YW Lesson: Our Purpose in Life

Seriously, these are 4X6. Why are they showing up like this?!?!?!

YW hand out

Each week I try to provide a handout to go with my Young Women's lesson. Here is the handout I created for lesson #6.

It is formatted to print 4X6. It does look funny right here, though!

News flash: I am behind in blogging my photography posts. Please try to act surprised. We are having some snow days and life is a little crazy!

Day Seven: Generations

I had to slightly cheat on this assignment. Ok. Full out cheat. We were to take pictures of generations. I decided just to select a few pictures from Christmas and edit those. I feel abundantly blessed to have the family that I do. I wish we lived closer to them. But, at this time it is not possible. So, we cherish the moments we do have together.

This is a Christmas ornament with the name of my mom and her two sisters.

This is Matthew and my dad making a hand rail. I love how they are both so deep in thought in this picture. These two were born to be in each other lives!

Cousins: Brook, Ali, Ashley, Emily and Kat. Dana, did I get the twinners correct?

These two boys, Luke and Papa, both share and avid love of coins. They had a great time going thru Papa's collection. Luke learned a lot and came home and started organizing for real!

I am grateful our generations can be eternal bound. This life on Earth is not nearly enough time for all the fun we could have!!

Day Six: Who they love

These two are never far apart. If I need one of them, I look for the other one.

On this particular night, they were making a cell fuel car. I was snapping multiple pictures for this assignment. They finally decided to ham it up for the camera and this is the image that was captured.

Day Five: Love to Hate

What do I love to hate? Well not a whole lot of hating going on in my life!

Our kitty, Oliver, (you know Oliver, right?) L*O*V*E*S to drink out of the toilet. I have no idea why. I have put up with it until we moved into our new house. Then I told him, "This is enough. Drink out of a cup like a normal cat." So, he has a cup (he won't drink out of a bowl) in the master bathroom and the kitchen window. He still begs and pleads to drink out of the toilet. When I feel my resolve weakening, this is what happens.

We have a "no technology" rule at our family dinner table. Last night Kat was pretty sure we lifted that rule. So, I decided just to talk her picture over and over. In the first picture of her, she was typing on my facebook wall, "Dear mom, please stop taking pictures of me eating my dinner...Thank you!"

Yes, Kat. We know you are still texting!!!

I do love that she has friends and loves living in Nashville with all her little girl heart!

Day Four: What they wear

This is my poor sick kitty wearing a sweat shirt. He cuddled in it for days while he didn't feel well. We are happy to report he is back to his evil ways!

Day Three: then and now

Today's assignment was to capture images of progressing along the aging process. I have always thought my hands look old so I took a picture of them.

Matt's hands don't look old. I love how he works all day long building teeny, tiny circuit boards with those hands. He also plays the piano, does dishes and flies helicopters with Luke with those very hands.

Day two: How they look: Crazy!

No one in my house will take a serious picture! But, I guess if they really want to know how my loved ones look this is it!!!

Day one: what they do

Day one of the Joy of Love photography class found us taking pictures of what our loved ones do. Oliver was the only one who cooperated with me.

This is Oliver "helping." He loves to help me with whatever I happen to be doing at the time!

The Joy of Love

This month I am participating in a photography on-line class. It is free and fun! Come join in the fun!

I only have one problem. We are supposed to be taking pictures of those we love and they are all annoyed with me. Even the cat!!

I realize I have failed at blogging lately. The sad thing is, I LOVE blogging. I love thinking about our days and looking at my pictures. I just can't find the time or energy to do it lately. So, for now, I am taking a blogging break. I hope to return soon.

Soelberg Fall Break

My sister's family came to town for their Fall Break. We had SO much fun! More details will follow...but I wanted to get this picture up for our mummy. We missed Josh and Dana's family and Nana and Papa!!!

Ali's Band Performance at Contest of Champions

Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Fall Party and Friday Night Lights

Friday brought even more fun. Ali and Luke announced that they HAD to go to school. Really? I understood the high schooler needing to be in school. But the fourth grader? Ok, so, he had a fall party. In the long run, Kat was the only kiddo that decided to play hooky with us!

Sara brought a fabulous idea for a fabulous picture frame she wanted Matt and Joe to make. So, after five hours at work, we swept in and kidnapped Matt :) Don’t forget, we had an awesome 7^th grader home with the younger cousins. Man, that was a stroke of genius on my part!

So, off to Home Depot the adults went. I guess somewhere during the morning Sara and I decided to make a little stop at Hobby Lobby. As we walked into Hobby Lobby, Joe announced that he felt a little duped. He was sure he heard us say Home Depot not Hobby Lobby!

After Hobby Lobby and Home Depot, we grabbed a quick bite to eat. Joe is in a MBA program at Kelly School of Business. So, we were happy to have him each moment we could. After lunch Joe was into a conference call and Matt and I ran to Luke’s Fall party.

Is Luke not the cutest fourth grader?

After a Sorensen family dinner of Aunt Naomi's Linguini and Grandpa Sorensen's Pistachio Salad, we bundled up and headed to the football game Ali was marching in. Sara lies about how cold it was. Seriously. Wasn't she raised in Utah and Idaho??

We were the visiting team. But, we wanted to be able to Ali's band AND there weren't seats left on the visiting side, so we were stuck with the home fans. I guess our school had deemed the evening a tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness. Partway through the game Sara noticed a peculiar sign hanging from our high school's stands. I didn't believe her. So, we each took pictures of it and enlarged them with our cameras. If you click on the picture below, you can see the sign that Franklin High was displaying. Pay special attention to the black and pink sign in the far right hand corner!

Sara and Libby. See? It isn't even that cold looking, is it?

My sister and her sweetheart, Joe. They are so stinking cute together! It made my heart so happy to hear them talk and laugh together.

Libby had the best seat in the house to watch Ali perform.

Jenna Dear wearing a pink and white hat. When we married Matt, it was HIS hat. But, we informed him it was NOT a boy hat. So, only girls wear it now :)

Aside from what I thought was a slightly disrespectful police officer, we all had a delightful, freeze your butt off night. (You may insert your own "ta-ta" joke here :))

Trunk or Treat

Thursday morning I awoke with great excitement. My sister and her family were coming to town! And just in-time for our church's Trunk or Treat. But first, there were beds that needed clean sheets, Friday dinner to prepare and a volunteer shift at the high school to serve. Not to mention running club and band. We were foregoing soccer for the big occasion.

Mrs. Weasley, Snape, Hermione (Holy Hermione!!) and a Hungarian Horntail beat me to the church! I was so happy to see their smiling faces. Aren't they adorable? They love Halloween ALMOST as much as the love Harry Potter. Much to my sister's dismay, I don't like either. For them to come to my house on their favorite holiday of the year was amazing!

Even though the cousins aren't together all that often, they always act like not a moment has past.

Introducing the boring Halloween couple of the night!

I thought the colors in this pictures were awesome!

Are these not the cutest little Halloween cousins?!?!?

This is Matt...

...but we call him Matthew.

Yesterday we took family pictures. If you look family pictures up in the dictionary, it will say, "a period of time in which you pay someone to torture you and your loved ones." Scouts honor :) Matt had a meeting that was scheduled to go a little long into the afternoon, so the kids and I met with the photographer and got started on their pictures before Matt arrived. Luke was a little crazy the whole photo shoot, but much crazier in the period of time before Matt got there. When I saw Matt walking down the long sidewalk toward us, I turned to Luke and said, "There is Matt!" Luke jumped down off the structure he was currently climbing and ran full speed ahead. When Luke got remotely close to Matt, he launched himself into Matt's arms. Luckily Matt has gotten used to this action and caught Luke in mid-air and threw him over his shoulder.

I counted my blessings as my two boys walked toward me. As Luke held Matt's hand, he introduced Matt to the photographer with, "This is Matt, but we call him Matthew."

I can't imagine our lives without Matthew. He has cared for and nurtured each of the children. They love and adore him. They tease him relentlessly. Nine times out of ten they will call or text him before they will call or text me. He talks to them. He listens to them. He offers his full, unconditional love to them. They have blossomed with his love and attention.

This is Matt. But we call him Matthew.

Dining Room

We are slowly getting our new home just the way we like it. Our current project is our dining room. We finally decided on paint colors a few weeks ago and started painting. Sadly, a couple hours into painting the walls I fell off the ladder. Talk about pain. I just realized if you add a "t" to pain it becomes paint. Rather interesting, don't you think?

Well, the walls are painted. Now what? Who wants to come help me do the rest of the decorating. Please, no ladders! I am finally able to breath, cough and sneeze without crying!

Above is the very corner I fell. Matt says it was a 4 or 5 foot fall. I landed on my left side, on top of the metal ladder.

We are currently undecided on the table cloth. I actually want a pink one...but not sure how that would work out.
The flowers are from my dear, dear friend Keeley. I love her!

Happy Birthday, Kat!

Happy birthday to the spunkiest thirteen-year-old I have the pleasure of knowing! She has a laugh and smile that is contagious. She tackles life with a determination that is unparalleled.

Kat recently decided she wanted the fourth generation iTouch. She crunched the numbers. If she took all her saved fun money and sold her current iTouch, she could buy the 8 GB fourth generation. So, we listed her iTouch on ebay. No buyers. We lowered the price and it sold. Well, the buyer ended up not following thru with the sale. So, she sold it to her brother. Don't worry, Matt and I brokered the deal. Signed contract and all. Hurray!

Matt and I decided our birthday gift to her would be to surprise her and make up the difference for her to be able to step up to the 32 GB. We know she is going to take scads of pictures and video. We worried she would fill up a 8 GB in no time. So, yesterday I asked a friend to pick up the iTouch for us from Costco. Last night Matt got it all charged and set up with her apps and music from her old iTouch. I wrapped it. We planned to give it to her sometime today. Sometime when we thought it would be perfect timing. Well, the iTouch decided when it wanted to be given...when her daily alarm went off at 5:45 this morning! When Matt transfer everything from the old iTouch to the new one, the alarm when right along with it. So, at 5:45 this morning, her present lit up, started vibrating and singing!!! We hurriedly gathered the family, sang happy birthday over the ruckus and had her turn it off!!! We didn't even get any pictures in those crazy moments!

All in all, it was a surprise!!

Kat, thanx for being part of our family. We love you!

Trunk or Treat

Thursday morning I awoke with great excitement. My sister and her family were coming to town! And just in-time for our church's Trunk or Treat. But first, there were beds that needed clean sheets, Friday dinner to prepare and a volunteer shift at the high school to serve. Not to mention running club and band. We were foregoing soccer for the big occasion.