Happy (Sound of Breaking Glass) New Year!!!

Traditionally New Years has never really been "my Holiday". Here is a little rundown of a few of the most memorable...

* My Grandpa Honey died on New Years when I was 14

* I got my wisdom teeth out and threw up blood all of New Years my second year at college.

* The second year we were married, a boy who wanted to rent our basement apartment began telling us horror stories of him and his friends in the apartment he was being ejected from and then threatened to sue us when we told him there was NO WAY he was going to live in our basement.

Anyway, this is getting too depressing to continue. SO, just to be sure I knew it was New Years Eve Day - Anna hurled a wooden flower wall decoration at our front living room window with ALL of her little tiny might - and broke it VERY nicely. Happy Stinking New Year.

May 2009 be filled with less broken resolutions than we have broken windows (5 replaced this year to be exact - this one, one that was "golfed" into, one that was "accidentally" broken when someone was "skipping rocks" in our back yard - with no water, mind you, and two that were actually just faulty in their seals and had leaked moisture). So I guess the moral of the story is - you have a little wiggle room on resolutions kept - or NOT, as the case may be.

PS. Brad informed me that he would not read this blog. He said we shouldn't glamorize the naughty act - so I guess the picture is what he really objected to - but I just have to say that blogging about it (and other things) makes it so my children live through these things and THIS is my outlet instead. So thanks for reading, empathizing, sharing, and letting me do the same in your Perfectly Imperfect lives. Here's to a GREAT deal of blogging in 2009! CHEERS!!!

It's All About the Fun!

Camilla is wonderful and fun and beautiful and helpful and sweet and smart - I know I shouldn't brag, but she is such a spectacular person. We love that girl. I am so amazed that she is mine. Anyway, yesterday she helped me do a project and after that she helped her dad who was making something in the kitchen. When he was almost finished, Anna said to him, "Daddy, I want take a nap with you." No, I didn't leave words out of the quote - that is really what she said. So dad goes in and lays down on our bed with Anna and Camilla said "I want to take a nap too!" Yeah, right. About one minute after she went in she came out and we had this exchange:

Me: You're done with your nap?

Camilla: Yes.

Me: That's what I thought.

Camilla: It wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be.

And then I just have to wonder what exactly she thought a "nap" would be? Hanging from the rafters? Playing kickball? Shooting geese out of the bedroom window with a rifle? Have you never heard of a nap before Camilla? Sometimes a peek inside their world makes me giggle.

Picture Perfect Holiday Rundown...

Snow...














Family...





A little bit of Kissing...

Celebrating Jesus...









Sledding with friends...











Snow...









Decorations of Red on a Green Christmas Tree...

Caroling out in the snow...








Reunions (Madsen with his 1st grade teacher, Miss Johnson)...













sweet little ANGELS...

Wild animals (thanks dad)...




















Baby Blessing...

Speculating about mysterious boxes under the tree...

Visiting neighbors...

Snow...

Snow...
Snow...

Bestest Friends...

More SNOW!!!

Broadway quality theatrical productions...

snow...

Traditions - old and new (Family dance - NEW and FUN!)...

ENOUGH SNOW ALREADY!!!

a couple (MILLION) presents...

A well deserved nap...

And that's all - Happy Holidays!!!

Like An Angel Passing Through My Room

I first heard this song with my mom and dad and Kevin's wife, Lori when we saw Sissel perform with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square. That was two years ago just after Thanksgiving. That December 23, my brother Kevin's Birthday, Brad and I listened to it and missed my brother together. He and Brad were very close too.

Last year for my Birthday, Brad made me one of the worst presents I have ever gotten. He took this song and put pictures of my little children with it in a video. The significance of this song suddenly changed - it makes me miss my brother who is gone from this life - but now it ALSO makes me mourn the little angels that I have that are growing every day - getting closer to the door at the edge of the room they are passing through in my life.

I guess Christmas is always the marker - you look at the pictures taken the year before and are amazed at how your children are growing - but when you look at two or three or four years ago the amazement turns to shock and you can't help but wonder what your pictures will look like in four years from now.

All pictures were current once.

Honey

This is my Grandma - Grandma Honey. You can call her Grandma Honey or Honey but no one knows her real name. Truly, if she used it people would say, "who is that?"

She loved us. She loved boating. She loved children - babies were her FAVORITE though. She love doing things for others to make them happy. She didn't have a happy childhood. Her mother passed away when she was very young and the woman her father married later was very unkind to her. I think she wanted to make sure we had the most fun always - and always felt loved - she did a GREAT job of that!

When we were little she lived with Grandpa Honey in Portland Oregon. I loved the smell of her house and the fun things that were in it including a spinning wheel (it wasn't real but it really did spin - and we were good at making it go) I think it was actually a lamp base. I remember laying in bed at their house and hearing Grandpa's TV broadcasting news or a sports program. We didn't have TV in my house until I was in school and so it was novel and fun to fall asleep to the sound of the TV. Even now when I hear the TV when I am in bed it reminds me of the fun of visiting Grandpa and Grandma Honey.

I remember visiting her around Christmas time when I was a really small girl. She had a Santa and Mrs. Clause bobble-head set. They had magnets on their lips so if you put them close enough their little heads would bob around and around and then SMACK - they would be kissing. I loved those two! My mom kept them at her house when Grandma passed - but I have my eye on them!!!

Grandma moved to our town after Grandpa Honey passed away. I don't remember if it was 1986 or 1987 when she finally moved but I do remember than things changed. Instead of being the Grandma that we got to see once or twice a year, she was the Grandma who came to all of our activities and games and spent the Holidays and Birthdays - she was the sign of fun! I remember her Swiss Steak and her spaghetti. She made green salad better than anyone I know - she used green onions and green peas among other things. I loved her Copper Penny Salad and Pei Mei. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving she made Jello Ribbon Salad.

Wherever we would go people would tell her how beautiful she was - and they were right. Her hair was CLASSIC! She loved beads and lipstick and perfume and she even wore sandals on her little hurting feet (until we got in the house - then she wore KEDS - but they always were a matching color to her outfit).

One of my favorite things was that she would always stay the night on Christmas eve. She would put on her silky hair bonnet and her long dark purple velour "house coat" and sleep on the couch - making sure none of us had an unauthorized "early" Christmas surprise. Now, when it is Christmas morning and I see my empty couch - I miss that lady. What a wonderful person. How blessed am I to get to be her granddaughter~How much I will miss her this Christmas!

How To Have Fun At Church...

This is Anna's idea - not mine:
Stick your stuffed animal down your mom's sweater.

Put your hands over your eyes and not so quietly count to six.

Uncover your eyes and YELL "Ready or NOT - Here I come!!!"

Find your stuffed animal hiding in your mom's sweater.

Repeat until they end Sacrament Meeting because no one can hear!

Let It Snow? Really?

A drive that should have taken Brad 38 1/2 minutes took him 1 hour and 27 - approximately. So to all of you "snow zealots" out there I just have to say - really? Snow? Why? Well, now that I look at Camilla in that picture - I guess I know "why" a little - but why else. Oh yes, snow pack in the mountains - drinking, bathing, washing, watering - water. What else have you got? You can't use skiing or sledding to convince me either. So come on - why snow?

Saturday? or Saturday?

My favorite conversation today was between Anna and myself. Here it is...

Anna: Is today Saturday? or Saturday?

Me: Today is Thursday.

Anna: Oh.

Anna: NO!!! Today is Saturday.

Me. Oh. Shows what I know.

Little Lost Children

Is it the children I have lost - or is it the time? We had this picture taken at SEARS in Philadelphia when Camilla was about 7 months old. She pooped through her original clothes and I had to run to the children's section to find a sale item we could afford without giving up food for the month - run back to the studio and change her. That is why she is scowling and I am laying in the corner (off camera) in a heap. Hard to believe that was over SIX years ago. It seems like yesterday when I remember the stress - but it seems like FOREVER when I see how small and sweet they were. I need to go eat some dark chocolate.

Motivation For Sale?

Where do you buy motivation? I was just wondering because I seem to be completely out and am not motivated to go find any beyond blogging and expecting an - no wait - "the" answer. So are you selling it? Do you at least know where I can get it and what it will cost me? I would like a clean house... but not enough to work. I would like to wear all of the clothes that are too small for me now... but not enough to stop eating yummy food or spend my days on an exercise/torture devise. I want to be more spiritually enlightened... but not enough to search, ponder and pray to get it. So... What have you got?

Motivation?

Anyone?

"Fall"ing Into Winter

I really try to be happy in the moment and be glad for the different things in life - even if it is just by virtue of their "different"ness. But I find that with our snow today, I am aching for fall - the same fall that I mourned because of the passing of my beautiful summer.

Anyway, these pictures were taken on our Fun Family Fall Night. Inspired by my friend Bonitiha, and with a spot recommended by my friend JeriLou, our family went on a fall adventure. The view was gorgeous. The food was delicious. The time was fleeting - but the memory was made!

When is it going to be summer again?