Home Free

This summer Ryan had to work one of those crappy jobs that you sometimes have to do for a time just to get by.  Today was Ryan's last day at the IU Telefund, and needless to say he is very happy.  Here are his stats, just for good times sake :)

Time worked: 7 weeks = 115 hours
Wage: $7.50 an hour
Total phone calls: 6,984
Wrong Number: 105
Busy Signal: 103
Disconnected Phone Number: 45
Day Call (work number): 38
Whereabouts unknown: 6
Specified Pledge (donated money): 106
Not Available 1 (call back in a few hours): 6
Already Donated: 11
No Answer: 2,622
Special (too old to talk on the phone): 2
No Pledge (refusal to donate): 250
Fax Complete (fax number): 7
Personal Call Back: 76
Answering Machine: 3,256
Deceased: 1
Not Available (call a different day): 348
Privacy Manager (no solicitors allowed): 4

Yay Ryan! We love you and are grateful for your sacrifice for our family :)

Packing

Our house has now officially descended into the chaos that is moving.  Honestly I've been packing up things little by little for about a month, but now that it is our last week here we can really get going.  I feel like there is junk and boxes everywhere.  Lauren said that our house is like a playground and her and Rachel get in trouble several times daily for climbing up all the boxes. Lauren's personal favorite it is to stretch herself over two piles of boxes that are not right next to each other and tell me that she is being a bridge. She makes a good bridge.  Usually when they get in trouble for climbing up boxes they then go and jump on something like the couch or their bed, or our bed, or anything somewhat bouncy.  So here's to our girls and here's to moving....

While Kids are Sleeping...

So this is something I've been working on off and on for months and now it is finally finished:

It is an architectural rendering of the Rexburg, ID temple.

The New Revised Edition

The original I did for a rendering class in college. It is a three point perspective drawing using the floor plans to draw it to scale. You draw it layer upon layer with tracing paper, starting with the basic box shapes and then adding more detail with each layer. It took about half the semester.  At the end of the semester we presented it to the class and had it critiqued by the professor and the class. As often happens I ran out of time near the end and started throwing things in just to get it done.  As a result of that there were several things that I didn't like about it so I decided, using the original drawings, to try and fix some things.  I wasn't able to fix everything I wanted to since I no longer have the floor plans but I was able to fix a few things.  The landscaping was one thing that really bothered me with the original.  The Rexburg Temple was still under construction at the time I made it so I really didn't have much to go off of.  Since I was just trying to get it done by the time I got to the landscaping I decided to do the quickest thing I could think of... pave most of it over, add a little grass on the side, and throw in a "teacup" fountain, as my professor referred to it (that was one of the things attacked the most in my critique, and rightly so, it doesn't really fit).  I still wasn't able to get the landscaping totally right since I don't have the plans and all I had to go off of was pictures online, but still it is better, and no "teacup" fountain.

The Original

Lauren wanted to color a temple too, so I gave one of my practice ones.
 She made sure there was a sunshine and lots of balloons.

Happy Happy Birthday

Lauren had her birthday a few weeks ago and it was quite the party.  My sister and her family came down for the weekend and we had a great time with them.  Lauren was so excited, all she talked about was Jacqui being able to come down for her birthday.  Sadly we only got a few pictures. A few days later Lauren had her first friend party. It was a "dress-up party." All the girls came and got dressed up and then we decorated straw hats with ribbon and flowers, played "Pin the Hat on Sally" and the most important part....ate cupcakes.  Lauren didn't really care to participate much in the games (she was quite concerned over me blind folding all her friends) all she wanted to do the whole time was eat cupcakes.  But hopefully everyone had a good time.  All in all it was a fun week!  Thank you to family and friends who helped make it that way!

The Stack

Dress ups!!  A combined effort from us, the Woolsey's,
Merkley's, and Stradley's 

Princess dress from the Woolsey's

All dressed up

New Piggy Bank

Rachel in a dress from Aunt Sarah

The two princesses

Very stylin' Rachel

Pioneer outfit made by Grandma Woolsey

Swapping shoes in the cardboard "playhouse"

Our "Mother Gothel" cloak made by Aunt Sarah

Lauren and her cousin Jacqui.  Lauren adores
Cousin Jacqui and we were so glad they were
able to come down for the weekend.

The Castle Cake

  

Thank you Sarah and Steven for your artistic abilities :)

Happy Birthday Lauren!!