The Ensign: Limited Edition

As I went to bed one evening this past week, here is what was staring back at me from the pages of the Ensign magazine...

 {page 81}

{page 27}

 {page 122} 

{page 57}

The Conference Ensign came out in May and somehow we snagged a limited edition.

I didn't clock it, but I'm guessing it took me about twenty minutes to collect myself enough to start breathing normally again.

Priceless.

Mother's Day 2012

Since moving to Ohio, I haven't done much with my floral design business - nothing actually.  Que triste.  However, when it came time to plan for Young Women activities for 2012 I offered to teach the girls how to make corsages for Mother's Day.  A fun skill to learn, and I got to get back into floral design on a small scale.

Here are a few of the many wonderful creations - I was impressed!

 Maddie

Anya 

Rachel 

Mine and Megan's - I made this quick demo as a template

It was fun to see the mothers wearing their corsages at church on Sunday.  What talented Young Women I get to work with!

{Corsage flowers: Roses, spray roses, button mums, bear grass, leatherleaf}

And speaking of Mother's Day - mine was lovely.  Being my first, Steve spoiled me from sun-up to sundown and it started with breakfast in bed.  From the looks of things, I'm guessing it had been a long night.  =)

Please notice the condiments.  Maple syrup (for the pancakes, of course) and chipotle tabasco sauce.  I know I'm weird, but my eggs cannot be consumed without the latter.  He even arranged some flowers for me!

 Bug was on her best behavior, which made for a very pleasant day.

And speaking of floral design stuff, I found these photos from my brother's wedding back in 2005 and jumped for joy.  I thought I had lost them.  This is one of my favorite weddings of all time since my brother trusted me completely with the flowers.  It was the first wedding I ever completed, and I had total control.  When I asked Scott for advice on what he and Natalia wanted, he basically said, "it's up to you - we trust you."

The results were phenomenal and it was entirely due to the flowers (an arrangement on every fence post & table): snapdragons, solidago (goldenrod), delphiniums, daisies, and stock.  The venue was perfect for this flower combination/color scheme, and it was a beautiful June day.  Fun memories!

   

Flowers make me oh so happy.

International Samplings

SPAIN

The Inamas invited us over to their place last Sunday to make sopapillas.  This delicious pastry is common in South America, but Matt served his mission in Spain and had them there too, so we decided to celebrate Spain and Cinco de Mayo a day late.  Here we have Brian Casaday and Matt Inama showing us how it's done.

 Our assignment was to bring a topping, so we provided blackberries to combine with fresh whipped cream (thanks, Casadays!).  Yum.

 There was plenty of nutella, chocolate sauce, and powdered sugar too.

 The gang: Heather & Matt, Brian & Amy, Steve & wifey.

We have very cool neighbors.

 ITALY

Later that evening I was introduced to bocce ball.  I could be wrong, but it seems to be a combination of corn hole and croquet.  Meet Sparky, Jinx, and Smudge...

Mixing it up a bit - all bocce balls thrown at the same time.

I was particularly proud of this shot.

A picture of Bug just because we feel like it.

She is six weeks old today!

PERU

Steve and Ainsley are skyping with Steve's mom (living in Lima) in this picture.  This shot was taken about 10 seconds before Ainsley lost it.  It's rough being adorable and exhausted all at the same time.

And that's the sampling of Spain, Italy, and Peru  - not bad for a week's worth of travel - all within one city block.

Our passports feel abandoned.

Dapper

Who is this dapper fellow?

My awesome brother, Cullen, sporting the Irvine tartan for graduation from the U of U.

CONGRATS!

This is now

Here she is!

Lest you be concerned that this blog will turn into nothing but pictures of Ainsley, I'll tell you that this will be one of the only posts full of her pictures.

If you're not on facebook, here are her stats:

Ainsley Jane Adams

Born on 30 March 2012 at 9:07 p.m.

8 lbs. 2 oz.

20.25 inches long

Our little bug - based on one of the best children's books ever...
Easter!  You can't see it, but we stuck her in an Easter basket and a cute onesie - "Just Hatched"  One day she'll thank us (we hope).

She eats and sleeps like a champ - woohoo!  Life is certainly different these days, but we're having a blast adjusting to life as parents.

Kinda surreal...

And P.S. In case you didn't get enough of little AJ in this post, call, text, or email us and we'll give you the info to access a picasa album that Steve updates regularly with plenty more pictures of the little one.

The Curse

I do not like cats.

The reason? I'm allergic.

Funny then how EVERY mascot I've ever been affiliated with happens to be some sort of feline.

Boulton Elementary BOBCATS

Mueller Park Junior High PANTHERS

Woods Cross High WILDCATS

Brigham Young University COUGARS

(UK schools don't have mascots so University of Edinburgh doesn't really apply here)

It gets even better....

When I got a job at Columbus State Community College, I picked up right where I left off:

CSCC COUGARS

Then I got another teaching job at Ohio Dominican University and literally laughed out loud when I was confronted with the university mascot:

ODU PANTHERS

It's a curse, I tell you. But it's coming to an end!

On 22 August 2012 I will officially start my Ph.D. in History of Art, and the mascot this time around isn't a cat....

It's a BUCKEYE!!!

I submitted my acceptance to Ohio State University last week. Pretty cool that Steve and I will now share alma mater's. OSU has been very good to us so far, and the next four years will continue that trend.

That was then...

One word to sum up the days and weeks leading up to the birth of our daughter:

ANTICIPATION

We couldn't wait to see her face, kiss her cheeks, cuddle her close, and even hear her cry. There really is something special about being pregnant, which I won't attempt to explain, but I wish every woman could have a pregnancy like mine (minus the diabetes part, of course) - even though it was automatically high-risk because of the diabetes, I didn't have a day of morning sickness, no complications, sleep was never a problem (even at 39 weeks), no cravings, no crazy hormone-induced mood swings - I was very lucky. Steve was lucky too. =)

I didn't post belly pictures on the internet (you know, the week by week progress comparing my belly to changing fruits/vegetables - the raspberry to pumpkin thing), but we just got these photos back from a maternity shoot that we did at the end of February and I thought I'd show all of you a small sampling of what I looked like with a belly.

When we picked my mom up from the airport the evening before Ainsley arrived, she still didn't believe that I was about to have a baby the next day...my belly was pretty deceiving the whole pregnancy. Regardless of appearance, our little one has arrived and our world has been changed for the better.

Stay tuned for pictures of the new arrival.