HAPPY BLOG-IVERSARY TO ME!

I have now officially been blogging for

one year today!

Blog Stats:

I've posted a total of exactly 300 posts! Katelee was the most frequently blogged about subject, with 122 posts dedicated to her. I've recorded some of our family history of this past year, shared recipes, showed make-it-yourself projects, laughed at Flashback Fridays and occasionally had some useful information to give. But mostly I've just rambled about life as I see it. It has been very therapeutic. :)

And a very fun year of blogging for me!

In celebration, I'm having a GIVEAWAY!

(Humor me! I feel like a celebration is in order. Let's just pretend I'm some really cool professional blogger with thousands of readers rather than the truth: a private blogger that rambles about anything and is only semi-interesting to anyone who isn't me and has a readership of approximately 12. :)

Leave a comment on this post by midnight on February 14, 2010 to be entered into the drawing!

The winner will get their own, home-made and embroidered-by-me paper sorter, like this one I made to organize my mail and other papers:

You can choose your own size and your own categories. This has been really handy for me to keep my incoming mail and papers organized. But I was thinking this would also work for sorting kid's homework and school papers (put each kid's name on one section), or for sorting crafting paper, etc. I'll put whatever categories you choose on it, so you don't have to use it for mail, like I do.

Since this is a private blog and normally there are only about 10 of you who ever comment, you have really good odds of winning this giveaway! (Not like the giveaways I enter faithfully on Pioneer Woman's blog - along with thousands and thousands of others! Of course, I'm also not giving away $500 or more of awesome kitchen equipment, but still - good odds!)

I'd love to hear from any of you who are reading this blog,

even if you've never commented before.

Good luck!

Love,

Jenn

New Curtains

I never put curtains up in my old house, until my real estate agent came in and fixed up the house a little. She hung up curtains, and I realized what a HUGE difference it made! So I have been slowly adding curtains to my new apartment. My favorite thing about curtains is the way they can add big color to a room.

While at JoAnne's the other day, I found a strip of fabric on the 'red tag' dirt cheap sale rack that I fell in love with! I decided to use it to make a valance for some curtains in my piano/office room. This is how they turned out.

This fabric really makes me happy.

(Melissa, is this the same as the fabric for your curtains in your kitchen?)

While I was at it, I decided to make some adjustments to my kitchen curtains.

When I initially made them I didn't line them, and that has been bothering me since. So I used more of the tan fabric (used above) to line the back of my kitchen curtains. You can see the difference below:

The right one is lined, the left one isn't in this picture.

I love them so much more now. They aren't completely see-through now and they look so much better from the outside and a lot less 'homemade.'

The only room I haven't curtained yet is Katelee's, mostly because I cannot make a decision about the style of curtains I want to have. Any one have a good idea for cute girly curtains that also can cover the entire window to keep out the cold and light when needed?

Feeling Like Home

I had a startling realization yesterday.

Highlands Ranch is beginning to feel like home.

Yesterday I ran several spontaneous errands after dropping Gerald off at the train, and then in the evening I had reason to run by several ward member's homes, and I didn't have to look up anything on mapquest! You might laugh, but that's huge to me!

A few times in the last few weeks I've had a chance to sit and visit with friends; just a night of girl-talk. I've missed that a lot. That was also huge to me.

Sitting in Relief Society on Sunday, I discovered that I actually knew almost everybody's name! A big difference from when I only knew about 2 names in the room. :)

And then I found out yesterday that a Cafe Rio opened here in Denver! HOORAY! A mom of one of my sweet preschool music class students gave us two coupons for free meals there, and I cannot wait to use them!

The feeling of being a visiting stranger is still present sometimes, but I'm definitely beginning to feel more at home here.

An Architect in the Making

Gerald disassembled some of his models from last semester and gave Katelee the extra pieces to play with. She loves building her own models, and can spend a long time working on it. Here is her most recent creative masterpiece:

Valentine's Day Cookies

Katelee and I made some Valentine's day sugar cookies together the other night. I'm considering trying to sell these around Valentine's day, but I'm not sure they're worth the work. How much do you think I should charge for:

a bag of 5 bite-sized cookies

or one extra-large sugar cookie?

Of course, all the cookies would be individually wrapped and tied with a cute ribbon. Do you think people would be interested in these?

Spring is in the Air

Okay, okay, I know it is only January, but seriously the past couple of weeks here have been very beautiful! There's no snow on the ground and we have had many relatively warm days. We're taking advantage of the spring-like weather and have spent several mornings at the park. Here are a few pictures I snapped the other day.

It was a bit breezy!

Look at those gorgeous eyes!

Katelee is very proud of her newfound bravery in climbing in this rope jungle gym!

Look, mom! I'm so brave!

I know winter will return again before it's completely over, but we're enjoying the weather while we can!

Interview With a Bride

Jennifer: Katelee, what are you doing?

Katelee: (In a high-pitched voice) Getting married!

Jennifer: Who are you marrying?

Katelee: Someone I met at the castle.

Jennifer: What's his name?

Katelee: (shrugging) I don't know, I didn't ask him.

Jennifer: Where are you getting married?

Katelee: At the temple. And then we are going to move there and live happily ever after and be married.

Jennifer: Aren't you the most beautiful bride in the whole world?

Katelee: Uh-huh. I am. (Big smile.)

I had a sudden vision of being with Katelee on her real wedding day. She really will be the most beautiful bride in the whole world, and I hope that day takes a long, long time to get here.

Paperwork!

I woke up yesterday morning motivated to make a huge dent in this gigantic packet of adoption paperwork before the weekend was over.

Now that I have resolved that this is for real, I am anxious to get it going as quickly as possible!

Lest you think I'm exaggerating when I complain about the paperwork, let me tell you just a few of the things we have to fill out and/or gather.

• A general application form
• 3 detailed letters of reference from non-relatives
• A reference letter from our bishop
• All 3 us have to have a medical exams and the doctor has to prove we are healthy
• Fingerprinting for all 3 of us (seriously, Katelee, too!)
• Background checks for all 3 of us
• Financial statements and employment verification (Employment? What employment?)
• Proof of health insurance
• Detailed information about our extended families, including personality traits, physical descriptions, our relationships with them, etc.
• An 11-page questionnaire about our more immediate family that asks questions such as, "Describe your childhood (teenage, newlywed, etc.) experience," "How sexually compatible are you and your spouse," and "How will you discipline a child in your care?" - just to name a few.
• Pages of questions about what we prefer or are okay with in terms of the adopted child: including race and about every possible medical condition possible. You also have to mark if you are okay with the birth parent having that condition.
• More essay questions I haven't even come to yet
• A home study - 3 visits to our home by a case worker to make sure we have a safe and nurturing home environment.
• More things I know I haven't even begun to uncover.

Phew! So, what do you think is worse? All this paperwork or childbirth? Ha ha ha! I can't make a fair judgement, as Katelee was born C-section. :)

Pardon my Bragging

This past Tuesday Gerald returned to grad school for his second semester. He had an entire month off between semesters, and we were so spoiled having him around so much! I figured that since he has now already begun his second semester it's time to brag about his work from the first semester. He put in tons of hours, but it paid off. He got all A's and made the 'dean's list,' (what does that really mean?) and designed and built some pretty cool structures. Here are the structures he created in his studio class first semester:

Look at all those tiny stairs!

He also had did a lot of drawing. Some of the biggest and most complicated (therefore most impressive) drawings were so big I couldn't get them to download. But here are a few of the smaller things he drew:

Pretty cool, eh?

News

It's been a crazy, exciting, and emotional couple of days.

Yesterday morning we received news that Gerald got a small scholarship to help us pay this semester's tuition! Isn't he awesome?! I'm so proud of him and his great grades; he even made the 'dean's list' for last term.

Yesterday I also attended the adoption meeting that I was anxiously waiting for, got my paperwork to fill out (the size of a book; I'm not kidding!) and learned what we needed to to get the whole thing officially going. It was exciting and hard all at the same time. And my heart was only halfway there, because in my heart of hearts, I believed and hoped I was pregnant.

I've had all the symptoms, and some recent events and medications prompted my doctor to tell me I had a better chance than usual of getting pregnant. When I told my doctor what I was feeling, she responded very positively and told me to come in for a blood test.

Then this morning I got a phone call from my sister with AWESOME news! My brother was officially okayed to be my dad's kidney donor! And the transplant has been scheduled for only a couple short weeks away! We are so excited! We all did a happy dance around the apartment! I am soooo happy for my dad and soooo excited that my family is coming here! I cannot wait!

A couple of hours after that my doctor called to tell me the results of the pregnancy test were negative. You would think I would be used to that answer by now, but I am heartbroken. I was more sure than I had ever been before. In my head this was the final try - I am now resigned to the fact that my next child will come to our family through adoption. I feel excited and a little resentful, happy and sad, upset and giddy and nervous all at the same time now that it's officially time to pay the money and start digging through the paperwork pile.

I also heard from my little sister this afternoon, and she is flying out from Idaho when my parents first come out! I cannot WAIT to see her, too! It made my day; we are going to have so much fun together!

Isn't life funny? You can go through days and days of the same old routine, and then suddenly experience a couple of days filled with all sorts of excitement. The last few days definitely fit into that category.

8 Years Ago Today

Eight years ago today

I married the love of my life

in the St. George temple.

Being married to Gerald has been even more fun than I ever imagined.

Like every married couple, we've had our ups and downs,

but when I look back on the last eight years,

the word that comes to mind is

JOY.

It has been a joy to be part of this marriage.

And every day I spend with him is even better than the last.

I look forward to many more years (an eternity!) with my best friend.

I love you, Gerald.

Happy Anniversary!

Did You Know?

Tuesday night we had a Relief Society activity about Preparing for a Pandemic. It went really well, mostly thanks to this amazing sister in my ward, Angie, (a nurse) who gave a wonderful and interesting presentation about illnesses, pandemics, and keeping your family healthy. Seriously, she did so good! I was in charge of presenting to the sisters about how to prepare our homes. Do you remember me blogging about that before? You can read this post here to see lists of things you should store. In my preparations, though, I learned something that I think is really interesting and useful.

Did you know that there is a big difference between

sanitizing and disinfecting?

Sanitizing kills bacteria. (Or at least 99.9% of it!)

Disinfecting, however, kills bacteria and viruses.

I always thought those terms meant the same thing. After learning this, I started reading the labels on all my sanitizing household cleaners. None of them kill the cold or flu virus.

Now, I don't think we need to disinfect our houses everyday. But after someone has been sick or in case of a pandemic, we really need to have some disinfectants in our home (I use bleach - including the Clorox disinfecting wipes - and Comet with bleach).

In short, I wanted to share this info, because I always thought sanitizing and disinfecting meant the same thing, and I was surprised to learn otherwise. Now that I know this I will read the labels on the cleaning supplies I buy more carefully, and try to find more disinfectants. I will also make sure that I have something to disinfect in my long-term storage. (Be aware that bleach does start to deteriorate after 6 months. Make sure to rotate it out of your storage.) I thought this was helpful enough to share.

To disinfect a surface: mix 1 part bleach with 9 parts cool water (10% bleach, 90% water)

To disinfect water: filter the water first, or let water sit until all the particles have settled. Then add 2 drops of bleach per quart of water or 8 drops of bleach per gallon of water.

Gettin' Organized

Something about getting home from a long trip sent me into an

organizing frenzy.

I've spent a lot of time in the past week and a half organizing my house.

Since moving in and getting organized initially, there were three main areas that were still driving me nuts: the closet in the piano/office room, the office desk, and the kitchen pantry.

The closet in the piano/office room looked organized when everything was put away. The closet was full, floor to ceiling, with those huge plastic tubs. The problem only came when I wanted to actually use the stuff in the tubs. I would have to un-bury the tub I needed, then pull things out of the tub left and right while I searched for the one little item within the tub I was looking for ... needless to say, using anything in the closet was a mess! I told Gerald that we needed some shelves for the top half of the closet, but that we didn't have any money to spend. While we were brainstorming about making shelves out of cardboard boxes and duct tape (it would've worked, don't you think?!) we found someone on Craigslist giving away 6 CD shelves for free. Hooray, we snatched them up and altered them to fit our purposes. NOW look at my organized closet. I love it. Don't call me crazy, but occasionally I come in here just to look at the beauty of it. Ah.... :)

Another issue is the top of my desk. It's always covered with papers and it makes me crazy. Mail, bills, junk, coupons... How does anyone keep up with the filing? Seriously, how do you do it? This has been one of my pet peeves for a long time, but no matter how much it bothers me I simply cannot keep up with it. And, I can't file away things I haven't taken care of (like bills); I'm one of those out-of-sight, out-of-mind people.

This is the solution I have come up with. I saw a tutorial for something similar on UCreate, and created this to fit our needs using only materials I already had on hand. I have high hopes that this is going to keep my desk top sparkling clean! I'll let you know how it goes!

Cute, isn't it?

Now I just need to tackle the pantry. Tell me - do any of you have some good ideas for organizing a pantry that is about 5 times too small? It bothers me that I can't see everything at once, that I have to bury some food in order to fit it all in. Then how do you keep things from getting forgotten and going to waste? Hmmm... this is my current predicament and I'd love any advice you have to offer!

I Love Primary!

Katelee reached a big milestone this week.

She graduated from nursery to PRIMARY!

I can't believe my little baby is big enough to be in primary.  And then again, I guess I can believe it.  She looked soooo big in nursery lately.

Katelee loved nursery, so I was worried about this transition.  We were out of town last week, so technically she attended her first week of Primary in our old ward in Lehi.  While we were out of town, we also missed the 'meet your new teacher' activity.  So yesterday, in hopes of easing the transition, we made plans to go over to Katelee's new primary teacher's house to meet her.  

Katelee wanted to make her teacher a treat.  I suggested cookies or rice krispie treats.

But Katelee insisted her teacher would want brownies.

Here is a picture of Katelee making the brownies for her new teacher.

A picture of Katelee all ready to deliver the brownies.

Katelee's new teacher, Sister Crellin, is wonderful.  I cannot say enough good about her already.  Katelee loved meeting her!  As a parent, I am gaining a whole new appreciation for good teachers.

Here is Katelee this morning with her new Book of Mormon and Dad's old scripture case, all ready to go to church and her first week of big-girl primary.

Our new church time is 11:00 (the best time ever!), and so part of me feels like our ward is going to meet the 'real' Katelee for the first time.  Before, we were taking a tired and cranky Katelee to church each week.  I knew she was just grumpy from being woken up too early, but the other ward members didn't know that.  Today Katelee was like a new person in church.  I tell you, sleep is essential to Katelee's happiness.  (Mine, too, actually!)

When we picked her up after primary today, Katelee was bubbling over with excitement to tell us all about the happy things she did in class.  She told us about Joseph Smith and showed us the creative things she made as part of the lesson.  She loves the other girls in her class, she loves her teacher, and she loves primary.  

Hooray!

Adoption Blog

In case you haven't heard, we have started an adoption blog.  The link is:

www.Praying4Adoption.blogspot.com

This blog will be a series of letters for our future child, telling the child about our family and documenting the adoption process.  Someday I want our child to know how much he/she was wanted and needed in our family.  If you would like to see what is happening in our adoption process, this is where you can look for updated information.

Be aware now: it's a LONG process and we are barely beginning it.  For a long time it is going to seem that not much is happening.  But we will keep you all as udpated as possible.  

If you feel so inclined, we would be so thankful for anyone who would put a link to this blog on their own blog.  We hear that many successful adoptions occur because someone knew someone who knew someone who was adopting...  You know how it goes!

Thanks again for your prayers and your support!

Home

After leaving the Shills home on Sunday, we headed to my Aunt Darla's.  We had so much fun that evening with them!  Tara, Dallin and darling baby Hyrum joined us for a delicious meal of Darla's expert cooking.  Katelee was in  heaven following Brianna around and hanging on her every word.  She idolizes Brianna!  After dinner Scott taught us all how to play the game Hearts, and we had a fun time playing cards and visiting.  We are so grateful to the St. Claire's for their constant hospitality towards us!

The next morning, we got up and headed for home.  It was a beautiful sunshiny day, and we are thankful that all our traveling on this trip was eventless and smooth.

After 18 days on vacation, it was wonderful to return to our cozy little apartment that we call home.  Katelee was excited to see her toys again.  I especially loved using my own shower and sleeping in my own bed.  

As the old quote goes, "There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again."

Friends

Gerald and I have had many discussions in the past month about the importance of friendship.  True friends are so essential to happiness.  Friendship is an eternal principle.  Not everyone understands this, but it's true.

Gerald and I have both made it one of our 2010 resolutions to be even better friends this year.

One of our greatest joys in visiting Utah was seeing some friends again.  We were sorely disappointed that we didn't get to see all our Utah friends on this trip; time was so limited!  There were so many of you (Tammy, Lindsey, the Emery's, Lehi ward friends, the Deans, and more) that we simply didn't get a chance to visit this time around.   We really would like to see you next time, for sure.

However, we did get to see many dear friends, and it was so wonderful!

The Wednesday before New Years we stopped in Lehi for a quick visit.  I hadn't seen the Shill's new baby yet, which I was dying to do, and we wanted to see the Pfunders before they left town.  It was soooo nice to sit in Tiff's kitchen and visit with everyone; it was just like old times!

Then Tiffany made arrangements for my book club friends and Kara to get together on Saturday for lunch.  We went to Olive Garden where we ordered the all you can eat soup and salad lunch and gabbed like crazy for several hours.  It was heaven: good food, amazing friends, great conversation . . . it did my heart good.  I love those girls so much!  This type of situation is the number one thing I have most missed since moving - sitting around and talking with true friends that know you as well as you know yourself.  I'm still looking for that here in Denver.  It takes time.  

Sunday we attended our old ward.  The Shills blessed their sweet new baby (who by the way is even more adorable in person!) and we had a great time catching up with all our old friends from the ward.  Wendy made me cry in Relief Society by expressing how that they miss me (Oh, it's nice to be missed!) and I was able to see so many other friends that I've longed to see.  It was wonderful.

The Shills invited us over after church for the luncheon.  I didn't want to feel like we were infringing on their family time, but I have to honestly say that I felt just like one of the family.  The Shills are like that.  I love them.

We stayed at the Shills until about 4 in the afternoon, visiting, playing, breaking up kid fights, laughing, and cuddling the baby.  It was perfect.

That day while we were in church, the closing Sacrament hymn had the following words.  Unfortunately I was in the bathroom at this time, but Gerald later pointed out that these words perfectly describe our feelings:

Each life that touches our for good

Reflects thine own great mercy Lord:

Thou sendest blessings from above

Thru words and deeds of those who love.

What greater gift doest thou bestow

What greater goodness can we know

Than Christlike friends, whose memory

Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

For worthy friends whose lives proclaim 

Devotion to the Savior's name

Who bless our days with peace and love

We praise thy goodness, Lord, above.

Thank you, to all our friends, for the many ways you better our lives.

BYU

I love BYU.

So much.

Whenever we are in Provo, we have to spend time on the campus.

As soon as I step onto the Y campus, I immediately feel like I'm returning home.

Everyone should feel this way about their alma mater.

I love it.

We had so much fun visiting BYU while we were in town this holiday break. In addition to going bowling at BYU, we also walked around campus and took Katelee to the BYU bookstore, to eat an ice cream cone at the Creamery, and to the Bean museum.

Although Katelee has been to the Bean museum before, she was SO fun to watch this time! She was very excited to see all the animals, and was so enthusiastic about the whole thing. The museum workers offered her a 'scavenger hunt:' a paper with pictures of different animals she was to find while in the museum and a crayon to color each picture as she found it. Katelee was thrilled about the scavenger hunt and took it very seriously. We had a great time completing the paper together.

ROARing is one of Katelee's special talents.

I didn't get many pictures with Katelee in them, because she wouldn't hold still long enough. But we did have a great time!

Happy New Year!

The evening of New Year's Eve, the Willden family came to Provo to spend the night with us at mom and dad Reynolds' house. We had a great night! We made my sister's yummy, yummy ham soup (for the recipe, click here). After dinner, we played lots of fun games: Apples to Apples, spoons, the candy bar game, and more. Then at 10:30 we decided to celebrate the New Year with the kids and put them to bed. We had a countdown, tooted our horns, yelled, and had a general good time. Then, time for bed.

Katelee got to experience her very first 'sleepover,' in the sense that she was allowed to sleep in the same room with all her cousins and without any adults. She LOVED it. I wasn't sure if she was going to stay there all night, but she did and had a wonderful time! New Years Day we went to the Willdens home for a lovely ham dinner. After dinner we made graham cracker gingerbread houses. The kids LOVED this!

Here's a picture of everyone working hard.

Katelee spent a lot of timing eating the treats out of the bowls. :)All the kids showing their amazing creations!Grandma Reynolds' cute train - the kids loved it!
The wonderful house designed and constructed by Katelee, with help from Gerald.
The house I made. Gerald also made his own later. It was a graham cracker version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but unfortunately I never got a picture of it. Shoot!

Anyway, WELCOME 2010!