If you had 30 days..

A few weeks ago, a friend was telling me about a trip she was taking with her husband and she couldn't decide whether to go with the all inclusive or the cheaper hotel. I said, "go with the all inclusive, that is, if you can afford it, it will be WAY cooler!" She thought about it for a minute and said "yeah, I just don't know.." and I said "Hey, you might as well do it if you can, you never know when you might not be able to again, you never know when your going to die."

"Well, that's pretty morbid," she says.

"Well, its true, isn't it?" I said.

"Yeah, I guess your right." she agreed.

So I am happy to report, she booked the all inclusive.

So this got me thinking, if you found out you only had 30 days to live, would you do things differently than you do now? I am not talking spending large amounts of cash and doing things you can not afford, but would your daily routines change? Would you treat people differently? Would you be scared of doing things that you normally have a fear of? There is a movie that I watched a long time ago with Queen Latifa in it (I cant remember the name of the movie) but she was misdiagnosed and told she only had a short amount of time to live. So she changed her life and started doing things for HER and treating people differently and living her dreams. She does come to find out that she was misdiagnosed but the whole situation changed how she did things and of course her life changed for the better. Of course that was only a movie.

But I wonder, if I really think about having 30 days left..would I really be so scared of flying in an airplane? Heck no! Would I want to try to make amends with the people that I hurt, or people that hurt me? Absolutely! Would I treat people better? Smile at strangers and say hello? Heck yeah! Would I make it a point to let the people I know and love, REALLY know that I love them and think they are special? YES!

It sounds easy, but is it? I think we all just get so comfortable in our lives and mostly scared of change and what it might bring. To really put your self out there and have the potential to not get the result you want is scary! What if that stranger doesn't say hi back? What if my plane does crash? What if that person that you try to make amends with slams the door in your face? Scary!

I also think that God would want us to do these things. To really LIVE the life he gave us. To be peacekeepers, to do good, to help others, to let people know how special they are. Even if it means for us to be a bit uncomfortable.

So my little challenge for myself is to do something MORE every day for the next 30 days. To try to live like there were only 30 more days left. (I really hope its not! :)) It scares me a little just to write it, to know that I may get out of my comfort zone. I will write down what I do over the next 30 days and report back. I challenge those who read to change a little something here and there too! Really it doesn't have to be big! Send a friendly note. Say hi to a stranger. Buy someone coffee. Something! I know I have some blogstalkers out there and I love you all so feel free to comment and let me know what you did!

Cool stuff I love....

Thought I would just post some stuff that I LOVE to look at! I know I spend way to much time on the computer sometimes looking at stuff. One link usually leads to another, and another and pretty soon I forget what I originally was looking for but love all the different things I find. Also I feel hard pressed for something to blog about. I am sure you guys don't want to hear me say "I hate snow" one more time...what, I just said it. So anyway, here is some cool shtuff.

SOOOO much information for the photographer on this site, plus has some pretty cool links to other peoples businesses. I have gotten some awesome actions from here. Its called I Love Photography

Another of my favorites that I found through ILP site is Design Revolution . They have all sorts of cool prop outfits for kids, mostly tutu type stuff but so very cute! Here is one of their Christmas outfits..

I am going to jump from photography stuff to desserts for a minute. Anyone who knows me well knows I am a sugar junkie. I LOVE the good stuff. Not only are these cupcakes so appealing to the stomach, but to the eye as well. Check out Trophy Cupcakes . The gal that owns the shop was on Martha Stewart once and they showed her recipe for the Smores Cupcakes. I made them, and while they were not as pretty as hers they sure tasted awesome!

Now back to photography. Here is a new cool site I found just the other day Photojojo . They have some really cool stuff to buy, and I just bought these the other day, thought they were so cute. I haven't gotten them yet but will be sure to post pictures of what mine look like when they come. In the meantime, here is what they look like.

They also have this super cool secret spy lens I want.

Also, if your into photography and are a blog reader, you must check out Mera Koh's blog . She, along with her husband Brian, are amazing wedding photographers. They also have some awesome workshops. I attended one in October and it changed a lot of things for me as far as photography. They are very inspiring teachers! Right now they just took their two kids and are spending a few months in the jungles of Thailand. She has posted some pics up already so check it out! I sooo wish I could get my husband to do something like that!

So that's it for now. I could post more stuff I look at but then you guys might think I do nothing all day but look on the computer. ;)

Uhh....where did this snow come from???

Much to my surprise, it started to snow this afternoon. And you all know just how much I love the snow....not. I miss the sunshine! I miss taking pictures! My favorite lens broke so I sent it back to Canon, hopefully they will fix it and send it back before my trip to Disney. In the meantime I am practicing with my new lens but it is huge, so I cant really just throw it in a bag and walk around Disney with it. Dane allowed a few pictures of him today. I know that last picture is a little frightening.

While I was waiting for my mocha at Starbucks...

This is what I observed. And I am sorry if I offend any serious coffee drinkers but I thought this was funny.

I walk in, the guy behind the counter says..."Mocha?"

"Yep", that's how often I am in there, no need to tell them what I want. I like to keep it simple.

As I wait, the girl making the coffee is amazing. She is making like 10 drinks and taking orders all at the same time from the drive through. I know I could NEVER do this. I forget what my kids want for lunch a few minutes after I ask them. So she is making all these coffee drinks and I hear her talking on the headphones to someone in the drive through... "OK, so you want 8 pumps of white chocolate...uh huh, uh huh, and to 180 degrees. I got it." ( I know there was something else thrown in there too) "and whip cream on the side? OK I got it."

Really? Whip cream on the side? I think I spent to much time trying to figure out what they did with the whip cream on the side. Maybe they gave it to their dog, or kid. Was it in a cup? Did they squirt it from the can into their mouths when they pulled up? I didn't wait around to find out.

Obviously I have been housebound for too many days now.

My baby has Pneumonia

Dane has had a cold for almost a week. Icky cough, runny nose. He woke up at 12:30 last night coughing and didn't stop. He threw up twice because he was gagging. I tried steam shower, cough meds, everything. Finally at 2:00am Steve got dressed and took him to the ER. I laid back down and woke up at 3:00 and thought about calling but figured they were probably in the middle of things. I fell back asleep and woke up again at 4:00am and they still were not home. I frantically called, thinking the worst but Steve answered saying they were almost in Lynden and that Dane had Pneumonia in his right lung. They gave him a dose of Amoxicillian and sent some home. "Okay, poor kid, I will see you soon". As soon as I hung up I started thinking, Dane is allergic to penicillin, I sure hope that isn't what they gave him. Yep, it was. So as soon as Dane was asleep I spent the rest of the early morning hours checking on him every 30 minutes for hives and to make sure he was breathing. As soon as I got the other kids off to school, I called the doctors office to fix the medicine for him. An hour later I got to Rite Aid and they told me no one had called anything in. So I had to call the doc office again and they said they would fax it right away. So I went back to Rite Aid and they had the prescription, but didn't have Dane on file, and of course, my medical card was with Steve, so I had to drive back home to get it. Back to Rite Aid again with the card and she tells me Dane has been terminated from our policy. WHAT?! Your kidding me right? So I head back home in tears. Steve called the insurance company and they said everything was fine and gave him a number for the pharmacy to call if there were anymore problems. Steve went back to the pharmacy and gave them the card to run again, and what do ya know...it worked just fine. Hmmm. So anyway, here I sit again tonight listening to my boy hacking away upstairs wondering how much sleep we will get tonight. I sure hope this medicine kicks in quickly.

My little Ansel Adams

I told Dane that we were going to go on a picture adventure today. The wind wasn't blowing which made outside tolerable...for me. I have an old Canon Rebel that I decided to arm Dane with. I figure your never to young to learn an art. I hadn't used it in over a year so the battery had little life to it and only lasted ten minutes. That was fine though, because he just wanted to play at the playground anyway. I hate playground pictures. I think I just get bored of them. Dane would let me take pictures as long as it wasn't in his face. So I got hands and feet and a few other things.

And lastly one of Dane's shots....ME!!! I like this one...maybe cuz my head is cut off!

My guy..

I have nothing really to report or no new pictures due to crappy cold weather. So here are some old pictures of my main squeeze and some of the kids just for fun and something to look at. Only thing that has been going on lately is that I finally caved and got a gym membership. I have actually been going at least 5 days a week, thanks to my dear friend Karen who shows up at my door every morning to make sure I am going. I have been doing a class called power pump, which is almost pure torture, but Steve says my hips are shrinking (even though I don't see it) so I will continue with the torture. I even did my first Pilate's class (Hard! I am so not flexible) and Zumba, which I think is the most fun. Kind of some Latin dance moves. I just make sure that I am not standing in front of a mirror while Zumba'ing so I don't really see what I look like dancing. ( In my head I am not so bad). So anyway enjoy a few old pictures of my kids and family.

One of my favorites....my precious baby Dane only a week or so old sleeping with Daddy. Sometimes I miss my little babe.

Daddy and Dane again, only not too long ago at a dirtbike park, watching the big boys ride from dadddy's shoulders.

Little Miss Maia and Dad

All my boys!

And one of my very favorites! A trip to the Oregon coast and a day at the beach! Some great picture taking that day.

Bob Marley

"Who are you to judge the life that I live? I am not perfect and I don't live to be, but before you start pointing fingers...make sure your hands are clean"

I like this quote. I think there are some people out there that should take this to heart before they open their mouths.

I don't think a month goes by that I don't encounter or hear something that completely floors me. It makes me very angry when I hear gossip or rumors or someone just saying something mean about someone else. I have heard a lot yesterday and today and it saddens me that these "grown ups" are potentially influencing our kids and how they think.

I am far from perfect and I will never pretend to be, but do people have to be so cruel?

Great weekend~

We had such a good weekend! Davis was at his moms, Gage and Maia were at their grandparents, so we were down to just Dane. That is not why we had such a great weekend though, of course we miss the kids when they are gone. But it was just very relaxing. The grandparents took the kids to their basketball games, so we just showed up at starting time in no rush. Gage had a GREAT game! I have never been to such an intense 10 year old game! We were behind most the game, and some yahoo sitting behind us rooting for the other team was being extremely annoying with his comments about the kids. I just don't understand how/why some parents act that way. So of course I secretly was wishing we would beat them so he would shut up. The closer the scores got, the more frustrated that guy got. It was a little entertaining. There were twins on the other team that were GIANTS and they were patting my Gage on the head. Well, Gage showed them! the score was 22-23 and there were 10 seconds left. The idiot behind us was yelling at the kids with the ball to go slow and waste time. I was so mad I yelled at Gage to steal the ball and HE DID! He listened to his mother! yeah, or maybe he didn't, but he still stole the ball and raced down to the end of the court with me yelling SHOOT IT! He actually made the shot with 1 second left to win the game! I wanted to spin around and yell "HA!" to the guy behind us, but I didn't because I was so proud of my little guy that I started to cry, and I didn't want anyone to see what a blubbering fool I was. But my husband took the spotlight away from me and my crying and cheering by running across the court like they had just won the Superbowl cheering. It was pretty funny but he was so proud of Gage too.

So then since we just had Dane, we decided to take him to a movie. For some reason my 3 year old boy keep asking to see Mall Cop. He sat through the whole thing laughing. And I was laughing because it was so cute that he was laughing. Make sense?

And Sunday we sat around all day playing video games.

Sorry no pictures to post!

It was a fairly decent day today

So I took some pictures of Gage, Maia, and their cousin MaKayla. We went to a pretty church in town to take photos on the front steps. There was a creeper lurking out his windows watching us though. What a weirdo. We didnt stay too long.

The Twilight Series

So I got hooked on the Twilight series. It was right around Christmastime. I had heard so much about this book, I thought, I am just going to have to read it. I finished the first book in a couple days and thought I must have the next. Well they were sold out! Everywhere! It was during the snowstorm we had here. I made Steve drive me into town to Barnes and Noble but they CLOSED because of the weather. I couldn't believe it, I was actually mad and wanted to pound on the windows because I SAW there were people in there. All I wanted was one measly little book! So then we headed into the mall and hit the little bookstore in there. I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked the employee there and she said to take a look in the JUNIOR/TEEN section. "OOHH, I see...a teenage romance novel. Yeah, cuz my niece, yeah that's right, my niece really wants it for Christmas." Hmm, so I am reading a teen book. Oh well. I ended up ordering New Moon and Eclipse online and had to wait. As soon as I got them I completely ignored my family for days while I devoured them. I am finishing up Breaking Dawn now. I have to say Twilight and Breaking Dawn are my favorites. The other 2 middle books are pretty good still. Now I really want to see the movie! I know it wont be as good as the books. So if you had read the books, who would you choose?? Edward or Jacob? I cant decide, I like them both.

On a side note, we decided on Disneyland!! Yeah!! I am going to try to keep in a secret from the kids, I don't know how long that will last since I get too excited. Don't ask about the airplane ride, I haven't figured out how they are going to get me on yet. I am trying not to think about it. Medication may have to be involved again. We are getting a sweet deal on the tickets thanks to a friend and I have a lot of unused airline miles...imagine that. So the expense of 6 people wont be too bad!

And for the picture lovers, here are some amazing photo's from Vanity Fair magazine. I love them! www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/12/twilight_outtakes200812

I hope that works. Beautiful pictures.