Hilton Look-alike Meter

Jen found this on someone else's blog so I started playing around with it. It sounded cool at first until I took a picture of Jen acting weird and a photo of Shaq to see who Emily most resembled. According to this, Emily looks like Shaq more than Jen. What do you think?

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree - Free genealogy search

Getting Personal

Well, so far I have just reported fun stuff going on in the family, but Amy John's has forced my hand. I guess I've been "TAGGED" and must now share 3 joys of mine, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 obsessions/collections, & 3 random or surprising facts. Then I tag 5 more people at the end. Here I go:

3 Joys

* Family-Maybe it is the fact that my kids are getting older and can do more things; or maybe it was Dan working longer hours at his new job. Whatever the reason, I've had a huge wake up call to the value family time. Where I used to be so excited to get out and do things and take a break from the norm, I find myself wanting to staying home and plan more memorable moments with the kids, make new traditions. I want my kids to experience things with us. And though I do still need a girls night out and definitely date nights with the hubby, I'm finding a sweeter joy and satisfaction being with my kids and Dan than .

* Food: I love to cook and bake. I love to make food look beautiful and taste yummy. I'm cooking more from scratch all the time and trying new recipes. Anybody know how to make their own cream of mushroom soup? I would love to know how.

* Sewing: I love to sew. I still have so much to learn, but it brings such great satisfaction to me to make something unexpected and beautiful. I'm can do a lot of things fairly well, but not too many exceptionally. Sewing is one thing that might one day break that tradition.

Fears

* Drowning- I've always been afraid of drowning. Don't get me wrong, I totally go swimming and love it. There is just something about drowning that wigs me out.

* Being a Widow- I too think this would be a pretty rotten deal. When Dan and I talk about getting old, I always remind Dan, that he has to ask my permission before he is allowed to die.

* Failure- Maybe this is a human trait. I don't usually stress about the little things, but the big things I think of trying get me so nervous sometimes that I tend to not want to try. (ie In high school, I sang my way into making the Regional Choir, but did not try out for State Choir because I was so worried I would bomb.) I'm trying to do better in this.

Goals

* Lose weight- blech, I hate this, but I'm afraid it is ultra necessary.

* Be more consistent-More consistent in my house cleaning, my patience, & my gospel study (I've got my scripture study down, but it's the Sunday lessons and church mags I want to keep up with).

* Temple- Some day I want to volunteer and work in the temple.

Obsessions/Collections

* Fabric- Hi, My name is Jen and I am obsessed with fabric. Outside the home, there are fewer places that make me happier than fabric and ribbon stores. They just seem to ooze creative vibes.

* Containers- Despite my disdain for everyday cleaning, I really and truly love organizing. When everything has a container and a label, my heart sings!

* Lists- I make lists for everything. Lists for projects, lists for house cleaning, lists for everyday of the week. I have so many lists I have to keep them in different note pads so I can find each list quickly and update it.

Random Details

* I hated the internet-I used to hate the internet. You know, back when you signed on and all the sounds from the modem sounded like this: Eeerrr, wrrrr, eeeeawwwwww, tchchchchch..... When Dan and I were first married I would hear that noise more times than I liked. Dan was definitely an internet boy before the internet even was the internet. Now mind you, he never stayed on very long. He was always very thoughtful of that. But still, I felt jealous of and competition from that little metal modem.

* No Fights- In all our almost 11 years of marriage, Dan & I have never fought or argued. We've definitely disagreed with each other & not been happy at times, but no yelling, no angry words ever. For that I am forever grateful. Thanks Dan

* I love butter rum Life Savers

I "TAG":

Tara L.
Marie Sk.
Rachel H.
Mama Cow
Kristen P

More Natural

No I am not going without make up- I am actually making my own baby food. Boy, the Magic Bullet is really coming in handy. It really did not take long. And yes, I still buy the jars from the store, but I am using what I have here at home. It is cheaper, fresher and I feel like it is super yummy for my babe. I can't believe I turned into one of those moms who makes their own baby food. I think I used to mock them. Sorry guys. As you can see, Adam's meals for the next week will consist of apples, peas, broccoli, banana mango, sweet potatoes, carrots, yellow squash, and peaches.

Starburst

My friend Rachel was blogging about her kids bringing home the "mother load" of snacks from a convenience store yesterday. That took me way back in my childhood. I must have been 10 or 11 years old and we still lived in our house on Fountain Circle, next to the Spilsbury's. Our back fences lined the east side of Gilbert Road and just west of Gilbert was a strip mall, where a brand new drug store just opened. There were not a lot of places to go besides wandering the neighborhood, so this store meant freedom. With money in our pockets and a new candy on store shelves, Holly Spilsbury and I convinced our moms to let us walk ALL BY OURSELVES to the new store.

When we got there we found that the store shelves were well stocked with the brand new flavor of Starburst candy. Does anyone remember when Pink Strawberry was NOT an original flavor? In fact, Strawberry was so such a new flavor that they made whole packs filled only with Strawberry. Yes! So what did we do....we spent all of our money buying 5 packs of Strawberry Starburts. We must have been rich. Wasn't candy like $0.25 back then? Anyway, we ate the majority of the candy we had bought that same afternoon. Needless to say, we were sick to our stomaches and had so many canker sores from all the sugar and acid. It was awful. But I suppose that is the price of freedom.

Movie Day

This is my favorite summer activity so far. Thanks to Sara's brilliant mind, we had our First Annual Movie Day. We chose our movie, "The Bee Movie," invited cousins and then for the next few days went to work. We bought and sorted fun size candies, popped and bagged popcorn and chilled juice boxes. The kids colored movie tickets and food coupons the kids could use to purchase food at our very own concession stand. Josh's great idea to dole out the goodies from the play house in the back worked perfectly. The sides of the play house have "fast food style" windows on the sides that worked perfectly for taking orders.

Inside we laid out our biggest blankets just in case anyone spilled. Then we organized adult and child size camping chairs to give the family room a bit of a stadium feel. At the last minute we covered the really big windows with blankets to shut out as much light as possible. Yea, we totally looked like white trash!

As the kids arrived they were given their concession tickets and a plastic shoe box to carry all their loot. Once their treats of choice were collected we returned to the family room to start the feature film. The two hours came and went. The movie was cute and kids wanted to know when we were doing this again. Maybe sooner than later. That was so fun!

New Blog

I have another blog dedicated just for all my dresses! It is located at www.emidresses.blogspot.com. You can visit my blog to see pictures my latest work as I start my new company Emi Dresses. You can contact me through this blog if you are interested in having a modest custom dress or skirt made for girls sizes new born to youth 10T. Enjoy!

Summer Fun

Pictures of Basketball Camp and Swimming lessons

Josh

Emily