And the Award Goes To...

While I was hanging out at the hospital, calling for room service and getting my toenails painted (seriously gals, I know the hospital to deliver at), I was tumbling blog post ideas through my head. Then I came home and reality hit, so it hasn't exactly been top priority. Almost a week ago I was told it was high time my new little friend was introduced on my blog, so here she is!


Madeleine Anne was born March 11 at 12:59pm. She weighed in at a perfectly average 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 inches long. Her family all thinks she is above averagely beautiful.

During my hospital stay I had several favorites I wanted to give kudos to, so here they are.

Favorite Doctor: The lovely and talented Dr. Sharon Fillerup (yes, you read that right). She delivered all four of the girls, and has even changed some of their nasty first diapers and attended blessings and birthday parties. The kids call her Aunt Sharon. We love you!


Favorite Visitors: Most definitely the other kids! They were so excited to meet the new baby, and they found out it was a girl when they arrived at the hospital. Those who wanted a brother quickly forgot about that and fell fiercely in love with her.


Favorite Picture: This is what I meant by that last comment.


Favorite Compliment: From the anesthesiologist after the epidural, "You have a really skinny back!" After all, he sees a lot of backs, right? Speaking of which...

Favorite Drug: I love you Epidural. Labor is such a beautiful thing as soon as you arrive.

Favorite Movie: "Pure Luck" with Martin Short and Danny Glover. Thank you for coming out on DVD just in time!

Favorite Dodge: Not going to the "How to Take Care of Your New Baby" class. Hello, I've done this already. Scrub the head, take care of the cord, feed them, change them. Did I miss anything?

Favorite Hospital Service: Our hospital now has a salon inside, and offers a free spa service to all new moms! The choices included a haircut, style, manicure, pedicure, and facial. For the facial and pedicure they do it right in your room, so I chose the pedicure. Wonderful, wonderful!

Favorite Meal: The "candlelight" dinner (with no candlelight) with Jamie, provided by the hospital for the new parents.

Favorite Support Person: My wonderful husband, before, during, and after. Before baby when my body needed a break on the couch, he would take over. During labor he would constantly check to make sure I was okay and had what I needed. Since Madeleine was born he's made pretty much every meal, done the dishes, ran kids where they needed to be... and is the cutest daddy ever with his new little girl.

Jolly Old Me

Every time I've been pregnant I've noticed that I laugh a lot more heartily. I feel a lot more "jolly" all around.

While pregnant with my first, my brother told me he'd decided that to ensure I would have a happy baby, I need to laugh for one whole minute straight. With his antics I easily complied (I think he laughed just so I would laugh).

I think about that when I get a great laugh in while I'm pregnant--just working on making a happy baby. It's got to be good for the stomach muscles too, right?

One of My Favorite Things

I consider myself a very simple person. Easily pleased, easily amused (ask Adam - at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple today he quoted something from Kung Fu Panda, "I've only seen paintings of that painting," every time we walked past a picture and I laughed EVERY TIME), and I don't need too many creature comforts. So even though Holly inspired me to want to post about my favorite things since she likes to post about her favorite things and her things that bug, I haven't come up with much of anything. But here, at last, I'm going to share one of my favorite things. I've been meaning to for a while, but I was urged on today by a quote in "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis.

In the story, King Peter is getting ready to send his challenge to the fake king Miraz (Caspian's uncle). He turns to Cornelius, Caspian's teacher, and asks him, "Have you pen and ink, Master Doctor?" Cornelius replies, "A scholar is never without them, your majesty."

These awesome little pencils are how this scholar always (or close to it) keeps her "pen and ink" with her.


These Mini MVP pencils by Pentel are just over 4" long and fit happily into my back pocket. When I was in AP English my teacher, Mrs. Barry, told us that we should never read without a pencil in hand. I took that to heart and love to underline and jot down notes while I read, so my current book usually has one of these pencils hooked onto it. I get a little frustrated with myself when I go to write something down while reading and that pencil has been removed. I have them everywhere in the house, but they hide any time Jamie needs to write down a phone message.

I first found these at our local Wal-mart, but I went looking for them recently and couldn't find them. Ours is undergoing some remodeling (who knows why, it's only something like 5 years old), so I'm hoping they were out or they hadn't been moved to their new place during the whole presto chango. But I checked another Wal-mart and they didn't have any either. Unnerving. In searching for a picture to share (too lazy to pull the picture I took off my camera) I found this eBay auction for 11 packs of these wonderful little guys, coming out to only $.56/pencil, $2.81/pack (normally about the $4 range). Don't be surprised if one of their auctions comes up sold soon...

Isn't Jamie a lucky guy? Most women want clothes or jewelry. I'm drooling over pencils.

Someday I'm probably going to give this my strangest post ever award. Thanks Holly for the inspiration.

Walkin' Down Bead Street

I haven't had a lot of jewelry orders for a while (a nice break really), then suddenly the past couple of days I got seven orders to finish up and get out today. In helping one customer see what I was imagining on a customer order she wanted, I looked through some older pictures of bracelets I've made. I used to be involved with an online boutique group (they made the amazing clothing, I made the jewelry to match), so I used to do a lot more custom orders than I do now. At this point, when I'm sick of a style I pull it off my website or jack the price up high enough that if someone buys it at least I feel like it's worth it. I haven't added anything new to my website for a while and have been sticking with the standards that I know sell. I should really keep up with some of the matching I used to do for different commercial clothing lines, but haven't for a long time.

As I was perusing the bracelet pictures, I saw a lot of my favorites and thought I would share them.


Nice colors, and the big flower with the little one inside made it unique. This one still has a home on my website.


This one is one of my all time favorites. Not overly difficult or fancy, but I love the colors and different bead styles. I would have this up if I could, but alas, I bought some of the beads locally and I can't find them anymore. Maybe I need to find a good substitute.


I've done a few binky clips as well, but have never put them on the website, just on eBay. Here's a fun style.


Another of my all time favorites, maybe even my very favorite favorite. Made for a Halloween or Fall themed group launch. Very pumpkiny, eh?


I got a lot of sales out of this one (it sold in other colors as well). Listed as a fairy bracelet, the little treasure box dangled at the clasp with extra "fairy dust" included. Clever.


This was very cool but very annoying (time consuming) to make. I called it the Let Freedom Ring bracelet because of the bells. Maybe I should try one of these on etsy for a ridiculous price and see if it sells.


When people say things about me being so talented, I tell them that all I do is string beads on wire, which doesn't take talent. My sister on the other hand? Talented with a capital T. Look at these cute cute cows and lambs! Never in a million years could I do that. I tried a little bit on really simple things, made some really ugly beads (the Easter bunnies looked outright evil), then gave her all the beads and paints I bought for it. You can see the results. She rocks.

Who Am I

A few thoughts that are not my own.

From Music and the Spoken Word last week:

"Throughout our lives we interact with many people who form their own opinions about us. But at the end of the day, we are alone with ourselves, deciding who we really are and who we really want to be. No matter our circumstances, we can choose to live honorably and compassionately—or not. We can choose to change and become a better person—or not. In a sense, each of us is our own best critic. And despite our blind spots, we know more about ourselves than anyone else. When we open our hearts in sincerity and truth, we see strengths and weaknesses, areas of accomplishment and areas that need work. And that’s life: trying to improve, progressing and growing, learning and becoming all that we are capable of becoming. Instead of avoiding the truth about ourselves, let’s look ourselves “straight in the eye” as the well-known “people’s poet,” Edgar A. Guest, wrote almost a century ago:

AM I TRUE TO MYSELF?

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able, as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand, with the setting sun
And hate myself for things I have done.
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself, as I come and go,
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of man I really am;
I don't want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men's respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and self
I want to be able to like myself
I don't want to look at myself and know
That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show.
I can never hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know;
I never can fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.

From Challenge to Become by Dallin H. Oaks:

"The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become."

Thanks little Ethan for helping me to see me today. "Teacher! I love you!"

I've Been Tagged

My sis in the sticks, April, tagged me to answer some questions. I decided that I'm just going to answer the ones that I think would be the most telling about me.

Typical time of wake-up: Erin is the best alarm clock. She's usually got me up just before 7:00am.

On a good night when do your kids go to sleep: Erin goes down about 7:30pm, Carolyn and Melanie @ 8:00pm, the boys are supposed to go down at 9:00pm, but they keep learning new ways to weasle to stay up later. "Mom, can we work on this for scouts tomorrow? And this and this?" "Will you read this with us tomorrow Mom?" Things that get me interested, and not just the usual "Can I show you something REAL QUICK?" because I know read quick at bedtime means at least 30 minutes.

How long have you been a momma?: Almost 11 years. One of these days I'll figure out what I'm supposed to do.

How old were you when you became a mom? 21

Favorite chore: I like to vacuum. I hate it when the floors have stuff on them, and to me the whole house looks cleaner if it's vacuumed. Maybe that has something to with the fact that you have to clean up the floor to vacuum...

Least favorite chore: My cleaning attitude has changed immensely over the past year, so none of that seems too bad anymore. The thing I really dislike is deciding what's for dinner.

5 Things that make you smile about being a mom: snuggling in the morning, reading together, when the kids share their thoughts with me, playing with them (catch, swinging, board games, whatever), working together.

Favorite thing your husband does with your kids: When he spends one-on-one time with them, and when he reads with them (he's much funnier when he reads than I am).

If you could take your kids anywhere where would it be? The eastern states so we could see some of the historical places we've been learning about.

Favorite pasttime/activity with your kids: Definitely reading together. It's always fun to start a new story, even if we're not entirely sure about if we'll like it, because we are usually pleasantly surprised. Right now we're listening to "Witches" by Roald Dahl, which, as the case says, is "deliciously disgusting." For the first bit I wasn't too sure about it, but we are HOOKED.

Best advice for a new mom: Enjoy them. Think of the big picture, and focus on that. Most of "today's" problems won't be problems "tomorrow."

Scariest or most heartbreaking moment as a mom: I've had several moments when those of small vision can only see the problems and not the potential. I hate that.

Most joyful moment as a mom: Honestly, how can I choose???

Hair

I am in personal uncharted hair territory. My bangs are about an inch below my chin. (I would post a picture, but that would take effort. But hey, here's a silly picture Jamie took Christmas Eve.) The longest personal record in the past had been just below my nose, but that was when I had the big bangs thing going on (in my own defence they weren't nearly as big as plenty others out there). I've tried to grow them out before but just couldn't handle it. I got a haircut in April and somehow they never bothered me much after that.

At almost to my shoulders, my overall hair length is also longer than it's been in about 10 years. I haven't had a haircut since the end of May, except for touchups here and there performed by myself.

When I turn my head I feel like it's almost slow motion since my hair has to catch up with my head. When I realized that earlier, I sat and flipped my head from side to side until I realized it was feeling very vain.

Speaking of which, I have at least 6 immediate things I can think of to do besides talk about my hair.