Cool Stuff

Twiddle Thumbs was featured as a creative guest on one of the coolest craft blogs ever, U Create.  Go check us out and see the oh-so-cute silhouettes Anisa did for the post!!

Girls' and their room

Little sister is getting into everything.  Big sister wants her privacy.  Mom is tired of the 1 + 1 = national-disaster-sized mess equation.  Mom is also tired of the one being blamed for 1 persons stuff being "stolen" by the other person.  I'm thinking it's time to move Lyndsi to the extra bedroom.  Maybe it will be easier to teach them to clean their rooms when they can't blame the mess on the "other" sister.   Lyndsi could stay up a little later doing quiet things she likes to do such as reading and writing. 

Downsides-she'd be in the basement by herself.  Would she be distracted by Jeff and I doing our thing down there (i.e. TV, crafts, exercise)?  What about if she wakes up in the night?

And what about my food storage?  Where will I move that?

Thoughts anyone?

Hawaii

was great.  I'm so glad I got to go.  I think I can make it until spring now. ;)  Really, we had a great time.  Here's a quick recap of what we did:

Friday:
Departure late morning!

Walked around Waikiki
Ate dinner at Planet Hollywood
Went to bed kind of early (at least by whatever time zone is Hawaii)

Saturday:

Got up early

Hiked Diamond Head.  Beautiful.  I'll have you know Jeff did this on one granola bar and did not complain of hunger once.  I was in shock.  (happy shock, babe.  Happy shock.)

Came back and ate breakfast
Went to Aloha Stadium for swap meet.  Missed the exit.  (Thanks "Mandy" our beloved TomTom.) Eventually got there. 
Spent too much $$ (according to Jeff).  Ate an enormous pork sandwich there.

Visited the Battleship Missouri at Pearl Harbor.  Was in awe.

Sunday (My favorite Day)
View from our room

Sailed to Arizona Memorial. 

Went to church.  Loved the ward we went to.

Picniced at the Punchbowl cemetery.  (My favorite place we visited.  Beautiful)

Stopped at the Pali Lookout on our way to the north shore

Went to a Buddhist Temple

Went to the Lai'e Temple (where we acutally met Mark Eubank, funny enough, who is the visitor's center director)

Monday
My first day alone.
Read on the beach for an hour or so.
Took a nap
Had lunch on the beach
Read some more

Tuesday
Ate lunch at Seasider Cafe (BYU-Hawaii)
Polynesian Cultural Center all day with my aunt (wished the kids were with me for that)

Wednesday
Alone again. 
Read and watched TV
Dole Plantation

Matsumoto's shaved ice

Shrimp shack for dinner

Thursday

Waiemea Falls.  Got dumped on.  Wish I had worn my swimsuit.

Played in the ocean. 

Attempted snorkling.

Friday

Did not sleep well on plane.

Came home.

Happy reunion with kiddos.

Lots to come!

There is so much to post.  A trip to Hawaii, a birthday, valentines day, thank-yous, and on and on.  For now, enjoy the new background and header and this fun photo from our trip!

(BTW-This is my new favorite dress and I will be sporting it all summer.  SO comfy and cool!)

Aloha!

I'm looking forward to a little bit of this today.  The bags are packed.  Grandma is coming.  I'm outta here!!

Ouch

There I was.  Sitting reverently during the sacrament yesterday, minding my own business, when suddenly I was overwhelmed with powerful, crippling feelings of inadequacy and tears.  What?!  Where did that come from?? I mean, there have been a few trials the last few months, but mostly just lots of happiness and feeling good. 

Doubts about all my talents and abilities were suddenly at the forefront of my thoughts.  Jealousy of my amazing friends and their talents soon followed.  The things I do and areas I excel in were instantly not good enough and would never quite measure up.  My mind is not sharp enough, my home is not clean enough, my voice isn't good enough and on and on and on.

Whatever turmoil was boiling under the surface, no way was I letting it out where everyone else could see it.  I had to figure out where this was coming from and get it in check quickly.  First things first.  Stop the tears.  Easier said than done, especially when you have Grandma Marchant's tear ducts working against you.  ;)  Deep breath in.  Exhale slowly.  (Thank you Pilates and yoga!)  I was up extra late and I did have slightly tender ears from standing in front of 4 massive speakers while listening to a friend's band play Saturday night.  Maybe I am just extra tired.  More deep breaths.  Ok.  Tears are in check. 

Now what's up with this whole not feeling good enough thing?  (More deep breaths)  I found myself reciting lessons learned inYoung Women and as early as primary.  I am a child of God.  He loves me.  Repeat.  He doesn't mind my shortcomings as long as I am working towards improving them.  That's what He is there for.  Repeat again.  Slowly my thoughts returned to normal and I could move on to listen to the speakers.

This whole experience left  a deep impression on me though and I thought about it all day yesterday.  Satan was working on me this much I understood.  That was a scary realization.  Not wanting to have that happen again, I decided it was time for a little more goal setting.  Since most of what I was feeling failure in where talents (versus spiritual preparation or homemaking skills), that was where the goal setting would begin. 

I have always considered myself a "jack-of-all, master of none" when it comes to my hobbies.  Being able to do one thing exceptionally well would be such an awesome achievement for me.  I laid out 2 or 3 things I've been wanting to work more on and learn more about.  I've picked one of those to work on heavily for the next three months.  That's not enough time to make me an expert in any area, but I feel it's a reasonable amount of time to decide if it's an area I could master.

The goals I set in January are coming along nicely.  Making it to the temple 2x a month in tax season is already proving to be difficult, but going at least once per month is definitely doable.  Working out has become a top priority.  I've been having fun and am feeling really good which was the whole objective anyway.  I'm happy with 3 times a week.  I've been able to squeeze in a 4th workout and sometimes even a 5th, but it's nice to not have the extra pressure of needing those numbers to meet my goals.  I'm ready to take on this new goal which I will name shortly, but not until I've gotten some other things in place to help me out.

Hopefully it will be a long time before I feel like that again.  I do recognize that it has spurred me on to action though and for that I'm grateful.

Little Tidbits

And I'm immediately thinking pineapple! 

I'm already off topic. :)

Anyway.......We've been working on our basement for...um...2.5 years now.  A huge part of the hold up is deciding what to do with the ceiling in the craft/laundry room.  It's a mess of all kinds of pipes and wires, most of which aren't tucked up neatly between the beams.  Shudder...My mom eventually volunteered my handy man dad to come put up a suspended ceiling for me (thereby clearing up clutter from her house since he had the supplies laying around).  We also had to wire a light in.  There was an existing feature in the laundry portion of the room, but my craft area was a dark corner.  Lots of time hanging with my dad and a week later:

Ta-da!  We have light!  And a ceiling.  Wahoo!!There's still a bit to be done, like sheet rocking one wall, taping and mudding another wall, painting, adding a door to the bathroom and flooring throughout.  It'll get done.  Eventually.

I also (partly in thanks to my wonderful new lighting) finished my first goal of the year.  I finished scrapbooking our Disneyland trip (from 07).  The goal was to have it finished before this coming weekend (as in the 22-23 of Jan) before my big scrapbooking crop that I'm attending.  Honestly, I'm done with 07. I just need to get a few holiday pictures out of the way and that year will finally be history.

Last, but not least.  The kids talked us into a game or two of Uno attack the other night.  After the first round Sophie had the hang of it enough (with help) that I could have my own hand. We were all having a lovely time.  Then I looked over at my darling baby girl and nudged Jeff.  We broke out in hysterical laughter.  Sophie was holding her hand with the cards fanned out between her toes!  The big and second toe to be exact.  Jeff grabbed the camera and we caught this for posterity.  Love it!