Touch ups

So I spent the entire day editing family pictures. I know that might have been a little extreme, but I take pictures seriously. I downloaded an editing program called Gimp. Then I watched tutorials on youtube. It was very educational and kind of fun once I got the hang of it. Her are a couple of the ones I liked the best. The ones I edited are on the left with the originals on the right.

These first two I was learning how to add color to a black and white photo. 

This makes us look a little like vampires, especially Heather.

 This one I worked on teeth, blemishes and a little air brushing :)

These last two included teeth, cropping, contrast and brightness. 

Overall I'm really happy with our family pictures. I don't know when we will all get together again and things seem to change so quickly. 

Burr...its cold out here!

So this weekend my whole family got together, which is getting harder and harder to do these days. My sister was graduating with her Master's degree in Metallurgical Engineering. She will be moving to New Mexico soon, so we decided to throw her a party. We took advantage of having the whole crew there and took family pictures. 

I see other families taking coordinated pictures and get a little bit covetous. It took a lot of convincing, but I got everyone to just on board (thanks Amanda!). We ended up taking pictures outside. Let me tell you December 17th in Utah is a little on the chilly side. I'm not sure what the temperature was, but it had warmed up since the morning. While we were all chilled to the bone by the end, I think we have a pretty good looking bunch.  

The whole Wampler clan

My parents with their kids

The 5 stunters

A cute addition for a little flare

Just the ladies

The men folk

The single ladies

(My brother referred to us as the unmarried siblings as we were taking this picture, way to rub it in!)

The married men protecting their man hood

Just the adults

Mom with her girls

Upon mom's request the "squished faces" pose

We followed the pictures with pizza and the family gift exchange. I think everyone when ended up pretty excited. Then we played some games. What else would we do? I would say the weekend was a success!

On the move....

I keep feeling like I should blog about something lately, but I never come up with anything interesting to talk about. The past couple weeks have been interesting for sure, I'm just not sure any of you want to know about it. As many of you know I move a lot. So to stick with my nomadic life style I am yet again moving in a couple weeks. The journey has been long and tedious, but I finally found a place to live when I go back to Idaho. I was sure I was just going to be homeless and have to live out of a storage unit, but I decided that wouldn't be the best plan as I am cold all the time and there really isn't a heating source in a cement box. So I set out again to find an apartment.

 It all started out with me wanting to move back into my old ward. I really missed my bishop and his wife (they are pretty much the most amazing people I know), plus I have some good friends in that ward. I started asking around for openings in apartments or houses, but wasn't having much luck. I've lived with enough people and as I get older I have stronger opinions about who I live with. I know what I'm willing to put up with and that makes moving even more difficult. I have a friend who was also looking for a new place, but she has a 60+ lbs lab that lives with her. Finding an apartment that we liked in the ward boundaries that allowed large dogs was impossible. I was getting a little disheartened with the whole venture and had given up.

I started looking at other places. I was going to have to live somewhere. I went to Idaho for my nephews baby blessing so I stopped in Pocatello to look at a house. It was close to campus and the girls were nice, but there would be seven of us living there. I've been down that road and wasn't really excited to go back. I don't care how amazing the girls are that much estrogen in one house is bound to end badly. I talked to several people about it and asked how they felt. My mom in turn asked me if I'd prayed about it. I didn't feel bad about living there, but I also didn't feel like I needed to. Even though I had told the girls I would probably move in, I never called the girl who was selling her contract to tell her I wanted it. So the waiting game continued.

In the mean time I was talking to my friend again. She asked if I had found a place yet. I said now and returned the question. She hadn't found a place either and was thinking that she would have move home and commute. I had found some houses in the ward boundaries, but the whole pet thing had been an issue. So I said if we didn't have the dog it would be easier. Luckily she is still in Pocatello and can get things finalized while I'm away. I am yet again moving into an apartment that I have never seen. But there will only be the two of us, which I'm excited about.It is a cute daylight basement apartment with a fenced in back yard. I'm stoked to be back in my ward again!

The moral of that long winded story is that you can't lose faith that things will work out. I'm not saying that everything you want will come immediately because how often does that really happen, but if you are willing to work for things and put forth some effort anything is possible. I felt lately like I need to learn to be more patient. I'm always trying to plan every detail of my life out long term. I've had so many five year plans it is ridiculous. I'm not saying you shouldn't have goals, because I wouldn't get anywhere without them, but you need to be realistic and know when it is okay for things to be different. The lord has his own plans and time table for things to happen. I am learning to have confidence in the feelings I get and to trust that things will all work out in the end. I am going where the lord needs me to be for the greatest benefit to me and those I need to be serving. The lord will grant us the righteous desires of our hearts in his time.