Making up for lost time

I was thinking about the title of this post after I typed it. Does that saying really make sense? Can one actually make up for lost time? If it's time and it's lost, then you can't get it back, right? If you do anything else, it takes more time, doesn't it? Just a thought to ponder.

Using the conventional meaning of the saying, though, I would like to do a huge picture post because I have been too busy to do one for a long time.

This is Emi playing the keyboard Heather and Ryan were kind enough to give us.

I was making knoephla and Emi was feeling left out.

Looking at the flowers near our house before we left Logan (yes, that's how old these pictures are!).
I heard Emilia saying, "Daddy, feet on head!" and had to go check out what she was talking about. She is one of the few people I know who could accomplish this feat. Now that's talent!


Emi eating her very first chocolate-iced donut.

Emi on the 4th of July enjoying a sugar cookie while we waited for the Thanksgiving Point fireworks to start. Did you know they moved them? Our amazing spot along the road is no longer amazing. :( But we enjoyed the fireworks anyway. Well, me, Steve, and Alison did. Emilia hated them. We had to put a movie on the laptop so she would stop crying and clinging to my neck. She didn't like the little ones we did the next night either. She kept telling me all night and through the next day, "Fireworks scary, momma. No more fireworks. All done."


I am attempting to potty train Emilia. It wasn't going so well. After 4 days she would run away screaming, "No! I too big!" whenever I asked her if she needed to go potty. So I put her back in diapers. Now she'll randomly tell me that she needs to "poop" and I'll sit her down and she'll go. I'm sure I don't understand--and never will.

Emilia helping Papa water the flowers. She helps me water my garden, too. She's a good helper.

On the 25th of June we were invited to join some moms from the ward in taking their kids to Spanish Oaks Reservoir, which is basically a small man-made lake with sand on one side and decent fishing on the other. Emi really liked sitting in her "duck," which is what she calls all round flotation devices--until it tipped over backwards. She didn't like that so much.

Emi still loves to read. LOVES to read. She's especially good at reading Pooh books.



We have a nice big back yard at our new place. There's tons of grass, a huge cement basketball court, a swing set, and a rock box (like a sandbox only with pebbles instead of sand). The landlords, who live above us, have three kids, an 8 yr old girl, a 6 yr old boy, and a 2 yr old girl. Emilia has really taken to the youngest girl and likes to go out and play when she is out. They don't really play with each other yet, but they like the idea of having someone out there with them. Anyway...the other day the oldest girl and one of her friends decided they were going to bury themselves in the rocks. We came outside for the tail end of this and Emi watched them. They got up and left and we were playing in the rocks when she asked me to bury her. She hadn't had a nap that day and was very tired, but she loved being buried in the rocks. It was pretty funny.

I was surprised she didn't get claustrophobic or something. But she didn't; maybe because she was tired. She just laid there like she was suntanning. haha

So there you have it. All the pictures from the last couple months that I was too busy or too lazy to post until now. I'm sure there are things that I've missed, but you'll just have to deal with that. :)

Latest entry

Go here for my latest entry into the model search if you can't see the picture below.

Vote for me in this contest!

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For those of you not on Facebook

Facebook is easier for me to update because it doesn't involve logging in and detailing my life and I don't feel obligated to add pictures. I can just put little quips and be done. But I don't want to lose some of the things I have journaled there, so I'm going to post them here. Enjoy! :)

When Emilia can't quite do something on her own, she always yells for help. It makes me giggle when she does it though, because it either comes out as "Heoop me! Heoop me!" in this tragic-sounding voice that reminds me of a southern belle in an old movie like "Gone with the Wind," or it comes out "Hewp me, Momma, hewp!" which makes me think, "Help me, Rhonda, Help! Get 'er outta my heart."

Steve has called Emilia Poopenheimer since she was born because of all the poop she produces. The other day, she told me she needed her diaper changed because she was poopy, so I started changing her. As I was wiping her bum, she looked up at me and said very seriously, "Poopenheimer."

Steve asked Emilia tonight if she was the cutest kid in the whole world, to which she replied, "Umm?...Yeah."

Yesterday, Alison and I went to the grocery store with Emi and one of the things I needed to buy was some bananas. Emilia wanted to eat one right away, but I told her she had to wait until we bought them. After a while we realized she was saying, "Two minutes. Two minutes." When we asked what was two minutes, she replied, "Eat manana. Two minutes." hahaha!

As we were getting in the car after dinner, Emilia was protesting and trying to run away. So Steve said, "You're such a stinker sometimes!" to which Emilia responded, "Sometimes! Sometimes sometimes sometimes! Sometimes!" Finding this funny, Steve then said, "Haha, She's like, 'I'll show you!'" to which she responded,... "I'll show you!" I was laughing pretty hard after that, so she kept saying it. "I'll show you!"

Emi updates

Emilia said, "I love you, Mommy," for the first time yesterday. It was very sweet. I probably would have been sweeter if she hadn't said it to Pooh two days before she said it to me, but I'll take it. :)

Emilia has also taken to reading books to me. Mostly Pooh books, because we read those the most. She AMAZES me. Of course, she's not actually reading. But she can tell you what's on the page almost word for word. For example, we stayed at Dampa and Dahmi's (Grandpa and Grandma Watts') house the first few nights we were down here so we didn't have to find bedding and set up beds in all the mess. They have a Pooh book about Pooh getting honey out of the honey tree. She hadn't read this book since the last time we were at their house at Easter. But when I picked up the book, she grabbed it from me, opened up to the middle somewhere and told me what the page said using at least 75% of the exact words on the page, then paged through the book doing the same thing for the rest of the pages. I was floored.

She is getting used to our new house now, too. The first few nights she would wake up a number of times crying for mommy, but she's been sleeping through the night the last few nights. I'm starting to get used to our new house, too. I'm getting things in place and figuring out decorating. Our new landlords are very nice. What a change from crazy Mr. Henrie! The crotchety old man kept our entire cleaning deposit. Miser.

Steve started his new job on Tuesday and things seem to be going well. No complaints so far.

I have three wedding shoots this month and a garden to take care of (thanks, Dad, for helping me get it in!), so what with that and getting my house put back together, I should keep pretty busy, too.

I finished it!

Well everyone. My book is finished. Well, not FINISHED finished, but it has an ending and I can officially start draft 2. Woo-hoo! Thanks to all of you who have read the crazy first draft and who have given me encouragement in any form. We'll see how revising goes. Maybe I'll have a book at a publishers by this time next year. Here's hoping!

Steve has also accepted a job. So we will have money to pay the rent on our lovely new apartment. My mom and sister were saints and came up here to help me pack the last two Mondays. I'm pooped, but we got SO MUCH done. I couldn't have done it without you guys. Thanks!!!

Our ward members will be helping us load our moving van Thursday night and my family and Steve's parents have offered to help move us in Saturday morning. Did you know that moving vans (even within the same state) are REALLY expensive? Well they are. And we even had a coupon.

I've been so busy. I had a photo shoot last Wednesday, another today, and another tomorrow. I threw a recipe exchange party last thursday and worked as a sub that day too. Tomorrow I have visiting teaching appointments and Wednesday I'm meeting with a lady to talk about becoming an Avon lady. Wow. That sounds weird to say out loud. Avon lady. Aren't Avon ladies old with painted on eyebrows? But I really like their makeup and even if I only get my stuff cheaper that would be nice. I think you have to buy books or something, so we'll see. I may decide not to do it after I speak with her. But if I never talk to her I'll never know, right?

And just because no post is complete without Emilia...here you go:

Night time cuteness and other fairly funny tales

Emi has been waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room to get us for about the last month or so. At first it was a huge pain because she would throw a royal fit if we didn't lay on the floor of her room with her until she fell asleep again. Well, we have finally trained her fall asleep without us in there, so it's not such a pain anymore when she wakes up. But last night, I woke up around 5am and could hear that her door was open (we keep a fan going while she's sleeping for white noise and I could hear it too loudly), even though I had shut it before I went to bed. So I rolled over to go check on it, when I discovered Emi, curled up in a ball with her blankie, fast asleep on the floor next to our bed. She hadn't cried or tried to wake me or anything! It was so sweet.

There aren't actually any other funny tales, but there is some other news. We found a place to live in Orem! Hooray! We can move in any time after the 21st, but I have a lot going on here in Logan over the next two weeks, including a wedding (to shoot) on the 24th and 25th, so we'll probably move on the 29th. If anyone wants to volunteer to help us, we certainly won't turn you down! :)

Steve has not taken a job yet. He has one offer on the table--one we would rather he wouldn't have to take just because it is quite a bit lower than we would like. We should hear from another place tomorrow (hopefully).

Things should be crazy around here for a while, so don't be too upset if you don't hear from me, okay? Thanks! :)

What do May showers bring?

(I wrote this article as a sample submission for a website that I'm trying to get a "job" with as a monthly contributor. The website is just for women of Utah. I thought I did a pretty good job with it and thought maybe you would be interested in seeing it.)

All of us have heard the saying “April showers bring May flowers.” But when May brings us more rain than sunshine, what do we get then? A little bit wet? Time to postpone our gardening? Depression?

I think it’s easy to get a little down when all we see are cloudy skies after a long, cold, winter. But I promise there are sunny days ahead!

In the mean time, I thought I would share some lessons I’ve learned from being a photographer that might help keep your spirits up even while the skies are a little gray. (All of the pictures below were taken on a VERY rainy day.)

1. Zoom in
Sometimes when you look through a camera lens, something that could be rather impressive to your naked eye is just rather blah. But, if you zoom in on the details, you get an interesting, artistic photograph.

Take this old church building for example. It’s a large building with tall, imposing steeples. The windows are interesting, too. But when I took a picture of the whole building I was unimpressed. The tree in front of it has no leaves, and the gray sky makes for a boring, washed-out background.
When I zoomed in on the details, though, I got this interesting, geometric shot.

Often, we go about our lives doing the same things and seeing the same things day after day (and if you have small children, saying the same things, watching the same things, reading the same things, singing the same things, etc. etc.). Our houses, our neighborhoods and our families can sometimes seem rather unimpressive just because we see them all the time.

But if you take a closer look, sometimes beauty can pop out at you in places you wouldn’t have expected.

2. Take a different angle
Often turning your camera just a little bit can make all the difference. Tilting the camera can give an otherwise stagnant shot just enough movement to make it interesting. Shifting your view point two inches to the right can bring something into the shot that brings it to life.

I thought the bright colors of these flowers was really pretty against the black ironwork fence, but as you can see, the boxy camera angle and busy background make the picture a little blah.

But, when I tilted the camera at just a slight angle, and shifted my viewpoint just a little to the left, I got something with just the right amount of contrast and a little movement. It looks much better, don’t you think?
3. Zoom out
Occasionally the key to a great photo isn’t getting closer, it’s moving away. If you are too focused on a piece of a shot, you miss the grandeur around it. By zooming out, you put the piece you found interesting into perspective, which is often what brought it to your attention in the first place. When you go to the ocean, it’s not the water around your feet that’s impressive, but the sheer amount of water compared to little old you.

Here is a farm building that I thought was interesting. I especially liked the red of the barn against the spring green crops growing in front of it.

The shot captures what I found interesting, but when I zoomed out a bit, it’s easier to see why it grabbed my attention.

There is the old saying, “Don’t miss the forest for the trees.” I think that is kind of what I’m trying to say here. It’s easy to lose perspective when faced with the worries and drama of daily life. Don’t be so focused on the dishes, and the kid crying, and the groceries, that you miss the fact that you have healthy children, a roof over your head, and the freedom to make your own choices.

Even though I would prefer warm, sunny skies to cold, drippy clouds, I think May showers can give us more than just a case of the blues; they can give us the opportunity to look at the world in a different way. When we make the effort, I’m pretty sure we’ll see something beautiful that otherwise we might have missed. The flowers hold their heads high despite the rain and so can you.

Post and photos by Sabrina Watts of Sabrina Watts Photography