the reward for acts of service

is usually the good feeling you have in your heart ... a warm plate of cookies ... a heartfelt "thank you" or "we couldn't have done it without you!"

this time, though, i offered my dad's trailer - complete with explorer to tow it and my dad to drive it - and my handsome (and burly) husband's muscles and helpful hands in exchange for this ...

for 45-ish minutes of service and 2 moved pianos, i was awarded with a real, working, able to be played, sounds-great-in-my-home - except-when-it's-mass-chaos, i'm-thinking-about-learning-how-to-actually-play, and won't-my-christmas-village-look-great-on-it?? PIANO!!

thank you Angie! 

i'm/we're loving it!

how do you spell that??

some of my favorite words are e-n-c-y-c-l-o-p-e-d-i-a, superlative, onomatopoeia, friend, Christmas, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,
... i could go on ...

onomatopoeia: "the formation of a word, as cuckoo or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent."

boink, zing, splat, clipclop ...

i love words that are a sound!!

pssst, bleh, hmm, ew, phew... all words that to be fully appreciated need to be said aloud - try it!

occasionally i run across a sound that isn't commonly 'written', forcing me to make it up if i want to share it in writing.

say for instance, i get a text from my sister that begs for a barfing sound reply ... BARF just doesn't quite get the true feeling across ... so this is what i sent:

Hhuumbf

sound it out ... put your fingers to your lips as you say it ... funny, huh.

feel free to use it!

FHE Preview: the second great commandment

Matt. 22: 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?


37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt alove the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

what does that mean? "hang all the law and the prophets" ... that everything hinges on it, that it's the foundation, that every commandment can be referenced back to these 2 commandments ...

the first commandment is Love Heavenly Father ... he tells us that because we show Him love in our actions, in our thoughts and in our words ...

the second is like it: Love our Neighbors
who is our neighbor?  the people that live by us, the people that we know down the street, the people in our ward, the people we go to school with, the people we see at the store, the people at the library, ...

is our family our neighbor?  our rooms are close to each other, do you have to live by someone to have them be your neighbor? 

our neighbors are everyone else.

and when Heavenly Father says to love them ... it's not just a nice idea, not a suggestion, not good advice - it's a commandment.  it's the rule.  being nice and loving each other is a commandment. 

so - i wanna see it.  i am tired of the fighting, the arguing, the back-talking, the snide and back-handed remarks.  now is the time to be friends with the people you live with - namely your sisters and brothers and mom and dad.  here is the place that it should begin ... trickle out from.

Heavenly Father loves us, let's show Him how much we love Him!

Firsts: even after 11 years together!

today is our 11th anniversary!

our 10 year was fabulous ... this anniversary we decided to go low key ... our original plan was to 'Do the Puyallup!' ... but with record breaking rain this past month (especially these last 10 days) we decided against it.

instead we ate at one of our old standbys, Red Robin, and did 2 things we've never done before:

btw: that starbucks cup was left behind by whoever sat there last
we haven't been breaking the Word of Wisdom ...

and there was a huge sale at wet seal, a place i have never been into ... but from the outside of the store i saw some darling stuff and then i saw the 70% sign and i had to go in!!  i got myself a 2 darling jackets, 2 necklaces and 2 rings!!  so fun!

after my shopping spree, we went out to go see "The Other Guys" with our AMC coupons out of our entertainment book.  We looked at the theater and it said Loews not AMC!!  so we scrambled to find the movie at another theater and headed up the freeway ... imagine my embarrassment when i looked online and saw this:

so we hustled back to alderwood and arrived just as the previews were starting ...

movie review: super dumb funny ... we do NOT recommend seeing this movie - even as a rental ... but if you are set on seeing it make it a LATE night movie ... and be ready for some crude humor!

all in all it was a lovely anniversary!

i sure am a lucky girl to have this guy for eternity!

break out your countdown calendars!

i have a list of people that i call every year on september 17th, the call goes something like this:
"hey (insert name)!  i'm just making my reminder calls that we now have 99 days until Christmas!  break out your countdown calendar!  we're in double digit territory already!!"

"oh my gosh are you serious?  i was thinking about that just a few days ago ... time flies!  you're so funny!"

this year though i have new tech savvy friends on facebook and texting that i can remind!  so fun!  and funny all the comments from people who think i'm a little crazy!

my favorite exchange was from some of my friends from when i lived at home ... "Phil Noll- What are you, Mrs Claus giving a pep talk to the elves?"

"Stewart Galbraith- Phil, Mrs. Claus is her mom!"

"Barbara Paulson Waibel- And Santa is her Pa"

these people have known me for a LONG time ... when i was younger {in jr. high and highschool} i would wear my elf costume to school the last friday before christmas break and hand out candy canes!!

Christmas is the best!

 

yes ... my mom's christmas tree is upside down

- there's more room for decorations and gifts

with the bigger part at the top!

on days like today ... i'm reminded of Toy Story



Happy Birthday Beautiful!



You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

When the road looks rough ahead

And you're miles and miles
From your nice warm bed
Just remember what your old pal said
[Girl], you've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got troubles, well I've got 'em too
There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you
We stick together and we see it through
You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

Some other folks might be

A little bit smarter than I am

Bigger and stronger too

Maybe

But none of them will ever love you the way I do

It's me and you

And as the years go by

Our friendship will never die

You're gonna see

It's our destiny

You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

we're getting too big for our britches!

Now you see it:

Now you don't!

what will we do with our HUGE backyard?! 

all 313.5 sqft ... how will we ever figure out what to do with all this space!?

{read with extreme sarcasm}

routines

we're trying to get back into the habit of a few things around here ... so i made this

 and put it up on the wall outside the bathroom ... i stand there with my white board pen in hand,
"Abi have you made your bed? are you dressed? did you change your underwear? put your PJs away? brush your teeth? brush your hair? is your back pack ready?
Elyssa have you made your bed? are you dressed? did you change your underwear? put your PJs away? brush your teeth? brush your hair? is your back pack ready?" and so on ...
then at night, "Abi, do you have your PJs on? are your dirty clothes in the hamper? did you brush your teeth? go to the potty? get a drink of water? brush your hair? [we read scriptures this morning] have you said your personal prayers?
Elyssa ... "

i'm hoping after about 21 days {that's how long it takes to make a habit right??} of this they will not have to be told to go to the potty and get a drink of water and breathe in and breathe out ...

and though we slacked off most of the summer, we are back on track with our reading together each morning ... albeit one verse each and there's still some chatter about wanting their's to be on bottom or top when we stack them back up to put them away (the fighting over colored pencils has been alleviated by the baggies) ... but we at least read, talk alittle about what we read, say morning prayer together and when i remember i sing to them, "There's a right way to live and be happy ... "

our routine is getting there ... we'll have all the kinks ironed out just about the time for Christmas Break ... when it all falls apart again!!

embarrassing ...

******warning: TMI ahead******

i'm going to talk about that 'elephant in the room' if you don't mind ...

what is that?  yeah ... that's a hickey

my husband broke the cardinal rule: inconspicuous ...

his defense?  "i didn't think i was that low" - meaning he was aiming for right behind my ear ... but 'missed'

lovely.

so now you know ... married people make out ... in the past PDA has not been something we shy away from - albeit this was not created in public (thank heaven!) but the resulting 'display of affection' is hard to miss ... 

and slightly embarrassing!!

don't even worry that i noticed it on Sunday morning

and because i work with the youth now i tried to conceal it ...

all the time worrying that my cute little beehives would notice!!

not that they would ever say anything!

National Day of Service

Yesterday, as a ward family and community, we weeded the grounds, added fresh bark and generally spruced up Silver Firs Elementary.

we have a vested interest since this is our school so we felt a sense of pride in this service project!

all of the shaws worked for 2 hours - some of us harder than others ... but each one of us did a great job!

the kids had ditched us for lunch so i only got a pic of the 2 of us ...

weeding brings back memories from my childhood ... not good ones ...

i hoping for extra blessings from this kind service - the kind that you really hate but just the act of doing it makes you feel good. 

today in church we heard that over 350 hours of service were logged on 9/11/2010 ...

makes my heart happy!