SOPHIA.07.19.07

Our fourth daughter!

Life Changes

We are seriously considering moving to Utah and leaving the portrait photography business! Any information that would assist me with employment, the market, or locations is appreciated!

Quotes

A rose only becomes beautiful and blesses others when it opens up and blooms. Its greatest tragedy is to stay in a tight-closed bud, never fulfilling its potential. –Dale Galloway

When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die. –Eleanor Roosevelt

Remember we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. –Emily Kimbrough

Watch out for emergencies. They are your big chance! –Fritz Reiner

True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. –George Washington

Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul. –Henry Van Dyke

To yackety-yak about the past is for me time lost. Every morning I wake up saying, "I'm still alive– a miracle." And so I keep pushing. –Jacques Cousteau

Nothing is impossible to a valiant heart. –James d'Albret

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. –Martin Luther King Jr.

The best thing you have to offer the world is yourself. You don't have to copy anyone else. If you do, you're second best. To achieve success is to be first, and that's being yourself. –John Denver

We must change to master change. –Lyndon B. Johnson

Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. –Mildred Barthel

A word to the wise ain't necessary– it's the stupid ones who need the advice. –Bill Cosby

Knowledge alone is not enough. It must be leavened with magnanimity before it becomes wisdom. –Adlai E. Stevenson

To stand upon the ramparts and die for our principles is heroic, but to sally forth to battle and win for our principles is something more than heroic. –Franklin D. Roosevelt

Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we will be. –Anthony Robbins

Reality can destroy theh dream; why shouldn't the dream destroy reality? –George Moore

There is strong shadow where there is much light. –Goethe

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world. –Joel Arthur Barker

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. –Erica Jong

There is no failure except in no longer trying. –Elbert Hubbard

Dedicate some of your life to others. Your dedication will not be a sacrifice. It will be an exhilarating experience because it is intense effort applied toward a meaningful end. –Dr. Thomas Dooley

One essential ingredient for being an original in the day of copies is courageous vision. –Charles Swindoll

In the long run, the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. –Daniel L. Reardon

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant. –Homer

I destroy my enemy by making him my friend. –Abraham Lincoln

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats. –Iris Murdoch

It may not be your fault for being down, but it's got to be your fault for not getting up. –Steve Davis

The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. –Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. –Laura Ingalls Wilder

The greatest enemy of your creative powers is smug complacency–being satisfied with less than what you are capable of doing. –Nido Qubein

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances. –Bruce Barton

A man is known by the company his mind keeps. –Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. –Thomas Edison

Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you. –Mary Tyler Moore

There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. –Edmund Burke

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. –Henry C. Link

The vision of things to be done may come a long time before the way of doing them becomes clear, but woe to him who distrusts the vision. –Jenkin L. Jones

You can't hit a home-run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch fish unless you put a line in the water. You can't reach your goals unless you actually do something. –Kathy Seligman

If there is hope in the future, there is power in the present. –John Maxwell

Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes. –Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. –Katharine Hepburn

Getting people to like you is only the other side of liking them. –Norman Vincent Peale

What is success in this world? I would say it consists of four simple things–to live a lot, to love a lot, to laugh a lot, and from it all, to learn a lot. –Richard J. Needham

There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory. –Sir Francis Drake

There shall be Eternal summer in the grateful heart. –Celia Thaxter

The future has several names. For the weak, it is the impossible. For the fainthearted, it is the unknown. For the thoughtful and valiant, it is the ideal. -Victor Hugo

When I was young, I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failure, so I did ten times the work. –George Bernard Shaw

Winners believe in their worth in advance of their performance. –Denis Waitley

Reflection is the beginning of reform. –Mark Twain

The first draft should come from the heart. The second from the head.

The magic is in the detail.

Hold your soul very still, and listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. Follow the noble, intuitive feelings planted deep within your sould by Deity. –Pres. James E. Faust

If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he did not get there by himself.

When humans should have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. –C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Let us, then, be up and doing with a heart for any fate. Still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait. –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. –Catherine Aird

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. –Marcus Aurelius

As a family, we had a code, which was to do the right thing, to do it the best we could, never complain, and never take advantage. –Margaret Truman

That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing is changed; but that our power to do is increased. –Heber J. Grant

Who are the learned? [Those] who practice what they know. –Muhammed

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions. –Alfred Lord Tennyson

Two men look out through the same bars; one sees the mud and one the stars. –Frederick Langbridge

Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth, always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath. –Dofrey of Ibelin, Kingdom of Heaven

A king may move a man, a father may claim a son. But remember that even when those who move you be kings, or men of power, your sould is in your keeping alone. When you stand before your God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus" or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that. –King Baldwin IV, Kingdom of Heaven

We glory in tribulation; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, and experience, hope... –Romans 5:3-5

We've Changed Our Minds

This past week, after crunching numbers to see how much it will take to build our home, we think it would be best to purchase a home and live in it for a few years.

Some points that we are looking for in a home are these:

Largest lot in the sub-division.
End of a cul de sac
Quiet Neighborhood
Nice View
Something Unique
Decent kitchen
Master bedroom is important
Current Equity
Approx. 3000 sq ft.
& no further south than Rigby

Yesterday was my bday. One of the things that I received was a bonsai. Kristel bought it for me. I don't know why, but I like bonsai trees.

Small Change

I've made, possibly, the last change to the plans. Above the garage in this elevation, I've added a small roof. I think that may be the last of it.....

ReDesign

After speaking with Jason, I made additional changes that has really improved the layout. I hipped the upstairs roof, popped out the upstairs bedrooms and put a gable over the window of the master bedroom's walk in closet.

Redesign of Elevation

I have redesigned the elevation. I think that I've finally got it. Of course, we'll see. Each floor has been changed according to the elevation. Primarily, the garage & bonus room as increased by two feet. Starting from the garage side, I came in ten feet and then out two. This allowed me to create a second gable in the garage area as well and keep the porch six feet wide. The porch roof line continues across the garage, but only comes out two feet.

I also changed the roof line. Instead of it being hipped above the kids rooms, I put in a dutch hip. This should tie in both the hipped and gabled areas. Oh, also I changed a portion of the roof above the two windows upstairs. I don't know what that is called.

Thanks to cousin Jason & uncle Ken for helping me with these plans -- telling me that it should change.