this and that

welcome to another list of random. here is what i'm thinking about. right. now.

• why did i wake up at 6am on my day off? lame.
• today i'm going to throw away 100 things in my house. i may make a list of them and share.
• you should get rid of 100 things too.
• i still have two 13 year olds. nicole's birthday is in 13 days. on july 13th. 
• she will be 14. her first dance is at her first youth conference.
• i found out this week that three different people i know have either had miscarriages or have been told they shouldn't have anymore children. i'm sad for all of them. 
• something in our garage is luring cats to come over and hang out.
• i hate cats.
• meow.
• today we are attending a sealing at the seattle temple for our friend's who adopted a baby boy.
• ken and i have been married for 14 years, 10 months and 3 weeks. 
• 1 month and 1 week and 9 days until i give him his special 15 year anniversary gift.
• matthew is playing tackle football. his practices started last tuesday.
• i'm currently writing a review for a book written by one of my friends from kansas. stay tuned for that. 
• i am not a professional book reviewer. it will probably contain words such as awesome, lame and super exciting and i love that part.
• i better get an autographed copy of it, for my efforts. 
• i'll probably have to buy the copy.

okay, time to go get rid of 100 things. 

feliz sábado!

[that's spanish for happy saturday.]

awkward and awesome (wednesday)

awkward:

• having a conversation with a women in the stake about some of the youth. her opinion was not positive about all the youth she was speaking of. she seemed stunned when i informed her one of those teenagers was my child. instant backpedaling and made up praises commenced.
• i have no rhythm. it's a sad sad thing.
• my child bought two packages of gum yesterday afternoon. it is all gone.
• ryan. in honor of his awkwardness, i have a little video for you below. click here if you aren't reading this on my blog.
• the questions i was just asked: 'are there 31 days this year? no, darling child. but there are 30 days in june. said video may or may not apply to my darling child as well.

• we have a recliner in our living room which i call ken's thinking chair. it doesn't fit in our living room. i want to get rid of it. he gave me permission because he knew i didn't have transportation to haul it.

i. do. now.

awesome:

• have you heard the cd's 'joseph: a nashville tribute to the prophet' and 'the work' by the same people? they are awesome. you should buy them for me for my birthday. it's in 118 days. i'll be sweet 35.
• i'm having a birthday party. it's already in the planning phases. you are probably invited. if you're a girl. or my dad.
• it may or may not include copious amounts of mod podge.
• i like crafts.
• my friend was recently self diagnosed with excessive awesomeness. i have 'your mom-itis.' 
• they are serious conditions not to be taken lightly. 
• your mom is a serious condition.
• i can solve a rubik's cube. 
• ken and i go on vacation sans children in 141 days. i'm going to create a countdown.

happy wednesday. i hope you're enjoying summer break. we sure are.

stuff and things

• i made homemade bread tonight.
• it was delicious.
• my girls are in bed for the night.
• my boys are on two removals [picking up dead bodies]
• i've enjoyed my three days off work. i have to go back in 2 hours.
• i love texting with my cousin in idaho. she is super fun, but lame for not coming over to eat my bread.
• don't buy the game piperoll on the iphone. it's lame. and by lame i mean super addicting and a complete time sucker. i'm on level 81. oy.
• this weekend we joined the minivan club. i don't actually know how i feel about it yet. mostly embarrassed. i have commitment issues when it comes to buying things on credit.
• it may or may not look like the one below.

• probably not.
• i really like the guy in this photo. a lot. he makes my heart smile.

• girl's camp in in one month. i'm super excited. i will get my work schedule adjusted in the beginning of the month so i can go. one again, i'm super excited!
• i'm looking forward to attending a sealing this weekend of my friends to their newly adopted baby boy. it's very exciting.
• i think that is all.

wordless monday.

thank you thank you thank you! to dorian!!

i have friend with photoshopping skills. either that or i really did live a scene from ocean's eleven.  thank you dorian! i love these.

original photo

sheer awesomeness!

more sheer awesomeness!

feliz dia de los padres

happy father's day to dad and ken! 

you're the two best dad's i know.

would you like a strawberry?

i bought three flats of strawberries this morning. I canned one flat of them tonight. they made 10 pints of freezer jam and 11 pints of the other kind.

look how awesome these berries are! they are perfect.

i'm going to make syrup, strawberry topping and freeze the 2nd flat. we'll eat continue eating the third flat. [eat with a line through it looks like cat. i wouldn't even eat a cat. even if i was dying. in case you were wondering.]

thank you to my friend marie who let me borrow her canner.

dear marie, i'm lame and didn't know how to use the wire thing at the bottom so i ended up jerry-rigging my own thing. you'll have to give me an inservice. from, dedra

let there be light

if you've ever been to my home in the evening you know the lighting in my front room is crappy. and that is putting it kindly. once the sun goes down the room is almost black. 

i have been searching for the perfect light and found out about 6 months ago that it was super super old and was never in style. boo. today i gave up on my search and just bought a kit to make the light style i wanted.

i found a fairly inexpensive light fixture you install into your ceiling and i turned it into a swag light. because i was not exactly sure how the process was going to work i only bought one light. it took me about 30 minutes to build and hang and i am calling it a total success. i'm going to buy another fixture soon and hang a second light above the organ so my front room will not be a black whole.

ken and i can not believe how bright the room is. however, we are not actually sure the light it good. we just know it's a lot better than it has been for two years.

awkward and awesome

awkward:

• being told 'you look tired.'  code for, 'you look like crap.'
• i'm wearing 5 different colors of clothing. all solids, but they don't necessarily match each other. anna told me i look nice though.
• being called 'miss' by a teenager.
• i asked my dad if he had anything to add to my awkward list he said, 'awesome-dad'.

awesome:

• themed parties...as long as they aren't awkward.
•  the kids and i spent last weekend in port townsend with my brother's family and cousin angie's family. it. was. awesome. last saturday was one of my most favorite days of my adult life. 
• this photo. can someone with photo-shop-ing skills please put an explosion or big fire behind us. i want to be a part of oceans 11. stat. please and thank you. email it to me at dedra.cheney at gmail.

• school is almost over.
• matthew put my picture as the background on his cell phone.
• sometimes anna calls me mother. it sounds like 'moth-oh'.
• ken. i really like him. a lot.
• nicole graduated from 8th grade two days ago. she was upset she still had to go to school the rest of the year. i would have been too.
• dad.
• the new song by lee brice. see video below or click here for a link straight to youtube.

awkward and awesome:

• my brother ryan. also lame.

a little house, maybe on prairie.

once upon a time i was a young girl in a large family.  #4, right in the middle. too big to be with the little kids, too little to be with the big ones. i shared a room with my next oldest sister. some of my favorite memories were when she decided i was not allowed on her side of the room. in order for her to enforce this, we came up with rather inventive ideas, like large wall dividers made out of paper. it was completely awesome but mom didn't think so. another idea was for me to live in a the walk in closet in our room. best room i ever had. it was big enough for a trundle bed [*which we stole from my brother], a night stand and my clothes hung nicely. i was so happy in my little space.

i told my mom when i first saw the sound of music that i wanted to be a nun. she told me i couldn't be because nuns are catholic and we are lds, so i told her i'd like to be the first mormon nun. she laughed at me but i was serious. mostly because of the simplicity of maria's life. she gave away all her stuff and i assumed lived in a very small space. [while in the convent, obviously not in captain von trapp's home]

years later, mom and i went to see sister act and the little cell they live in was completely appealing to me as well. i worked in a jail and i loved those cells as well.

the point of this post is to tell you that i want to live in a really small home. like the size of a shed. for real. this is not something that i just thought up one day, or an idea that i think it cool for the time being. i have wanted this for my whole life. of course i want my family there, so it is not doable at this time, but mark my words. ken and i will live in a tiny house. i have the whole thing designed in my head and it is less than 500 square feet. i feel so excited when i think about this.

i just thought i'd tell you. it's true i get a lot of weird crazy ideas. some things we do, some are forgotten as quickly as they are concocted, but this dream/idea is not new or a fad. it's one of my oldest dreams. it will come to pass.

the end.

*my brother never told our mom he lost his bed. can you imagine how that conversation would have gone? she would have killed him.  then me.

http://tumbleweedhouses.com/

the cool kids

so here's the deal. i am a colossal nerd with serious anxiety about not having friends. sometimes i get in little pitty parties and worry that i don't have a friend in the world, at least not one in my time zone, and then i am humbled by the unadulterated awesomeness that i call, my friends. see a couple examples below. 

this is what happens when ken trusts people with his phone to photograph a ward party. i am truly humbled by their skills.

confession time: i noticed all three of these people on our first sunday in the ward and thought they were funny, but felt sad at the same time that we would never be friends because i'm too nerdy.

i. was. wrong.

they are too nerdy too. bless their hearts.  ken and i think they are awesome.