Just a Sneak Peek

2011-12-14T16:33:00.001-09:00

Photo Card

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I've been building and painting...

2010-05-05T21:57:00.008-08:00

So I built something that would normally take about 3 hours to complete but it took me 3 weeks thanks to snow and cold, and kids getting in the way. Love my kids, which is why I built this kids picnic table for them! You've probably already heard of Ana White's website - that's where I got the plans for this table. I've actually never built anything in my life but Ana's blog was very inspiring and her instructions easy to follow. I now have a long list of "to build" items from her blog. Funny but building actually brought another inspiration to paint all the walls in my house. I started with the kitchen/dining area. Next is the girls' bedroom. If summer would ever come to Alaska, I could really get things done!
It's not perfect but I love it and I think it's beautiful :)

What's for Dinner?

2010-03-22T10:34:00.002-08:00

A friend of mine has this awesome blog where she also plans her weekly menu and shares with the rest of us. I thought I'd try creating my own menu for the week and see if I can follow through with it. What are you planning to cook this week?

Week of 3/22 - 3/28:

Monday: Zesty Ravioli Skillet and green salad (30 minutes)

Tuesday: Pork Enchiladas (Chelsea's recipe) (start the night before: 4 hours in crockpot)

Wednesday: Hawaiian haystacks (40 minutes)

Thursday: Lentil Soup (1 hour)

Friday: Caribou Roast (10 hours in crockpot) with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms

Saturday: Salpicón - salad with leftover caribou meat (20 minutes) and bean quesadillas

Sunday: Shrimp stir-fry (30 minutes)

Passport-sized Photo Tutorial...

2010-03-21T20:07:00.008-08:00

A random post.. I suspect the professional photographers out there might just laugh at this, but it's so easy I wanted to share how I've been creating passport-sized photos for all our documents (immigration papers, visas, passports, etc.) for years. Why not save $20 or so if you can Do-It-Yourself? I think some of you may find this helpful.
Step 1.
Open your picture with Picasa. Go to Basic Fixes and Crop it to "Square: CD Cover" (after I took this picture of Eva's Bratz girl and she saw her on my computer screen, she grabbed her right away and won't let go of her, in fact, she and Jemma are now fighting for it because Eva won't share!):
Step 2.
Under 'Tuning' you can edit your picture by adjusting the lighting, color, etc.

Step 3.

Now go ahead and 'Save' the picture.

Step 4.

Right-click on the picture and 'Locate on Disk':

or you may have this option - 'Locate' -> 'File on Disk':

Step 5.

Once you've located the picture on the disk, make 6 copies of the same picture. Select the picture and copy and paste, or keep hitting 'ctrl+c' and then 'ctrl+v' until you have 6 copies in total:

Step 6.

Go back to Picasa and the 6 copies of the picture will already be there. In the file menu go to 'Create' and choose 'Picture Collage':

Step 7:

Now highlight all 6 pictures and add to the collage by clicking on the '+':

Step 8:

Under the 'Settings' tab select 'Grid: Arrange pictures into regular rows and columns' and you are almost done:

Step 9.

Now set the aspect ratio to '4 x 6: small print' and click on the 'create collage' button below.

Congratulations, you've just saved 20 bucks. Print at your usual location :)

What happened to us?

2010-03-13T22:04:00.031-09:00

Family Visit:

Sierra Vista activities:
Jemma's 1st Birthday:

Mexico Vacation:

Visiting Nuncha in Lake Arrowhead, CA:

Visiting Jessica in Laguna Niguel, CA (just in time for the arrival of her new baby girl!)

Visiting my dear Seattlites:

Vancouver and Kima:

Into the Wild:

On our food adventure:

So, I guess I'm back to blogging, or at least I'd like to think so... at least I put it on my New Year's resolution this time. I'm so far behind that I feel like, just for the sake of having some kind of record of these events, I need to recall what happened since I last wrote in here. We had a full year of adventures in 2009. Actually it started back in November of 2008 when we all left Alaska to go to Sierra Vista, Arizona for 6 months, for Jesse's training.
1. which meant we would miss one extreme Alaskan winter. Always a plus. (Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Alaska, though people here say you should either love it or hate it!)
2. Arrived in Sierra Vista, AZ a few days before Thanksgiving; had a big meal with just the four of us.
3. On the very first Sunday we found ourselves in an awesome ward with most people of our age. Another plus.
4. Drove to Mesa to pick up our brand new Mazda-5!
5. My brother came to visit us for the holidays from Pittsburgh, PA. Then we all (b/c we were within driving distance from Jesse's parents) drove our shiny Mazda to Tupelo, Mississippi! OK, so what if the drive was about 20 hours long...
6. The girls (but mostly Eva because Jemma was only 8 months old) got seriously spoiled during our stay with Nana.
7. Back to SV and oh, I just couldn't get enough of that warm Arizona winter sun. Enjoyed pushing my double stroller down Town&Country Rd. And our playgroup, we loved those days, of course, at the mall, on the playground, at the Aquatic Center, at the zoo (the Tucson zoo is a perfect size for the little kiddos, by the way).
8. March. Jemma turned 1 and we threw her an awesome party with our playgroup friends and a homemade strawberry cake (from scratch)!
9. April... we just tried to enjoy as much of the outdoors as possible - it felt like the warmest summer month in Alaska, in the mid-70s.
10. In April we also decided we could hop across the border to Mexico. It was easy, though entering back into the U.S. took longer than we desired, with two toddlers fidgeting and screaming from their car seats. We did that a couple more times though and had some yummy authentic Mexican meals. We learned that when the border patrol guys asked us what we were doing in Mexico, we could just say "Oh, we just came over to eat dinner".
11. All those trips across the border gave us another brilliant idea: Before we head up north, why not take a week off and drive down all the way to the beach! So in the first week of May we had our first family vacation. I can't say I enjoyed the driving part - you really have to ignore all the red lights and stop signs - if you don't, you might get hit from behind. But Jesse is a good driver, we survived, made it to our little beach house at Kino Bay and pretty much had the beach all to ourselves. Complete peace, though I did have to chase the kids and make sure they don't drown themselves!
12. So tanned and recharged by the beach sun we were now ready for our long journey back home to Alaska. We stopped back in Sierra Vista for a day to pack. To say our little van was packed with stuff would be an understatement. We drove from Arizona to California, rested and visited some friends for three days - huge thanks to the Jones family for hosting us at their beautiful house in Lake Arrowhead! Also, thanks to the Gardners who welcome us at their home each time we are in LA. That city just wouldn’t let us out of its borders. We finally made it out of LA and were on our way to Seattle to visit some more dear friends, then to Vancouver, Canada. Luckily, I have a friend who had arranged a room for us so we were able to rest overnight and do some sightseeing in the first half of the next day. After a week of visiting and driving we were exhausted and determined to get to Alaska as soon as possible. I think we beat the record, as we drove through Canada without any stops, except for gas and food, and it took us about 36 hours from Vancouver to the land of the midnight sun. Ah, there are just too many stories to tell. Is there such a term as “binge blogger”? I might be one of them, but I am going to stop for now!

New Season, New Haircut

2008-09-05T22:14:00.003-08:00

THEN: high maintenance medium/long length hairstyle. It usually ended up in a ponytail. This pic is an exception!

NOW: graduated bob. I feel relieved :)

Schexnayder Look-alike Meter

2008-08-12T17:39:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family tree template - Geneology

2008-08-12T16:49:00.003-08:00

Just thought I'd try this out :) I'm still not too convinced of it.

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

News I've been reading all day

2008-08-11T02:25:00.001-08:00

Jemma's blessing

2008-08-07T14:04:00.006-08:00

I'm way behind on this but it needs to be acknowledged! The picture below is from the Sunday we blessed Jemma. It was nice to have my mother- and sister-in-law be with us. They came to visit for a week from Memphis. We wanted to bless her while my mom was here but Jesse worked long shifts and we never got around to it. So as of last month we were happy to find out that Jesse would no longer have to work shifts. He is now working regular hours to my enjoyment :) A lady from the branch graciously offered to make a special white dress for Jemma and it was so cute - you probably can't tell from the picture, but thanks again, Kathi, you are wonderful:

Delta Fair

2008-08-05T01:32:00.006-08:00

Last Saturday we had a parade and fair in town, so we decided to join the crowd and march to the fairgrounds. It's a ten-minute walk but halfway through we returned home as we realized it was impossible to drag Eva and the baby along (I wish I had a double stroller), plus I'd left the diaper bag at home. So we got back, got in the truck and drove about 5mph to the fair. I wish I had taken more pictures. Nothing spectacular but Delta is probably the smallest town I've ever lived in my entire life. However, on the day of the fair it got so busy that for a moment I forgot I lived in the middle of nowhere.
Anyway, I don't know if it's because Eva is a little country girl now or she just doesn't like crowds, but she wasn't like her usual self. The extrovert that she is, she just stood there observing the activities that were going on around. The one thing she did like was to go down a super slide with Jesse:
Balloon Paradise - Eva loves balloons! she had one tied to her wrist but she somehow got it out and it flew away to her greatest disappointment: She also wanted to try this kiddie ride. She was all excited about it and kept saying "go wocket, go go go!" (ie rocket), but when she was seated in one, all of a sudden she turned serious:trying to feed the ponies:We finally had to put her in the stroller because she refused to walk about two hours later.

The Terrible Twos

2008-07-29T15:20:00.006-08:00

I have always wondered if the "terrible twos" actually exist. Eva turned 2 last month and I am starting to dread the upcoming months. Are there any survivors out there? I'd like to hear your stories. The thing is Eva is such a happy sweet little girl... during the day! She plays on her own, loves company, is very social (although you can't figure out much of what she is trying to say these days), and just a pleasure to be around. Come bedtime......... and she turns into a little monster! Changing her clothes is a serious workout that sometimes leaves me sweating and breathless. Giving her a bath is a good one. She loves her baths, but she won't come out of it when we are done. How long do baths take? I literally drag her out of the bathtub and then she'll just sit on the bathroom floor and watch the water drain down the plughole. I finally get her pajamas on and she is ready to go bye bye. So here we go, every night ever since I switched her from crib to toddler bed we've been having bedtime battles. It used to be like this: I would simply put her in her crib, kiss her good night and walk away; she might play for a bit, talk to herself, on rare occasions she would cry for a minute or two and go to sleep. Now she either runs around the room wildly screaming and throws herself on the floor kicking, or clings to me, squeals and tries to give me LOTS and lots of hugs. How tricky is that - she knows mommy will take a hug anytime. I try not to give in and stay calm although my heart is about to melt!
So anyway, one night I went back to check on her and found her sleeping on the floor like the bed didn't even exist there. Does anyone see a problem here?

Sisters

2008-07-23T22:38:00.004-08:00

They are so different, yet alike. Here is Eva at 3 months:
and Jemma with her chubby cheeks:
Eva is starting to be more gentle with her sister:

Desitin and markers

2008-07-23T21:35:00.007-08:00

I've established this as a universal fact - toddlers cause trouble.
So Eva decided that Desitin is just as good as any body lotion. I was so glad I put that mat in her room. I spent about half an hour cleaning it up and another half hour washing the diaper cream off Eva's face, hands and legs. Then I wonder why my days go flying by and my 'to do list' is almost as long as it was at the beginning of the week. On the bright side, I just can't help laughing every time I look at these pictures. I guess every mother could use a little more sense of humor.

I've been getting up the last three days to this artwork on the walls in the dining room and the kitchen cabinets. Did I have to learn it the hard way? :) I'm finally putting all Eva's crayons and markers away to use only when I can watch her. I'm glad she didn't find my permanent markers.

Second attempt

2008-05-14T23:33:00.002-08:00

I opened a blog page a few months ago but never kept up with it, so I'm gonna give it another try.

Baby number 2 - Jemma Claire

2008-05-14T22:29:00.005-08:00

... was finally born. It seems like Eva loved babies before her baby sister came. Now she pulls her hair and pinches her toes! Hopefully she'll outgrow it, she is only 22 months.