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!

A food dilemma

With every new year, comes the hope that the next year will be better, more productive, more exciting, more........everything. One thing I am always wanting to improve is my weight and eating habits.......I'm sure most women can relate. This year I have even more incentive. My daughter. I so want her to have a healthy self image and a good sense of moderation. I want her to enjoy food! I want her to love what she eats and to eat well. I find that so many women, myself included, view food in a negative light. I fight the urge to over indulge and to then fight the urge to starve myself when I do. It's an awful cycle and one I want to stop with my little girl.

For this reason, I've decided that from this point forward, I will refuse to diet. If Evalynn is going to learn healthy eating habits, I need to be setting the example. If I'm going to not allow her to snack on bread slathered in butter and chips and cookies, I can't either. So here's to the New Year and and all the delicious food it will hold.

Merry Christmas.....after a VERY long Hiatus!

So....I'm back. I know, I know.......you must be thinking, "Yeah right, we'll see how long this lasts......I give it a week!" But I promise you, I have very good motive to get back on the blogging train....that motive being my husband. I must admit, I lacked motivation this past year to blog for some reason. I don't know if it was due to all the changes in my life or just the fact that I did not want to take the time to write. Perhaps I was just being lazy. Whatever it was, I'm committed to writing at least once a week this coming year while Jonathan sits in the sandbox of Bahrain.

I thought that a Christmas posting would be a good time for my comeback:) Evalynn and I have been with my parents in Colorado this past month. We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and my family has done a spectacular job of distracting us from the pain of Jon's absence. We are truly blessed. My Dad, brothers and sister, Hannah, came up to Collbran yesterday afternoon to spend the night at my Mom's. The only person we were missing was my Step-mom, Kathie who stayed home in Rifle to dutifully watch two dogs. We sorely missed her, but it was so great to have everyone else together. Coming from a split family, I can't tell you how nice it is to see my two families together. What an incredible, crazy, beautiful family I have. Unto the day....... Now I like warm weather as much as anyone, but I must admit, one of the reasons I wanted to be in Colorado this year, was because I wanted Evalynn to have a white Christmas, just like I did as a little girl. To my dismay, the Western Slope has been experiencing warmer than average temperatures this year and snow is hard to come by right now. Thankfully my Mom and Andy knew of where to get some, so yesterday we took the family up the road to get Eva in her snowsuit and on a sled. She LOVED it! It was a great little outing of sled riding and Argo driving (Argos are like big snowmobiles that don't go too fast). We followed it up with chili and hanging out and a game of Settlers of Catan.

This morning was a beautiful time of coffee drinking, making breakfast and opening presents. Evalynn was really getting the hang of tearing paper and had so much fun testing out all of her noise makers. She also chose today to start pulling herself up on her feet. thankfully we had about five cameras in constant rotation today, so we got lots of pictures showing off her new skill. It's very exciting stuff. We also got to chat with Jon very briefly via skype which was the best gift of all.........Well.....there is one gift that tops that, and that would be my awesome Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you God for the greatest gift of all, one that I could never return or equal.

I will post pictures tomorrow, but tonight, I will simply say, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Our little Valentine

This Valentine's Day as made especially memorable by my church's outpour of love and gifts for little Evalynn. They threw her a Canadian Baby Shower(where Americans were welcome)...ha.....it was awesome and completely overwhlmed me. I'm so thankful to have these women in my life. Thank you lifebridge!

Passport Pease

Yesterday we had a family outing to get our passport pictures taken. Good times, good times. Jon and I have passports that are about to expire and our little Eva needs to get one if she ever wants to leave Canada with us :) We laughed a lot trying to get her to open her eyes properly for the photographer.....it's hilarious what they need babies to do for these things. We finally got one that we hope passes the test (as seen above) and soon we will have passports in hand, ready to see the world....or at go back to Colorado for my brother's wedding in April.