Here is another painting, I did this about 2 months ago. I sent this picture home with my Dad last time he was here visiting.

My Dad is a Mason so I thought this picture belonged with him.

Last Wednesday I started another painting. It's of peaches being stewed. I like the way the peaches look floating in the juice. I don't know how to make the liquid look wet, but I'll take a whack at it.

-Erika

PS. Sorry for the lack of posts.

My Art

This weekend Krista and I did some painting. Krista had these really cool pens that draw like markers and then when you run water over them they act like water color paints. I loved them, they are very fun and easy to use. I will definitely be getting some of those pens for myself.

For inspiration I found a picture of a stained glass window. I loved the colors. I'm really digging light and bright right now.

Benika Photo Shoot.

Ben and I had a little photo shoot out in the front yard last month. Here are the results.
This is Ben's office phone book shot.
Note the sexy way his nostrils flare.
Just putting out the vibe.
I like this picture, even though I look a little startled.

Because I've got to have some pictures of myself when I'm not dressed up like a pirate or a leprechaun Ben and I did a quick photo shoot, just us, the way we look on a normal everyday. What will our children think of us if all we have to show from our twenties are crazy dress up party pictures. Looking back at 2009 we had some awesome albums; leprechaun party, pirate party, 5K in a parrot costume (Ben went Gothic that day), Floating in the Great Salt Lake, Dodge ball (Ben went as the Amish Marauder and I went in an awesome hot pink number), Halloween as a witch and a wizard and even Canadian Thanksgiving (a feast of 100 hot dogs). I realized that we really don't have much documented proof that we are normal people. And so here you have it, those two look pretty normal, wouldn't you say.

Zumba

Last night I went to Zumba. I haven’t been to the gym in a couple months and I think I’ve reached a new low. It was a really hard work out. I kept thinking this is too hard, I used to feel good when I worked out, now I feel out of breath and my knees hurt. While I worked out I was looking around the room and I couldn’t help comparing myself to the beautifully fit women. I thought about how our bodies are a gift to us. I felt really bad that I had let myself go. I have not done a good job of caring for my body. I have not shown my gratitude for such a wonderful gift. I’ve felt bad about being out of shape before but it’s never struck me so profoundly that I am the care taker of this body, this body that is a gift to me. I felt like a spoiled child who doesn’t care for the things they are given. This time I didn’t feel bad because of my size or fitness level I felt bad because I was not thankful for my body.
I’m working at it. Yesterday was definitely interesting though. I seriously had to fight back the tears while I worked out. How embarrassing would that have been to have a full on melt down at the gym.
After Zumba, Coco and I went to my house and watched Moulin Rouge. And that made everything a little bit better. So glad I have good friends who like to watch cheesy movies with me. I had not watched that movie in years and I still love it. It's a chick flick for sure but it's a little bit corky and weird, which is perfect for a girl like me.

LDS Rock Star

Totally gave into temptation this morning and bought a Rock Star on the way to work. And what do you think comes up while I’m sitting at my desk indulging myself… The lady who sits next to me who is not LDS starts asking about conference. Hopefully being somewhat of a Jack Mormon makes me more approachable. Thank goodness for repentance, eh. Hope you all had a happy conference weekend. Despite the fact that I’m drinking a Rock Star, I have to say that this conference was very inspiring and uplifting.

Embarrassing Moment #1

So when I created this blog I knew that I would use it to share my embarrassing moments because I love to make people laugh. I really do have a lot of good ones. So many in fact that I have stopped feeling very embarrassed about them and so I forget to share them. Even though I don't get that embarrassed over them anymore I know they are funny and I know that most people who don't have an embarrassing moment like every 5 minutes would think that they are embarrassing.

So today I've been really tired because I got up earlier than I usually do to take care of my niece Julie. She's sooo cute by the way. So I took a break this afternoon and drank some Dr. Pepper. I was sitting at my desk which is right across the hall from the Lab Manager's office. And it was pretty quite. We can hear each other typing and working. And as my good friend's Mom says "only when I drink pop", I burped, a loud one. I know it's not that big of a deal, everybody burps, but I like heard him pause his typing. I'm thinking is he paused because he is silently shaking with laughter or has he just been so horrified that he was completely derailed from what he was doing.

So here I am in sweat pants, not being the cool office girl, downing Dr. Pepper so I can stay awake. Happy Thursday everyone!

My sister is arriving for a visit tomorrow! I am so excited to see her. She will be here for a week. I have 2 days off from work to play, tomorrow and the next day. It's going to be a lot of fun!

I've been a little crazy trying to get everything ready. Poor Ben has to put up with me when I'm stressed out. Mostly I am worried about taking time off from work. It's always a big step for me to disconnect and let go of what is happening there. It's funny because it's not like my job is THAT important. We shall see if I can keep my cool.

Just for you

I post a lot of pictures on Facebook but these beauties will be reserved for my blog, thy are just for you. Last night Ben followed through on his part of a deal with our good friend Chad and shaved a Mohawk. Chad's part of the deal was to shave a mullet earlier this week. Now Ben is thinking of converting his Mohawk into a rat tail, yeah don't be jealous ladies. The pictures were taken last night while our friend Clark's band played. Their band is Seamus, if you haven't been to one of there shows, you should check them out. I'm friends with a real live rock star!

Choosing my Experience

When I was 17 I took part in a program called rising star. One of the ongoing themes throughout the program was "choosing your experience". They would put us in situations that most sane people would consider to be quit annoying, like sitting us down in chair with blindfolds on and then leaving us there for an undetermined amount of time, and the whole point was that we could choose to enjoy the moment or be angry. Personally I think it was a pretty drawn out way to teach us that concept but I guess they did a good job of it because here I am 10 years later and I still think of it often.

I’ve known since then that our perception of a moment, of our life can determine how we feel. I can choose to see my life in a positive way or I can key in on things that make me unhappy. About a year ago I was talking about just this thing with my brother-in-law Nate. I was telling him about some struggle I was having and how I knew I should have a better attitude and he told me I should be an Erikan, not an Erikan’t. It totally stuck. I know it’s weird but I think of myself as two different people sometimes, Erikan and Erikan’t. It helps me choose to be happy, because that’s just what Erikan does. And that, I hope, helps you understand why I chose Erikan for the name of my blog. This blog will be about me with stories from my real life (what else would it be but real?) that I hope will bring happiness into the life of those who read it.

Greetings.

This first entry will be brief. It's really pretty late and I'm tired but I wanted to have at least one entry just to know what it would feel like. I just couldn't wait another day to start a blog so here I am at 2 in the morning customizing my settings and adding tools. I'm so excited that I've finally started a blog, here's hoping it's a good one.