Papers & Pretty Things

One Little Word 2009

A few years ago, Ali Edwards put out a challenge to her readers to pick one word for the coming year that they will hold close to their hearts, to inject into their every day's work.  Something to embody your life for the next year.  Something to work on, to change, to keep as a reminder.

I have spent the last 3 years withdrawing into myself even more so than is in my normal character (to be self-sufficient and quiet and reserved).  I have not made the effort to branch out and meet new people.  To try new things.  To see new places.  To take a stab at failure.  To do anything that I am unsure about.

In choosing the word CONNECT, I am hoping to remind myself daily that I need to put myself out there and connect with other people.  Connect with the world in which I live.  Connect with my Heavenly Father.  And too, connect with myself.

It will take multiple reminders, most likely daily... even hourly.  But I hope to come out of 2009 with more courage to take that first step of putting myself out there and connecting with others.

Adios

See ya 2008.  Bring on the new and unknown.

Having spent some time away from my blog, I've come to realize that this must be something I choose to keep up with.  Something that I make time for, that becomes part of the routine, and that I learn to open up to.  It seems to me that one evolves over time when writing in a blog.  And it seems that others who have kept it up faithfully come to cherish and rely on their blogs and blog readers.  That is something that I'd like to have happen, but cannot force it.  It must be a natural process.

That being said, many other things have been on my mind lately.  Like the things the people always promise themselves to begin in the coming year.  I always feel that if I'm to start something, it must be at the beginning of the week, month or year.  It doesn't make sense to me to begin in the middle.  So, the start of a new calendar fosters newness in other things in my life as well.

Here are the things I'm adding to my goal sheet for 2009 (with the exception of the first line, in no particular order):

*Spend time in the Word daily, and not just on Sunday in church.
*Take one photo a day (not necessarily a self-portrait).
*Create something weekly, if not daily.
*Find a job.
*Keep house in orderly condition.
*Join gym and attend regularly (frequency TBD).
*Read often.
*Participate in Every Monday Matters with husband and parents.
*Keep a journal.
*Blog regularly (again, frequency TBD).
*Incorporate my One Little Word for 2009 into my daily life.
*Participate in the activities and discoveries of What's Your Red Rubber Ball?!.

I think that's all for now.

I'll expound on some of these tomorrow.

For now, have a safe and blessed New Year!

Adventures in a snow drift.

So... once again, it's been a week or so since I posted.  And a week or so since I did a journal page.  Oh well.  I've been busy.  Although I know plenty of people who run a household and kids, cook all their own food and bread and stuff, and have time to scrapbook and blog.  I'm just not there yet. 

I'm one who runs on routine.  If I don't have one, I don't do well.  Well, I'm ok, but things I know I can do don't get done regularly. 

That's all fine and dandy, but you may still be wondering about my post title.

It can be one of two things:  1) I live in a snowglobe and it's white everywhere, snowing quite a bit, or 2) I just got stuck in a snow drift and had to dig myself out.

How 'bout both.

I KNOW it is supposed to snow all day, and has been snowing ALL last night... but we don't really have anything to eat.  Cupboards are kinda empty.  Save for spices and lunch meat.  And eating lunch meat twice a day isn't much fun.  Although technically that counts as food and we should be grateful that we have that, when others don't have anything.  And are outside in this snowglobe. 

Anyways, we need things like milk and cereal and bread and some other basic things that I could have purchased yesterday, as it wasn't snowing then.  But really, how could I have known that?  (The Weather Channel for starters, maybe?)  So I figured, I'd better go out now, before it gets worse, as we could get 6-11 inches (!) by tonite.  Well.. that was a mistake.

It took me 20 minutes to scrape the snow layer and then ice layer off of my car, while standing in the knee-high drifts that surrounded my vehicle.  And I didn't have a hat.  I was on my way to buy one at the store right next to the grocery store.  (While I'm out, right?  Make the best of the trip out in the cold.)  So, I carefully ease my way into out of the parking lot and on the street.  This isn't so bad.  I'll just go slow.  Then I come to the stop sign.  Nice and easy.  No sudden movements now.  (I see a pile at the intersection, thinking nothing of it.  Anyways, the last thing I want to do is gun it through a stop sign and into the intersection, possibly finding an oncoming car or going too fast and not be able to make the turn.  And... the last time I gunned it through a large obstacle that seemed easy enough to get through, I drowned my car in a knee-high puddle.)

So.

I get stuck.  A block from my home.  And not even in a ditch.

Um.. help?

Pete's at work, he's no use.

Mom and Dad might be at home... maybe they have an idea.

So, parents to the rescue.  They remind me I should have a shovel in my emergency bag in the trunk.

(Oh yeah!)

And they'll get bundled and come help.

Dig dig dig.

Plop.  (The shovel fell apart.)

Dig dig dig.

Rip.  (My pants ripped...they are very old and very worn.)

(Great.)

Thank goodness I have hiking boots and not tennis shoes on.

I try getting through it again.

No luck.

An older guy runs by.  Totally engrossed in his workout.

I wave.

There he goes.  Not even a glance.

I might start to cry soon.

Then a van drives up, a guy hops out (coat-less) and tells me to put it in neutral.  He'll push.

No such luck.

Another guy runs out (from an apartment? his car? I have no idea) with a coat and sweatpants (which are really not that warm when it's windy and snowy) and says to put it in reverse, he'll push.

The van-guy says he's going to get a coat, he'll be back.

Sweatpants digs some more and laughs with me when the shovel falls apart (again).  He digs behind my tires too, not just in front (like I was doing) and I hop in and throw it in reverse.

A little budge.

He explains that it might work to quickly go between drive and reverse, in an effort to "rock" it out of the snow bank.

I end up getting it out finally... going backwards.

Sweatpants asks if I really needed something that I should continue on with my journey.. I tell him we don't have much to eat.  He laughs and says, "Just order a pizza."

I gratefully thank him and don't even watch to see where he ran back to, to take some cookies or bread or something as a thank-you, and keep the car in reverse the 20 seconds back to the driveway.

I pull into my cleared out spot, and call my parents to tell them I'm ok, don't come get me.

Sigh.

Pizza it is.  Photo courtesy of this article that I should have read sooner.

 

So Fickle.

Is this how it always is?  Someone is in the media's spotlight and suddenly the whole world is an expert on the matter?  Acting like they care?  Like now that it's a hot story and the subject is himself hot, everyone loves him and is buzzing about him?

Photo courtesy of www.telegraph.co.uk

I mean, come on.  Michael Phelps was completely and stupendously awesome before Saturday when he won his 8th Olympic gold medal in a single Olympics...in case you were under a rock for the Games thus far.  (Which by the way was such an amazing thing to witness, I have to say.)  But now everyone thinks they know a thing or two about swimming.

But if that brings attention the the often-ignored sport, then maybe I should be ok with it.

I swam for 9 years.  Age 9 to 18.  I was never good enough to go past the state levels in club or sectionals in high school, but still, I was alright.  I wish I had stuck with it.  While I had talent, which I admit, was probably from my complete immersion in it at an early age; as time went on, I grew a little tired of it.  Some of the people involved were petty and hard to deal with.  And I was getting a little bored.  High school came along which jazzed it up a bit.  But even then, I had a lot of social activities outside of the sport.  It didn't help that my parents were really the only ones who cared (which helped me stick with it as long as I did).  Because I wasn't involved with a "fun", "exciting" or "easy-to-watch" sport, no one would come to see me swim my little heart out.  While I am the first to admit that if you don't know the times someone is swimming, an all-day meet can get exceptionally challenging to sit through.  It's hot, crowded and uncomfortable to sit on the bleachers for the whole day.  But in high school, the meets are only two hours at most.  The pace is faster, there are more teammates cheering, there are team cheers at the beginning, there is a winning and losing team (instead of individual places and times).  But still, it was rare that we had non-parent spectators.  Even my grandparents didn't care much for it.  They were more interested in their local high school volleyball team (with none of their own grandchildren on it) than in my swimming.  My dad was a timer at most of my early meets, then he started running the things, and finally officiating them.  He still does.  He runs the state meets, and sometimes even bigger ones than that.  Swimming is in our family.  I need to get back to it.  Looking back, I think if my focus had been a little different, I could have been something more.  Nothing on the Olympic level.  No no.  But still.

(That's me on the far right.  Laughable if you've seen me anytime recently.  I was thin and had muscles!)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that swimming has been around for a long time and people haven't really cared much about it.  If you only support the Olympians, people may not have the encouragement to get to that level, when you don't pay attention to the little guys.  The eight year-olds bumbling down the pool, as adorable as can be; the eleven, twelve and thirteen year-olds who are uncomfortable with their own bodies in swim suits, but do their best anyways; the first timer swimming in high school, using all their courage to try out for the team; the senior who may or may not ever swim again.  They all need representation.  Not just the fabulous people in front of the cameras.  Please don't be fickle.

Focus on the Good

We learned ourselves a lesson in regards to showing a house. (P.S. this is not correlated to the new series, Life Lessons that I've started...)  About what not to do and to pay attention to where our house is located for when we need to sell it.  Thank you God for Pastor Emmitt's words of encouragement via a podcast - the topic was called "Self-Destruction: How to Avoid It".  And before you go thinking something horrible, it's nothing like that.  (It was just something we know better about now.)  The three main ideas were: 1. Focus on the Good (see the bad, but focus on the good) 2. Think on the Good, and 3. Talk About the Good.  Right now I just need the phrase, "focus on the good".  It could have been worse.  Much worse.  It doesn't make the selling situation a ton easier tho'.

Sigh.

Lord, please send us a buyer.

Wide Eyed

Holy bananas, a week has gone by already.  Craziness. 

I changed the banner to a new pic, using a newly found online program, picnik.  Love it!

Yesterday I had my eyes dilated and checked up... first time for the enlarged pupil thingy.  I must say I'm not a huge fan, but I'll take it over root canals any day.  Thank goodness my sunglasses wrap around my face and block out most of the light.  And it definitely took longer than 4 hours for them to return to normal.  Healthy eyes are important tho.

Today the mail brought me a happy little surprise as I got the Disney album I've been trying to find for almost a year and a half.   A few months before our trip to Florida last year, I saw a perfect scrapbook album at Hobby Lobby, but did not buy it.  When I went back armed with a coupon, it was gone.  I've been trying to find it ever since.  I'm sure I could have located it from various websites, but I'm a little leery of buying from some of them.. don't look too reputable.  But the other day I got an email with a sales flier for one the online stores I shop at with Disney stuff on sale!  And they had the long lost album! Yay!  I suppose it's not THAT big of a deal, a whole paragraph worth of blog space, but I have to say, I REALLY love it!  The cover looks like an old, soft, comfy gray cotton jersey tshirt with scribble/drawn Mickeys.

As a result of this arrival, I have been printing out all of our Disney photos.  Sadly, I didn't know the resolution on the camera was set at the tiniest pixelation... thus wallet sized photos that are still pixely.  Luckily, I noticed this on the second day.  Not all the pics got ruined.

On another photographic note, tomorrow is the 25th, and month 3 of Shimelle's Scrap Your Day.  I'm hoping for a better day than last month, where I forgot to takes photos at all.  Eep.  Photo courtesy of Shimelle.com

Tomorrow will also see another Life Lesson.  Check back again for some life wisdom. :)

My New Best Friend

photo courtesy of www.babble.com

Today was a day that I never want to experience again.  I was scheduled for a root canal.  Well, actually two root canals - the two teeth farthest back in the mouth that are next to each other.  The hardest to get to.  Thank you Jesus that once they cleared away the debris for both teeth, only one needed the full root canal, the other just needed a core build up and crown.  The worst part - the x-rays.  Horrible.  Uck.  Gag. 

Got some temporary caps for a few weeks that are completely flat and feel totally weird.  Just got to be careful with the foods I eat.  And keep the chompers clean and clean and clean.  And clean.  Hello floss.

I'm back!

Tiny respite, back to write some more.

The pool is finally open with the key card box working properly.  Prior to today it would either be padlocked shut, or the card reader wasn't functioning properly, which required someone to let you in.  Now I can finally go swimming at 6am in peace.

A few days ago, we saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Pretty good, better than Temple of Doom, not quite as good as the others.  Was disappointed at the ending.  Today we saw the second installment of Narnia.  Again, pretty good, not as good as the first.  I was not as emotionally involved in Price Caspian as I was in Lion, Witch & Wardrobe.  Meh.  Didn't pull at the heartstrings as much.  Maybe that's just the way the book is, I don't know, I've never read them.

Last week's Weekend Creative is finished, waiting to be mailed (mom and dad, don't follow that link quite yet), and the current Weekend Creative is a fantastic idea...just not one I'm going to be able to execute very soon.  I'd like to accumulate more photos of the family we will have in the future.  In order to accumulate said photos, one must have said family in the first place.  :)

I'm almost done with the finishing touches to stage our house for a sale this summer, God willing.  The sale, I mean, not finishing the staging.

I've also been working on a small, ring-bound notebook of sorts to house all my scrapbook sketches that I refer to when I need a bit of inspiration.  I'm almost finished with that project too, and will share photos upon completion.  So far, I'm guessing I'll need three 2" binder rings to hold them all.

The other day as I walked out to my car upon completion of grocery shopping, a grandmotherly type lady walked up to me, and we had a brief conversation:

Her:  Well, aren't you a smart somebody. (half comment, half question.)

Me: Oh?

Her:  For bringing your own bags to use.

Me: Oh, yes, I suppose so. (Duh. Didn't know what to say.)

Her:  Did you make them?

Me:  (Recovering from the shock of someone acknowledging my reusable, super cute, cloth bags,) No, I purchased them online from this company, b. happybags.  It's still handmade, but you could make it really easily though, it's just a box pattern with strong handle straps.  I love it, they sit nicely in your car and don't tip over, I can fill up my (Texas sized HEB) cart and it'll fit in these six bags.  They can get a little heavy though (as I struggle to get the bag filled with OJ, milk, apple juice, buttermilk, pomegranate juice and a full quart of yogurt into the trunk.)  But I love them!

Her:  Well I don't really sew.  Online you say?

Me:  Yep, there are others that make these market bags too.  I just really liked b.happybags' products.  And I always feel good about myself walking out of the store without the extra waste of plastic.

Her:  Huh, well you're a smart someone.  Have a nice day!  (As she walks off.)

Me:  Thanks, you too!  (As I get into my car smiling.)

I love my bags!  (Ignore the double chin and lack of makeup.)  The styles I purchased are Victoria and Lucy (three each) and one John (for Pete, so he could have a "manly" bag, not a frilly frou frou fussy pretty bag to shop with - not pictured.)

Today...

we meet with the Realtor.  Finally getting this on the right path.

Scrap Your Day/Well Now We Know/Weekend Creative/Splash

Today is the 25th of the month, and I promptly forgot it was Scrap Your Day.  So I had to change my clock to say what time I got up... kind of cheating.. but I forgot.  :(  I'll post the day's pictures tonight.

I've been slowly getting back into the swing of things now that we are back home.  Welcome back, it's 97 degrees.  We stupidly drove straight through, 19 hours... straight.  In one day.  Well.. we got back home at 3:45am.  I was so overtired I was getting carsick.  It was a really weird feeling.  I'll never do that again.  My life's motto applies to this situation: Well, now we know.  The house was fine, despite my daily worry while gone.  It even smelled clean and new.  Not always the case when you come back to a closed up house after 12 days.  Poor Pete has to work 4 days in a row; Welcome back, here's a ton of work, jump right in!

I have been working on this Friday's Weekend Creative, but am unable to share any detailed information or photos as it is a gift.  I don't want to spoil the surprise until the recipients receive it.  So, once they get it, I'll post photos.

Amazingly, the community pool FINALLY opened (either yesterday or today); I walked over to check it out and happily, there were people swimming!  Later I swung by again and it was quickly becoming packed.  This just reassures me that I'll have to go swimming in the morning when the place opens at 6 if I want to avoid swimming over a small child or getting jumped on by a fat kid or beaned in the head with a ball.  Ah well, it's what I expected would have to happen.  It'll be good for me right?  Getting up at 5:30?  Right....?

Mixed Up Mini

On a creative note, I finished assembling the Mixed Up Mini album from the last Weekend Creative.  I'm not going to put any pictures or memorabilia in it yet, but having it done makes it easier to grab and start decorating.  I think I need to do this more often. Pre-assemble some mini albums, I mean.  Here are some photos of the various pages.

How Much Do You REALLY Have?

Having only been married for two years, we sure have accumulated the stuff.  Especially with home-ownership.  Having an empty room just looks... dumb.  Take our living room for example.  We only have one kitchen table.  The dining room is currently housing the cat taking a nap in the sun.  And a painting.  And that's it.  So, in response to the empty room situation, we purchased more stuff.  (For the other bedrooms and living room, not the dining room.)  In truth, we only live in half of our house.  Without kids taking up space with all of their paraphernalia, we've got unused rooms.  Which is a life lesson for us when purchasing a domicile.  But nevertheless, we've got a lot of stuff.  For just two people.  And in this sense, it can be difficult to know if something is missing... or if it is missing to prove you had it in the first place. 

Enter the home inventory.  In response to our last encounter with movers and several things going missing, being unable to prove this has continually made me grit my teeth and roll my eyes at myself for not keeping better records of our earthly possessions.  I am determined that this will not happen again.  I originally assumed this would be an extremely daunting task, comprised of either a notebook or clipboard and a pen, slowly and surely, handwriting everything we owned.  Unsure as to how to categorize these lists, other than by room, I wanted to see if anyone had created an Excel spreadsheet with different ways to sort and categorize their belongings.  After a few Internet searches, I stumbled across a different method completely.  The Insurance Information Institute has some wonderful software to download for free!  This software is called Know Your Stuff and is a whole program that allows you to add photos of the exterior of your house, add and title your own rooms, and add items to each room.  The individual item you add is titled however you want, there are categories you can assign it to, (ex. major appliance, linens, artwork, jewelry, etc.) the quantity, how much it would cost to replace, when and where you made the purchase, make, model, serial number and description boxes.  The other cool thing about the item you're adding, is you can add a photo and a scanned receipt to the file.  Then you can look at how much you really have in valuables, either by room or category.  This is really a wonderful tool to have.  While my original assumption of this task taking some time to accomplish is indeed correct, I have found a way to make it fun and easy.  Plus now I'll know if we have enough insurance to cover everything we've got!

A Quote

Came across this quote today:

Love is not blind - it is seeing and still loving.

Blog Trial Number 5

Well hello to the wide world of anonymous people!

This will now be my fifth attempt at starting and continuing with a blog.  The first time was in college, and I found out I cannot say whatever I want when you are associated with an institution like the government.  Lesson learned.  Trial number two was a card-only type blog, and when I began to grow away from that medium of creativity, I also grew away from the blog.  "Third time's the charm" did not really hold true for me in this instance, as the third installment ended abruptly as I grew weary of the host site itself.  Switching over to a new hosting site who was also free (blog number four) fell victim to my waning attention span.  And thus, here I am at blog number five.  I'm hoping that by using a paid for site, it will inspire me to keep up with posts.  I also have been trying to keep a journal since the beginning of the year, as encouraged by Ali Edwards, one of my idols.  The other thing that was very attractive about typepad was the freedom you have to change the look, customize and all the other cool stuff to play around with (like spell check!).  By having this opportunity to switch it up, I'm hoping I won't get bored.

I also need to keep a blog going because our families are so far away.  I know the phone is right there and email is even more right there.  But this is yet another form of connection and relationship that we can all have and share.