Made by Memilyrae

We are so excited for Becky and Will! Their baby girl is finally here! What a sweet face she has! Naomi is beautiful!

Steve and I have decided that we really need to work on Food Storage. I’m looking into coupons, ways to store, where to store it, how much to get, how to rotate it, meals to make with it, etc, etc, etc. Just wanted to share 🙂

I’m using Track My Food Storage to help me out. Take a look. I haven’t REALLY used it yet, but I have signed up for it.

Annette and I were preparing for the digi scrap class we’re teaching and wanted to show different styles people prefer (very little embellishment to a ton of embellishment). Annette called this one “The Fluff’s the Stuff” and I loved it! It’s actually the style I prefer. If you want to see Annette’s style, click here.

I am going to guess this is Mikey’s but I just thought it was funny because I found it in my CHEESE drawer in the fridge. Is someone stealing my “cheese sticks?”

So, in a previous post you saw what happens when I get a hold of the razors and try cutting Spencer’s hair short on the sides but longer on top…

I decided I wanted to just shave it all since we’re doing family photos on Saturday. As I was finishing off the top, Spencer says, “I want mommy and daddy to do it.” So I said I’d do some of it and daddy could finish the rest. Here’s what I did…in honor of my brother, Brent…

Both Stephen and Spencer liked it but it was uneven and, I hate to admit, a really sloppy job. BUT, at least I took a few pictures!

Here’s my little stud after I finished cutting his hair and he got ready for church. What a GQ Stud!

And here is dear Evie…and what happens when we put a dress on her…

My friend, Triana Ord, is starting her photography business and I am so excited to watch her portfolio grow! She will be doing our family photos next Saturday and I’m SO excited! She is such an amazingly creative woman and I know her business will be successful. Take a look at her website and take a look often because I know it’ll continue to grow and be simply great!

Triana Ord Photography

For all of those TWILIGHT fans out there, here is a page from Stephani Meyer’s new book, Breaking Dawn.

1. ENGAGED

NO ONE IS STARING AT YOU, I promised myself. No one is staring at you. No one is staring at you.

But, because I couldn’t lie convincingly even to myself, I had to check.

As I sat waiting for one of the three traffic lights in town to turn green, I peeked to the right — in her minivan, Mrs. Weber had turned her whole torso in my direction. Her eyes bored into mine, and I flinched back, wondering why she didn’t drop her gaze or look ashamed. It was still considered rude to stare at people, wasn’t it? Didn’t that apply to me anymore?

Then I remembered that these windows were so darkly tinted that she probably had no idea if it was even me in here, let alone that I’d caught her looking. I tried to take some comfort in the fact that she wasn’t really staring at me, just the car.

My car. Sigh.

I glanced to the left and groaned. Two pedestrians were frozen on the sidewalk, missing their chance to cross as they stared. Behind them, Mr. Marshall was gawking through the plate glass window of his little souvenir shop. At least he didn’t have his nose pressed up against the glass. Yet.

The light turned green and, in my hurry to escape, I stomped on the gas pedal without thinking — the normal way I would have punched it to get my ancient Chevy truck moving.

Engine snarling like a hunting panther, the car jolted forward so fast that my body slammed into the black leather seat and my stomach flattened against my spine.

”Arg!” I gasped as I fumbled for the brake. Keeping my head, I merely tapped the pedal. The car lurched to an absolute standstill anyway.

I couldn’t bear to look around at the reaction. If there had been any doubt as to who was driving this car before, it was gone now. With the toe of my shoe, I gently nudged the gas pedal down one half millimeter, and the car shot forward again.

I managed to reach my goal, the gas station. If I hadn’t been running on vapors, I wouldn’t have come into town at all. I was going without a lot of things these days, like Pop-Tarts and shoelaces, to avoid spending time in public.

Moving as if I were in a race, I got the hatch open, the cap off, the card scanned, and the nozzle in the tank within seconds. Of course, there was nothing I could do to make the numbers on the gauge pick up the pace. They ticked by sluggishly, almost as if they were doing it just to annoy me.

It wasn’t bright out — a typically drizzly day in Forks, Washington — but I still felt like a spotlight was trained on me, drawing attention to the delicate ring on my left hand. At times like this, sensing the eyes on my back, it felt as if the ring were pulsing like a neon sign: Look at me, look at me.

It was stupid to be so self-conscious, and I knew that. Besides my dad and mom, did it really matter what people were saying about my engagement? About my new car? About my mysterious acceptance into an Ivy League college? About the shiny black credit card that felt red-hot in my back pocket right now?

”Yeah, who cares what they think,” I muttered under my breath.

Entertainment Weekly Article

August 2 isn’t too far away (two great things happen on August 2…my brother Matt’s birthday and Breaking Dawn!)

One of the scrapbook sites I love (http://scraporchard.com/) was doing a challenge using this kit. Here was my take on it:

I’ve been DYING to do Evie’s hair and actually have it stay in longer than 10 seconds! I was FINALLY able to for church on Sunday! THEN Spencer saw Evie get her hair done and he let me do his hair too! I wanted to be able to spike it, but the sides were too long so I ATTEMPTED to cut it. I might just shave it all again soon…he looks like he’s heading to the military!

About a month (or was it two) ago Steve was contacted by a guy at Novell who is looking to hire a few more people. Steve has worked at Novell before in an intern position, and like many other people, experienced the not-so-surprising Novell layoffs. His previous boss thought really highly of him and the work he does and told others about him. Steve went in for the interview, waited for the interview week(s) to be done and was called and given an verbal offer. We wanted to wait until Steve actually signed the papers and started his job and that was yesterday! He’ll be working full time as an…Engineering something or other (I’ll let you know once I know for sure what it is)…and start doing evening classes at Utah Valley University (official July 1…UVSC will be UVU!!! YIPPIE!). I’m so proud of my wonderful hubby and this just goes to show that others see the quality work he does and the potential he has to continue to do great work. I’m also very excited because we’ll have insurance (yippie skippie!) and the wage will allow us to get out of debt. Thank you, Steve, for being the man that you are and for all you do to take care of our family emotionally, financially, spiritually and physically! You’re wonderful!