Creative Juices...

I have a bunch of things to post (fun news, the Bubbs' love of Samstagschule, Halloween, etc) and I really do hope to get around to posting them. But right now I'm just letting you know about this...


If you've never heard about NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that aspiring writers often get bogged down after writing a few chapters or pages and never manage to complete that Great American Novel they've been dreaming about. So now there's some motivation to just get the words out on the page in a short period of time and worry about revising, fixing, polishing later.

The real scoop? Participants are attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days! You have to start writing on November 1 (honor system here) and complete your 50,000 by November 30.

Why me? I have always loved loved loved LOVED to write. I've even posted a few short stories on my blog. With the support of my cute husband, I am finally going to try to write a book. Well, 50,000 words at least. I haven't written more than a few pages since my creative writing classes at BYU.

Why should you care? You probably don't :) But the NaNoWriMo people seem to think that the more people that know you're attempting to write a novel, the more pressure they'll put on you to actually finish by the end of the month. So here I am. Be my support group or something, okay?

What I am going to write about? Well, I've already managed to write about 3000 words so I guess I'm off to a good start. I don't want to give much away because then maybe I'd end up feeling stupid and quit now. I'd rather write and then feel stupid at the end of the month. If you're really curious, here's a short sample -

“I have got to get out of here,” Eden mumbled under her breath. It was Mel’s place, after all, and living here was just temporary. At least it could be, if she could find a job. She thought about picking up the paper again to browse the classifieds, but knew what she was looking for wouldn’t be there. Not now. She needed networking, not just newsprint tinting her fingers and browser bookmarks to monster.com and craigslist. She grabbed the throw pillow again, cuddling it to her chest, and stared aimlessly out the window. The view was gorgeous, the mountains even more breathtaking as clouds wisped around their peaks, swirling just enough to create the illusion of islands in the sky. It was lost on Eden this morning, all of it.

Intrigued? Bored? :) Keep an eye on my word count in the sidebar and throw happy writing thoughts my direction!

Favorite Things...

Remember my post with the videos of Hilary Weeks? In case you didn't see them, one of the videos is her singing a mommy version of "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. I guess the Simster has heard me sing it a few too many times because here he is...

(Real Hilary Lyrics: Bedtime and Naptime and Bedtime and Naptime
Did I mention it's nice when the kids go to sleep?
These are a few of my favorite things...
When the kids fight, when my husband's late
When I'm feeling sad
I open the freezer and pull out the ice cream
And then I don't feel so bad)

Not to be outdone, the Bubbs will now showcase her version of "Two Voices, One Song" from the movie Barbie and the Diamond Castle (and really, at the end, she's not throwing up on me, she just needed to cough). See how fun life is at the breakfast table at our house? :)

Art Birthday Party!

So originally the Bubbs was going to have a small party (4 or 5 friends) and we were going to go out and do some fun girly things (I'm planning to do this next year, so I won't spoil it and give the details now). Then she decided that she REALLY wanted all the boys in her preK to come. And then just everyone in preK. And she wanted a princess party but one of her friends with a birthday a week before her just had a princess party. Are you following all this?

Ergo - she does love to draw so I talked her into having an Art Party. The invites turned out cute ("artist E is celebrating the opening of her first art exhibit") and we planned out some crazy fun crafty stuff. One problem - the kids had all had preK here and hmm... an art party seems a little bit like preK. Oh, well, we did it anyway!


DH couldn't take the day off to help (which I know he was not too sad about), but my awesome sister-in-law (she's 17) ended up here for a few days and she was a life-safer! Twelve party kids, one seven-year-old neice, and one two-year-old. Without Addy, it would not have happened. Well, it almost didn't happen anyway... twenty minutes before it was supposed to start, the Bubbs and her cousin were running around and somehow she managed to cut her head open on the edge of the couch. We're talking a pretty good gash and lots of blood in her hair. Thanks to DH taking a break and stopping up the blood a bit (no stiches needed), the party went on...

We...

• colored with sidewalk chalk on the driveway
• painted a huge mural on the garage door
• painted and put footprints on little art aprons
• made and ate our own pizzas (colored the tablecloth while they cooked)
  
• played twister and balloon games
  
• decorated and ate our own cupcakes
• presents
• sent them home with their aprons and goody bags (with candy, play-doh, crayons, and foam notebooks with foam stickers)

(Sorry for the lack of pictures... some of this artsy stuff is pretty messy and we were too busy washing kids and cleaning up to take pics :)

Anyway, she had fun, her friends gave her great art gifts (really nice homemade stuff too!), and she only had a little pool of blood in her hair when it was over (see picture below). She still says she wished she had a princess party *sigh* but I still call it a success!

Happy 5th Birthday, Bubbs!

From this...


To this...


Can you believe how much she's grown? I sure can't! Craziness! For the last year, I have been lamenting the fact that E missed the school deadline and had to wait another whole year before starting school. Now that it's here and some of her friends are in Kindergarten, I'm feeling blessed to have her home longer. She really is such a blessing in our family! As most of you know, DH and I were convinced child #1 was going to be a boy. We had a name picked out and everything. When we found out E was a girl, I was a little disappointed. Of course, now I know that Heavenly Father knows what I need WAY before I do, and He knew I needed the Bubbs to be the one to help me understand what it means to be a mom. To discover a love that is as close to God's love as I think I will ever get. I'm so grateful for my first baby bear!! (see the book You're All My Favorites if that comment about bears made no sense)

What did we do today? Well, after working and doing lots of prep for the big day, I finally went to bed around 2am. I woke up early to get ready for this...
(Preschool at our house - actually nine kids + PJ wasn't too bad today! Lots of fun! They're doing the Dino Dance in the pic)



Then after preK, I put together these in my new efforts to become more organized with the Mt. Everest of toys we own...



Then inspired by my friend Rachel and this lovely tutorial, I spent *ahem* a little bit of time making the Bubbs a Belle cake. By request. And I'm pretty darn proud of it, even if I had to improvise a little and she also ended up with a little bit of a ghetto booty... Still, not too shabby, what do you think?





We talked to the grandparents, opened a bunch of presents (yep, definitely spoiled) and had cake and ice cream.







Her favorite presents? The Belle dress-up (of course), the Belle barbie in the cake, a new doll from Grandma and Grandpa, and her roller blades. Oh, and the Barbie German movie. And the guitar. And... well, I think she was satisfied :)



Five Great Things About the Bubbs:

1. She is so happy to be five! There are a lot of things she's been telling me she'll do when she's five - be better at sharing her toys, eat salad, clean up when she's asked... Well, if today is any indication, she's being true to her word! :)
   
2. She can spend hours on end drawing pictures, coloring pictures, writing words on pictures, writing her own songs, making pictures for others... She is such a little artist!
3. She loves to learn - read books, count and add numbers, she's starting to learn letters and sounds in German too and she soaks it up. Like mother, like daughter, I guess. I have always loved book learning.
4. She is a wonderful big sister - sure, she and the Simster have their moments, but overall, she is caring and helpful. She can't wait to share a room with PJ (which will probably happen in the next few months) and they already giggle together about nothing.
5. She is so full of life! She's always singing and dancing and jumping and running and laughing and is very animated when she plays with her siblings. It's so fun to have her around!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBBS! WE LOVE YOU!

She says it so well...

So I want to post something exciting, but man, I'm tired. And boring. So I thought I'd post some great Hillary Weeks videos. I heard her perform these when I went with my sister and friends to Time Out For Women last year. And they really epitomize the way I've been feeling lately... enjoy!

Pool Fun

DH and Simster playing with Daddy's toy at our pool. Is that awesome or what? :)

On My Mind - Summer

So I am having a kind of hard time with some things right now. I will spare you the details, because I am sure I should just buck up and get over it. But since I can't sleep because of it, I thought, "Hey, I should blog something!" Aren't you proud of me? It's 3:30am right now so bear with me if I don't make sense :)

Summer is coming to an end. My kids aren't in school yet, but we will be starting preschool next week and I can't believe it's already time for backpacks and notebooks and (hopefully) cooler weather and my favorite part of fall - college football!

I won't bore you with a separate post for each of the things we did this summer, but if I had to make a summer-y (get it? hee hee I told you it is 3:30am!) it would be...

• lots of swimming!
• baby showers - thanks to all my great friends who had babies so we had an excuse to stay out 'till all hours of the night :)
• the bubbs' first dance class (maybe I'll post some footage - all the girls were adorable!)
  
• YW camp and other YW activities
  
• my nephew's baptism
  
• hanging out with family and friends
• roadshow practices and performance for the Denton Jubilee
  
• DH's band playing in the Jubilee (with a not-so-great appearance from me on the viola)
  
• wonderful vacation really just to visit friends and family in UT and CO that we miss so much!
• Oquirrh Mountain temple open house (would have been our temple if we were still in Utah)
  
• working
• DH working
• entertaining three young children
• oh, did I mention swimming?
• oh, did I mention YW?
• oh, did I mention DH working?
• etc

We have enjoyed pretty much all of it and we are doing well. We have been very blessed as a family. We have all we need and many of our wants as well. We are healthy. We have support from a wonderful family and great friends. Even right now, when I'm struggling, I can't help but recognize how much we are truly blessed and acknowledge the hand of my Heavenly Father in all things.

And again, I leave you from within the shadows of the everlasting Texas heat :) May peace be with you, this day and always... (If you get that reference, I hope you are just floored by my extreme cleverness :)

Hope you enjoy a few summer pics and I'll post a little footage later!