films

With all this quilting going on at my house, I have been running the tv thin with movies. Here are the ones I've watched in the last few weeks: 

1. King Kong, 1976: I can only watch the movie up until they get King Kong on the boat. Then it just gets sad. It was on AMC. 

2. 17 Again, 2009: This one I saw last Wednesday night. It was really good!! This picture shows my favorite part. I always wanted that 'so cool' moment when I was in high school. Didn't we all?! 
3. The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2008: Borrowed from a friend in my ward. I haven't seen the original, but this one was interesting. I know a lot of people think Keanu Reeves is a hokey actor, and he might be, but I still really like him. Must be the Ted Logan that's still inside. He plays a dull alien really well, though. 
4. V for Vendetta, 2005: I saw the last 20 minutes of this movie about a month ago, and finally got to see the first 3/4 of it a couple of nights ago. I cried SO hard. Natalie Portman is excellent in this film. When she was scared, I was scared for her, when she was infuriated, I felt it too. Gory, but thank goodness for edited TV movies!
5. Bye Bye Birdie, 1963: It was on just a moment ago while I was doing dishes and laundry. It was okay. But I'm excited to look towards the new one about to begin production with oo-la-la John Stamos. He will be doing the same character Dick Van Dyke played. 
6. Cold Mountain, 2003: This was a very good, very sad, very inspiring movie. I'm glad it was edited; I'm sure it was very gory, and very hard to watch in its original format. ANY movie dealing with war times is a generally going to be a hard movie, and this was no exception. Renee Zellweger's character, Ruby, was sensational. She motivated, encouraged, and pushed Nicole Kidman's stereotypical female-character into action to save herself and her property. This movie gets 5 stars from me. 
7. Sabrina, 1995: A friend of mine has been trying to get me to watch this one for a long time. And I finally just got to! I've only ever seen the old one with Audrey Hepburn from 1954. I appreciated this one because the better looking character was Linus. In the 1954 version, I hated that she wound up with Humphrey Bogart (sounds like a weird Harry Potter creature) when William Holden was there. 

*I keep a page in the front of my journal for the movies I see, and another one for the movies I'd like to see that weren't out at the time of the list compilation. I star each of them with how much I liked it, the price I paid to see it, and also the location (a theatre, tv, or rental). 

Does anyone else do that? ha! I'd love to hear a yes!!

buds

I didn't want to be reminded of weird baby-dreams every time I opened my internet page, so here is a pretty picture of some budding trees. This was on our sunset/dall sheep drive from Friday. 

Well.. the sun just appeared as the clouds finally broke apart, so I am off to hit the pavement with Buckwheat. 

baby mechanics

A while back, in all of the baby-talk I have ever heard, I listened in to a couple of dream recounts where mothers get to 'take out their baby and play with them, then put the baby back.'

Well, I had my first 'play with the baby dream' early this morning and I was sort of disturbed. 

In the dream, my whole middle section was plastic, and when I took out the baby to hold him, he had no face! Just like my stomach had no front! Just a big open plastic-y hole!! But then inside the baby's head was all this clock-like mechanical-metal-clinky stuff. I remember thinking, "aww what a precious baby!" Then oogling over him with Mark. Metal face and all. ...maybe this kid will need extreme braces or something...

Then when my 'time' was up, I tried to put the metal and plastic baby back inside my stomach cavity (which is PLASTIC by the way, remember; nothing gruesome here). As I tried this, the baby started screaming and crying and all the sudden was a REAL BOY. ha ha (I hope you heard that like the Pinocchio-boy in Shrek)

When I woke up, I was really amazed (for lack of better word) that I just had such an absurd dream. 

Now I want to hear some of your dreams, mothers! Post anonymously if you must. ha!

oh, bah

Yesterday night (around 9:00) Mark and I took a drive up the side of the mountains behind our house. My idea was to try to see some dall sheep that our friends could see from their window + binoculars, of course. 

We set out up the mountains, took some turns Mark thought looked fun and ended up at the popular trail head of Baldy. I had no idea it was that close! But when we flipped a u-ie to go find these dall sheep, Mark hit the brakes. He said, "take a picture!!" ... mmm sunset at 9:30 and it's only April. It's fantastic!

After a few more shots, we made it up the streets I had hoped for. Annnnd... TA DA!! You see them?! There's three of them: Here's a zoomed and cropped shot of two of them. The third was far to the left. 

In my Alaska's Wolf-Man book (which is SPECTACULAR, by the way), the dall sheep is supposedly the most tasty game in all of Alaska. Don't look at the cute pictures when you think about that! Actually, these sheep are about 120 pounds... so they're quite large and non-cuddly. But still really neat looking, especially on the rock face!

From the same road, here's the other side of the valley (the side our living room faces). You can see the windy Eagle River, and the remaining snow on the mountains. Melt snow, melt!

side note: 

the baby is still tickling me, and today it's happened twice. The last time I laughed out 

loud was last Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. It was embarrassing!! 

Mark was laughing at me, but I don't think anyone noticed... AH! BABY.

happy Earth Day

photo via

I saw this photo and loved that this piece of old wood had a nail through it. Probably from being used as a fence. Maybe for a pasture. But even after being a used piece of wood, Mother Nature took it back by letting a little weed sprout through. 

What a fun and wonderful world we have!

24 weeks

getting rounder...

I thought I was still sorta small... but looking at these pictures I think I am looking lots bigger. Mixed feelings about this. 

Mark took this yesterday before church.... but AFTER breakfast. There. That's why it looks so dang big. Dang Mini-Wheats! 

I think we've decided on a name... but it's one that my dad doesn't like!! Dad, I wonder if you can guess it? And no... it's not a gay name. :o) Go Miss California.

greek irish dancers

The code to embed this wouldn't work.. so please just go watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHvATmUsSg 

Dad, you especially. Have a good laugh. Here's a little preview picture:

my mother

My mom turns a day older today. Or a year, however you want to think of it. I'll choose just a day. 

family picture in Paris, France, 1986

My mom can BARELY be seen clearly. 

She must have moved 

right as this was taken,

because both those blurry people 

on the right of my dad and I, are her. 

I have been saving these photos since our New Year's trip back to Utah. While visiting her parents' condo in downtown Salt Lake, I realized just how many pieces of her artwork they showcase. It was like a little gallery! So, in her honor, I present to you.... 

My blurry photographs of her beautiful paintings:

above: small, nearly the size of a bookmark

a lot of these are oils, but the medium 

I've seen her use most is watercolor

...like below: watercolor 

(hanging in my Uncle Brett & Aunt Ruth's home)

below: this is the 3rd screen I've seen of hers.

I don't know if there are any more. 

mooomm?

Happy Birthday, Mom!

sun rise

Somewhere over the continental US. 

Mark flew to Florida overnight last week, flying towards the sun the entire time. He had taken our nicer camera with him, and he snapped a bunch of sunrise pictures, but it wouldn't focus on the sun. Instead it would focus on the glass; resulting in this nice bit of modern art/photography. Go Mark and his happy photo accidents!

gone native

People say that when you open your doors and windows when it's in the high 30's here, you've become a true Alaskan; I did that last week. Well today I sat outside in the 40s!! It was glorious!

The sun was strong and high, there were no clouds, and the only snow is in the shade or on the mountain tops. I even had an Alaskan book to read: 
A friend (who is also a hunter) said that this book will cure my fear of wolves. I doubt it, but I told him I'd give it a try. He said that this man, Frank Glaser hunted wolves only for control (there were TONS of them back then) and he developed a huge respect and reverence for the animal. I already have that... along with the fear. 

Here's to hoping!

happy spring

Last Friday there was a 'Scrap for a Cause' at a friend's house; a little friendly fundraiser for our town's library. Because all of my pictures are in a bin under our house, smashed into our crawl space, under more bins, I decided to take something else... I can't lift more than a certain weight, Mark tells me. 

So I packed up my little 'mistake strip' from my quilt. I spent last quilting class, and that night, unpicking an entire strip from my 'middle-eastern-inspired quilt.' Remember that one? Waaaay back from last summer? Yes. That one! In the beginning, I made a huge error; cutting squares of my 2nd fabric 1/2" too small on every side. I cut, adhered, silk stitched stars to these 12 square babies without realizing it. So I'm getting back on track, slowly getting back on track. 

After taking apart the strip, I made this card cutie!! It was nearly Easter, so I decided it will do for a happy spring card for my Grandma. I told her to keep an eye out for it when I talked to her on Saturday. I better get it in the mail TODAY. 

HAPPY SPRING!

morning clouds

Mark loves clouds: 

flying through them

hiking through them

ogling at them

listening to them 

(the thunderous, or raining ones)

watching them 

(fast, or lightening ones)

And when he gets up, one of the first things he does is look out our bedroom window. A couple of days ago, on Saturday (I think), this is what he saw: 

*sort of looks like a volcano 'of sunshine' on the right - glad it's only light!

We love Alaska!

Easter

Happy Easter, everyone! I love, love, love this holiday. Everything from the spiritual messages in the scriptures about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the little child-like celebrations of new birth and new beginnings of Spring. Since I can't take pictures of how wonderful the story of the resurrection makes me feel, I will share some pictures of cute Easter-inspired things... like: 

shopping displays in stores:

The bright colors, signifying bunnies and chicks:
Nesting birds that are finally making their chirps heard around our house. Welcome, Spring!:
Easter Egg Hunts, even in the Home Depot today while buying paints:
And just the beautiful, fresh, and bright colors that Spring brings. It just makes you glow with happiness:

gifts

For the two birthday girls yesterday: 

1. Tessa J. - my sister 

2. Jodi C. - my friend and quilt extraordinaire! 

I made two bracelets. Tessa's has not yet been sent, but here is a picture of the one I made for Jodi: 

The trick is, instead of buying all the bead kits and tools, you walk into the bead store, say, "I have $10, I'd like to make a bracelet." Then they pull out little containers of all sorts of colored-beads, give you the clasps, the tools, the mat, the space, and the help when you need it! It is the greatest thing. And lots of fun. Try it at a local bead shop, if you're curious. 

20 years in the making

*Tessa's classic happy-sad face

My one and only sister, Tessa is turned 20 today. She's no longer a teenager, yet I can only think of her as my young, little sister. 

I'm really bad at these birthday posts, but she demanded one in a nice way, of course. So for her birthday wish, I'm supplying. 

Tessie, do you remember when: 

::: we would close all the hallway doors and throw all our bouncy balls around? Mom was always worried about the glass lights, but we loved the way the balls sounded when they hit the wooden doors! 

::: I wrote all our names with inedible cherries on the sidewalk? Dad came out to see me when I was scrubbing it to ask if we should go get Slurpees and got mad instead. Could have been a great night!! Instead I scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed!

::: you went with mom to pick up Tapper II and I came home and you were playing with her in the courtyard?

::: dad would cook us big breakfasts? I think you liked the sausage and I liked the bacon... mmm... now I just like them both. 

::: mom would wrap us up in material and give us pots to hold? Then she'd take pictures so she could paint us like we lived in old Israeli times... I think...

::: we would eat crackers in the red bowls under the dining room table?

::: we played Aladdin under the piano?

::: we tried to play all the weird instruments in the cabinet?

::: we would 'ride the waves in' with Dad? 

::: when mom got pummeled by the wave? That was a little scary... 

::: you and I had a lot of fun at the office with Vernadine? 

::: we would fawn over Benny the Jet Rodriguez?? What a stud. 

::: you would go to the hospital all the time and I would cry?

::: remember birthday parties and you would be so sweet to not blow out my candles, but the pictures always caught you thinking about it? You were such a cute little kid!

I remember when: 

::: we would pick the peas off their stems in the garden and eat them right then and there. 

::: we would play in the bushes 

::: I taught you the rain dance on the trampoline and it actually started to rain. 

::: we went to the adoption agency and you were brought in. It was sisterly-love at first sight. 

::: you came close to beating dad at tennis... but I don't think you ever beat me... 

::: we'd fight and I'd push your door open and force you to hug me and hear me say sorry. ha! 

::: our bedtime was 8:00... it was torture.

::: you would sleep longer then me at nap time and I had to wait and wait!! I hated to wait. I wanted to play!

::: you had a bigger room than me so I got my revenge.. shhhh!

::: we would play Jurassic Park in the back yard with the cousins and the Red-Ryder Wagon. 

::: Easy Dinners were amaaaazing. cheese, crackers, and carrots... C's. Oh, and grape juice. mmm

::: I told you the baby was a boy. You said something to the effect of, "what are you going to do?!" I was thinking the saaaame thing, dear sister!! :)

I hope this post was up to your hopeful standards. I love you so much, little seester! You are a brave soul, and I admire everything about you. Your strength, wisdom, humor, intuition, green eyes, and perfect teeth! :) You are lovely. 

Don't you miss the good ole days? 

Look how HAPPY mom and dad look!! This was 1990 after they now had their two little girls. 

*and no, that's not a shadowed mullet my dad has! He was 'all-business' front and back. ha!

we got it!

With Mark having the morning off (he just got back from a trip to Florida last night), we were able to go into the furniture store this morning. The square table was still there! 

We got the square table for even less then we thought we would, and we ended up getting a higher base for it (same square table top as in the picture below, just higher legs). The marble just sort of drops onto the four legs, so we went with a higher one... not very kid friendly, but Mark had an idea about it: 

We'll just hold our little kiddo hostage up on the high doom-chair until he finishes all his vegetables! ha ha Just kidding, of course, but it put a funny picture in my head. 

Chairs are still an issue. We didn't get any from the furniture store since we went with the higher table. Otherwise, Mark was going to 'give in' to the white leather chairs (that were actually CHEAPER than the Pier 1 chairs!! Get that!). 

So the hunt continues... 

stop it! stop it!

I am being TICKLED by our baby!! Enough-so, that I laugh out loud, in fact. I hope it doesn't happen in stores... that would be a little embarrassing. 

So I'm past the frogs-in-a-lilly-pond stage, and not yet to the horse-in-a-bathtub stage. 

And yes, I have ALWAYS been ticklish. This is nothing new... except in the way of being tickled; that is certainly very new. 

happy things

So this is along the same lines as the table post. If the square table is still there on Wednesday, I think we will snatch it up. The next dilemma: chairs!! 

I loved the white chairs they had with the square table set-up, but they were well above our pocket book's range (on the price tag at least... I don't know WHY I didn't ask how much they were with the discounts and then also how many they might have had). If they're still out of reach of our pocket books, I am looking at these... possibly: 
In all the Spring Sale things, why couldn't THIS be on sale?! I loooove it: 

Also am in the market for some bedside lamps... I like the sky blue hue:

But I love the green shade:

Cross your fingers that the table is still there on Wednesday!!!!

*pictures snapped in Pier 1 while running some errands today. Hadn't been in there for a while!

heavenly home

There is a furniture store in town that is having a "Going Out of Business Sale." The economic downturn is just barely starting to show it's gnarly (such a great word) teeth up here; but sort of nice for furniture shoppers. 

I am in LOVE with these kitchen tables!! Above, it's 4.5'x4.5' and below, the table is about as big as ours right now. 
Reasons we would need/want a new kitchen table: 

Ours has: 

1. termites (we can't kill them! and they love leaving their sawdust piles for me to dust up)

2. one wood panel on top is splitting apart from the rest (it has about a 1/4" of separation)

3. where the nails are pounded in on the top (it's supposed to look rustic...), it's got a major crack (just not that rustic!)

4. the pictured one is so PRETTY. 

5. I wouldn't be worried about scratching the top and then having to rub it with Old English

6. the square table is a nice light color to lighten up our dark-color-furniture-dominated front room.

Reasons I am hesitant: 

1. even cheap furniture is not free

2. I love our kitchen table (we might put it in the basement when it's finished as a desk)

3. the table we have is from India.... oooOOOoooo

4. the termites have never harmed us... but still. they're bugs. they must go.

5. the table matches our tv stand, coffee table and screen (pictured below in my pooch picture) and buffet table

6. it has neato benches instead of chairs (can be uncomfortable when playing games with company and you've been sitting there for 2 hours)

7. Mark and I chose it when we were newlyweds in Las Vegas 

...But it has BUGS living INSIDE IT. we EAT on TOP of the BUGS!!! Opinions? Fire away... but aim for the termites.  

*Additional Note: These termites are not American termites. They are straight from the table's homeland. They are very small. And they are not leaving that table. They haven't even gone into the benches or chairs yet, I keep checking. 

22 weeks

almost. Seee?? It is growing! fast! This is for you non-believers that I had a pooch in that last picture and thought I was sticking out my belly on purpose. HA. 

I just hope this cocoa lotion is going to help out! It's so strange seeing pictures of myself like this... so strange!!! But so fun. 

Hawai'i o3/o9

This post contains the MOST pictures I have ever uploaded to one post, I believe. You may need to sit aside 7 hours to look through this ... but hopefully I can write quick comments to make it a little more 'visually quick'. 

Day 1 - Sunday

We drove to a church building on the other side of the island, on accident. But it was fun! It was an all native ward - well, we were the only visitors at least, so we were 'in the know' if you know what I mean! 

Our view from our Hickam AFB hotel room: the hangers used in Pearl Harbor!

After church, we drove to the Tantalas Street look out, used in an Elvis movie... Blue Hawaii! Now there is a concrete and a fence; in the movie they were free to picnic here:

Handsome Mark striking a handsome pose:
Striped trees!

I had never walked down Waikiki before, so Mark took me for a stroll down the boardwalk: 
Day 2 - Monday

Before going to the base's beach, we drove around the runways that Mark is so used to taxi-ing on. It was fun for him to be able to drive UNDER the planes:

Here's the beach on base. It was netted off, but I still never got in. I know the sharks just love my toes!!

On the way back to our room, we snapped some shots of the bullet holes from Dec. 7th, 1941 that they never fixed. There are plenty of them in the old hangar windows. It's really sombering to see them in such a modern day:

Matsumoto's! Shave Ice is one of Mark's most favorite treats. The line was insane and out the door all day:

Here's Tom Hanks back in the day here at the store. It MUST be yummy.

Oh, it was so good! And so messy! My favorite flavor, was of course, raspberry! yum... And the condensed milk was a sticky sweet topping.

Surf n Sea is a favorite store of some friends of ours. They bring us back the bags and just get so excited to give them away. It's hilarious! But it was a pretty great store.

It was fun driving out to the North Shore, but it was even more fun driving PAST that and out as far as the highway can go before the West side of the island. It was a beautiful time to be there. We couldn't keep going on the road because it would have violated our rental car agreement. boooo....

On the way back from the photo-location above, we passed a YMCA camp on the right side of the road.... think Darma Initiative. I bet an entire dollar that these houses are what they used for Lost!! Look! They even have the same glass shutters as windows, and the same white fences, and the same yellow color:

Day 3 - Tuesday - the burn

Before "the burn" happened, we woke up and drove as far up the highway we could on the West side of the Island. It was a beautiful morning. 

On the way back we noticed this HUGE cave opening. We couldn't tell how far back it went. Mark was the only one that got close enough to see into it. I was claustrophobic just looking at how heavy those rocks were up top. Noooo thank you! I am such a whimp these days! But that's okay with me and the jogger inside.
Then we headed to Bellows Air Force Station. It is a glorious beach, that is almost private. On the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, so was this place. There was a submarine that broke near the sandbar. There were 2 Japanese on board, 1 drowned, and the other, instead of killing himself, he 'shamed himself' according to the Japanese government and surrendered. He later became an American citizen. Smart man. 

Here's where the burning happened. 3.5 hours with no sunblock... no comments about how stupid we were... please! The wind was blowing perfectly. Just enough to pick the waves' mist up and spray our warm skin. It was the perfect temperature...

These little crabs kept us entertained. We would wait until they'd pop out of their holes, scurry around, then see us move and dig lightening fast.

One of their holes. I think it's so funny! They were SO fast. 

Day 4 - Wednesday

With our bad bad bad sunburns, we spent our day under the shelter of shade; the hotel room (we had moved to Waikiki's Hale Koa - a military hotel), the car, restaurants, and TUNNELS:

Only emerging from the car to snap pictures of beautiful blue seas.

This is right before Bellow's AFS comes into view:

Day 5 - Thursday

Still an inside day! Mark woke up earlier than me and snapped this beauty off our deck. Nice job, Mark:

We drove back to Bellows to just 'look'. We sat here for about half an hour before it was too much like torture not being able to expose our burn to the inviting sun. We drove off for more car adventures:
Bellow's beach through the shade trees: 

We drove to the Pali Highway lookout point where the battle of the islands took place 2oo years ago. I would not choose to die that way... by falling off of that rock face. Yikes! But I doubt those people had much of a choice either! We tried to hike down a bit to try to find the waterfalls, but others told us they were all dried up, so we turned around. Then my ankles swelled up. Ew.

We drove around a bit more before heading back to the hotel. We wanted to just live here, right on the road:

Day 6 - Friday

ANOTHER day inside the car, no beach for us. We did pack our suits, just in case. But our burns were still dark red. Se we just messed around with the camera and had fun looking at pretty beaches:

I wonder what they were catching:

We walked around little Waikiki 'villages'. This lilly-pad flower was in a pond at the Hilton Village. How very Parisian. Nevermind.
On the beach that night, we went out to watch the sunset:

Watched a man without a shirt on run around and light the torches:

Then found out that there was going to be a firework's show! So we waited until the sky went darker... and darker...
Then like magic, the booms began!! The baby was JUMPING around inside. He must have not liked the insanely loud noises. It was a pretty show! I guess they do it every Friday.

Day 7 - Saturday

Went out to the Hale Koa's portion of Waikiki. It was not crowded at all yet! It was perfect. And yes, we sat on the beach! WITH sunscreen. Lots. Mark got in and braved all the sharp-toothed critters. 

In the water: parasailing in the far right-background, a breakfast cruise, a pedal boat, snorkelers, and surf-board paddlers (?). I guess it's the 'newest trend' in the surf board world. I would probably like doing it... you could probably see so much!

Here I am, like a whimp, trying not to get burned! Mark was laughing at me. And I'm sure so is my dad right now. I never disappoint!

Then we drove out to the Polynesian Cultural Center to see our friend Nelly dance!! Before the canoe show, we saw some pretty plant life:

Lots of coconuts:

The fire-dancer-famous-hilarious-guy put on a coconut milk show. He is SO witty. And man can he milk a coconut! 

Then we saw this famous palm tree... recognize it from Blue Hawaii?? It's bizarre! It curls, and arches, and turns every which way: 

Mark loving his Elvis-tree:

Us with the famous NELLY!!!

I was so mad that all of my pictures but like 2 were of her back (she's on the far left of the canoe):

So mad because of OLD LADY HAIR!!! They ruined just about every picture I COULD have had... And the old lady on the right had oogly pink huge sunglasses with the play-boy bunny on the sides. Mark said the old bunnies have to be somewhere!! I think I shuddered:

After a nice visit and plate lunch with Nelly we headed to the airport and bid adieu to the lovely warm sands and sky:

Day 8 - Sunday - Volcano Aversion Operation! 

Thanks to the volcano erupting so many times and the winds blowing ash to Anchorage, the airport closed. Flying into the Anchorage area, Mark and I saw clouds like he had never seen before. So I figured, if a pilot had never seen clouds like these before, they must be formed because of the ash particles in the sky. They were darker than others and really whispy and just dusty looking. Pretty incredible!

What a fabulous time! Now I'll have no problem enduring the rest of the winter here. In fact, it's been seeming to warm up as the sun doesn't set until after 9 already! I love Alaskan summers. Hope this took you less than 7 hours to read!