Trick or Treating Bahrain style

Who would have thought.....Halloween in Bahrain! The community Jon lives in put on a trick or treat event last night, so we dressed Eva up and hit a few homes up for treats :) Eva was not quite sure a the beginning, looking around at all the kids in a mixture of fear and awe. Once she figured out that we were going to houses to get treats, though she quickly warmed to the idea. She started saying, "treat, treat" at every pumpkin and lit house we passed. We didn't stay out long, but it had fun seeing her figure it all out.

She Sings!

Evalynn and I have been visiting Jon in Bahrain this past month. It's been amazing and healing and rejuvenating and relaxing. we've really been low key for the most part, trying to establish what life as a family is like again. One of the things we've really been focusing on lately is music. Now.....Evalynn has always been a singer, but lately, she's taken it to new heights. She's starting to put words into the tunes and twirls around and asks to dance and uses lots of hand motions. It melts my heart EVERY time! She sings in the car, while walking, around the house.....anywhere and everywhere has become her stage. It's a beautiful thing to see and hear!

On the road again

Well.....sort of. Today, Evalynn and I said good-bye to the western slope of Colorado and headed to Denver. We will be here for a few days before heading down to Texas......after which...we hop on a plane. To go to Bahrain for a month on October 6th. Needless to say, we will be pretty busy for the next 13 days. We had such an amazing time in Colorado. I loved having my family so close to me again, and it was so great to see Evalynn warm up to my parents and siblings......it's I time I will always cherish. I owe the blog some pictures, so when I get onto my normal computer, I'll post a few from the summer. I will also post a few pictures from my time in Greece a few weeks back.....yes, I said greece:) Ha...Greece feels about a million miles away right now and my tan has already faded so posting pictures will be a good excuse for me to re-live the wonderfulness in my head once again and re-assure me that it wasn't just a beautiful dream.

Alright. Off to bed I go. Good night!

My Love for the Glenwood Canyon

Growing up, I thought that the Glenwood Springs Canyon was the most beautiful place on earth. Granted, I had not traveled too far, but still, it captivated my attention every time I drove through it. Years later, with a lot more miles under my belt, I still consider it a thing of beauty and one of my favorite spots. I got to experience the river up close and personal this past Wednesday with a rafting trip, made extra special because my step-sister got to guide us down. It was a day full of laughter, cold river water, hot natural spring water, shivering and shrieks....followed by more laughter. It was a good day.

what I'm doing right now: Photobooks!!

One of my many, many goals this year was to get caught up on photo albums. What a feat it has turned out to be! The most i had done previous to this point and time was a half-hearted attempt at a wedding scrapbook. So, to actually sit and put together 4 plus years of memories with Jon is quite intimidating.

I am happy to say that the wedding album is just about done....yay for me! I think that is my first and LAST scrapbook! As much as I love and appreciate other people's scrapbooking efforts, I have come to realize that I don't have the patience or time to keep up with it. Plus....it's expensive! Thankfully, though, I have found something much more in line with my clean, simple style.......photobooks! I'm in love with them and am so excited to catalog our family memories through them in the months and years to come. After researching which company suited my needs the best, I've decided to go with Blurb to print my first one. I can create all the pages in photoshop and then upload them onto their site. They are a LOT less expensive then Picaboo and I get to have total creative freedom because I'm creating each page from scratch. I'm working on one book right now with hopes of getting Evalynn's baby book started soon. I will let you know what I think of Blurb once I get one back.

So that is what's going on with me today. Here's some pictures of the wedding album, sans the wording. plus a picture of my little lady just because she is cute!

re-prioritizing

I had high hopes for this blog when I started it. Yep......very high hopes. I thought this would be a perfect place to showcase my writing talent (I kid....I kid) and to escape into my own little creative zone all the while keeping friends and family up to date on all Schein happenings. What I found instead, was another thing to do on my list and another thing that takes time away from the precious little I seem to get to myself these days. What I thought was going to be a blessing turned into something of a burden.

All that to say.....I'm going to keep at it.....at least for now. I'm not ready to say good-bye to my vision for this blog or my hopes for what it could be. But I also know that I don't want to look at it as a job........I want to look forward to posting new things......I want this to be a joy for myself and hopefully for you.

I'm not making any promises, but will do my best to stay on top of it more than I have this year. I want to share what I'm passionate about: my God, my family, my art and creative aspirations, my heart for people................and hopefully I'm organized enough to do it!

Echanted Rock and the Spotted Girl

Sounds like something J.R. Rowlings would be proud of. Our time in Texas is coming to a close this week. Eva and I start off on our "girls only" road trip to Arizona this weekend, but we've managed to pack quite a bit into our time here with Jon's parents.

The weekend following my birthday Eva and I tested our road trip skills with a drive to Houston to see Lindsey, Hallie and Brooke. We started the trip by making our way to Austin for Uncle Sandy's birthday dinner and then drove east. It was an awesome weekend of re-connecting with old friends, and despite the rain, we had a wonderful time. I love that Lindsey's daughter is now the age (4 1/2) when Lindsey and I became friends......it brought back so many memories and I LOVE that our kids get to play together now. I got a chance to see Brooke's new pad in the making and I am so excited to be a guest there someday :) Thank you ladies for being such amazing friends!

The next weekend was a trip to the infamous Enchanted rock, the 2nd largest monolithic piece of granite in the USA.....very cool. We hiked up and around it and could not have ordered better weather for the day. Thank you God for Your beauty!

This past weekend I got to have Jon's mom all to myself since his Dad is teaching a course in New Mexico right now. We drove up to Austin for the day to spend time with family.....a bitter sweet time really. A wonderful time together, but a sad day of good-byes too. There are some pretty serious health issues in the family right now and it's hard to see loved ones suffering. This is the part of life that sucks sometimes.

And you are probably wondering at this point why the spotted girl comment. Eva had her first allergic reaction a few weeks ago...yikes! broke out in a million tiny red spots! I have to honed to two things.....tuna fish or peanut butter. She'd had peanut butter a few times prior with no reaction, but sometimes it takes a few times....will update when we figure it out......so not fun......poor thing!

This week we get to celebrate both Maureen and Ken's birthday along with enjoying the wonderful task of packing our lives again. It's going to be a busy week judging from my list sitting next to me....but again I say, that is life. we will take the good and the bad with grace and thanksgiving.

Birthdays!

Yay for birthdays!! Evalynn and I both got to celebrate our birthdays this month.......and they were fabulous! For Eva's, we started off the day with banana pancakes and a skype chat with her Daddy, followed by a visit to Uncle Max and Aunt Barbara's house for lunch and Penn State football, then back home to Grandma and Grandpa Schein's house for a family birthday celebration filled with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, TOYS, cupcakes and lots of yummy food. It was an awesome day! I can't believe my little girl is already one.......I now know why parents say that.....it goes too quick!

For me, I got to spend the morning with my lovely little lady and my wonderful father-in-law. We headed to New Braunfels, a sweet community about 25 minutes from Canyon Lake, for tasty German pastries from one of the oldest bakeries in Texas....they did not disappoint! I think I will be making a few more trips there before I leave in February. that evening Jon's parents treated me to dinner in Gruene, another awesome community close to their house, for a wonderful dinner and an evening of dancing at Gruene Hall......a cool, historic dance hall. Not a bad way to start of my last year in my 20's!