jesse boy

i would hate to break tradition and post about a sibling's birthday ON the day of their birth. i prefer to have a few times to celebrate them and their life. :)

so today we celebrate jesse boy. just 6 days after his official birthday!

i went to salem this weekend and thought about my first time up there - with jesse. with jess, it was simple and fun and we explored shops i would never have gone to with out him. that is one of the greatest things i love about jesse - he teaches me new things about life. he teaches me perspectives and insights that i would never gain on my own. we had some good talks about our views on issues. i love that we can completely disagree about things, and yet respect one another's choices and thoughts. 

this was a fun moment at Tuck's Candies. we were like kids in the candy store and we had money! we bought lots of treats just because we could. maybe the fact that we were growing up as my parents were working so hard to make ends meet - and the clothes we bought were from the Target clearance rack (LONG before Target was cool) - we like to spend money. we like to splurge occasionally. and we did a bit at the candy store!

i think that is one thing that i have realized the most this year about my relationship with jesse - he is in all my growing up memories. because we are the closest in age, he and i have spent the most time together. whether it was watching cartoons saturday mornings, or fighting over chores, jess and i spent the most time together. which selfishly means he gets me. but hopefully it means i get him too. 

regardless . . . . i am beyond grateful for him and his life and the fact that i am so much more of who i want to be because of him. 

happy birthday jesse boy!!!

sweet 16

not only a day late, but a few days late. 

but since it's the 16th and i want to give a shout out to the sweetest 16 year old this world has ever seen. she is beautiful outside and in. she is the best person i have ever seen with kids. she works harder than anyone i have met. she truly cares about the people around her. she is graceful. she is crazy. she has the cutest style. i tell her constantly that she is who i want to be when i grow up. 

sweet lizzy/lizbert/bert/bertie baby turned 16 on saturday, may 12th. from what i understand she had some sweet gatherings and celebrations. i just hope she knows how treasured she is not only in all of our lives, but in my especially. she is the other bookend with me for the snyder kids. melissa has decided that liz and i are extremely similar with our humor, interests, and needs. i personally love that and just hope she is okay with it!

deartest liz, i am soo grateful you were born. thank you for being such a sweet and precious part of my life. HAPPY b-lated Birthday!!!!

a day late!!

although this blog post is a day late,  i hope becca knows just how much i was thinking about her on her birthday!!

becca is 10 years younger than i am. which is pretty crazy to see her doing things that i did a decade ago. or to try to imagine myself 10 years ago doing what she is doing. i think it is pretty interesting that i didn't move out on my own (for real) until i was 32. She did it just this last year when she was 23!

 i love this picture of us. it's hanging in my room. i loved this from the salmon run in alaska!

 you can almost hear becca saying, "really, em??! we are walking on a boat and you are taking my picture?"

the romantic reading of thoreau's writings while at the old north bridge. next time we are reading "walden" at walden. 

more concord moments on the old north bridge and at louisa's house. 

i am slightly jealous that she gets to hang out with these crazy kiddos on a somewhat regular basis. i can only imagine how they love their auntie becca around to hang out!!

the farewell's at the dallas mall. this is soo great of both of them!

i just need to give a shout out to the dearest becca who is working her guts out and who is making a difference in the lives of those around her. i hope her co-workers know just how lucky they are!! i love you becc!!

someone to share

there are lots of random thoughts that sometimes i want to share with someone. with life being the race that it is, sometimes my fam and spend the evening just trying to match up to talk. so just to share, i'll throw the thoughts out here.

• today is my 1 year "anniversary" working for Clayton Christensen. it's crazy that it's already been a full 365 days. never in a million years would i have imagined that this is what i would be when i moved to boston. it was Clay's birthday last week and i wrote 60 memories for his 60th birthday. it's insane all the things we have done in the past year. 
• i have decided to train for a sprint triathlon. the girls at work and i are planning on doing one in september on cape cod. i am pretty excited. i just need the pool to figure out when it's open. last night was the 2nd time i had gone and it was closed. grr. but i ran instead. 4 miles - running a block and walking a block. 
• a girl is doing an art exhibit about single mormon women. she has invited and taken photos of 25 women here. it was pretty cool to think through some of the thoughts. i'll add them here. here exhibit opens on Friday and she'll have a link i'll post. 
• i was invited/assigned to speak at efy again this summer. this year they asked me to go to Cincinnati, OH and a BYU session. the BYU session freaks me out because i am not feeling as confident in my teaching abilities and BYU is huge. and it's intimidating. 
• i get to address wedding announcements for some friends tonight. i can't wait! i am excited to see if i really like doing it before i try to create an etsy site to do it for real. a friend said that i could charge 75 cents to $1.50 for each envelope! all while watching a movie. :)

okay, i think that is all. thanks for letting me share!

from the iPhone

just a few of the items from my iPhone.
did i mention that dad got us all iPhones for Christmas!??! who knew what a new and wonderful world it would be with them!?!

we'll start here - clay's new book is coming out may 15th! it's an extension of his award-winning article, "How Will You Measure Your Life?" and is what he teaches on the last day of class at HBS. this is one of his co-authors and a few of the advance copies we have sent out. it was cool to get to address them to people like jeb bush, malcolm gladwell, leader pelosi, etc. clay has some really cool friends! i got to address them and hope that someone will comment on how beautiful they look!

i am in love with the restaurant - Paramount. sooo stinking good. my friend, ben, made fun of me that i would get pancakes again since that is what i got last time. but when he tried them, he hushed up as he realized that they were just that good!!

i went on a little tour of the concord museum one saturday. it was lovely. this is thoreau's desk from walden pond. he never locked the door to his cabin. but he locked his desk. and from the look of things, he got into it a lot!

while in concord, i went to their cheese store! it's soo wonderful and beautiful! the cheese men and women certainly know what they are doing and let you taste lots of different cheeses. yum. yum. yum!

these are my mama's dish towels. she stitched the designs when she was a teenager. i decided to make them little curtain for my kitchen window. it took a few tries, but i love them.

 and while i was in concord, i just might have stopped at the quilt store. blast. how is it soo easy to spend sooo much!?!

i made YUMMY salmon and asparagus and potatoes one night. goodness, i cam craving it right now. i seared the salmon and then baked it in the oven for a few minutes. it was perfect

on a monday holiday - what was the last one? - i went to portland maine. it was kind of a bust. and definitely not what i was hoping. but i looked through the windows of this gallery and need to find out how much their works cost. i am looking for a watercolor of new england according to my heart. they had some good ones i think .

this is an icon spot that i happened to find. it's in lots of pictures. who knew!?

 yummy, yummy seafood!

this would be the quilt mom and i did at Christmas time and that she has soooo lovingly helped finished. i'll hopefully see it when i go home - tomorrow!

did i mention i am trying my hand at pie!! yup . .

 and they were even good!!

here are the pillows i finally made to coordinate with the quilt mama made for me! i LOVE them!

went to new jersey to help brian's parents organize and decorate their home. they have downsized from a 4-bedroom home to a 2-bedroom apartment. it's still a work in progress, but it is coming!

someday i will have a calligraphy store. i downloaded this to always have on had to practice lettering in down moments . .

bob slate is back!!! it's a beautiful stationery store that went out of business. i LOVED their little notebooks and i got some for the sisters. we were so sad when it closed. but someone brought it back in harvard square!!

clay is doing a lecture for university of phoenix. talk about a production!

 these are our PR peps. they make our world run and i think i talk with them almost more than clay!

yesterday i went maple sugaring!! soo cool and so fun. it was perfect weather and a great tour.

found these blue doors on this church. we stopped at an estate sale and i fell in love with these blue doors against the gray brick. beautiful.

kathy is a member of our ward who doesn't come too often. today she met me and we did a picnic with my friend ben. too bad he is mr. stubborn and wouldn't get in the pictures with us. but he did take some good shots of kathy and i. :)

i should be asleep. long day tomorrow. utah - here i come!!