The Women In Our Lives

President Hinckley gave a talk entitled "The Women in our Lives" and in it he said, "the women in our lives are creatures endowed with particular qualities, divine qualities, which cause them to reach out in kindness and with love to those about them." A girl becomes a woman through the influence of the women around her. I have been blessed with a wonderful sphere of women in my life. This weekend I spent time with my grandmother, an amazing woman who has given me, and Jake so much.

My Grandma Dot, served as a nurse in the Red Cross during WWII. She went into the concentration camps and helped to save those who had been trapped inside. She once hid in a building, behind enemy line, with 2 fellow nurses while Nazis came in searched the building. They never found her. Her service earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She has numerous songs and poems memorized. She was on Jeopardy and was a great golfer. When we were out to lunch or anywhere in the community she knew everyone. She had a great collection of children's books and inspired me to start collecting when I was young.
She is now in wheel chair and has dementia . She doesn't say much, but if you squeeze her hand and tell her you love her, she will squeeze back and tell you she loves you tons.

I echo President Hinckley, "How thankful I am, how thankful we all must be, for the women in our lives. God bless them. May His great love distill upon them and crown them with luster and beauty, grace and faith."

118 Shirts, 61 Pairs of Jeans, 52 Sweaters/Hoodies, 9 Coats, 15 Pairs of Shoes

For the past 5 months Jake and I have been collecting clothes for an orphanage in Birlad Romania. I spent the summer between my junior and senior year there and it left a large impact on me. I saw how much clothing I had that was in good condition that I never wore. I started asking for people to donate their gently used clothing. The end result was a our couch covered in great clothing. So 118 shirts, 61 pairs of jeans, 52 sweaters/hoddies, 9 coats and 15 pairs of shoes later, we want to thank everyone who donated!

Rocky Mountain High

What's a trip to Colorado with out a ride in a tiny airplane and hiking in the Rockies? Jake's uncle, Chris, is in the Airforce and took us on a ride in his little plane. It was AMESOME.

We didn't get motion sick, the sun was rising, and Jake got to fly the plane for awhile.

One day we hope to be flying over the Amazon taking pictures for National Geographic. :)

And the Rockies were...big...very big.

7 Brides Minus 6, Plus One Brother

On August 15th, 2009, my brother got MARRIED!! He is now the husband of Brittney Wilken Holbein. This post is a tribute to them and their new marriage.

Our advice is, remember lips don't wear out, the honeymoon doesn't have to end, invest in having fun together, it's ok to want some alone time, laugh when you have a disagrement, read you scriptures and pray together, and remember that marriage should be fun. :)

Flight of the Bumble Bee

Or in this case wasps. Our apartment has been invaded and I don't like it one bit.

I killed one the other day and I cried. I know that wasps are not God's most fuzzy, cuddly creations, but I have a hard time killing any creepy crawly thing. I blame my mother. She would save worms that had crawled onto the sidewalk after it rained from buring to death when the sun came out.

Thank goodness that Jake has no problems killing creepy bugs. So he was the man for Project Wasp Extermination.

And where was I the whole time?

Hiding in the bathroom of course.

:)

The FRANKLINS!

I love the Franklin family! I was their nanny when their twins were born. I haven't seen them in 4 years and this weekend I got to see them. Mattie was 4 last time I saw her and we were playing pirate ship on their couch. The twins, Anna and Andrew, were only 5 months old and I would have Andrew in his baby carrier strapped to my chest and holding Anna in my arms. All I have to say is, kids grown up too fast.

We played at the park, ran around, played tag and did underdogs on the swings.

I love this family and hope to have kids just like them...one day.

:)

Homage to our Swamp Cooler

I love the summer. I really do. I would much rather be hot than freezing my fingers off. (Which with my dumb circulation in my fingers that is entirely possible.) However, our apartment has become an oven. A toasty, stuffy oven. We have a swamp cooler/wall unit in the back room of our apartment and it cools that room down and that room only. So after many nights of trying to sleep in oppressive heat, we decided to move to the backroom with the swamp cooler.

So now we camp out in our back room. I sleep on the floor and Jake sleeps on the couch and now we sleep great! I actually love sleeping on the floor and Jake spent many of his single nights falling asleep on his couch. Works out perfectly. :)

So this post is a tribute to our swap cooler...or should I say our life-refreshing-cool-air-blowing glorious wall unit. The word swamp cooler was never the most flattering word to me.

:)

Something Old, Something New

What's better than getting new furniture? Getting it from a flea market and restoring it! This is our latest and greatest project and we are so excited to put our handy-man skills to work. Ok honestly, we have very few handy-man skills, but we're giving it a go.

We found 2 great pieces at an flea market/antique store called Star Mill Antiques in American Fork...a side table and a dresser. The side table is for us and the dresser will be a wedding presesnt for my brother. Total both cost only 40 bucks.

My goal is to learn how to reuphoslter and restore so that when we have a house I can "make" a lot of our furniture.

We'll post our progress as we go.

:)