{"Eleanor"}

Here are some of my recent favorite pictures of Miss Ellie. 

 Eleanor is walking around furniture now and Brittany sent me this photo a week or so ago.  Her new trick - she can stand and stay balanced.

 I bought her this cute hat with the matching socks at Gymboree - Love!!  Just want to eat her up!!

 She started full out crawling right after Thanksgiving.

This one is my screensaver.  Ellie is such a pretty, happy and completely wonderful baby.  Can you tell Grandma is in love!!  P.S.  Brittany makes the little shoes...So cute!

{January - Bang! Bang!}

"Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn ".

                                                                                                               Delmore Schwartz

I always love the fresh beginnings of a new year and the chance to write a new chapter in the story of my life.

This year has definately started off with a BANG - not all bad, but enough upset to make me think that maybe we should have skipped the "13" part and just went to 14.   I am not really that superstitious but you will catch me knocking on wood from time to time,  and not tempting fate if I can help it.

We have personally started off the year with a letter from the IRS on January 3rd claiming that we owe them $2,000 - ugh!.   New Health Insurance cards that the pharmacy claims expired in 2005...What???, and a car that broke down a few days ago needing a new clutch and transmission - then the day we got it back from the shop Taylor slid into a curb and more damage so it is back in the shop.   Also, Kurke had 2 work trips right off the bat - 2 weeks out of town.

Kurke had to re-do our taxes and we did not owe $2,000 thank goodness.  The health insurance cards can be redone, the car has been fixed, and is being fixed again - although that was not a fun price tag, and Kurke is home.  Happy New Year.

I will not complain, at all, however, because there has already been so much death.  A friend in our ward lost her SIL in a freak sledding accident, 2 people that used to be in our ward passed away, and a dear blog friend lost her very young husband unexpectedly.  My heart is sad for all that loss so soon in this new year.

Maybe we should have skipped the "13".  I don't know.

There is good though and that is what I hope to focus on the rest of this year.  Knock on wood!

Here are some positive things that have happened so far in January:

1.  Trent got braces - Our last one in braces - yahooo!!!  Have you ever met a kid that thinks braces are "Sexy"?  Well you have now.  He told the orthodontist that he was excited to get braces because the "ladies will think he is sexy".  Where did I get this nut?  He cracks me up.

Of course, his mouth hurt for several days after getting the braces so even though it was 2 degrees outside all he wanted were smoothies.

 2.  Some may not agree with me on this but  SNOWWWWW!!!  We had the warmest winter on record last year with nearly no snow and it stunk.  This year we have had snow and it is sticking around because we have also had coooooollld temps.   In fact, we have been in the single digits every morning and the teens during the day for weeks now.  I have to admit I love it - probably because I am spoiled and have a garage to park my cars in, lots of hot chocolate (wink), and many craft and sewing projects I am finally finding time for!

Snow around my house and where I commute.

 I can watch for hours when it snows super hard like this with really big snowflakes.  LOVE

 There are still some red berries on the back bushes.

 

We had a snow day and Trent and (my "other" son) Isaac had a blast.

 I know they are almost to the age where they are done with this kind of snow play so I am savoring this year!

 Cracks us all up when Zoe runs through the snow as fast as she can.

Trent chases her and makes her even more wild.

 Then she ends up with Doggie Snowballs!

I spy a snowman and a little buddy snowman.

Those snowmen have been standing in the yard for almost 2 weeks now.  Ha Ha

Snowmen love temps below freezing for weeks on end!!

I enjoyed it all from behind my sewing machine looking out my big picture window.

3. New Beginnings - Boy this came up fast on January 9th so we were thinking about it and working on it during Christmas - Gahhhhhhhh!  It turned out super nice though.

This is the invitation I created.  It includes the theme for this year which I love:

"Stand ye in Holy Places and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come;  for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord".

D&C 87:8

 Each YW received her favorite Temple to put in her room.

 Beautiful voices!

Top r:  Urs our fearless leader doing her musical thing, Middle r: Sister O gave a beautiful talk, Bottom Middle: Welcoming the New Beehives.
I didn't get a good picture of it.  But after Sis. O talked the girls each came up and took a balloon and released it into the air which signified giving up bad habits and unworthy things that will keep them from Standing in Holy Places.  They drifted off into the air leaving the girls free to pursue Good Things in their lives.

Not everyone but alot of us!  :-D

Snowmen at night.

{Snow, and Ice, and Cold and Wonderful Snow!}

 “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again."
                                                                                                                                  -Lewis Carroll



I  pulled out of the garage this morning and it was still dark outside.  The night before there had been a very very heavy fog in the valley, and even in the darkness I could see how thick the ice was on the bare tree branches, bushes and every other surface.  I knew how beautiful it was going to be once the sun hit it but, alas, I was at work and could not capture it myself so I was very excited when my friend Jennifer Alvi aka Photographer Extraordinaire posted some beautiful shots that she took this morning.  I am posting these with her permission.  Beeeee-autiful!!!

{What I Learned On My Blogging Hiatus - or mostly Hiatus - What the Heck is a Hiatus!?"}

I have the flu.  It stinks.  BUT I did get the flu shot this year for the very first time, so I am just a "little" achy, a "little" coughy, a "little" hoarse, and a "little" bit loving my toilet -   All enough that I stayed home and in bed today.   I can only imagine what it would be had I not gotten the shot????  Who knows. 

So as I write the word "Hiatus" as the title of my blog post it just got a little weird.  The more I looked a the word the wierder it looked - You've all been there.  After a little while the word Hiatus just sounded nasty like looking at a body part from the inside during surgery or something.  Ick.

I did go on a blogging Hiatus of sorts and it was mostly unintended but it happened and I learned some things.  I had been blogging for 5 years on my blog.  I had a good following of people who had become friends mixed in with some family and it was comfortable.  Then Pinterest arrived in the world and I had quite a few things that were pinned from my blog onto Pinterest, which at first I thought was quite a nice compliment - recipes, Brittany's baby shower, some of the quote's I made for Conference but the biggest hit by far was The Firepit - http://bakowbabble.blogspot.com/2011/08/one-with-fire-pit.html.

And, YES, it is an awesome firepit but it has literally been pinned thousands of times now and my other blog still gets 500 views a day or more, just from that Firepit.  I looked this morning before I began to write this and it was 459 so far today and I haven't written on that blog for like 8 months.  Can you say Crazy.  These are people looking at my blog who were not my friends, people I didn't know.    Then we had Eleanor come into our family and that was when I decided, this is not a good thing.  So I took a H-I-A-T-U-S.  I also took anything personal off of that blog and put it in my blog books.

I had already joined Facebook at that point and that has been fun.  I did do some blogging on, this here, new blog, but I kept it private until now.

Some things I have learned:

Facebook can NEVER be your blog or your journal. 

I see SO MANY wonderful things on FB  that people put out there and I always think - I sure hope you are writing this down somewhere that your kids and grandkids will see it because in that respect FB is useless.  It is social media for the now, not a history.   It kills me to think that when someone writes about a special moment with a child or a parent, or some other special memory, that, that is the only place it will ever be.  So my wish is that most people are like me and have some other place to record those memories that, if not put somewhere special, will be lost forever - blog, journal, etc...

I have never been one to put a huge amount of pictures on facebook because really there is no point for me.  I like to put my pictures into book form for myself and my family to enjoy.  Can I just say over Christmas we laughed SO HARD looking at old pictures in the scrapbooks.  It's just fun!

Occasional updates and a picture here and there are plenty and that is what I enjoy about FB - I love being able to catch up with people and see that someone had a baby or moved to a new house or their child is off to college, or telling me that they just saw a good movie, or a bad movie.  I enjoy the small, essential updates and that is all I put on there as well.  (OK unless it is an election year and then I go all crazy - but that will NOT be happening again this year!!  LOL).

It is a fun way to connect but it can never be where you put your history or your personal journey in life.

Not Blogging Publicly for 8 months and transfering to a new blog has allowed me a fresh start.

I admit that there was a point that my blog became a little too all consuming.  I was living my life in part, by always asking myself - What will this experience look like on my blog?  Or, I have to take pictures of this for my blog?  Everything I did was about putting it on the blog, and as much as I feel it is important to record my life and journal and keep a record I remembered during my HIATUS that life is about living!!!  My relationship with my husband is personal and I like it that way.  We are in love, we have a great marraige and a great life, but every single thing we do or say or feel does not need to be written down.  Most things are just us., not for public consumption.  Life is the same way.   MOST TIMES you just need to live life -put the phone away, put the camera away, and go for it - every single moment does not have to be in pictures or words.  I did alot more FREE LIVING on my HIATUS because I wasn't thinking "I need to put this on the blog". 

The other thing is that after blogging for 5 years I was able to clean up and clean out my blog lists a bit.  After 5 years there were people that I just didn't "click" with but you've been reading each others blogs so long you feel kind of obligated.  I like a fresh start to just go to those blogs I love to read and I hope only people who like me will come here.

PICTURES:  

 I found a way to keep my pictures private.  So I am hoping that this blog will not find it's way to Pinterest.  If I feel like I have something to blog that is Pinterest or Sugardoodle worthy (I was also featured on Sugardoodle - same story) I will blog it on my other blog - which is still functioning I just don't us it.


The best lesson I learned from my blog Hiatus is that when you have your priorities in place you get more done and you are happier!

 I know that it is so easy to get caught up in Facebook or Blogging or Instagram or Twittering.  It is human nature to want to have recognition for our thoughts, our pictures, our actions, etc...but it is also dangerous to desire this all the time.  There has to be a balance.  We each have to find our own balance but it all starts with priorities, service, and unselfish living.  I figure that out more and more the older I get and the wiser I become (wink).  Being away from my blog - and living through the experience (I Jest) - showed me that it is not the end all.  The world does not stop rotating, my friends do not disappear, if I am not blogging constantly or sharing every little detail of life on FB I actually get other things done.  It's true!  Life goes on and it is real!!

{Temple - A Goal For The Year}

"When you come to the temple you will love your family with a deeper love than you have ever felt before. The temple is about families." 

                                          Richard H. Winkel

"To you who are worthy and able to attend the temple, I would admonish you to go often. The temple is a place where we can find peace. There we receive a renewed dedication to the gospel and a strengthened resolve to keep the commandments." 
                                        Thomas S. Monson 

I have really gotten out of the habit of going to the Temple.  Not having one nearby for almost a year and a half I did not go like I should.  It is really not much of an excuse - I mean how spoiled am I that I have to have one 10 minutes away to go regularly when in some parts of the world people have to travel quite a ways and still make sacrifices just to go.

Last year we had a general authority speak at a Stake Conf.  awhile after the Meridian Temple was announced but nothing had been done on it.
I cannot find my notes but in essence he said that we need to prepare ourselves for the Temple and show the Lord that we really want it.  If we don't attend the Temple we already have and take our names to the Temple how exactly are we showing the Lord that we deserve or need another Temple?  I don't have the greatest memory but that talk, those words, will not leave my brain.  It is still taking time for the Meridian Temple to get off the ground - I don't want to be one of the reasons why.

Every morning I pass the Boise Temple on my way to work.  As I come around the curve in the highway I can see those 6 spires shining with the mountains in the background and the Angel Moroni standing tall on top.  Sometimes it is lightly snowing, other times they shine out of a light fog glowing, and in the early fall and spring the sun is coming up and giving the whole building a warm and peaceful glow - every single day it is a beautiful sight.  Why am I not there as much as I possibly can be?  

So, I reexamine my life.  What are my priorities?  Is there something I do each day, or each week that is not as important as giving 3 hours at the Temple?  Well the list is long of things I could and should give up.  I can most definately give 3 hours a week in service at the Temple!

The Young Women's theme this year is "Stand In Holy Places" - I cannot think of a place more holy on the earth!

So that is one of my goals for the year.  Go to the Temple once a week and I want to work on taking some of my own family names as well.  

Happy!

"I know your lives are busy. I know that you have much to do. But I make you a promise that if you will go to the house of the Lord, you will be blessed; life will be better for you."

                                                                  Gordon B. Hinckley

{2nd Day Of The New Year}

Nobody can do for little children

what grandparents do. 

Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust

over the lives of little children. 

~Alex Haley

I talked with my grandparents yesterday afternoon.  My grandmother (Farmar - Norwegian Grandma) is not doing so well. Grandpa is quite lost without her.

I am so grateful we were all able to stop and visit on our way home from our family reunion in August.  She was thrilled to see all the kids and her new, and only, Great Granddaughter Eleanor.  She loved holding her and wanted this picture.

A few days before this picture/visit she had fallen and broken a couple ribs and was in alot of pain (and she still wanted to hold the baby and has a smile!).  When we left I found out she went to the hospital the next day.  They released her after 2 weeks but then she fell again injuring and breaking a couple of vertebrae in her back.

She had to go back to the hospital for quite awhile - slow healing on those old bones - but really wanted to come home and she did fall again.  Not breaking anything but reinjuring.  She is 91 1/2 years old and the healing is slow and painful - her back hurts alot and she had to go to a nursing care home.

She told me yesterday that it was a nice place and they took good care of her.  I asked her if she was eating and she explained to me that she really didn't have any appetite and had lost a lot of weight.   Definately not what I wanted to hear.  She told me that Grandpa would come each day and try and get her to eat and she wished something sounded good (maybe a good sign?).

She got to come home on Christmas day for 4 hours and laid on the couch.  She has always been so strong and the one who does everything - the original hostess, cook, family organizer, and  party planner (I think I know where I get it from),  that my Aunt said it was a strange Christmas. 

I am not sure how much time we have left with her.   Grateful to have had my grandparents so long.

{Happy New Year}

Keep your faith.

 

Look for the good in your situation.

 

Do something kind for someone.

 

Seek Christ.

 

Jeffrey R. Holland