memories.

i get these little daily thoughts emailed to me and i really liked the one for today.  tomorrow i leave for a long weekend to pondo and this is a place that has SO many memories for matt and me.  i’m excited to see old friends and be back where so many good times were had. 

Mental Imprints

These days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation.  Esther 9:28 NASB

Memories are what make each family unique. They give your marriage and family a mental imprint of shared laughter and reflections. As someone has said, “God gave us memories so that we could enjoy roses in January.”

But there is an art to memory-making. Here are a few perspectives Barbara and I have gleaned over the years:

1. Memories are best made with loved ones. Sure, memories can be made with coworkers and church friends, but don’t let others get all your best times. Your marriage and family is a ready-made unit for the rich production and harvest of memories. Plant your fields wide and deep with them.
2. Memories take time. Our best memories have usually been born out of extended time together. Don’t expect them to be created in three-minute sound bites.
3. Memories are made of varied adventures. Be creative. Do something different. If you can, travel together–especially on short-term mission trips.
4. Memories are both planned and unplanned. Memories are made through family traditions, such as summer vacations or an annual family Christmas tree cutting. But watch for the serendipitous memory. One special memory for us is the midwinter night when the power went off and we cooked supper in the fireplace. Don’t lose your ability to be spontaneous and impulsive.
5. Memories should be celebrated. A memory isn’t a memory if you don’t revisit it and talk about it, look at pictures of it, laugh or cry about it. “Do you remember the time . . .” can be a joyful introduction to a family conversation. One of our favorite questions to revisit as a couple or as a family is, “If you could keep only one memory of all our years together, what would it be?”

So go ahead: Get out there and leave the unique imprint of memories in your family’s life.

What’s your favorite ongoing family tradition? If you could keep only one memory of all your years together, what would it be?

what i’m lovin’ right now.

1.  popcornopolis.  i’ve never been a professed popcorn fan.  can’t stand movie popcorn – i’d rather lick the bottom of my shoe AFTER walking out of the movie theatre – that stuff is NASTY (and it was nearly a deal breaker with my now in-laws).  however, i L-O-V-E caramel corn.  for some reason it’s 1,000,000 times worth it if you get some of the pieces stuck in your molars where your tongue can’t reach, because it’s so Y-U-M!!  my favorite was the caramel corn at disneyland, but we don’t get that anymore and that makes me sad.  until we found popcornopolis yesterday and had their caramel corn and i’m in love all over again!!

2.  mat kearney – city of black and white.  just plain good music that i like.  again… i have an odd reasoning for why i like music, but i’m lovin’ this album right now.

3.  my killer finds at h&m.  we hardly ever shop for clothes.  partially because we are on a ridiculous budget right now and partially because i HATE shopping.  it gives me anxiety and tears are often shed, so i just usually avoid it and buy shoes instead.  but i also find myself giving my clothes away to friends or my mom and then i have nothing to wear.  SO… i prepped myself and we went shopping yesterday and i scored on some new stuff at h&m and was très excitée!!

4.  i picked up a book on amazon and have already read half of it in one sitting – love talk by les and leslie parrott.  the parrott’s have written tons of books and have done seminars on marriage for years.  very interesting stuff.  we went to one of their seminars a few years ago and they have a lot of good resources and good info.  check this book out on communication – lots of good tools and assessments to figure out why you communicate the way you do and how to be a better communicator.

5.  SYTYCD!!  so far i’m in total agreement with america and the judges for who has been in the bottom and then kicked off.  i think my favorite couple, even though they aren’t the cutest couple, is melissa and ade.  she’s very classy and he’s really strong and they have done everything so well.  and i just love cat deeley.  she so stinkin’ cute!

my mini home makeover.

i’m addicted to hgtv.  it’s always on.  i love watching the professionals come into people’s homes and spice things up – they make it look so easy!  and while i don’t have $5,000 to pay someone to give us a makeover and i don’t have all the power tools to do something fancy, i DID give our place a mini-facelift.  i also realized in this process that i have A LOT of browns and reds – in both our living room and our bedroom!  so i guess the next step is to introduce new colors.  any suggestions??

so all i did in the bedroom was tie back the curtains and reposition the comforter.

and the living room got a picture above the couch.

sorry for the blurry pics.

where do i get these ideas??

i’m sure my crazy ideas were something that i inherited in my genes.  my mom is so creative, so i must have gotten some of it from her.  so here were my ideas this week:

#1.  my boss’ birthday is today (saturday) and i wanted to give him something as a funny/smart-ass birthday gift.  he enjoys my crazy sense of humor, so i went with it.  while looking for something in his office a few weeks ago, i came across 7 mugs FILLED with spare change and most it was quarters!  we’re talking at least $50!  my boss also owns property in kauai (i know… must be nice, huh?) and because of the crazy economy and the need for us to bill lots of hours at work, he can’t go this year.  so… i decided i would make him a little piggy bank with all his change so he can “save up” (which attorneys don’t really need to do anyway) for hawaii.  and while i thought there was a good chance he would think i was TOTALLY crazy, he actually loved it and proudly displayed it on his desk!  the picture is a little hard to see, but it says “hawaii fund” on the side and weighed about 10 pounds with all his change in it!

#2.  last night matt and i were craving something sweet for dessert.  we ran out of the “staples” in our house like ice cream or strawberries and i wasn’t feeling like i wanted to bake cookies.  so… i had another crazy idea to make s’mores.  so i grabbed the marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate chips and a fondue stick.  i turned the stove on (who needs a bonfire or fire pit??) and promptly toasted my mallow and placed it on a mini bed of chocolate chips that rested on the bottom cracker and let the warmth of the mallow melt the chocolate.  i topped it with another cracker and voila! we had bootleg s’mores for dessert!  i’m a genius!!

#3.  matt bought a nice pair of jeans that had that kind of worn look on the knee.  not a hole, but just a little warn.  within a week he had busted the warn-ness into a full-blown hole.  so i took them back and exchanged them for a new pair.  same thing happened again!  dangit!  so… i found the same pair again a 3rd time and i’m hoping they’ll let me return the 2nd ones with a hole.  if they do… i’m going to iron on a patch on the INSIDE of his jeans where the worn part is so it doesn’t stretch and make yet ANOTHER hole.  $2.19 at michaels for a set of iron-on patches!  voila!  problem solved!

thought for today.

how involved is God in the dreams of your life?  – j. larson

weekend with mom (part two).

1263	Allie Shilling	Sacramento				35:41.3			11:31/M
1264	Nancy Kimball	Sacramento				35:41.6			11:31/M

my mom and i did the nike women’s fitness festival 5k on sunday and had a blast!  we’re both pretty fast walkers and even though we don’t get many opportunities to walk together, we have almost the exact same pace.  our goal was somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes since we were going to “wog” (walk/jog) it.  well, we totally blew that out of the water when we ended up jogging about half of it and sprinting the last straight away and finishing under 36 minutes!!  it was so fun to do an event in front of the capitol.  my parents have a photo of the three of us in front of the capitol when my dad ran the california international marathon in sacramento in 1983 to qualify for the boston marathon, so it was a little monumental to take pictures in front of the capitol 26 years later!  matt came as our photographer and captured some really fun moments!

weekend with mom (part one).

my mom came into town on saturday morning and it was non-stop wonderful times with her.  she’ll go do whatever i want to do and is a totally good sport about it.  so i had this idea to go strawberry picking and everyone thought i was nuts because strawberries grow ON THE GROUND, so you totally break your back bending over to pick them.  but i wanted to go.  so we went to a place in woodland called pacific star gardens and it’s the gosh darn cutest place this side of the mississippi (well probably not, but i like spelling mississippi – m-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i!).  this cute farm where this cute couple run the joint and i’m sure have the best stories if we just sat with them for an hour.  so we got our buckets and off we went.  not more than 45 minutes later our buckets were starting to overflow and we enjoyed our bounty for the rest of the weekend including berry cobbler and strawberry crepes!!

30 Quick Ways To Improve Your Marriage:

It’s the little things that mean the most

People are always looking for ways to improve their professional careers, parenting skills, and home organization. But what about the most important earthly relationship you have—your marriage? Marriage requires work, whether you’ve been married for 6 months or 40 years.

Here are some ideas for you and your spouse to consider in order to increase the quality of your relationship day in and day out (and to avoid this):

For the Men

1. Respect her opinion and never talk down to her.
2. Even if you don’t have kids, demonstrate that you will be a good father.
3. Do what it takes for financial stability. No living paycheck to paycheck. Take an extra job if needed
4. Keep her trust at all costs. Leave no gray area when it comes to other female relationships, money and your word.
5. Conversation is not just for solving problems. She talks to you to see if you care. Listen like you do.
6. Call, text or email her periodically during the day. She needs to know that you think of her.
7. Even if you weren’t taught it, learn how to show affection in the way she desires.
8. Give unexpected gifts at unexpected times.
9. Use healthy humor to deflate petty conflict.
10. Listen even when you don’t want to.

For the Women

1. Pray for him.
2. Believe in his capabilities and affirm his accomplishments. Make him feel like a man.
3. Forgive and forget. Don’t hold grudges.
4. All men appreciate a clean home and well-cooked meal.
5. Don’t be late because of makeup, clothing or shoe choice.   (Ouch!)
6. Try not to call him at work just to chat. Men are not multi-taskers.  (Oops!)
7. He needs to know you trust his judgment, even when you aren’t 100% onboard.
8. Either show interest in his hobbies or allow him space to participate freely.
9. Give him half an hour to unwind after he gets home from work. Your evenings will be much more enjoyable.
10. Don’t expect him to read your mind! He would if he could, but he can’t, so he won’t.

For Both

1. Make decisions together about finances, disciplining the children, chores, vacations, etc.
2. Share your daily expectations or prepare to be frustrated when something does not go as you planned.
3. Fight fair. There will be disagreements. No name calling, threats or disrespect just to get a reaction.
4. Don’t compare. The phrases “I wish you were more like…” and “You are just like…” are off limits.
5. Schedule dates and romantic getaways. Seriously. Women love the anticipation.
6. Let go of the small stuff. We all have annoying habits and preferences that are different from our spouse’s.
7. Forgive and forget. Don’t hold grudges.
8. Take time to share dreams and goals on a regular basis.
9. Read the Bible together and pray aloud over each other. Words are strong, transforming and powerful.
10. Continue to work on your relationship in good times and in bad.

List found here.

flashback to 1990.

ms. chapman-locke was my 3rd grade teacher.  she was one of my favorite teachers growing up.  for many reasons.  here are a few:

1.  she had a rubber stamp collection that could rival all rubber stamp collections.  every day we came to school and had completed our homework from the night before, we’d get a stamp – like the jetsons or something psychedelic like that.  then at the end of the week, you’d take your groovy sheet home for your parents to make notes and if you brought it back on monday, you’d get a “silver elephant”.  it was just this little silver paper elephant – about the size of a dollar bill.  nothing super special.  but it had POWER!  you could cash in your silver elephants at the treasure box on fridays – the box of wonders!!  candy, toys, rubber stamps, stickers, pens and pencils!  it was fantastic!!

2.  i was notorious for forgetting my homework at school.  i would constantly make trips back at 6:00 or 7:00 at night hunting down and begging the janitors to let me into my classroom so i could get my homework – so that i could get my stamp the next morning!!  UNTIL ms. locke taught me how to use a planner.  we each had a little mini spiral notebook and we’d write our homework down in it and then we wouldn’t forget to take what we needed home.  i think mine had a kitten on the front – it was SO fancy!

and since then i have ALWAYS had a planner  or calendar to keep work schedules, assignments, dates, addresses, birthdays, EVERYTHING!!  since 3rd grade!!  k, for all of you out there that are trying to figure out how many years that is, i was in 3rd grade during 90-91 (i wore neon green coolots with suspenders and a side ponytail on the first day of school).  that’s freaking almost 20 years people!!  this is probably why i enjoy keeping my boss’ appointments – i’ve been doing it for almost 20 years!!  it comes so naturally now.

so matt bought me an iPhone to help me join the 21st century (is that what we’re in now?  or is it the 22nd yet?).  and all of my nail appointments, hair appointments, waxing appointments, vet appointments, softball games, concerts, birthdays, flight information, hotel information, holidays, parties (including notes as to what i said i’d bring), anniversaries, etc are ALL in one handy little device that also contains all my phone numbers, music, photos, a GPS map, games, emails, restaurant options and recently a leveler for hanging things straight!  it’s fantastic! 

UNTIL information goes missing and i can’t pull out my handy planner that ms. locke taught me to use because now… well… the information is just GONE into outer space or on the former-planet pluto (please see an OLD diagram below).  i didn’t handle this well, as you can imagine.  the information was resurrected and i’m keeping my fingers crossed that ALL of it was resurrected.  so if i made an appointment with you to have my cat bathed or we said we’d be at your niece two times removed’s bat mitzvah, would you be so kind as to send me a reminder just to make SURE it’s been accounted for? 

thankyousomuch!!

fancy fotos!!

so I’m not fancy or artistic AT ALL!  I’m always impressed how people edit their pictures and make them look so fun!  I don’t even know how to open programs like aperature or photoshop, but a friend of mine posted about this website (some functions are free) so I checked it out!  look what I made!  isn’t it fancy?!  I love how I didn’t even do anything and it looks like someone drew something in matt’s sunglasses.