Vera Bradley's Hope Garden

Michael gave me a gift certificate to Deseret Book for Mother's Day. When I was browsing at the store to spend my coupon I came upon a Vera Bradley notepad mouse pad that caught my eye. I thought it would be pretty and functional on my computer desk because I often just need to jot something down and look for a scrap of paper.

The pattern is called "Hope Garden" and I just love the bright and pretty colors. That got me to the Vera Bradley website and so I did little online shopping for some useful and pretty things in my new favorite pattern. I got some file folders for my desk and a journal and a cosmetic bag for my purse that is the perfect size.

Plus, I like this pattern so much I took a picture of it and made it the background for my phone.

Memorial Day

Friday night Rich and I headed over to Springville to put flowers on his parents' graves.



Then Saturday Rich left early (as Michael was getting home from the senior all-nighter) and decorated the graves in American Fork and Salt Lake City. Then he picked up Brian to help with the graves in Delta, Silver City and Eureka.

We also stopped by our nephew Cole's grave in Orem.

Updated Walls

My Senior Wall is now complete:



and Myla Jae has joined the Grandchild Wall:

(Yes, I know her name came out bigger than the others, I thought I measured, but apparently incorrectly. I'll change them all next time I change the wall)

Some interesting facts about our family:

We have six children, three boys and three girls
We have six grandchildren, three boys and three girls

The order of our children: girl, girl, boy, boy, girl, boy
The order of our grandchildren: boy, boy, girl, girl, boy, girl

Garden Pics

Clematis blooming on the mailbox post

Snow in May

Snow and forget-me-nots

My New Toy

I've been wanting a bike for awhile now and I just got my new bike today! It's "robin egg blue," a cruiser with 24 speeds. Yeah! I went six miles the first day.

Michael's Big Week

Sunday: Seminary Graduation

Tuesday: Completed final requirements for Duty to God Award and
Received the Melchizedek Priesthood and Ordained an Elder

Friday: Graduated from High School

Michael and parents

posing by the T

Michael and grandparents

Michael and cousin Adam


Michael and Brian

Alysha and Michael

Activity Day

We took our Primary Activity Day girls on a little hike up Bridal Veil Falls. Very fun!

Merry May 24th!

This is what we woke up to today:

I prefer snow to fall when I can ski in it, but it is beautiful even on May 24th.

I don't think that trees were meant to withstand snow once they have leaves on them:

I actually went out with a broom and knocked off as much snow as I could after I took this picture, but a few minutes later it was right back because it keeps snowing!

Seminary Graduation

Michael graduated from seminary last night.
We are proud of him for this great accomplishment.
(Why do his parents look so old?)

Michael and Alysha

with their grandparents

Since being bishop Rich has always taken a picture of the graduates in by the bishop's office. This year we just had five boys:

Smiling graduates with their bishop

Mug shot graduates

Profile graduates

Celebratory graduates

Grooming Annie

I decided I could save $50 by learning to groom Annie myself. I checked some online instructions and then I did it:

Freshly groomed Annie with the pile of hair I brushed and cut out of her.

Since they always put a "frock" on her at the groomer I thought I should, too! I couldn't get her to stand up so I could get a good picture from the side, but she looks pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

I'm not that weird ~ there's a name for this

Trevor sent me this email which is pretty interesting considering these posts of mine: color words and number colors (where Ryan mentions synesthesia in a comment) and this one where I talk about what colors the days of the week are to me.

Finally a name for your condition, synesthesia.

Synesthesia

Imagine consistently associating numbers or letters with certain colours, or hearing a specific word which triggers a particular sensation of taste on your tongue. These are two forms of a neurological condition called synesthesia. Synesthesia is when stimulation of a particular sensory or cognitive pathway leads to an involuntary (i.e. synesthesia is not learnt) response in other sensory or cognitive pathways.

Synesthesia is most often genetic and the grapheme (letters, numbers, or other symbols) to colour form of synesthesia is the commonest. Other synesthetes can experience special-sequence synesthesia (e.g. where dates have a precise location in space), ordinal linguistic personification (when numbers have personalities), or sound to colour synesthesia (where tones are perceived as colours).

Although synesthesia is a neurological condition it shouldn’t be thought of as a disorder, because generally it does not interfere with a person’s ability to function. Most people are not even aware that their experiences of life elicit more sensory responses than other peoples might and the ones that are rarely consider synesthesia to have a negative impact on their lives.

Predictions of the percentage of people with synesthesia vary widely, from 1 in 20 to 1 in 20,000. Studies from 2005 and 2006, using a random population sample, suggested 1 in about 23 people have synesthesia. Examples of people with synesthesia include the author Vladimir Nabokov, composer Olivier Messiaen, and scientist Richard Feynman. Daniel Tammet, who is mentioned in the next section of this list, is a synesthete (in addition to being a mental calculator) who sees numbers with shapes and texture.

BYU Women's Conference 2010

I was able to go to most of BYU Women's conference this year and I wanted to record and share some of the things I learned.

From Sister Julie Beck:

~ Taking care of our posterity takes precedence over all things. (In a freudian slip, I wrote in my notes "prosperity" instead of "posterity":)
~The most important skill we can learn, the ultimate education is the power to know and do God's will.
~ When our priorities are out of order we lose power. We need to use the following categories for prioritizing keeping in mind that the most important thing is salvation in God's kingdom:

1. ESSENTIAL: scriptures, personal prayer, (take a paper and pencil to prayer and ask: who do I need to help?) pondering, keeping covenants, being worthy and ready to receive revelation.
2. NECESSARY: taking care of home and family, creating a climate for the Spirit in our home. The temple is our model, we need to do the mundane tasks to keep a house of order. We need to cook meals - a place to teach and gather. We need to SMILE, teach our children, support our husband.
3. NICE TO DO: crafts, lunch with friends, reading. These add variety and make life fun, but they won't SAVE us.

She talked about how her father-in-law worked shift work and she felt as a mother she was working all the shifts. We need to save our energy, when we are at the top of our game, for the most important shift of our particular stage. For mothers of teenagers it will probably be the "swing shift" 4 pm - midnight. For young mothers it may be the day shift. For mothers of newborns it's definitely the graveyard shift!

~~~

Lisa Valentine Clark (whose blog I follow) talked about technology. She said that we need to be DELIBERATE about the way we use technology to make our lives less complicated, not more complicated.

As a side note: In our stake conference Saturday meeting our stake president suggested that we need to know how to use the internet, texting, social networking, etc. because it is how people communicate now, but use it appropriately with rules. Rules such as: know where your children have a presence online; if you wouldn't say it in person, don't type it; respect appropriate boundaries between youth and adults; don't embarrass your spouse; and remember: there is no app for parenting!

~~~

From Elder Oaks:
~ Service in the family requires sacrifice, we must learn to balance personal needs with the needs of family members.
~Family success if based on righteous self-denial. We must dedicate our efforts to rearing the next generation.

Michael's Career at Fanzz

Michael has been working at the Fanzz store in the mall since December. It's been a big part of his life during his senior year. I'm proud of him for being a good worker. He rarely complains about working and takes pride in his work. Sometimes he has to work alone on a weeknight so Rich and I will take him dinner and visit. It's been a fun part of Michael's senior year.

Mother's Day 2010

The day before Mother's Day Rich and I went over to Springville to take flowers to Nanna's grave. I found the pinwheel about a month ago and since Nanna always loved them I just had to get one for her grave.


The Hammer family gave me this great blue and white plate. It was so fun to hear about how Ayden saw it and said they "must get it for Nana because it's blue and white - her favorite!"

I had a lovely day with other gifts from my kiddies: a Deseret Book giftcard from Michael, (which I used today) a great book of devotionals from "time out for women" from Jenny and Trevor, Todd and Michelle gave me a cricut cartridge, Brian a beautiful card and Laura a lovely email. I'm grateful that I also got to spend time with my own Mom and we had a yummy family dinner - my favorite: Cafe Rio bar. (I did make it myself, but it was yummy nonetheless)

Also, even though I'm not his mother, Rich gave me a periwinkle (my signature color) denim jacket and my favorite candle: Aloha Orchid from Anthropologie. And he even made the trip with me to the Gateway to get the gifts!

Three Reasons For My Blog Absence

I was complaining last month at book club that I've kind of had to force myself to read the most recent books. They were good books and I learned a lot. But I missed just being drawn into a book that I couldn't put down. Well, in the last week I've read these three books and been completely consumed. It's always a delicious treat to be sucked into a story, and yet frustrating because there's some guilt for ignoring every other thing and person in your life.