Saturday, May 30, 2009

priceless...

I took my nieces and nephew, along with Ruby and Asher, to the railroad park yesterday. The highlight was, no doubt - the train ride; and, more specifically, the tunnel at the very end. It's fun, and exciting, and fast, and dark, and the passengers just usually scream and make a lot of noise. Because it was too dark to see the kids' faces, I couldn't wait to see how these shots were going to turn out. Aren't these expressions just priceless? I am totally in love with these two photos...and, of course, with these two children.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

32 or 21?

Thanks to my very sweet, very thoughtful, husband - I had a fabulous 32nd birthday. It started out very early - I woke up at 4:45 am...(probably had something to do with the fact that I went to bed at 8:30 both Saturday and Sunday nights). Because I was awake, and couldn't go back to sleep, I decided to get up as do some things around the house. I hadn't been up more than 45 minutes, when I heard John's alarm go off. He had wanted to get up early to be able to wrap my presents and have them displayed before I woke up. I think he was a little disappointed to find that I was already up...and had been for a while. Since we were both up, and awake, he suggested that I go ahead and open my gifts. This hopefully explains why I look the way I do in these photos. You can tell from the bags under my eyes that I needed at least a couple more hours of sleep; but, despite my obvious deficit in beauty sleep (as evidenced in these photos), I was beyond ecstatic when I opened my gifts (also evidenced in these photos)...

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In the picture on the left, I'm opening my new collector edition of Victor Hugo's classic, Les Miserables. Easton Press publishes the most beautiful editions of some of the most renowned works of literature ever written. The books come bound in genuine premium leather, with 22kt gold accents along the spine. The pages are acid neutral and smyth-sewn, not glued. They are beautiful, and I was so happy to receive my very own unique edition of - in my opinion - a literary masterpiece, and one of the greatest stories ever written.
In the picture on the right, I've just discovered that John and I will be attending the U2 concert when they come to Phoenix in October! He also got me an expodisc (white balance filter) for my camera, which should hopefully aid in improving the overall coloring and skin tones of my photographs.

With all the birthday celebrating that's been going on in our home, Ruby is most definitely ready for her special day. In fact, everyday she asks the question, "Is today June 4th?"...soon enough, little miss.
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John all tuckered out...at 8:30 AM. I think he was getting me back for falling asleep at 8:30 PM on his birthday...
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I also enjoyed a fun lunch with two of my sister's-in-law, and then a couple of hours at the pool with John and the kids...

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That night we got a babysitter and went out for dinner and a movie...

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Our server at Outback paid us the best compliments...without even trying. She was going over the menu...you know - the specials, the drinks, etc. "I don't know if you guys are 21 or not," she said "but we have the most amazing specialty drinks..." (We explained to her that we don't drink, but would be interested in finding out what spirit free drinks they offered.) That was compliment #1...she wasn't even sure if we were 21 or not. So, moving on to compliment #2...rather than getting my traditional diet coke, and John his traditional water, we both ordered virgin pina coladas, and even got an appetizer - which again, we never really do. John jokingly made the statement to our server, "we're celebrating both our birthday's today, so we're going ALL out". And that's when she paid us the second compliment, or rather, the same compliment...for the second time. She said, "Oh, that's exciting! Are either of you turning 21?" Little did she know that I was ringing in my 22nd year...11 years ago. She died when we told her that John had just turned 30, and that today was my 32nd birthday. I told her that we both still felt 21, because that's all that really matters, right?

Sunday, May 24, 2009

the big 3-0

Yesterday was John's birthday...but not just any ordinary birthday - it was his 30th. Because he was turning 30, I wanted to make it extra special and (hopefully) memorable for him. I love that it fell on a Saturday, because we were able to spend the entire day together. To start out, I decorated the kitchen the night before with crepe paper streamers and balloons - 30 balloons. Ruby helped me by handing me the balloons - one by one - and telling me where I should put each color. In fact, if you look closely, you'll see a lone pink balloon in the mix. Well that pink balloon was Ruby's special gift to her dad. She picked it out, wanted me to blow it up, and couldn't stop talking about how excited daddy was going to be when he saw his pink balloon...



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She also used this time to practice singing the Happy Birthday song - which she'd be preforming the next day for her daddy.



Before John woke up, I set out his gifts - all 30 of them - on the table, under the panorama of crepe paper and balloons.

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Now before you think I went too overboard, I have to explain that not all of them were huge, expensive gifts. Some of the items were small - things like his favorite candy bar, favorite snack, and favorite drink. He got several gift cards to places he likes to eat...a couple of shirts...some cologne. Really nothing huge, just some of his favorite things, or things that he needed (like grey dress socks), or things that at some point he had mentioned that he'd like to have (clippers to cut the dog's hair). Needless to say, I think he was pretty shocked when he saw the display of gifts - wrapped, and arranged... and spanning the entire surface of the kitchen table.

spotting all of his presents...
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opening the gifts...
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Later that day, we had a swim party and bbq over at my sister-in-law, Lori's house.

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She and Joe were gracious enough to open up their home, pool, and yard to all of John's friends and family. There were close to 50 people in attendance...and I know that it meant a lot to him (and to me), that so many people came out - not only to celebrate with us, but also - in honor and support of him.

What's a pool party without somebody getting thrown into the pool?...or as in Joseph's case, forced to jump into the pool after getting an entire bucket of ice water dumped on his head...
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The Birthday Boy...
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Unfortunately, the fun pretty much ended there. We spent the rest of the day at the Phoenix Children's Urgent Care with Ruby. She had a bad case of the croup - high fever, barking cough, struggle for each breath...the whole deal. Normally a dose of Xopenex with the nebulizer does the trick, but after 5 or six treatments - one every 8 hours, and still no improvement...we decided it would be best to just take her in. Fortunately, the chest x-rays showed that her lungs were clear, and they finally sent us home after giving her a steroid shot to open her airway. We didn't feel comfortable leaving her with a babysitter, so in lieu of dinner and a movie, we put the kids down, John cut the dog's hair with his new birthday clippers, and I fell asleep on our bed somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00. You would have thought we were in our eighties. Good thing it's a nice long weekend, and that John has Monday off work...we're planning on picking up where we left off for sure.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

billions of items...

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Almost ever since we moved to AZ, John and I have been wanting to hold a garage sale. We had one in Provo, at our little studio apartment, and one in West Jordan while we were living at my dad's - both of which produced favorable outcomes ($1200 at one, and $800 at the other). So, basically for the past two and a half years, we've been holding onto the stuff that we'd normally take to Goodwill, in hopes that we'd someday have accumulated enough to warrant having a sale. Our neighborhood is difficult however, because it's a gated community, and we're not allowed to advertise the gate code (nor would we want to). So my good friend, Sarah, suggested that we come over and have our sale at her house. It's a perfect location, right off of a main road, and in the middle of two busy intersections. So we took her up on her offer, and held our yard sale last Saturday. We actually had so much stuff, that we decided it would be best to rent a small U-Haul to transport everything over to her house. That way, we wouldn't have to borrow a truck, and then have to take several trips back and forth (even though it's only about a mile away). We took everything over to her house on Friday night, and stored it all in the garage until the morning. Our plan way to return at 6:00 AM to set up the sale, and then to (hopefully) be ready for our first customers by 7:00. After we literally filled her entire garage with loot, we began hanging signs at every intersection within about a 2 mile radius. It was late, and we were tired...so our signs turned out kind of dippy. Sayings like biggest and best yard sale EVER, amazing yard sale, 1,000's of items - which somehow morphed into BILLIONS of items, and then there was HUGE yard sale, and yard sale: DON'T miss this one... anyway, these sayings, and others, adorned the giant neon green posters which were plastered all over the city. In the morning when we pulled into Sarah's neighborhood (at 6:00 am), at least three cars (die hard bargain hunters) pulled up behind us. We were dying because nothing was out yet...we had planned on at least an hour set-up time. We frantically began pulling stuff out, and did our best to set up shop, but the customers were literally just pouring in. It felt like a really bad dream, you know, the kind where you have a really important event or commitment (like maybe the first day of school, or a job interview, or maybe it's your wedding day), and you totally sleep through your alarm, or you get stuck in traffic, etc. I just hate the feeling of not being prepared for something. It was a mad house, but after about two hours, we finally had all of our items on display. We had a large rolling rack (a purchase we made a few years ago - specifically for all the yard sales we'd be holding through the years) which housed all the clothing. And then all the shoes were displayed in perfect rows on a tarp near the rolling rack. Apart from our clothing department, we had a section for holiday decorations, an electronics department, a section which housed nothing but office supplies, a housewares department, a section for appliances, home decor, textiles, movies and cd's... I mean really...you name it - we had it (oh, except for golf balls, and an electronic train...just a few odd requests here and there). Everything was so easy to find, too, because of the way we set up our schematics...(Can you tell I worked in retail for 10 years?) When all was said and done, and after we payed for the U-Haul, we ended up bringing home over $900.00. We laugh because we don't even shop garage sales, but have managed to have three ridiculously successful sales ourselves. And it's funny, because our top priced item was a mere $15 bucks...seriously, everything else was around a dollar, maybe two...or even .50!



A few things we have done, which I think are key: 1) Ensure that everything is neat and organized...making it more shoppable. (Who likes to dig through boxes of junk?) 2) Along those same lines, dust off and wipe down your items. They have a better chance of selling if they look nice and clean. 3) Try to have everything out on display. We always have several tables, rolling racks, shelves, and tarps to display our items. 5) Location is important. (Thank you so much, Sarah!). 4) Advertise. There are several websites that offer free advertising...and be sure to put up posters, too. 5) Have a good time with your customers. John is the best at that. He can pretty much sell anyone on anything, just because of his winsome personality. I should also mention that he's a born salesman.

So anyway, after three lucrative sales in a row, we decided to go into business. No not really, but we did think it would be fun to have a yard sale every two or three years. Things accumulate so fast; and before we even realize it, we have way more than we need (or even want). I think it feels so good to simplify, declutter, de-junk, and reorganize...and it feels even better making some extra cash in the process.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

night fever, night fever...

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The two posters I made for the event...
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We had our annual YW/YM talent show this past week. We planned a 70's theme night and entitled it Wednesday Night Fever. We weren't able to get the church building this year, so it was held in one of the ward member's back yard...which, in my opinion, made it way more fun. It was a perfect evening filled with 70's trivia, disco music, pet rocks, leisure suits, candy from the 70's...not to mention - phenomenal talent. I feel so blessed to be able to work with the youth. They are so pure. So intelligent. So funny. And so gifted. It was a treat to be able to witness each one of them showcase their unique and inspiring talents...oh, and I laughed harder than I had in a long time.

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We'll always jump at any opportunity to dress up...

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Ruby doing the hustle on the dance floor...

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Me sportin' my mom's polyester pep club uniform from probably around 1974...

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Asher lovin' on his green blow pop (a candy that came out in the 70's)...


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