Return of the Tiff

Woohoo! It's my turn because only the kids are around and they're (supposed to be) sleeping! Kyle and Mom successfully retrieved our goods from California and now Utah is officially our abode. Stuff has been happening right and left, but since the untimely death of our laptop and our spontaneous relocation to Utah, I haven't had the chance to really blog at all. (I read my last post about feeling like I just don't have much to say. I must've been feeling pretty pathetic that day because I actually have LOTS to say at almost all times and no shortage of topics I'd like to blog about.)

Not having the chance to blog lately has little to do with free time and more with the fact that we haven't had any internet access at our rental until Saturday and since then, my online ambitions have held lowest priority, and justifiably so (this being Bob's computer and all, with Kyle on the job prowl and Mom searching for better housing--long story...-- and running the Relief Society from afar). But now they are all gone so it is my time, and so now I bring you a choppy, incomplete report of my recent doings.

Something I did in the past day:

I finished these ridiculously cute but even more ridiculously time-consuming cards for a card exchange with Naomi's Law School Wives Club tomorrow. I originally planned to just make one for a dear relative who's expecting, and soon enough I became possessed to believe it a splendid idea to start whipping them up in mass.


Naomi was kind enough to give/lend me her paper, pen, and other such supplies so I could copy this little clothespin design I found in her idea book (haha, you didn't really think I come up with cute craft ideas on my own, didya?), but tracing, cutting out, and hand-dashing an entire wardrobe of onesies and such (I made 14 cards)... well, I don't plan to ever do that again. So those perfect strangers at the card swap tomorrow better love 'em!

Something I did in the past week:

I caught up with bosom friend Sara during her very brief visit to Utah. She and her husband and I went to the Draper LDS temple open house and then met up with Mary, Barney, and E&E at IKEA where I had a few design fantasies and raided the "as is" section.

Last week also elicited many welcome visits to our new pad, especially since Kyle, Mom, and vehicular transportation were gone for most of the week to CA. Kjerstin is my go-to girl and so I invited her to stay with us while Kyle was gone and she was happy to oblige, bearing gifts, groceries, and a large array of hair accessories.

The above picture really proves my theory about the genderlessness of (especially children's) facial features. Would Didi not make a beautiful daughter?

Something I did in the past two weeks:

Went grocery shopping for the first time since probably last July. (Living with Mom, groceries poured in faster than I could even compose my own grocery list... anyone who's witnessed our abundance of freezers will know what I mean.) And when I'd had enough of the kids' repeated attempts at leaping out of my cart, I got to hand them over to Mom and her sweet ride.

Also in the past couple of weeks, we were staying with our dear friends and surrogate parents, the Williams'. Ellie basically could not get enough of Grandma Mare.

Our stay was cozy, warm, and perfect, thanks to things such as their enormous tub ideal for bubbly adventures and...

70 cats and 33 chickens (1 live cat included). We know. We counted.


Something I did in the past month:

I mourned (and am still mourning) the premature and unexpected passing of Lappy the laptop (don't worry, we never called her that when she was still around). Even more tragic was the cause of her death: a small Chinese coin (valued at a third of a US penny) anonymously shoved into her interior reaked havoc and irreversible damage for some odd months until...(sniff sniff) ... well, you know.

Something I did in the past season:

Celebrated a monumentous Christmas holiday with all of my Goodwin-side relatives. I'm embarrassed to admit that the following is the closest thing I took during those two weeks to a family picture. And now I have "turn on the camera and take at least ONE picture every week" to add to my New Year's resolutions.

Something I did in the past year:

Reigned over Disneyland!!! (And that's the segway into my next post.)