still me

thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was different this year as I thought about it from the perspective of ‘jessica sprauge’s’ storytelling class. I wanted this year’s thanksgiving to be something different, and memorable… something that would combine tradition, and at the same time, accommodate for the fact that we live a million miles away from home and family and everything that usually represents ‘thanksgiving’. What started out as just a couple families having thanksgiving dinner together,  morphed into an all-day 8 family progressive style thanksgiving celebration! We had appetizers at one house, the over-indulgent dinner with enough food to feed twice the crowd we had, at another.. and the final stop- 7 different desserts with movies and games!  What a fabulous day! talking and laughing…it was fun! The best part was of course, the food! (smile)… by that I mean, it was so fun as we all told the stories behind each dish that was so carefully prepared and lovingly contributed as ‘family favorites’.  Great grandma’s stuffing recipies… favorite can’t-live-without sides, and some perfectly cooked turkey. We were laughing at how if you hadn’t grown up with some of this stuff, it might sound pretty gross, really! And how many cubes of butter had been utilized in the whole day’s preparations. I realized that my contributions to the dinner was almost exactly ½ influence from my side of the family, and ½ from eric’s. I was on the phone the night before, with eric’s mom going over her DETAILED instructions of ‘funeral potatoes’. (always a huge hit!)  anyway.. it was a blast. And you have to love the next day- the left overs! Didn’t have to cook a thing today! I LOVE turkey sandwiches on rolls, and day-after ‘princess salad’. YUM. Will have to take some time to capture the different stories from my friends to include in my little memory book that I created.

Today was a mellow day. you would not believe how beautiful the weather has been here in Beijing. Everyday has been crystal clear, and while it’s been cold, and colder! The sky has been blue and we have been able to see stars at night! It’s been a major difference from just a year ago. Today I got a chance to work on my first assignment for my photography class. I will admit to you, this last week as I have read all my daily lessons, I have grown more and more dissatisfied with my photography. There is something that Karen said in one of her earliest lessons that was referring to the importance of ‘practicing’ your photography- she said something like… ‘if you wanted to be a concert violinist, you wouldn’t consider not practicing’… but the gist is that you have to pick up your camera A LOT if you want to become a better photographer.  I think that my (increased) personal uneasiness about my own photographic abilities is a credit to Karen’s teaching style and the content. I am realizing how much of a better job I can do, And WANT to do. My goal is not to become a professional photographer, but to capture beautiful memories… right now, I am feeling overwhelmed, and like I have a long way to go. Part of the first assignment was practicing with viewpoint. I had two opportunities today- the boys were engaged in a pretty serious Monopoly game when I woke up from my Sunday afternoon nap-they were on the floor in the sun room, so I got my chance.
Then I got quincy to go outside with me. she is always a willing subject. I played with them a little in photoshop as well- as you can tell. It’s fun to see what you can do, and how it adds to the beauty of the photograph

more connor!

this is what happens when you are totally sick of all your supplies, and you can't go to a scrapbook store to get new stuff, and be totally inspired.. (i am running out of everything!) and the nice thing about the digi stuff, is that it never goes away! you can never use it up!  i need to get more stuff digitized, or i will get sick of this stuff too!

it's helping!

ok, so i shot this photo of connor this morning, and he is the best subject! i asked him to sit by the window, and he just held still... unlike capri!
as you know, i have been taking this online photo class by Karen Russell... if you can get in... i totally recommend it. i love her style.......i am loving the online thing. i only have a small amount of time that i can really focus on anything.. i feel like my brain can't keep up with life.
i haven't blogged in a long time, and i was trying to go back and remember what part of life has been swirling out of controL!? what in the world have i been up to?
i guess just life.
today, eric and i went in for meeting with Quincy's teachers- mostly the chinese teachers. i sat there listening as they told eric stuff...thinking 'this is crazy'. she was showing us all this work, all in chinese... quincy's writing and her math, again all in chinese... and i wasn't sure if i wanted to laugh or cry or what. the kids are doing great... and they are happy, and to my surprise... they can totally understand the jibberish (what sounds like jibberish to me) that their teachers are saying. Quincy came home last night with an art project with all these chinese characters written all over it... i asked what it said, so she read it to me in chinese... and she told me, and it really didn't mean anything, she was just doodling! (can you imagine doodling in chinese at 7 years old?)
i love it. i am so proud of her.
as thanksgiving is here, (i can hardly believe it)...i am so thankful for so many things that i never even knew i could be thankful for. things that i just took for granted, and things that have enriched my life- and i just can't imagine my life without.
family .. of course
new friends... so glad that we moved, and got to make so many new friends. old friends, that have been so good at keeping in touch, and loving us despite our crazy lives!
new language, new foods, new challenges that require you to dig deeper, and rely on the Lord with more faith and hope.
so thankful for having to 'make do' and be creative within the confines of my 'non-target' life-style!
so thankful for modern technology of magic jacks, video conferencing, email and overnight shipping! even online banking and all that...it's just amazing, that i can be here, and yet... just not feel that far away!  i think about all the opportunities, experiences, lessons and enlightenment! fun memories... laugher and tears.. and so amazed as i look back and see now the lord's hand in my daily life.  and so thankful that we get to go to Australia next month! (can't wait... waving to you all!)

i have sort of been reminiscing about all the different memories of thanksgivings of the past... i think that my favorite ones were the thanksgivings of college days, where you left- went home...leaving all your studies and cares behind, went to the comfort of everything you are living without at school, and hang out in your sweats eating your mom's good cooking and SLEEPING! man, that was the best...
i can imagine sitting around the living rooms of my mom's, grandma's and other family members...all those 'comfort' memories... and while i don't have that this year... my heart is just as full, maybe even more... as i contemplate how very, very blessed we are.
this year we will be celebrating with friends that feel like family now... i got a real jenny-O turkey (it was pricey!)... and i am making the old standbys...
but my FAVORITE recipe is this one.. i think i have actually blogged about it before:

YAMS and Apples:
6 med yams
3-4 apples (peeled, cored, sliced)
1/2 c butter
3 T. cornstarch
1 C. sugar
1 t. salt
2 C. water
2 T. lemon juice

Boil yams- peel,slice and layer-alternating w/sliced apples.
On the stove, melt butter, add cornstarch, sugar, salt & blend well.
add water, and cook until thickens. remove from heat, and add lemon juice.
pour sauce over yams and apples. Bake @ 350 for 1hr.
covered

if you make it, be careful when you drive wherever you go.. i swear we have spilled it in the car every dang year.

christmas shopping? or at least thinking...

Earlier today I had the pleasure of going with a group of girls to a big market to start the dreaded ‘christmas shopping’. Now, mind you… I am not traditionally a ‘get it done early’  type of girl! But wouldn’t that be nice? And I do have to consider that NO TARGET factor in my life. (as soon as I am back in the states, I will complain about the NO MARKET factor…so take your pick, heidi).  Anyway, I went to just try to get bit by the holiday bug, and it did what it usually does…sends me into a panic and causes me to retreat into the safety of denial! –and actually, we are heading to Australia for Christmas this year. Brisbane to be exact! And the kids have been informed that they will have more sand, surf and sun than they can fit in ANY stocking and remember it forever! (sooo excited). so the presents will be in short supply…..which takes the pressure off as well! anyway… after I got the kids to bed, I was catching up on emails, and writing my to-dos and doing some journaling in my ‘her life’ book, and I thought about how much I love this journal. And how much I LOVE all my compendium products… so I dunno, I just thought that I would take a minute and give you some ideas for presents that you can shop for right here, and now, and have them shipped and you can just get so AHEAD of the game!  So here are a few of my favorites.. whether you are thinking of people to give to, or maybe you are one that buys for yourself!!? (not a bad idea)… or like me and eric, we email links.  And for my AUSTRALIA friends… looks like there is a place just for you to order!! How much do you love that!?!?
Ok
You have heard me talk about ‘she’. This is it. This makes a beautiful inspiring gift for any occasion, and applies to every woman, no matter her stage of life.

This is the journal that I am using right now. There is a quote on every page… and sometimes I just flip through 5-6 pages in the morning to get inspired and excited about facing my day. I LOVE it! it’s beautiful and so inspiring. and this one is new, and look how gorgeous it is...it's especially for those battling cancer.. but we can ALL use a little more hope.

new last year, but has totally helped me get a clearer strategy for my goal making... it's called '5' and i think it's SUCH a motivator!

this is NEW... i haven't seen it in real life, but it's totally on my own WISH LIST:
"happily grateful!"... gorgeous.

the 'dad' one is good for at least 2 possible people on your list... husband and father. it's really cool, but add your own photos in.. and it's a work of art!

and if you are ordering... check out the little 'pop open' cards.. and notebooks, and picture frames.. and well... just take a good hard look through there. it's SO inspiring. there is just no way to capture the beauty of each book in a thumbnail. i guess you just have to trust me. if you would like more recommendations... just email me! smile...

also on my shelf...
bloom
live good
be
ever wonder
gratitude
brilliance
heres to you
mom
love life

these are cherished books to me. every one of them. and i love sharing them with others... like you! (and they are NOT paying me to tell you!) they are really amazing people, doing their part to make the world a better place.. i love that.

it's a great site to stop by, cause there is always a fabulous, inspiring quote there.. here is todays (and i LOVE IT,hilarious!):

"You can’t make footprints in the sands of time if you’re sitting on your butt. And who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time?"

- Bob Moawad

 

happy shopping..

a new week

sunday night: i have been digital scrapbooking.
and i have a list of 25 things that i wish i had in digital format and it's quite FRUSTRATING. hmm. i have my work cut out for me. i know what i will be doing this week! (chuckle). it's getting SO cold here. it froze last night, and the ground was covered w/ frost, and so i pulled out my big houndstooth jacket and felt pleased and grateful for the cold. i threw a roast in the crock pot before we left for church and i LOVE coming home to that delicious smell! i didn't get a nap.. and the digital scrapbooking tonight has thrown off my usual sunday night planning time. so, no to-do... no meal plan... and kinda too tired to care.
happiness is converting your CHA winter files to digital and playing with them before you have your hands on them! it's cute stuff. as i look at it on the screen, i am wanting to print it off and add more stuff to it. definitely some bling and sewing! ha. so while i can't show you the NEW yet. i can show you a couple with stuff available on my digiswapp site. learned a few things tonight, and then as i was working- kept thinking to myself....'there has to be a quicker, easier way' to do a few things. i am sure there are keystrokes for all these things. like.. is there a way to apply the same 'layer style' to another layer instead of redoing it? there has to be. if you know... tell me! chuckle. i think that to some degree, i am needing to play with it enough to generate questions. because i am at the stage that i don't even know what i don't know. can't blame me for trying. i am so excited because my Karen Russell 'photographer's workshop' starts tomorrow. i SOO need the inspiration and ... well the 'kick in the butt'. call it what it is! so good for me. (kylee i miss having my personal photographer; and i need a new head shot).

GO TO BED

i really should. go to bed, i mean...
but ......easily distracted, and still feeling so grateful. i want to capture some of my grateful feelings through just simple blessing counting. he is right up there in the top 5! more digital stuff...i like playing, and still feeling so overwhelmed. just dabbling.

near death 'story'

Of course today, in my travels, responsibilities and obligations… I felt that I was walking through my day w/ a new ‘story telling’ or memory-sparking outlook as a result of jessica’s class. I am sure that many of you are feeling something similar… it’s like this amazing linking from the consciousness of what is happening today, to memories from the past. I have to share a couple examples…
Yesterday, was ‘World Culture” day at Daystar, where my kids attend school. The school is absolutely amazing, and inspiring me… and teaching me that we can expect SO much more from our kids than we even think is possible, and that doing so is one of the greatest opportunities we can give them. anyway…I could go on and on- but after the ‘culture fair’ and lunch, each child was presented their own ‘laptop’, and we had this big presentation on what they would be used for on a daily basis, and how they would enrich their learning. The kids have been anticipating their arrival, and so anxious to get their hands on the machines. As I sat listening to the presentation, and what skills and applications would be utilized and taught… it took me back to my early education technology. I sat lost in the floods of memories dating back to my first TYPE class in 8th grade on a MANUAL typewriter, my first ‘computer keyboarding class’ in 11th grate, and my first EMAIL address (BQRD45A@prodigy.net) in 1996 when Eric and I moved to Canda to start a new business opportunity with Sunburst. Word processing was something I could only do at the computer lab when I was a freshman at BYU, and the first time I did a powerpoint presentation was a mere 6 years ago…for a Making Memories class I was teaching at CKU! I was trying to explain to my kids that it was ALMOST unfathomable to me that at a 2nd, 4th and 5th grader they would be creating powerpoint presentations of research papers that they did on their own laptops, while they got emails from their teachers and checked the classroom website to get directions for homework, and download the .pdf worksheets that would be turned in paperless. GASP.
My mind then raced forward as I contemplated the leaps and bounds ahead of me these kids are… what will they be capable of? What does the world hold for them? awesome. of course, when I tired to tell them how amazing it is, they just don’t get it, because quite frankly, they are video conferencing with friends and family day in and day out not even knowing what it’s like to NOT!  So cool.
this afternoon, Eric came home from work a little early as I was getting ready to go for a run, and he talked me into joining him on a Mtn. bike ride. I reluctantly agreed and after digging out my gear, off we went- today was a beautiful, clear, crisp autumn day, and as we rode that painful first couple of miles, my body reminded me that it had been FAR too long since I’d been on this bike. There I went again into my memory bank- and as I subtracted off the years, I realized it had been more than 5 years since we’d been out on a mtn bike trail. The sparks took me back to ‘fish lake in the fall’ and provo canyon rides…as well as camping in Moab and amazing family memories. I felt awkward on the bike…hesitant and uncomfortable on the way out, and on the way back, we’d picked up the pace and my confidence started to return. Just being on the bike, I remembered when I got the bike, places I’d ridden it… the time I got my clipless pedals and crashed 5 times trying to get used to them.  it made me smile. …and I was totally connecting with the memories, and by this time, we were heading back, and I was learning to draft off Eric –which means that I was riding quite close to him, with my front tire tucked up near the inside of his back tire, benefiting from his pull- we got going quite fast… around 17mph… and on quite a dangerous road w/ no shoulder and a bad reputation…I starting thinking ‘maybe I am too close’  “what if I hit his tire’ ‘what if I fell, I would get run over’ and not a moment later, I spooked, and swerved and TOTALLY crashed right in the middle of the road- and I think even rolled a time or two-my shoes released, and I skidded on my hands and knees end over end, and FREAKED trying to get out of the road before I would get HIT! LUCKILY (someone watching out for me) despite the busiest time of day on this road, there were not cars right behind us, and I was able to jump up and get myself out of the road. With bloody knees, hands and elbows and more bruises than that… I jumped back on my bike… laughing and crying about the ‘story’.  The good news is that my kids think I am totally tough. Colton says to me ‘mom, I didn’t even know you knew how to ride a mtn. bike’.  I certainly had some stories for him.

so lucky

Not to brag… but wanna see what I am starting on 11-17? Yep… pretty soon, my photos are going to look like hers: KAREN RUSSELL. You know what I got in the mail about a month ago was a HUGE llike 4 or 5” binder for the class… it’s going to be holy-cow-exciting-amazing… I’m totally not worthy! It’s a 9 week on-line course… so now you are ALL going to be witnesses of my overall photographic improvement. I have been a lazy, no-good, boring photographer. (squeel) so excited. I am placing up a ‘benchmark’ photo for today-for me to gauge my progress by. Now, it’s hard for any photo of this girl not to be fantastic… she couldn’t be cuter!! Especially now that she is POTTY TRAINED! –I mean, seriously, I am loving it! I had to laugh b/c today we graduated to her feeling ready to go potty by herself w/ out coming to get me and take it upon herself to dump the potty from the training chair into the big pot. UGHH!! (so grown up).

And here… is my ‘stories in hand’ book. Just got done printing out all the stuff for today’s lesson “sparks”. I read through them and instantly things were flooding into my mind. I am totally feeling the need to capture the memories. So cool. I have had to alter my approach- so I made little booklets out of each section “roots” “family” etc., and instead put them in pockets in my book. I think it will work out ok. I will share when I get iti all ‘cute’. Just be ready for needing a STACK of paper to print. (I just used type paper).

derailed....

My Monday got  totally DERAILED!!
All last week, almost all the members of our familiy had been struck with a pretty serious case of the flu. Now it was only a 24 hour gig- but it was a brutal 24 hours. And as the mom- continually cleaning up throw up and getting Capri to the potty – as she is completing her 2nd week of potty training (like a champ); I have been pretty much OVER IT! Friday  night, Eric started down the sick road- with Quincy shortly behind…and after being up ALL NIGHT w/ her puking- i have never seen anyone thow up that much. I know it’s so gross to talk about, but seriously- I was running out of patience and compassion, I am sad to say. (especially when it was happening in MY BED!)  I got up Sunday and took the well-members of my family to church: Capri, Colton and Cory… and had a rather nice Sunday…about  9:30pm, it hit me. I had stomach pains like I could not believe. It was unreal. All I could do was lay still and suffer! I tried to go to sleep, but I was so uncomfortable… and I just kept thinking about how I had started to loose my patience when the kids had been so sick. I finally was able to throw up after about 2 hours of excruciating pain, and then slept ok the rest of the night. I woke up so sore, and still so uncomfortable… took some flu stuff, and slept a hard 6-7 hours on the couch. This is NOT the way to start the week! the bug is going around here, and the only person that escaped it’s wrath is Cory… so we’ll see.  I hope he doesn’t get it.
I was feeling well enough last night to start my ‘stories in hand’ book from Jessica’s class. I went to the site and printed out all my pieces… wish I had one of those cute American craft albums, but I just used a book that I have here… it’s cute, and I am excited to go forward today! but I am going to lay low, maybe even scrapbook. (gasp)

starts MONDAY!!

ok, it's official. i am all signed up. i have read through the intro info, and i am so excited and ready to go!
i will have to be going the route of making homemade everything, since i can't hit any scrapbook stores to get goods- but i am fully capable of that!
THANK YOU JESSICA! this is going to be awesome. there are SO MANY PEOPLE in on this, and the cool thing is that it's going to get so many of us on the same page, and moving forward doing what we love, and are passionate about with all new super-cool possibilities.
if you haven't jumped in, what are you waiting for? don't be left out, or left behind. even if you are NOT A SCRAPBOOKER... this still includes you.
i am even kicking in a freebie that you will get along the way! super-cute... it's a great start to a great week... i LOVE MONDAY! bring it on!