By the time I'm 30...

I came across a thread a few days ago on a bulletin board I frequent and the title was "By the time I'm 30..." where we were supposed to post our goals or things we'd like to do before we turn 30. I'd never really thought of that, nor have I felt like 30 was a significant enough time in my life to have "done things" by...I figure we live, we die - and as long as we do what we love in between, who cares when or how it gets done, right? Well...here's my list:

• Have two more children
• Read the four standard works
• Have a garden
• Visit Europe
• Visit New York
• Attend a Broadway show
• Be in a home that can easily store a year’s supply
• Own a piano
• Own at least one piece from Christian Dior (other than makeup)
• Go down two jean sizes
• Go back to school
• Decrease my “ecological footprint”
• Be out of consumer debt

My all time favorite picture

In high school I was fortunate enough to be involved in choir all four years. My choir teacher, Mr. Rossi, made it an incredible experience. First of all, the room was lit with lamps...it was wonderful to be able to get away to from the hustle and bustle of the hallways and fluorescent lights of the rest of the school. He had a fountain in the front of the room and as soon as you walked in you felt the relaxation of the calm, trickling water. He had relaxing couches and comfy recliners where students were welcome to escape to when we had a free moment. The back of the room was decorated with left over props and sets from our theatre department and, if I remember correctly, he had a chess game set up in the middle of the floor. There were great pictures on the wall, accompanied by random shoes that he felt was appropriate décor. He would begin the class with a story that made us ponder the things of life (as much as a teenager could), followed by one minute of nothing. No talking, no thinking, no touching…just nothing. This allowed us to clear our heads and have a fresh canvas because, after all, musicians are artists, too. He had snow globes throughout his room and office…because as artists, it is our responsibility to draw the audience into our own little “snow globe” – away from the world. A quote I try to live by came from him often, “do the right thing, at the right time, with passion.” He was full blooded Italian and would greet us every morning with “Buongiorno miei Amici” (Good morning, my friends!) and we would enthusiastically reply “Buongiorno Signor Rossi!”.

But the thing I loved the most about his room was the picture “Musician in the Rain” by Robert Doisneau. He had a large, canvas print of it on the wall farthest from the door, so it was one of the first things you saw when you walked in the room. It shows the importance of music to this man in the picture – the significance of music in life.

So Grazie, Signor Rossi! Thank you for being such a great influence in my life!

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Not a lot is going on in the land of Everything Richards, so I thought I'd blog about a few of my favorite things.

• Obviously - The Sound of Music...seriously, I can watch that over and over without ever getting sick of it! Did you know that Julie Andrews filmed that RIGHT after having a baby? She really is super woman!
• Comfy sweats and an over-sized t-shirt after church on the couch cheering on the Jaguars!
• Which brings me to my next favorite...The Jaguars! They may have had a rocky start this season, but they could go 0-16 and I'd still heart the teal and black!
• Pink! Who am I kidding? It's my signature color! Honestly...any time I wear it I feel instantly cute.
• Chap stick - specifically Burt's Bees. I have about five tubes at any given time around the house.
• When the weather is cold enough to wear my fantastic winter white trench and incredible blue pashmina.
• Peppermint Hot Cocoa from Starbucks
• A fantastic pair of boots.
• Any occasion deemed appropriate to use a wine glass
• Martinelli's
• Fashion!
• Shopping!
• Couponing
• Naps
• Warm chocolate chip cookies
• Thumbing through old photo albums
• Blogs! (hello! I have like 12 of them!)
• Lipgloss - specifically Christian Dior...YUM!
• Girls night out! (or in) It's fun to eat chocolate, do your toes and watch chick flicks every now and then...

So there you have it...some of my favorite worldy things! And don't let this list fool you - I am very fond of everything eternal. I love that I am sealed to my husband and son forever. I look forward to General Conference every six months and soak up the words of our leaders for the six months in between. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love that He loves me. I love that no matter what I am struggling with in my life He knows how I am feeling. I love the scriptures - it's kind of nice knowing that parents have struggled with their children long before Hayden hit the "terrible twos". I love my husband and how hard he works for this family. Seriously - his days starts around 6am and doesn't end until well after 10pm. And as ornery has he has been lately, I love my son. He is always (well...most of the time) eager to give hugs and kisses and his smile lights up any room.

Open mouth, insert foot...

This uber cute woman came into work tonight looking for a suit. She tried one on in a fantastic plum color that was a perfect cut for her little body. She had her handbag out and in plain view was her Gator cell phone and I made a comment about how I thought it was great. She just smiled. She then came out wearing a great cobalt color top that looked stunning on her porcelain skin and dark black hair – and that’s when it hit me…she is TIM TEBOW’S MOM!!! Of COURSE she has a Gator cell phone! (For those of you who don’t know…Tim Tebow is last year’s Heisman Trophy winner and starting quarterback for the Florida Gators.)

Man, I felt like an idiot!

The Jacksonville Farmer's Market

Oh how I LOVED the Farmer's Market! Nikki, Chad, Madison, Hayden and I loaded up and headed downtown to see how much we could spend (or not spend) on fresh fruits and veggies...and I must say - I am quite impressed!

I swear these kiddos are sick of us taking pictures of them...
But note the fresh veggies behind them!

Hayden, faithfully guarding our haul of produce!
Even though his eyes are closed.....
I got all of this for $20!!

1 bag of clementines,
1 giant citrus thing that I don't remember the name of
4 HUGE cucumbers
6 tomatoes (I gave a couple to Nikki)
3 pears
1 bag of grapes
1 bag of apples
2 onions
6 peaches
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
(Nikki gave me the garlic - but they were SIX for ONE DOLLAR!!!)

Needless to say...I'm hooked!

Wrapped up in you

During the late hours of the night and into the tomorrows I find solace in my husband’s arms. Knowing he has to be awake in a few short hours I try not to disturb him too much as I curl up against him and let him cradle me. For a short moment everything seems to disappear. Every worry about money is no longer an issue. The fact that my house is a disaster doesn’t seem to bother me at all. The fact that we only see one another for a few short minutes between school and work and then late at night seems to slip away into oblivion. The only thing that matters is his soft, slow breathing in my ear and the comforting beat of his heart that penetrates me to the very core. It is in those short moments that I am able to breathe a sigh of relief and let myself be swallowed up in the arms of the love of my life…

My strange and wonderful kid (or lion)

Please tell me I'm not the only one with a strange child. Every time I change his poopy pants (hurry up potty training!) I lift his bum to wipe under it and he lifts his head, and goes "Sniff, sniff, sniff...Hmmm - Nummy!"...seriously? That smells yummy to you? Weirdo!

Today when I got Hayden up from his nap I smelled something foul. I went to pick him up and asked him if he was stinky...(quite the common occurrence in our house it seems) and he defiantly tells me "NOOO!" I said, "Are ya, lyin'?" to which he replies "WRRRAAAWWWRRR".

(If you didn't catch that - he thought I was asking him if he was a lion)

On my way to support hose and wrinkle cream...

Last night I attended a missionary open house for a young man in our ward who is leaving on Tuesday for the MTC. I read the email wrong, so I ended up there about an hour early. We were sitting in the living room talking as a couple of other young men came in wearing gym shorts and flip flops. Elder Alexander made a comment to them "Hey - thanks for not dressing up for me!" in a sarcastic tone...to which I replied "I'm in jeans and tennis shoes and you didn't say anything to me about it"...to which Elder Alexander replied "Yeah - but you're an adult".

Uh...wait...what??? When, I mean how...did that happen??? I guess I always knew I was an adult - but it was in that moment that I realized I'm one of the *gasp* GROWN-UPS! I totally belong in the grown-up room talking about boring grown-up things!

It still freaks me out that I'm older than the missionaries - and I've been older than the missionaries for more than four years! It's going to take me a bit of time to get used to this!

Medicated No More

An acquaintance of mine started a blog about her “journey from sanity, to pre-natal depression, to hospitalization, to a laundry list of meds, to post-partum depression, to craziness, to hospitalization, to addiction, to knowledge, to enlightenment, to understanding, to sobriety, ...and back again to sanity.”

I find it very interesting since I dealt with my own Post Partum Depression battle. I did not struggle nearly as much as she did, but it was still a difficult time for me. If you decide to follow her story, please start from the oldest post and work your way to the most recent, or it will not make sense.

View her blog here:
Medicated No More

Cheesecake, a camera, and a questionable strawberry daiquiri

Last night Timi took me out to The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday (which is Friday). She had book club and, since I don’t read, had Kendra’s enrichment activity to go to last night. Neither of us got through until well after 9pm and Mike was wondering why on earth we were going out at 10pm (you know…since we’re such old women, surely we’d be in bed by then) but when your husbands work crazy weird hours and you are constantly doing things for church – you take what you can get! We seriously spent like 15 minutes just trying to decide on which piece of cheesecake we’d order. After much deliberation we placed our orders and that’s where the giggle-fest began. I had my favorite drink of all time, the frozen iced mango, and Timi ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri. Here are a few pictures we snapped:

It is quite difficult to take pictures of yourselves...

Thank you Mr. Very-Patient-Waiter
Don't lie - you think we're hot...
Yep - that's me with a spoon on my nose.

And for the record, the strawberry daiquiri was not actually "questionable"...but how else are we to epxlain that we were 25 and 30(ish) year old women with spoons hanging from our noses?

Thank you so much, Timi, for the wonderful night out! You're a DOLL!