Surfing the net

Ryan has become (dare I say) obsessed with "surfing the net" lately. He LOVES to search for pictures of Lightening McQueen (and his other car friends). Not sure how I feel about my two year old being able to find his way around on the internet! It is pretty cute to watch him though.

Other stuff: I know this sounds crazy, but I've taken on two more kids, 3-5 days a week. So some days I have 5 kiddos in this tiny apartment! Makes the day quite busy and the only way I continue to function is by staying very organized. I'm also doing 2-3 Piggies and Paws galleries a week. I'm glad things have finally picked up.

I made it into round 3 of the design challenge at Scrap Orchard, but things have been so busy this week and we also got the flu (from the kids I babysit) so I missed the deadline and didn't get my submission sent in time. Bummer because I'm automatically out now, but it's validating that I made it as far as I did (from 80 to 15). I think I'm going to have to scale back on designing for a while and just focus on my family, babysitting, Piggies and Paws, and my church callings. I guess I shouldn't say "just," that is a lot!

Featured!

How cool is this? My kit was featured on the Scrap Orchard blog!

And here's a layout I created using the kit.

My Mother's day layouts are traditionally covered in lots of flowers because when we were struggling to get pregnant Jared coined a term for our stage--"flowerless on Mother's Day." Now we have our two sweet babies but the pain of infertility is still real so I celebrate motherhood by giving myself lots of flowers.

In case you can't read the journaling (sometimes this blog lets you blow up the picture, and sometimes it doesn't. I don't know to change it so you can always blow it up. Any suggestions?), it talks about how I am "no longer flowerless."

Piggies and Paws on Good Things Utah!

Such a fun day. I love hanging out with Piggies and Paws girls. When Jenn hires she looks for certain personality traits, so it really isn't surprising that we all get along so well. We have a lot in common. Anyway, that's Jenn Thomas on the left (next to me). She and Cheryl did the segment, and did a great job. Ami, Samantha, and I got a "second of fame" right at the end when we were clapping in the audience. Sure wish I would have realized we were being filmed right then. I may have looked at the camera or something! Anyway, everyone of course loved it and we anticipate a good response. I've already had 6 people e-mail who want to book, and I know the girls (who all live 2+ hours south of me) have had several e-mails as well. It's very exciting!

After the taping we went out to lunch with Jenn. She is so awesome. She has a way of making you feel like the most important person and I feel such a boost of confidence when I am around her. After lunch Jenn, Samantha, and I went shopping and talked for a couple more hours. It was so neat to spend the extra time with her to get to know her better and have the individual attention. When I was hired there were only about 60 artists (I think) and now there are 160+, so getting the one-on-one contact with her is getting more difficult. I asked her every question I could think of that would help me be a better artist. But of course I've thought of a hundred more since then!

I had a gallery tonight (a booking from the Expo) and it went pretty well. Not a lot of attendees, but those who came bought a couple each and were very excited.

Assignment #2 at Scrap Orchard

Here's my submission for week #2:

Good Things Utah

It was such a fun day. More details tomorrow!
But here it is if you want to watch!

Good Things

If you live in Utah be sure to watch Good Things Utah tomorrow (May 13th) at 10am (channel 4). We were able to get Jennifer Thomas (the owner/creator of Piggies and Paws) to come, and we are SOOO excited. I've been telling everyone I know about it and I've actually got a few bookings because people want to get their gallery scheduled before I get too busy. So, I hope I do get busy! I'll of course update on how it goes tomorrow (or Wednesday depending on what time I get home tomorrow).

(If anyone living in Utah is reading this, is there any way you could tape the show for me? We don't have a VCR and haven't done the Tivo thing yet.)

The other "good thing" I wanted to share is that I made it to round 2 of the design contest I entered at www.scraporchard.com. They made the cut from 80 to 30. I was pretty excited. Who knows how far I'll go, but it was exciting to at least make it to round 2! I've got a cute kit in the workings. I can't wait to share it!

Other updates

Jared and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last week! I made him a memory book that I will post as soon as I have it finished (it was finished enough to say, here honey, this is what I'm making for you!) Don't we look SOOO young in that first picture? (We were young! 18 and 22!)

Emery is getting so good at rolling. She'll roll across the room and then fuss because she gets stuck in the corner or with her legs under the couch. The other day she was on the bed while I was getting dressed. I was watching her, but she is so darn fast, and rolled right off the bed and smacked her face. She has a nasty bruise under her eye. It's kind of embarrassing, and I feel like I have to explain to everyone how it got there. But then I'm embarrassed to tell anyone because I shouldn't have put her on the bed in the first place! Poor baby girl.
My grandparents live here in Logan. It's been nice to be close to them since we live so far from our other family members. It's also good to spend time with them since they are getting older. My grandpa's health hasn't been well the past two years, and on Friday night he had a stroke. He's doing well considering, but will be in the hospital for several more days. Last night for Family Home Evening Ryan made him a card and we went to the hospital to see him. He seems frustrated that he has to stay there and wants to be back in his home where things are familiar and people (the nurses) aren't popping in to bother him.

Jared started a summer class this week. It's only a week long, from 9-5 every day. Then tons of homework in the evenings. Taking a 3-credit class in one week is crazy, but taking a 3-credit graduate level class in one week is even crazier! Only 3 more days to go though. It's a lot of work, but I'm sure he'll be so happy to have it done when is is done. One class out of the way, then 3 weeks of vacation before he starts teaching a summer semester class. I'm so excited to have him home more. I've missed him!

I've been tagged like four times lately, and so sorry to those who tagged me, but I think I'm going to have to let those ones go. Too much going on. Maybe next time. Hope you're not mad at me!

Okay, last thing. As if I don't have enough going on, I've entered another design challenge. If you are interesed you can read about it on my design blog.

Las Vegas Update #2

We're back from Vegas, and man, it was a crazy week. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that we'd lined up a new renter. She was really excited and planned to move in on Thursday. On Tuesday we called her several times to try to set up a meeting time on Thursday so we could give her the keys, but we couldn't get a hold of her. Then on Wednesday (on the drive down to Vegas) we tried several more times, but she was still not answering her phone. We tried to call her work number (no answer), her boss (no answer), and her references (no idea where she was). And so now that we had driven 10 hours (WHAT is up with these gas prices?) and could not get ahold of her we were pretty worried. But we kept repeating to ourselves "it isn'at as bad as we think" and "it will all work out." Love that quote from President Hinckley.

On Thursday morning (May 1st, the day she was supposed to move in) we still couldn't get ahold of her and she wasn't returning our messages. So we decided to post an ad on craigslist that the condo was available immediately. And we prayed. Hard. Then we went to the condo and cleaned and painted. (Of course I have pictures!)
Then a few hours after we'd posted the ad we had three people interested. To make a long story short (Jared is cringing at my cliche), the second person that came to see the condo wanted it and signed a one year lease.

We really like the new renter and feel like things did work out the way they were supposed to. We still haven't heard from the first girl who was going to take the place. It makes us think renting to her would have turned out to be a nightmare.

As far as making the mortagage payment, we have another blessing. A few weeks ago I posted an ad that I was available to babysit in my home. While we were in Las Vegas someone contacted me and we set up a time to meet when I got back. They have a 10 month old girl and were looking for full-time daycare. They came over to meet Jared and me and liked us and asked if I could start on Monday. So that extra income will cover the rent shortage. Yeah! It really does work out. The little girl is super sweet and a good baby. And Ryan and Emery have been getting along great with her (I realize it's only been 2 days).