a.rose

It is so rad to know cool people who know how to do cool things. I was searching around on the webs for some activities for the children to do during General Conference next weekend, and I came upon this great idea to turn photos of your children into coloring pages. But it required photoshop.  I do not have photoshop, nor do I know how to use it if I did. A quick email to my sister, and voila! It's done.  She's so super rad. I thought I'd share, in case you want coloring pages of your kids.  Or of yourself, come on!  To color during the songs, of course. Of course. If you don't have a copy of photoshop yourself, I sincerely and truly hope you have that special person in your life who does, and beg them to cook you up some fun. Photoshop Instructions So You Can Make Your Own! And yes, I am planning on putting them in protective sheets so they can color them over and over, taking turns coloring on their sister's picture, you know.

Devin is out of town for a while.  When he first started this job, Devin went on trips a lot more often than he has lately.  Which is great, and I love to have him around.  The only thing is that when he was gone more often I was more used to it, and so were the girls. Let's just say that when he leaves it becomes abundantly clear who is the steady rock in this house. This morning Heather went to church without shoes, because even though she kept demanding "shoes! shoes, ma ma!" I plain forgot to get them for her. Yes, I have gotten to the point where I can forget to do something WHILE the person is telling me to do it.  I don't want to talk about it. For lunch we had frozen pizza.  I mean, it wasn't frozen when we ate it.  Things aren't THAT bad around here.  To make up for the nutritionally lacking lunch, I was going to go all out fresh fruits and vegetables for dinner.  Then I completely forgot about dinner until 8:00, so we had ap...

(I made Devin look at this post and try to figure out which baby was in each picture, and he couldn't do it.  So, kudos to you Al!!  You got them all right, so let me know if you want skittles.  I'm impressed!) Seeing all those old pictures made me want to look at old pictures, you know how that goes? And I stumbled on a picture of Hallie that I thought was lost forever in the big computer crash of '09, (as opposed to the little computer crash of '12).  I don't know if my sister had it and sent it to me, or where it was dredged up from (possibly the same place as the mysterious and curious pictures from the last post?) When I saw that picture I immediately, of course, wanted to compare pictures of all my babies in their just-born-state.  Which led me to pictures of me with my brand new just born babies, and I marveled at the differences in each picture. Can you tell who is who?  If you guess right, I'll put some skittles in the mail in an envelop...

Well, thanks for those who tried to help me figure it out, I think I am going to log this in as one of life's truly great mysteries. And now, a walk down the most random memory lane.  

Let's just make this clear once and for all: I do not understand computers. I was working on another project for Hallie, not because I don't trust that her teacher is going to give her a good education or anything but because... well, it's what I do, alright?  We all have our hobbies, mine is making worksheets. So there I was, copying and pasting images to corresponding letters and when I was done I had some extra files to send to the old trash pile. I was just about to delete everything in the trash pile, when suddenly I thought to myself, "Self, why don't you check what is in your trash before you empty it?" Which I never do. My philosophy in life is, if it is in the trash, it's trash, and why bother check it every time? But I gave in to the little whisper in my head and took a peek at the trash.  First thing I saw was a folder called "Amy's Shower Plus". I've never seen this folder before.  Naturally, I opened it.  Now...

 Let me begin my explaining what it has looked like in my head the past few weeks. "Well, that family has four girls.  Maybe I could have four girls too." "But, if this baby is a girl, then... it isn't a boy." "And if it isn't a boy, then I won't get to hold my David Jonathon." "Maybe there is no David Jonathon." "But maybe, maybe there IS one!  Maybe we'll have a boy!" "Just imagine, a little boy... could I do it?  Could I teach a boy all the things he needs to know?" "Well... maybe it will be a girl." Thus I went round and round in circles, my pregnancy hormones taking me up one side and then down, down the other, and then up up up I would go again.  One moment elated at the thought of another girl, and then sad at the thought of no boy.  The next moment excited at the prospect of a little boy person running around this house, and then sad at the thought that I wouldn't have one mor...

Devin was hoping to do an ultramarathon this fall, so he wrote himself a training schedule and got to work.  As it turns out, he won't be able to do the ultramarathon, but as usual he will be doing the Market to Market.  I am sad to miss it this year, but am hoping to talk friends into doing it with me next year!  I am also hoping that I will be faster next time... My soccer coach used to "motivate" us for our sprints and other drills by yelling these phrases at us.  Devin asked me to print them off so he can display them in the workout room.  So, for any fellow Muncie Central High soccer alumni, please enjoy.  For the rest of you, did you ever have a coach yell "motivational" words at you?

I have a confession to make this morning. It may shock you. First though, let me clarify. I like feeling the baby move. I like knowing that she (he - I'm practicing, just in case you know?) is moving and exercising and stretching her (his?) limbs. But really, I don't like feeling the baby move, except for of course, what I mentioned above. There are various reasons, but mostly I just don't like the way it feels. Also, it reminds me that baby is growing bigger... and bigger means coming out sooner... and coming out means pain and a million possible things that could go wrong. It is at this point that the nightmare daydreams begin.  I mean, have you ever considered the incalculable number of things that could go wrong? Let's say, for instance, that I'm taking a shower.  A contraction comes, and it is so sudden and intense that I slip a little. Which causes me to overcompensate, and factoring in my awkward center of gravity, and the wet floor, I fall...

On Facebook a few weeks ago, I posted a picture that I thought was funny and encapsulated pretty well a lesson we are trying to teach Hallie right now, that of when it is reasonable to cry about something, and when it is not. Recently, I commented to a friend that I wished I knew where to get my hands on a poster of an adorable kitten hanging on to a tree branch, with words written in a large bold font something like, "Just Hang In There". More recently, Hallie brought home a cute little book from her library at school about a little family of bunnies getting ready for bed.  The last page says, Always lovely, Always new, Tomorrow's waiting Just for you. Even more recently than that, Hallie and I have been working on memorizing the last Article of Faith she needs to learn to get her big prize.  One phrase in particular kept sticking in my mind as we recited the words.  That phrase is, "we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all thi...

Hallie loves her kindergarten teacher.  She also loves making crafts and pictures and anything with crayons and glue and scissors.  She was covering me in little art projects, so in desperation I suggested she make one for her teacher.  She finished it today and was showing it off to Hanna. "Look what I made, Hanna! It's a love note that I made because I made it!  See look, I made it out of paper because paper is what I used and then I folded it like this and then I glued this flower on and I wrote a message on the inside.  See how I made it?" I have no idea where she learned the phrase "love note", but I'm sure her teacher has NEVER gotten one of those before. (yes, sarcasm) Hanna and Hallie sometimes have the funniest conversations in the backseat.  Sometimes it is peaceful and friendly, sometimes not.  One day I overheard: Hanna - "Hallie, are you asleep?" Hallie - "No, I'm not asleep." Hanna -"Mommy, Hallie is asl...

"It is inevitable", I told him. "It is impossible", he told me. "Just keep trying", I told him, trying not to sound condescending when I added, "It's probably so easy for me because I've been doing it since I was little." He stumbles and grumbles attempting this simple task, and I try not to laugh out loud as I watch.  You know, I really like this man.  This man, this professor and scientist, this math enthusiast who talks about statistics, and not the baseball kind, like other guys talk about football, who spent his Saturdays in high school doing calculus, not for a team, or for a club, but for fun.  Just good old fashioned fun.  The man who has run 25 or so marathons, and had to be hospitalized after three of them because he would not stop running when his body was clearly begging him to Please Stop Running. Those things weren't impossible.  They probably didn't even register as hard.  Tying a ponytail up in a hair tie?...

Scrolling through my blog, yet again, I notice that it is a picture wasteland.  Some people's blogs are just stuffed full of pictures and smiling faces, and mine is all words, words, words. Because that's all I do is just blah blah blah all day long. See look, this was supposed to be a post with just some fun pictures, and here I go messing it up with all this talk talk talk. Enough. We washed the car on Labor Day! Well, no. I didn't wash the car at all. I was heavily involved in the rinsing, with the hose, though. There you go! Pictures!!

It occurred to me a few days ago that since this is the first week of September, that means we are a month away from General Conference.  I got that familiar thrill that comes from knowing that soon all my cares and worries will be lifted for two days as I bask in the glow that comes from listening to the testimonies of men who are calm and secure in their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. This morning there was some discussion on my Facebook feed about Thomas S. Monson and his testimony.  It sparked within me a desire to read and hear for myself his testimony.  Thanks to the fancy internet, I don't have to wait until next month.  I share with you now some bits and pieces of his testimony that I found on my search this morning. “With all my heart and the fervency of my soul, I lift up my voice in testimony as a special witness and declare that God does live. Jesus is His Son, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is our Redeemer; He is our Mediator...