Taking Flight

 I love the hilarious entertainment my girls think up. This particular Sunday afternoon, they wanted to fly.

So they did.

My favorite detail was the ski goggles they got out to wear. I imagine the wind speeds coming down from those stairs would dry up your eyeballs quite a bit! Good thinking girls! (o:

And when they got tired of that, they tried another use of the "parachute".



Earring Organizer Idea!

Look at me! I am crafty! Every once in a while, like in a GREAT while I come up with something that I think is pretty cool. And when that happens, I have to take pictures and jot it down! My girls just got their ears pierced this last summer, which has been a lot more dramatic than I anticipated. We have had injuries, hair twisted on the back causing a minor infection, an earring getting caught on the netting of our trampoline, and a back of an earring going completely inside one of my girls' holes in her ear. You don't want to know the gory details - maybe I'll share later. Ninety percent of these incidents happened to my poor, unlucky with earrings, Natalie. Two weeks ago she was ready to just take them out, let the holes grow back together and never wear earrings again.

Anyway, aside from the drama and injuries, the girls have been excited to try on some of the cute earrings we bought this summer. However, the earrings all over my bathroom counter were causing clutter.

I didn't want to just stick them all in a box where they'd get all mixed up so I looked online for some ideas on earring organization. I couldn't find anything that would work for us. Most of the crafty ideas online work better for earrings that just have hooks. Not ones with backs. They didn't have easy access to the back of their storage item. So I came up with this idea using ribbons. I don't know how long the ribbons will last taking the earrings off and putting them on over and over. I'm sure all the tiny holes will eventually cause rips and fraying. But it will be a cinch to replace. I just used half of a $1 roll of ribbon, cut it in strips, and stapled it on the back of a cheap frame from a craft store.

Pretty snazzy, I thought! I will add it to my very short list of good ideas.

One year ago today . . .

This has been a very sentimental week . . . month actually. Last year was such a huge turning point for our family, we remember it down to the tiniest details. After living in Oregon for 10 years, we had an opportunity to come "home" to Utah. I still remember how terrified we were to move 1,000 miles away from everything we knew when my husband got a job after graduation. I never would have guessed back then just how hard it would be to come back "home" after living there for a decade. I tell people that I grew up in Utah, but I "grew up" in Oregon. I am forever grateful for my experiences there and wonderful people that have touched my life for good. I will always be an Oregonian at heart. However, the whole time we were there, I had that longing to come home again. For my kids to get to know their extended family better and to be able to strengthen those relationships and get to know our family members that I love so much.

So when the "stars aligned" in the summer of 2010 and many miracles came about so that we could return home; we took a leap of faith and, once again, left (what had become) our comfort zone. It's so ironic that getting what we wanted for so long was so hard. (We laugh at the fact that our original plan was to stay in Oregon for two years.)

Because it was all such a huge change for our family, and everything was so stressful and exciting and just plain crazy last August through October, I remember so many details. I remember worrying that I would have a permanent sleeping disorder due to lack of sleep those several weeks. I remember the day I drove home from the grocery store just bawling realizing that the move was a definite possibility. I remember keeping the secret and then breaking the news to so many wonderful friends. That was emotionally draining. But I also remember calling family to tell them the big news - that part was really fun. I remember soaking in every detail of Hillsboro, every gathering with friends, enjoying every bit of beautiful scenery, visiting every familiar place for the last time and the heavy feeling in my heart as I thought about leaving our home we had worked so hard on to make ours.

I remember the exhaustion and stress of selling the house (and still can't believe what a miracle that was.) I also clearly remember the excitement we felt as we came to look for a new house and then the stress of having to choose one. (Like I mentioned in the last post, making decisions is not my forte.) I remember the sadness I felt for my kids as we were taking them from the wonderful school, friends and beautiful state they had called home. (Angela still talks about how much she misses our Oregon house. It was the only one she knew.) I remember every detail of our last visit to Bella Beach and how magical and extra wonderful it was. (And it was very fitting that we were able to spend some time there with our very first friends we made when we moved to Oregon.)

I remember how heartbroken we were to leave our wonderful Hillsboro ward. I remember how scared we were to attend our new ward for the very first time and how my heart ached. But I also remember the kind faces of strangers who welcomed us and who have become friends in the last year.

I remember the strange feeling we had as we drove back to Oregon after our house-hunting trip. We were driving to our old home for the last time. We got back in time to watch October LDS conference in our old house and the next Monday began the marathon of packing and goodbyes. I feel that same lump in my throat when I remember that time.Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the day we pulled out of our Hillsboro driveway for the last time with our two cars stuffed with as much stuff as they could possibly hold. (We almost couldn't fit our beloved Dyson vacuum!) And today marks the anniversary of the day we moved into a suite at the Marriott for a 30 day stay until we got the keys to our new house. That was kind of a fun adventure and we have fun memories from that time. We drive by that Marriott every week on the way to violin lessons and we always say, "There's our old 'house'!"



Paralized

I am notorious for being indecisive. I can't commit to a decision. I always second guess myself. What if I regret my decision and wish I would have done things a different way? What if I change my mind and it's too late? This is true of big and small decisions and I hate to say that sometimes it is paralyzing. That is the case with my blogging as of late. I have been blogging since 2008. My goal was to keep a family history of our family of 5. The second goal was to keep others posted on what was going on with our family since we lived 1,000 miles from parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Thus, my "Life is Good" blog was born. But there were a few shortfalls with this method of journaling and sharing.

For one, I wanted to keep my blog public so that it was easy to access. However, my husband was not crazy about anyone being able to log on. It CAN be a little creepy when you think about it. (Case in point, last year I got a comment from someone in Germany on a post - nothing bad, it just really made me realize that ANYONE can see my blog and it made me wonder how many others had seen it that didn't leave comments?) Because my husband didn't like the world knowing the details of our everyday lives I had to make some compromises. He did not want to be mentioned by name and not really talked about much in general. He wasn't thrilled about the girls names being used and details of their lives, but he understood my motivations. The down side is that I have this family history that has been edited to not include much about a very important member of our family.

Now that we are back in Utah and live close to nearly all of our extended family, the need for keeping others posted in so much detail is not quite as high of a priority. I only have so much time in a day and have been leaning towards working more on something that will be a meaningful family history for my kids. I am still not quite sure how I am going to do this. I have been humming and hawing for months about this. So I have basically been paralyzed in the blogging world. I'm not sure what to do . . . so I do nothing! Great strategy, eh?

Until now. (o:

My idea for now is to make my "Life is Good" blog private and have this blog be my public blog. I am considering just working on making Blurb scrapbooks/journals rather than keep up on the private blog. When I have entries that seem blog "worthy" or might be of interest to friends and family then I will copy those onto here. I still don't really know! It's all up in the air, but I think it's about time I do SOMETHING and maybe my new method will invent itself as I go forward. I get stuck on wanting things to be perfect before moving ahead and knowing 100% what the plan is, but I have just got to let go and dive in.

As usual, my entries will likely be long-winded and all over the place like this entry is . . .

So without further ado . . . Welcome to "See Jen Blog". I hope it ends up being something that will be uplifting and fun sprinkled with a few of my favorite photos.