I have this very old, reclaimed window frame that I've hung on my walls in several of the places we've lived. It's falling apart and very rustic looking and for many years I've not really known what to do with it but I didn't want to get rid of it. JJ has so wonderfully made me a new frame that is sturdy. I've wanted to hang it above my sofa in the living room because that wall is so large I felt that I needed something substantial to fill that space. Well after months and months of 'going to' I've finally figured out what do put in each of the spaces within the frame. I scrapbooked photos of our family, the Boise temple and the Savior. Here are the 6 images I've done. I'll be sure to post a photo once the project is completely assembled and hung on the wall. I created the pages using Angie Briggs' Sweet Words kit.

It's very rainy and dreary outside today. This morning Sage woke up early and said Mama do you want to go for a morning jog with me? How could I say no to that? We didn't go too far and I was naturally lagging behind her. Our conversation went like this:

Sage: "Mama hurry up"
Me: "I can't run that fast"
Sage: "Mama run faster"
Me: (panting) "I'm out of shape"
Sage: "I'll be your Biggest Loser trainer. I'll be Jillian" Hehehe!

That kid is a crack up! She likes to run and she is good at it and we've set a running date for Monday morning!

This pic is us standing in the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse in Disney World (Jan 07)

Brooklyn & Aaron (well...their fingers)

This is my youngest sister Kinzie and her adorable baby Brooklyn. Aren't they cute!?!

I submitted a Muse to Scrapgirls.com and they published it in their daily newsletter. I received a $20 gift certificate for my work. I thought it was pretty cool!


Officially, I am no longer cool. Wait a minute, I'm not sure that I've ever been cool, but I know that I've definitely passed the prime target to ever become cool. After all, I haven't been through a fast food drive-in lately where the cashier has said "You're food will be right out, Miss." Now, it's ma'am. Ma'am. Ugh! Aren't middle-aged women called ma'am? I'm not sure what the official age range is for middle-aged, but I guess I'm entering that state of existence. It's the time of your life when you realize that time just keeps marching on and you are no longer in your 20's. You start to see the effects of time on your skin and on your mindset.

So, let me tell you about my middle-aged life. I have been happily married for nearly 12 years. My husband adores every bit of me. He is a wonderful hard-working man, who shares my designation of not-cool, but that's okay. I adore him, too. We have two beautiful daughters who are the perfect mix of the two of us. Together, we adore them. I have a college degree, if an associate's counts, and a job that I work way too many hours at. I drive a mini-van, which is another black mark on the non-cool spectrum. And, my usual attire is hospital scrubs, because I'm too tired to change my clothes when I get home from work. We try to live by a budget and tend to be quite frugal in many areas. I do many middle-aged activities, like baking bread and clipping coupons. At one point in our married life, we even manufactured our own laundry detergent. I hope to never, ever, be in the financial situation to where we must repeat that practice. It was awful!

Now, I spend my free time playing with my digital scrapbooking goodies. It is my escape from my non-cool, middle-aged world, where I can take the time to leave a legacy for my children to look back upon when they reach their moments of "Ugh… I'm so not cool" and move about their days doing the same things that we ma'am-types do. The more I dive into my scrapbooking and open up the memories from that past that my photo collections bring to mind, the more I realize that who cares if I'm cool or not. I am surrounded by the very best things in life. I have my faith, my family, my husband, my home, my health, my memories and my future.

I hope that through my creative efforts, our posterity will have the opportunity to look back through the pages of my hard work and know a bit about me and about my children. I hope that they will feel a sense of connection with the past and my generation and that my great-great-grandchildren will turn to their parents and say, "Wow, these pages are really cool!"

Lindsay got baptised last weekend and this is a picture of Sage and my dad. Don't they look cute? We had such a wonderful time visiting with all of our family members and friends!