional 'conference' food.
The guys are off at Priesthood Meeting and then to dinner.  We gals are holding down home, and I just got back from getting some dmc floss at Joanne's, and then did the weekly marketing.

~~I'm going to make a beehive pincushion.  I decided I need a couple different versions for my embroidery needles.  When I do a project I like to have a needle with each color of floss so I don't have to change it out everytime I do a new section.  I usually put them all on the arm of my family room couch.  My family has run out of patience with me on that.  I actually don't blame them.  Every time someone else sits down they get stabbed.

~~Christine has diligently watched all of conference so far.  She is taking copius notes on her laptop and then turning them all in for one of her value projects for YW.  Individual Worth.  Her goal is to mark the things from the talks that teach about our worth as individuals.  Good goal. Eight hours of conference and two hours of type up.  You go Chrissy!

The Beach Smells

It was really hot today.  Christine's game was at Dana Hills HS.  By the time we got there, it was so cold.  We were in shorts and tshirts and had to wrap up in a blanket.  Totally forgot to take into consideration that Dana is right at the beach.

I know I say this everytime, but as soon as you get out of the car, you can feel it and smell it.  THE OCEAN.  Ohhhhhhh. It takes me right back to my childhood living by the beach.  It is a real, tangible, enveloping aura.  At the end of the game the bleachers were wet with moisture from the marine layer.

And then by the time we got home, it was warm again.  I missed the beachiness.

She played very well and we won by a lot.