9/30/09

A Prickly Pear

Oh, Noah, Noah, Noah! Our little guy is so fiery. (As photo exhibit A portrays)


(Exhibit A)

This is the little guy that Jeremy and I get to face head on each and every day! Oh, it's about as fun as sticking your eye into Exhibit B.


(Exhibit B)

But, in the spirit of full disclosure, he is mostly the sweetest little angel.


(Exhibit C)

And he is no longer our "Terrible Toddler"! He's our Big 3 year old Kiddo! All join me in a beautiful rendition of the Happy Birthday!!!

9/27/09

Totally Scary

Last weekend we made the short jaunt over to Hailey, Idaho to visit Jeremy's wonderful big brother, Brent, and his whole family! We had so, so, so much fun.

Jessica and Travis' little boys are so adorable. Absolutely the sweetest little kiddos. Oh, and my beautiful sister, Ruth, made these delicious scones! With homemade jam, mmmm, it was perfect. And we even floated down the river with them! The only way to describe last Saturday is this one word: bliss!

But... On the way home... Dun Dun Dun... (Ominous Music)...

We nearly ran straight into a deer! And I mean head-on. It didn't even budge until Jeremy almost came to a complete stop.


Jeremy was certainly blessed by Heavenly Father above to have such a clear head that night, well, that and he has the "Speed of a cat, and the reflexes of a mongoose."

9/23/09

'Fraidey-cat, no more!

Okay, okay, so I implore you to take an interesting trip down memory lane back one year all the way back to September 2008 with me.

September was a very interesting experiment for me. I actually posted a blog regarding the Politically Correct usage of words. Specifically, the usage and past terminology of words describing retarded individuals. I am going to post a link (click here) if you wish to review my original blog. Visit it only at your peril...

So, this blog has since supplied me with a year's worth of blogging anxiety. Each time I decide that I want to blog, the thoughts run through my mind "Am I going to be upsetting anyone? Are strangers going to check out my blog and judge me on it?"

Unfortunately, in this world of blogging and internet users, many people are able to explore (and disagree vehemently) the thoughts and moments of anyone. Well, this blog received some very harsh, negative comments. Maybe they were deserved, maybe not.

Tonight though, I took some time and researched the history of my blogs and I noticed an alarming trend. September 2008 contained 10 posts, but up until this September (an entire year later) I had not posted more than 9 posts per month! What is that about?

Am I seriously too afraid of what strangers and people who haphazardly search random blogs are going to think? Well, I am not going to have the 'fraidey-cat attitude anymore!

This brings me to the last little thought that I had tonight. When my unknown commenter (hmshore) accused me of being judgmental and teaching my boys horrible things, how did she find my site? Was she searching the web for any articles containing the word retard, or imbecile, or idiot? How did she happen upon my site, and why was it that I allowed her comments to discourage me from blogging what was in my heart?

Could you imagine?

(Brought to you through inspiration from Yahoo.com). Tonight, as I'm playing on the internet enjoying some quiet time, I see one place where I am virtually guaranteed to have as much quiet time as I want. The Island of Tristan du Cunha...


This beautiful island is actually an old volcano tip that is known as the most remotely inhabited location on Earth. On our planet!!! It is over 1,300 miles away from the closest inhabited city, and over 1,700 from the Mainland!


Could you imagine living in a place that is so raw? According to internet sources, there are about 270 peoples who call this Island home year-round. They only receive their mail once a year, and we freak out if we can't log into our email (or check out what's going on with "The Best is Yet to Come" blog) daily.

Aaahhh, peace at last, peace at last!

9/21/09

So, Let's Gossip...


This post is specially designed for my beautiful friend, Kjerstin. She is such a sweet woman, wonderful mommy, and an absolute inspiration. On top of all that she has the cutest baby in the world, Boston!


I miss sitting around just "gossiping" with you! Come over to visit soon!

An Unread Classic

I love reading; love, love, love it! But the last book that I read left me with a bad taste in my mouth. "Reservation Road" while well written and smart, did not contain what I would consider to be a time-worthy story line. And let's face it; if I'm taking the time to really read any story, I want it to be fantastic. So, now that you have the background story down, I will seg-way into the true meaning of this post.

Today, while looking at our unique array of books that have been collected throughout the years (and preparing for "alone time") I spotted a total classic. Even better than that, I have never read this book!


I am truly excited to read this classic book and am fully expecting great things! Maybe it will even be a good book to share with my favorite little men!

9/20/09

Best Friends

Jeremy is lucky enough to have some of the best friends anyone could ever ask for.

As a B-F-T-P (Blast from the Past)type post, I searched the old photo bank and came up with these photogems!


(Pictured here is Nathan Baldwin, Jeremy [The Big Rig], and Eric Smith)


(Pictured here is Nathan, Justin Rubert, Eric, and Jeremy)

Thank you, guys, for being the best friends ever!

9/18/09

My baby Mikey

I realized yesterday that Mikey simply does not get blogged as much as everyone else in my family. Maybe it's because he just quietly studies the world around him.

One day he will rule us all!


Oh, no!

9/17/09

Traveling Through Time in my Bathtub

After a few days of consideration and thoughtful thought, I have decided to make a blogger post out of my final paper that I wrote for Humanities last block. I was proud of the creativity that was put into this paper, but I know it is not perfect. I'm simply copying and pasting it into this form.

Read on if you would like, absolutely no pressure!


Traveling Through Time in my Bathtub...

My days are full. Waking up at 4:30 in the morning and working a full eight hours before coming home to my house full of young boys and taking care of them. At the end of a long day, I usually like to relax in a warm bubble bath surrounded by candles. Last Friday night, as I was enjoying my end of the week relaxation time, I found myself drifting deep into dreamland.

...

I awoke, in cold bathwater, deep in Sicily. What was I going to do, I was naked! After quickly donning a toga, I was finally interested in seeing the sites and people around the city. As I walked around, I saw many people working the land, trying to make sure enough food is grown to provide for the entire year. Both peasants and lords worked together, finally resting from the labors, celebrating with church feasts and occasions.

On the street corner, I saw a group of commoners gathered around an easel. Hurrying over to check it out, I saw the visual art piece included below, “Praying Hands.” The artist created this piece of artwork to express the sincerity and devotion of praying to a Heaven Father, regardless of religious preference. Many of the observers that were admiring the artwork alongside me did not have any information about the whereabouts of this piece of beautiful and serene artwork. I could tell that this piece was made through sketching and shading on a canvas background. “Praying Hands” shows both the lords and the commoners the importance of showing the Gods their appreciation.


Many of the people walking through the streets with me were very melancholy and seemed to be sad. As I asked how they were doing, many told me of the family members and struggles that they had to endure through the Medieval Times, which were rife with Plagues and death. Instead of turning away from the Gods, many people became more religious and pious, which was truly represented in the portrait of “Praying Hands.” Street corners and gathering places were packed with traveling merchants and returning crusades telling anyone who would listen to stories of travels to Asia, the Middle East and Africa. These new stories told of adventures and lands of new learning about the earth and the human body. As I looked around the city, I saw many art pieces that were religious in nature. As I looked closer at “Praying Hands” I thought of how this art piece would still be valued in modern-day cultures because it portrays the never ending presence of Gods in our lives and reminds us of the power of prayer. After a long day of walking and looking at these beautiful art pieces, I finally fell asleep in a peasants’ home.

...

Rocking back and forth, I finally awoke in a boat. After asking the captain and crew I found out I was on my way to Italy. Upon arrival, I was thrust into the hustle and bustle of cultural and intellectual creativity. The Italian Renaissance had arrived. As I walked around, talking to people I met on the street, I found that many people did not agree with the medieval civilization anymore. More concerned with the physical world, including the body and humanism, artists reflected this in all facets of the society. Leonardo DiVinci sketched a piece of artwork that was so proportionally correct and anatomically accurate portraying the human body for what it is.


The purpose of this piece was to show the human body, flaws included. I met a man in a toga, named Jacob Burckhardt, on the street and asked him what his take on the “Vitruvian Man” was. He said that “man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation – only through some general category.”

This piece of artwork was made as a simple sketch, from the great artist Leonardo DiVinci. He was studying the human body, many times by collecting deceased bodies illegally from the graveyards and taking extreme measurements on them. As he averaged all of these lengths out, in his genius he discovered similarities between all different humans. Leonardo DiVinci was not satisfied by simply creating artwork that was more pleasing to the eye. He desired to show the true nature of human beings, including their faults. The culture was consumed with attempting to learn as much as possible about how human beings think, work, and basically continue to live. Many of these aspects that I was witnessing on the street seemed to be a continuation and follow through of the ideas set forth in the previous age.

As I listened to intellectuals discuss the “Vitruvian Man” I found out that this art piece showed the importance of humanism in the current culture. Other artwork pieces around me also were based upon seeing the true nature of humans and life in general. The “Vitruvian Man” is an amazing testament of how intellectual and intrinsic the artists of the day were.

It has been such a long hard day, crazy and busy, searching all the nooks and crannies throughout Italy in search of the next great artist. A family, living in poverty, so kindly invited me to dinner and to spend the night with them, I was obliged to accept their generous offer of friendship, and after a filling dinner, I fell promptly asleep.

...

Waking up with the twisting and the steady bumps felt only while riding on horseback, I opened my eyes to witness myself crossing the border from Italy to Northern Europe. Upon entering the city, I quickly spotted the center of art. A beautiful profile portrait was being created.


Even after asking around, I was unable to find out the artists’ name or location. The painting is a simple yet elegant profile of Matteo Olivieri. This beautifully colored and richly lavish painting was apparently being commissioned through Matteo’s son, Michele, who also had a painting completed. I thought it was mildly strange that Matteo appeared to be a young man, the same as the portrait created by his son, who by best estimations was at least 65 years old at the time of the setting. The observers informed me that many of these types of portraits were created as commemorations of their dead family member, wishing to remember them in health rather than in failing health. One comment I overheard from the art critic Alberti was that a portrait “like friendship can make an absent man seem present and a dead one seem alive.”

The portrait was created by using vibrant colors on a canvas. The artwork reveals the artistic views and power based laws of the renaissance ages. Many of the artworks surrounding us were independent portraits of individuals and their accomplishments, along with fame. This type of artwork that portrayed even the common people was becoming more commonplace and showed us the desires of the people were switching from religious consciousness to personal choices and popularity to overrule the lifestyle and traditions. After more walking and talking to individual residents of Northern Europe, I spotted a shady spot underneath a tree of lilacs and drifted into sleep.

...

Muffled knocks on the door, slowly waking up and coming out of sleep, I came out of my fog and realized that I was back in my bathroom in the bathtub. The candles had burnt out and I was freezing cold from the cooled water. As I got out and began drying off, I pondered the different situations and cultures that I had just visited. I had learned about three very distinct, yet closely related cultures, all of which have given us beautiful and lasting impressions into their worlds and daily lives.


(I have not included the references from where I got the information used in this paper, but there were many!)

9/14/09

Check out my new diggs!

For those of you who don't know yet, I got a new job!!! And I am officially introducing you to my new office space.


After only 3 more weeks of training, I will officially be a Technical Support Agent for Verizon Wireless and Alltell Cellular Phone Companies. That's right, when you have troubles logging onto your Blackberry or can't seem to find the right button to turn your phone off, I will be there... Patiently waiting in my cubicle for you to call me.

For those of you who can't sit still out of the pure excitement of the moment, I completely understand and I am opening up my comments section to all of you... Go right ahead...


In addition to my totally exhilerating work life, I am super duper pleased to announce that I just received my final grades for my last two courses through the University! I got a "B+" in Humanities and the Arts, and a beautiful "A" in my Early American Education course. (If popular demand requests, I may include a post of my creative final paper that I wrote for Humanities???)

Once upon a time...

there was a little strange creature.


I believe his name was Timo (mmm, is he related to anyone reading this?)

9/11/09

This Way...

Ok. (This is the absolute last time that I will mention this, I promise)

Yesterday evening, after the kids new schools' open house, we went into downtown Boise to go to Winco (of course, where else would we be going?) to grab some groceries. Downtown resembles a square grid of mixed one-way and two-way streets.


As my wonderfully handsome husband Jeremy creeps slowly closer to old age, he is showing the very beginning signs of dementia. Bobbing his head along with the ipod that is blasting through the speakers of our yacht sized Suburban, he wasn't completely paying attention to the road.

Turning left onto a right-turn only street, being bombarded with honking horns, bright red mustangs coming straight for us, and those pesky street people pointing and laughing. Okay, okay, it wasn't that bad! The one red mustang coming toward us honked in disapproval and two fellas sitting on the curb watched in amazement as Jeremy expertly committed himself to a full 3-point (or was it 8?) turn trying to get our gigantic vehicle out of the way.

It was so funny, and it truly doesn't happen often that Jeremy makes a boo-boo while driving, so I needed to jab him! Unfortunately, I promised that I wouldn't tease forever! I love you, honey!

9/8/09

Simply Titled ~

Remembering and missing Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Rigby and St. Anthony...