WHY????

You KNOW why!
Actually I really don't know why. Why won't blogger let me get rid of these huge spaces in my posts? I've tried everything I can think of numerous times. Blogger is really giving me fits as of late!

Chicago, Chicago, Chicago

All roads lead to Chicago. At least that is what it seems like lately. Everywhere I turn there is something about Chicago. I turned on the news.....Chicago (Thanks Blago!). I turned on a movie..........its in Chicago. My kids turned on some dumb Disney show.......Chicago. Two of my friends are going on vacation this week and where are they going??? You guessed it Chicago.

So I decided to finish a project that I've been working on FOREVER. Again.....Chicago. My sis sent me some pictures of Chicago in the 1920's. They are awesome! The problem is that I wanted them "just so" and I was having a hard time figuring out exactly what I was going to do to make that happen. For the record, photo texture rocks!

I finally finished my "Chicago wall" yesterday. Doubt these pictures will do it justice.

The top is our family name spelled out with photos of objects from downtown Chicago.

And the rest are pictures of Chicago from the 1920's. Even though the pictures are old I can still recognize Chicago. And I can't lie, it makes me a little homesick.

So is Chicago really the center of the universe or am I just feeling a tad homesick? Probably a little bit of both. But can ya blame me? I left behind the most fantastic ward EVER. Seriously. I mean it! Here are the ladies at my goodbye dinner. Sorry about the surprise pictures ladies. Just too hard to say goodbye. sniff sniff. And then there are my Young Women. Cutest, nicest, smartest, girls ever. Really. They are.

So I felt a little nostalgia, and I went with it for a few minutes.

Then for some reason I checked the weather in Chicago. Cold and rainy. So I grabbed my new lawn chair and my book and went out and sat in the sun for a few minutes.

Wow. The sun sure can cure a lot of ailments.

And last, but certainly not least

Our Israel pictures. At least what we have of them. Wouldn't you know it, the only roll that I forgot to request a cd for has most of our Israel pictures on it. I swear I can hear my mother screaming in horror all the way from South Jordan.

Not sure why we found it necessary to take a picture of Conal at a McDonalds in Israel, but hey, here we are in McDonalds in Israel.
At a Discoteque in Tel Aviv 24 hours after a suicide bombing that killed several young Israelis.The Jordan River.In Haifa at the grave of one of Conal's anscestors who served a mission in Israel.And my favorites.............because this is what its all about.

Yet another round of reasons to laugh at Co and Mo

This picture is screaming for a "then-me, now-me" do over.

The "Return of the Norway" cruise. Feel free to insert Norway cruise jokes here. At least there was no "Norwalk virus" on this cruise.

Kirtland temple. Man it looks different in Kirtland now.
Here is proof that my hair has gotten darker with each kid:

More Pictures from the olden days

More oldies:

Conal graduating from the Salt Lake County Sherriff's academy.

Conal and me at the Palmyra temple. Con, did we get married when you were in high school or something.........because you look like a kid in this photo. Niagra Falls 2000. Can you guess which temple this is? BTW--Conal informed me that he wore this shirt to work the other day. ha ha.

Our first apartment and my college car: Nice sideways pic of me before my work Christmas party. Thanks for the snazzy hairdo Rach!

Stay tuned for more........if.........you............aren't........bored..........out............of..........your.......mind........yet.

Buried Treasure part 1

Before we moved, the moving dude came to estimate how much our personal belongings weighed so they knew how big of a truck they needed. He told us that we were over the amount the the Bureau would move us without charging us. So we started going through things to see what we could get rid of.

We found 8 undeveloped rolls of film and we didn't know what was on them.

So I took them all over to Walmart.

FYI: Walmart doesn't develop film in-store anymore. They send them out to a lab and it takes awhile to get them back. It's pretty pricy too.

I forgot that when we used to take pictures the "old school" way, we used to get a lot of bad pics. Ok, so maybe I'm the only one that got a bunch of bad pics............but there were a few treasures here and there:

Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic games. Oh yeah! Garrison reminds me so much of Sienna in this picture. The male version of course. =)
And this is a classic. Way to run with the torch Con.

And I may or may not have shed a tear when I saw this picture of my eldest child.

And dang I forgot how little Garrison was when Hailey was born.

Stay tuned for more...............