From British Columbia Canada....

FINDING JOY

2012-01-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favourite pictures that I took in Peru! We were visiting the Parque Reserva in Lima which is made up of a myriad of fountains and they were absolutely amazing. They had the most beautiful light show that night, (better than Bellagio's in Las Vegas I think!!) that we waited in the cold for hours to see, but when it came it was so worth it! I took this picture and used it in my Creative Composite class to show motion but it didn't turn out quite like I hoped because I wanted to keep the background...I felt like it needed the waterfall behind Melodie to really stand out. I am including the picture I made and the original I used...

MY WEDDING PAGE

2012-01-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

I am so grateful for technology and what it can do! This page is an example of that. I have never been happy with the pictures taken at my wedding, probably the biggest reason why pictures are so important to me now. Back then we certainly didn't have any extra money for a photographer and so we just had friends and family take pictures. Of course there weren't any fancy cameras around, so quality was pretty sad unless you really knew what you were doing!

But here we are today and with digital and photo programs we can get some pretty amazing pictures! I am so happy to be taking Jana Morton's second class "Creative Composites" and decided to tackle some of my old, awful wedding pictures! So happy with this picture and I think I will be digging through my boxes and seeing what I can do with some of my others!! Anyone else out there have any old wedding pictures they wish they could do over? Let me know what you are doing with them in my comments...

WEDDING INVITATIONS Piersons

2012-01-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

Just realized that I have never posted Scott and Vanessa's actual invite, just the draft copy! So here is the final copy that I did last spring. They were married on June 10 and it looks like I will be working on another invitation for Melodie for April! That will be my assignment this week as I do not have Seminary this week! So here is Vanessa's final copy...

BOYS BASKETBALL

2012-01-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

We were quite happy to be watching Mitchell play basketball this weekend. Grade 7's start later than the high school teams do, so we have been watching Rebecca play quite a bit already. It is definitely different to watch boys play after having three girls play basketball. Mitchell's team won their tournament this weekend and I luckily had my camera. This is the page I did with the pictures I was able to take, using the lessons in Creative Composites. Glad my kids are involved in sports at school. I love that, not only are they getting lots of exercise, but they make many friends and learn what it means to be part of a team.

MELODIE: EGG NOGG MODEL

2012-01-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

Thought I should post this, as this picture came as a surprise this last week. Melodie opened her facebook page and found this picture taken by her friend Emily at a convenience store in North Vancouver! We thought it was a joke at first but it wasn't. I took this picture a few weeks ago and made it into a page and blogged about it. We're not sure if they took it off my blog or off her facebook page. In the meantime Melodie was in Vancouver this weekend and went by the store to ask them questions. So far all we know is the store said they purchased the posters from a sign company and they don't know anything about the picture so we will see! Someone knew what they were doing because they extracted her face from this picture... several people commented that in the design world this is totally illegal! So we will have to see what happens, definitely copyright infringement: her face, my picture!

DANIELLE IS 25

2012-01-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

It's been such a hectic weekend that I didn't get to post this on Danielle's birthday but wanted to let her know how much I love her and am grateful that she is my oldest daughter! As the oldest of five she has always had to be responsible and resourceful! She has been creative..remember the bicycle wagon Danielle?

Danielle has been married to Tim Pederson now for 5 years and she has our first grandchild Everett! She is turning out to be a wonderful mother and I am thankful to have her not only as a daughter but as a friend.

Unfortunately it has been an extremely sick household this weekend! We have all had the stomach flu, all eleven of us so it was a pretty subdued birthday!

But I still wanted her to know that she is treasured. Happy Birthday Danielle.

One Little Word LIGHT

2012-01-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

Love Ali Edwards idea of choosing one word to focus on for the year! Have been mulling it over and this is what came to me! This picture was taken over a year ago in the Cayman Islands for our 25th wedding anniversary. So glad I could use it... Still working with Jana Morton's Blending and Beyond techniques! Focusing on this word means I will be trying to incorporate more light into my life, trying to bring light to others and remembering that our Saviour is the source of all light!
Feel free to let me know in my comments if you've chosen a "word" for the year!!

MATHIESONS 2011

2011-12-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

I saw this globe on You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKbUM5NLJ_g&feature=related and loved it! Thought it would make a great year end page. After finding Jana Morton's Year in Review http://janamorton.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-12-24T05:49:00-08:00&max-results=3 I decided to add it to this page. I actually had to delete some journalling but it was pretty amazing to see how much has happened to our family this year. Might just have to do this every December, it was a great way to document everything in one page!
Looking forward to 2012... and so grateful for the new additions to our family! They bring excitement, talent and love!

JOURNALING PROMPTS

2011-12-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

Discovered a wonderful, inspiring website today that I look forward to following and reading. I know the owner of this site, Chantelle Adams and she has an amazing writing and speaking ability. Her "Foundations for Life Leadership Training" is motivational and inspiring. What I also love about it, is her journaling challenges that she includes in many of her posts! In her article on "Simply Write" she asks us to think of:

What happened lately that made me SMILE?

Had to laugh at the James boys absolutely thrilled to see Uncle Scott swimming with the sharks! Family heroes...

What am I most GRATEFUL for right now?

When visiting Prince George all the kids decided to sit on Santa's lap! I am always grateful for family, just sorry that Danielle, Tim and Everett couldn't be with us.

What is lacking in my life and how can I achieve greater BALANCE?

Grateful for Don who is not only my husband but my best friend! I struggle with friendships and being included, knowing that it is also my problem because I tend to be a bit of a hermit. I lack perspective and want to be a better friend. I do want to be friendly with everyone but do not like fair weather friends. So I am always thankful for a wonderful husband who is always my BEST friend.

EGG NOG LAYOUT

2011-12-07T21:34:00.001-08:00

Took my post today and made a layout! I've been having fun with Tiffany Tillman's Holiday Templates 2011 class and used one of them to do this. I also incorporated some blending that I learned from Jana Morton's Blending and Beyond Class and love how it turned out on the page. I am seeing all these daily December pages and am impressed at the scrapbookers out there but I will just be happy if I can get one a week done!! So this is my first December page...

EGG NOG and PUMPKIN PIE

2011-12-07T07:03:00.001-08:00

Had to laugh the other day when a controversy arose over EGG NOG! At our house it is a hot commodity, I can only buy it at Christmas and when I do we are lucky if it lasts a day! I always try to find it on sale because of that. Apparently, someone who is not in our family yet, professed to NOT LIKING egg nog which absolutely flabbergasted Melodie and Mitchell! They could not believe that someone could not like egg nog: What's not to like? they asked! He didn't like "raw eggs" and wouldn't believe them when they said it didn't taste like raw eggs. When they said that egg nog and pumpkin pie were just the symbols of Christmas, he replied that he didn't like pumpkin pie either!!! WELL, that was it for them...Melodie declared the relationship was doomed! How could a couple make it if one of them DID NOT like egg nog or pumpkin pie??? Needless to say, I was laughing my head off and so was Mitchell.

So that's it folks, at our house if you step foot over the mat you better be a egg nogging, pumpkin pier or just don't show up!!

CHRISTMAS TREE HUNTERS

2011-12-04T21:56:00.001-08:00

Saturday morning Don and Rebecca with Melodie and Kevin headed out towards Chase to find a Christmas tree. Unfortunately Mitchell has been fighting quite a cold and decided to stay home so I stayed with him. I gave them strict instructions to take pictures and was so happy with the ones they brought home. They brought a beautiful Christmas tree home that needed to be cut down a wee bit, but it definitely fills our house with the smell of pine! Glad they had a fun day!

Rebecca misses having her sisters around!!

Vanessa and Amie

2011-12-02T22:07:00.001-08:00

I was surprised to find this picture on my camera! This was taken at Melodie's Open House last Sunday when we had scads of people over to welcome her home. It was a pretty crazy day, with talks at church and then lots of company but it was a really happy day too. Unfortunately, when the "get together" is at my house I am "Martha" busily making sure there is enough food, enough dishes, enough punch and trying to visit with everyone so the camera is forgotten. I think I took two pictures....so it was with delight that I found some other ones, but I didn't know who took them until I asked and Amie said it was Don! So good for my sweetie for picking up the camera!
I loved this picture but decided to put Pioneer Woman's Colorized and Burnt Edges on it and love how it turned out. This is one Vanessa's best friends, Amie Short....they are in the nursing program together. I love how Don got Scott in the background. Will have to remember to give him the camera more often if I am busy!!

Grateful for Mayonnaise

2011-11-23T17:11:00.001-08:00

Had fun redoing this old scrapbook page! I didn't like how I scrapped it and so decided to use my blending to see what I could do with it. Followed one of Jana Morton's lessons in Blending and Beyond and ended up pretty happy with this page, although don't know if I want to do this much work on a jar of mayonnaise again. It does remind me of how important journaling is though!

Happy day at home but I start Seminary again tomorrow so it will be a busy week especially because we have Melodie's Missionary open house this weekend!

WEDDING INVITATIONS

2011-11-16T15:17:00.001-08:00

CHAMPIONS

Vanessa's cousin through marriage Kristen asked me to do her wedding invitations and so I've been working on them this week. Had lots of fun but I changed her template and added some embellishments, just waiting to here which one she wants to use. I also changed the picture colours and made them all black and white using The Coffee Shop actions...these are "toasted coconut!"

Need to get to my Blending Class but just finished Seminary for the week so hoping I have a little more time! I was happy to use Jonathan Edis flourishes again and I discovered the sweetest Glowspots by Katie Pertiet that I added to these invites!

Let me know which ones you prefer.... I'll post which one she picks!

WEDDING LAYOUTS

2011-11-14T10:43:00.001-08:00

Thought I would include the two wedding pictures I made last month using Jana Morton's Blending and Beyond Class! This class is on now and can be found at Get It Scrapped. I just love taking her class and learned so much from it. Seriously, these two pictures just made my heart happy! Realized that I am artist after all, but a digital one! Each lesson has a video which I find makes it so much easier to learn. I just watch them, pause them and try them myself in Photoshop! It's nice to be able to rewind or fast forward!

WEDDING INVITATIONS

2011-11-13T10:18:00.001-08:00

ENGENS

We were visiting with some of our good friends in Langley, the Engens a couple of weekends ago. They drove us to the airport on our way to Peru. At the time we found out their daughter Shayna had just got engaged that weekend and the wedding was in December. When I mentioned that I had made a wedding invitations, they asked if I would do theirs. I actually had lots of fun doing this! Designed the template, did the colours and put in the pictures early one morning when everyone was sleeping. These pictures are actually just prototypes that I sent to them, they ended up just using the hearts on their actual invites but they were fun to design.
The flourishes come from the son of some friends of mine, Jonathan Edis and they really are beautiful. I'm hoping to use them more! I am now on to another set because Vanessa happened to mention to a relative of hers that I make wedding invitations! I will post those when I get a chance to work on them!

Heading to Peru

2011-10-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's an exciting day!!! Can't believe it's finally here. Don and I are leaving for Vancouver this afternoon and flying tomorrow to Lima, Peru to pick up our Melodie who has been serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints for the past 18 months. I have misssed her dreadfully though I have been proud and happy with her dedication, hard work and love of what she's doing. I think she will find it hard to leave Peru which is a good thing because it means she has learned to love the people.
We will be visiting and touring her mission for 2 weeks and plan on flying to Cusco and seeing Macchu Picchu. We will be flying home on Friday, November 4 into Kamloops. It will be a fun day with family and friends at the airport to welcome her home! We are leaving Scott and Vanessa here to keep an eye on the house and to be with Rebecca and Mitchell. I plan on taking lots of pictures....surprise, surprise!
We are sooo excited!

Hot Pink Wedding Fun

2011-10-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well this last weekend I was so grateful for a cloudy sky! I had been praying that it wouldn't rain because I had been asked to take wedding pictures at the Vancouver Temple for my friends the Piersons and Kicias! It was my first wedding shoot and I really wanted it to be special. I know how disappointed I still am about the pictures I have from my own wedding and how poorly they turned out and I did not want that to happen on Saturday. I was thankful for Cory Roxanne Wilde who sent me a bunch of tips on what to do; I love her pictures. I was also grateful for the McCue's who took my Vanessa's wedding pictures, they had so many wonderful ideas.
I am still working on them, but I was thrilled with how so many of them turned out! It was fun once I got started and the wedding party was so patient while I took pictures for 2 hours. My Vanessa helped me and we watched the time like Cory told me too and I just kept shooting pictures. I spent 2 hours the day before going through every photo shoot I liked and wrote down every pose I could think of because I knew I would forget the day of! Then I brought that sheet with me and had Vanessa remind me of anything I forgot, it was also good because the families came up with some fun poses as well. In fact one of my favourite pictures Jaymie asked me to do and it turned out beautiful! Have to admit I struggled with the reception pictures because I still shoot in automatic mode and the lighting was so dim in the gym at that time that the pictures turned out really dark. Tried to get a few fun ones!
So here are some of my favourites:

Young Love

2011-09-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Since this was one of my favourite pictures taken at Vanessa's wedding and I included it here in my blog, thought I would post the picture that I scrapped using it. I am really happy with it....journaling is so important on my pages even though it's hard I always try to make sure I do some!

WEDDING INVITATIONS

2011-09-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

KICIAS

I offered to make Jaymie and Bryce's wedding invite and told her to just bring over a template that they would like to have. I was pretty happy with the one she brought! Definitely a lot easier to work on than Vanessa's! Three boxes I could do... spent about a day working on it. What made is even easier was saving it as a jpeg. each time and then quickly sending it to Jaymie, she kept sending me suggestions and then I would change it. The hardest was getting the pink she wanted, until she actually sent me a picture of the pink she was thinking of... I simply used my colour picker in PS and voila, the right pink. We had this done in a day, just by texting and emailing! Happy about that and I think they were both pretty happy with how it turned out, I know I was! The joy of technology...

Album of Awesome

2011-08-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

I am taking an online Album of Awesome class that teaches us how to look for the awesome things in our life. It is based on Neil Pasricha's Book of Awesome. I have really been enjoying listening to Steph on her podcasts for The Digi Show so I am excited to take this class! I'm not always good at finishing albums so we'll see how this turns out, but it's always good to be working on something digital! My first entry:

#1 I received A MISSIONARY MOM LETTER today from a friend who knew I was missing hearing from my Mel, and she generously shared her missionary son's experiences with me. It was the first letter I opened up this morning and it touched my heart and made my day AWESOME!

ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS

2011-08-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

BRYCE AND JAYMIE KICIA

Thought I would put up a few engagement pictures that I took last Saturday on my blog because it's a little more private than facebook. Jaymie, my daughter's sister-in-law asked me to take their wedding pictures for this October! My first response was are you kidding....not me, I like being the second camera, I do not like being the head honcho in anything frankly! I'm pretty much good at being a counselor (in my church work) but not being the last one responsible. It really worried me all night, I don't like saying NO but I did not feel confident and for a wedding, one of the most important days of a girls life!! I asked her if I could think about it for a few days. Luckily, my Vanessa phoned me the next morning and talked me into it...she told me I take wonderful pictures and that she would totally help me, would be my photo assistant! That helped me feel better, so I reluctantly agreed. I'm still super nervous about it but I did tell them they are not getting a professional photographer. I also talked to Deanne (Jaymie's mother) and we decided that I would do an engagement shoot to at least get a feel for it.

So I started thrift store hunting, found a cute chair that I painted pink and a huge picture frame (had Don take all the hardware and the picture and glass out) for props. I also had Jaymie bring a huge lollipop since she has a pink/ candy sort of theme. I was worried about the light that morning but we found a bridge and we took lots of pictures under it. Couldn't believe when I got home that in about an hour and a half we had almost 300 pictures so lots to choose from.

So here are some of the pictures that I took:

I was happy with how quickly my Mac made it possible to tag them and sort through them. I also happily added some filters to them.
Bryce and Jaymie were sure fun to work with and didn't once complain about about all the kissing I asked them to do!!

Wedding through the Viewfinder

2011-08-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

I love this look that I get from Instagram on my IPhone and haven't been able to find it online. Did find some actions that instagram-actions-by-dbox.atn has put together. In the meantime I am learning how to do some of it with this Jessica Sprague class that I'm taking, Photo Editing: Frames and Special Effects.

This is one of my favourite pictures from Vanessa's wedding so decided to tweak it! I gave it a vintage look , then added a "through the viewfinder" texture that I found on Flicker and then added the blending mode multiply. The word art is from Weeds and Wildflowers Everyday Life Kit. Love how it turned out and I think Vanessa does as well...

Vintage Everett

2011-08-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

Glad to be taking another scrapbooking class! This is Jessica Sprague's Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects. This is what I learned in the first few classes, finding it pretty basic but it's always good to go over the basics because there always seems to be something new to be learned. I usually use actions to create my vintage looks but it's good to know how they create them.

This is a picture I took of Everett in his backyard in Calgary having fun in the swimming pool. I just love the curls...which I think he gets from our Granger side!

26 Years of Wedded Happiness

2011-08-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Wanted to write a post today because I've been married to my sweet Don for 26 years today! Every year that goes by, just seems to keep getting faster....

I meant to go for a long walk this morning (it turned into a shorter one) but sat down at the computer and looked for an early picture of us, which was a little difficult because the pictures we had taken at our wedding were awful! I think it's one of the reasons why I am so crazy about picture taking now and why I insist on good pictures for my daughter's weddings! I have so few nice ones of my own wedding.

Here is one that I tweaked today that was at our wedding reception. I used Photoshop CS3 and put a "Soft and Faded" action on it from Pioneer Woman which helped to give it that vintage look. Just wish I would have had time to clone out the person behind but will work on that!

Had a few comments that my daughter Melodie looks like me, but I think it's always hard to see when you are the mother. So fun to look back on pictures when Don and I were first married, before kids, before careers, before moving when we were just two young, happy kids trying to make our marriage work. So grateful that Don has been with me through the years, for his patience, faithfullness and willingness to work hard for his family. We love to laugh and read together; I think those are two things that make our marriage strong. I am a blessed woman!

Happy 26th Anniversary Don!

Vanessa and Scott Pierson

2011-08-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

It has been over 2 months now and it's still hard to believe that our little Vanessa is married to Scott Pierson from next door! I love this picture from their wedding because Vanessa looks so happy! Two months later and she is still happy whenever I talk to her on the phone, other than missing home. They are living and working in Edmonton for the summer.

So glad that Kevin brought our Mel's picture that he had made. Everybody laughed when we included this but it made it just a tiny bit better because we all missed her so much!

This happened to be one of my most favourite pictures that Russ and Jenn McCue took of the wedding. I think it's because it reminds me that weddings are a community effort! My kids have been influenced, loved and raised by not just their parents but by friends, teachers, neighbours and the community around them. This is the end result of a lot of love and effort! Not only that, but as a couple Scott and Vanessa will now have the opportunity to be an influence and an example to those around them, to take part in the community that raised them...

Another one of my favourite pictures! What a beautiful daughter I have inside and out!

Bless Ryan for reading a poem that Melodie wrote for the wedding. I know he had a tough time getting through it but he did a great job! It was pure MEL...a Dr. Seuss poem written to Vanessa and Scott in rhyme, it was funny, touching and full of love!

The end of the night....another daughter happily married but gone forever from our house! We miss our girls but feel so blessed to be their parents!

Vanessa at the Temple

2011-04-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Well we had an amazing Easter weekend because we were at the temple with our Vanessa! This was her first time through because she is getting married on June 10. We drove down Friday night with her and Scott, stopped in Chilliwack at a wonderful little Japanese restaurant called Osaka Sushi and had a fun dinner and then stayed with George and Sharon Hara that night in Abbotsford (they live right next to the Abbotsford Stake Centre). So glad we stayed with them, they are so warm and friendly and so we will be back. Deanne and I went through all her wedding decorations the next day and found lots, including a pond!

Saturday was a beautiful day to go through the temple! How wonderful to be in the temple with our third daughter. There's such a feeling of love and amazement there, a feeling of wonderment.

So grateful that Danielle could fly out for the day to be with us! I know she was disappointed that she couldn't be there for Melodie because she was too far along in her pregnancy, so this was special to her as well.

We were so happy to have the Piersons, Lambs and Wilsons with us as well, it made for such a special day. Melodie was there with us in spirit!!!

Wedding Invitations

2011-04-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well I have been working on wedding invitations for Scott and Vanessa and those of you reading this get a sneak peek at the basic idea! While we were waiting for their engagement pictures to be taken, I made up a template for them and just used pictures that I already had. They found the design they liked and I used my photoshop program to try and make one that was similar. Here is the draft copy front:

Here is the draft copy back:

The hardest part was the swirl on the front, I didn't have anything like it and the few edges I tried didn't look right. This scroll was made up of 3 letters from the Ornamental Scroll font and I like how it turned out. It was also fun to try using my gradient as well. The fonts are Bookman Old style and Scriptina for the calligraphy. The cute film strip comes from Designer Digitals, Katie Pertiet's In a Strip Overlays. I will be working on the final copy as soon as I get the actual pictures! Should be fun, but just trying to get them printed double sided and then finding the right envelopes...

Melodie's Mission Year Mark!

2011-04-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well Melodie has been out a year now on April 6! Frankly, sometimes it has seem like yesterday that she left and sometimes it seems like forever since we have seen her. We still miss her tons but love to get her emails. She sent a few pictures a few weeks ago and I thought I would post them. The whole time she has been in Peru she has only seen one Canadian...apparently she saw a young man on the street with a Canadian flag on his hat and she was so excited she almost went up and hugged him....luckily she remembered she's a missionary and can't! I think she misses Canada although she is loving Peru!

We had to laugh at this picture she sent! She told us that pigs are allowed to just roam free all over but we didn't realize how big they were! Mel also mentioned that there are dogs that run free all over and they are always hungry, she feels sorry for them. They must not have a very good spaying system there.

Well here she is having ate guinea pig which apparently they eat regularly in Peru! We had heard that they did but she has never mentioned that she had it for dinner until she sent this picture! Apparently she has also eaten cow intestines which she did not care for much, hmmm wonder why! I'm glad she is so brave! In Peru the missionaries have pensionistas that cook and clean for them, I think it is mainly for health reasons. I know she has had some wonderful women who she is grateful for.

Bronchitis Blues

2011-03-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Well I'm sitting here in bed on my laptop getting ready to watch a marathon of Pride and Prejudice! Why? Because for the last week and a half I have been struggling with a cold and flu and everyday it seems to get worse. These last four days I have spent most of my time in bed feeling miserable. I finally went to the doctors today to see if it was anything serious and he thinks I have bronchitis, so he gave me some antibiotics. Sure hope they help because I am tired of being sick. I've missed two weeks of church, missed Young Women's conference and have been struggling with everything else especially because it has been spring break and we have Tim, Danielle and Everett with us and Darci and Ryan stopped in overnight a couple of times. I have read all my books and scrapped a bunch of pages and now I'm just going to do the movie thing for awhile.

We heard from Melodie today and it was wonderful. I was worried about what she would think about Vanessa moving her marriage date up and she seems okay with it. She is so happy on her mission, really working hard with all her investigators and had 2 baptisms last week. It will be so wonderful to see her again!

We have Everett tonight, hope that goes well since Tim and Danielle booked a hotel and are gone for the night! It has been a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY EVERETT!

2011-03-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well as you can see I have been scrapbooking the last few days, nothing like a deadline to get you working. I wanted to get some pages done for Everett's album and what better time than his birthday!

Tim, Danielle and Everett are visiting us from Calgary. They stopped by on Wednesday, went to Vancouver to visit with his family, go to the temple and then came back last night to stay with us for a few days. Everett has changed so much in the last year as so many of these pictures show. He is almost walking now and is started to have real personlity.

My scrapbooking style has changed over the years. As I look at the pages I am making, I am discovering that I still like to use several pictures but I like my pages with a lot of white on them. I am also using templates a lot because they make it so much easier. Here I have used Songbird Avenue Port O Prince templates and I used elements from Crystal Wilkerson's "Me and My Baby Brother Elements" and "Oh Boy! Planes, Cars and Trucks Elements and the cute little banner is from Jessica Sprague Up and Running Class 2 Lesson 4. I am trying to be more organized in my scrapbooking and have learned to take notes about the pages I make but need to be consistent about it.

I loved this page and had fun making it! This was a template from Jessica Sprague's Photoshop Friday #8 and I had fun learning how to use gradients in pictures to add journaling. I loved this picture of Tim reading to Everett, but then reading is always one of my first loves. The paper and elements were from Sweet Shoppe Designs Kristen Cronin-Barrow: I love cocoa.

I actually used this template over again from one I did of Mitchell's 10th birthday. Made it so easy and fun and it worked great for writing about Everett's bath time. I was happy to find these bubbles which I thought made the page. They are from the K Winiecki "Neverending" collection.

Bananas and Blogs

2011-03-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Couldn't resist adding this BANANA!! Rebecca had her friends Miranda and Riley over and we found this banana in our fruit bowl. Totally made me laugh! Posted it on facebook telling her mother Patty that maybe Miranda is just a little too comfortable at our house!

Here's our cute Rebecca! They had a blast tye dying their shirts yesterday and then of course they took pictures and used them for their new profile pics! The kids today are so computer savvy, kind of scary to think of what will come!

Here's Miranda and Rebecca having fun! I need to blog more! Cathy Zielske is such an inspiration to me, she writes every day and it is funny and interesting. Maybe part of my problem is that I don't really care for my blog and how it looks....so back to the drawing board to see if I can get it looking good so that I will feel like getting to it more!

Heading to New Brunswick

2011-02-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

I am writing this post in the Vancouver Airport as I head home to Moncton, New Brunswick. I am so excited to see my family but this will be such a tough weekend! My brother-in-law Steven Taylor died two days ago of a chest anerysm. He was only 49 years old, so it's just seems so unbelievable! My sister Josee is devastated, they had no time to prepare for this. I will try to take pictures this weekend and post them because I haven't seen my family in so long. My brother Ed and his son Eddie are coming from Toronto and my Mom and her husband Bruce are coming from Nova Scotia. My brother Billy and his wife Sheila live in Moncton and my brother Ted and his wife Page live in Moncton as well. It will be wonderful to be with family, I just wish it was for a more joyous occasion. The funeral is tomorrow at our church in Moncton and I imagine that a lot of Steven's family will be there. When I talked to Josee on Monday morning, she was so upset. She told me that she just wanted to hear him say "I love you" one last time and he couldn't. Apparently his organs started shutting down and then he died not 2 days after it happened on Saturday, Feb 19.
I think it makes all realize how fragile life is and how quickly it can end! Are we really prepared, do we know what our spouse wants? Do we have life insurance? Do we really appreciate each day with our family? I want to make a greater effort to keep in touch with my family especially because they live so far away. Because I don't see them every day, I need to be better at just picking up the phone once in awhile or writing letters more.
I am saying prayers for this weekend, that I can be a help in some way! I am so grateful that I am able to be there!!

Don Makes Me Laugh

2011-02-04T22:23:00.000-08:00

So I had to laugh the other day because Don came in with a new bag of chips. He's adventuresome my husband, always likes to try new things...new cars, new restaurants and new food. Well, he was all happy because he had found a new flavour of chips....yogourt and green onion, he proudly showed me! "Wonder what it will taste like? " he said. Oh, the look on his face after his first chip........"Hey, this is sour cream and onion!!" He was thoroughly disgusted that he had been duped, especially because he is not a sour cream and onion fan although I am! We both laughed when it dawned on him, that those marketing guys are pretty smart, if they just call it by a new name,..people will buy it! So no more yogourt and green onion for him...I'm sure he will find something else but maybe he won't be so quick to buy it, lol.

Off to scrapbook, I want to start Melodie's mission book but it seems like such a daunting task! I need to take it one page at a time!

Facing Fears

2011-01-30T22:10:00.000-08:00

I wrote a post couple of weeks ago when I was having a tough day...thought I would share what I was dealing with...I wrote this about 2 weeks ago.

One of my worst fears came to pass over three weeks ago. One morning in December, I felt a lump in my breast and it was big enough to be very noticeable. I had had a mammogram a couple of years ago but hadn't been diligent with it, so here I was crying and scared to death. Because it was a few days before Christmas and we were heading for Calgary to see my daughter, I didn't want to worry my family so I didn't say anything to anyone for 2 weeks.

It was the most terrifying two weeks of my life. As hard as I tried to distract myself and find moments of joy, the possibility of breast cancer was always at the forefront of my mind. After New Years, I finally shared it with Don who listened with love and compassion and now we were both worried and concerned. During this time I tried to reach my doctor or the mammogram clinic but nobody was open between Christmas and New Years. I was finally able to get hold of my doctor’s office on a Tuesday and they fit me in the very next day. There my family doctor confirmed my fears and sent a request up to the hospital that afternoon. So Wednesday, was my "dark night of the soul". Because my doctor had verified my condition, it was definitely real and I couldn't push it away any longer. It was probably one of the most terrible days I've ever had, trying not to think about all the things I might have to go through, trying to keep faithful and not to bargain with God, and trying to have strength to face whatever I was asked to face. I had a family that needed me and loved me and I couldn’t give up hope! The hospital phoned me back that afternoon and said they had a cancellation the very next morning if I wanted it...I DID!!!

So I had to ask for courage to teach Seminary that morning (Don gave me a blessing the night before) and then I went straight up to hospital where in two hours they gave me a mammogram and an ultrasound. How grateful I was for Kathryn and Tasha who work at the RIH for their understanding and caring. They made a point of checking with the radiologist and telling me right there in the ultrasound room that it was only a cyst and not to be worried about it. It was all I could do to hold it together and not burst out crying. I was so grateful and humbled. My heart goes out to all those women whose nightmare starts, where my nightmare ended. I have a new appreciation for the fears they face and the courage they have to have. I was especially thankful for health care professionals who acted with quickness and compassion. I can't tell you the relief I feel today, for my body, for my family and for my life.

I share this because I would not choose the path with heartache, loss and fear. Unfortunately, life often chooses it for us. What we can do is choose to face fear with faith, hope and love.

The Right Card!

2011-01-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

So Rebecca, Mitchell and I are in Shoppers Drug Mart looking for a birthday card, when 2 guys walk past me right to the rack and the one picks up a card and says "Great, I'm getting this one!" Who does that? Picks up the right card the first time...is it a man thing? First of all I have to find the right section, do I want birthday, her birthday or fun birthday and then you have to read at least 13 of them and then you have to pick 3 and ask whoever is with you which one they like best! Then... you have to read 3 more to make sure.....then and only then do you have the right card!!! Seriously, don't be giving me your 3 second card!!!
Then again, if I was more on the ball I would have extra home made birthday cards on hand! But I'm not today...

.

Getting through Today

2011-01-05T21:34:00.000-08:00

Did a lot of decluttering today, as much as I love the Christmas tree...I also love taking it down. Today was a good day for that, just being home putting things away, cleaning things up and changing things around. Kept my mind off things, it's been a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. I teach Seminary tomorrow and it will be hard. I keep trying to remind myself of that scripture: 1 Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Can I really? I don't know if I can today.

Rich, rich Mitchell

2011-01-02T20:27:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite Christmas stories this year is the money that Mitchell made with his paper route! Christmas is always nice because people will sometimes include a little extra money in a Christmas card for their newspaper carrier. The most I have made in the years I have been doing it is about $60. This year a friend told me that her son gave out Christmas cards and so I told Mitchell that maybe he should do that.
The day before we left for Calgary Mitchell sat down and started writing out Christmas cards to his paper people, after 5 he stopped because his hand hurt. I encouraged him to do it while he was watching a movie and so that's what he did. He wrote out 36 cards and then he and his Dad delivered them the next morning just before we left. When we got back he received two more tips but it wasn't until we got our map and keys back from the Piersons (who subbed for us) that we found out they had collected 5 more cards for Mitchell. To our amazement, he made $180 in tips this Christmas, more than he makes delivering the papers. He was one happy boy!! I think it will give him incentive to keep going. His customers are sure happy with him. I am too, he sets his alarm and gets up every morning at 6am without us telling him too. He has been very faithful and I think they all appreciated it! So glad he is a hard worker!!

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

The first day of 2011 and I wanted to be sure and post today. I have not been good about blogging this year and hope to be better. I follow so many wonderful blogs that are fun and informative! I want to do better.
I know what my WORD is this year!! Ali Edwards always picks one word to use for the year and I have decided today that my word will be FOCUS! I really need it, I need to procrastinate less, to work harder, to stay on task, to be focused. I want to focus on what is necessary, to cut out the time wasters and to focus on what is most important. How can I do this? By sticking to my daily tasks, to make sure I journal, read scriptures, to declutter and to make a to do list the night before! I hope that by being focused I will get more done, be happier about myself and feel a sense of accomplishment at what I finish. I want to not only focus on taking pictures but on tellling the stories behind the pictures. My goal is 4 scrapped pages a month and at least that many blog posts. If I commit to one a week that might be doable for me. I want to focus on moving more and eating less. I also want to focus on family relationships especially on doing better at keeping in touch with my White family. Lots to work on and focus on this year but if I can keep that word in the forefront of my mind I am hoping it will help me this year.
So FOCUS is my word for 2011!!

...and what I will spend most of my focus on this year is my family,

and our sweet missionary Melodie!

WE REMEMBER

2010-11-11T14:02:00.000-08:00

WE REMEMBER.........how grateful I am for a wonderful husband and amazing children, a new grandbaby, a daughter serving a mission, family and friends who support and love us and........ the wonderful men and women who fought and died to keep our country free and make all this possible! It's a remembering sort of day...

I wanted to learn how to make reflective type in Photoshop because I saw this on the news today, loved how they made this font. Found this tutorial that was perfect and made it easy... http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/text-reflection/

Flowers for ME???

2010-10-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

"Flowers for me!! How kind!" says Don to Vanessa's newest beau (Scott Pierson) who is standing nervously at the door with a beautiful bouquet of flowers......it will be a miracle if we get them all married off with DAD looming at the door!! "Boys, boys, boys....why do we have to have more boys around here?" is his favourite question. ...I will be answering for more times than I can count....."BECAUSE we had 4 girls!!"
What's really funny is that when Don was over at the Piersons later that night.....apparently Scott had asked his Mom, what should I do if Don answers the door and she said, well give him the flowers!!

New Scrapbooking Techniques

2010-10-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

I was working on some new techniques this morning using Designer Digital videos http://www.youtube.com/user/DesignerDigitals#p/u/6/DbcynExgUK0
and loved this big letter look! Then found this totally cute picture of Mitchell that I took at Christmas last year and decided to use it. I also learned to make text look like stickers and fill the loops by taking Jessica Spragues Photoshop Friday #18 class http://www.jessicasprague.com/. As you can see, I have spent too much time on the computer this morning, but it was sure fun!

Everett at 4 months

2010-09-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Trying to send a picture from Picasa and found out how easy it is? This is one of the last ones I took of Everett when we were in Calgary visiting with Vanessa and Danielle. He is sure a cutie....

It's A Decluttering Sort of Day

2010-08-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that I clean every day, especially that I declutter every day!! That would be half the battle of keeping my house presentable. Today I feel like decluttering, YEAH. I want to get rid of stuff that I don't need, want or even use. There is too much stuff that I might use someday...but I never do!!!
So today I am throwing away:

1. Old envelopes that I keep for the addresses that I might someday send a wedding present that I meant to.
2. A bag full of thin cardboard paper that I have collected from the ones that Costco uses to protect my 12x12 pages.
3. Clothes that are too small, that no I will never fit into again, like I'm going to lose 25 pounds!!
4. Shoe boxes that I will never use
5. Stacks of school notes that the kids have not looked at in 3 years.....

Quiet Day

2010-08-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

As much as I enjoyed going to the movies last night with friends (we went and saw Eat, Pray, Love) I don't think I better go to the late one anymore! I have been tired and lethargic all day...it's been tough to get anything done. Lots of business meetings with Darren this morning since Don is out of town, I learned lots.....most of all I learned how little I know!!
I miss my men. Don and Mitchell went out camping with the Scouts last night and don't get back until tomorrow. I bet they are having lots of fun, Mitchell was pretty excited to go. Don will have lots of work when he gets back, we will need to set up the new desks. Will include a picture when I get them set up. I've decided to write whether I have a picture or not. I was trying to blog with a picture all the time but then I wouldn't write at all, so this is better.
I miss my Melodie, some days worse than others.

Painting.....

2010-08-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well I spent all day painting the office yesterday but I love the colour and am so grateful I got it done in one day!! It's been in desperate need of an overhaul especially when I found out we are putting in new desks! I am super happy to have it look better, it's always looked kind of awful with old unmatched desks that we have had for years! What a lot of work because so much junk piles up in an office so not only did we have to move everything to paint but I am going to have to major declutter, which is actually good. Thank goodness I talked to Jen Oviatt because she mentioned that she puts on the second coat as soon as it's dry....I was planning on having to do it today. It was so hot yesterday that the paint was almost drying as I put it on so yeah, I just finished it all with Rebecca and Don's help!

Camping at Monck Park

2010-08-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

Wanted to write that we had a wonderful time camping in the Monck Park Provincial campground last month! We ended up camping with the Wilsons, Edis and Lambs. So happy to have Danielle and little Everett with us, just too bad Tim couldn't come (but he had to work). Jaymie and Luke joined us as well with little Mari, Danielle was sure glad since they are best friends. Lots of visiting, eating and hanging out at the beach. The kids were happy to play volleyball and even got a big game of soccer going a few times. They loved getting out on the Lamb's boat and did lots of tubing as well. Glad Craig had his guitar so we could have a song campfire! Best of summer, camping and having fun with friends!

We learned that the best way to eat Smores is to use Nutella instead of chocolate, they were amazing! Thanks for the tip Helen! This picture just makes me hungry, although I was getting strange looks from my kids when I started taking pictures of it.....

Bright happy girls together again, just missing Melodie and Vanessa!

Getting to the Cayman Islands

2010-08-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are on the plane flying from Calgary to Dallas, Texas, then on to Miami. Our last flight went from

Miami to Grand Cayman Islands! It was quite the long day for us especially since we didn't get much sleep the night before. We had to be at the airport by 5am on Wednesday because our flight left at 7. Danielle bless her heart drove us to the airport. We arrived in Georgetown at about 8pm and Darren was there to meet us at the airport!

We found out that in the Grand Cayman everybody drives on the left, so brand new experience for Don who has never had to drive on the left before! What's pretty unique about here is that they have very few traffic lights, everywhere you go our traffic circles. So you just have to figure out every time you hit one, which turn you need to take! Don seemed to figure it out pretty quick though!

Have to mention how wonderful it is that Darren and Sioban Hatcherd (Don and Darren went to optometry school together) found us the cutest condo right on the beach where we could stay. We are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and are pretty amazed that we can be here. It is the most beautiful little condo...here is a picture of the back door.

Here is the beautiful kitchen equipped with everything you need whether you want to cook or eat out. It has dishes, appliances and is completely set up. It even has a garbage disposal! Have to admit, it's even nicer than my kitchen at home.

Big gorgeous kitchen table which it usually filled with our books since 2 people don't take up much room!

Thought our kids might like to see the 2 bedrooms that come with the condo!

It has a beautiful screened in porch that comes with barbeque and big bins filled with snorkeling gear, boogie boards and whatever you need to have fun in the ocean! It's also equipped with huge aluminum shutters on every door and window as protection against hurricanes. I loved just sitting here reading and looking out on the ocean, hearing the waves crash on the beach.

This is the beautiful view from our back door! The sand is amazing...and Don quickly found crabs and geckos.

Heading out Camping

2010-07-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday night and I am home with Mitchell watching Kung Fu Panda because everyone else is gone! Don took Danielle and Everett out to Monk Park to start our camping weekend. They are meeting the Wilsons there to reserve our campsite. I am still here because Mitchell has one more day of basketball camp and Rebecca is still at girls camp, although I will pick her up tomorrow. What a crazy day of packing and getting them ready to go....thank goodness we have 2 vehicles this year, we forget how much stuff you need with a baby! We are looking forward to it though! It will be fun to camp with the Wilsons (apparently the Edis' and the Lamb's are coming out as well). Will be sure to post pictures....

Phone call from J. Bieber

2010-06-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

Today was a busy day but am sure happy that: 1. Even though Don was in Clearwater we can still visit lots on the phone! 2. My young women worked hard tonight at helping with a move, bless their hearts. 3. Last of all, surprised to know that J. BIEBER phoned our house tonight but Rebecca was absolutely thrilled..........too bad it was Brother Bieber from Vernon who was phoning me!

Am including my post on facebook today. Have been following the three grateful ideas for awhile but ready to start something new although it has certainly made it easier to post. Tonight I had to really laugh when Rebecca came barreling up the stairs yelling, Mom, Mom guess who phoned??????

Wanted to mention that I found these free photoshop actions at Pioneer Woman's website and am loving trying them. This picture has had the "boost, colorized and burnt edges" actions done to it. Makes it fun to make the pictures pop.

Melodie's First Pictures!!!

2010-05-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

So happy to finally get some pictures from Melodie! She sent them with a Happy Birthday letter to Mitchell which arrived minus the CTR ring she sent (someone must have taken it out...Mitchell thought it was ironic that someone stole a "Choose the Right" ring!).

Here she is with her first companion in the Provo MTC, Sister Sessions. Apparently, they had a wonderful time together, in fact a wonderful Sister Stone who phoned me after Melodie left for Peru told me that the two of them sparkled together! Wasn't that wonderful? She also said that our Melodie was an amazing missionary... we were so happy to hear.

Melodie has been able to go to about 5 temples since she left on her mission and she loves going. She took our her endowments in Seattle and then went again a week later with Mikael Lamb (just a friend!!!). She visited the Salt Lake Temple the day before she entered the MTC and went to the Draper, Utah temple with her friend Caitlin that Wednesday morning. While in the MTC, she went to the Provo temple a couple of times and now that she is in Peru she has been going to the Lima Peru temple!

Here she is with some of the other Sisters in her district, they were all Spanish speaking but only two were going to Peru. All the others were state side. She learned a lot; I think most of all she is learning to make friends quickly and then learn to let them go.

Hermana Mathieson with her district. She writes that she is an "exact rule" kind of missionara...made me laugh, not surprised! She will definitely keep those Elders in line and tell them what to do. I want you to know that she gets her "bossiness" from her DAD, lol.
We are so proud of her and grateful to have her serving a mission!

"Each Life That Touches Ours For Good"

2010-04-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a funeral in Kelowna today. I found out yesterday morning that my friend Nadine's grandson, Jacob had passed away 7 days after he was born from the same genetic disease that his older sister had. I really felt like I needed to go down to support Nadine who has been such a good friend to me, I knew she must be hurting for her daughter Shauna and son-in-law Jordan. Luckily I was able to get hold of my friend Carole Wilson who suggested I drive down last night so that we wouldn't be so tired this morning. So that's what we did, drove down last night and what was even nicer was that Vanessa did the driving!! Rebecca wanted to come along as well so she could visit with Kristina Wilson and Michelle Edis. It was the most beautiful funeral, heartwrenching but oh so wonderful. Lots of speakers who touched on the faith and strength of the young couple going through this. It was a beautiful tribute.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the Wilson's new house in Kelowna! They have lived here in Kelowna for years but then moved to White Rock last year for about 6 months but because of Colin's job were able to move back. So here is their new house which has a pool and a big outdoor deck which is perfect because Carole loves to entertain!

Carole and I who have been best buds for years now! She makes me laugh and is one of the kindest persons I know! She never wants anyone to feel left out...maybe that's why I love her so much. I also like to call her "tour guide Barbie" because she is this total vacation planning guru! She loves to get on her computer and find all kinds of deals for sweet vacations and then is forever telling me new finds that she discovers! She is one of the reasons we went to Hawaii and while there, not only went to the Polynesian Cultural Centre but went surfing with "Surfin Suzi"!

So glad I was able to get a picture of Nadine with her daughter Shauna. It must have been a rough day for them but they had such a loving spirit about them. The Edis family is such an example of love and courage. I worked with Nadine in Young Women for 4 years and she has such a calm, patient air about her. I was especially blessed to go on a trip to Europe with her and we had such fun. I keep hoping that one of her five boys will take a look at one of my girls but it hasn't happened yet!

Here's Rebecca with cute Michelle Edis! I just wish I could have had Kristina in the picture as well but she wasn't here. So glad Rebecca has fun, good girls that she likes to hang out with!

Baby Everett Album

2010-04-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

Heading home today, back to rugby, soccer, meetings, paperwork and cooking vegetables for my family since I understand they haven't ate too much of that since I've been gone, lol. In fact I had to really laugh last night because Vanessa said: "COME HOME AND DO YOUR JOB MOM!" When I explained to her that I was doing my joy here with Danielle, she said she would trade me in a minute, and I know she would. I'm sure she thinks babies are way more fun!! Isnt' that funny.

But here are my baby scrapbook pages that are the start of books to come...I'm using techniques that I learned in Jessica Sprague's digital scrapbook classes that I've been taking. I really like how she showed us how to make word art using quotes, I have a feeling I will be having fun with that!

A new Grandson!

2010-04-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

I am posting some pictures of my new grandson, Everett Donald Chlifton Pederson who was born on March 27, almost 3 weeks early! He was 7 lb. 5 oz and was a happy addition to our family. In fact his aunts were ecstatic to hear he was here and Mitchell was just happy to have another boy in the family.

Here he is with Grandma! So grateful I get to spend some time with him here in Calgary while he is this little, my Mom lived so far away she was never able to see mine when they were little! I flew out on Saturday, April 10 and head back on Tuesday, April 20. It has been a moment in time!

Danielle is so happy to be a mother! She still can't believe he's here sometimes! She is nursing right now so is pretty tired because she doesn't get much more than a couple of hours of sleep at a time. He's so tiny it's like dressing a little doll ...I will miss him when I go back home to Kamloops. The worst part is knowing that when we see him again in a month for his blessing on May 23, he will be bigger and every time after that he will change sooo much.

Daddy's little monkey!

Tim sure loves his little boy and tries to spend time with him when he gets home from work! Here he is showing him off at their friend's Joe and Laurie's son's birthday party. We expect that Everett and Tolan will be best buds!

Hearing from Mel

2010-04-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

We were so happy to hear from Melodie yesterday! We finally received an email. Apparently her Pdays are on Thursday even though she couldn't write last week. She is working hard, already praying and bearing testimony in Spanish and was asked to give a talk on Sunday( in English which she was grateful for!) . She sounds excited and loves the 5 girls she is rooming with. Apparently four of them are staying in the States while her and her companion Sister Sessions are both going to Peru. She is taking lots of classes and is being teased because of her Canadian accent! I'm guessing she will lose that once she is actually speaking Spanish all the time! We had to laugh because everyone was amazed at how little luggage she had! Don said she was bringing an orca suitcase and that she had too much stuff and I was sure that she would need at least those two! Grateful that she is receiving our letters thanks to dearelder.com. Because I am in Calgary right now visiting with Danielle, Don sent her email here to Danielle. She sounds so happy! Here is a picture we took on Dec. 31 when she first received her call to Lima, Peru!

Airport Memories

2010-04-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

I just love Cathy Zielske's templates, the importance of pictures and journaling and then the embellishments. I just love the look so when I sat down to scrapbook a page about Melodie leaving I found a template that worked perfectly and I was so happy with the page. It was kind of therapeutic to do as well, because I was able to grieve a little while I worked. I plan on putting it into Mel's mission book when she gets home but for now... how grateful I am for a creative outlet that makes me so happy in the midst of my sadness!
I really was grateful for all the wonderful people who came to see Melodie off at the airport and so I wanted a reminder of that. This day was a long time coming, but now we can't believe she's gone...for 18 months to Lima, Peru!

Her very first TRY

2010-04-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Still missing Melodie today! Didn't have much time to think what with work, Rebecca's rugby game and our youth dance practice! But words that made me laugh today: "I'm kind of mad and proud all at the same time!" said Vanessa about her little sister Rebecca making her very first "try" in her very first rugby game as a Grade 8 player!

"This must be Sister Mathieson!"

2010-03-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes your heart is so full, it's hard to find the words and this was one of those times for me. March 12, 2010 was a precious weekend as we joined our daughter Melodie as she went through the Seattle temple for the first time. It was a spiritual, uplifting time, as we bonded together as family. We look forward to the day when all of our children are with us. "This must be Sister Mathieson!" said one of the sweet ladies that greeted us and from then on she was taken care of every step of the way. So glad to have a compassionate, dedicated daughter who loves the Saviour. We will so miss her when she leaves on her mission to Lima, Peru but we know she will be changing lives!

What are 3 things you want to remember?

2010-03-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

I was visiting with our missionaries the other day because Elder Serdar was transferred to Sydney and we were talking about journals. They both struggle with journal writing and I encouraged them to write three things every day that they would want to remember. It made me think that I should focus on that more: What are three things that I want to remember about today?

First, Vanessa and I went to see a new dentist, Dr. Kiss to discuss getting her wisdom teeth extracted. I was a little nervous about going to a new office but was really impressed with their care and concern. I really enjoyed the visit, found out that because they do it in the surgical centre it is covered by MSP which is a big relief. I just wish they were closer than Valleyview because I would probably go visit them more often. I think Vanessa feels better about the whole experience now that they have explained it.

Second, I was grateful today to make supper for a friend who is having her kitchen renovated, I know it has been really stressful for her and so it was nice to take the time to do that. I am sorry that people find it so hard sometimes to accept help, "we are our brother's keeper!" I need to make sure I do it more often. It was especially fun to come home and find a plate of cookies with a "thank you" note from a friend who we helped move!

Third, we went bowling with Nicola Eye Care tonight for Strykes for Tykes. I was grateful to have our family with us, Mitchell and the girls had fun bowling....it will be one of our last times to do so with Melodie for awhile. A lot of those "last times" keep coming up, which is why I keep playing cards with her instead of getting my work done!

Big Eddy Campground

2010-03-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

Couldn't resist playing with this picture especially since I just found some new overlays by Ali Edwards called AE Celebrate Family Title and Journal Blocks.
So glad I wrote on the back of one of these pictures or I would never have remembered that this was taken at Big Eddy Campground in Vernonia, Oregon when we lived in Forest Grove while Don was in school. Camping was one of our favourite holidays because it was affordable! There were so many beautiful campgrounds around there and we used to love going out to the ocean, I think Don still really misses it. Love this picture of my girls......back when it was just them and we didn't know that 2 more little ones would come along. My three beautiful girls.....

Clay and Shirley

2010-02-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

Looking through old pictures, I found this sweet one of Clay and Shirley I took before they were married. Clay and Don were good friends and he came and stayed with us for awhile so he could date this cute girl in town! What I remember most was that he had decided to not kiss her until it was over the alter in the temple...and we used to laugh because he would come back to our house and anguish over how hard it was not to kiss her, but he kept his promise and I think their first kiss was over the alter! Now isn't that amazing......
They live in Magrath now where Clay is serving as a Bishop, they have 4 children and their oldest Natalie just got married......hard to believe that this wasn't just yesterday.
I had fun quickly photoshopping this picture, I want to try scrapbooking more and just using pictures sometimes.

Seattle Temple Trip 2010

2010-02-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

So grateful we could join the youth on their temple trip last weekend. It was our last Stake Temple trip because our new one in Langley is being dedicated this May. There wasn't room on the bus so Don and I drove down in our van with the Fraziers. I'm glad I could be there with Rebecca, I coudn't be there for her first trip so this was a wonderful memory for me. I think she had a great time.....

My fourth baby girl who is no longer a baby!

Couldn't resist taking this picture of the twins, Katelyn and Alyssa Chenuz, they are such sweethearts. I was bummed because I didn't have my SLR with me and my little Canon has been giving me trouble lately. Sometimes it turns on, sometimes it doesn't. Well it wasn't working until everyone had already posed, then of course it worked after....so I just had to get a few pictures in before we went inside. I wasn't very good about getting pictures this trip, sometimes I really work at and sometimes I don't.

Also, crazy I know but I was happy to stop at Costco and buy cheese! It's so much cheaper in the States.....I think I bought like 30 lbs!!

A big thank you to Jack Sabey and all the leaders that went along and did so much work!!

Movie Making

2010-02-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

What a day! I have been worried and dreading this job I was asked to do by the Relief Society. My Vanessa (who is on the Enrichment Committee) came home and asked me if I would put together a slide show for the March Relief Society Dinner. My first reaction was dismay........and I wanted to say NO. With a missionary leaving, a grandbaby coming and being in Young Women with the Youth Temple Celebration coming up (they asked me to be on the committee for costumes) I just did not want one more thing on my plate but when I prayed about it and thought about it, I really felt like I needed to try. I love scrapbooking but have never made a movie with my pictures, just pages. I knew that this would force me to learn new things!

A couple of things took me by surprise, first of all I found out that this slide show is for both wards because it is a combined dinner and second, men kept coming up to me in church and taking me aside to quietly give me pictures of their wives, a little disconcerting but fun. They make me laugh......some of the pictures are wonderful, some are awful. How do I tell these sweet fellows that women want flattering pictures, not pictures with their mouths open, messy kitchens in the background, pictures with red eyes.......I have been collecting pictures for the last few weeks and also found out that they were given a deadline for the middle of February. Thank goodness for the RS Pres. because that means I have a month to put it together.

So it has been on my to do list for days and I have been working on the pictures but have been so intimidated by the movie part until today! Mitchell was home from school sick today so I had to stay home from work......so I decided to tackle it for 15 minutes and I ended working on it for almost 3 hours and I absolutely LOVE it! It's almost done and I feel so good about it. I used Windows Movie Maker, plugged in all the pictures, made transitions.....even found music in Vanessa's list and voila, a RS movie!!! When I was done I went through both wards and tried to write everyone I thought was missing and emailed the ladies about it. What made such a difference is that I have taken so many pictures over the years of the sisters at Relief Society that I was able to use a lot of my own.

So I felt empowered today, so grateful that I can keep learning new things and for a Father in Heaven who knows what I can do even when I don't know myself! I am looking forward to giving this as a gift to the sisters here in Kamloops.....

Grade 8 Brocklehurst Secondary Student Speakers!

2010-02-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

Rebecca and Tatiana Stone put together a speech to give at the school board presentation held at Brock last Tuesday. School District 73 wants to change Brock and Norkam making them a middle school and high school. The girls are concerned as to how they are going to be able to do this in regards to all the sports teams when none of the other schools in town will be changed. We were so proud of them, they were the youngest ones there and they both got up and spoke clearly, concisely and brought up some good points. It was pretty brave of them and I think this opportunity gives them more confidence. This was after Rebecca wrote a letter that was published in the Saturday Daily News that concerned the same issues.

After they had to go and give their favourite teacher (Mrs.Cowden who taught them Grade 3 at Parkcrest) a hug and hello.

My Valentine of 25 years!

2010-02-14T21:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet valentine of 25 years! We actually spent time together yesterday seeing the movie "Sherlock Holmes" (my choice because Mel highly recommended it) and then appies at Boston Pizza. Today we were in church listening to wonderful talks on opening your heart and hearing the most beautiful song "Lord, My Redeemer" by Kamloops 1st Ward missionary Elder Furr.

Cards, Cards, Cards.......Paper Cards

2010-02-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, hard to believe but actually put my hands on paper again yesterday! I am so used to crafting on the computer that I forget how fun it is to design, cut, glue and stamp on paper. Well I had lots of fun last night with my "card ladies!" We all design a card, bring the supplies for extras and then end up with 4 cards at the end of the night. I like the fact that we usually end up with 4 totally different looking cards and last night proved that.......I love how we all learn different techniques as well! The hardest part is giving them away, lol.......so if you don't see one of these cute cards in your mailbox you will know why!

My Babies on Santa's lap!

2010-01-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

Kind of sad that my babies are not babies anymore! Here are Rebecca and Mitchell sitting on Santa's lap at the ward Christmas party! I was lucky to get a picture of Mitchell because he didn't sit there long.... I miss having no "Santa believers" at my house but have to admit life is certainly easier with older kids:
   *No more having to walk them up to the school doors, just drop them off..
   *No more getting up at crazy, early hours Christmas morning...
   *No more putting away breakables, just putting away books, shoes, coats, backpacks, etc.
   *No more giving baths, they all shower themselves
   *No more fixing breakfasts and lunches, they fend for themselves as long as you buy food
   *No more tying shoelaces, now we are just trying to find shoes
   *No more chasing kids back to the dinner table, they sit and visit and eat
   *No more guessing what they want, they'll be happy to give you lists
         then again,
   *No more sticky fingers, cute little faces or sloppy kisses....... I miss my babies!

Thankful for Mayonnaise!

2009-11-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Here is another page I have done this week, this took me awhile because I've been on the road so much this week. I posted this on facebook but want to try working with my blog more, wish I could figure out how to post here and then just send it to facebook!

Me Abridged More Pages

2009-11-04T11:44:00.001-08:00

I am still working on my Abridged Book! I've decided that I can't take anymore classes until I've finished this one and since I'm really anxious to start another digital one, this will give me incentive to keep working! The writing is hard, but it always is but it is so satisfying when you finish one. I've been posting them on facebook and I think my kids are enjoying it too!

Singing in the Church

2009-09-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Don't let the title fool you, it is not me singing in church! My Vanessa and Rebecca will be singing today: "Jesus was No Ordinary Man" and so I'm a little nervous. Vanessa has asked Derek Deschenes family and her boss from Quizno's all to come and they said they would. I know Derek will be there but not sure about the others, so hope they do well.

I'm grateful we are able to get Rebecca into singing lessons this year, I just wish we could have persuaded Mitchell to continue with piano.

Well, we have an electrician coming over this morning to get our hot tub running and I need to go pick up Kevin Lee from the airport all before church so lots to do and hoping to get some writing down for my album.

Me Abridged Pages A and B

2009-09-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

So I signed up to take an online scrapbooking class with Big Picture Scrapbooking and I am loving the challenge. It's by one of my favourite scrapbook authors, Cathy Zielske and it's so much fun. There are over a thousand women registered in this class from all over the world. We are making an album about ourselves using the alphabet and I am doing it completely digital. The hard part is the writing.... we have to keep the entries to a certain format and so it has been making me really think about what is important in my life. Of course it's hard because we have to use all these letters, but that makes it challenging too!

So here are my first two pages and I have to keep working because I have 24 to go!

Camping in Lac la Hache

2009-08-27T06:35:00.001-07:00

Camping always means lots of dishes.........but it also means lots of food too and that's always fun!

We went on a nature walk and it ended up being quite the adventure because we had to clear a lot of the trail.......I use "we" loosely here since it was Don and Ryan most of the time but even Darci helped! Here I took a picture of Sam and Zac resting with Superman snacks!

The kids were pretty excited because Dad took them fishing!

We had to laugh because Ryan and Darci brought the biggest tent we had ever seen! They borrowed it from a friend because Darci gets claustrophobic. We could have had a party in this Taj Mahal!

I had fun getting these pictures! These squirrels were so tame and were coming up and eating right out of Ryan's hands! Then I caught this one climbing up!

We decided to take some couple pictures while we were there and we happened to catch this beautiful sunset!

The kids took some pictures of Don and I! We celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary while we were camping!

Group pictures while we were on our adventure hike!

Journaling time!

2009-08-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

Just read another blogger today who blogs every day...and she scrapbooks every day and adds templates. How do people do it? I am just so lucky to get a little scrapbooking time! I'm really thinking it's time for the kids to go back to school because I am starting to go crazy. Maybe I'll have some day time again if I can quit answering the phone, driving kids to friends (like that will stop) and being bombarded with questions all the time. We've had lots of company this summer and teenagers especially, who hang out in our pool. I am still recovering from Vanessa's 18 birthday party where almost 30 kids showed up! Back to scrapbooking.....today I am especially feeling overwhelmed.

Mitchell turns 10!!

2009-05-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe my Mitchell turned 10 on May 21st. My last baby and my only boy. What a treasure and I know I am biased but he is such a nice boy! All his teachers love him because he is kind and helpful. He's also pretty smart, makes up his own spelling lists! He is in Grade 4 this year and loves to play basketball, soccer and baseball. Not too keen on going to watch his sister's dance recitals.......is sure he can find something better to do but he goes anyway.
This is a picture Maranda Schwarz took about 5 years ago, time goes so fast.

Loved this picture, he had hurt his ear but was still hungry. Can't believe I've forgotten how he did it but not surprising, maybe one of his sisters will remember!

Rebecca and Mitchell and all you need to have fun.....a big box. I don't know if they would sit this nicely together any more!

Happy Birthday Mitchell! We love you lots!!

What's Been Happening!

2009-05-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

I wish I was better at keeping my Blog! I go through good days and then get busy and don't do it for awhile. I've been reading a writing book that encourages you to write every day for at least 10 minutes. I answer emails but that's not always what I want to write and it's not really keeping track of my own life.
I've been so happy to be home, just feels good to be here getting things done! I think we have been so focused on Disneyland for so long that it's funny to have it all over and be focusing on different things.
What I want to remember about these last few weeks:
*The wonderful memories that we made in Disneyland!
*How grateful I was to be able to gather with Don's family for Burnie's funeral.
*Thankful to have Ryan and Darci (with their 3 boys, Sam, Zach and Connor) visiting with us this weekend.
*Especially happy to have Ryan here to help Don empty the pool so we can get the liner changed in the next couple of weeks.
*The fellow doing our pool explained to us how he can get our hot tub up and running for a pretty reasonable price so hope to do that this fall!
*Another anxious morning waiting for a daughter to come back from a driving test......third daughter and she didn't pass but learned lots from the experience so will be doing it again.
*Happy to have Sandra buy my camera today, it was the one that had to be sent to be fixed, didn't get back in time for my Disneyland trip so they replaced it.
*We went to the airport to welcome our two missionaries home, Lauren Razeau and Corey Jensen, it was a special night.
*Pretty happy to know that Vanessa is a co-valedictorian for her graduating class! She is just thrilled to be doing something her sisters haven't, lol.
*Still love scrapbooking digitally and just wish I had more time for it!
*Excited to find out that Melodie has won an all expense paid trip to Quebec for an RT conference because she and her roommates entered and won a contest for RT students to make a video!
*Learned again a valuable lesson: People are more important than things!!

My Boogie Kids!!!

2009-04-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Rebecca and Mitchell who I usually have to drag out of bed on Wednesday and Friday mornings to help me do their papers, informed me last night that they wanted to get up this morning and go running! I was a little nonplussed but told them I would get them up. So to my surprise, Rebecca was up and dressed before I was (Mitchell was ready to go back to bed but then found out Rebecca was up) and so at 6 this morning I have these 2 wide awake kids ready to run...and run they did. They were half way down the street by the time I dropped off my first paper and they kept going. Our block is about half a kilometre and they ran down our street and Greenfield a couple of times, so by the time they were done Rebecca had run about 3km and Mitchell about 2 1/2km (he helped me do papers). I couldn't believe it as I watched them running the whole time, crazy kids! I think they are planning on doing Boogie the Bridge, so I better get going if I want to do it with them! (Boogie the Bridge is a big family, community run that we have every April started by Jo Berry......it's amazing, fun, energetic and really promotes being healthy and happy!)
What makes me really happy is that I think I have "MORNING" kids! Kids who like mornings and who have energy in the morning, because it's my favourite time of day!

Just 15 MINUTES at home!

2009-03-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Wednesday was a good day for me! I actually had the whole day to be home.....and it was wonderful. I've always been grateful to be a stay at home MOM (SAHM) but now that I'm working 2 days a week I find I appreciate it even more. The days I am home seem to be filled with appointments, meetings, grocery shopping and driving kids to lessons, so a real at home day is rare. I have to be careful when I'm at home though, because I'm a computer junkie and can spend more time there than anywhere else, although yesterday I was pretty tempted to just get in the bath and read. I used my flylady skills (flylady.net) and got out my timer, set it for 15 minutes and got tons done. I really wanted to tackle my downstairs, especially my craft area that had got overrun in the last week........so I did it 15 minutes at a time. I then spent 15 minutes on the computer scrapbooking, so fun too. I ended up going through my kids school boxes and dejunking a ton of stuff......I'll be so glad to get that organized so I can find things and stay on top of it. Looking through Rebecca and Mitchell's old schoolwork brought back so many memories.....I still miss Mrs. Cowden, their Grade 3 teacher!

So after a day of decluttering, it was fun to just go over to Sue Ferguson's last night and make cards!

This is a picture of Kathy and I playing colour Yahtzee on the computer, one of our traditions whenever she visits!

Vanessa is a HAPPY girl!

2009-03-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

Vanessa called me yesterday and was pretty excited!! I was working ( I do bookkeeping at the Petro Canada up the hill two days a week, I have been enjoying it, it works right into my schedule, I have been learning lots about Simply Accounting and it gets me motivated to do my own accounting, lol) and it was around lunch time. She had went to school but forgot her lunch.......tried to persuade me to drop her off some but I was the mean Mom that day and told her I was too busy. I had just tried to phone a few minutes earlier because I knew Don was home but there was no answer and I laughed to myself. Figured Don had probably brought Vanessa her lunch, (he's much more patient with that kind of thing) but actually he gave her a ride home.

So she's on the phone with me with "great news"! "Guess what Mom? I just got a scholarship in the mail!" I was thrilled to hear that Thompson Rivers University here in town where she applied for the nursing program last month just sent her a $3000 TRU Regional Board of Governors High School Scholarship! What a gift! We were all so thankful, that almost pays for one year of school and with what she has saved, her first year is covered. She's hoping to get a few more and then to work during the summer because 4 years is a long time........but this is such a wonderful start!

The other wonderful blessing for her yesterday was that she received her patriarchal blessing. Patriarch Branchflower dropped it off to her and so that was pretty special as well.

So Tuesday, March 24 was a spectacular day for our Vanessa. We are sure happy for her!

Camera woes!

2009-03-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have been so thrilled with the Canon Rebel camera Don got me for Christmas! The pictures it can take even though I am a complete newbie (I usually just keep it on automatic), are amazing. The last couple of months I have been learning more every time I use it. I have been taking it to basketball games, using the zoom lens on sports mode and getting some good shots of the girls playing basketball.
Here Kathy took this picture of the kids and I home from church. It can be fun just pointing and shooting.

I also took it with me when I was down in Vancouver at a scrapbooking convention in February. Melodie and her roommate Jade Shultis joined Jen Oviatt and I and we had fun doing some pages....... I'm pretty much digital now, the only traditional I occasionally do, are cards. (I think the picture with Jen is on her camera!!)

So you can imagine my dismay when in the last 3 weeks my camera keeps reading Error 99 and that I have to take out the battery or turn the power off and on. I went online and tried everything I could think of and nothing worked. So I took it back to Future Shop (they figure it is the lens) and they said all they can do is send it back to Canon to have it worked on.......... so I am without my Rebel for 4-6 weeks! I'm just hoping I can have it back before we head to Disneyland in April!!!!

Edis Reception

2009-03-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

We were happy to be able to attend the Edis/Everett reception last month! Aaron and Savannah were married in the Seattle temple and we went up to Kelowna to their reception. I worked with Nadine in the Stake Young Women Presidency and still miss her so it was sure fun to see her and all the family. Of course the bride and groom looked absolutely happy! We were also glad because Melodie was able to get a ride from Vancouver to be there. We just wish that Danielle and Tim could have made it especially since we were able to visit with the Wilsons, Carole, Kristina and a very pregnant Jaime.
My two beautiful girls, Melodie had her hair cut and a darling new dress from Le Chateau. We brought her back to Kamloops with us and Vanessa was sure happy to have her home. She really misses her and would go live with Mel in Vancouver if she didn't have to go to school!

Poor Mitchell, dances are really not his thing yet! So he was pretty patient with us that night, just sitting around waiting!
Vanessa was able to get Mitchell up dancing at least once, sisters are okay, girls are not!
Even our Rebecca was dancing with a boy!! I'm not sure I'm ready for another dancing daughter, where has the time gone? She is as tall as Vanessa now and is often mistaken for her!

As usual Melodie found someone's cute baby to hold!
Vanessa and Dad!

Warren and Nadine Edis, the happy bride's parents!

It was a beautiful cake!

Vanessa and Basketball

2009-01-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well Vanessa is on the senior girls basketball team this year at Brocklehurst High School. It makes our lives very busy but it's also kind of fun to go watch their games, too bad they always seem to be right during supper!She went to Merritt this afternoon because they have a game there (its about an hour away) so we'll miss this one. She does have a tournament in town this weekend so I'm sure we'll get lots of watching time in then. This year has been going so much better because she actually gets some playing time, last year was awful and as a parent my heart goes out to all those parents who have to watch their kid sit on the bench game after game. Thank goodness for the coaches out there who play fair and want a well rounded team.She has learned so much from basketball, made friends, learned to work harder and take disappointment. Best of all it keeps her super active and running around all the time! Too bad at my age that just sounds like too much work........

Mitchell's New Year Endeavor

2009-01-12T08:23:00.000-08:00

After reading a post (in The Simple Dollar) regarding the importance of learning new things every year, we had a family meeting about it and we all picked one thing we would like to work on this year to learn. Mitchell decided he wanted to learn how to do the Rubik's cube! So he worked on it for a good couple of weeks (he was able to get the top layer done) and then asked me for help...... I used to be able to do it when I was a teenager but that was years ago, so I went to my trusty Internet and downloaded the instructions! Then Mitchell and I read them together, took awhile and it was pretty complicated but right in the middle of a paragraph I noticed that Mitchell had already done the moves! He caught on pretty fast and so little by little we have been figuring it out. By following the instructions we've been able to do it a few times, but it still takes lots of work! Funny though because when he found out one of our missionaries, Elder Nelson could do it, he right away grabbed it and tried to get clues!
So I've pretty impressed at how perservering he's been with it! Mitchell loves math and puzzles so this is right up his alley........had to take a quick picture of it done!! Yeah for Mitchell!

The Christmas tree is waiting.....

2009-01-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

Okay couldn't resist posting a picture of our Christmas tree because it is January 10 and it is STILL UP! I hope Danielle realizes this is a testimony of how much I love her! I am a real Scrooge when it comes to decorations and the tree, I want them down the day after Christmas because they are now cluttering up the house. Since Danielle and Tim are coming next week I reluctantly agreed to leave it up..... thank goodness it's our artificial one because it could be much worse, dead pine needles all over the floor! I have found this year so much easier..... I am a big FLYLADY fan and I have learned to put everything into totes and so I put one tote away at a time and it makes it so much easier. So our tree is the only thing left up and standing, it is brightly twinkling waiting for Tim and Danielle because next week it too will be back in its box waiting for next year.

Danielle is now 22!

2009-01-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

Wanted to mention that my Danielle turned 22 this week on January 6th. When I was younger time seemed so slow, I used to roll my eyes when "old" people kept talking about how fast time went...... I don't roll my eyes anymore because I'm now one of them.
Danielle was actually not due until the second week of February but she came 5 weeks early. I went into labour 7 weeks early, just before Christmas and it was the scariest thing. I didn't know what was going on and had to be in the hospital where they tried to stop it....... she held off for a couple of weeks but then there was no stopping her and we had a brand new baby on January 6. Unfortunately she had trouble breathing and was only 4lb. 9oz..... so she was in the ICU for 2 weeks. I remember how hard it was when other babies would be wheeled into their mothers and I would have to slip on my hospital housecoat (nightgown turned backwards) and head on down to the ICU. I couldn't even nurse her for the first while because she was full of tubes and in the incubator. Pretty special moment whenever we were allowed to hold her. The nurses were so kind and caring........

Even though I was anxious to bring her home, that first day was so scary....... what did I know about a 5lb baby girl! Thank goodness the lovely nurses gave me their direct line to the ICU, because I called it a few times. She was so tiny and scrawny!! I know, I know but she was......had absolutely no meat on her bones, but oh we were so proud of her!

If Daddy was napping he made sure it was with Danielle, pretty hard to let her out of our sight that first few days. ( On a side note......ugly love seats, but they were free!)

Here we are with Don's family and our new little family! We were visiting with his Mom, Vera, sisters Jeannie and Kathy and nephews, Ryan, Cleve and Harrison. The cute little knitted outfit was from my mom, Reina Granger. Mom made me so many beautiful little outfits for my girls.

So Happy Late Birthday Danielle. We have been thinking of you this week...........

Smith-Mecham Reception

2009-01-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

The beautiful bride and groom......Chet and Angela (Smith) Mecham.

Terry and Mary Smith....... realizing this is their fifth child married with one left to go.......... hang in there Mary, just one more reception!!
Melodie surrounded by admirers! We can just hear little Wyatt telling Kevin: "Hey Kevin, I'm DANCING with YOUR girlfriend!" We all had to laugh because apparently he said this to Kevin once when he was sitting next to Melodie..... "Hey, Kevin, I'm sitting next to your girlfriend!"

Melodie even got Mitchell up on the dance floor a few times, we were so impressed.

Isn't this just the cutest little fellow, he is Steven ( Kevin and Angela's brother) and Charisse's littlest!
Me with my sweetie, I took the kids up early to Salmon Arm so we could help if they needed it and Don came up after work. I was so happy to see him and he's wearing his new Christmas shirt!

Had to take a picture of this beautiful cake that their friend Laura made (Miranda Poitrie's mom). It was absolutely stupendous and this is only one layer, there were three altogether (this is a Maranda Schwarz angle!!)

Well Kevin may not have been able to make it since he is serving a mission in Minneapolis, Minnesota but he was certainly here in spirit! This is his brother Steven, reading a letter he wrote to Chet and Angela..... we were all laughing like crazy, it was typical Kevin and we sure missed him!

Believe it or not, MITCHELL took this picture and we loved it! It was our picture of the night, Melodie and Vanessa together again dancing insanely. The only ones missing were Danielle and Tim but luckily we will see them in a couple of weeks when they come to visit!

Vanessa with her friend Andrew Cooper. Vanessa seems to be surrounded by boys these days, we have a hard time keeping track of them all! With Rebecca coming up I don't think this will end anytime soon!

Jumping back into January!

2009-01-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

January and I'm finally back on! Putting some pictures on that I snapped over Christmas holidays! It was so good to have the time off, to relax, rest and just have fun together as a family. I totally hibernated and tried not to go anywhere unless I absolutely had to! Having a ton of snow outside helped or it was a good excuse.

It's back to craziness with school, lessons and basketball but just having the break helped!

My Melodie home for Christmas, we missed Danielle and Tim! Most days we are down to 3, Vanessa, Rebecca and Mitchell.
Rebecca is getting so tall and grown up, everyone mistakes her for Vanessa because they are starting to look so alike!

Two best friends together again!!

Kevin's Farewell

2008-09-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

I'm including some pictures I took about a week ago when we went to Salmon Arm for Kevin Smith's farewell. He is heading out for his mission to Minneapolis, Minnesota in October and he is so excited!! Melodie is excited for him too but at the same time it will be pretty tough on her, she will miss him so much. They really are best friends! While he is on his mission they can write to each other but there will be no visiting and no talking on the phone for 2 years! So it will be interesting to see if this friendship/love will pass the test of time...... knowing the two of them, I don't really have any doubts but it's kind of funny how many people ask: "Will she wait for him?"
I don't know about these two, I think it's a man thing!!!
Melodie will need Vanessa, Danielle and Rebecca more in the months to come! Thank goodness for sisters!
We love the Smith family! Here I am with Kevin's mother Mary and his aunt Roxane. They had a houseful of family all wishing him well. These are two of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet!
Melodie with the help of her sisters had lots of fun making this candy gram. It's one of her specialties.....

Rebecca, Melodie and Miranda Poitrie. The Smiths have the most wonderful tradition. After dinner we all gathered in their living room and shared stories and advice with Kevin and what we admired about him. It was so inspiring, fun and touching and I hope he carries all our best wishes in his heart for the next two years!

We couldn't have done it without Aunt Kathy, bless her heart! She picked up Melodie from Victoria Friday night, brought her over on the ferry and then drove her here. They were here Saturday and Sunday and then headed back early Monday morning (at around 4) so that Melodie could be back in class Monday afternoon! Kathy said that Melodie must have thanked her 12 times, so that's good!

Kevin with his sister Angela! I wish you could see them dance together, its just so fun to watch! Kevin is the youngest and last to serve a mission, he missed Angela and his brother Trevor who were gone at the same time something fierce...... so he will be missing them again! We will sure keep him in our thoughts and prayers. We know he will be an amazing missionary! He has an affinity for people that endears him to everyone!

Vanessa at Grad last spring

2008-09-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

Realized that I hadn't posted these pictures from last spring! Vanessa was asked to go to Brocklehurst Grad with a friend of hers, David Armstrong. Of course she was thrilled to go, especially since it meant dress shopping! We found a beautiful dress, it had to be classy but not too pouffy because she was an escort not actually one of the grads.......(lol, I know "grad etiquette") and its not like you can use a dress you already have in your closet!!!

Here are Alyssa Lamb, Tamara Boyes and Vanessa who were all escorts to the Brock grads (Eric, Shelby and David) and they are all best friends so they had a blast that night. I think the boys were feeling pretty lucky, or they should have been!! lol
Almost all of these kids are members of our church which is a pretty big group! It made Grad fun because they had a great time hanging out together without having to go to any drinking parties. I hope Vanessa has just as much fun at her own Grad this year!! I think she's going to make her own dress!

Sarah Kerner's Baby Shower

2008-09-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sarah Kerner had her baby this summer. She looked so uncomfortable by the end, it brought back memories! Since she is one of Danielle's best friends, I couldn't resist posting some of the pictures, I know Danielle will love to see them...... Sarah had a 9lb 12oz baby boy, they called him Dax! Here is Melodie holding him as soon as she could! In fact my girls were all pretty happy to be there because there were several babies to pass around.
Isn't this the cutest cake! Some one has an imagination.......
I loved this picture of mother and aunt!! Little Leah helped her big sister, Sarah open her bridal shower gifts a couple of years ago and here she is helping with the baby presents!
Even Rebecca found the cutest little fellow around, (besides Dax) this is Tyler Quinton!
We were up in Aberdeen in Carol Jensen's backyard. It was a beautiful summer evening and it was fun to bring all three girls with me, we sure missed Danielle!

Camping in July

2008-09-07T21:54:00.001-07:00

Thought I would mention how much fun we had in July camping in Kelowna compared to our experience in Vancouver. We almost didn't make the July one because on our way, 15 minutes driving on the Coquihalla our transmission went out and we weren't going anywhere! We had to get a tow truck and get it back to Jay (our super mechanic) who said it definitely needed a new transmission. Mitchell had an appointment with the ophthalmologist the next morning which is why we were going to Kelowna. We thought we would make it into a camping weekend........so that was the start but how could we go back home, Mitchell had given me a big hug the day before because he was sooo excited to be going camping!! So Don got a ride home where he picked up the truck, while we unloaded the completely full van (never mind that we were down 3 kids!!). We didn't get into Kelowna until that afternoon........... so no campsites anywhere, waiting lists 3 days long, I couldn't believe it.....you can't camp spontaneously here unless you reserve it the year before????

We managed to find a little open campground in Westbank that we decided to just try! It did have bathrooms, showers and we could tent so we ended up having a pretty good time there. We had a campfire with smores, made foil dinners, played bocce and cards and read Beverly Cleary books together (Wanted Mud Blossom). I loved watching Mitchell who was just thrilled to help his Dad build the fire and discuss the merits of teepee vs. cabin campfire starts! They were just happy chopping away at kindling.....

Kind of awful to admit but this is the first time my kids have ate cereal out of those little boxes!! We had to cut them open and show them how to put milk in ....... it was so funny, they were so enthused. I know, I'm a little frugal in the grocery department.......poor deprived kids!

Sloppy joes with VEGETABLES! It's a woman thing, food groups! Still tease Don because when he went to Scout Winter camp, he didn't want "no stinkin vegetables" just something you could hold in your hands and eat standing up around the fire!!

Don's boat! The kids loved it, even though it was a little tipsy in all those waves......

Rebecca and Katie's Cookies

2008-09-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

Thought I would mention how amazed I am with kids sometimes and their imaginations! Rebecca had her friend Katie Uhrig over a couple of weeks ago (the 3 Uhrig girls are usually only over for the summer and Rebecca loves to get together with them..... their grandmother Joan is the sweetest lady you'll ever meet). So they decided they would make cookies..........they scoured the cookbooks and decided they wanted to tackle sugar cookies (now me I pretty much do oatmeal chocolate chip and if I'm really ambitious peanut butter cookies except for Christmas when I get a little fancier but that's it the rest of the year.....my cookie repertoire, 2 kinds!!). They they hunted all through the cupboards til they found every cookie cutter I had, most of which I've never used (sad I know) and then spent time planning which ones to use. Then the batter had to be a cool colour, teal blue it is.........chilled the dough, rolled the dough, cut out the dough, cooked the dough, makes me tired thinking of it!!!

Honestly they happily spent almost 3 hours making these marvelous cookies that I would never attempt in a million years......... and they tasted wonderful!! Not only that, when Joan came to pick up Katie she had a mouth watering apple pie in her hands, how cool is that! So it was a bonus day, teal blue sugar cookies and apple pie!

Yeah girls.........

Camping in Vancouver and Science World

2008-09-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well we wanted to camp in Vancouver so we could be close to Vanessa.... (who was working at the PNE) so we found this cool campground close by, problem was it was really more geared to RV's! So here we are with our trusty tent surrounded by huge RV's and it was kind of funny until it started raining and then poured all day Sunday! Don was starting to look at our neighbours in a "I want an RV!!!" kind of way and I knew I needed to get him out of there!How lovely......great big huge slugs everywhere, reminded us of Oregon!I was especially happy to bring the kids to Scienceworld! I went a few years ago with Melodie's high school class for Physics Olympics and found it soooo amazing, I've always wanted to bring the kids back. So we spent all day Saturday exploring, watching and being amazed.....it really was lots of fun.
There were so many exhibits and hands on things to do. One section had all kinds of info on animals with a beaver dam to explore and a live hive with honeybees.

We found this tiny box that you were supposed to try and squish into, Mitchell and Rebecca both tried to fit.......needless to say Don and I decided to skip it!!

And of course a visit to the PNE where Don and the kids rode the tornado! I was happy to stay on the ground and take pictures. We actually saw some pretty fun shows and were very excited to finally see Vanessa who was working at the Sunglass Market in the Market Place!

It was her 17th birthday on August 25th so we joined her for breakfast (the Lambs made her a cake!) and then took her out for supper for Greek food! She was very happy to be eating something besides cup of soup!!!

23 Years!

2008-09-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

Don and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on August 16! I came home totally surprised to find a beautiful vase full of pink roses and carnations! I was so touched, Don doesn't do flowers very often so this was unusual. He also had my favourite chocolate, Bounty (chocolate and coconut an unbeatable combination), a scrapbook magazine and letter full of love quotes! He sure knows me after 23 years........ he's definitely a keeper!

Another First Day of School!! Two down, three to go!!

2008-09-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

Can't believe the summer is gone but have sure loved it. For the first time I really enjoyed the long unstructured days, the not having to drive anywhere, the free afternoons that we could just hop in the pool! No weddings, no big trips, just hanging around the house having barbecues and trying to keep up with the lawns. I wasn't really looking forward to school for the first time in a long time....... but yesterday it was exciting again. The girls spent ages getting the right clothes, Mitchell threw on his pants and shirt just before he headed out the door ( I had to brush his hair as we were walking up the school sidewalk because he forgot!) Vanessa is starting Grade 12 and so excited to be a grad! She was still pretty tired since she just got back from the Vancouver (working at the PNE for 17 days for the Sunglass Market) at 5:00 that morning but she slept a bit and then was ready to go. Rebecca and Mitchell were constantly speculating what teacher they would get!

Then walking into Parkcrest, seeing all the excited faces, slicked back hair, shiny floors and the nervous little ones...... made me nostalgic for my first day back to school! I remember my brand new sneakers on the floor by my bed, not being able to sleep the night before and the butterflies in my stomach as I woke up and knew I was a year older and a Grade higher......it was such a wonderful feeling!

So HAPPY FIRST DAY............ Vanessa, Rebecca and Mitchell!

Musing on the news

2008-07-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I am a news junkie..... I love to read the newspaper and it can be any paper, I'm not fussy. I not only deliver the Kamloops Daily News here in town every morning but can often be found reading it while I am walking. There is just so much to be discovered in the paper! Whether you are looking for recipes, crosswords, sports news, how to redecorate your house, what happened in the accident down the street, there is always something interesting in the paper!!
So I came up to bed and was supposed to be working on my picture storybook ( I have 23 pages almost done of our trip to Hawaii, yeah!!) but got sidetracked by the news!! and on the computer its fun too. I love to read about what is happening in other countries and how are they doing.
I have been reading glimpses of the story of courageous Ingrid Betancourt who survived years of captivity in the jungles of Columbia. She is an amazing woman and has been talking about how her faith got her through.......(she lost years of her children's lives!) I just can't imagine it, people really are so remarkable resilient and strong. So its these stories of faith and courage that get me through all the rest of the bad, the evil, the stupid that can be found in so many of the other stories.
But I better get sleeping, the news comes early in the morning!!

Our Rebecca is 12!

2008-06-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

It's almost hard to go back and get the old pictures out.....makes me miss my little ones. Here is Rebecca when she turned two with her older sisters........ and now here she is 12!
Loved this one of Rebecca taken by Maranda Schwarz about 4 years ago, looking so sweet and innocent.

We had her whole class over for a pool party 2 days before her birthday so I made a huge cake for it. She was thrilled to have them all sing Happy Birthday to her!
Hanging out with one of her best buds....Breann Frazier!

Rebecca with her older sisters........they look a little different here than the first picture! I am so lucky to have all these beautiful girls!

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Melodie off to Victoria

2008-06-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Here's our Melodie heading out for her third year of respiratory therapy. Since its her last year she will be doing 2, 6 month practicums, one in Victoria and the other in Vancouver. We were hoping she could have one in Kamloops but it didn't work out. She has 2 roommates, Dani and Courtney that are both in her program as well so luckily they were able to find a place together (its so expensive in Victoria!). Don drove her down (in his new truck!) the last day of May so she could be there a week before she started. She is excited about finally working in the hospital and I think time is going to fly by for her, as opposed to sitting in the classroom!

We miss her already but it sounds like she is having lots of fun. She has already attended the Young Single Adult Church ward there and has been going to the activities. We also hear that she is trying to persuade the young men down there that she is really not in dating mode..... (since she has a young fellow up here that she talks to every day!)

We talk to her almost every day! Thank goodness for cell phones, when I went off to college I think I phoned home once a month because it was so expensive and I was sure homesick sometimes. We've already got a cute little letter from her with lots of stickers, trademark Melodie!

Her first little apartment......

Battle of the Books

2008-04-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

Believe or not even though I have super reading kids, not one of them entered the Battle of the Books held every year here in Kamloops until Mitchell did this year. He has been reading the books with his class and then he was chosen to be one of the Grade 3/4 representatives. I was totally surprised when he came home and told me...... then when I talked to his teacher found out he really did have one of the higher scores (even though he hadn't read all of the books!). So we had a team from Grade 6/7 and Grade 5 and these 3 little Grade 3s, not a one in Grade 4 and it was all their first time. What was even funnier was that Mitchell was the only boy (not that he really appreciates that right now). So they went to the Zones where they won 2nd place and even won a medal..... they were so thrilled!

They had to answer 30 questions on quite a few books, Lafcadio, James and the Giant Peach, The War with Grandpa, Frindle, Leaving the Log House, The Seven Treasures, Because of Winn-Dixie, Bobby Baseball, Harriet's Hare and Invisible Harry. When they went to Districts a week later (top 7 teams out of the 23 in the city), they didn't do quite as well, but the questions were harder and I think they were up against more Grade 4's, but it was a great experience for him! Hoping he and Rebecca will both do it next year, only we are going to start reading earlier!

When I asked him how they did so well, he said: "Well Mom, the girls decided what book it was and then asked me if I agreed and I usually did!!" Can you tell he lives with a lot of women!!!

Concert!

2008-04-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

So yes I'm insane but I actually agreed to take this group of yahoos to the Rascal Flats concert in Vancouver the first week of April. Of course they bought the $100 tickets months ago and then it came to the week before and I realized we had better make some plans. I had just come back from Europe a few weeks before and was so happy to be home but since Don was working the next day....... I was the chosen one!! We left right after work that day, the concert wasn't until 8 but I wanted plenty of time to get there, you never know what Vancouver traffic will be like!

So we drove down, the kids had an absolute blast... said it was the most fantastic concert they had ever been to (how many have they been to.......like 2!!) Anyway, I went to a cute little scrapbook store for a little more, then went to eat and then spent the rest of the time reading the second book in the Twilight Series.....

I was dreading the ride home with good reason, I knew it would be late and getting out of Vancouver in the dark..... I had too many navigators and too many trips as the passenger to feel very confident. We finally got out of there by midnight, had to drop a friend of Melodie's off (it was just off the highway I was told..... which was right but getting back on the highway was a nightmare!), I ended up back on the number 1 west back over the Port Mann bridge heading back to Vancouver at 1 in the morning. I couldn't even vent because I had all these impressionable teenagers behind me, I just had to grit my teeth and try to find a way to turn back around. The only thing that saved me that night was the Mel and Kevin both have their N's so they were able to drive part of the way, it made the world of difference.

So note to self......... make them take the bus if they buy out of town tickets!

Have to admit, they were very grateful......... lots of THANK YOU MOM!!