without words

i came upon a blog today, one i've never seen before.
i read the family's story.
and i'm still holding back tears.
i just want to cry my eyes out for them.
and give them a hug.
i cannot even imagine.

life is short.
entirely too short sometimes.
as this mom says:

"we shouldn't count the days, but make the days count"

i have no idea who these people are, but my heart is aching for them.
visit their blog & read their incredible story here.
and then you'll be crying with me.

weekend recappp

friday:

i got off work around 430pm.

stopped at target, walmart, & smith's.

met jae at home around 6 & grabbed some food.

went to miss Addie's 1st birthday party at 645pm (she's a doll, by the way).

stopped off at my sister's house for a chat.

came home & watched water for elephants. loved it.

bedtime.

saturday:

we were a bit lazy & didn't get up until about 845am (were planning to start working around 8..)

spent the day with the 2byrds working at our house (you guys rock, thanks again!)

left the house around 430pm.

stopped at the paint store to grab a couple sample colors.

got home, got some dinner, and started watching the jazz game at 7pm.

by about 730 or 745, i was very much falling asleep! (730 on a saturday night? sleeping? lame, i know.)

apparently the jazz won, wahoo go jazz!!

i woke up on & off after that, but that's pretty much all i remember of that night......

sunday:

up at 8am.

church at 9am.

home at noon, got some lunch.

went back to church at 130 for a meeting.

came home, (finally) got out of church clothes.

afternoon was spent doing laundry, cleaning, organizing, some napping, playing catch up on the DVR.

a small, casual sunday dinner around 6pm.

watched the tennis match from saturday (it was a good one! anyone else see it? nadal vs. djokovic)

10pm - bedtime (well, for me. Jae was up til who knows when)

a good weekend, i'd say. we were supposed to get our cabinets put up on saturday, but due to some family emergencies (not our family, our cabinet guys family) it's been pushed to this week. hope you all had a good couple of days off! always goes by too fast, does it not?

xo.xo.

{my sweetheart} 1.7.12

i feel like our anniversary kind of got skipped over this year (at least in the blogging world) since we were in China for it. and it's been bothering me that i never wrote an official anniversary post for it. i feel that needs to be made up for. so with that being said...

HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US!!

i'd be lying if i said these last 2+ years haven't been the best of my life...because they most definitely have. being married is wonderful. being married to a handsome, smart, hard working, strong, romantic, sweet man is even better. it's worth all the hard, not so fun times. i cannot wait for all the years ahead. they will be sweet :)

and now, for waaay too many pictures of us that you don't care to see:

{our very first picture together back in the dating days as an "official couple"}

{we're really special sometimes}

peace & quiet

i must preface this post....it's random and confusing and a bit of a mess. and if you don't stick it out to the end, i certainly can't blame you. here goes.

i'm pretty sure most everyone that reads my blog, knows that i'm a Mormon.

if not, now you know.

i'll be the first to admit, i haven't always been the picture-perfect Mormon girl (especially that teenager phase), but i'm working on mending that every day.

i don't often talk about religion, but some things have been on my mind lately, and since i'm working harder at making sure this blog is a way of journaling, here are some thoughts.

over the last few months, as i've sat in church (especially in sacrament meeting) i've grown more and more impatient. i usually sit towards the back, where most the families with younger kids sit. i've never noticed this before (perhaps because when i was younger we always sat up closer to the front) but between the little kids causing a ruckus and the older people that have to talk really loud to the person sitting next to them because they can't hear, things can be really loud and really distracting. no offense to anyone who has little ones or the older folk that can't hear. but that's the truth of it. 

{i know, i know...you're all saying, 'well, then move to a different place to sit duh!'}

i wanted to be better and i've been trying to work on myself as a person a lot the last few months. and a lot of that involves the Gospel and my religious beliefs. 

so i guess what i'm trying to say is i've actually had a real want to listen in church and hear what's being said. i want to be able to clear my mind of everything else and just focus on a few important things for a few minutes. i want to be able to hear and feel the Spirit.

but with all the noise and people and shuffling around and this and that, it can be really hard! and it makes me crazy sometimes.

but having that in mind, i'm also grateful for it. i feel like i finally want to take full advantage of the time i have to spend out of the world and to just embrace it. i feel like i'm not sure if i ever really had this want and need for myself, and now that it's being messed with, i realize that want is there and it's real.

{does any of this makes sense to anyone else? you know how things make some sort of sense in your head, and then you try to explain it through writing or talking to someone and it seems to get all jumbled? yeah, totally me right now.}

for the past few million months, jae has had to work on sundays. when we first found out that sundays were on his schedule, i cried. i was so sad. it was really hard for me to understand and accept at first. and now, his schedule has finally changed and he's back with me on sundays, and it makes a world of difference. i am so happy. 

i guess what i'm trying to say is that i'm grateful for the knowledge that i do have.

i'm grateful for the future and the chances i have to keep learning and growing.

and i'm so super duper glad that jae is there with me now, too.

nail polish

so there's this mom.

i don't even know her name.

she's a mom of a dancer at the studio that i work at.

she stays here and hangs out at the studio during her daughter's class.

she must be in school because she's usually doing some sort of homework and/or reading while she waits the hour for her daughter.

she's always been nice, but i haven't had a ton of interaction with her before.

today, as she was sitting in her usual spot, i noticed she was painting her nails this super cute seafoam green color.

so as i passed her while walking down the hall, i told her how cute it was and that i really like that color.

a few minutes later, she comes up to me in the office and offers her polish to me so i can also paint my nails.

really? you want me to use some of your brand new nail polish?

i'm pretty much almost a total stranger to her.

she just wanted to be so sweet. and she was.

i happened to have unpolished nails the last few days, and haven't gotten around to painting them yet.

so i happily accepted her offer, and now my nails are painted a lovely seafoam color, and i have a little bit more umph in my step.

i'm sure she has no idea, but she really just made my day.

our house: week 15876984

ok, so we haven't been working on our house for that many weeks.

it just feels like it sometimes.

here's what's been going on the last couple of weeks:

mirror/medicine cabinet

{isn't it perrdy?}

it was a little rough going in, and since then i've had nightmares of it
falling out of the wall and shattering all over the tile.
thankfully it's still intact.

it's even mirrored inside. neat.

kitchen cabinets

what we had to start with...

good thing the Oveson's came to help us

soooo maybe we re-did this cabinet twice, making three times total.
you can call us pros.

us women were really helpful & productive & stuff the WHOLE time

we got all the cabinets put together!
(minus the drawers, shelves, and doors
which will go on after installation)


our bathroom sink finally got delivered!

half bath vanity

all done! it's itsy bitsy & super cute

almost all of this done while it stormed outside all day

the past week {in pictures}

miss Isabel's first birthday

the cheeser

Hana turned 6!

she got these from her fav aunt & uncle
(yes, that would be us)

breakfast at kneaders.
turns out i was really thirsty.

enjoy my pale face & dark eyes? i'm not deathly sick, i promise.
just look like it.

{thoughts on a thursday}

*have you noticed, when putting on pants, that you always put one particular leg in first? for me, it's my left leg. always goes in first, and then my right. without thinking, it's just what i do. wanna know how i realized this? i was changing clothes in a bathroom the other day and in an attempt to not touch the floor with bare feet, i quickly threw my right leg in first because i was already standing on my left foot. and it felt all sorts of wrong. i could barely get my pants on, it was so strange! try it.

*thanks to my lovely sister Kellie & her fam, i am now a complete believer in this for breakfast every morning. seriously, every single morning. add a little brown sugar and a little milk and oh man. you've got it made. i cannot get enough.

*so let's talk about skinny jeans for a minute. it took me a long time to even like them, even longer to buy a pair, and months after that to actually wear them. (i made the mistake of buying a white pair of skinnies first, which isn't necessarily the most flattering color skinny pants.) i then finally bought a pair of regular denim skinnies. while i've been brave and worn both my skinnies on a regular basis, i'm still not totally convinced. and as of late, i've discovered this weird clicking sound both my skinnies make when i walk. not sure how else to describe it, but let's just say it's a little strange. i think this is my sign i'm not meant to wear skinnies. at least not with these legs.

*so about this skirt....you've seen it, right? well i really really want one. like a lot. isn't it fantastic? (my birthday's coming up in a few weeks....)

*sometimes, i like to have a plan. a plan for my day, a plan for the next week, and plan for the next few months. i like to feel like i have things somewhat figured out. makes me feel like i have some control over something, i guess. everyone likes to make plans, right? well, i've had a plan coming together for this next year. things i want to do. where i want jae and i to be in the next few months. although these plans aren't necessarily falling through, i was given a sweet (and teary) reminder yesterday that not everything is up to us and we can't always be the ones making the plans just how we want them to happen. there's a bigger picture.

*i've been re-reading hunger games. i have a deep love for these books, as i know many of you do too. this week, when i've been reading, i found myself hurrying over parts to get to upcoming parts that i was excited for. this confused me. usually when you re-read a book, you tend to take your time and enjoy it and see/read things you didn't before. right? well that's what i thought, but it seems i just want to get to the good parts that i remember loving the first time. i feel that i'm a little weird that i do this.

*some people are really good at being on time, doing what they say they will, getting stuff done. just being on top of their stuff in general. and some people aren't. i'd like to say thank you to the people that are all of those things. i appreciate you.

*a few days ago, we discovered some unexpected money in a bank account that we didn't know we even had. awesome, right? then jae took his truck into the shop to get it checked out because the ABS light kept coming on. a few hundred dollars later, it's all fixed. see ya, nice, unexpected money that we found! it was nice knowin ya!

*Sundance this weekend, people! Park City = celebrity hot-spot! who's going??

frederickson family pictures, august 2011

many many months ago (over 5 to be exact) we spent a week in Maine with my family. while we were there, we had family pictures taken. we haven't had everyone together since our wedding back at the beginning of 2010, and we haven't had a formal family picture done (besides wedding pictures) since like 2006 or something ridiculous like that (and even then, they really weren't very formal anyway.)

i was so happy to finally have some updated family pictures! it was so so fun. and i don't think my family has them done nearly enough. families grow and change so much, it's hard to keep up!

anyway, i realized a few days ago, after looking through those pictures again, that i never posted them! it took awhile to get them back (the photographer obviously lives in Maine and we do not...) so they just kind of got skipped over as far as posting on here goes.

i love my family! here are a few of my favs :)

the whole shabang

grandma & grandpa with their favorite people - the grandkids

the honorary couple
(we went on this trip to celebrate their 40 years of marriage)

my beautiful sisters

and of course, we can't do pictures without
some silly ones too :)

china

296 pictures.

that's how many pictures we took on our trip.

how do you turn 10 days and 296 pictures into one blog post?

well here's my best attempt at just that. good luck in making it to the end!

"MARA! JAE!!"

we have never had someone be so excited to see us and yell our names out like that.

until we got to china and my nephew Liam did just that every.single.day.

it was the cutest. we loved it.

china was so fun. i'm so glad we went.

we spent way too much money.

in fact, if i start thinking about it too much, i start to get anxiety thinking about it.

so i won't.

because that's what you do on trips.

you spend lots of unnecessary money.

here are a few of the highlights:

*getting to hang out with my sister and her fun family

*going to Suzhou for a day

*doing puzzles, puzzles, & more puzzles with said nephew. did i mention he's the cutest? ever? we could not get enough of him. so so funny.

*heated lights in the bathrooms (they don't believe in insulation in China, so the bathrooms especially were frigid. those lights saved our behinds everyday)

*watching Jae experience China

*riding the metro and being the only white people there = getting lots of stares (seriously, it's like they've never seen a white person before)

*shopping & bargaining

*lots & lots of ice cream with homemade fudge. mmmmmm.

*the traffic is always crazy, which makes for some awesome (sometimes truly unbelievable) situations on the roads

*the ridiculous amounts of people everywhere, all the time!

*walking the Bund

*all of the many times we ate dumplings

*the late night talks with my sis & her hubs

*point blank getting laughed at for our poor chopstick-eating skills (what do they expect? geez)

*flying business class to and from Shanghai

*street food. suuper cheap.

*not getting lost! ever! we were excellent big-city, foreign language navigators

*our absolutely perfect anniversary dinner on the 56th floor of the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown Pudong. man, i love that husband of mine.

enough talk. onto the pictures. that's what you all want to see anyway, yes?

Liam really likes stickers. and sharing them with us. (he's putting it on my leg)

to give you an idea of their idea of a 'meat market'...

yes, those are frogs.
yup.

did we mention how much we love this Liam boy?

top of Tiger's hill in Suzhou

yes, they even blow dried Jae's hair.
for about 20 seconds. and it was already dry before they started.

pool in their clubhouse. the water was barely luke warm, not so inviting.

Yuyuan Gardens

the Bund

that wall is covered in flowers. so pretty.

starbucks and their hot chocolate saved us many times.
jae's playing peek-a-boo.

this street is called Taikong Road.
it's filled with the cutest little art stores, boutiques and cafes.

Elias is such a happy camper

Liam literally fell asleep just leaning against the back
of a chair. it was like 4 in the afternoon. hilarious!

puzzles on the ipod

on our anniversary.
we had these dark purple/blackish calla lilies at our wedding,
so Jae picked me out two for two years of marriage :)

the oriental pearl tower
(it's actually a TV tower)

fancy shmancy mall with all the designer brands
that we can't afford

the building in front with the white pointy top
is where we ate our {expensive} anniversary dinner.
(it's a bit on the blurry side - my bad)

coming home.

and there you have it.

our trip to China.

the end.