Congrats Obama + back to me

I agree with Ryann, It was very cool for me to realize what a non-issue race was to the kids. I wanted them to appreciate the magnitude of the day. But to them they were confused as to why it mattered whether the President is black or white. Amen kids. Best wishes to our new President. He is in my prayers. And many thanks to W - history will be kinder than the liberal press has been.

anywhoooo back to me, cuz that is what you are here for right? tell me it is.

Meg and I had a creativity contest. The canon vs the iphone, check it out

two are from the iphone (that thing has a pretty mean camera in it) - can you guess which ones?

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Chick-fil-a

Chick-fil-A will donate a percentage of total sales to the Burdick family when you visit Chick-fil-A on 380 & 75 in McKinney on January 19, 2009.  Ticket receipts for the ENTIRE day count towards their fundraiser totals.

Have some yummy food today and let them know you want your sale to count toward the Burdick family fund.

 

Kyle is a salesman now

trying to blog this with the absolute best attitude. Kyle got the job yesterday and he starts on the 26th. Its is very much a blessing. This job search thing is emotionally exhausting. Its seems as though there are very few companies that are even done laying off around here, much less hiring. So to find a company that is hiring with full benefits from day one - is very comforting. The problem is its just about entry level. Sales with a low base pay +  commission. I have NEVER wanted to live on commission - its scares the heck out of me. But you know what is scarier than commission? - no income!  They are a growing company and believe they will have some more positions open up that Kyle would be a candidate for soon.  So we are relieved with some stability, but we will continue being frugal like never before trying to make it on a very small fraction of our previous budget.

but seriously, I am so grateful. I am bad about praying with specifics to HF, but the other day we prayed before going to the temple with a very specific  prayer about our financials plans. It basically went like this : we are giving it 8 weeks and then Janie starts looking to go back to work. Help us know if this is right."  If this job works out ok I may not have to do that.  Prayer works, even when things continue to be hard. 

knee deep in resolutions

keeping the house cleaner, FHE, spending more (non-yelling) time with the kids, family prayers, exercising, VT/HT  whew, all that leaves less time for blogging... but here is what's up-

• I still have more pics to share including ones of the awesome can rotators Kyle made me
  
• Kyle is at a JOB INTERVIEW with Idearc - say a little prayer for us (isn't that a song?)
  
• Meg is facing a big fresh look at life today. Her stuff is lined up and in a few moments - I'm taking her and said stuff to UTA
  
• Cora can sit up now and roll over - crazy huh? - I specifically told her I like the newborn stage to last until at least the 10th month
• NieNie is back! - prayers of thanks and continued healing abound

I was going to finish organizing these and such

but then decided I need to spend time on other things. so here are some pics totally out of order and not even all of them yet.

I got business cards printed, finally

Last year this time

I was in the bowels of hell. The world was constantly spinning and I barfed

all.

the.

time.

I told Kyle every morning he needed to get a vasectomy. "like, right now Kyle, I can get someone to give you a ride I'm sure."

Now here I am with this adorable baby girl who is already growing up so fast. It almost makes me want to go back to said hell again - not any time soon though. Because like I have said four times:

It was totally worth it!

Happy six month birthday Cora!

ps. A catch-up post with lots of pictures is in the works, but I have Christmas, the trip, Meg's farewell party, etc. to cover and limited time on the computer. I have a husband looking for a job. Its cumbersome. Which reminds me...

Check out this article: It is especially poignant to me right now:

Mormons well-served by self-reliance in hard times

its going to get better

right?

I don't know why that article won't link up, but its on yahoo.com search it if your interested.

In Case You Were Wondering. . .

Janie is still alive and I ♥ her!

In case you were wondering

Me, Meg, Maiya, and Cora are in Virginia. We are helping Aunt Beth do some spring cleaning(well just me and Meg- Maiya and Cora aren't so good with the cleaning yet) . Yes I know its not spring - minor detail. Benjamin and Ella would be here too except we have already gotten one of those nastygrams from the school threatening to charge us a $500 fine if they miss anymore school.
Few thoughts -
Had my cabbage, pork and black eye peas today for health, wealth, and good luck. Its a southern thang...
Did you know road trips with a 3 y.o. and an infant isn't the easiest thing. One stop begats two more, because you always forget to do something, feed someone, or the stopping of the car wakes the previously content one up.
Its cold here in Virginia.
I miss Texas, but I have to say Virginia is way pretty!
Aunt Beth's husband Bill owned a Canon F-1 with some AMAZING lenses - We came across it today and Aunt Beth is going to let me play with it!! I can't wait. I have never been excited about film, but these lenses are to die for and I think tinkering with a film SLR will help me learn even more about photography.
well that's about it, I'm scatter-brained.

oh yeah...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Christmas Pajamas and a Thank you

Mom, You outdid yourself this year. You got Kyle in a union suit! We were all so cute, I let the kids open them a night early because I think they will want to wear them for the next two days and I wanted to take lots of pictures.

Benjamin's PJ's inspired him to be Thing 1, the rest had to follow suit.

Dear friends (home teacher, best friends from college, family, neighbors, and anonymous wonderful people),

You have warmed our hearts in a cold time, by helping us in many ways both financially and spiritually. You have made this a wonderful Christmas to be. We will always be grateful and promise to pay it all forward. In fact after we read Luke 2 tonight we talked about all the help we have received and talked about ways we can help others.  Ideas were shared and plans were made. And all the while my heart was full. 

THANK YOU,  THANK YOU,  THANK YOU

and Merry Christmas

with love (seriously with love),

the oyakawas

I had 666 posts staring at me on my dashboard

it was freaking me out so I thought I'd blog something. I shall bombard you with randomness now.

My son the scout.

When I run out of subjects to photograph I take pics of my feet while practicing. 

There are way to many pics of my feet on the computer

I shall go delete them now.

And that anklet was so on my ankle like two days ago and now its not.

Damn 

I hate it when that happens. 

oh and feel free to laugh at my crooked toes.

Kyle does all the time

Now on to a better reason to cuss. 

Cora poops once a week 

All of my kiddos have a history of literally being anal retentive.

Its such a pain. I mean its nice for seven days to not change a poopy diaper, but man when its time. WHOA.

When she is due to poop I am afraid to leave the house.

Outfits are ruined.

furniture is ruined

everyone involved needs a shower

I mean the above photographed example is not even the full picture

 that particular event filled up the foot of her footed pj's. 

Did you hear that???

FILLED IT UP.

gross

I am Cora hear me roar

I have almost got these teeth through

give me something to chew on

now

please

Idearc?

Bro. Hartman let Kyle know that Idearc is hiring last night and this morning he found out they have a product manager position open! So say a prayer for us!



And in general I have been meaning to let everyone know how we are faring in this blustery economy and unemployed time. Most of the time we are very frustrated. But the rest of the time we are grateful. We are glad we took some steps to get our financial house in order. We are a little upset that we didn't do even better at that, but we are in a decent spot. We are doing our best to stretch out what is in the bank. I have even taken my slightly embarrassed self down to the WIC office to get benefits. Hey, we qualify (and we paid the taxes into it). I am only putting this out there on the blog so others in our position will understand that its not wrong to do everything in your power to save.



Now about Christmas, When this lay-off was just on the horizon I took measures immediately for Christmas. All items for the big man in red were ordered in early fall and have been tucked away since. I knew come what may I didn't want to be stressing over that. I take Christmas very seriously :) As far as what will be exchanged other than that - It will be very modest. I am actually looking forward to that. We have prepared the kids to expect less and they seem to completely understand. Its time we become less materialistic at Christmas.

Few words, bunch of pictures

Kyle forced me to sit down and clean up our pictures on the computer. If you know me well that is a monumental task, made even more difficult with sweet Brett on my mind. I hardly wanted to delete a thing.

but while doing it I realized there has been a lot I haven't blogged, so here ya go in no particular order:

Love this crazy kid

Its technically a bad pic but I love it - and I love being in scouts, minus the UGLY shirt I have to wear

Cora in her very favorite spot - right in the middle of the action

I had a really long post in my mind about the penny pinching qualities of from scratch cooking and quiches (like my homemade pie crust?) but I am too tired so you just get pictures - and how will Penny Pinchers continue?? 4th ward or Prosper...hmmmmmmmm

aren't they adorable

I am so proud of Meg - she spear headed a campaign at school to get donations for Hurricane Ike victims. She did a marvelous job and they were able to donate thousands of dollars of supplies! I was so proud of her commanding the stage at a benefit dinner!

I love the sleepy lips

Kyle got up at 6:30 am to win an ebay auction on a light meter. So now he has to sit and do this a lot so I can practice.

Scout Crafts

Ella breaking the Birthday board at TKD

I don't condone rude bloggers

Ya know the ones I mean...

the "this is why I am better than you" "I hate my calling" types... So I am not sure what the Cordy blog thing that Navel was referring to is about, but everything else in her post had me shaking my head in agreement. Go check it out, because I am too tired to blog much else besides 

I HATE MEAN PEOPLE

(including people who leave insensitive comments on the Dallas Morning News article about the Burdick family situation)

anywho go read that awesome post here

It was cold on Friday.

Cold enough that Amber Burdick and I talked briefly on the phone while I was on my way to make gingerbread houses in Ella's class. We discussed whether or not to go ahead with the photo session she had scheduled for her three children. I wanted to go on ahead with it despite the potential cold - it was a prompting I didn't quite understand, but will forever appreciate. We went on with the session and Dad was even able to come and it became a family portrait session.

Amber and her three children were in a car accident Sunday night at one of the worst intersections many of us have to go through on a regular basis. Her son Brett did not survive and her oldest Andrew is still in Children's hospital.

The heartache is palpable in our community right now.  I wish I was a more eloquent blogger at times like this. Just like I wish I had been the worlds best photographer this past Friday in Erwin park. 

I rest on my faith in situations that make me want to melt in sadness. I pray that Amber and Chris and anyone touched by Brett's sweet smile can do the same right now.

Please pray for them, and if you can help more, there are ways to assist specified in this article as well as one picture from a cold photo shoot this past Friday.

  

Its been a while since we talked

Hey Grandma, Nana, and Aunt Beth
Mom says I change every single day and I haven't updated ya'll in a while.
so this is me right now:
I LOVE breast milk even though I have given rice cereal a little try. - Mom says its almost time for Daddy to get down the highchair.
She also says its time for me to go sleep in the crib and not in her room, but for some reason she cries when she talks about that.
I have decided to start waking up a little before 6am - Daddy gets me and brings me to mom - she barely opens her eyes, just feeds me.
I like to stay awake all morning and watch Maiya, but then I sleep almost the rest of the day. - my naps are very, very long. Mom still has to go make sure I am breathing, because she is neurotic.
Mom literally nibbles on me - if she hits the right spot on my neck it makes me giggle uncontrollably.
Daddy says I am not nice to him when mommy is gone, because I won't drink from the bottle. That thing stinks, I'll pass!
Aunt Meg is really neat - except that she makes me lay on my tummy a lot and tries to get me to roll - all the while saying "Your mom is babying you TOO much" - whatever that means.
My newborn hair is falling out, and I am getting cradle cap. Other than that they say I am ADORABLE.
Miss you guys,
love
CORA

Howdy penny pinchers

Been wanting one of these for like EVER!!! one for Zeke's size is over $200 - got this one on Craigslist for $75 - it needed modification but my man got it to work with some awesome help from Kristen's cool husband.

ignore how dirty it is - i'll get to that later