Time Flies Yearbook Play

Leslie Perry, (YW President and friend from Church) yearbooked herself on facebook. I was curious, googled, it, found the website and spent way too much time.

This is better than those old-time Western photos you can get on the boardwalk! Same idea, your face (mostly, face shape changes make a huge difference), props and costumes/hairstyles and the disguise is real.

Which looks the most like me? Like John?

What if I wasn't 1 years old in 1966?


Or already had 5 kids in 1998:


In 1954:


1990? John didn't REALLY look like this when Emma was born!


Or in 1978 when he was a wee lad?


1960 me, when my mom was still in high school...


1950 John, looks eerily like his dad...


If we had met in 1952...



Fantastic! Nice when the website is super user-friendly. Play with the rotations and the sizing and even skin tone to match...

Quilty letters

Finished the giraffe nursery!


From blankets to wall:
Cut out for changing table...

From Pottery Barn kid nursery giraffe collection blanket to pretty grey wall: There is a paint brush in the giraffe's mouth with paint drips so it looks like it just finished painting baby's name.

When they get carpet in and furniture I will go back to take photo with everything in place. Good luck to the new parents-to-be!

Summer almost over

Tomorrow I am finishing up a baby nursery, giraffe themed:
Max is home from tour, concert on his birthday and I made him key lime pies!

Few more chances to go swimming before school starts up again!

HUGE family

I have a big family, I mean, really, really huge. I have cousins I have never met, and 2nd cousins I stay in close contact with, and aunts and uncles spread across the country.


young Grandpa Harold Carlson

While looking at facebook yesterday, found some great, happy photos! Here are two grown-up cousins, Barbara and Karen at Barbara's daughter's wedding reception in CA. I was struck by how much Barbara looks like her dad, who looks like my mom's dad, Harold. Family resemblance very strong.



On Mom's mom side, this wedding photo of her grandparents, Jane Sutherland and Daniel Davidson I had seen before...

...but never this one of Jane Sutherland Davidson (on right) with her sister, Maggy, on the left!

And my favorite that brought tears to my eyes, first time I have ever seen THIS photo, 4 generations with Daniel standing on far left, his son, Roland on his grandfather's lap, and his dad, another William Davidson standing on the right, taken in Scotland, 1909. These are my people, my family. They look familiar, their genes and physical features have trickled down into these aunts and uncles and cousins I can tell you so much more about.

SF, the other one, in CA

(Found this pineapple paper-pieced quilt I made for nephew Simon. Favorite scrap of fabric is a mantra, "I will sleep through the night")



I've been researching public domain pictures, found these gems. After the big earthquake in San Francisco. Sobering stories. Would I know how to manage?




On Tuesday I met a young married mom whose husband is doing his internship at Hopkins. We were making lunch at young women's camp together. We started talking, found out we graduated from the same high school in SLC.



And they lived in SF right after they were married.

San Francisco! What great family stories we have about that town!


I told her about my great grandfather who was a carpenter and buried his tools to keep them safe after the earthquake, the mirror he was paid with for some work at a rich lady's home. My grandparents who were students at Berkeley and their romantic date foiled by a skunk spraying Grandma Lucy when she reached in the garbage bin to pull out some papers for their cozy fire. He was either planning to ask her to marry him that night, or felt so sorry for her that he asked her then anyway?!



When Maxwell was a newborn John was driving all three little kids around in our Trooper listening to the radio, so I could either do homework or take a nap... The station was sponsoring a contest, whoever could arrive with a Tweety Bird pez dispenser, fake vomit, Mr. Bubblebath, and something else I've forgotten, would win 2 free airline tickets to San Francisco! How he knew where to get fake vomit? He won! We found babysitters!

We had a wonderful time (I pumped the whole trip and remembering pouring the milk out a little sadly, but thankful for the away time, first trip alone since our honeymoon--which was a trip 3/4 across the country).

I firmly believe that one of the best thing you can do for your children is be strongly united and in love parents! Dating helps! Taking spontaneous trips together help! Communicating, phone calls, email, reading each other's blogs, night letters, naps, dates--even short ones--make a difference.

Haiku 5-7-5

I have a famous quilting buddy, Gyleen,
http://www.colourfulstitches.com/
who, every so often challenges us. Quilt challenges, word challenges. Her latest: haikus starting with "If" first line and "Then" second line, third line the punch. Here is what I wrote this morning.

(I can only submit one to her contest. Which one do you like the best? My deadline is 27th July.)


If I just quilted
Then neglected family
Would learn how to cook!

If I swam all day
Then my fat would fade faster
Get a new swimsuit!

If sniffs were colors
Then your breath’d be purple
Strong sweet lollipop

If I were your age
Then had my experience
I would worry less

If you love me true
Then you will tell me quickly
Where is the chocolate?

If God could send help
Then you would be His first choice
Angels abound here

If whispers could crawl
Then shouts would run marathons
And singing would dance

If it All Matters
Then you have a purpose here
Faith Hope Charity

If you feel to ask
Then you’re answer-ready
Kneel, pray, and listen

Yesterday, and 40 years, I was there!

We were living in the Red Brick Two-Story House in Fairfax, VA (right where Tyson's Corner mall is now!) and I remember my dad waking me up (the actual event historically says 3:56 am. Was that Eastern time? Did he and I really watch it live, or just the news later??? Was Mom there, or was she feeding the baby? ) and bringing me into the room where the tv was and telling me this was something really, really important and I should remember this day forever and tell my children I watched it happen on TV!

I watched Star Trek a lot with Dad, too, but knew that was pretend. Even though I was secretly in love with Capt. Kirk, and thought Spock would be okay to marry, too.

Did this event 40 years ago influence my life?

YES!

It put the moon closer, made it touchable. I would look at it in the night skies and know anyone could go (well, with enough money and equipment). In California in the 70's Shell gas stations were giving away pictures of the moon landing and I had a whole collection of them, the different shots. I felt like I owned that moment in history, I was there! Space travel was real and possible! Science and technology were gifts to be shared. Exploration was important. Learning, seeing new worlds, all of that was vital to me. Core beliefs.

Our kids take for granted so many things that are modern day miracles. Would they think of things differently if they had seen the first time some of the technology was invented? I've wondered if they think of the complexity of airplanes with more appreciation after seeing the Wright Brother exhibits at Kitty Hawk?

I grew up reading a lot of science fiction, doing well in math and science at school...joining a science fiction club, meeting John in science fiction magazine staff meeting...it all relates to that first landing on the moon!

Yeah, I am that old, and that is okay.

You know your husband loves you when...

...he is hundreds of miles away chaperoning and keeping up with energetic teenagers, when he stops, takes a picture of a quilt because it made him think of you. Plus just being thankful for non-string springs and the fact we don't have a trundle bed and little kids sleeping in our bedroom. He knows what I like, and I like that about him. I highly recommend chapter 3 of his "How we met" chronicles. Link is also to the right, John "Of Two Minds" over on the sidebar.->

Sharing of Everyday Moments

My way to save money and help recycle: I pick up outdated magazines at the library free table. Yes, I am behind a few months, catching up though.

The editor-in-chief for BHG, Gayle G. Butler, wrote something in October 2008 that I thought was pretty profound: "Simple, regular sharing of everyday moments keeps us close to those we care for--no matter where we are."

Reading blogs/email/FB does that for me. Writing and reading spouse Night Journals (he writes me a letter each night in a plain spiral notebook, and I write to him in another one, and we switch book every other night. We are coming up on a year of doing this, and I highly recommend doing it, even on the nights you are really tired, or grouchy--or both.).

Blogging doesn't have to have picture posts. Just real words. Real thoughts and feelings.

I have a new calling/assignment at Church. Instead of working with the little kids 18 months-12 years, I will be teaching scripture study Seminary to teenagers, EARLY in the morning. At 5:45 am. Here, in my home. Every school day. We live across the soccer/lacrosse field from the high school, very convenient.

I will have three of my kids in high school, convenient for them, too.

One more month to get ready! I've been pondering ways to help them internalize scriptures, learn them and apply them to their lives. To keep the scriptures real and to "...share everyday moments..." with each other, with their families, with God.

School supplies are on sale everywhere so I got 18 composition books to create journals for each of my students. Thinking about making a tabbed section for

HEART=feelings/desires
MIND=thoughts/questions
STRENGTH=actions/service
MIGHT=influence/power/example

A tabbed section for characters/prophets/people mentioned as we read throughout the year.

And one for the 25 scripture mastery verses for them to memorize. After 4 years they are encouraged to have all 100 known by heart. Amazing, inspired program, and I am excited to be a part of it!

Missing Max

Thank you, Julie, for the pictures in Kansas City!

That is Maxwell, 2nd from the right! It is so good to see he is doing well! Glad he got to see Julie and David's artsy-fartsy cool house!


Max won't be home for another week. He is on tour, out west, singing with the Maryland State Boychoir. The week before he left, he was gone at youth conference, and before that, High Adventure. These pictures are all taken by Mark Koncurat.



I am mothering from a distance this week. Busy summer, kids doing all kinds of projects, working, computer gaming, wii-ing. I have to concentrate on the moments I do have them face to face, and ask them questions, listen, check on their health and needs.

Sibling Smiles

  Out of 9 kids, how many of us have dimples? Seven that I am pretty sure of. Glasses: 6 of us. Brunettes: 4; Blond: 4; Redheads: 1. Brown eyes: 5; Blue eyes 3; Greenish: 1. Braces: 4? Varicose Veins: still counting. Diabetic: 0. What ever happened to the genetic study that we were helping with? Big families are great study populations.

I just finished Brandon Saunderson's "Warbreaker" and have been thinking about the physical ideal, what would I choose to look like if I could pick physical characteristics? Would I want to blend in, or stand out? Is being dark-haired part of my identity, really? As I turn slowly white-haired, even? Would I want hair that changed color with my moods?! Would I pick a more atheletic build? Yes! More symmetrical?! Longer fingers, the better to paint with? Stronger legs? Taller? (my kids will all be taller than I am, and that is okay).

I know our bodies are important. I am thankful for parents who contributed their genes, helped to create me, make me who I am.

I am thankful for phsycial life. Being able to touch and see, smell, hear, taste and feel are great blessings.

Birth and RE-birth Day!

She wanted to get baptized on her birthday. Today she is 8 years old, accountable, old enough to know wrong from right. We believe in baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, making a covenant to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, and to follow Him.







It was a beautiful morning on the Susquehanna River!

Camo Mural + Sweet Date Treat

Client painted base coat and medium blue stripe (exactly 1/3 of wall ) and even left the tarps down for me. Goal was to match the Ranger blue camo bedding and sheet-turned-into curtain (clever idea!).

Two days later it looked like this! With airplanes, helicopters, and para-troopers!

On our date tonight we had Maryland crab cakes, Ritas, and stopped at Ollie's--and John found my size in sizzling Mary Jane crocs, very, very comfy. I really, really should throw away my bright green crocs now...