Raffle Update

The raffle for Becky Higgins Creating Keepsakes 365 Project Kit of the Month ends in just a couple of weeks. I am so thankful for all donations raised and hope to raise quite a few more. If you haven’t had a chance, please do spread the word and/or enter for your chance to win.

Details of the raffle are here.

The View from Someone Else’s Eye

I’m a big fan of PhotoJoJo and often print out things that I want to remember. One of those things was this list of road trip photography ideas. One of which was to leave a camera in a self addressed postage paid envelope with a note to whomever may find it.

Cody thought I was crazy. But disposabale camera’s are cheap, so I went for it on our trip this month. We bought a two pack and I intended to leave one on Route 66 east of OKC and one of the west side. Of course, we didn’t make it down Route 66 west, so I only ended up leaving one camera.

I took a picture of the spot where I left it.

I wrote a couple of notes on the back side of the padded envelope and explained that we thought it would be neat to see the world through someone else’s eyes.

And then we waited to see what happened. Once we returned home, I really hadn’t given it much thought. Until yesterday. . .

It was returned!!!!!! A man from Indiana picked it up, he left his address on the outside so I felt more comfortable about what pictures may be on the camera. But even better he left a note. He was traveling with his brother and sister to see his Dad. We had the pictures developed last night. From the Blue Whale you can see that he went to Norman, Oklahoma and then back home where he includes a picture of what I imagine is his kids in front of the Indy Speedway.

Of course, it’s left me wanting more. I want to know the story behind the pictures. I want to do this more. What other results might I get?

So, what’s the view from your vantage point? If you had 24 pictures to share a vacation or your every day life, what would you take pictures of?

Peaceful, Easy Feeling

There has always been something about when I cross that state line into Missouri. There’s a peace and a calm that I don’t feel most any other time. I was born in Kansas City, MO but we moved from there just 10 months after I was born. Yet for some reason, it’s always had a pull on me.

It struck me just how strong that peace is on our most recent trip to Kansas City. We stayed at the Plaza which has always been a magical place to me. Of course, this trip also fulfilled a dream. When I was around 10 years old, we traveled to Kansas City for my grandmother’s funeral. I have always remembered going by the Plaza when it was lit up with Christmas lights. It was so beautiful. And this time, over 20 years later, the same is still true. (And, thankfully, Cody felt the same way- it wasn’t just nostalgia.) I woke up early when we were there, well rested, and just enjoying the fact that I was there- that I was calm and life was peaceful.

But, it’s not just the city, it’s the farms and fields, the hills, the folks. As we drove up there once we got across that Oklahoma line and as we drove back to Oklahoma, I noticed that I got quiet. I stared out the window and realized how long it’s been since I felt such peace.

With that peace and that calm, I become a different person. In many ways, I feel more like me. I’m more relaxed and let more personality come out. The feeling is so strong that in many ways I have to call it my home. Though, I don’t think I’ll ever call it home because I’m not sure I could handle that winter. I hated to leave this time just as I always do.

I hope everyone has such a place. A place they can go to relax. A place where they can feel entirely at peace and calm. Do you have such a place?

Two By Two

One of the things I ordered with my CK kit was the Album Shortcuts with Quizzes and Questions (Simple Scrapbooks). When it arrived, I asked Cody one of the quizzes and it was interesting to hear his answers. I plan on doing most the quizzes with him and others. But I thought tonight I would take one and share with you.

1. Hamburger Helper or Filet Mignon
Filet Mignon Medium Rare. I hate Hamburger Helper. But, this one also reminds me of the time I had Filet Mignon Burnt. . . My mom is a well done kinda person. We ordered Filet Mignon one time as a family. You guessed it, if momma aint’ happy no one’s happy. So we ate “burnt” steak.

2. Van or Sedan
I guess a Van. The new Dodge’s seem to have some cool features- if I were going to get a van.

3. Yellowstone Park or Disneyland.
Much as I want to go back to Disneyworld, I’d rather go to Yellowstone. Besides the fact that I love nature, I really don’t like to be in a crowd anymore. It’s the small town living that I’m used to. When there’s 1000 times more people than in the small town closest to us. . there’s just too many people.

4. McDonald’s or Olive Garden
Olive Garden. . . I like to make a meal out of the breadsticks and alfredo sauce.

5. Board Games or Video Games
Board Games, I think. I love to play them especially with my nephew. But, then again, from what I hear those Wii’s are really cool. We’ll see what I say after I get to play my nephews new Wii.

6. Snow Bunnies or Water Babies
I guess Snow Bunnies. . . especially if I don’t have to drive in it.

7. Early Birds or Night Owls
Me. . . an Early Bird which makes it interesting when Cody’s a night owl. I get my best work done in the first few hours of the day once I’ve had a chance to wake up.

8. Road Trip or Air Travel
Open road for me. There’s just no way to see all the things you see when you’re on the road. Just check out the pictures of our anniversary trip and you can see just what I mean.

9. White or Wheat?
I think, now, I’d have to say Wheat. It’s healthier and now that I’ve learned to like it, I guess it’s what I would choose.

10. On the team or in the Bleachers
In the Bleachers, watching the Buffalo Sabres or the Kansas City Royals.

The 3-Day, 365 Raffle

(Sorry this one’s blurry. . .it was already dark outside when I took this picture.)

Enough talking, let’s take some action! So, if you’ve read my blog posts as of late, you know that I’ve committed to raising funds for breast cancer research and walking 60 miles as part of that effort. Even better, my best friend Lisa has committed to doing it with us as well even after I sent her a goofy video invite. It’s part of the nationwide 3-Day.  And, I’ve told you all about the Creating Keepsakes/ Becky Higgins 365 Kit of the Month that I’ll be raffling to kick off our fundraising. 

Here’s how the raffle will work:

Ways to Enter
1) Donate at least $5 to my 3-Day Donation Page (Link’s below but I want to make sure you see how to optimize your chances)
2) Donate at least $5 to Lisa’s 3-Day Donation Page (Again, the links below, but read on.)

You’ll get 1 chance for donating on my page and one chance for donating on her page. So, that’s two opportunities to enter.

Want more chances?
The kit cost me just at $35 dollars. So, if you donate more than $35 to either page, you’ll get 5 chances. That’s five for my donation page and/or 5 for her page. (Maximum 10 entries)

(Note, the donation page will let you extend payments for up to four months.)

How long will the raffle be?
It’ll run from time of this posting through Midnight Central Standard Time Feburary 12, 2009.

Shipping
I’ll pay for US Shipping. International orders, I will ship internationally but you’ll have to pay me the difference in shipping (we’ll work out payment method at that time.)

How will we determine the winner?
We’ll put My list of donations/entries and then her list of entries or vice versa. We’ll put our names in a hat and let her son choose. (This way if you enter both, you’ll be in the first half and the second half!) Then, we’ll use Random Integer Generator to pick the winner.

Winner Notification
We’ll notify the winner by February 17th. The winner must reply by February 21st so that we’ll know where to mail the kit. We’ll also announce the winner here.

Overall chances
There’s only one kit in this raffle. But, your chances of winning will depend on how many donations we receive, and how much you donate.

The Cause
Don’t forget that this is going to a great cause that’s touched everyone’s lives in some way. You can include an any person that you are honoring with your donation.

OK. Now that you read the rules. . .

Here’s the links to enter for your chance to win the 365 Kit. You must donate online in order that we can ensure we count all donations into this raffle.

My 3-Day Donation Page
Lisa’s 3-Day Donation Page

(These links go directly to The 3-Day.Org- so they have control over donations and financial info. . . and it’s totally secure.)

And one more thing. . . .

How else can you help?
Share a link to this page with others online. The internet, and especially the scrapbooking/photography community is a powerful group of folks who can really do a lot to raise monies for causes such as this one.

The 3-Day

I have taken on an incredible challenge. On November 6-8th, I’ll be walking 60 miles over the course of three days, camping out at night with thousands of other women and men taking this journey with me.

It’s for an event called the Breast Cancer 3-Day, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. The net proceeds will support breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment through Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. Every advancement in breast cancer research, treatment, education and prevention in the last 25 years has been touched by a Komen for the Cure grant. Without a cure, one in eight women in the U.S. will continue to be diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s why I’m walking in the 3-Day- because everyone deserves a lifetime.

My best friend’s mom is a Breast Cancer survivor and I’ve seen the way that breast cancer has touched their lives. My best friend and I will be making the drive up to Dallas/Ft Worth to do this together. We agreed to raise at least $2,300 in donations each and know that we can raise even more. That means that we need your help!

We’ll kick of our fundraising tomorrow with that raffle of the Creating Keepsakes Kit of the Month: 365 by Becky Higgins.

The 365 CK/ Becky Higgins Kit Information

So, as mentioned, I’m going to be raffling off this kit tomorrow as part of my fundraising efforts for The 3 Day .  I thought I would share a bit about the kit in case you are not already familiar with it. 

(If you are familiar with it then you know that this kit was in very little supply with CK’s original order of 4000 being sold out in much less than 1 hour.)

The kit contains everything you need to make an album for your 365 project with very little work involved. (Which is good since there’s going to be 365 (or more) photos and lots of notes to make, etc.)

Here’s a list of what’s in the kit:

1 12×12 D-ring binder
54 12×12 specially divided page protectors–four 6″ x 4″ slots and four 3″ x 4″ slots on each side
399 3″ x 4″ journaling cards–21 designs, 19 of each design
60 4.25″ tri-fold journaling cards–4 designs, 15 of each
60 4″x 6″ header cards–12 designs, 5 of each
60 2.8″ x 3.8″ footer cards–12 designs, 5 of each
8 4″ x 6″ decorative title cards
8 4″ x 6″ decorative end title cards
12 12″ x 12″ decorative cardstock–6 designs, 2 of each
25 4″ x 6″ transparent overlays–5 designs, 5 of each
12 3″ x 12.5″ monthly divider tabs
27 days of the week cardstock sheets–378 total stickers
11 days of the week cardstock sheets for journaling cards–429 total stickers
2 yards ribbon–two designs, 1 yard of each
2 4″ x 6″ decorative boxes to hold journaling cards
1 date stamp

I have not opened the kit- so everything should be in there. And yes unlike those who selling the kit on ebay the first week, I actually do have kit in my possession.

It’s set up so that you create layouts like this by simply dropping in the included cards and your 4X6 pictures into the divided page protectors.

Becky Higgins has some great videos showing how to put the album together etc here. You can also see a close-up of the kit here.

365: A Picture a Day, Every Day

One of the things I’m working on this year is a 365 project.  The concept is simple, take a picture a day every day.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years but couldn’t figure out how to manage it.  Then, came, the Creating Keepsakes Becky Higgins kit.  I knew then that this kit would make things easier.  Perhaps it’s because I also got a new photo printer last year that will help out too!  With her kit you simply insert your pictures and add a bit of journaling.  (I’ll share more about the kit later as I’ll begin a raffle for one tomorrow).  Of course, you could do the same with many photo albums or by blogging. 

This year for us will make a great year to start the project.  It’s a decisive year in terms of our adoption, it’s our 10th year wedding anniversary and 15th from when we met, and we started the year off with a bang!  But, also I want to capture all the normal stuff as well and am looking forward to that as we settle back into routines later this month.

I’m hoping to share many of the pics with here on the blog but I’m eternally stuck on dial-up at home so I won’t promise to share all the pictures. 

So, in the interest of catching up here’s week 1:

From 365

Jan 1: My CK 365 Kit confirmation along with the Whataburger cup from my morning hamburger run for the sake of wi-fi.

From 365

Jan 2: Lisa and her son (AKA my nephew), Jack, came up for the weekend and I had just received the fish-eye I rented for our upcoming vacation!

From 365

Jan 3: While Cody and Jack went hunting, the gals went shopping. I purchased an old camera in this antique store for “Through The Viewfinder” photography.

From 365

Jan 4: We drove home the long way after church. Cody and I played with the fish-eye lens and Cody actually took this picture. I had to drag my nephew Jack out of bed to go to church and felt kinda bad as he was so exhausted. But it was on this trip home that he told me he missed going to church. I felt much better then!

Oh no! The pics I thought were uploaded aren’t there. . . I’ll have to come back to this post to add the rest of the first seven days!

And She Said Yes

Lisa called and thankfully she found the invite to be quite funny.  And, even better, she said yes to my whole-hearted request (name that song!).  She had actually had considered a different walk but that turned out not to work so well. 

So, now, we embark on quite a journey.  We need to train and we need to do some fundraising.  I’ll start on the training next week as I have family arriving today from Florida.  As for the fundraising, it starts tomorrow!  We’ll be raffling off a Becky Higgins/ Creative Keepsakes 365 Kit of the Month.  Details on how to enter, etc, to be posted tomorrow and I’ll share more about 365 later today.  It’s actually another part of the timing thing.  I ordered two kits that fateful (and for some “dreadful”) January 1st thinking that I’d have one more for next year.  I got the email that they were being shipped as the plan for our 60 mile walk unfolded and I knew it would be our first fundraising effort.  Of course, the deal wouldn’t be sealed until I actually had both kits in hand when they arrived last Tuesday.

The Invitation: Funny? Silly? Stupid- No Question!

Lisa, my best friend, and I walk.  We’ve always done it.  Not that we walk to exercise- we walk to talk, to get away from others, just to be out.  Years and years ago, we stopped asking if the other one wanted to go for a walk.  We developed a signal.

I wanted to include this signal in my invitation. . . which meant video.  And so, this invite was born.  I mailed it to her in hopes she didn’t have my husband (who hadn’t seen it either) commit me to the looney bin. 

What do you think?  Nuts?  Is it at all funny to you? What do you think she said?

Timing

Two weeks ago tomorrow we left for vacation and in between posts here and there I hope to share our trip with you.  It really was quite a trip to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  It ended a week ago Friday as we drove home from Dallas.

As we were driving home from Dallas and talking about how it really isn’t that far away, I heard a commercial for The Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk benefiting the Susan G Komen Foundation.  I can’t explain it but I instantly knew I had to do it.  I was pretty sure it said it would be in Dallas.  I’ve thought it would be interesting to do in the past but never found one close with the right timing.  I was certain they said November. . . that’s plenty of time.  I also knew this was something I wanted to do with my best friend.  Her mother is a breast cancer survivor. 

So, as Cody drove home, I looked up the information on my cell phone.  And, so, it started.  Now I had to find the best way to invite my best friend to go on a little 60 mile walk with me. . .

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my new blogging home.  I’m hoping to import my previous posts from an old blog but if I can’t, we’ll just move on from here.

For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Amy.  My husband, Cody, and I have been married for 10 years as of this coming Friday though we’ve known each other now nearly 15 years.  We met and it was Chemistry. .  literally.  When I left home for college, he was in my very first class. . . Chemistry.  We met later that day in Chemistry lab.  We still like to relive those days.  After a brief stay away, we moved back to the town where it all began.  We’re happily married and each day our relationship and our love seem to grow.

We don’t have any kids yet.  We struggled with fertility for many years and for the past two plus years have been swimming in the adoption process.  We’re waiting to find the right fit. . . a sibling group, 2-4 children, ages anywhere from infant to 11 or 12 years old, all girls, all boys, or a mix.  We’ve had an approved home study for over a year now.  This year we really truly feel like this is either the year that we grow our family or the year we move on- and we’re ok with either.  It really feels at times that our life has been on hold for the past eight plus years.

Thankfully, our faith is strong and we know that God will lead us down our path.  We’re both very active in our church and that keeps us busy.  We also enjoy the outdoors and creative outlets.  My hobbies include photography, scrapbooking, and genealogy.  I also enjoy being the webmaster/owner of The Old Front Porch.  A site I began nearly 5 years ago.

But, you’ll get to know all this as you read my blog.  So enough already.  Besides, I really want to share about a special new project in my life.

It’s 2009

It’s 2009! I’ve done alot of thinking about this year. It’s going to start with such a fun bang! My best friend is coming up tomorrow, next week DH and I are going on a long trip for our anniversary, then family from Florida will come to visit, and DH & I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary. (August will make 15 years since we met.) It’s not always going to have such fun or be so busy (thankgoodness). This year feels as though it will be a decisive year. I really believe that if we don’t have kids by the end of 2009, it just isn’t meant to be. So, our lives will be changing in one way or another- whether our family grows or we adjust to a life just the two of us.

I’ve wanted to choose a word for the year now for several years. Now, this year, I am committing to one. My word:

Now

This is the moment. We’ve spent so much of our past few years as if life was on hold. It’s as if I’m either living in the past or the future. I want to be in the moment. Now, not later. Now, not back when. Each moment is a blessing from God. A wise man that I’ve had the pleasure to know, often reminds us just how special each breath that God has given us truly is. I want to be there in that breath. . . to turn off my brain and feel with my heart.

This is the year. The word now can often be used as a change of subject or activity. That’s what these days are for us. We’re turning a corner. It feels as though its now or never for us to us to adopt. Though we could always adopt later, it seems this is the year that our current search for a larger family comes to a close. So, at this juncture, we know that God is leading us in his direction.

This is me. Now and Then, I want to take stock in where I am in live. I want to be sure I take care of myself and pay attention to the cues I give myself. I want to eat, sleep, and exercise better. I want to make sure I have quiet moments and moments to be creative.

This is the time. I want to get things done here and now. Instead of procrastinating, I want to get things done. I read a quote attributed to Martin Luther, that read “How soon not now becomes never.” It seemed so appopriate as I think of all the things I want or need to do that have been left undone. I want to do without delay.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about are just those things that I’d like to do in 2009. I’m going to make a list here. Later, I’m going to actually add them to cell phone tasks as a reminder and to be able to check them off. I’m sure I’ll add to this list.

Organize my kitchen
Paint the cabinets
Clean out the closets
Hang Pictures
Put Pictures in Photo Albums
Add Photos to my office
Complete my 365 Photo Project
Do more for my DH
Be Organized
Drink more water and less cokes
Exercise
“Finish” Decorating House
Control Spending
Pay off student loans
Learn to take (and get comfortable) taking pictures in manual mode

Habits
(Not sure whether I’ll create specific to do’s for these or just do a weekly check in type thing.)
Do more for DH
Be Organized
Drink More Water and Less Cokes
Exercise
Control Spending
Scrapbook More
Create
Do more on the Porch
Go to the Deer lease more

January 1 Gratitude

Today I’m thankful for

1) A new cell phone holder (I made it)
2) DH’s safe return from Corpus
3) A Second Vechicle
4) Getting the 365 Kit ordered
5) A New Year