Joshe & "Is this umami?"

So the night was set, I had the t.v. controller and the show --- The Next Iron Chef.

To tell you the real truth I didn't care a bit about cooking shows until I was forced to sit and watch several episodes at my bro-in-law's and now I am hooked. Something about the high drama, sweat, tears, multi-entree-tasking that is so engaging. I am not even a foodie, but the "that is good umami" (the newest flavor - deliciousness) was totally captivating, right?

Anyhoo, I realized that Josh was up to something too and caught this...

He was busily making Iron Chef Salad.

Working on the peppers?
 Planning, drawing, cutting, and mixing it all together.  This is so much easier than the other salads he comes up with and serves for dinner (they usually include random bits of things and always a cut up banana, easy to cut with a plastic knife?).  This is much more entertaining than the television.  Thank you Joshe.

a Sunday list

1. Never had a middle name but always wanted one 2. Loved growing up out in the fields with all the dirt, cockle burrs, and dogs 3. Imagined driving a big diesel truck across the country or being a ballerina (at age 9) 4. Likes dinners that can be put together in 15 minutes or less 5. Has always loved her parents and loves going back home 6. Still finds pickle eating highly offensive 7. Wishes she had written down every wonderful thing her children did or said 8. Still has to learn how to worry less 9. Snacks all day 10. Loves to dig in the dirt and think about perennials a lot, and really dislikes weeding 11. Still struggles with what to do when she grows up (too many good choices) 12. Dreams of gelato 13. Loves to ride bikes 14. Was so tall in elementary school she had to stand next to the teacher in class photos 15. Loved living in so many different places, but her favorite home? Arizona 16. Still struggles with Hillary leaving ~wishes so much she had stayed longer 17. Listens to great worship music, spiritual food that puts a smile on the heart. 18. Never regrets leaving the mormon church, it was a priceless gift to be set free. Thank you Jesus 19. Would love to live in Italy, Spain or France someday. 20. Thinks ART is necessary for daily happiness
21. Knows she will end up in a monastery someday ~ Jesus stole her heart 22. Finds great enjoyment and annoy-ment in a house full of witty young men. 23. Collects bits of life in pictures, scrapbooks, blog posts, and in glass jars around the house 24. Gets swept away with wild and whirling words (Shakespeare) 25. Loves color, had a rainbow bedspread growing up, but is afraid to paint 26. Fell in love with Darren when he played U2 in his car on our second date 27. Loves the early mornings best 28. Remembers always getting nervous and sick on trips, especially when going somewhere where there were bears 29. Never thought she would be a mother ~ can't imagine life without children now 30. Overwhelmed by fun adventures and loving it 31. Loves NYC like a favorite chocolate 32. Is organized by piles - not files 33. Loves it when the house is quiet and the appliances are humming away 34. Thinks Autumn is the perfect season 35. Still loves goats and would gladly adopt 36. Believes that God is always in control, even when life seems to be spinning out of control 37. Wishes she could come up with a simple Christmas card, it drives her crazy 38. Misses spending time with her Grandparents 39. Decided that she really does love espresso after all 40. anticipates that her next year will be a great one...forty.

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[The pic is from a shop in Barcelona on a beautiful sunny day with my Mum. The list is for a Yesterday/Today class I am taking (ali edwards), it will look cool as a layout as soon as my new printer gets here - dead printers are no fun. I am in a blogging class that is helping me to understand my style/interest/writing, hence the daily blogging lately...I am dutifully doing my homework today Shimelle!]
jj

a few fall friends

This is my favorite friend right now, my big box of new tissues. I love tissues. My poor face is so sad from this terrible cold/flu. I am getting better, it is just slow. The boys seem better, too.
The funky friend on the front porch. I suspected teenagers would have smashed our pumpkins by now, but now I think we may have shrunken heads by the weeks end. Sort of looks how I feel today?
Joshe and all of the friends he invites over. Like we don't have enough boys? I put these guys to work...Not much got done.

Now the real work begins (in earnest), the weather is on its way. I told the big boys we would move to a tiny apartment if they didn't get to work and I used my angry eyes. It worked.
It also helped that Ben found money in the leaves (I didn't plant it, but I should have). The work seemed to pick up a bit after that.
My favorite part of today. Me and my leaf blower. We are the bestest of friends. It helped that I had 2 full battery packs ~ everyone got in on that fun. Joshe has the fondest memories of helping Grandma when she came to dig us out last year.
Pete got the lawn mowed. You can see their smashed leaf pile under that monster cardboard box? Yep. That is the fruit of our cottonwood tree, a big crunchy messy pile of decomposition. Great stuff.
And in all of that loud-crazy-whirling-mess, we found a fluffy chicken? Yes, we have been adopted by this wonderment of nature. I am calling her Drumstick.

What a day!

Love to you all in all of the mess fall brings.
jj

This week ~ last year {Central Park, NYC}

A little walk through the park, so quiet...just Mitz and me and few squirrels.
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Home with the sniffles this week (yes, we got the crud at our house), hope to get to all the creative projects on my desk this weekend and share them here. [Sneezing...]

Praying for everyone's health - and remember your vitamin D.
jj

jj

Girls make messes, too.

The idea started years ago when Julie and I went to a very cool/large/chaotic CKC scrapbooking event in Bellevue, WA. It was a convention made for rabid scrapbookers, girls (like us) that love the idea of mixing paper+glue+pictures+words. But also an event for new ideas, teaching the latest tricks, and hanging out with like minded friends (crazies). It was great. We adored the classes and the cool shopping, $$$, but getting anything done or being able to even think straight was out of the question (crafty women can be really loud).

(A fun pic of Julie and I with a favorite teacher Stacy Julian at CKC WA)

We came home from that event with the idea that we should just put together our own scrapbooking event sometime, a much smaller version.

Just a simple idea, but doesn't take much to get me excited about creative ventures does it? A quiet place, no husbands, no kids, no pets...just hours and hours with enough pictures, paper and glue to last a whole weekend? Ahh, bliss.

We picked Park City, Utah. To everyone else a mecca of high end shopping, people watching, food eating...and skiing. To us? The perfect scrapbook hideaway.

A view of all of our tools, ideas, treats, paper and adhesives ready to go...this tidy organization didn't last long...The piles under our toes grew to large mounds (only mental pics of that mess).

(Sis in laws Julie, Cristi, and Sarah)

All of my creative thought is on the floor and on the counter top, I can't sit and scrap very well (I know, weirdo).

Look at these girls go...amazing to all of us was how every single one of us started with all the same items (essentially) and the same pictures (almost) and every one of us came up with vastly different and beautiful ideas.

Here are fuzzy pics I took as I was fading away into the night. I stayed up until 2am which was crazy late for me! Oh no, these girls kept going until 4am.
***Note to self: do not take pictures after midnight.
As responsible mothers, we did check it at home (some much more than others). We talked, laughed, teased, and loved and encouraged each other on this hard journey of getting older, being married for a long time, having little children and teenagers, and facing real life struggles. It is good to have sister in laws you love, and like, too.

We had delicious food. We did step out and shop a bit, fell in love with the art galleries (never get to visit places like that with kids you know), and even thought about buying something to take home. All in all it was great ~ a huge amount of creative work to get done and a great way to spend time with sister in laws. Loved it.
Julie setting up our "facials-turned-zombies" shot that is still in her camera...can't wait to see that?

*****

A few of my finished, or almost finished pages from that weekend working-retreat:

[For style, I am a huge fan of simple, and I struggle when things get too complicated (for me). I like white space, and I am an advocate of multiple sized pages. I have 8 different page sizes & shapes in this book. I think it is fun to tell the stories and show the pics in different frames and formats.]



I am addicted to adding lines to the outside of pics, framing things in doodle. Love it.

This page below is showing the cool page protector that Julie helped me use...you layer it on top of your page and then you can flip it up to share the story. I sewed the top to re-enforce the hinge.


All the individual families on little 6x6's. Cute, huh?
Still needing to add a bit of journaling to some of these pages, good to remember.
I made a real effort in my prep-work to copy all of the blog posts and personal journaling I had done and then write/type things out ahead of putting the pictures on the paper.
And it all fit neatly in this gorgeous American Crafts 12x12 book. A huge book! That was a first for me, I have never worked on a scrapbook this big before. I would do it again.

Love to all my scrap sisters out there. Let's make sure to plan this next year?
jj

October (the birthdays)

And so it happens...the little boys grow up.

The day arrives when sweet little boys turn 18 and 16 and life as I knew it ~ is over...

Ben's 18th (actually the end of September...the picture here)

Boy birthdays are wild and chaotic ~ lots of laughs, loads of cake and too much noise. But check out the looks on these faces as Ben figured out what his gift was...
Priceless. Ben was overwhelmed with cool guitar stuff (a pedal-sound-changing-thing-that- requires-a-louder-than-average-amp-to-share-guitar-love-with-the-entire-neighborhood). We ordered 9 pounds of ribs from his work and set out to eat away the night. My hands were too messy for the camera? Shoot. Then an all night (all night) rock concert with friends ~ I have said it before, my mother would never have survived this house (sooo loud).

And Peter's 16th
Flags parading his birthday for all to see (for Pete to be surprised mostly), everyone else in town was curious if I was hosting an open house or putting our house up for sale.
Today he is the Big Man...and he does love the attention.
Sweet gifts for the tennis loving foodie...a huge bag of Idaho potatoes and all new tennis stuff. Happy boy!
A priceless picture of this great day! Love it. Love you Pete (even if you have to grow up).

Love you boys, so glad we could share your birthdays with you and hope we can for every year to come!
jj