Here's to Harper

Harper is awesome. See below.

SYTYCD?!

http://afternoon-t.blogspot.com/2009/06/so-you-think-you-can-dance.html

Click here to read something awesome if you are a fan too...

And watch Wednesday!

Sunny memories and the gift of lightning

It has been very rainy and cloudy lately. I miss the sunshine and blue skies. But, I do believe that without the rainy grey days we wouldn't really appreciate the sunny blue skies.  Below are some of my favorite pics from the spring blossoms on some niiiiice, sunny, blue sky days. Ahhh, memories. (i thought it was supposed to be summer!)

Found around town in Northern Kentucky

And my hanging baskets in the early bloom. They are even fuller now (the vines are, anyway).

Today I was driving through the hammering thunderstorms, white knuckled and wide eyed. It reminded me of a trip with my mom in high school. We were driving to a volleyball tournament somewhere in Tennessee (Chattanooga, I think, but I'm not sure).  It was just the two of us in the suburban, and we were on a road like the Natchez Trace (again, I'm not sure which highway it was, but it was two lane, no shoulder, and surrounded by thick trees on either side so there was no way to tell where you were or if you were near civilization). It started to storm and the rain was coming down so hard and it was so dark on the road that we could barely see anything on the road. Mom was gripping the wheel, and I was gripping the handle in the passenger seat, both of us knuckles white and eyes wide. We were so worried that we'd wreck, we had slowed down to 20mph or so (even if we managed to stay on the road, we were going so slowly that a car going the speed limit could easily slam into the back of us before seeing us). 

We decided to pray - for safety, for help, for guidance, for the storms to stop, for safe delivery of any kind. (My mom kept her eyes open and on the road of course.) Shortly after we prayed, it started to lightning. Eventually we realized that the lightning was guiding and lighting our course. Every 10 to 20 seconds the lightning would strike ahead of us, lighting up the sky enough for us to get our sense of direction long enough until the next bolt would strike, again lighting our way and the road ahead. 

Eventually the storm subsided, and we reached our destination safely. I'll never forget that experience and how our prayer was answered. I think it's a great point to ponder, how our prayer was answered- but not by the storm ending. Rather by what most would consider an increase in the storms intensity and violence, which turned out to be the factor that kept us safe. hmm.... now go think about metaphors and analogies.  

Celebrating

Today I got some really good news.  Without going into too much detail, I'm really excited, a huge weight of uncertainty was lifted, and the three week long Olson Family spending freeze is over. (No, I'm not prego.)

So I squealed once, then jumped up and down for about three minutes. High knees and all. Side to side and back to front with Harper at my side jumping right along with me (although not exactly the high knees part). Then I called Duffy to share the news with him and I was totally panting. It took me back to the days of plyometrics  training for volleyball. Then I called my mom.

It got me thinking about the different ways we celebrate good news.  Whether it's a smooch, a squeal, some crazy dance move (usually involving a jump), a fist pump or two, a dogpile, or just a great big smile - it's always great to see some celebrating, and it seems there are different go-to moves for all the different kinds of things that we celebrate. 

What is your favorite way to celebrate? After a quick search on google images, I found a some that made me smile. (Of course most that are captured on camera are usually sports-related.)

If you have any good pics, you should post them, too!

DC Visit

After dreaming about it for years, I finally made my road trip to DC to visit my sister's family. It was such a blast! Even though the first few days were rainy, we had lots of fun! I got to help Taryn with a baby shower she was throwing for a friend. It was like baking camp! We made lots of yummy treats: 

      

Left: Taryn and Ashley (the shower was for her) frosting the onesies. It was fun!

Center: The recipe made about 40 cookies! Almost all of them made it to the baby shower.

Right: The onesie upclose. So tasty! We got the idea from a segment on Martha Stewart. Cookie recipe here.

The spread at the shower (just desserts) included yummy cupcakes with pink butter cream frosting, a chocolate fountain, meringues (with mini chocolate chips- leave out the espresso), and chocolate raspberry bars with white chocolate and almonds. The recipes are linked because they were all sooo yummy, if you like sweets like this.

On Friday after the shower was finished we checked out some museums in downtown DC. The real fun was when Dean joined the party! He flew in late friday for the USNA Summer Seminar that he was invited to attend. He's there right now and I can't wait to hear more about it... I guess it's a little sampling of what plebe summer would be like. We spent most of Saturday hanging out with Dean, then driving to MD and doing a little exploring. The town of Annapolis is very charming. When Dean was checking in, a midshipman (woman?, it was a girl) came up to visit with us and answer some questions. She mentioned that last week someone didn't memorize all of the material in time and they made him cry about it! I think today is the big day (memorizing testing day) for Dean, so I hope he's got it all down. I'm pretty sure he's not the crying type, but do you even think he would tell us if he did? I can't wait to hear all about it!

Me, Reese and Dean outside the visitors center at Annapolis. Such a beautiful campus, right on the water.

On Sunday evening after church we went to the National Mall so I could see the sites. (I guess my family went when I was little - but I was too little to remember any of it.) We walked through the Lincoln, down the Reflecting Pond, and around the WWII Memorial. Since it was getting late, we did the rest by car- Jefferson, Washington, Capitol, White House, Iwo Jima. It was great! We also drove through tons and tons of government buildings... As we did, the thought kept recurring in my mind: How can our country be in such bad financial shape, and our national debt so high, yet we still have tons and tons of beautiful buildings, that I'm sure employ millions, and where did we get extra money to build all these things, and keep them beautiful? If any of you readers are historians, poli-sci fanatics, or just know the answers, please comment and solve this mystery! 

Enough of my musings, here are the best photos I snapped of the evening. 

Whenever Reese is not in the stroller, she is pushing it. SO CUTE! She holds on to this little railing for the basket below the seat. It's hilar!

   

The Lincoln Memorial- from far and farther. It's much much larger than I thought it was. Very majestic. It seemed as though everyone that was near it or inside it was overcome by reverence and awe. Amazing!

  

Right: The Wheatley's at the World War II Memorial. Left: Me posing with my current home state pillar. I thought about taking them with all the states I've called home, but that would have been lots of posing, so I settled for just one. These pictures don't give a complete view of the memorial. Click here for better shots. I highly recommend it- it's beautiful!

Field of Stars at the WWII Memorial. It looks really neat in person. 

The Freedom Wall. After some quick math I figured that there are about 4000 stars on this wall!

And a drive-by of the capitol. It was way past Reese's bedtime and she was getting pretty tired, so we finished with the driving tour.

 

It was such a fun trip and went by fast. Now it's their turn to come visit us! If anyone else wants to, we are completely welcoming all friends and family who want to venture through the flyover states. 

I remember when...

President Eyring gave this talk in conference (October, 2007). It impressed upon me then and I was glad to see this excerpt shared again. We've been counseled to keep a journal, but sometimes you forget why it's so important, or what you should focus on when writing. Taking time to reflect on the question, "Have I seen the Hand of God reaching out to touch me?" is how President Eyring journals, and counsels us to as well.  A little more inspiration for all of us to reflect upon, then write about... 

You can read, watch, or listen to the full talk here.

I'm pretty sure everyone who visits this blog is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and doesn't need any further explanation or context. If, however, you are not a Mormon, feel free to ask any questions of me, or visit www.mormon.org, where our basic beliefs are shared in a simple format. 

The crown molding chapter of our marriage.

So we've slowly been making home improvements when time, budgets, and skill sets allow. The latest project (and biggest yet) was doing crown molding throughout our home.  Duffy was the brains, and I was the cheap labor. He must've read 5 books from the library, watched tons of YouTube clips, and asked all his friends with experience in his search for the best methods.

We actually thought it wouldn't be too hard; we thought it was a pretty simple project. By the second room, we had the hang of it. But, when we were working on the first room (the smallest bathroom in our house) it was kind of a nightmare. Really frustrating and tiring (and I wasn't even the one making the cuts).  When we were working on that first room I kept thinking, "Oh no, what have we gotten ourselves in to?! We'll be working on this all year! Why did we buy all the wood for the entire house at once?" But - we finished!! And it only took about a month (many missed gym visits), and looks pretty great if I don't say so myself!

Here are the steps we took. I'll spare the details for length's sake, but if you're ever considering doing molding and you need some guidance, we have lots of tips!

• Measure (roughly) perimeter of all rooms you want to put molding in and add it all up. Now you know how many feet of molding to buy. Buy two extra sheets just in case. 
  
• Find and mark the studs in the room you're working on. 
  
• Measure (precisely) the length of the wall. It's easy on the first wall, but after that it's a little trickier since you're working with mitered edges. Duffy is the expert on this part. Call him if you want details. 
  

• Cut wood. For this you'll need a miter saw. It's the most expensive tool we had to buy (by far) for this project, but you can get a good one that's refurbished for a decent price. Also, check out the work bench that Duffy made with his bare hands! (I'm tellin' you, he's a keeper!)
  

• Cope one side. This is a term meaning you shave the back angle of the wood, so that the two pieces (since they have depth) fit together flush. I get it, but couldn't explain it concisely. Sorry.
  

• Hang it up on the wall and secure with a nail gun. Nail guns are def the way to go. 

• Fill in the nail holes with putty. This is also a good filler for any dents or imperfections in the wood, as well as seems that have gaps.
• Sand putty. (This part was the least fun in my opinion.)

• Caulk edges along ceiling (top) and wall (bottom) and any seams that need smoothing out. 

• Tape the edges of the molding and do two coats of high gloss trim paint. 
  
• Tape the molding off and touch up the walls beneath it. (You are supposed to do the molding before painting, but we had already painted the walls.)

Fhew! It was a lot of work. Duffy and I would measure together, then he'd cut the wood and cope the edges while I marked the studs. We'd hang it together. Then I would putty the wood and sand it. Duffy would do the caulking. I would do the painting and taping. That's pretty much how it went.

I was out of town last week (see Lauren's blog for details) and we had just one "room" left to finish - the entryway. We were also repainting the entryway from a dark stone gray color to this creamy color that is in most of hallways and kitchen of our home. Duffy finished it up while I was gone as a birthday surprise! Doesn't it look awesome?! Harper certainly thinks so.

On Friday, February 13th, I took the day off work to have my wisdom teeth extracted. I tried not to set expectations about the recovery because I know the healing process varies greatly from patient to patient. However, I couldn't help being influenced by Duffy repeating his experience that he didn't swell and was playing basketball later the same day. I don't remember the part where he told me he only had the top two removed (which are supposed to be much less problematic than the bottom teeth), so I was hopeful for recovery in a few days, and being back at work on Monday. Bottom line- I didn't want to use any more of my coveted PTO/sick days from work to lay around the house doped up and looking like a chipmunk. 

What I remember before going under was the nurse putting some jelly on my ankles and wrists, then clamping on metal bracelets/anklets on me (to keep track of vital signs I guess). Then she strapped on the face mask and said, "You might start to feel a little fuzzy now. The doctor will be in shortly." Then I caught the giggles and could not stop!!! It was soooo funny! The laughing gas was actually making me laugh. For some reason thinking this thought made it even funnier, so I giggled harder. All the while the staff in the room were not laughing at all (probably annoyed by my laughter), which, you guessed it, made me laugh even harder! 

Duffy was wise enough to bring along the camera on the big day and capture me fresh off the laughing gas. I think it's hilarious as each time I remember how funny it was that ..."The laughing gas really makes you laugh!"  Sure enough... it was about the only thought I had as soon as I breathed it's sweet tastelessness. Here is a clip in the doctor's office (in the designated "sleeping it off" area).

And here, in the car on the way home. I was kind of a chatterbox until Duffy asked the real penetrating questions like, "What do you want to do tonight?" That's when I look up with real questioning in my eyes as if it were the most penetrating question in the world to which I have almost no answer (except "play with Harper!" - said with my kindergarten, no "r"s speech). 

If you're dying to know exactly what I said, just give me a call... I think I understand most of it.

After getting home I followed all of the doctor's orders: pain pills every 4-6 hours as needed (with food, which was the hard part), drink plenty of fluids, get lots of rest, and ice for twenty minutes throughout the day for the first two days.

Well how else in the world was I supposed to ice both cheeks at the same time?

As always, Harper was there for me in all his cute-n-cuddliness. He loves to nap all day, so I'm sure he enjoyed having someone else to sleep the day away with. Something you'll notice is that he is laying half on the couch and half on the love-sac. This is something Harper really enjoys, but we aren't quite sure why. 

Something else you may not know about Harper is that he's very helpful around the house, and even with work! On one of my days at home, I got up to refill on my meds and he decided to keep tabs on work for me while I was away from the compy. 

I wanted to wait until I had recovered 100% to post these things and really let the world (or my small blog following community) laugh at them, but that is taking entirely too long. Maybe I'll give you the details later, but it's really not a great story. I had, I mean HAVE, a persistent infection which is delaying my recovery. We're hoping that the four week mark will bring me back to 100%.  In the meantime, I will continue my 3 week+ streak of taking pills every six hours. (And for those of you trying also trying to ration PTO, just be glad you didn't have to spend a total of FIVE of them on something this un-fun.)

It's all about family.

I recently got to don my wedding dress again. It's a long story, but in a nutshell I was part of a fake wedding reception and happened to be the most recent to be married,  (so I had a wedding dress on hand). If you want to see the reason for all of this, visit www.theredmoor.com. 

While the photo shoot was an adventure (and extremely cold!), there was a huge part missing from "the perfect" wedding reception, which was family, of course! This got me thinking and reminiscing about my own big day (the real one, with family), and so I will post a few of my favorite pics with the family from that wonderful day. Thanks to everyone who came for helping make this day so special!

Here is the big group shot, so you can see just how much

family (and friends close enough to be family) were

there to share our big day!

The Stimpson side.

(Reese was just a bun in the oven then!)

(And Lindsey was serving her mission in Guatemala.)

The Olson side. 

(There were some buns a'bakin in this picture, too.)

Granny and Grandma. 

Two of the finest women I have ever known.

And at the other end of the spectrum, all of the next generation. 

(Now there are a few more to add to the picture.)

And a special guest of honor, all the way from Mississippi!

Sharing only a handful of photos from this series is really hard to do! I may need to do a "part 2" (or 3 or 4) to show some of my other faves from the wedding.  For this post, though, it's all about family!