Kelly Times Two

Last week when businesses and schools closed down during the ice storm, Lindsey and Christopher had a blast chillin' outside on the trampoline, hiking in the woods in the back, making snow angels with the thin dusting of snow, and hanging out with Brooks and Todd, our next door neighbors. While I was recuperating from my sore throat, and basically hibernating my sickness away, Kelly captured some images from our back yard for me to enjoy later. I love the look of our iced-over deck and the trees. I was relieved that no serious tree branch breaking occurred and that my pansies look like they will survive.

Date night with my handsome husband on Friday, January 19, was so much fun! I can hardly believe we only paid $10 each at Stubb's Bar-B-Q of all places to hear this excellent band from Virginia. Barry, the lead singer, is very talented and is very entertaining and put on an incredible live show. It was still chilly in Austin a few days ago, as we were just defrosting from the ice storm. The concert was inside, but the doors were open and I was freezing, so I'm glad I wore a wool coat. It was worth it though. If Carbon Leaf comes back to Austin, I highly recommend going to their concert. Thanks, Adele, for the fun recommendation! As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to talk about our adventure out on the town in the warehouse district, celebrating our friend, Chad's, 36th birthday with his wife, Adele, and some of their friends and family (Hunter, Deb, Scott, Jenny, Jeremy, Laura, and Chad's dad). We had such a great time and hope to hear Carbon Leaf the next ti...

Some days, I just want to make cute cards and that's how I felt tonight while Kelly was deejaying the stake youth dance, and Lindsey was there dancing the night away. I bought this S.E.I. patterned paper last week for the Valentine's mailboxes that Lindsey and I were making, and had some scraps left over. I created these two cards. It's hard to tell, but the square window is a cut-out, using two sizes of punches, and it is more three-dimensional than the photograph shows. When I get a gift from someone that has a fabric bow, or buy anything where the packaging come with ribbon, I always recycle it to use again for cards that I make. Also, I want to share with everyone that I have lost five pounds since I set my goal to lose twenty pounds. I'm a fourth of the way there! The hardest part was turning down pecan pie at Stubb's last night where Kelly and I went to listen to an awesome band from Virginia called Carbon Leaf . I'll post more on our fun concert later...

Since I'm finally feeling better, I've been having a splendid time making Valentines and decorating some little mailboxes for the family for V-day. Lindsey and I have enjoyed each other's company while crafting and creating together.

The beginning of the week, I was in Dallas for three days at a leadership conference for TPC. While it was fun seeing all my old friends from all over the country, and being there for the new products and announcements, which is always a blast, I came home yesterday with a really sore throat. I went to Austin Regional Clinic today and my doctor asked me who I've been around that was sick. I told her about my conference. Bingo! That was the source of my germs. She told me I'm really contagious right not, so that's no fun. I'll be in exile in my own house. She said to drink a lot of liquids and sleep a lot, which is all I feel like doing anyway, with the exception of doing a little blog stalking. My viral infection will run its course and in the meantime, my throat is killing me. It's a bummer to have to pay $25 for a copayment to have your doc tell you there's nothing she can do for you. Oh well. It was worth it, just in case it could have been cured with anti...

Kelly's first digital camera seemed completely foreign to me. I found it difficult to grasp the idea of not using film to store pictures. Most of our older pictures were taken on my camera, which was not digital. However, we do have a few old digital pictures, beginning in 2000, thanks to Kelly's "modern" camera that I like to pull up on my computer and add to the blog now and then. It seemed strange a few years ago, but now most people only take digital pictures, myself included. Here, just a few years later, the digital images are the ones at my fingertips. Who knows where the negatives are for most of my old photos? This particular family photo was taken six years ago by my friend, Sherrie, in December 2001. We had her take a bunch of shots on my camera with film, for our Christmas photo that year. After that, Kelly asked Sherrie to take just a couple more shots on his digital camera. By then, the kids were tired of smiling and posing, as you can see in their...

Here we are on Christmas morning, peeking out from my perspective. Santa brought me a new digital Canon camera, so this is the first picture I took. This gift was on my lap, which is sporting some cute chandelier pajama bottoms. Here's my sweet husband, reading all about his new GPS unit, a TomTom brand. He loves it although it kept falling off the windshield at first. I'm planning to borrow it for my road trip to Dallas tomorrow as I'll be at a leadership conference for the next three days for TPC. Christopher and Lindsey are comparing their loot from Santa. They both got iPods as their main Santa gift. Santa likes digital things, obviously. Here's another view of our upstairs tree, the one that Lindsey decorated. Here's Daddy filming the kids looking at what Santa brought them. "Look what I got!" Christopher says. Completely unrelated to Christmas, with the exception that it has red and green paint, I want to draw attention to the art on the wall b...

This is what I designed this year for my family Christmas card, with a little booklet layout including family photos and a summary of what we've all been doing this year. These cards were a lot of fun to make with the kids helping me. Lindsey stamped and cut all the cranberry and black parts. Christopher cut all the "merry" pieces of cardstock and helped stuff envelopes. Because I started so late, I didn't plan ahead with a mailing list, and I mainly sent cards to those who sent us cards, and simply used their return addresses to know where to send each one.

"January 2, the day after the new year begins," I've been telling myself, "is the day I'll start my diet." I've been planning on this diet since November. In the meantime, I've probably added five pounds just psyching myself up for my weight loss journey. Last night, I knew it would be the last time to really indulge, so I chowed down on some of my favorite homemade cookies Coconutty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with a tall, cold glass of milk. " Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out, but I can usually shut her up with cookies " was printed on some beverage napkins I recently purchased. Time for my guilty pleasure of honing the baking skills may be winding down, for a while at least. So here I am, confessing to all the world, sharing my goal to shed twenty pounds by spring break. Please don't tempt me with your cookies. If I can't have mine, I don't want anyone's.

On New Year's Eve, there was a spectacular concert and fireside held in Salt Lake City at the conference center for all youth (ages 12 to 18) of our church. My niece, Morgan, was privileged to be there in the audience. Lindsey and I were able to see the event via satellite from our chapel in Cedar Park. The concert included talented vocal performances, choral, orchestral, and piano talents, then three speakers. The uplifting talks were by Susan W. Tanner, Young Women General President, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, and our church president and prophet, 97-year-old Gordon B. Hinckley. It was an extraordinary evening, yet a sacred and memorable way to welcome the new year, which happened to fall on a Sunday night. The theme for the meeting was "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly." The speakers did an outstanding job. One surprising musical performance came in the middle of Sister Tanner's talk when she referred to her adorable little granddaughters, who were then ...