I have been unmotivated about my blog lately.
But there is nothing like a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the beach to inspire me!
Yes... Definitely inspired!
daily life
February 05, 2012
October 02, 2011
our month in review
I just didn't have it in me to do the 12 of 12 this month. So how about 12 photos (give or take a couple) of our activities in the month of September?
Labor Day - Ashley and Nathan rode their bikes while Craig jogged from our house down to the beach. I think Ashley's face says it all. They called me to come down and pick them up and we went and got doughnuts and hot chocolate as a reward for their great efforts!
Maren and Malia after the first day of school, cooling off in the Galland's pool.
Ashley is playing soccer for the third year. Her team is the Bazookas (for bazooka bubble gum). She actually is complaining about playing, so we reminded her that it was her idea to sign up, we've already paid the money, her team is counting on her, and she doesn't have to sign up again next year:)
Nathan and Ashley quit tae kwon do at the end of the school year in June. Nathan wanted to start jiu jitsu with his buddy, Ashton. Nate loves it! He likes that they learn "take downs" and wrestle on the floor. He is all boy!
Alexa, Racquel and Emily - First day of seminary - Day One of the next 12 YEARS! (for me at least)
Emily and Lauren wanted to have a photo shoot on Emily's birthday. We went down the road to the fake guard booth and the girls flashed their best smiles and struck some sweet and silly poses while I tried out my telephoto lens.
Emily is running on the cross country team at the high school. She loves it and is improving her race times.
Craig celebrated his 43rd birthday with his own personal mini triathlon, Hawaiian shave ice, and dinner at Wahoo's with the fam.
We sang and had cake the next day with the Hoffmanns, Christian Macey, and the elders from our ward.
Same people, different party! We sang and had cake for Emily's birthday two weeks later. Emily went around all day on her actual birthday singing Taylor Swift's "Fifteen". Emily says 15 definitely feels different, but maybe it's because she also just started high school and everything is new. She can hardly wait to get her permit in 6 months! And she is already picking out the truck she thinks she's getting next year :)
Well, there's our month. It was jam-packed.
And there is lots more to come this month!
August 14, 2011
12 of 12: August
After reading about our evening on the 12th you'll understand why this didn't get posted til the 14th.
(click to view larger... no, just grainier... arghhhhh! I didn't upload the photos directly to our dinosaur PC, like usual, but emailed them to myself via the Mac. I really need to get photoshop or some other program that lets me create a grid template so I can throw that PC off a bridge!)
01: Pipes - a favorite local breakfast spot. If you like giant portions of pancakes, cheesy homestyle hashbrowns, omelets and breakfast burritos, all with a large helping of grease, this place is for you. For the more health conscious, they do offer fresh fruit, toast, and the ever-popular acai bowl.
02: Three of my favorite women. Wendy, Michele, Lisa and I have worked together as the Relief Society presidency for our ward for over 2 1/2 years. I love these amazing ladies! We met at Pipes for a breakfast meeting.
03: Craig took my car to Southern Utah for the Venturing Scouts High Adventure, so I had his car all week. The downside - the closest gas station with natural gas is 13 miles away. The upside - It only cost me $11 to fill the tank.
04: Emily, Abi, and Alexa wanted to do a photo shoot. If you are friends with these girls on Facebook, check out more pictures there.
05: Maren coloring the letters for a welcome home banner for Daddy.
06: We got rid of the cable TV this summer which means my kids are trying to sneak more time on the computer.
07: The Welcome Home Daddy! sign for Craig's arrival.
08: Ashley had been up in the night not feeling well and running a fever, but by Friday morning (the 12th) she proclaimed herself fine (in order to go to an already scheduled playdate at a friend's). But when I picked her up and brought her home she complained of being hot and then cold and the fever had returned. By 8 o'clock at night she laid on the floor in the family room and just cried, saying her throat hurt. A look in her throat with a flashlight revealed the tell-tale white dots of strep throat, so I drove her to the local after hours kids' urgent care. This is Ashley laying in the hall outside the waiting room.... waiting and waiting. Who knew Kids Doc was such a popular place on a Friday night?
09: A stop at the 24 hour CVS to get meds for Ashley before heading home at...
10: 10:47 p.m. !!!!!!! That is the time I pulled into our driveway, almost 3 hours after we'd left on our little urgent care adventure.
11: Diligently trying to do what is right. It looks like Craig is falling asleep during scripture reading too... and he's the one reading! (of course, he'd just returned from above mentioned 4 day high adventure only an hour before).
12: My vice - a handful of chocolate chips as a reward for getting through my day. But I feel guilty for even thinking my day was hard when I see the green and blue 'Hope For Hegewald' band I am wearing in the picture. Our good friend, Kevin Hegewald, is dying from cancer. Click here to read more about this amazing, faith-filled family and please keep them in your prayers.
And remember to live... laugh... and LOVE!
July 12, 2011
12 of 12: July
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01: Pancakes for breakfast, standard fare all year long.
02: Maren enjoying those pancakes on this lazy summer morning.
03: Dentist appointment - Uh-oh! We went in to get one cavity filled and were told we'll need to bring Ashley back to fill another one on the other side next week!
04: Nathan went in to get one tooth pulled and another cavity filled. He too was told he has two more cavities. They filled one of them today, since he was already numb on that side, but he too will go back next week to take care of the one on the other side. We seem to have a problem with flossing. Basically, we don't do it :)
05: Emily's room (currently). She has grandiose ideas of painting her room this summer and getting new bedding. I told her that's fine, it will just have to take her all the way through high school.
06: What we call our "shoe closet". The space under the stairs has been converted to a catch-all for shoes, backpacks, sweatshirts, and tubs of toys. It is typically this messy.
07: Our garage - since the sale of our trailer, it too has been converted to a catch-all - for bikes, motorcylces, and a Rhino.
08: We don't do sleep-overs, but we do late nights! (sometimes called late-overs). Ashley had Claire and Carli over and Maren had Christian and Tess over for some scootering and bike riding, movie watching, game playing and fort building. The fun lasted until about 10 o'clock.
09: Nathan with his new buzz. He wanted to shave his head for the summer, much to his dad's dismay. Craig loves Nathan's thick, blond hair.
10: Shoes, shoes everywhere - usually under foot instead of on feet!
11: Our reminder of last night's family home evening lesson. The white board usually stays up for the week with the main points of the night's lesson. We discussed the 13th Article of Faith to fulfil a Faith in God requirement.
12: I love this cabinet in our living room. It is one area of my house that manages to stay clutter-free!
It was harder to take pictures today. We didn't do much. But I'm sure someday I will be happy to have these pictures as reminders of simple days at home.
June 12, 2011
12 of 12: June
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01: This picture was really taken yesterday, but bears mentioning. Nathan won the Sportsmanship Award for his flag football team at the league awards ceremony yesterday. His teammates said he was always nice, always supportive, and a great quarterback. We are so proud of our boy!
02: The San Clemente Stake Center - where we spent 3 hours today.
03: Bishop Puckett - he spent more than 3 hours at church today :)
04: Lauren and her guitar. She has taken a couple months of lessons. We are currently looking for another teacher. Lauren is always singing, playing the piano, or strumming the guitar, much to her siblings annoyance!
05: If Sunday is the day of rest, why can't I ever get out of the kitchen?!
06: The kangaroo paw in our backyard has grown crazy-good this spring.
07: My good friend, Gina Steimle and me. Gina and I met almost 14 years ago when we both lived in the Carlsbad Stake. She did my hair for many years. Now we both live in San Clemente, in different wards. We get together every 4-6 months for lunch. Tonight we met up at the church at Seminary graduation. So glad I had my camera with me. (And so happy we are color-coordinated for the picture!)
08: My friend, Elizabeth, who started me on this 12 of 12 thing also introduced me to her delicious whole wheat bread. Click to download the recipe Download Gillespie Whole Wheat Bread-1 I must admit I am having mixer envy. I only have a Kitchenaid, so must half the recipe. I would really love the Bosch!
09: Mini-midgets on the loose! Ashley invented this silly "game", if you can really call it that. The kids put their jammie pants on, knees first, so that it's like their legs are cut off at the knee. Then they scoot around the floor, up and down the stairs, even pull themselves up on the couch. It is pretty hilarious to watch.
10: Nathan's room. Someday this will all look different as he grows up, so I wanted to capture his 8-year-old room just as it is now.
11: Ah, 14! Emily is finally getting too cool for Mom and her silly camera.
12: Another shot, not from today, but needs to be documented. Maren learned to ride her bike without training wheels this week. A bit of a late bloomer, mainly because we, her parents, were not diligent about getting out there and helping her. And also because Maren has decided princesses are not cool anymore. (She got her princess bike for Christmas.) How sad is that?!
Happy June!
April 09, 2011
9 of 9: April
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01: Spring break in the desert from Wednesday to Saturday. We survived the high winds and loved the cooler than usual temperatures. My favorites from the trip? The ride to Shell Reef and playing Nerts and Speed Scrabble in the Day's trailer.
02: Maren's favorites from the trip? "Going on the ride we just went on to Shell Reef and going bowling. I liked everything!" (photo taken on that ride)
03: Lauren and Justin ready to ride. Lauren's favorites: The airplane graveyard (a random scrap metal lot in the middle of the desert) and Mexican food was good (we discovered a local Mexican restaurant on our excursion to El Centro for bowling).
04: Craig's favorites: Mexican food restaurant, the ride to Shell Reef (photo taken there), spending time with family, and he liked watching how our kids are progressing in the sport (of motorcycle riding). Ashley's favorites: "I liked bowling. I liked the hikes that we did and all the rides".
05: "Oh my gosh! This is the best part of my trip!" Emily got to drive the rhino on our long ride for the first time with Mom as passenger (not her first time driving the rhino though). Other favorites included watching movies in our trailer and going bowling.
06: Playing cards with Grammy. We stopped in Fallbrook on the way home from the desert to celebrate Grammy's 68th birthday.
07: Grammy and Grandpa's house in Fallbrook. This is the house Craig grew up in from the time he was about 10.
08: Emily's crazy quilt. Emily put together the squares; there is one more row of 3 that got cropped from the photo to fit above. Then Grammy sewed them together with the sashing and binding and quilted it on her friend's long-arm machine. It has a really cute jungle-print minkie on the back. Emily is so excited about her eclectic creation.
09: Nathan, crashed in our bed. Nathan can only go to sleep at night in his bed if Craig or I lay by him until he falls asleep. Usually we can do that for him, but tonight we were busy unloading the trailer, so he curled up in our bed. Nathan's favorites from the trip: "Best part? Riding my motorcycle on all the rides, and bowling, and getting my two hot wheels cars" (from the Super Wal-Mart in El Centro on our outing).
March 09, 2011
9 of 9: March
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01: Magic the Musical Cat. We recently discovered that Magic, our outdoor/garage cat, loves it when someone plays the piano. If we leave the door open from the house to the garage, she will come in, hop up on the piano bench and cuddle with the person playing. This from the cat that typically doesn't want anything to do with people.
02: Maren doing homework at Lauren's desk while I straighten bedrooms this morning.
03: Ashley received an award today for Fairness, one of the pillars of Character Counts.
04: I love that I get to see the ocean everyday! This shot was taken at a stoplight as I drove through Dana Point this afternoon.
05: My week to run the after-school carpool pick-up. The Puckett and Power kids meet Maren in the kindergarten squares, allowing me to move quickly to the front of the line.
06: Please tell me your kids' rooms look like this too! I keep telling myself that someday I will have a clean house and then I will be sad because that will mean my kids are grown and gone.
07: Nathan doing homework at the kitchen counter.
08: Craig after his evening swim (I surprised him with the camera as the gate to the pool swung open. He's usually not one to sport the jammers for photos!) I dropped the kids off for some playtime in the pool before dinner.
09: Ending the night with American Idol, a family favorite.
Well, my second month of the 9 of 9 was fun, but I may go for 12 of 12 next month. I found I took more pictures today and could have included more. It's fun to record the everydayness of life, those little things I will forget if I don't actively capture them now. I know I will be so happy to have this someday. Even if my photos are just "snapshots" (this does make me wish I were a better photographer!)
