My thoughts on President Hinckley

There are a lot of things to admire about President Hinckley.

The one I'd like to talk about it how he allowed Heavenly Father to guide his life and make what could have been a good life into an awesome life.

From what I understand from reading his biography, he wanted to become a journalist. He applied to and was accepted into Columbia University. However, at the same time he was offered a position in the church, I can't what recall exactly, but it was an assistant to something. He did what might have seemed like a mistake to the eyes of man and accepted the lowly church position, turning down the prestigious acceptance into Colombia.

More than half a century later look what he has accomplished! During President Hinckley's long service in the Church he oversaw the missionary teaching programs and the Church curriculum programs. He took advantage, often on the cutting edge, of technology for use in the public relations, in the temple ceremony, and in teaching and reaching both Mormon and non-Mormon alike. There are many more examples of how Heavenly Father used a humble servants natural talents and interests to accomplish the work He needed to be done.

Had he gone to Colombia he may have been a colleague of newsmen like Mike Wallace and Larry King, and yes, he may have had some influence in society. Yet no doubt the fact that instead of working with these men, he was interviewed by them is one indication of the grand influence he was able to have by allowing the Lord to guide him down paths that I'm sure he could not have imagined, nor could he have foreseen when he made what may have seemed to some a foolish choice.

I'm IT!

Four Jobs that I've had:

Two bad:
1. I drew gold lines on fancy picture frames for two months. Worked from 6am - 3pm. Nearly went insane.
2. I worked in a tile showroom where we maybe got 1 person to walk in per week...and that is pushing it...I'm not sure how the owner made any money.

Two good:
3. Worked selling concessions and tickets and the $1.50 movie theater (yes, I did say one dollar and fifty cents!) - I worked with 12 people who were 16 and 17, even the (really cute) manager was 17, and we had an hour of down time between movies...what could be more fun!
4. MHOC - You have to like your first "real" job, and my bosses and co-workers were great.

Four Places I have been:
1. Rome (brag brag brag)
2. London (see above)
3. New York
4. Bermuda

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Chocolate Chip Cookie (Dough)
2. Lasagna, Aaron's specialty & Butternut Squash
3. Taco Soup
4. Treasure's (by Hershey I think)

Four Concerts I'd like to go to:
1. Garth Brooks
2. NKOTB reunion
3. Bon Jovi
4. Dixie Chicks

Four reasons why I love being me:
1. I have well formed feet.
2. I can walk to accomplish a lot of my errands.
3. I have good ideas (implementation, well, not so much)
4. I can make a delicious dessert.

Four Classes that I wish were offered to and that I could participate in right now.
1. Bewitched 101: The art of the nose wiggle.
2. Don't Waste time: 1 class, 1/2 hour
3. Remember me: Focus - faces and names.
4. What Not to Wear

Four friends or relatives that I am tagging:
1. Jamie
2. Tracie
3. Christin
4. Maria (if only she had a blog to respond on...hint, hint, hint)

Two more things

Sheesh, I'm a blogging fool today.

1st Aaron just txt msg'd me to tell me that our hard drive that crashed in September, with three years of info that we, ignorantly, hadn't backed up and given up for lost was working!! Apparently a computer fixer (technical term) at his office took a look at it and it was just a disk error (just...ha) and WA LA...now it works! I'm predicting that is the thing that makes me extra happy all day today.

2nd my little sister Laura just moved to Cleveland and started a blog. When I uploaded my new layout I lost all my blog links so I am making a special post to advertise for her because I am so excited that she now lives just (once again, just) 10.5 hours away from me AND because I really think she is a good writer... so, check out www.livingalittle.blogspot.com.

Art Lessons Continue

Speaking of people that look like other people...

I bought this print back in my DINK days (Double Income No Kids) and I really like it, it is the style that I prefer, bright colors, texture, sweeping lines...


This is a picture of the artist, Emile Bellet, which I found AFTER I purchased the print...And this is a picture of my dad...


Phenomenal...

I'm Flattered

Yesterday I had someone tell me that I reminded him of a Botticelli painting...Birth of Venus to be exact. (He tactfully waited until his wife came in the room to tell me that so that I didn't think it was a pickup line.) In particular it was my coloring and the way I had done my hair. I had an idea of what painting that was but I did google it to be certain. Despite the fact that she is...um...well naked I was terrible flattered and in fact I was in a pretty jovial mood all day because of it.

See the entire painting here...

Bath pictures

Tessa loves baths!

Here are some pictures.

4 Layer Cake

Yesterday was my birthday (note the new background in honor of said event).

Yada...yada... frankly I didn't really care. I mean this in a good way, I just felt like, big deal. I would have been fine with just knowing myself it was my birthday. But, since other people cared (for which I am grateful, I mean, that DOES make you feel good) I used it to get some things that I wanted (in addition to presents, which were also very nice)...those things were:

Going out to eat at Passage to India. If you live in the area you MUST eat there. MUST.

Sleeping in.

Baking a 4 layer cake. And thus we come to the reason I posted at all. I had to show off my pictures of this delight.

(This is what it looked like under the frosting (I doubled the frosting recipe and still barely had enough to cover the cake)

O have always wanted to bake a 4 layer cake and now that I've finally done it I think I'll make this a regular birthday tradition. If any of you want to invite me to your birthday feel free to ask me to bring the cake, and I'll bring YOU a 4 layer cake.

The Truth

I am very very happy.

I know, shocking huh!

I say this in response to the people who ask, or who may be wondering "So, is this* what you expected." I am lucky enough to be able to enthusiastically say YES!

(*this being motherhood in general and stay-at-home (most of the time) motherhood specifically)

So what did I expect?

Well, I expected among other things,to have more responsibility for the housework. The reality, I don't do all that I should but I do way more than I ever have in the past and I feel much less resentment about having to do it. In fact I realized that I was happy while I was scrubbing the sink with AJAX. I don't think its possible to deny that you are happy if you feel so, while cleaning.

I expected to have times when I didn't get the things done I wanted because nap time happened a bit to early or a bit too late than I "planned." This happens, big deal, this is made a bit less of a hindrance because on the rare occasion I get to take a nap too, and a well rested Emily results in a happy Emily.

I expected to love my baby. And WOAH! do I. She is truly truly the sweetest thing I could imagine. Actually, I feel so much like she is meant to be mine that I can't remember what I expected her to be like "before" - I'm sure I had expectations that aren't echoed in reality, but I can't remember them because the reality of who Tessa is, is all I need.

I expected to be poor. And well, yes, that is true. Actually, its interesting that before we got pregnant we did a hypothetical budget of our life on one income and each time things worked out great. Then the one time we did this budget during my pregnancy suddenly we realized - We WON'T have enough money. This was accompanied by the requisite freak out, but as things have settled we have been blessed with little things here and there that "make the ends meet." I guess this is how life works, but it is still amazing!

I expected to have to work a few hours a week. And I hoped to enjoy it. So of course I have been pleased to find that in fact the job I have seems perfectly suited to my place in life. (And yes, I should be doing stuff for that right now instead of blogging...) I'm particularly happy that I can walk to my office, and often do with Tessa in tow; that I get to work with very intelligent, accomplished people; that I feel at least most of the time, like I know what is going on; that I have a good babysitter for the few hours a week that I need her; that when I need to bring her Tessa is welcome to come along with me; and that just at the point in life when I thought my "career" was over I am doing something that keeps me relevant.

Oh yes, and Aaron. Aaron is a good person. I think that covers much of what I love about him. He is a good husband and a good father. He is sincere about his feelings (in a manly way of course ;) ). I have fun with him, I LOVE talking to him about things. I also love watching a funny show with him because his laugh makes me laugh. Okay, I'm not going to go on because it would get embarrassingly mushy, not embarrassing for me, but for him and for you.

There are other things that make me happy. And, to be honest, there are many many things that I need to improve about myself, but I'm not going to sit around and be sad because things aren't how they "should" be.

And now, I'm going to get up and clean the kitchen ... jealous?

New Years (Blog) Resolution

In the past, on this blog, I've candy coated our lives deliciously. Which isn't necessarily bad but not entirely ... truthful. So my resolution this year is to add just a bit more of the "real" Emily.

This is a bit of a challenge for me considering the wide variety of people that I think might someday read this...I can't be entirely myself while worrying -

"What if a future or current boss reads this and thinks I'm either a moron or unprofessional?"
Or "What if Aaron's co-workers read this and think 'what is he doing with this moron?'"
Or "What if people in my ward read this and think I'm a moron?"
Or "What if my in-laws read this and think 'what is our son doing with this moron?'"
Or "What if my family reads this and thinks ... "

Well, I think you get the point. Yet, I have decided to face that real possibility and press forward. Now, you might not actually notice a huge change in the narrative, after all, I have a pretty sweet life and there isn't much "bad" to write about. And really, I'm not going to tell you anything REALLY bad that happens, or bad mouth any one person, or in anyway admit to illegal activity (not that there is any)...after all this IS the internet! I think what this means is there might be just the same amount of stuff about Tessa, including adorable pictures of her, and just a bit more about me. Lucky you...

Our Mecca (more commonly known as Temple Square)

We spent some time in Salt Lake City before our flight home. We wanted to go to Hyer's Hamburgers, particularly to get some fry sauce, but apparently its a popular place on a Friday night, so we found Mexican restaurant to eat at instead. Then we went to Temple Square to look at lights.

This is a very common outing for many people, but my dad installs Christmas lights professionally so with him it was a in depth research trip. For Aaron and I it was just fun looking at lights and being surrounded with thousands of other Mormons. We snickered at a few of the conversations we overheard, things you'd never hear on the streets of Boston, but we also found a lot of very nice people to take our picture.

This is where I told eveyone to hold still and Aaron made a face instead...I'm posting this to teach him a lesson...

These pictures were ones I took while playing with my camera settings. That is one of my favorite games yet I'm really no good at it...these are the few that weren't (too) blurry.

At Grandma and Grandpa C's House

Christmas Eve we made the trek through the white and drifted snow to my parent's house. Christmas Eve was filled with the well-loved traditions of reading Poochy the Christmas Pup followed by the Christmas Story in the Bible. I know you've all heard the story from the Bible so you should put Poochy on your list of "must reads" particularly if you can have my dad do it with the voices...just be warned, sometimes he gets over excited and raises his voice. I didn't warn Tessa and she got scared, it took her a few days to trust Grandpa completely, although she would still smile at him, from a distance.

While at both family's Tessa met hundreds of new people (Aaron points out that this is a slight exaggeration) but as long as they were there to smile at her she didn't mind. The best people she met though were the cousins that were near her age. (Once again I request that anyone who took photos at Aaron's parents house forward them along because I don't have any.)

This is cute little Gage. I'm holding a place for someone to send me the picture of his sister Charlotte giving Tessa a kiss on the forehead, I'll assume no one got a picture of her pushing her brother over while chattering happily with Tessa.

Mommy got sick the last day we were in Idaho Falls but Daddy took good care of Tessa and I'm sure duly impressed the in-laws.

When Blogs Collide

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a good friend of mine from High School. Emily had her second child in June so we were excited to meet each others babies. Here is a picture...

...as well as a link to the correlating post on her blog.

Now is the part where I blatantly flatter Emily! Lately I've been obsessed with hair, and as you can see in the picture, her's looks so good!! I couldn't say this in person because it would lead to the obligatory "oh, you too..." and "oh, it just doesn't do what I want it to." It was also fun to feel like I know her kids, especially Nixon, from reading her blog obsessively. There are some real blessings that come from technology.

At Grandma and Grandpa U's house

After driving through a blizzard we got home very late. Tessa, of course, slept in the car and, of course, was still on Eastern Time so she woke up at 5:30. It wasn't bad though, because she got to eat her bottle while looking at the Christmas tree, then she got to play on the CARPET and look at the train set. It was nice quiet Mommy time and I got some cute pictures.

While at G & G U's house we got to see all the Aunt, Uncles and cousins. However my camera wasn't working so we only have a few pictures. If you happen to be an Aunt, Uncle or Grandparent reading this, and have any cute pictures, I would really appreciate if you forwarded them to me...I'd hate to have a gap in the photo documentation of the first child!

We had fun getting ready for Christmas, despite not having our luggage for three days. We also had fun at Aaron's family Christmas Eve party, which was moved into town because of the blizzard (second of three for our trip).