The Legacy Lady

Holiday Magic

We put up the tree last week - earlier than ever.  I couldn't wait.  We aren't skipping over Thanksgiving - just going out of town and coming home a bit early for the twins' baptisms that Saturday.  Went shopping for their dresses last night...true confession: I hate mall shopping!  Watching the joy on their faces as they each chose their dresses made it all worth it!

Finally got the basement unpacked last week and now I am working files on my Mac, getting ready to begin recording videos for LOM 2010.  I am really excited about the digital content and refresh Stacy is doing for next year's class - it is really going to be so exciting!

Lately I have made a conscious choice to only write about and endorse products I truly believe in on Digiscrap101.  I like being authentic - although I haven't revealed all the behind the scenes hows of what I choose to write there - I need to do that soon.  It has also been nice to work on projects that I truly believe in and feel will make a difference to people in the long-term - not just the commercial present.  I finally found some time to record tutorials for the site last week in the new format - that felt good - I can't wait to get the beginning education updated.  

This next week is going to fly by - I am really looking forward to spending time with family.  Last week we went to Troy's Aunt Colleen's 80th birthday party.  It was so cool to see the cousins and their family - when we were first married and lived in Utah away from our AZ family, they adopted us in like one of their own - so many good memories it is fun to spend time with people you love.

Kate made the basketball team and her first games are next week - she is playing on the 9th grade team even though she is in 8th grade - we are excited to see her this season - you can expect to see more photos on the blog.

It was so fun as we decorated to have the kids saying, "Mom, I LOVE Christmas, it's my favorite!"  The excitement of the kids is what makes this all magical...  So blessed.  Joseph especially had a fascination with the lights that hasn't ended....

Can't wait for this Thanksgiving week - I am so looking forward to making memories and enjoying family.  How about you?

Our "Project" House

This is the living room of the house we bought.  We searched all summer for this house.  We call it our "Project" house because before we bought it, it was a bank-owned home.  It took us three months to find this place and even though it is a little rough around the edges, the bones are good.

It is a "project" because when we purchased it, the previous owners had taken out the air conditioning unit and there wasn't a tub/shower faucet in the house that ran both hot and cold water.  The basement was a remuddle - they were trying to add an accessory apartment (which is illegal in this neighborhood).  There is half a kitchen in the basement "apartment" with a non working sink drain (they took most of the cabinets with them), three sets of washer dryer hookups (the "apartment" hookups didn't have a drain for the washer), and the water main shutoff valve was sheet-rocked over.  In the backyard the deck is sagging off the back of the house and will need to be shored up.  There are many more little things but I won't even go into them...

Before we closed on the house we had the seller replace the air conditioning unit and fix all the faucets in the tubs and showers.  This made the place livable and the rest we knew we could do by ourselves....our biggest forecasted expense being the landscaping of both the front and back yards which will have to be done in the spring because the Homeowner's Association requires it.

In the first six weeks of living here, we discovered that the jacuzzi tub leaks, the under mounted kitchen sink fell out of place and had to be fixed and the water here is so hard that if we don't install a water softener soon, we are guaranteed to have MORE issues with our plumbing...  We also discovered a kestrel falcon pair nesting in the eaves of one side of our house and on the other side are a pair of sparrows...we also learned that the falcons eat the baby sparrows...

We knew we would have repairs but not this many!  We also weren't counting on the medical bills from our daughter having surgery, dh's hospital stay and all the visits to the doc with seven people coming down with H1N1 - you could buy a pretty nice used car with our out of pocket expenses these past three months...  

Thankfully we bought a bargain property and over time we will get it where we need to.  So we just call it our "project" house - livable and yet far from perfect but thinking of it in this light allows me to be ok with where it is today...

The good news is this - we have the space we need at far less than it would have cost us to buy another home with this amount of space.  Also, a lot of our expense to fix things would be labor so with dh being very handy that will reduce the expense considerably.  We will pay for things as we go, building more equity.  That means this project house will probably be an ongoing project for 3-5 years but that is all good, in the end we will have a great home with more equity than if we had just bought a home with everything we wanted...

At least that is what I am telling myself to stay positive!  I do know that we felt really good about this property over every other property we seriously considered.  So when I get frustrated with our lack of progress, I go back to that feeling and know it will all work out.  It always does.

The iMac Inside Out

To tell you how far behind I am on this blog...well I won't because technically this blog is for me and being behind is just a symptom of our crazy last few months of sickness, buying a home, moving to that home and getting settled in new schools and all the other fun things that come with big changes.

Thankfully we are getting close to normal at our house - even though I still have a basement full of boxes and so many projects I can't begin to figure out when it will all be done - well I do know my class deadlines will be done on certain days so that is easy - everything else just has to fit in around those projects and the bigger piece of the puzzle which is being mom to five fun, crazy busy and amazing kids.  They keep me hopping or should I say, "Driving."  

Back in September my iMac was having huge issues so Apple sent out the techs to my house to repair it.  Realizing this was the first time I ever had seen my iMac on a "surgery" table, I grabbed my camera...the poor repair man put up with me thankfully, so now I will share...

 The first thing the technician did was remove the very front screen with these special handled suction cups...did you know that every time Apple sends out a repair man they have a special kit with specific tools just for the iMac?  That is so Apple...

Next the tech removed the silver face plate....

 and then the screen.

After he was done with this, he put everything back together except for the front glass.  Then they have a special adhesive roller that they clean all the screens with.  It was really interesting.  I was just wishing I could get my own adhesive roller to clean all the computer screens in my house...

So there you have the inside of my iMac.  Well technically not my current iMac - they couldn't get the problem fixed so they sent me to the Apple store to have a genius look at it and he just gave up and gave me a new iMac.  So if you ever wonder why I am an Apple, now you know the rest of the story.  I have never had a PC replaced by Bill Gates or anyone else at the one year mark of purchasing it...

go Apple!

Another Favorite

Image 22, originally uploaded by thelegacylady.

Such a sweet little girl...

Happiness

Image 17, originally uploaded by thelegacylady.

Love this shot from a shoot I am editing today...

leadmeguideme

leadmeguideme, originally uploaded by thelegacylady.

Just love this moment captured in a photo sitting I recently edited.

An Exercise In Perspective

As I was driving home in silence through a massive snowstorm Tuesday evening, I had some time to think...I thought about quite a lot.

Monday night my husband was admitted to the hospital.  When we went to the ER, we thought they would run some tests and prescribe some medicine and be done.  Instead they admitted him.  Tuesday morning I thought he would be coming home after the procedure they admitted him for was done.  However, after the results of the test, they kept him another day.

Thankfully this afternoon he is home - we aren't out of the woods yet, but thankfully he has improved and things should get better day by day.

This gives you the background to the scenery in my life behind my thoughts.

Tuesday morning as I drove to the hospital to be with my husband, I started to cry.  If you knew me well, you would know I don't cry very easily - especially outside of my house.  As I was driving along, I felt so stressed and helpless, wondering if everything was going to be all right.  

Then as I started down that path of thinking of all the bad that was happening and feeling helpless, I had a moment of clarity - I could whine about it all and see everything negative or I could find the good and be grateful...

Grateful that my husband has been healthy and saved up enough sick time to get through this.

Grateful that we have medical insurance to cover a large portion of the expenses.

Grateful that my mom just happened to come through town the exact night he went into the hospital so someone was able to be with my kids until I got home at 2am.

Grateful that Troy's parents were able to come and sit with him in the hospital when I couldn't because children aren't allowed in hospitals right now and I needed to be with them.

Grateful that the ER physician found out what was going on so that my husband got the help he needed quickly.

Grateful for our health as I walked the halls of the hospital and saw many families visiting loved ones who were facing health challenges that seemed more difficult than our own.

Grateful for children who, when the going gets tough, pitch in and help keep things going.

The list goes on...  My point is that the more I focused on what was right with the situation, the more I realized that I had the power to choose what I wanted to see.  While some people call it denial, I call it getting through.  

Times have been tough with the health challenges our family has faced this year - right in timing with a major two step move and new schools, new church congregations, no family living close by, dh being out of town with work, etc.  I find that if I focus on what is going in our favor, I can build on that and expect things to go in a positive direction.  When I focus only on the negative, I feel like I am sinking into a dark hole.

I am learning a lot from this - mostly to just keep moving forward - even if some days it feels like I am just standing my ground in a hurricane - it is progress.  Thankfully I have been able to meet my deadlines and be where I wanted to be without canceling commitments.  A big part of that was following my intuition this summer to simplify, passing on several projects that I really wanted to do.  It was really hard to say, "No" when everything seemed like it would work.  Today I am grateful I listened to my heart.

The good news is I am treading water in a strong current and keeping my head up.  Hopefully this means that when life gets back to some semblance of normal, I will be stronger and better in my ability to get things done.  It may also mean that I am more efficient so I will take the extra time I have and spend more time doing fun things.

Either way - change is in the air and it feels good.  I believe that the true key to happiness is exercising your perspective and choosing to frame life in a way that brings you joy...

Today's happiness is yours if you choose to find it.

"Some people walk in the rain. Others just get wet."
- Roger Miller

Creative Guy

mywildthingking, originally uploaded by thelegacylady.

Troy was home sick all last week - trying to work from home when he felt up to it - so we kept this little guy busy with all sorts of creative things... I love this crown he made. So much fun having a JT at our house. He reminds me to stop and play...

Milestones

We have been so sick at our house with the H1N1 that I have neglected to blog some fun milestones... First - Hyrum got his green belt in tae kwon doe.      

This means he now not only has his green belt - he gets sparring gear - so that will be fun...  We are so proud of him!  

Moving In...

It is tough to realize that we have been in our new home almost an entire month and I am still feeling completely disorganized.  I guess that might have something to do with the events of this past month:deadlines, moving, school projects, our family coming down with H1N1, dh traveling for work, etc.  It has been insane.

I am longing for the day when I feel settled and in a routine.  I know it is just around the corner, but I am wanting it right here and right now - so impatient I am.

Today I finally finished putting the front room together - repurposing some curtains from the master bedroom in our old house, and organizing a LOT of books...  there is a positive side to all those books...my kids love to read.

It is nice to watch the house come together.  I think it will probably be coming together for a few more years...