Valentines Day is for Fools

Nick and I have always thought Valentine's Day was a stupid holiday.  I am not really sure why, my best guess is that in the beginning of our marraige we were very poor and never had any money to celebrate.  So instead, we called the holiday Stupid.  We're mature like that.

This week I was cleaning out my filing drawer when I found this gem of a Valentine's Card from my dear husband.  I am not sure when he gave this to me (it wasn't dated, MEN!) but I remember receiving it early in our marriage, perhaps our first Valentine's Day together.    The best part of the whole handmade card is that Nick is a very talented Graphic Designer and an expert in photoshop.  So not only did he give me a weird card, but he purposefully did a bad editing job and used poor quality stock photography. Plus, I think the caption sums up our marriage quite well. Believe me the irony was not lost on me.  Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

(Before you feel too bad for us and our un-romantic marraige, you should know that we try to show our love for each other often through the year, not just one day in February.  Plus, we are celebrating Valentine's Day in Las Vegas this year, without our  children.    How romantical!)

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

A New Decade

Today is my 30th birthday, actually yesterday was.  It is now after midnight.

Anyway, I have a new motto for my 30's, wanna hear it?

First, let me tell you what my 20's were all about: Stressing, Studying, gestating, laboring, scrimping, saving, budgeting, nursing, moving, changing, smiling, learning, dancing, juggling, crying, praying, and singing.  These are just a few words that come to mind.   I have learned a lot.  I have made major life decisions, I have made major career moves.  I have borne and begun to raise three beautiful boys with my husband.  I have struggled in marriage, and relished in the success of hard work and how it makes us happier as a couple When I think back 10 years I am stunned at how quickly it has gone, but so happy for the experiences that I have been given.  This was a great decade!

I am so excited about my 30's though because there are so many new things to experience.  My motto for my 30's is going to be Don't worry, be happy.  Bobby McFarrin knew what he was talking about people!  I do far too much worrying, have done far too much worrying.  I am through with that and am moving onward and upward to better things.  Worrying is so pointless anyway, I have Faith in my Heavenly Father and his love for me.  I know that he wants me to be happy, and for the record I want to be happy too.  I have learned that  I am happiest when I turn things over to him and do as he asks.  SO....
Don't worry, be happy.

I'll bet you thought it was going to be something like work hard right?

Christmas 2010

 In the Jacobs Family we have the tradition of making Christmas hats for each other rather than giving gifts.  The hats are always creative, usually funny, and represent the person wearing it in some way.  I am not going to explain them all to you 'cause I'm lazy.  Use your imagination to figure out what they mean, if you know any of us it won't be hard!

And now for a cute picture, here are our three boys in their Christmas finest.

We hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We are looking forward to 2011 and all that it promises, thanks for reading!

11:50 PM on New Years Eve 2010

One year.  As a kid I remember thinking that one year represented an enormous amount of time, but as an adult it seems to zip by.
I have been thinking this week a lot.  This year there have been so many changes in our household, small changes and big changes.  Some of them were expected but most of them were not.  Some were good and some were not.  Some of the changes have stuck around and some of them have dwindled.  Here are my top four changes that stand out in my mind, either cause they were great or they were really hard.  Either way I believe that lessons were learned and hopefully we have all grown together as a family from them.

1.  A New Business.  A Cosmetology school, who'd a thunk it?  If I could have guessed that at the age of 29 I would be doing this...well there is no time in my life that I would every have believed myself.  It is a lot of work, a LOT of work.  I am learning a lot, mainly how to juggle and balance and that sort of thing.  Mostly I am excited about what the future holds for us! Plus I'm a little scared, but mostly excited.

2. New friends.  There have been several families move into my neighborhood this year that have grown to be great friends.  THese people have changed the dynamic of our little street.  People are friendlier, people talk outside, people want to get to know each other.  It wasn't always like this here, or maybe I wasn't always like this?  Who knows, either way I blame these new friends and thank heaven that they were sent here!

3. Money.  This really isn't a change per say, we've always had a budget in our household.  This year was just hard though.  We have a lot of debt to work through and it sucks.  I hate admiting that, it's kind of our dirtly little secret,  but there it is.  We are hopeful that #1 will help us in 2011 to eliminate some of our money woes.

4. 10 years of marriage.  I love my Nick.  He is good to me and treats me as a queen.  I am the luckiest Emily in the world to have four wonderful men in my life!

It's 12:00 AM, so Happy New Year!  Here's to many more wonderful changes and maybe some familiar things too.

Fashion recycling

You might think I took this photo from the page of a 1992 clothing catalogue.
Guess again.  It's a current advertisement that I found here.

Reminds me of Demi Moore back in the movie Ghost.  Remember how everybody cut their hair like that? 

You know I could say that I don't like this style, but then I would be opening myself up for a lot of criticism because I am currently sporting a haircut that looks a bit like this fellow.

There are really no rules when it comes to fashion these days are there?

Things that I am not ready to deal with but have to anyway...

1. Family moving far away and only visiting once a year or less.
2. Saying goodbye to family when they go back to the distant lands in which they reside.
3. My kids growing up WAY too fast.  This is bittersweet because I love all the stuff that we can do together as they get older but still, too fast! 
4. Simon saying to me, "I'm not a baby anymore".  Yes you are Simon, you are MY baby and you always will be so THERE!
5. Gray Hairs and saggy skin
6. Going Grocery shopping

On the bright side, as I made this list I realized how blessed I am to have a loving family that I can wish would never grow up and miss when they are gone. 

(Gray Hair, saggy skin, and grocery shopping are still on my "naughty" list )