Change is good?

(written Nov. 26) I got a major shock last Sunday when the Bishop called us in to his office. I was pretty sure John was going to be Young Men's President. Nope, I was called to be the Young Women's President instead. I already miss being in Relief Society. I am so thankful for the relationships I made when serving with the presidency and I am in denial that it's going to end. I feel so overwhelmed at this huge responsibility and the most stressful part for me (right now anyway) is calling counselors. I really struggle with knowing if things I think are the Holy Ghost's promptings or my own personal judgements. Although change is hard, I look back on all the opportunities I have had to serve in the church and I have great memories of all of them.(updated Dec. 27) I have a great presidency. We have held a couple of presidency meetings and two activities. So far so good!

Tolkien's photography skills

I just downloaded the pictures off my camera and I think about 65 of the 360 were taken by me. I spent about 45 minutes going through and sorting/deleting pictures. Why? Because Tolkien steals my camera whenever possible and goes around the house shooting pictures. They actually aren't that bad and it's interesting to view things from his perspective. Lots of pictures of toys, close-ups of household items, the family photo on the wall at every possible angle, his feet and door knobs around the house. I also seem to be a common target (I deleted all the ones of my backside). Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law, Kendra, I finally used my photoshop! Here are a few of my favorites he took this month...

Curse you milk!

Okay, most of you know that Tolkien is addicted to milk. I went from buying 2 gallons every 3 weeks to 4 gallons per week. Anyway, for the last couple years the first words from his mouth were "milk" every morning. When he would fall asleep in the car and I would carry him into the house he would wake up half way and say "miiiilk" and fall back asleep.

The last couple of months he hasn't been so bad. Probably because we have finally weaned him from his sippy cup and told him that 4 year olds (his birthday's next week)don't need to take milk to church each week. He has found a new power in being able to keep his cup of milk in the fridge and go take a swig whenever he pleases.

So why do I curse milk? I have cleaned up more spilled milk over the last 2 months than I have in the two years prior. His cup seems to get bumped over all the time. The worst was a few weeks ago when he put his cup on the top shelf on top of other stuff and when I opened the fridge door it fell and spilled over EVERY single item on the door shelves, ran down the inside shelves, into the bins, and under the fridge. I was not a happy mommy. Since I can't cry over spilled milk I must curse it. Curse you milk!

The good news? I have cleaned my fridge 4 times this month.

7 things tag

Okay, I'm not sure I like this tag thing...probably because I haven't been able to get on here often enough to respond to all the tags I've seen, but this one seems pretty quick.

7 Things I do:

*read myself sleepy most nights
*return phone calls
*wash clothes every Monday
*scrapbook at least once a month (wish I could justify weekly)
*volunteer at the school every week
*balance my checkbook
*drink only water


7 Things I can't do:

*go out of town without booking a hotel
*install the photo editing software I got for my birthday in September
*keep up with my housework
*be in a play
*pay for a haircut
*keep my mouth shut
*get myself to exercise


7 Things I always say:

*my prayers
*"come on, we gotta go!"
*"whatever"
*"go to bed"
*"Did you ask her to stop? Did you try to make a deal?"
*"no"
*"I love you"


7 Things I always eat:

*everything on my plate and maybe someone else's plate :)
*peanut butter and jelly toast
*tacos
*enchiladas
*chile verde
*left-over mexican food
*junior mints


7 people I tag: (sorry y'all)

tara
marie
kendra
amy
julie
tamie
brindy

Laundry Room Project

I really intended to update my blog more regularly, but can't seem to make it a high priority. How do you all find time to do this? I can't keep up with anything in my life...laundry, housework, grocery shopping, kids' homework and activities, my church calling, etc. All my free time lately has gone to working on my laundry/craft room. My husband framed and wired it and we put sheetrock up like 6 years ago and there it sat. I'm happy to say that after the past few months I am done mudding and sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding and painting. We had a good friend, Jeff, help us tile and after some creative cutting and piecework for the downward slope to the drain, it is done. Not what I had in mind, but definately a unique piece of art. I'm working on door frames and refinishing some cabinets now and hope to get all the stuff out of my basement family room shortly. I'll add photos when we're done.

Life Is Good

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm just so proud....

I always thought it was kind of silly how my dad would rave on and on about how proud he was of me after a choir performance, award assembly, etc. It was like this light would turn on in his eyes whenever his kids accomplished anything and he would want to tell the world. He still kind of does the same thing.

I never really understood that until now. Once upon a time I had so many activities and personal goals in my life. Now my time and energy has transferred to making my children's dreams come true. I hope someday I will be able to pick up on my own goals again, but for now I am okay with living through my children's accomplishments.

Here are this week's greatest: Tolkien can read some simple words like "sat", "dad" and "bed"; Odessa mastered a rock up in her new tumbling class (where she can stand up out of a back-bend); and Braunte' just got a lead part in her school play. She is Princess Aurora/Briar Rose in "Sleeping Beauty".

And just like my dad, I look at them and all they have done and beam.

Happy Anniversary

Then...

Now...John and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary on September 16. I Just wanted everyone to know how blessed I am to have found such a great guy. He's a hard-working provider, helping father, and supportive spouse. We had a super fun anniversary...we went to Mesquite with our friends, Dave and Shaury, who celebrate their anniversary two day before us. You can't beat a massage, night of swing dancing, and great company!

Tolkien's new bike skills

Tolkien has skills....tackle skills, drinking milk skills, and now bike riding skills. I hope you enjoy his video clip. This is the first day Tolkien has tried riding a bike with no training wheels (3 1/2 years old). Mommy really wanted to obey the doctor and wait the suggested six weeks after he got his cast off, but dad couldn't wait to remove those training wheels. Sisters were amazed that he mastered it on day one. I wish my camera had sound on it...My favorite part is when he rides past, grins, and says "cheese". After he was done riding,Tolkien said, "I told you." Now that's confidence for you.

Miss Mary Mack

Hi! I am a little nervous about this whole blog business. I have postponed starting my own blog for a long time, in hopes that I would someday have faster internet connection. I love seeing current photos of my friends and family and I am really bad at downloading/printing my own photos so perhaps this blog will help me get those pictures to people who would like to see them a little faster. I'm not sure if people are actually going to want to read my strange thoughts...the real reason I am doing this is to improve my journal-writing skills.

So far the hardest part was coming up with an idea for my blog name. I'm still not convinced that this is the best idea I could come up with, but oh well, at least it's done. A little story about me as a child: in class I would often not pay attention to the teacher. I was either day-dreaming or talking to my neighbor. On more than one occasion I thought the teacher was calling on me and answered, "what?" when she announced it was time for Show and Tell. Shauntelle....Show-n-telle.

My friend, Shaury (my inspiration to join the blogging world), suggested Miss Mary Mack for my blog name because I always wear black....I realized this a couple of years ago when my laundry load of darks was especially large. Thought I'd add some black shirt pictures. I almost picked Miss Mary Mack for my blog name, but I didn't know if people would know this rhyme (I didn't). Thought I would share my google find:

The origin of the name Mary Mack is obscure, and various theories have been proposed. According to one theory Mary Mack originally was Merrimack (an early ironclad that would have been black, with silver rivets) suggesting that the first verse refers to the Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War. In America, slave children would sometimes sing the hand-clapping song while they worked.

Another possible origin of the song from the American Civil War could be from a famous Union ship taken over by the Confederate States Army named Miss Mary Mack.

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack (name of the ship)
All dressed in black, black, black (ironclad ships were popular at the time.)
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons (bolts)
All down her back, back, back (ships are referred to as females.)

She asked her mother, mother, mother (the Confederate States of America)
For fifteen cents, cents, cents (the Confederate States Army were going through major money problems)
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants (elephants are the symbol of the Republican party, which was the majority of the North, and the Union)
Jump over the fence, fence, fence (the boundary line)

They jumped so high, high, high

They touched the sky, sky, sky,

And didn't come back, back, back
Till the fourth of july, ly, ly (American Independence Day)
You lie!

This adding pictures thing is killing me...it is taking me ages to get it right. I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm sorry my blog will be very basic for a while until I get the hang of it. Happy reading!

21st century, here I come

I have decided to join the 21st century and get DSL! I am impressed at myself for getting through the entire installation process. I am SOOOO excited to be able to download my email messages in less than 2 hours! I already tried to look at a couple of web pages and I can actually view people's video clips almost instantly. I have used the telephone and the internet at the same time all afternoon. I am also looking forward to my new adventures in blogging (I have been holding off starting a blog, waiting for this day). The down side of DSL...I can no longer perfect my chess/majong skills while waiting for a website to download.