Winterfest 2011

The city I live in is called Ogden. This city gets a bad rap sometimes because it used to be pretty scary. Like, drive-by shootings and gangs and what not. But, now our awesome mayor and city council have decided to clean things up. New businesses are reviving downtown and they have tons of things to do here now. The city is coming back to life. I used to be scared to live here, now I love it.

Today we all got dressed in snow clothes for the Winterfest. They close down the main street downtown and cover it with snow. Then they have all sorts of activities for people to do. My kids loved the tubing hill. They provide tubes and made ramps for the kids to go off of. It was awesome and then below they had snow machines (or snow mobiles if you're from anywhere other than AK) racing each other. It made me miss Alaska. :) They had vendors and a 5K and human dog sled races and all sorts of things.

People ask me a lot why we moved up here, now I can say, affordable housing AND community.

Help...

How do you deal with your kids fighting? My kids have been punching each other lately. And kicking. What the heck? I don't remember doing that as a kid. Only every once in a while. We are taking away TV and computer for today because of an incident this morning before school.


Help?

In a Twinklin'

It seems like yesterday that we brought Baby El home from the hospital, but it'll be 4 months on the 24th. Has that flown by for anyone else? It has for me. Ellis is growing and doing all the things that he needs to to be a healthy baby boy. He's 85% for weight and 30% for height, that's short for chubby! :) He's finally starting to be a little more pleasant to be around and is sleeping a little more...sometimes. Here's a few pictures I took this morning of the boy.

The Resolution that has Stuck

So, long story short I've never set New Year's resolutions. Ever. I've always thought they were, I don't know, cliche? But this year I decided to give it a try. I sat my begrudging family down and we brainstormed what we wanted to do and be this year. And I must admit, it was fun.

I guess, I should have realized that "resolution" is just another word for "goal". So, here's the amazing part. I'm actually excited for my goals. Like DE-CLUTTER. You really should stop by my house sometime (call first though because sometimes I haven't gotten any sleep and have the attitude of a badger) because I'm getting rid of stuff left and right. I have this horrible inherited (sorry Mom!) trait of making piles instead of actually cleaning something up and I have resolved not to do that anymore. Piles are the lazy man's way of cleaning, because you don't actually have to put things away, you just have to make a lot of pleasing to the eyes 'piles'. Well, NO MORE.

Magazines piling up by the bed that I might use as inspiration for my next project? Gone. Clothes in my closet that I just don't like anymore? Gone. Baby items that I don't use? Consigned.

Gone.Gone.Gone. It's really liberating. I read an article a month ago that talked about the burden that "things" are. You have to dust them and care for them and store them. I'm starting to look at the things that I don't/seldom use and giving them a boot OR using them more. I'm only keeping what I use and losing what I don't.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a work in progress, but I'm progressing and it feels amazing.

*As a side note please don't judge my bare walls, my husband wants to hang his instruments up but doesn't want to make holes in the walls. So, there you have it. Limbo. Catch-22. Whatever. :)