Hello 2011!!

HELLO 2011!

This is very much a NEW YEAR for me.

New Room, New Roommate, New Ward, New Resolves, New Organization Skills, New Me!

I Just moved to a condo in Pleasant Grove 343 S 1000 W #104,

so this year for New Year's,

I learned how to paint a room.

(with the master painter: my new roommate, Bonnie).

And I learned that painting is not rocket science! :)

It was actually really fun!

The colors: Mushroom Bisque with a Mixed Berry Jam wall-it turned out Gorgeous!

Here is before, well, after priming edges and taping:

A damp washcloth was my best friend for the edges. Shoot, good thing I don't do this for a living.
I forgot to take an after picture of the paint job, but my room isn't put together,
so I will post more pics later.
Bonnie and I painted all day New Year's Eve, so at midnight, we crashed on the couch, watched the NY Times Square ball drop and wished each other a "Happy New Year... I'm Tired!" Starting off the New Year with freshly painted walls, mmm feels good!

So New Year's Day I moved in to my new room! And, HELLO need to ORGANIZE!
Organization has been something I have been feeling passionate about lately, out of necessity with my job at One on One because of the massive amounts of information to keep track of and lack of a system to manage it all.
They didn't teach me how to organize office supplies, take care of fire extinguisher inspections, remodel a commercial building or find out who cooks eggs in bulk for 150, in college. But they did teach me how to creatively solve problems and ask masters who have figured it out.
So, my quest for 2011 is to ORGANIZE and SIMPLIFY my life.
And I happen to be rooming with the Master of Organization (she asked for a filing cabinet for Christmas when she was 12). Needless to say, I am and gleaning fabulous and effective ways to organize and store my stuff for easy reference/use.
Here is our handy work. This is my closet...now

I feel good about it.

I am still putting the rest of my room together, more pictures to come.

Now for my New Year's Resolutions...
A couple years ago I decided to do away with unreachable goals and unreasonable expectations and decided to pick 1 word to focus on, amplify, embody, and learn about. This has been great for me because it is 1 thing to remember instead of 40, AND I find new connections and different ways that this word shows up in my life-it's super fascinating and makes for a memorable year.

So the 2011 word(s)
ORGANIZED SIMPLICITY
or
SIMPLIFY

Everything this year will be focused on simplifying, paring down, getting rid of the extras. Here is my meaningful objective for 2011 (I know, I read it in a book and decided to try it)

In 2011, I am committed to Organized Simplicity to facilitate:
Physical Health and Wellness
Spiritual Growth
Balance
Financial Stability
Career Development
and Miracles on a daily basis
To accomplish this, I am committed to paring down my life to include only the essentials needed for my journey Home to God.

Onward and Upward, this is going to be a FANTASTIC year!
Hello 2011!

Update

Below is a letter I just emailed out to friends and family. A brief update on what I am currently flaring about...

Hello dear family and friends,
This update is highly overdue and I have been thinking about each of you lately and remembering how much I love and appreciate you in my life, so thank you! And here is a brief update (we'll see how brief, I am very much a woman... once I get going, I just want to share it all)
The latest news is that I applied to 3 graduate schools this year: Ohio State(Dance), Indiana University(Arts Administration), and Southern Utah University (Arts Administration). I heard back from Ohio State, they said no... my top choice, so a bit disappointing. However a week before I got my letter I felt like it was going to be a no and that the timing just doesn't work right now. I loved the audition experience and feel like that department would be a great fit for me when the time is right.
I am still waiting to hear back from Indiana and SUU, so I will keep you posted. I love where I am at right now with my job, so I am okay whichever way it goes with graduate school for this fall.
Now, to describe where I am currently at... the best corporate company in the history of this universe, One on One Marketing. It is the BOMB.com and I love it! I am the executive administrative assistant working directly with the owner and HR director, so the tasks on my plate range from handling insurance, scheduling interviews, and arranging conference accomodations to event planning, birthday card making, and taking my boss' truck to the fancy schmancy car wash. I am currently planning our "March Madness" event. We have a basketball court in our building (a mini one) and a ping-pong table in our breakroom, so every year we do a Ping-Pong and PIG tournament with all employees complete with brackets and all. Then, on the first friday of March Madness we rent out the whole first floor of Noah's event building and play raquetball, wallyball, basketball, ping-pong and billiards all afternoon with fabulous food and oodles of snacks. I have never experienced this, but I am planning a fantastic afternoon. I have fallen in love with event planning through this job and feel grateful to contribute my feminine touch to each event such as making sure all the balloons, tablecloths, and decorations coordinate with the theme whether it be 'Fiesta', 'PI', Halloween, or March Madness. So fun. I really hit the jack pot on this job.
So I love my job! Our staff meetings are called "Powerstands" and I actually performed my graduate school dance solo at our meeting right before I flew out to Ohio. Scared out of my pants. My audition performance felt like a breeze compared to performing for the One on Oners, but so glad I did it. I shared a little bit about my piece and related a principle of movement to business. Its very interesting for me to find the connections between the dance world and the corporate world, and the fun challenge for me was presenting the connection that I found between movement and business in such a way that made sense to my corporate audience. It was so fun, I love being a dancer! :)
We also had an employee do his version of Chris Farley's "Matt Foley, motivational speaker". Hilarious!! Anyway, it's the best place for me right now! I am refining administrative and random skills that will serve me for the rest of my life!
Besides working full time at One on One in American Fork, I am teaching ballet classes at a dance studio on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. I learning ALOT!! Holy Cow, lots about teaching, lots about my philosophy on teaching/dance (which is very different from the philosophy of this competition jazz dance studio) and so forth. It is challenging, rewarding, and taxing, but invaluable experience.
I am still loving my BYU 56th ward, the same ward I was in during my college years. Uncle Alan is my bishop-in cas you didnt know- and it is an absolute treat being under his and Aunt Karen's direction and leadership. Everytime Aunt Karen opens her mouth, my mind explodes and my heart just melts, she is so wise and beautiful! I love when they come to my sunday school class, intimidating sometimes, but so great to hear their insights and experience. I am still serving as the Visiting teaching coordinator, and sunday school teacher and I love it!
So between all of that I just sit at home and dream up my wedding plans and wait for my knight in shining armor to ride up and take me with him. Mom says I am MIA, what is she talking about?
Anyway, the only thing I would add to my life right would be a bit more dancing. Sitting all day just doesn't cut it forever, so I am working on that. A group of local dancers that I danced with at UVU started a group "Body Logic Dance" and we get together a few times a week and put together choreography and teach classes. We are planning a concert for the end of May or beginning of June... inbetween Christina's wedding of course. But I miss dancing everyday, and so does my body.

So there is a brief update. If you made it to this point, thank you. and congratulations, I love you!!!

All my love!
Mere

Predictable life in Prosser

MONDAY

Monday was my first day with just Bryson because Brinn stayed home on Friday. So boy did we live it up! The name of the game is: everything is funner with Bryson! After dropping the kids off at school... p.s. Thanks to Brinn, Bryson came with us. We were all loaded in the car in a little bit of hysterics to get out of here on time, and I am in reverse about to let my foot off the gas and Brinn says "So... are we just going to leave Bryson here?" -oh shoot!
So anyway, after dropping off the kids at school we cuddled in the lazy boy reading books and waking up. We got Bryson dressed and he played while I showered and got ready. Then it was time to play! We walked down the gravel road to get the mail, played with bubbles on the front porch, and danced to Bryson's birthday mix CD from Brinn. By then it was lunch and Ramen was it. I haven't cooked Ramen for a little somebody for a long time. Here we are blowing on his Ramen together.

After a nap we picked up the kids from school. Brinn had history club and Kate stayed to play with a friend, so it was just me and the boys for a bit. We celebrated by watching Looney Tunes. Oh my, it has been forever. I forgot how hilarious these are, I was ing up and glued just as much as the boys...in between blogging of course.

The s came home and we had dinner and cleaned up. It was so interesting, when I first came I went into autocleaning mode which switches on in my brain when I am taking care of other kids and houses. I am used to doing it all because I usually take care of little kids who are still learning how to lean up afterthemselves. The light went on when Brinn said "wow Mere, you do a lot of jobs." Oh yeah, these kids know how to clean up after themselves and do their jobs. It took me a day or so of fighting my tendency to do all the work and realizing that part of loving these kids is reminding them to do their jobs... and that I can maintain my status as a cool aunt. I am now a seasoned pro, dont you worry, these kids are workin'.... minus the morning bedmaking, that comes and goes. I decided that can be the housework vacation job. However, Kate is a bedmaking genius, every morning.

Anyway, so we are doing jobs and McKay was on dishes that night and I got to sneak in a little conversation. He cooly responded that he was ready for his parents to come home when I asked him how he was doing with them gone. The kids are being so good and we haven't had any major emotional breakdowns, but I can tell that they miss their parents and are ready for them to come home. This week has been pretty chill compared to last week with Rose. I don't know how she did all that stuff. The daily do's pretty much fill my days here, but it has been nice to just chill out and know the kids in their regular daily routine.

So after cleaning up we had FHE and it was like clockwork. Kate did the lesson on gratitude and we played a gratitude game while we ate apples and that yummy yummy toffee, cream cheese dip. MMMmmm. McKay won inbetween playing on his Touch, he was the first one to reach "The Land of Joy!" Then regular bedtime routine, however Bryson was up til 11:30 just wide awake... no more 3:00 naps for him.

TUESDAY

Tuesday morning Rach called and it was so good to talk to her! She and Joe are ready to come home and all is well. They are bring home lots of German Chocolate!

Bryson and I went to the park this morning, here are some pictures from our adventures together.

His shoe of choice "Kate's strawberry shoes"

Sailing away to Germany!

I am thinking of hiring Bryson as my resident photog, not bad, huh?

Love the small town lingo, even the balloon fest was advertised as beginning at dusk.

Lunch at the park. All the essentials, string cheese, fruit juice, sandwich and chips. Bryson packed it all himself that morning. He wanted to pack his lunch like the older boys.
We had a fun time watching, chasing, waiting, and talking about all the squirrels we saw. He is chasing one as we speak.

Coordinated kid, he can even do funny faces on the swing. This is no fair weathered face maker.

This was most of our afternoon while McKay stayed and I went to pick up Riss from the airport, delinquent aunt? more so than not, but the kids liked it.

The sign we made for Riss, I am so happy to spend this time with her, what a luxury.

Tuesday night Bryson I took Brinn to her dance class at the activity center. No wonder he likes it, big screen TV with Disney channel and a big comfy couch all to hisself. And I release all responsibility for his outfit, he woke up that way from his nap.

Here is dancing Brinn, it was so fun to observe her class, especially with my newly purchased teaching glasses. And Brinn was great! I had to take a picture of her stretching her splits, pretty great for a with short hammies!

A Chill Sabbath

Sunday was pretty chill day. Church meetings were great and the ward friends all checked up on me. Sacrament meeting looking closer at the haircuts I realized that I missed a few hairs, but as long as they are all laying down, you can't tell. Shh, and don't look too close?
After church while Bryson napped and I figured out how to coordinate pictures on my blog with text, the kids were excited to finish their family video features. They watch the video from their parents wedding in 1994 and reminded me of how little and cute I was back then... those were the days.
For dinner I cooked Italian Chicken... for an army. I forget that I am only cooking for 6, 4 of whom eat kid portions, and 1 who I am lucky if he takes five bites inbetween all the play that accompanies dinner time... and every other time for that matter.
For dessert Brinn made baked apples with spices and butter in the center. We served it with ice cream and oh boy... Delish!
And while we are on the subject, I cannot tell you how fabulous Brinnley is. She is integral glue that hold this family together. Multiple times this week I have watched her walk away peacefully from someone who has broken or ruined something she was working on or blurted out an unkind remark. She is incredible! And a GREAT right arm!

MMMmmm....

This is James...when he gets a hold of my camera.


We played Rummikub before bed and asked Bryson to take our picture, after the first one he announced that this next one was a funny face one and began demonstrating all the possibilities. That is why Brinn is ing up amidst the funny face making.

This is Kate... when she is the photog.

This is Bryson ding his Ninja jump.

This is Bryson just being Bryson on Sunday evening, then acting shy when we asked him to do his ninja jump... see above.

Day 2: Balloon Fest and much more!

Here is a picture diary of our Saturday including the Balloon Fest and the kids just being their wacky selves.
This was the crew at 6 am up and at 'em for the Balloon Fest minus the chipper photog (yeah right, 6 am?!).

We first went to see the balloons inflate and take off.

Well Thank You very much! I kind of like this small town life with wilderness inbetween neighbors and "goin' into town", etc.

After the balloons took off we walked down to the bridge over the Yakima River and watched them touch down on the water. Some pilots signal for the crowd to applause and others touch down multiple times, its pretty cool. We climbed down by river and the kids found that they could climb under the bridge. The picture right above this is Brinn and James on the underside of the bridge.

This is I am sure not atypical of regular Saturday play when all the jobs are done. Brinn in the horse, Kate is the cow, and Bryson is the round up cowboy directing the show!

McKay and Brinn went to a pizza party birthday bash at "Shy's Pizza", so I took James, Kate, and Bryson to McDonalds for dinner. This is dinner and entertainment all in one with the playplace one step away from our table. These faces you see are what the kids look like the other half of the time, they are funny face champs!! This is one of my favorites of Kate and Bryson.

This is one of the many solicitated pictures of Kate, she is always posing, dancing and wanting pictures of it all. I can hardly keep up. I attempted to keep track of the memorable one-liners of this crew, but I gave up within the first two hours when I was rolling with everything that came out of their mouths. Especially the younger few!

James

Bryson took this picture while we were picking up McKay and Brinn from their party. Yes I am holding two ice cream cones, the second one was Bryson's. Just living up to Rose's prophecy of my role as the 'garbage disposal'.

Part of the Balloon Fest is the Night Glow in the Stadium after the sun goes down. The preshow entertainment was the local steel drum band playing some rockin tunes. Towards the end of their show they called all can-can-ers out of the audience to dance while they played the tune and of course Brinnley, Kate, and I headed down and can-canned our hearts out.

After the preshow cleaned up they began inflating hot air balloons for the Night Glow. When the sun goes down they turn off the stadium lights and the balloons dance to the music with their lights and its really cool.

These are the three that lasted through the gentle wind. They did wave and popcorn patterns and 'danced' to the music, as did we in the stands!

Saturday was a great day, we got home and played for the rest of the morning. After lunch I put Bryson down for a nap and crashed along side him while the kids entertained themselves watching the 1999 Family Reunion video.

Saturday night bath time was announced and as Bryson sauntered up the stairs he called out in his most macho voice "Kate, you wanna take a tub with me?" And apparently an after bath "running around with your towel on your head" party inevitably follows the water play. The picture below is what I found when I went upstairs to see what all the screaming and pitter patter was about.

Bryson and Kate playing hide-and-go-seek in their towels! It seems that every time I turn around I can't help busting up, these kids have wackiness comin' out their ears! It is an absolute treat to be here with them, I knew this job would be fun, but I had NO idea!

First full day of all the fun!!

Friday James was the first one down for breakfast and his hair about killed me, all slicked.

I did Kate's hair in two buns that she was very excited about. And I know how to do buns because I am a ballerina kate said. I am grateful all of that hair training proved useful :).

The rest of the day was a low key day except Brinn was feeling too good, so she stayed home for the day and hung out with me and Bryson. We read stories and basically watched Bryson run around and be Bryson until he crashed for a nap and we followed. I got up to pick the kids up from school and enjoyed driving around the small town. Friday night we watched Singin' in the Rain and fixed supreme ice cream sundaes. But before we indulged, we did... I mean... I did hair cuts for the boys. My first time, no big deal! James reminded me that he wanted #4 on top and #2 on the sides. Rach left a 'whatever' for Bryson, so when I asked him he said "I will tell you, I want a 2 1/2". ANd McKay was so good, he coached me every cut of the way and I finally took a breath when he declared "yeah, that feels pretty good." Phew! The last picture is what I looked like and the one before it is how I felt!