Photography class

I have a love love relationship with the photography class that I am taking. I am feeling so inspired. I am actually dreaming about new photos I can take, but they never turn out on the camera as good as they are in my head. Here are some of my first trys:

"Shoe project"- you take a shot of the persons

face, then their shoes. I had to do one of Cam

and his Heely's because he loves them so much.

My new "do"

So I decided to cut my hair. Sarah told me that all haircut decisions had to be blogged. Actually, I decided about the same time I sat down in Mykel's chair to get it cut. I like the way it turned out- after she was done I said "I didn't realize how much I liked my friend's hair until I asked you to cut mine the same way." It reminded me of my friend Kristi's style. I am still getting used to the difference (12 inches cut)- not being able to put it into a ponytail was kind of hard when we went camping last weekend. I'll have to get some cute headbands or clips or something.

Women's Conference at BYU

I never knew what Women's Conference was until Kristi invited us to attend with her this year. What fun! It is two days of talks and classes just for women. Somehow Christina, Kristi, Cyd, Heather, and I were able to go Friday. We went ALL DAY- no kids- just girls- and got to listen to some amazing speakers. Kristi told us to bring a lunch since food lines get long. So we had a girly sack lunch (yum, yummy Chicken Quinoa Salad-from Pook and Bonnie's bread- from Cyd yum!). We were able to just go from class to class and didn't stop! We started at 9:00 and ended at 5:00, but it seemed to go so fast for me. I thought for sure I would fall asleep sitting in class all day, listening to talks, but I didn't! That says a lot about how great it was. Highlights for me were; John Bytheway (he talked about replacing our fears with faith), a class about teaching children to work, and President Monson telling stories and laughing with us.Notice our cute necklaces- Kristi made one for each of us.

I've been tagged!- Random about things about me

I feel so welcomed into the blogging world now that I have been "tagged" to post about myself by my friend Annie (who by the way is one of the truly amazing people I've met). Here goes:

10 years ago:
I was on my mission in Russia. Oh, where do I start? As I thought about where I was and what I was doing, I realized that I faithfully kept a journal on my mission (oh, how things change- if I can write in a journal every few months these days... that is why I blog, right?). Anyway, I fished it out of a box from our basement and read the entries from the end of April and the beginning of May 1998. It was such a fantastic time warp- thank you Annie for bringing me to this point. I wrote about how we were teaching a couple whom we had just told they needed to get married before being baptized. "It was a good lesson for me about being honest. Too often I try to please people by saying what they want to hear. That isn't right. I need to work on being more honest. Our president said 'The Spirit doesn't offend.' How true- the Spirit will always testify of what is true- but also give us hope that we can do what is right and live as He tells us."

Things on my to-do list for Monday:
-Do the 30- day shred workout
-Call Annie and wish her a Happy Birthday
-Clip Elle's fingernails (they grow SO fast!)
-Register for Women's Conference (nothing like the last minute)
-Go to Costco for fruit (and nothing else- I promise)
-Sweep and Mop (I think this is always on the list, but one of the first things I like to avoid- along with most other cleaning)
-Go visiting teaching
-Plan an inspiring FHE while still engaging a 6, 4 and 1 year old (actually I'll just settle for planned)

What I would do if I suddenly had a billion dollars: (Isn't this a sign of our times- it isn't a million anymore- it's a Billion)
-Pay off the house
-Put away money for all the future stuff we expect (missions, college, weddings, missions, travel) and the stuff we don't want to (death, illness, tradgedy)
-Buy a road bike (I've been wanting one for a while, but have never really ridden one)
-Start searching for that piece of land that is just right (near the mountains, maybe a stream, mature trees) to build my dream "green" home.
-Annonymously pay off some of the biggest bills at Primary Children's Medical Center (so when I'm rich and actually do this- don't tell anyone it was me)
-Book some service trips to do with the kids this summer (like build schools in South America or teach families in Africa how to treat their drinking water- you know, worthy stuff like that)
-Travel LOTS (you name it, I probably want to go there)
-Hire a professional chef, a housekeeper, a gardner, and a really great photographer to capture my kids at a moment's notice

It's fun to dream!

3 of my bad habits:
-I am often late (thanks to Scott we are on time more than I would be by myself)
-I leave dishes in the sink overnight
-I can fall asleep almost anywhere (and I have- church, the temple, while driving!- I'm not proud of it)

Places I have lived:
Salt Lake City, UT (born)
Murray, UT (raised- do those count as two separate places?)
Logan, UT (Utah State University)
Moscow, Russia (teaching English)
Guangzhou, China (teaching English)
Rostov-na-Donu, Russia (mission)
San Antonio, TX (our first jobs out of college)
Shreveport, LA (where Davis was born)
Cedar Hills (currently and most likely for a long time)

Jobs I've had:
-Babysitting (I even had a 'kit' and took CPR classes- I was good)
-Selling doughnuts going from business to business every morning until my 'crate' was empty
-Cashier at the Taco Maker in Fashion Place Mall
-Police Cadet (truly a highlight of my HS years)
-Preschool teacher (Learning Tree preschool/ daycare)
-Running the go-carts at Saltair (it was hardly work- I worked with Christina and no one ever came, so we just raced each other)
-Data taker for a research project (I watched kids play and took notes)
-Receptionist/dispatcher at a construction company
-Credit analyst for American Express (I secretly loved looking at other people's credit reports)
-Secretary at Huntsman Chemical (I did accounts recievable-love, love their cafeteria)
-First grade teacher (Tremonton, UT)
-Fifth grade teacher (San Antonio, TX)
(I think that is all- I am having a hard time remembering- Update 5-1: I knew there were more, I just added three- I forgot until I read Pookies list)

5 things most people don't know about me:
1. I like to REALLY separate my laundry (one too many laundry mishaps has led to this one-reds only go with reds, blacks with blacks, of course whites with whites- so when I wash one set everyone has the same color of clean clothes all at once. Sometimes it looks like we are trying to be a matchy family- but really it is what is clean at the time)
2. One of my dreams growing up was to be a pediatrician (I would still love to if I didn't have to make my family suffer through all the years of hard work- I mostly am fascinated with how the body works)
3. Swimming in lakes creeps me out - the ocean is even worse. (I will do it sometimes if I am really feeling fun and brave. Once when I was a leader at girl's camp, I went down a zip line and was supposed to drop into a mountain lake (freezing!). Instead of letting go I begged the man at the top to pull me back up. I jumped in later because the YW gave me such a hard time)
4. When I was in high school and college I used to eat junk food for meals (I think Scott sometimes thinks he was tricked since I am such a health food fan now. He would love to have some frozen pizzas in the house or Grandma's cookies, or Cherry Pepsi- any one of which could have been my lunch back in the day)
5. I was having a hard time thinking of something else so I asked Scott (this is really revealing). He said "You snore and you stink really bad when you get back from running". Gotta love it- can you tell we have been married almost 9 years. Good thing I just posted about honesty.

I tag anyone who hasn't done this yet. It was fun to do- I'd love to read yours.