Catching up

This should be on the family blog, but I uploaded the pictures and then realized I was on this blog and not the family one... so we'll let that slide for now. :)

Ashley was one of the kids chosen to participate in decorating a christmas tree with her 6th grade english teacher Mrs Conrady at the state capital.  I was able to drive her and two friends down to it and they had a great time.  When we first got there, there was some waiting time... the girls kept themselves amused with the phone.

 Then the ornaments arrived and it was instant chaos... 28 kids trying to decorate the tree at the same time with parents trying to take pictures... this times 100 as there were schools decorating tree's every 20 feet throughout the state capital building... with marble floors- the sound was loud!

The Govenor and School Superintendant and Santa Clause came around and took pictures and visited with the kids after the tree was decorated.

 The three girls I took, with their great teacher Mrs Conrady.  Alex had her last year so it's been fun already knowing her and some of her traditions with the kids.

 Then we went and stood outside in the cold and waited for the big tree lighting ceremony... it was cold... and we waited and waited, and waited... for 45 min while they had some technical difficulties.

 But it was a pretty tree... and the hot cocoa we went and got afterwards was a beautiful drink too! lol! :)

Random thoughts that may or may not relate to each other...

I'm getting tired of, and at the same time have a lot of gratitude for Tissues,  Cold medicine, cough medicine, steam showers, and pillows...

We have a cold that has been passing around through our house.  I've had it about three times now, or I just haven't ever gotten over it.  Everyone else has had it at least once, and Alex was down and out of school with a cough for a week...

We managed to have a fun thanksgiving through the midst of it with Ann and her family coming over to visit from Tennessee.  I managed to not take a single picture of anyone while they were here... just forgot to pull the camera out at all.

The family all pitched in and we put up the christmas tree and did our indoor decorations last week.  Much to the chagrin of the girls, we have yet to put up any outdoor decorations and are currently the only lightless house on the block at nighttime...

Oklahoma is wishing we could take the high temps of this summer and the low temps of this winter and just average them together and stick to a mild temp year round... it's hard to deal with cold temps when you acclimated to 100+ for weeks on end in the summer...

I really need to blog more regularly... and with a purpose... :)  Next time I'll have something worth talking about and not just ramblings. lol! :)

Back from our trip...

We are back from our trip.  We had a wonderful fun time and I'll put pictures up on the family blog hopefully in the next few weeks. 

Of course there are the stories to tell and the snags and stuff that come up before and during big trips.

A week before we were to leave on our trip, Ashley was stepping up from wet grass onto the wet concrete on the back porch.  She slipped and fell and hurt her foot.  By the next monday it was still swollen so we took her to get x-rays on it.  We wound up not hearing back from the dr until Wed night, and she had two broken bones on her foot. On Thursday we went to the Orthopedic dr and we discussed the best options for her foot to let it heal, and for her to also still be able to have a good time on the trip.  We wound up with an air boot cast.  So she was able to ride on the roller coasters with Rich at Universal, and we could take it off and shower and go into the pool and ride the water slides with inner tubes.

Here though is a picture that is one of my favorite...  it sums up a lot of the trip...

So much fun that at the end of the day Angie just couldn't stay awake long enough to finish her cookie...

This week it's back to business for us at home... homework, lessons, Halloween (we still need to get costumes for tomorrow nights ward party) laundry, grocieries, cleaning rooms... etc...

All that free time they said I would have...

All last year and this summer people asked me what I would do with my days when school started and all the kids were at school all day long...

I told them I was just going to wait and see what time I had extra throughout the day.

What I've realized is that my day is more free for scheduling things.  I don't have to schedule around the mid-day pick up that I had done for the last four years between two kids going through pre-k and kindergarten.

What I've also realized is that even though my day is more free for scheduling things- I am just as busy or more busy than I was last year at this time.  I find myself at the school more volunteering...  taking my time at the store instead of rushing through shopping... and trying to increase my exercise time and intensity.

The laundry pile is still always big,  the bathrooms are still always there needing to be cleaned,  and the kitchen floor is still almost always in need of mopping...

I haven't blogged more often like I thought I would.
I haven't baked homemade bread on a regular basis.
I haven't dived into digi scrapping with all of my "free-time"
I haven't cleaned out closets and drawers and organized the whole house...

Those things will come in time, but right now I'm finding myself plenty busy. :)

This month will continue the busy trend.  Yesterday and Today is General Conference.  Today is Rich and I's Anniversary, the rest of this month holds campouts, birthday parties, end of the term tests, new clarinet and tuba lessons, a buisness trip, a family vacation, dentist and dr routine appointments (not to mention the inevitable non routine apt's that I'm sure will get scheduled) Fall festival parties at school and at church, and Halloween to end the month.

I'm going to try and blog more often.  I miss it when I don't get on here and blog and record what we are doing as a family...

Storm Damage

digital scrapbooking

I decided to open up photoshop elements and work on some digital scrapbooking again... I go in spurts so here are a few pages...

Family Blog

Just a little note for those that are interested in seeing more family pictures...

I'm posting most of the family pictures and family journaling over at the Family Blog- The Newton's

I've put up quite a few in the last few weeks- trying to catch up on what's going on at our house. :)

A problem

I'm becoming increasingly aware that I have a problem.

It's becoming increasingly bigger and I feel that I have to come clean and confess to it.

I'm not very good at returning items to others.

In cleaning up the house and trying to tidy it up before Rich comes home at midnight from his latest trip, I've found the following list of items that are on my counters, and in bags in the car and stashed in places where I'd "remember" them... and I keep forgetting about.

Currently the list of items I currently am holding for others is as follows:

Platter
Plastic bowl
Wooden Serving Spoon
Plastic Serving Spoon
Quart size canning jar
Little birthday gift that was left here on accident
Book from one friend
Book from another friend
Wrench
Two little magnets that belong in a book I sold to the neighbor at our yard sale last saturday... I found them 5 minutes after she bought it, and still haven't taken it over.

I'm resolving to return all the items within the next week...

I made a good start this morning by returning the kindergarten graduation pictures that have been on the desk for a month that I never intended to keep... and I received a letter through the school yesterday that I needed to pay up, or return it... whoops!

I can only hope that I can continue that trend tomorrow and return an item to keep the momentum going!

Video's

I just figured out how to post video's on my blogs...

this could be a good thing, or a bad thing... what do you think?

New way of thinking

So I said I would explain a little further.

1- Stop worrying about your weaknesses:  We don't get happier trying to fix what is wrong with us.  We get happier pursuing our strengths- Doing the things we LOVE.  She mentioned her discovery when she looked at her patriartical blessing and counted how many things the Lord told her she would have weaknesses in, and how many things she would have as strengths.  He focused on the strengths- not the weaknesses.  We need to do the same and focus on our strengths and we will be happier. (http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx)

2- Don't try to get motivated to exercise:  Motivation follows action.  How many times do we say to ourselves that we need to find the right thing to motivate us to exercise more, or clean better, or anything?  We need to just start doing it, and the motivation will come.  Just trick yourself for 2 minutes to start and see how far you can get in those two minutes.  Two becomes five, and five becomes ten and ten becomes twenty and on...  Change into workout clothes for the comfort... then put your gym shoes on to walk outside and get the mail.  Then instead of stopping at the mailbox, walk to the neighbors mailbox, and the corner is just a little further, and then you might as well go around the block because it's so nice outside... and while your at it you may as well jog just a little bit... before you know it you will have that motivation!

3- Stop trying to find friends: Develop the skills of friendship.  Studies have shown that the happiest people have had at least six hours of social contact daily.  Make and respond to bids for friendship.  Pay attention and smile at someone, start a conversation, and reply to conversations.  A study was doing that employee's were 7 times more likely to be satisfied with their job if they had a good friend at work.  Make an effort to have one truly meaningful conversation each day.

4- Don't try to feel happy:  Instead of trying to feel happy, try to feel greatful.  Do gratitude exercises.(http://heartmath.com/)  Generate the feeling of gratitude.  It changes our physiology when we are feeling grateful.  Our heartrate goes down, we feel calmer.  She gave an example in her life that she started to make the effort to use her evening prayers as gratitude prayers, and use her morning prayers to ask for help, guidance and blessings.  She would pray and share all she was thankful for in those prayers and she would sleep easier and have more restful sleep.

5- Celebrate Failure:  We have all grown up hearing the saying "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing it ___________"  Don't fall into the trap that if you fail at something you shouldn't have even tried it.  When we fail we have taken the steps to grow, to stretch out and reach out to learn something new.  We should not dismiss the things we have learned when we have still failed in something.  The Atonement is the ultimate example in this.  We can try our hardest and do everything in this life to live it righteously- but we cannot be perfect and the atonement allows us to make mistakes and it covers for those mistakes.  Rejoice in failure.  We work hard for the failure and be proud of the work we've done- the result doesn't matter as much.

6- Don't get help with your problems:  Instead- help someone else with their problems.  Science is telling us now that the single most reliable way to better our mood- is in service.  Ask yourself- what did I do today to help someone?

7- Don't endure to the end:  Life is not to be endured. Life is to be enjoyed.  Savor everyday delights.  Find ways to add little pleasures into your life.  The little pleasures make life more enjoyable.

Some new goals to strive for...

Wendy Ulrich gave a wonderful presentation at Time Out for Women.  She had seven new goals that she gave us.

1- Stop worrying about your weaknesses.
2- Don't try to get motivated to exercise.
3- Stop trying to find friends.
4- Don't try to feel happy
5- Celebrate Failure
6- Don't get help with your problems
7- Don't endure to the end.

Here's the website for her center- Sixteen Stones

I'll expand on these seven points later.  Right now I have a date with a room full of 5th graders in my first ever venture of being in charge in a classroom for a couple of hours.  A good friend gave me the tip that a bag of candy goes a long way towards good behavior when a sub is in the classroom... wish me luck!

Time Out for Women

I Love Hilary Weeks.  I love her music, but it's not just that.  I love her humor, her ability to share about every day life challenges and both her positive and negative thoughts about life.

Here a few friends and I grabbed lunch at Subway- a block away from the convention center.

While we were walking we noticed this beautiful building.  Amid the regular architecture of downtown office towers and such, it was a very unique building and I love the character of it.

 Michael Wilcox has long been a person I would love to travel with a group led by him.  He just lost his wife in December to a brain tumor and he had a wonderful presentation.

Marima Kallon- such an inspiring person and wonderful presenter.  She grew up knowing nothing but war and hardship and has witnessed many horrible events.  She is such an inspiration of hope, of prayer and faith.

Here's a picture of all the presenters- I missed individual shots of a lot of them because I was just too busy writing and absorbing what they were talking about.

I loved that as they shared they were real.  They shared their struggles and their triumphs and their day to day stuff that they deal with.

Time out for Women

I had the opportunity to go to Time out for Women in Oklahoma City yesterday and today.  I debated over going.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go.  I had gone in the past with a great group of friends and we stayed at a hotel overnight and went out to dinner and had a great time.  For several different reasons, most of my friends were not going to be going today, and I wasn't sure I wanted to go by myself.  I went ahead and bought tickets, but really wasn't very enthusiastic about it. 
Rich left to go on a buisness trip today and I even contemplated backing out and giving my tickets to someone else and not going.

I'm so glad I didn't.  I'm so glad that I went.  I needed to be there.  I needed to feel that spirit, and I needed to hear what they shared in both songs and talks.

I took along my little journal and took notes.  Anything that I thought of while the presenters were talking.  At the end of today I counted the pages in my journal and I filled 16 pages with notes.  16 pages of thoughts of what I need to focus on in my life.  Of thoughts of how I may be out of focus in some area's and other area's that I can allow myself to go out of focus on and not worry about as much.  I don't think I realized how much I needed to be there, until I counted those pages of notes. 

I drove down alone (I wanted to make sure if I had to go home early I wasn't making someone else leave early) and I sat with some friends that came as well.  Unlike the last time I went- when it was truly a bonding friendship time- this time it was a wonderful personal time for me to really focus on and reflect on things that I needed to gain from the presenters and things that I needed to hear.


I was fed spiritually much more than I thought I would be, and more than I thought I needed... and physically more than I needed as well- the chocolate and toffee covered peanuts I grabbed for a snack were too good!

Many times I've thought of life as a roller coaster.  Going up and down the hills and screaming throughout.  I think I'd like to retire that thought in my mind and think of it more as waves in the ocean.  Something drops into our lives and it causes a ripple.  Sometimes the ripple gradually spreads out and stops and is absorbed into the water with little change.  Other things drop into the water and cause a much bigger splash.  Waves start up- first small and gentle, and can build at times into ferocious waves that threated to drown things.  But after the waves crash down on the beaches, the undertow takes the water back out to sea and it calms down again until the next disturbance happens.  Life keeps going.  I just have to be like the water in the sea and ride through the waves, pull myself together after they come crashing down on the beach and continue on and try and absorb the impacts that I can absorb.

Spring time!

I love that spring is coming!  It's not that I dislike winter, but there is something about the brighter sunlight, the ability to run outside without a coat, and the longer days that just awakens my soul.  Really truly I love the springtime.  Chalk art, swingsets and little girls giggles!

Little kids

I was asked to babysit two little kids this morning.  It was fun.  We pulled out the old set of Thomas the Tank Engine train tracks and made a huge train track all over the piano room.  We pulled out all the little people and cars and put the people in the house and the animals in the barn and zoomed the cars up and down the garage and on the car elevator.
We had a good time.  The two little ones were so sweet and fun to have in the house.  It reminded me of some of the fun times with my crazy kids when I just had Alex and Ashley and the house was a little quieter and less chaotic.

So here are a few pictures from the past. :)  I'm trying to get caught up on scrapbooking the loads and loads of pictures I have on the hard drive.  I'm almost to when Angela was born. lol! :)  Only 6 years more to catch up on. :)