{wanderlust}: getting to be that time again...

So, it's late.  And I took a nap today, which I know better than to do, but I did and here I am...awake.  And feeling that wanderlust creep in...every couple of months I start to crave it.

That may be my only regret to settling down.  I love to travel...I love new things, new people, new places but my body craves the security and comfort of being at home...and having a home.  literally.

And as I've gotten older, been married longer, had Paisley...we've travelled less and less.  I haven't seen an ocean in 2 years!!!  We're talking about doing Mexico in the spring...but it's scary with what is going down, and leaving Paisley scares me-mostly because I worry that something could happen to us and she would be parentless!

But as I look at pictures of friends around the world a bit of envy spreads over me.  Friends that haven't put down roots yet, still free to roam the globe.  We just finished watching the "Long way round."  If you haven't seen it, do.  I was already loving Ewan McGregor and now I just love him all the more!  And so amazing to see what they did!

Really if we ever relocated I think we'll leave the country.  It's a tie between Ireland and Germany.  We love being close to family and friends, but we've moved before...at the same time, I'm grateful because I feel a strong tie to St. George-like we're where we're supposed to be.  And Jon loves his job, and really we're not that far from the ocean...

Hmmmm...I need some adventure I think...

{secrets}: for you

A couple of life secrets for all:

1. Buy a clear shower curtain.  It's wonderful-it looks cleaner and allows me to see what my child is getting into without having to get out of the shower.  Totally worth it.  And after watching too much CSI and whatnot, I'm no longer worried someone is going to sneak up on me...
2. Gel nail polish.  MIRACLE.  seriously.  I've had mine on for 2 weeks-no breaks, no chips, no fake nail-ness to them.  Just perfect red nails that look like they were freshly painted.
3. Couch covers.  Most people that come into my house for the first time typically make some remark about what a moron I am for having a white couch.  Well, its IKEA, and it's covered (but fitted so well you would never know).  After a soak in the Oxy-clean and a bit of Clorox II, it looks like brand new.  Chocolate, Strawberries, Tomato Sauce, yes my couch has seen all of those and survived triumphant!
4. Christmas Goodies.  I have not gained a pound over Christmas or Thanksgiving this year.  Why?  I stopped telling myself no and just enjoyed.  I'm nearly positive it was guilt that was causing me to gain weight-not the actual food.  And believe me, I've eaten.  And all that fudge was SO good.
5. Mr. Clean magic erasers.  As if these weren't the best thing ever, they now have them in mop form!!  Saved my life.  Speaking of which, please raise your right hand and solemly swear that you will never, EVER allow me to put white linoleum in a house I own!!  PROMISE ME...its bad...so very, very bad.

These are some life secrets I have...what are some of yours?

{holidays}: thanksgiving

 The view from my parents backyard...I miss these sunsets...♥

 I couldn't stop taking pics of all the food it looked so good!!

 I love that Freedom is passed out in the background of this one.

 I wasn't the only one taking pictures...

 All gathered like vultures around the pies...

 Pie, Pie and more pie.  Oh, and the best chocolate milk on this planet...seriously.

Overall, it was a fun holiday.  We started at Denny's with Jon's Dad and Ilene, then we went to Wendy's house with her family and Jon's Mom and Stepdad, and then we ended up at my house with my family and a couple of my brother's roomates.  Unfortunately we were sick a good portion of the time that we were there, but I am so glad that we went!  It was so fun to see all of our family and enjoy the wintery weather (although I am glad to be here in warm STG for Christmas!) It was a wonderful Thanksgiving

{gifts}: quiet

I had a VERY rare and aweseome experience yesterday, and I kind of want to share:

I was on Temple Square shooting a wedding yesterday and it was snowing-wet, slushy snow that kept even the hearty inside.  I like to scout out which steps are going to be the best for the day so I walked around to the backside of the temple and found myself alone.  Alone.  Absolutely no one in sight.  Not a single human being.  And with the snow blanketing the noise, I was very quietly alone.  On temple square.  At Christmas time.  Some of you may be saying 'I do not see what the big deal is...' but this is a big deal.  The best part?  As I stood there, under my orange umbrella, enjoying the short second of peace away from a wonderful, but chaotic wedding, the tabernacle choir began to play (because of the nativity nearby) and I was able to have just one moment of much needed peace.

{nostalgia}: it was fun while it lasted...

It's official.  My sweet, darling little girl officially now uses and understands the word "no."  She uses it quite well and frequently too.  For Example:

Me:  Paisley, come here and give that to me.
Paisley: NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!

Or: (whilst running at another child with hands wildly in the air)
Paisley: NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!


Or: (another child is playing with one of her toys, or just any other toy, or looking at her)
Paisley: NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!

She has also started getting sneakier, and stealing things from me more.  And if I take them away, down the the floor she goes, screaming the whole way.  What happened?

And don't you all say I told you so!

{hilarious}: undeniable truths for mature humans

I totally stole this from my friend Jessa's blog-I was laughing so hard I just had to share!

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!
24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

{foto}: business cards

My new business cards are here!  I couldn't decide what to do and I had one of those late night inspirations that was a bit silly...and you'll notice that nowhere I put "swimmer" but I'm underwater, swimming...oh well.  So much fun ;)

{grateful}: paisley snuggles

I know I'm supposed to post about being thankful at Thanksgiving...but it's all been simmering in the back of my head for the last month and is only now finally coming together...

I'm so grateful for my sweet baby girl.  I don't know how I ever got so lucky.  I just adore her.  I look at her sometimes and wonder how I will ever love another child as much as I love her.  I'm really enjoying being a mother.  I don't ever want to paint the picture that we don't have our strifes and our stuggles, but overall I am so happy with my little family.  Seeing her eyes light up at everything that is new in this world is so much fun-I cannot wait for her to grow and learn, but at the same time I just want to keep her..just like this. 

In Relief Society our new theme that we chose for next year is Christ.  I know that seems broad and simple, but we're focusing on one of Christ's attributes for each month.  To kick off the theme, we taught a lesson as a Presidency and I was chosen to share the First Presidency's Message from this month's Ensign, called "Can we see the Christ?"  I love it because it is all about seeing Christ in your life which is one of the strength's of my testimony.  The reason I love to share it and want people to have the gospel is because I love looking for and seeing Christ in my life.  I see him in the blessings we've received, I see him in the love that we have in our home, and I see him in Paisley.

And I love that husband of mine.  This may be the first year he has decided to buy my Christmas presents, which makes me giddy for Christmas morning.  I like the milestone that we have reached in our marriage.  We still like each other, we don't need to yell like we(I) used to, and overall we're happy just to see each other and hang out when we can.  It's comfortable, and nice, and I love him.

Overall, through all of the roaming sickness and travelling strife we've suffered, we're well and happy.  The delicious smells of Christmas Tree and Cinnamon make our home warm and cozy, and I'm happy to stay we're just staying here for Christmas-something I always thought would make me sad, but I'm actually very happy for. 

I guess I'm just feeling very, very blest ♥.

{recipes}: leftover turkey

I never know what to do with leftover turkey (turkey sandwiches can only go on for so long) so I tried this dish last night and it was delicious!  I love quiche anyway, but this really was good.  I substituted whole milk for the half and half and it turned out a wee bit runny-so I think I would have just used a little less next time.  I thought I would share!!

Turkey broccoli quiche recipe with Swiss cheese and eggs and a little curry powder.


Ingredients:

•1 9-inch pie shell, unbaked
•3/4 cup chopped fresh broccoli
•2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
•1 tablespoon butter
•3/4 cup chopped cooked turkey
•1/2 cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese
•3 eggs
•1 1/4 cups half-and-half
•1 teaspoon curry powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

In a large skillet over medium-low heat, cook broccoli and onion, stirring frequently, until tender. Drain.
Sprinkle broccoli and onion, turkey, and cheese into prepared pie shell.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs slightly; beat in half-and-half, curry powder, and salt. Pour egg mixture over turkey and broccoli mixture. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325° continue baking for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

I should have taken a pic because it was pretty too, but oh well.  Yummmy.

{travelogue}: the picture

So...we had an eventful return home from Thanksgiving.  It seems every year that we attempt to travel is filled with excitement:

• Thanksgiving 2004 it took us 8 hours to get from Provo to St. George going 35 mph on the freeway-every gas station we stopped at was out of both gas and windshield wiper fluid because they had been snowed in for the night.
• Fall Break 2003 we ran out of gas at the "Weston/Preston" exit.  I was carpooling with a group of girls and one guy-he offered to leave us all in the car while he walked to Malad and we said no, that we would come with him-luckily a nice family picked us up and drove us.
• Christmas 2003 my friend Kyle and I got snowed in at Nephi and luckily got the last room at the Econolodge-oh yes, the honeymoon suite complete with heart shaped tub and all!!
• March 2005 we spin off the road on the way home from being married/honeymoon.  This was not due to snow however and thankfully the shop in Beaver was able to fix up our blown tire and put us back on the road.
• June 2006 we end up parked on I-15 for 3-ish hours hanging out with a whole bunch of fellow travelers right before the Cove Fort Exit due to a fire.
• Christmas 2007 we have a windshield wiper break due to too much ice and a crazy snow storm and luckily coast off the road close enough to an exit that we survive.
• Christmas 2008 our windshield wiper fluid stopped spraying because it was frozen at Parowan so Jon ended up disconnecting and sucking out the frozen fluid while laying on the snow covered ground in shorts and a t-shirt with me throwing up the entire way with terrible morningsickness.  This was the year we vowed to fly home for Christmas next time.

And of course this year was no different.  We ended up leaving a full day early and driving the entire way to Idaho Falls in one night.  We were feeling really lucky and smart for beating the storm until we hit Malad.  It took us 4 hours to get from Malad to Idaho Falls on what we're pretty sure was a closed road.  It was bad.  I woke up sick when we got there and Paisley too.  She had been coughing at night which I thought was due to teething, but she continued to get worse the entire time that we were there and so did I.  We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving with all of our family (pictures will follow) and had originally planned to leave Sunday.  Well, of course another storm decided to roll in so we decided to leave Saturday night.  We woke up Saturday to find that we needed to leave NOW so we packed and we left.  I'm so glad we did.  By Tremonton Paisley was fussing and sad so we stopped and I discovered dried blood on her hands and in her ear.  With my medical training and the internet to help freak me out we decided to stop and get her checked out.  Our friends Steve and Kim were in Salt Lake and we had already talked about caravaning with them for safety so we decided to hit an Instacare in Salt Lake and then continue on with them since they couldn't leave until a little later anyway.  So we stopped.  Paisley's heartrate was up in the 200's (very bad) and she had a temperature of 104!  I had been giving her Tylenol because I knew she was feverish but I had no idea she was that bad!  Apparently she was dyhdrated-something I hadn't caught and the doctor didn't immediately catch either...I felt so bad for her.  They gave her some Tylenol and Ibprofen and gave us a popsicle and sent us out in the lobby to see if we could get her heartrate down.  No such luck.  So they did an urine/blood sample (she was NOT happy) and the Doctor came in and said that they may need to send us to Primary Children's to observe her overnight!  That freaked me out.  Then she came back and said they re-tested her blood draw and it looked better.  So she ate popsicle after popsicle and still we couldn't get her heartrate to come down.  Finally the decided to start an IV which is what you see in the picture.  They had to wrap her had so she wouldn't flick her wrist and mess up the flow.  In my stressed and sick state I told Jon to take a picture (you know, for memories) and he used my phone and posted it on Facebook, not realizing that he hadn't put a caption or explanation of any kind.  Paisley finished the IV and they left a hep-lock for me to push saline the remainder of the way home and when we got home in case we had to take her back in for another IV when we got here.  So we stopped at Walgreens to load up on some more meds and tissue and were headed out when the phones started ringing.  Our entire family somehow had seen this picture, and knowing we were travelling assumed we had been in an accident.  Any family that had not seen it, was called by those who had and all were calling us at the same time.  I think Jon's Dad was the funniest-he pointed out the Jon was not in the picture which was scary and also that it would have been nice if we could have at least added some sort of caption like: "we rolled the car 3 times, but we're ok"  Ooops.  So we apologize for the unnecessary panic and we appreciate all of your care and concern for us in our travels.  We are so blessed to have things like modern medicine-we were able to come home and control Paisley's fever and today she is all better!  Next year...we're flying!!

{adventures}: snow day

This weekend we had the awesome opportunity to go up to our friend's parent's cabin up on Cedar Mountain and it was so much fun!!  We had all of our kids running around and playing non-stop along with all of us parents.  We played Wa-hoo, I finally caught up on my scrapbooking, and we got to play in the snow!  Something we never get to do down in St. George!  We had such a good snow day...

 Jon's glasses are all wet from playing outside.

 The only candid picture of both of us...

 I love this baby and this man!

 We thought with the snow we would attempt some family pictures but it got dark a lot faster than we thought it would so we only got a few...

Do you like our Christmas jammies!?!  Mmmmm...it was so fun to go visit the cold and the snow-hopefully our trip home through the snow goes as well...

{update}: =update

So we had a VERY busy weekend.  This lovely couple came to stay with us and took over our entire downstairs...and maybe some of the upstairs too.  But that's kind of what happens when you're doing Bridals and Engagements all in one weekend!  This is Bob and Lyndi-Bob is practically Jon's little brother so it was really fun to have them stay!  They were loving our weather coming all the way down from Logan!

[Photo removed due to copyright issues]

Here is a sneek peek at some bridals...you'll have to stay tuned over at the Foto & Film blog to see more!

[Photo removed due to copyright issues]

While they were here we accomplished much.  My good friend Alecia helped a ton but letting us borrow her skills and house for a day for some pictures.  We also took the scenic drive out to Enterprise to hang out with some horses.  And yes, getting up at dawn to take pics really is worth it...Did I mention that we all got the stomach flu and spent Sunday throwing up together?  It was awful.  Paisley had it earlier in the week and Jon had it all day Thursday, so we thought we'd be ok.  Nope.  Ug.

In other news, Paisley is getting more teeth.  I can feel them starting to cut through so she's a sad, sad mess.  She refuses to be anywhere but on top of me somehow.  I must be holding her, or hugging her or she needs to be sitting on my lap in order to be ok...so I'm getting a little clausterphobic.  She has also learned the trick that if she lays her head on my shoulder and then nuzzles me that I melt and want to snuggle her...it's terrible!  Oh well, I missed the snuggling so I guess it's not all bad.  

{lds}: sunday school

"If you only turn to the Lord in trials, you will have many, for he will want you to turn to him somehow."                        -Our Sunday School Teacher

I laughed and laughed at that when he said it.

{illness}: fed up

I am sick.  AGAIN.  I am so sick of being sick.  It is never ending!!  I have been more sick in the last year and a half than I can ever remember being!!  I have never had allergies like this before!  And I know that my allergies are weakening my immune system so I've tried to treat them and it doesn't seem to help!  I started taking allergy meds again which has helped and I've tried to get more sleep, exercise more, eat better and I've even been taking a mulitvitamin and some pom juice (for good measure) and I still get sick!!  I've tried addressing my emotional issues...I've tried drinking more water...I've tried eating local honey...I've tried nasal strips...I'm frustrated.  I'm tired of continually having a runny nose.  It's beginning to wear on me.  To top it off I can't wear my wedding ring because my winter hands have already gotten so bad that you can see a bright red mark where it belongs.  Only half of my throat has been swelling with my allergies lately and my ears healed up again where my piercing used to be because I took out my earrings for more than a day!!  I also have a canker sore in the very back of my mouth that is making it hard to eat and I had a headache so bad last night I felt like I was going to throw up.  Am I dying?  Someone tell me the truth...  I've actually been putting in the effort to avoid this problem only to end up worse than I've been!!

{shenanigans}: life & death

Alicia, the blushing bride.

 Staci and Stephanie...the dear sweet twins.

 Alex, the sad, sweet widow.

 CoreyAnn, the peasant.

 April, the Snoot.

 Can you find all six of us?

This was WAY too much fun!  I have been dying to post them but had to wait until Silly Girls upload day!  The living pictures were taken at Brigham Young's actual winter home and the dead pics were taken at a real ghost town-Grafton!  It was so scary because we ended up shooting until 2-ish in the AM out at that spooky cemetary!!  And I am very proud to say that the transparent effects were all done in-camera (no photoshop for that!!)  We did do a little bit of coloring and such but all the scary stuff was real!!  So much fun!  I love Halloween!