"Bery Bery Sneaky"

So yes, I'm sneaky. But since most of you are commenting on my "Tagged" post, I'm a little bummed that you seem to have missed the sneakiness of the previous post. I mentioned some "projects" I've been working on that have kept me from the blogging world. Check out the link to my new blog linked in that post. I was so proud of how cool that was and then I had to blow it by posting again too quickly so you missed it! So go down about two posts from here and read through my New Projects post and follow the link.

Bella

No, this isn't a post about Twilight, so get that out of your head right now.

Derek and I Redboxed the movie "Bella" last night...


Now, I'm not a person who cries easily. I go through patches where I cry at anything (usually right after I have a baby), but most of the time my eyes are dry.

This movie had me crying halfway through and kept me there until the end. It was heart-breaking and moving and touching. But most of all, it reminded me how precious my family is. How much I love my little girls, how much I love my husband. To borrow a phrase from my friend Jessica, I now know how it feels to have my heart beat outside of my chest. Without giving too much of the movie away, it reminded me how devastatingly fragile life is and how precious our connections to each other are.

Tagged!

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Potato Sorter (I'm an Idaho girl!)
   
2. Pest Control Technician
   
3. Office Scheduler/Manager/thing
   
4. Fitness Instructor: Yoga & Kickboxing
   

Four movies I have watched over and over:

1. Wedding Singer
   
2. Little Mermaid (not of my own volition- lately)
   
3. Pride & Prejudice (all 5 hrs)
   
4. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
   

Four places I have lived:

1. Hawaii
   
2. Georgia
   
3. Missouri (Kansas City & Kirksville)
   
4. Chicago
   

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Steak
   
2. Dark Chocolate
   
3. Fresh corn on the cob
   
4. Shrimp fra Diavolo with Lemon Spaghetti
   

Four places I'd rather be right now:

1. Exploring Italy, Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean
2. Boise
   
3. Cancun
   
4. La belle Paris
   

Four things I am looking forward to in 2008:

1. Making- ok, having- a baby
   
2. Moving (bittersweet!)
   
3. nearly 2 months of freedom from Derek's educational obligations
   
4. living it up all summer long- as much as you can do while you're pregnant, with your two kids and that kid you babysit. Yeah, ok. Let me rephrase: Guitar Hero.
   

Four friends I tag:

1. Tara
   
2. Crystal
   
3. Patty
   
4. Breta
   

New Projects

There are reasons I have been absent from the blogging world.

For example, I was very involved in the senior banquet that was held on the 15th of this month for the spouses/so's of the graduating seniors (I was on the design committee, heavily involved in designing invites, programs, menus, memory books, name tags, place cards and various other little things). I'm really proud of my work, so I'll try and upload some pictures of them.

I was also in charge of the Installment Banquet slideshow. Which, if I must say, fell flat. People keep trying to tell me it was good, but ugh. I just know what it was supposed to be... and what it was. The gap is too large for my taste. I'll be putting finishing touches on it and posting it on the SAA blog site as soon as it is up to my standards. Well, I'll post it before that and be constantly tweaking it for a while.

Finally, I've also been working on the subject of my new blog, The Auditions, so check it out when you get a chance.

However, I've been stockpiling photos and videos to share with all y'all for your enjoyment. I hope to get these up very soon, but surprisingly, even with everything I thought was taking up my time gone, I still manage to be wishing to be able to get by on two hours of sleep every night!

Anyway, be patient with me and check back on my back posts-- or make it easy on yourself and subscribe. That way you won't miss a thing-- not even my billions of edits to adjust my pictures so they are satisfactory to me. (Sorry about that-- I'm sure that's super annoying!)

Bonkers

We went to Bonkers the weekend Spring Break started... here's a little sampler:

She Fits Right In....

Occasionally we let Avril play a video game (she calls it "Mommy's monster game") and she basically just runs the character around a safe area and does tricks and turns into different "warriors" (for those interested, it's really called "Kameo", and imo, it's super fun!). The other day we were letting her play for a while, but when it was time to come for dinner, she wouldn't get off. So she was carried up to bed kicking and screaming, blah blah blah.

Meanwhile, Xandri saw an opportunity and she seized it:

So... how did it go?

Well, we kept it pretty low-key. We took advantage of the free Parents Night Out babysitting and went out to eat. Now, ever since we saw the movie No Reservations, we've been wanting to eat out at a really upscale restaurant- the type with an actual chef whose every culinary creation is a work of art. Unfortunately, the closest restaurant of that caliber is three hours away. Needless to say, our spontaneous nature's don't make for a lot of planning, so the logistics of babysitting and travel and the rising costs of gas all combined to derail our intentions. Next year.

So what we really did was go to Il Spazio for the first time since being in Kirksville. Oh, the shame. The nicest restaurant in town and this whole time Derek's been resisting going because he thought it was just another random crappy place. He was actually really impressed with it and informed me that he'll be getting lunch there every day until the end of school. The bum. Oh well, at least he never goes to class anymore... Bless those online lectures!

Anyway, then we went shopping at JCPenney (what else is there to do here?) and I got some cute cheap t-shirts. Picked up the kids and headed home.

I guess the most important thing that we accomplished though was deciding how to celebrate our anniversary. I honestly have no idea how people celebrate their anniversaries. It's not like it's one person's job, and neither of us know what to do about gifts, especially since the whole money thing (we don't have any) gets in the way. So we came to the conclusion that one of us would plan a special dinner and the other would plan some romantic/adventurous/fun getaway. And we'd switch off every year. The dinner thing works out especially well, since I love to be wined and dined, taken out somewhere special and Derek's not into cooking- whereas I am into cooking and Derek loves a romantic, intimate dinner in the comfort of our home. Maybe it's not really blogworthy info, but I was excited about it (spontaneous as I am, I crave guidelines!), so you guys get to read about it.

Anyway, the last part of our celebration (kind of) was the SAA Pillow Hockey Date Night. So it's not like we planned it ourselves, we just showed up and had fun. Which means I did something nasty to both my left wrist (early on) and shoulder (at the end), as well as get that giant ball bouncing off my face/head repeatedly. Pain is the name of the game, baby. (Either that, or I'm a klutz. I prefer to think of myself as hardcore.) Anyway, that was Saturday, today is Monday-- and I can still barely move my wrist, it hurts so bad. I think it was just a sprain... we'll see how it feels in a couple days.

But that's how hardcore I am. I played the entire game with an injured wrist. Happy Anniversary hon.

Six Crazy Years

So this is the day Derek and I were married six short years ago. I can't believe it's gone by so fast, but at the same time, six years seems a lifetime ago. I was such a different person then. We've both grown so much in that time. We've had so many experiences together, so many travels and adventures. On the one hand, six years is nothing, I'm sure if you're looking back from a lifetime together, or considering the eternity stretching ahead. But this married thing still feels relatively fresh to me, so six years is a really long time to think about, no matter how short it feels.

I was talking to some friends the other day about marriage, especially our view of eternal marriage. Anyway, one of my friends passed along a thought, something along the lines of, "For all of your existence prior to this moment, in our pre-earth life when we were spirits up through our life here on earth until we are sealed from eternity to our spouse, we are single spirits. In our quest to progress and become more like the Father, one major step is to marry another, our other half, and to become one flesh with them, like our Heavenly Father is with our Heavenly Mother. From this moment of sealing on, you are now half of a new entity and in theory, progressing toward becoming more like our heavenly parents."

It just puts things into such a great perspective. What a heavy and important decision we make when we marry. And more than that, what responsibility do we have to nurture and improve our marriages after that choice!

Needless to say, I'm feeling rather pensive at the moment. But I am so grateful for the man I married and the life we have together. My greatest fear is that in some way, at some point, I will forget this, or that I will begin to take things for granted and lose sight of what we have. My greatest fear, and this haunts me daily, is that I will do something or become someone that will destroy this family of mine. But at this moment, today, things are good. I'm not crazy- yet- and I'm still very aware of what I have to lose.

Happy Anniversary Derek. I love you!