2010 A Week in the Life- Saturday, April 24th

2010 A Week in the Life- Friday, April 23

2010 A Week in the Life- Thursday, April 22

2010 A Week in the Life- Wednesday, April 21

Here’s my pages for Wednesday:

2010 A Week in the Life- Tuesday, April 20

Tuesdays!  I love Tuesdays!  That’s date night.  We earmark Tuesday nights for us time- watching TV together in the chair.  Most often, it’s the one night with very little to no sports on the television.  NCIS had their season finale last week, so now, we’re minus a couple of shows.  But, Deadliest Catch is still going on.  So, we’ll watch that and I’m sure the hockey playoffs and Royals baseball will be in the picture as summer moves along. 

A Week in the Life- Monday, April 19

I finished my Week in the Life pages!  Now to get them uploaded and printed.  I just love this first picture.  Cody was letting me to his office after I walked next door.  That’s been a big transition for us.  When he drops me off, I have to remember he’s not going to just go park but rather, he has to go around the corner.  And in the afternoons, I have to wait for him to come and pick me up.  Thankfully, when we’re both in town, we still get to eat lunch together although our time together is a bit shorter. 

Oh and I haven’t been on the treadmill in weeks. .  .  shame on me.

2010 A Week in the Life: Sunday April 18

Sunday was a pretty typical day- except that I got to wear sweats again!  It was all pretty normal.  Hockey is of course winding down.  SFA baseball played their last games of the season just this week at the Southland Conference.  We actually went to games two weekends this month- including all three games of the last homestand. . . where we had a really great conversations with one of the scouts at the game.

My Plans This Week

I’ve barely been here, I know.  I’ve been rocking and rolling but unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to blog.  Tomorrow is the last day of the Layout A Day Challenge that I took on this month.  Probably not the best challenge to take on when getting ready to do A Week in the Life and then when your husband changes jobs.  But, I’ve gotten a lot of stories told through my scrapbook pages.  I plan to share those soon!  I’ll try to upload them all after I complete tomorrow’s layout.  Tuesday, it’s on to another project and challenge for me. . . 25 Days of Templates over at Renee Pearson.  More scrapbooking!  More story telling!  I also need to update my 365 pics. 

Speaking of projects, I haven’t yet finished my Week in the Life project.  I’m down to the journaling and hope to get it all finished up tomorrow.  I’m going to post each day’s layouts this week.  I think that as I do, I might give some updates on things that have changed this month etc. 

And then, I hope to do some more blogging and sharing!

Jack Plays Basketball and About Winning

What a busy month so far.  With Cody taking on his new job, travel for his job, travel for my job- it’s been busy.  And I decided to do a Layout-A-Day Challenge this month.  But there have been some really great times this month as well.  Like seeing Jack play basketball Tuesday night.  It was most definetely worth the travel and it messing up our NCIS date night.

His team had been undefeated until Tuesday when they lost to their league’s other undefeated team.  Jack impressed me with both his speed and his persistence throughout the game.  We talked a lot about the game over Pizza Tuesday night.  Cody stayed behind and spent yesterday afternoon doing sports stuff with Jack.  When he got home tonight we talked more about Jack and what seems to be a natural ability to learn and play sports.  So, it’s only natural that when I sat down to create my layout today,  Jack was fresh on the brain.

Journaling Reads: Winning, Losing, and Performance. It was the theme of our dinner conversation Tuesday after you lost your basketball game. No one likes to lose a game, I know. When we asked about whether you had fun, you said that the football coaches you’d seen earlier in the day said it wasn’t about fun, it was about winning.  As Cody and I were talking about how well you could do in sports today, we talked about how much I wanted you to learn about winning.  Some say winning isn’t everything- some say it’s the only thing.  I lean towards it being the only thing. Only it’s not the win ming “the game” that is the only thing. I want you to learn and know that there’s more one way to measure winning or success. You win when you give it you all. You win when you give have fun. You win when you’re a great teammate and show great character.  Do you remember when David DeJesus got the triple in the 9th inning as the Royals were losing badly?  He had a smile on his face as he signed your baseball.  He knew that you can measure winning in more than one way- he hadn’t given up.  I heard Mitch Maeir talking about it just yesterday- you have to learn to control what you can control and let go of the rest.  You possess their winning traits- you give it your all and you’re always learning to be better- it’s what makes you so good.  Sure, playing sports isn’t all fun, and I want you to learn to work hard.  Losing the game is certainly not easy to take.  But, you have to look in  your heart not at the scoreboard- if you know you did the best you could do and you took some joy from the game, you’ve already won.

A Week in Our Life: This Week, Our Week

As I said, I’m really interested in documenting our everyday life.  And this week, I’m going to concentrate on documenting our life.  I’ve read about this project before on Ali’s Blog but this year seems like the perfect time. 

It’s also a good week to do it.  I really want to capture what life is like now before Cody starts his new job in two weeks.  Things are sure to change- our morning, lunch, and after work routines will change at least some.  He won’t be next door anymore but around the corner.  But lots of things will change over time- our appliances, prices, etc and that part of this project really appeals to the historian in me.

I’ll work on capturing today all week.  I’ve already noticed that I’m finding gratitude in the little things.  I expect that this project will really help me appreciate our every day normal life.   Today’s introit at church talked about meditating on God’s wondrous works.  I think about Mr. Haas and how he talks about the marvel in each breath we take.  I’m welcoming this opportunity take time to think of all the wonderful things in our lives- the little things we often overlook.

It’s fun to think about all the things I want to document and how to do it.  I’ve already noticed though that I’m seeing things I hadn’t thought of that are just a part of everyday life- like being able to see Cody shave while I put on my make-up.

You can read so much more about this project here.

Telling My Story

I haven’t blogged much lately but I have been working to tell my story.  I’ve been scrapbooking quite a bit and thinking about scrapbooking even more.

Story.  Vision.  It’s something I’ve been reflecting on a lot this year.  I suppose it really started last year when I read “Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision” by David DeChumin.  I highly recommend this book to photographer and scrapbookers alike.  It really made me think about what I want to capture in my own life- through words, photography, and scrapbooking.  What is your vision? how can you communicate what you see?  Not so much vision as in some grand thing- but your vision of the moment, what is it you want to capture, what is it that evokes emotion in you. . . How can you convey that to others?   In the book, he talks alot about how a powerful image needs to evoke emotion and that it takes more to evoke emotion with other people than just when you see your image- you have the reference of having been there.  He also talks about capturing the broad and the detail.  As I started scrapbooking again this year, I can’t help but think about how much of that carries over to the scrapbook page. 

Part of sharing a vision or any story is “why”.  After I started Library of Memories, I wrote about “Why” on the forums of my Design Your Life Class (both classes are at Big Picture Scrapbooking).  It was in response to a question about journaling the who, what, when, where on scrapbook layouts and was inspired by an assigment in LOM where we idientified the 5 W’s in our layouts.  Here’s what I wrote about “Why”:

There are 5 W’s and you left out the really meaningful one- WHY!

What about the connections you see if the photos or the events?  To the one you are scrapbooking or perhaps a different time.  Why was it a good time?  Why did you go there? Why is the one W that really doesn’t fit in a title or on an embellishment.  It’s the one that really talks about your mark in this world and your history.  It’s the one that truly gives insightful info about the people or the event in the picture.  And that’s just skimming the surfaces with why’s.

My project 365 has been another huge inspiration this year.  I find it really makes you look at life as if you are the reporter. . . and for me now it’s about sharing my vision of our life.

Then, when I got my new Iphone (Oh I haven’t even told you all that Cody and I both now have Iphones), I started listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable Podcasts and have found several of them to be true gems.  One of which was Episode 3, “Ali Edwards on Story”.  After listening to that podcast, I picked up the book StoryTellers which I’ve started reading in little bits.

Here’s a few of the layouts I’ve created lately- capturing our story.  my story.

PS after I recover from computer issues, I hope to get more of my scrapbook layouts uploaded along with updating my 365 pictures.

Jack’s Infamous Hungry Cranky Butt Incident

I scrapbooked an infamous moment in history this week. . . . I’ll share the story via copying the journaling:

“Cody and I knew better.  We’ll never forget the time we went with Jack to Brenham- the bottle warmer incident and oh how he cried.  At that time, we thought poor thing is hungry.  This time, not so much.  We had a goal in mind- for Jack to get to eat while watching the Giraffes at the Caldwel Zoo.  But, it meant we waited too long to get some food in him.  Out came hungry-cranky butt.  It didn’t help that the flies kept buzzing his head. He made us pay for making him wait to eat.  And, of course, he never really understood why- the giraffes for some strange reason weren’t out in the area that the food court overlooks.  All he knew was that he was hungry and flies wouldn’t leave him alone. After eating, petting a few animals and taking some pictures with my new DSLR camera, he was fine again. And we enjoyed the rest of our day at the zoo.  Now, we talk about the Hungry Cranky Butt episode at the zoo.  It’s been a chance to learn about how emotions and being hungry can be tied together.  In fact, we were able to laugh about it together at the Oklahoma City Zoo last year because we thought we’d be home free- their food court was indoors.  We joked about how we were eating early enough for no Hungry Cranky Butt at the zoo- especially because the flies shouldn’t bother us.  And they didn’t- most of the time.  The Caldwell Hungry Cranky Incident proves sometimes we all just lose it.”

And it probably doesn’t help that his Aunt is a scrapbooker and had the camera in his face either. . . wouldn’t you think!

Scrapbooking

It seems that’s what I’ve been doing most these days besides of course working and sleeping. Design Your Life is ending but the Library of Memories class I’m taking goes on until May. I’ve scrapbooked 40+ layouts already this year! I can’t believe it. I need to do some updating on all my creative projects here. Those layouts aren’t posted and neither are all my 365 posts. But, tonight, I’m just going to do a quick post to share the scrapbook layouts I did yesterday and today.

I love this layout. It was actually part of an assignment for Library of Memories where we were suppose to make some connections. As I organized my pictures and found the shot of Jack shooting the Daisy Red Rider, I knew what my subject would be.

Journaling Reads: “I don’t know if you could say it started in 2004 with a Daisy Red Rider since Cody already had Jack excited about hunting by the time 2004 rolled around. But it was here that Jack first began to shoot. In his wrangler jeans and red rubber boots, it was cute when he said he was shooting the bloody British as he put BB’s in coke cans. We’d listened to Johnny Horton all week and we had to laugh at the reference to one of his songs. I love how that gun rests above his shoulder. Time passed and shooting became something we did when Jack was here. In 2008, the gun had more caliber but it fit properly. Cody’s .22 was the weapon of choice. Though Jack also liked the scoped .17 that Mike had. I remember going to Gander Mountain and Jack wishing he had his old gun and how the boys spent forever looking at the guns, comparing them, just talking about guns. Of course, the bigger the gun the harder it is to get away with shooting it at the house. Cody had saved up these old kitchen pot lids just so that they could take them out to the deer lease to put holes in them- or as Jack put it to his mom, “oblitherate” them. In 2009, Jack passed the final hurdle to being able to actually shoot a deer- the .243. Before he was allowed to shoot the .243, he had to hit some coke cans with the .22 from the same distance he might hunt. Cody was surprised at just how quickly he shot them up. And so Jack moved on to the .243 with milk gallons. And of course, he learned that he had to make sure he put the gun on his shoulder properly. All summer long he kept making sure he was going to get to hunting in the fall. When he came up in December to go hunting, he learned that while you may be able to shoot, you still have to see a deer in order to get one.”

This second is the story of our Sock Snow-Ball Fight scrapbooked.

Lunch, Leftovers, and Lowe’s

And Fountain Cokes! But that doesn’t start with an “L”.

Yesterday’s lunch was a typical lunch. Except rather than leftovers we had hot dogs. . . another usual lunch. For those of you who know Cody, you know he loves his fountain cokes. So each day, after he walks over to my office and we eat whatever leftovers we have, we make a run up to the corner store.

Most days, we have time to kill before our lunch hour is over. The most common activity. . . . wandering Lowe’s. We go to Lowe’s just to wander at least three times a week. We really don’t have too many other choices.

You never know what we might look at. Well, except that we almost always go by the mis-matched paint. Sometimes we might look at appliances so we’ll be prepared as ours go out. Sometimes I dream of better ceiling fans. Quite often, it’s the PVC pipe. . . where Cody plots a protein feeder. And if it’s not the protein feeder, very often it’s other projects or supplies for the deer lease.

Yesterday, after looking at the storage stuff, the metal for my craft room, and paint, it was Tool World. It started off looking at sanders (which we actually own one somewhere in the garage) but Cody got off track quickly. I used my 365 project as an excuse to kill a little time taking pictures.

And truthfully, I was glad to capture a moment from our everyday typical lunch routine.

Being Childless Sucks, Life Doesn’t

When I blogged about how being childless sucks Wednesday, I received several words of encouragement which I did appreciate. But, I guess what I failed to get across in that post, is that it was just a moment. . . They come, they go. Sure, being childless hasn’t stopped sucking. But, it’s not the only thing in my life.

I honestly didn’t share about that moment when I searched google for those that know me, but rather because I know that there may be others I don’t know who feel the same way and are looking for something to perhaps validate their feelings or just someone who understands. (OK, that’s a really bad run on sentence whith far to many “thats” in the beginning, but you know, it’s a blog not a term paper)

You see just because being childless sucks, it doesn’t mean that life does. All-in-all, I’ve got a great life. A house over my head, a loving husband who truly spoils me, time to be creative, a job, etc. (Since I just made a long list New Year’s Eve, I spare you the long version ’cause I have a feeling this post is going to be long enough.)

(OK, in proofreading this, this next part is going to seem really off topic and a rambling tangent, I promise I’ll be bringing it back around.)

Last weekend as Cody and I were celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary, we discussed a new class that I want to take. This morning as I thought about that class, I realized that my hobbies all seem to piggy back on themselves. Last year, I spent a lot of time learning more about photography and taking pictures. This year, I’ve gotten back into scrapbooking. This new class is about organizing pictures with a scrapbooking purpose (well, that’s just the surface.) One of the assignments before the class starts is to go through your digital pics and printed pics and put them in chronological order. I’m in luck since my digi pics are all in folders my month and year and named by the date and a sequence that keeps the approximately 16,000 pictures in order. . . not to mention digi pics can be sorted by date/time taken. But, our printed pics, that’s another story. The class talks about not trying to do all your pictures but a portion so that you can learn the process and then repeat with the rest later. So, I decided to just tackle the years from when Cody and I met until we went digital- Fall Semester 1994-Deer Season 2003. (Another tangent. . . Deer Season, you may be wondering, why I associated that. . . Because I got my first digi camera on the way to the Campwood and I remember taking tons of shots along the 8 hour drive there. Looking back now, I realize it was purchase and trip that would change my life.)

So this week, Cody and I have been sorting those printed pictures. We really don’t have that many. They filled two plastic shoeboxes longwise (aka short side so that the pano shots would fit). It was so much fun to remember those days. We really enjoyed looking back. We were both amazed at how young we look. . . even though we don’t feel that much older today. In many ways, despite the things we’ve gone through, we’re still like newlyweds or perhaps even those kids in college. We’re still like those two lovebirds in those pictures- two lovebirds who got married and watched as their friends got married, two lovebirds who used to eat on the floor in Etoile, two lovebirds who have watched their nephew grow-up, two lovebirds that have seen great vacations, two lovebirds that met in college, moved to Corpus Christi, and came back to that college town. We’ve been blessed. I’ve been blessed.

And, I realize just how blessed to live in the digital age! We narrowed that lot of pics down to just a little over one box. Purging a lot of awful and failed shots, I realized how much I benefit from being able to instantly see my pictures. Going through the so-so pics, I realized how much easier it is to take advantage of learning photography in a digital world. Looking at how few pictures there were compared to fewer years of digital, I realized just how glad I am that I don’t have to pay for film and processing.