a good ol' blog

Things that make a good blog:

1. Consistent posting (One post a week is good enough to be consistent)



2. Good writing (Proof reading and spell checking posts, along with a good writing style)
   
   
3. Pictures (Picture can make or break a post, posts are much more interesting with pictures)

I generally lack all three but yet I still try to keep blogging. Why? To tell you the truth I have no idea. Maybe I do it out of duty because I enjoy reading others blogs and feel I should contribute or I think that it will be fun for me and others to look back on. Who knows?
Anyways, I am always thinking of posts. Here are a few of the blog post that I have been thinking about doing recently, they are in no particular order.

• Like how I made a bathroom rug out of chicken wire and old white/off white towels that were cut up. My thumb has been numb for a couple weeks (!!!) because of the pressure I put on it from the scissors cutting through thick towels (My thumb is getting less and less numb and should be back to normal in a couple more weeks):

• Or when I painted our dinning room table and chairs:
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Hannah tried to "help me paint" as you can see....

• Or when Talmage and I rode a bike for 109 miles in the El Tour De Tuscon with most of Talmage's family. Talmage did it in 5 hours and 48 minutes and 14 seconds and I did it in 7 1/2 hours. It was fun and hard all at same times

• Or Or when I decorated the Christmas tree:
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Or when we had a big fancy thanksgiving at McKays and I made a scrumptious homemade crust for this pies or yummy stuffing with homemade, whole wheat bread (I even liked it and I don't normally like stuffing (I also liked Jana's stuffing too, I liked how everything was in bigger chunks)):

• Or when I finished 2 out of 3 classes and would have finished the last one already but can't take the final test till December 10 (why do they have scheduled tests online, isn't the purpose of online classes the perk of having a flexible schedule, for reals)
• Or how I have been working on this painting for a friend of our family (Not finished yet, I hope it looks better then this when I am done). It is some bridge in London.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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• Or lately when Hannah has been a show off and holds her bottle with one hand (I could get her to show off for the picture, go figure).

• Or when I switch the kids room with the guest room and they have started to sleep better because that room is warmer and cozier.
  
• Or when I decorated the stair case for Christmas (not finished yet though):

• Or when I decorate all the high spots (places where the kids can't get to) for Christmas:
  

• Or when I made these flower holders in the backyard (the flowers die in when I was gone for a weekend):
  
  

• Or when I do laundry Hannah watches intently and sees how I pull the close out of the basket and put them in piles, she sweetly wants to help so she pull close out of the basket too.



• Or how Heber and Hannah like crawling up the stairs, so when it is their nap time I "herd" them up the stairs like cattle.



• Or how Heber is always trying to take Hannah's bottle

• Or when I thought I saw Heber take his first step but it was out of the corner of my eye and can't be 100% positive.
• Or when Hannah tries to pick up two bottles and other stuff all at one time while trying to stand up and she looks like a grandma all hunched over, so precious.
• Or how I fixed up this old mirror, the after picture did not turn out well:
  
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  After (so I should have retaken this picture but I didn't want to reupload another picture)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  OK, I think you got my point. I think about blogging but hardly ever do it. Very lame, I know.

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Next post I am thinking about doing is on Heber and Hannah's Birthday!!! Which is today! They are one years old! ...but I am way to blogged out to do that post today ...so cross your fingures that it happens before the end of December.

Eleven Months

I have to add some recent photos. Annie, my old boss/mother hen of the ASU tutoring center, likes pictures of the babies. These are curtousy of Jana.
































































































If it wasn't for her all the pictures of our kids would be taken off of Talmage's phone or a dinky camera that I have to take ten pictures on to get a half decent one.

I'm back, I'm back

Sorry, I fell off the earth for a while. My email shut down because I haven't checked it for so long. (This is one of three email addresses, my gmail account which is how I sign in into my blog.) I was able to revive it and finally get around to do a post.

What have I been doing all this time? Taking care of two teething babies (complete with fussiness, running noses, high temperature - all of these symptoms have been coming and going for the past month or more, poor babies), working on school (of course, I don't want to bore you but I got 1 class done for this semester out of 3) and working on projects. I have been painting a picture of a bridge in London for a family friend, working on the back yard (Talmage pulled all the weeds back there and so I went through and did a lot of tedious yard work to spruce it up), working on the front yard, I hung these really cute/creative planters in the backyard to plant some pretty flowers Talmage got me, refinishing our kitchen table and working on expanding our food supply (we have had white buckets for a while, a few of them full of food, I bought more food and put dry ice with it to preserve the food better). ...I am sure there is morAll the while trying to find time to get away and get some mile in on the bike so I don't die in the El Tour de Tuscon, which in about two and a half weeks.

I have to go, the kids are done eating and Hannah is going to be starting to cry/squeal like a dyeing cat, poor girl, it is her teeth coming in that get to her.

Separate Rooms

Kimball posed a good question:

"When are you going to separate the boy and the girl into separate rooms." I hope I quoted it right.

I am not really sure but maybe when baby #3 comes in about three years (no there is no baby #3 right now). After the baby is sleeping through the night, I will separate the twins into two different rooms and put the baby with the one of the same gender. If baby #3 is a boy it will go with Heber and if it is a girl it will go with Hannah.

I don't want to separate them sooner because I think that it helps build character having companionship of sharing a room.

Still I not completely sure though. I haven't really thought about it. I am open to suggestions. I know that Lisa separated her girls and boys sometime this year. How old was Caden, 5?

Waking Up

I love when Heber and Hannah wake up. They are total opposites. Heber is crying loudly and Hannah is containing her anxiety as she holds her middle fingers in her mouth with a few pouts that escape. They usually sit up and then stand up holding to the rails of their cages... I mean cribs. Hannah likes to rattle her crib. It is so precious. This is normally when they wake up in the morning.
When they wake up from their naps they normally have sweet smiles on their faces and it is so precious. When Hannah stands up she normally has a "Grandy grin" on her face, all gums and from ear to ear. The corner of Heber's smiles wrinkle up and he lets out a sweet periodic "uhuuum."

Yes, it was you Melanie, ...Melanie Hansen ...my sister in-law ...married to Lincoln, that helped me choose to go to school this semester. Before that I was seriously considering not going to school because of all the stress that comes with it and I felt like my life was overloaded. You tipped me over the edge of indecisiveness.

School

Thanks to the gentle persuasion of Melanie I am going to school this semester. I am taking three classes online. Two of them are half a semester long, one in the first half, the other in the second half. Plus the one that is a semester long. The half semester long class I am taking first is on Digital Art and the semester long one is on Marriage and the Family Relationships. I like them both.
My second emphasis is Art. It is the easiest way to go since I took a couple of art classes my first two years of college. I am taking the the Family class as an upper devision hum/soc.
Anyways, schools fun and I really like online classes. I thought that I wouldn't because of all the reading and not hearing a teacher lecture but I think I learn more in less time and on my own schedule. I can stop what I am doing and clean the house, feed the kids, change a poopy diaper, play with the kids, start dinner or whatever. I wish that my two classes next semester where online. I have to take one more senior electrical class and the history of engineering. Then I will be DONE!!! YEAH!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!! ...ok I am calm.