Don't Hold Your Breath

In the recent spirit of slacking off I have (for the third time this issue) postponed the newsletter that should have been done in April until the beginning of June.

My excuses this time: Jared and I came back from a fabulous vacation on the 31st of March and spent the next week and a half desperately trying to get back into the swing of things. We were exhausted, no newsletter. I had aimed to have it done for the first week of May and then I ended up having surgery on the 28th of April. Yeah, I am using the "I just had surgery" excuse again. There are still lots of much more visible things I am trying to catch up on around here. Can you say Laundry Heap? Since it is now the 7th of May I have given up on getting done by the first week in May.

So, promise not to be mad at me because I have been soooo lazy lately and I PROMISE, cross my heart, that no later than the 1st of June there will be a double the normal size, double usual fun, amazing compilation of four months worth of the goings on around here for your enjoyment. You won't want to miss it! See. I knew you'd understand.

Good for Nothing Slackers

Hey look! Jared and Aubrey aren't dead. Geez I thought we had lost them...

Here's our list of excuses:

On the 15th of April I went to meet with a surgeon to talk about having my gallbladder taken out. We scheduled surgery for the 28th of April.

I spent the 18th of April in the ER having muscle spasms in my back. I went to the ER because severe back pain is a bad sign when you have gallbladder issues. They decided there was nothing wrong with me and then waited eight hours to tell me that.

The week leading up to my surgery (the 20-26th)I spent feeling really gross and Jared spent at work. Seriously, he worked 12 hour days everyday but Wednesday, since he had scouts and I had to help the YW with a craft project. He also worked a full 8 hours on Saturday, which was the 26th. The kids really started to lose it not being able to see Daddy and he really missed them too.

I had surgery at the crack of freaking dawn on the 28th. I don't recommend it. It went fine and the anesthesia didn't make me sick but I was tired and sore and didn't eat hardly anything for a couple of days. I don't recommend that either. The first time I tried to take a shower was horrible, I passed out and then threw up all over Jared's feet. I love you honey.

Jared was supposed to go back to work on Thursday but I was still feeling awful on Wednesday night so he decided he'd stay home Thursday too. Jared made me eat some soup before I went to bed on Wednesday night, I managed to keep it down, and I felt miraculously better on Thursday morning. Crazy how much better a person feels when they are not starving to death. Things have quickly improved since then and I am really feeling fine except for the stupid itchy stitches. Jared was amazing taking care of all the stuff there is to take care of around here and letting me rest up and my hope is for him to never need surgery :)

Jared's work has been insane lately as they have officially reached the freak-out stage of product wrap up. He has been working a ton the last few days and there have been some whisperings sending him to Toronto for...as long as it takes to finish things.

So see, we really have had a good bunch of excuses for neglecting our cyberspace responsibilities, we're not just lazy or dead.

Self-Portraiture

Everyone knows that everything is made in China. More often that not, if it's made out of metal, plastic, or cloth it's been through some part of China. One thing that surprised me though (though I'm not sure why) is that China also produces most of the world's reproductions of oil paintings. If you see some Renoir painting hanging on the wall at a furniture store, chances are it was painted by a resident of Dafen, a small village that is part of the Shenzhen metropolis.

These guys may specialize in reproductions of paintings, but they are also very talented artists.

A group called Regional commissioned a few of the artists to paint self-portraits, and I think the results are amazing. The thing that I particularly like is the way the artists authentically mimic the style of the artist they specialize in, while still adding their personal touches.

Easter Morning 2008

The List

Jared and I were talking last night making a short list of the things we needed to take care of before his Mom came to watch the kids while we are out of town. There were just three things that we needed to buy. After we made the mental list he and I had a good laugh over the whole thing and how suspicious it looked.

Things to buy before Sherry comes:

Drain-O

A Small Sports Bag

Hedge Trimmers

Good grief. Some one call Fat Tony and make sure that's all we need.

I'm socks, I'm T-shirts, I'm Wisdom!

Located in the land of Our House in a little known place called Mom and Dad's Room there exists a heap of clean laundry; at almost any given time it can be found, in varying degrees of size, spilling out of at least one laundry basket in front of the hope chest. I've decided against folding it several times, for a few different reasons (I'm tired and I don't want to are favorites of mine) but when Jared and I were turning in the other night and it was still sitting there relatively untouched I came up with an entirely new reason for not folding the laundry.

Do you remember Madame Trash Heap from Fraggles?

Well I have one of those at my house, except mine is made of clean laundry; it's mostly kids clothes, though there are a couple of sheets, several blankets and a few towels in the heap too. What if I put all of that laundry away and then I needed to ask it a question? Then what would I do?

Rockstar!

Today Sam came over for playgroup all on a cloud because she had made an appointment to get her hair done. To which I said, "Ohhhh. My hair sucks too. I wanna get my hair done!" So I called and made an appointment for the same time as her appointment, then I was wracked with guilt...did I really NEED to get my hair done? Yes. Really, really? Yes! Jared helped talk me into going too.

Sam and I headed off and I went in there thinking that I'd probably leave with a few highlights and the same semi-mom haircut that I have gotten every time I've gotten my haircut for the last few years. We waited for a minute and then a girl with MANY MANY visible tattoos and gauged ears called Sam back. Sam and I exchanged a look and I laughed to myself, "Ha, ha, you got the weirdo." Then an older lady came and shook my hand and introduced herself as Susan, and I thought "Oh, great."

I said the same, "I want something different and a little dramatic, but not weird. I want it short with a lot of texture and layers. I kind of like this picture (insert picture of skinny girl with cute hair from catalog in here)." I've gotten used to the result that comes from this. She asked a few questions (like did I like this dark brown/red color) and I told her to do whatever she thought would be good. "Look at my hair. I obviously have no idea." After she and another girl at color mixing bar kept whispering and looking at me I figured out that she was new to this whole thing and was getting a lot of help. Great again. Then she started coloring. I was thinking some blond and maybe a few red foils and then it turned into all over color. Okay, wonderful. Now I'm not the kind of person who freaks out about my hair; It's just hair, it's going to grow out. She kept telling me that my hair was beautiful but she understood needing a change and I was going to love this. The weird looking girl doing Sam's hair told me that since my hair was darker now I was going to need to buy an eyebrow pencil...ha ha ha, fabulous.

Again I say, I am not the kind to stress out about what they are doing to my hair. I figured anything would be better than the tired mop I had come in with. The color turned out amazing and she was totally right, I love it! Then she started cutting, and it was then that I realized what my problem with haircuts had been in the past. I always get the person who is afraid to cut it as short as I say I want it. At this point Sam was long since done so Susan brought over the weirdo (Kaci) to help her with the cut. In other words Kaci cut it, telling Susan every step she was making and why, while Susan looked on and made horrified faces at how much hair she was cutting off. I told her she was making me nervous and she assured me that it was a good thing Kaci was doing it. I imagine if Susan had cut it I would have left with my traditional angled-bob that was a teeny bit longer than I had wanted it to be. Kaci went right to it cutting and chopping and there were large bits of hair flying everywhere, and Susan was still standing there saying, "Really? That much?" She was learning a lot, and was really very sweet.

Turns out Kaci is not only my new favorite hair dresser, but Sam's new favorite too. Susan, and whoever she was conspiring with at the color mixing bar, also did a fabulous job with the color. This is the haircut I have wanted for years now! I have rockstar hair!

Help! Help!

We are in need of some serious help folks, and not for what you might think. We are going to paint the kitchen on Saturday, which gives us a mere four days to decide what color to paint. We bought new rugs which will go with anything...

Our cabinets are wood, I think the stain was called fruit wood, it's a more red/brown than yellow finish. The counter top is called Bronze Legacy and looks like this...

Now you decide. What color should we paint the kitchen?

Optical Illusions

As a kid, I used to love picking out books of optical illusions at the library. There were only a couple, so I checked them each out multiple times. It was something I always found interesting. I had never seen this one before, though.

Both the A and B squares are the same color, believe it or not. To prove it to myself I had to open in up in Paint Shop Pro and use the eyedropper tool. Looking at it now, I still can't believe they are the same.

I wish I had seen this illusion earlier, though. It would have made this comic even funnier.

I'm So Excited!

Jared and I are going to the Dominican Republic next month! With no kids! For four days! I am so excited I can hardly think or speak in complete sentences!

A girl that Jared baptized is getting married in the temple, to a native Dominican who served a mission and she was kind enough to give us a good excuse to go on a fabulous vacation.