Home Decor: Hallway

So hallways shouldn't be a big deal to decorate. They're small and you basically have to hang something on the wall, right? Well, I have this thing about hanging things on my walls that have no personal meaning to our family. I can't just buy something random from the store and put it up. It has to have a story behind it. Therefore, my hallway remained pretty bare for way. too. long.

I obviously have way too much patience for bare walls. I'm pretty sure it's an outward manifestation of how crazy I am inside my head because looking at this calms my mind...

So how happy was I when we received a gift from Rob's grandma? VERY! She gave us 3 beautiful frames full of butterflies that SHE caught in Indonesia and mounted. They are stunning. And perfect for our nature-loving family (even if it did require a little murdering of innocent, brightly colored insects).

 

The medallion on the wall is also from her collection from her Pakistan (?) days. It's so beautiful and I love how all the light bounces around the textured surface.

(Someday I'll have my carpet re-stretched.)

Now, it also took me way. too. long. to decide how I actually wanted the hallway painted. I knew I wanted something minimal since it's surrounded by busier walls. I mocked up about 20 versions but in the end decided to leave the side walls and the walls around the corner as-is. Around the corner are 4 doors...the kids bathroom, 2 bedrooms, and the linen closet. It's too small and dark for more dark paint and it would've had a striped effect with the small strips of wall in between all the doors.

As far as the paint color goes, it was leftover from our downstairs bathroom and I knew it would look beautiful behind the gold frames. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's a deep navy.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to finish this little space but I'm glad it's finally done!

My Life-in-a-Box

My parents brought me a bin full of my old stuff. I didn't know it even existed.  I took off the lid and found a pile of pictures, journals, day planners, and letters. It was like a time capsule of my growing-up years.

I made my first journal entry when I was 6 years old.

Tues, Jan 1, 1987
"Today is New Years day. I got a diary from Brian. BRIAN IF YOU EVER READ THIS YOU ARE DEAD!!!!! Love, Julie"

The records of my life-in-a-box continue another 11 years, until I'm 17.

As I read I remembered. I have a good longterm memory anyway but it was fun to get the smaller details that are often overlooked, thought of as unimportant or not meaningful.

I also got such a full picture of who I was and how I grew over the years. It's very clear how I always was who I am. My personality's the same. I had the same strengths and weaknesses. Sure, I've grown, but I haven't actually changed much.

Some other observations:

• My first day planner started when I began 7th grade. I was always organized!
• I kept myself busy with friends and school and a lot of church activities such as dances, service projects, plays, piano performances, volleyball and basketball, and youth camps.
• I have ALWAYS struggled with my guilt complex. Practically every journal begins with "I'm so very sorry I didn't write yesterday! I'll do better!"
• My family and friends were always at the core of what I wrote.
• Family birthdays were a big deal to me. I wrote whose birthday is coming up or had just past and then I listed all of the gifts received. With 6 siblings and a handful of nieces and nephews, that's a lot of birthdays!
• I can see (read) myself as a sweet child turning into a moody teenager.
• I didn't realize I was so boy crazy!
• I was always a pretty serious soul and it shows through in my writing.

A lot of the stuff was unimportant and uninspiring so it went in the trash. But I did find some true treasures. Enjoy some embarrassment on my behalf!! 

(6 yrs old)

Jan 6, 1987
"Yesterday I felt That life was to hard for me to retern to my Hevenly Father."

(7 yrs old)

Feb 19, 1988
"I'm comfused. I feel grown up like doing my nails and growing them long. And I feel popalor. I'm scared! alot."

(8 yrs old looking just like Little Bo Peep)

(9 yrs old. WOW)

(10 yrs old)

Oct 15, 1991
"Today, for dinner, we had ministroni! the worst soup I have ever tasted!"

Oct 25, 1991 

"whoever reads this when I die, I am sorry I didn't right that much. I LOVE YOU."

Mar 15, 1992

"I'm scared. I have a very strong feeling for beau. Not just like oh he is so cute, but like I don't know maybe love. but I know I am still along ways till I'm old enogh. I am sooo very scard. Hevenly Father please help me choose the right." 

(11 yrs old)

June 27, 1993
"Brian got fired from hometown buffet for talking to much and fooling around. Too bad. They had good ribs! Dad is 49! Can you believe it. I can't. He is getting to be real old. Mom is 40. She doesn't look that old though. Right now mom is sleeping. (Beauty Rest.)"

(12 yrs old)

Aug 9, 1993
"I also met someone named Stephanie. I liked her at first, and I think she like me first. but when she found out I couldn't say my r's, she seemed to back away. But I am going to keep trying to make friends."

(13 yrs old)



Dec 31, 1994
"I am so tired, my dad was watching tv in my room so I couldn't go to sleep. Some of the things he watches are really stupid. He's kind of weird sometimes, but he's nice. Well, I hate Saturdays, there's nothing on tv and it's so boring. I'm watching woodwork."

Jan 1, 1995
"Well, my mom thinks I'm still a little kid. I was doing my hair this morning. She's always bugging me about my hair. To cut it, grow it, curl it under, curl it up, how to do it, and today, I was fixing it and I was having a hard time. She asked me if I wanted her to do it!!! I'm thirteen, I wouldn't be caught dead having my mom do my hair, I just looked at her funny and she said, "Well I was just asking so shoot me." I felt kind of bad but still. Well, now that I have that off my chest, I really do love her and she's a great mom."

Jan 6, 1995 

"You know what? David Yost is kinda cute. It's kind of strange, he's the Blue Power Ranger. I don't like him for the Power Ranger part, but as a person."

Jan 9, 1995 

"I saw him today! David! I love his smile. He has a silver and black Ford Windstar."

(14 yrs old and looking drugged)

Sept 16, 1995
"I sure like my friend ********. She's nice, smart, funny, talented, and pretty. Last night she was over and Karen was talking to her and I was right there. And Karen said, "Your prettier than Julie." I mean, I knew she was, and I knew other people thought so, but when someone actually says it, well, anyway. I would also like to dance like her and be as popular."

(15 yrs old)

Nov 24, 1996
"Last week I went to seminary with my zipper undone! Hopefully nobody saw. It was also hard to zip it up without making a noise or having someone see me. I also tripped over Sam's box of dougnuts on the floor twice!"

Dec 15, 1996 (Telling myself to get up the nerve to say something to him)

"SAM!!!!!! you can do it!!! Don't worry, it'll go great!"

(16 yrs old)

Feb 17, 1998
"I've been in 3 accidents, pulled over once, locked my keys in my car once, ran out of gas once, and had to get a jump start twice. Oh, I forgot, I got my car impounded once. All in 6 months!!"

(17 yrs old)

1999 (If you knew me at this time, this entry is not about who you might think it is about.)
"Dear Diary,

It's been so long since I've written it's as if I fell into a deep, tranquilizing sleep and have just awoken. I'm writing for myself; for my sanity. I will explode into a million pieces if I don't sort out my thoughts on **********. I don't think you realize how hard this is for me. So hard, I'm about to give up and keep silent forever. But I can't. I need to keep going; keep striving for reality and complete unified thoughts on this man."

"People ask if I like him. Boy, do I like him. More than anyone could have thought. I literally think about him all of the time. When I wake up, driving, during class, while I'm talking to other people, and at night while lying in my bed. I've dreamt of a wonderful but realistic life with him. Everyone always comments on how perfect we'd be together, and I silently agree. The only person who has a clue of how deep I feel is myself, and I'm getting lonely talking to myself about him. Lot's of people suspect I have feelings for him, and that he might have feelings for me, but no one really, truly knows for sure."

"*********** and I are good friends. My favorite times in life are with him wrestling on the floor. I have so much fun that I never want to stop. But I have to."

Unfortunately, when I got engaged to Rob, I tore out all my journal pages and threw away every memento of my ex-boyfriend (NOT the boy from the letter above) so there is a year when I was 18-19 yrs old that is undocumented. Although I'm sure it would be horrifying to read what I wrote during that time of us together and then breaking up, I'm sad that I don't have any record of it. 

And thus ends my life-in-a-box. Two more thoughts after sitting on my floor and reading through all of it: 

1) Maybe I will sympathize with and understand my daughters a little more as they head into the next decade of their life.

2) I'm curious to know what my 55-60 yr old self will think of my blog...

Some time I'll have to go through my journals from where these left off until our blog began in 2005. Should be fun!

California 2015 - Dolphin Safari

We recently returned from our family vacation to California where we played at the beach and went to Disneyland. It was a great trip that we all enjoyed immensely. Here is a video of our adventure on a Dolphin Safari with more pictures below.

At the recommendation of a friend we took a dolphin safari trip out of Dayna Point with Captain Dave. We had an excellent ride on the water and enjoyed hanging out and watching the various types of wildlife including dophins, minky whale, sea lions, and a several types of wild brids. Let me just say for a moment that the sea was fantastic that day. Calm water, sunny skies, spray of the sea at your feet, sea creatures, family; it just doesn’t get much better.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the boat was an open netting area in the front. Water would spray up and wet our feet. It felt great to have wet feet in the warm sun. Here are Nate and Joe (cousin) enjoying the water.

Dolphins! Check out the video for more dolphin shots.

Nate, Julie, Breanna (my sister), Kelly (my brother), Jess (Kelly’s girlfriend), and Madi.

Sisters at sea.

My parents relaxing in the back of the boat.

Gene (Breanna’s husband) enjoying a moment.

The last of the pictures from the outing were of a bunch of lazy sea lions on a buoy. Stay tuned, more posts to come.

Roller Girls

We are experiencing a resurgence in the popularity of rollerblading in our neighborhood. Is this an isolated occurence among 7 to 9 year olds or are others experiencing a similar trend? I (Rob) of course could not be happier with this as rollerblading is a 90’s favorite. Anyone else remember Airborne? Classic movie.

Anyway, I went skating with Madi, Cara and a couple neighbor friends the other day and I shot some video. Hope you enjoy this.

A Walk In Winnipeg

I had a day trip to Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago. In fact, I’m posting this on the eve of returning to this interesting little city for a day.

I understand that it used to be a major commerce center and could be considered the “Chicago of Canada.” I’ll be there working on a bid for a major transportation project. Julie has long influenced me to get the most out of these little business trips by taking some time to get some decent food or walk around an interesting part of town (with a camera of course). Sometimes just choosing a hotel in a more interesting part of town will make it a lot easier to accomplish my goals.

After finishing my meetings I headed downtown to drop off my bags and pick up my new (very old really) film camera that I recently purchased. I set off to an area of town called the Exchange Area which was peppered with old brick buildings, outlets for each parking stall, and a lot of interesting people.

I shot 36 frames and these few are my favorite. Hope you enjoy them. I sure enjoyed making them.

Making ice cream art at California Adventure at the Cone. It...

Making ice cream art at California Adventure at the Cone.

It was nice taking a little break from walking, rides, and heat for some ice cream. What to do when you have too much ice cream to eat? Get artistic of course. Cara’s smile is infectious.

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KT Tape - A Love Affair

You know the saying about duct tape fixing everything? Well, it seems that KT Tape is the new fix-all around here.

I've had a lot of people ask me about the new foot accessories I've been flaunting. Since there has been so much interest, I though I'd introduce you all to Meet KT Tape Pro, as in Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape. I'm currently having a love affair with this product, rightly so.

On a couple of mornings, I woke up with severe ankle pain after doing a yoga session the night before. I was so sore that I couldn't put any weight at all on my foot for a good 5 hours each time. For a fun mental picture, imagine me crawling around the house...

It turns out that my jumps from downward-facing dog up into a handstand aggravated my Peroneal Tendon (the tendon behind the ankle that extends up into the leg) and left me with tendinitis.

I was looking for some extra support for my wobbly ankles and feet and tender tendons. For a couple of weeks I used an elastic, but stiff, ankle wrap. It lessened the pain in my ankle but transferred a lot of pain into my hips because my gait was different since the wrap prevented my foot from bending naturally when I walked.

After buying all the "as seen online" products at the drugstore and not liking any of them, I tried this tape and it's been an anklesaver. But it's not only used for feet, oh no. It can be used anywhere that needs a little extra support such as the shoulders, back, knees, etc.

This stuff was one of the tools I used to get myself around Disneyland for 3 days! If I hadn't used it, I would've been in a wheelchair for sure.

So what it is is a roll of 6-inch pieces of stretchy tape. They are flexible, water-resistant, non-bulky, and come off mostly painfree. The downside is that they do tend to peel at some of the edges after a while and this brand is pricey ($20). I've also used a knock-off brand ($4) and honestly it worked fairly well. I leave them on for about 4 days before I change them.

So those are the details. If you could use some muscle, tendon, or ligament support I highly recommend giving this stuff a try. Their website has 42 instructional videos for wrapping any part of your body that is giving you grief. There are a few times when you should NOT tape such as if you have blood clots, malignancies, etc.

But I predict that this stuff is going to start making appearances on many a body in the near future. Because, hey, it is just the coolest new fashion accessory around.

PS: It's a Utah company that has gained nationwide acclaim!

Perspectives from 3 Feet High

Cara borrowed my phone the other day to take pictures around the house. After she was finished, she wanted me to look at them and I found quite a few that not only offered me a glimpse of life from her perspective, but that also have artistic qualities to them as well.

Here they are, exactly as she took them (Madeleine helped her find a cool preset before she started).

Sabbath Day Observance

I had the privilege opportunity assignment to speak in church a couple of weeks ago. Whenever one of us speaks I like to include our talk and testimony on our family blog. So here it is.

What is THE most influential thing we can do to build our testimonies?

Elder Ballard said Brethren spent many months reviewing every bit of doctrine and every principle in the gospel of Jesus Christ trying to figure out the answer to that very questions. What singular thing we can focus on, individually and as a worldwide church, in order to build and increase our faith in God?

Do you think it’s diligent scriptures study and prayer? Repentance? How about temple attendance? While these are all very important and fundamental, the conclusion was that partaking of the sacred Sacrament ordinance and keeping the Sabbath Day holy, above everything else, are THE most influential things we can do to build our testimonies of the atonement and our faith in God.

Doctrine & Covenants 59:9
And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;

Rob has a memory (one of his few) of when he was a young child. He remembers sitting in Sacrament Meeting, looking up at the ceiling and trying to figure out where the voice of the sacrament prayer was coming from. After a lot of thought, he concluded that it must be the voice of Heavenly Father coming down to him from heaven. It was perfectly logical. As he’s grown, he obviously knows it’s not Heavenly Father’s audible voice in our meeting but those prayers and the covenants we make were given to us by Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father has commanded us to listen and think about the atonement weekly. As we do, we will feel His spirit testifying to us that Christ died for us and that He lives so that we may live with Heavenly Father again. 

……..

During General Conference, the Brethren gave a training on Sabbath Day observance to all Stake Presidents with the request that it be passed down to ward councils and then to congregations.

In that training, Elder Nelson & Elder Ballard said that If the commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day holy is taken seriously and literally, members will remain active in the church and faith will increase around the world.

Elder Nelson tells us that if we do these things, keeping the Sabbath Day holy won’t feel like a burden, that it’s hard to do, or that we are missing out on any fun. But it will be a true DELIGHT.

Doctrine & Covenants 59:13 says that we do these things so that our joy may be full.

I have a lot good memories with my family when I was growing up. As I think about it I realize that many of those good, joyful memories came from spending time together on Sundays. It was really the only day that we got to spend all together rather than separated off at work and school and with friends. There weren’t any distractions. Those Sundays really were a “true delight.”

……..

Now, keeping the Sabbath Day is not a new concept or commandment. It was first implemented with the creation of the Earth when Jesus rested on the 7^th day. 

The children of Israel were commanded to observe the Sabbath. Exodus 31:16
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

One of the last things Jesus taught and implemented before he was crucified was the sacrament. Then, it was one of the first things he taught and implemented after His death when he visited the people in the Americas.

……..

I want to give a challenge to everyone. Offer a prayer and ask to know and feel of the importance of Sabbath Day observance and for the desire to improve how you spend your time on that day. Elder Nelson doesn’t want us to follow a do or don’t list. It’s not a one-size fits all answer. But are there simple, small, but long-term changes we can make in our Sunday habits in order to block out worldly distractions and add spiritual refreshment instead? I encourage you to hold a family council today or a Family Home Evening tomorrow and discuss this subject together. Rather than experiencing Sundays as just another day (on which we just happen to go to church) what can your family do to make Sundays more of a true delight and a blessing for yourself and your family?

One of my goals is to have church music playing in my home more often on Sundays. As I sat at my desk putting the final touches on this talk, I overheard my 7-yr-old daughter Madeleine in the next room singing The Holy Ghost, her new favorite primary song. Hearing that brought tears to my eyes as I felt the Holy Ghost uplift me on this Sabbath Day.

I know that as we try harder to follow this inspired counsel of the Brethren, our faith in Christ will increase, our testimonies will strengthen, and our families will be blessed. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

A New Table Flow Chart

BEFORE

AFTER

I purposefully wanted some mismatched stools. I don't yet have enough seating for when the table is expanded. But even at the smallest size, it feel so expansive to us!

We ordered these stools knowing they were a bit too tall (in the pic below they look taller than they actually are). We will be sawing off a couple of inches so they fit the table a little better. We just love them so much that it is worth it. They are SO comfortable which was my #1 priority. I hated my last chairs and couldn't sit in them for long at all.




Underneath the table does look a little "busy" but comfort and clean-ability trumps. They wipe right off! No crevices for food to get stuck in! Speaking of clean-ability, feel free to ignore the dishes in my sink...




If you're in the market for furniture or decor, I ordered these from France & Son. They have really great stuff. Much of it is kind of pricey but these stools were on sale for 1/2 off which made them doable since the table was so cheap. Rob and I are both impressed by their quality. I initially only ordered 2 thinking they'd be used on the ends of the table but we all kept fighting over who got to sit in them. We may end up ordering 2 more at some point but I reached my budget and like how this looks.  Oh, and they were shipped mostly intact! All we had to do was screw the seat on top of the legs. Phew! Since when don't you have to put the whole dang thing together yourself?