My favorite new gadget

I just have to share my new gadget that I love! I would have never found it if not for an infomercial at 2am on a night I couldn't sleep. When I looked into it, I found that it is extremely popular in the crafters world, and even has messageboards to get some great ideas......its the Cricut Cutter by ProvoCraft. A personal electronic die cutter and it is awesome! I try to think up as much stuff as I can to use it for. You purchase cartridges with hundreds of different "dies" on it, then you set your size, insert your paper and voila! You have an image for cards, layouts, crafts, etc. You can cut paper, cardstock, vellum, chipboard, VINYL, and I'm told, even fabric! I can hardly wait to try that! I have done vinyl for Wyatt's room, numerous cards, and several gift boxes and bags. Let me just say, that this satisfies my gadget quirkiness way more than any kitchen appliance ever has!
The pictures just show one little craft Wyatt and I made for his soccer teammates for the last game. We used the "Paper Doll Dress UP" cartridge and made soccer players with uniforms patterned after their real ones. We attached them to some soccer themed candy from the dollar store. They all loved it! I think they turned out pretty cute. Now Wyatt wants to make "look a like" dolls for his classmates at preschool! That should be interesting! I was asked to do a vinyl project for primary. THey want "I am a child of God" cut to put onto painted wood blocks. I get to cut 100 of those! Also using it to cut small bees, to make into magnets for a girls camp craft. I have already sketched out a vinyl mural for each of the boys rooms when we move to Utah...I can hardly wait! I know, I'm a little crazy, but if you are into crafts/scrapbooking, you've got to give this a try!

Another pic of the Seymour Center, this life size elephant seal statue was great fun to climb on and a perfect photo op!

A fun day with Shauna and Nash. We went to the Univ. of Cali. Santa Cruz Seymour Center. It is actually a working marine lab, with a little discovery center attached to it. It was perfect for the kids. They got to see the atlantic bottlenosed dolphins that they are working with and experience a touch tank with star fish (call them sea stars if you really want to sound like you know marine life!), hermit crabs, and anemones. They also had several smaller sized aquariums with numerous sea creatures.....great fun! We ended up going down to the wharf to see the sea lions and eat lunch!

Thought I had better include a picture of the king and queen of Matma's house. Roman is on the left, Lily on the right. Good looking dogs, don't you think?

We spent Mother's Day at Shauna's, my sister, house. The boys found the squirt guns and had fun sticking them in the pool. Only one mishap....my nephew fell in! After a quick change of clothes he was good to resume the activity. Here are the threesome, l-r, Nash, Wyatt, Kash.

Matma now has 2 standard poodles, Lily and Roman. Lily is a great dog....Roman on the other hand is learning to follow his sister's example! He is still a hyper puppy....here the boys are seeking refuge from Roman, in his own crate! They loved the new hideout!

We just got back from a visit to Matma and Papa's house in Santa Cruz, Ca, where I grew up. Luckily, they have saved many old toys and also housed my sister's kids' hand me down toys, so there is no shortage of things to do! Here Wyatt is riding a "vintage" schwinn tricycle....ok, so it was mine- still rides great!

I just realized that the pics post backward, so if you wanted to read this post chronologically, you should start with the bottom pic and move up! Haha, I'll get the hang of this blogging thing sooner or later!

hurry up and wait....

I'm in California visiting my mom and dad right now. I should have been here a week ago. Why? That's what the original dates were supposed to be, but due to sickness and trying to get the house "show ready" and on the market was reason for postponement. I spent a hectic week trying to declutter and clean, schedule carpet cleaning and a 360 tour in amid our regular routing of preschool, piano lessons, work, and various meetings, visiting teaching, etc. So, now that its done, we are playing the "hurry up and wait" game....hoping people will start taking a look at it! At least we are gone for the week, so I don't have to run around every morning before we leave, washing mirrors, picking up toys, sweeping or vacuuming, and clearing off counters!

It is beautiful here! The weather has been so pleasant and we haven't even needed our jackets! We were able to enjoy dinner downtown at the Aculpulco restaurant. Everyone was there and Wyatt was so excited to see all his cousins. Downtown Santa Cruz is still as eccentric, eclectic, weird, unique...whatever you want to call it. Its a fun place to visit. There was a mariachi band playing outside the restaurant that Kash loved dancing to. There is the pink man-no joke- head to toe pink (including skin!) that takes teeny weeny steps to get anywhere...very weird. There are still the homeless, the street musicians, and what appears to be the new draw of younger, eccentric people with apparently nothing better to do than "hang out" downtown. I was shocked at the amount of teenagers and college aged kids that were loitering, literally. I must be missing something about the lure of the area, if you know, please fill me in.

Today we enjoyed my niece's, Hannah's, softball game. She plays both pitcher and catcher. Aaah it brings back the good old days. She did an excellent job and will be an outstanding pitcher by the time she is in high school. She already has great speed and decent accuracy. Wyatt enjoyed watching it and Kash was entertained by the ants on the ground. We were a little distracted by the swarm of bees that flew over...honest! The ladies behind me said, "uh oh, here they come, hold still" So I grabbed the boys next to me and huddled together and HUNDREDS (possible thousands, I couldn't count that fast!) flew over us with a thundering buzz. I can honestly say that it my first experience seeing a swarm before. They flew by quickly without bothering anyone.

We went to Westlake park after to play. I ran into Ryan Coonerty, a guy I knew from high school. I asked him what he was doing now and his response was, "I'm the mayor of Santa Cruz." Not exactly what you expect to hear from a 34 year old. It was kind of funny. We had a nice visit, caught up on he people we had in common from school and kept in touch with.

After that it was back to Matma's and Papa's to play outside, eat dinner, take baths, and get the boys to bed! It is always harder for me to entertain the boys out here, simply because we don't have our usual schedule to follow. I am pretty tired tonight, so I'm looking forward to a good nights sleep. Tomorrow is Mother's Day, we will go to church, and then over to my sister's, Shauna's house for dinner. The boys, I'm sure will have a great day with their cousins.

JR went to Utah with the trailer in tow stuffed full of totes....a little head start on the moving. I'm glad. He is also visiting his mom and will be with her for Mother's Day which is good. He is soooo excited to move. I am too and we both wish we could pack up and leave tomorrow.

I want to learn to make this blog look a little cuter, I've seen other with really cute background "paper" and fonts.....if anyone knows how to do this, please let me know!

Life's little joys.....

Well, another life lesson learned. I've known it all the while, but when it is actually applied to your own life it seems like you are learning it for the first time.

I give credit to the principal I'm currently working with, William(Bill) Suggs. His perspective on life has certainly made an impact on me that I am trying to share with my own family. He is an army reservist and has served in Iraq. He was gone from his wife and 2 kids for over a year and has now been back one year this month.

He has a phrase he uses when simple, positive things occur; from finding a penny to a student telling the truth. He sums it up by saying out loud, "It's just one of life's little joys". He is constantly appreciative of good moments, no matter how trivial they are. It is a great reminder that life is good and good things are always happening, even though we are bombarded by negative media and sometimes overwhelmed by personal disappointments. I am trying to verbally use that phrase around my family to remind us how blessed we are....the scale definitely tips to the blessings side in our life. Here's a question....what happened to you today that was "one of life's little joys"? I bet you can think of more than one. Its amazing when your start noting them, how your attitude changes and you wear a small smile more often! Thanks Bill!

What do you do when you can't sleep?.....Blog!

Wyatt's first year of soccer and doing pretty well.....he enjoys running....and running....and running, we are trying to teach him that its ok to get in the lump of kids to get the ball and kick it! He has scored every game but one, so he's catching on. Notice that he's now learning the art of teamwork, well actually, I think he's trying to steal the ball from his team mate....so much to learn, so little time!
JR was filling in for the coach at this game. I needed a picture because we decided that he will probably be the parent banished to view the games from his vehical due to disagreements with the officials! ha ha......this is a safe league since they don't keep score and the coaches do the "officiating". Spring break in Nampa was cold, wet, and windy so we took a little "field trip" to a new fire station up the road. Even at my old age I learned a ton about what it entails....it was quite interesting. Wyatt kept the fireman busy answering all his important questions. I have to say thank you to Firehouse No. 5 for giving us an impromptu tour of the station and engines. I can't say enough about their willingness to drop all that they were doing (working on a broken engine) to talk to our kids. They are definitley our heroes and our friends!
These are some good friends of Wyatts. Aspen is a year older and Blake is a about 8 montths younger, Wyatt loves being in the middle and having 2 friends to play with. This is an engine I believe from 1922(1912)? I 'm probably wrong.....I said I learned a lot, but I might not remember it all!
Wyatt's looking kind of uptight....probably because I threatened him not to touch any knobs, buttons, or anything of the sort!

Its 2:00am and I'm awake, pretty typical on any given night. At least now I can blog! I woke up achy, stuffy nose, sore throat and shivering, so I admit that after a week of pink eye and colds with the boys I have officially got the cold! Ugh!To brighten my spirits I browsed my photos....so here's a few more to share with you!

Our little cowboys....Wyatt is striking the official bullrider "pose"



Map Rock....we think. This was on geocaching day to several caches on Map Rock Rd, although we aren't sure exactly where Map Rock is or if this rock is "real" or just a modern day expression of art!





Now I know I am not alone in saying that there are times I am overwhelmed with life's little demands. My daily "to-dos" don't always turn into "got done". I do what I can, prioritize, and try to put check marks by a few things each day. My biggest weakness is procrastinating the things that I don't want to do, even if they are a little more important on the list. Today's accomplishments....visiting teaching, library with the boys, carpet cleaning scheduled, 360 tour scheduled, a few errands done, and piano lessons. As for words of advice.....slow down! Take time to blow bubbles, read stories, enjoy a diet pepsi out on the patio while watching your kids. I have learned all this in just a matter of days. I realize that I say "not now", "in a minute", "a little later" and "just a sec" too often to my boys. I don't want to always put them off. Speaking of boys, here are few of their cute pics.

Up to Speed

Well, I'm sure as I publish more posts, I will learn the ins and outs of blogging. Before all that, I will bring you up to speed as to what is happening in our lives. That is another reason why I wanted to start this blog, we are again at a milestone, crossroads, or new road in life. We have much to be grateful for and much to contemplate as we make some major decisions. Actually the decisions have been made, now we just pray that things will go smoothly. So, in case you wanted to know, here's the scoop!

After living in Heber, UT for many years, we had an opportunity for JR to work within his educational field and also give me a chance to stay at home for a while. We moved to Nampa, ID, where JR commutes into Boise for work. I am mostly a stay at home mom, but teach piano lessons and work evenings as a school counselor. We added one more to our family while we've lived here, giving us a total of 2 boys, Wyatt age 4 and Kash-almost 2.

While we have enjoyed many blessings and opportunities while living here, we have never felt that it was "home". We have not developed an attachment to the area or the people, even after participating in many church callings and community programs(mostly for Wyatt) over the past 2 1/2 years. The good news is that we are moving back to Heber! We already have a house there and the jobs have fallen into place. I will be working for Wasatch School District as a counselor and JR will continue to work with JM THomas, although he will have to adjust to a commute to Ogden! The down side is putting the boys in daycare, although we know it is only for a year or two until they will be in school and I will share a similar schedule with them. We have had many conversations about what is "right" for the family, and although the boys will be in day care, we calculated that we will actually have MORE time together as a family than we do right now. We will be TOGETHER every week night and weekends, which is more than we get right now. All in all, we think it will be a great move for our family and bring us back to a great place to raise kids, enjoy the outdoors, and be closer to friends and family.

So there you have it in a nutshell! We are planning on moving sometime in July, so we have a couple of months to tie up loose ends and hopefully sell our house. The realtor was here today "staging" it for photos and possible showings. Wyatt informed me that he was glad she didn't put a plant in his room, because there were enough plants in all the other rooms! He wondered what had happened to make the house so clean! Out of the mouths of babes! We have moved A TON of stuff into a storage unit, which should help when it comes time to actually move. Tomorrow a group of realtors are doing an "agent tour" to get familiar with listings in this area...we think that is a great idea, the more that know about the house, the more opportunities we might have to sell! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

New to this...

Hello! Welcome to the Cummings' Courier, where you get the latest news and photos of our family adventures.

I, Colleen, a.k.a. mom and to old friends, "ween", am the editor in chief, and creator of this blog. My assistant editor, JR, has yet to even know I've created this blog and upon learning of it, will then contribute to it as he sees fit. My field reporters, Wyatt and Kash, will provide most of the content that is shared in this blog. They will also be used as subjects in many photo ops. You will get frequent reports on them!

Let me share with you the motivation behind this blog......

1) I don't have time to scrapbook! People may think otherwise by my collection of supplies, but its true, I really don't have time (nor the creativity!) to scrapbook our family adventures.
2) I would rather keep a log that people will actually read now than a journal that won't be read for decades or more by people that don't really know me!
3)I enjoy reading others' family blogs, and maybe, just maybe they will enjoy reading mine!
4)It seems like everyone is doing it! ha ha! No really, within the last week, I've had two friends invite me to view their blogs and I thought it was the neatest thing! I thought I'd give it a try.
5) Lastly, this is a great thing to update late at night (or early in the morning) when I can't sleep.....which is just about every night! It beats checking the usual message boards or playing games!

Thanks for checking it out!