The Best Things in My Life

La Paz...

2011-03-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Julie and I'm 40.
That sounds a little weird but it is, in fact, my new reality. I turned 40 last week. I'm not hung up on the age thing, really. Birthdays always make me feel somewhat reflective, especially with "milestone" birthdays. In general, my 30's were better than my 20's and I'm looking forward to my 40's being even better.
One of the best parts about my birthday this year was that I got to celebrate it in La Paz, Mexico. What a beautiful, relaxing, soulful place. We spent a week lounging by the pool, swimming with sea lions, exploring the beach, eating wonderful food and drinking wonderful tequila! Not a bad way to spend any week, but in particular a birthday week.
La Paz had a lot of texture. I was struck by the feeling of so many things there and how authentic it felt. Between the four of us there, we took hundreds of photos and some of my favorite highlight the textures. Here are just a few examples...

These are really completely random... a light fixture on our patio, a grass overhang on a bar, a park bench, some wall art, a candle and a light fixture. So pretty and each of them bring me right back. I'll have more vacation photos soon, but these were the first I wanted to play with!

Disneyland...

2011-03-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

We have just returned from a fun (surprise!) trip to Disneyland! This is the second time that we've surprised Alex with a trip and I think the surprise is just as much fun as the trip!
I captured a couple of highlights here, but there are of course many more stories to tell...

From top to bottom: Alex with the gorilla at The Rainforest Cafe, our first family character photo with Safari Mickey, the view from the gondola on the ferris wheel at California Adventure, Tigger with the boys, Alex breaking out of jail at Toon Town, Alex and the pirate, Alex and Donald, Alex chilling out on the giant Lego.
We had a really wonderful trip. Alex was brave enough to go on every ride. In fact, he became a total roller coaster fanatic! First with Space Mountain, then on California Screamin'. I believe that we went on those two rides a total of about 12 times! His reaction was so adorable. At the end of each ride, he would pump his fists and scream "Oh yeah!" "AWESOME!". Too cool.
Two years ago when we went to Disney Alex was still such a little guy. Now he seems much more like a boy. Quite bittersweet to be sure.

Me: The Abridged Version

2011-02-20T12:59:00.000-08:00

Back in 2009, I took a class at Big Picture Classes called Me: The Abridged Version. The idea behind the class was to create an album, well, all about me. The concept is really cool, but for whatever reason, the project never really got off the ground. Until now. I decided to take advantage of my Layout-A-Day challenge to get going on it and so far, I'm really loving the process. It's pretty fun trying to come up with something that fits with each letter and I'm expecting a pretty special book when I'm done. I want to be able to share it altogether when it's done, but for now, here are my entries for A and B:

The toughest part is finding the right photo for the sentiment and, as you can see, sometimes creativity is the key.

In other news, I did one of the scariest computer-related things ever the other day... I deleted my iPhoto Library from my iMac. My computer was running pretty slow for a while and my photos were taking up more than 50 GB of hard drive space (that's a little shy of 15,000 photos, in case you're wondering). I did a little research and copied the library to an external hard drive and then did nothing. It took a while, but I finally hit the delete button.

My mom and dad had more than 100 photo albums in their home that recorded our lives. I'm sure that all my photos would take quite a few more albums than that and I'm so aware of how fragile it is, how fragile computers can be. Anyway, now they're all safe and sound on three different external hard drives, and I have a bit more room on my computer and hopefully it will more a little smoother.

Mt.Baker

2011-02-15T20:16:00.001-08:00

Mt.Baker, originally uploaded by jashepler.

I have been keeping up daily with my LOAD challenge, but horrible at getting my layouts posted! I'll try to catch up soon, but wanted to get this layout up today. This is a few shots of Alex up at Mt. Baker where he and I are taking snowboarding lessons this year.

Let me give you a quick review of my three lessons so far. Lesson #1: I was excited to learn, sore and maybe concussed by the time we left the mountain and so sore the next morning that I though I wouldn't be able to get out of bed. Literally it was the most pain I've ever caused myself. Lesson #2: I made it through one hour of my two hour lesson. When I came in my knee was swollen and totally bruised and my tailbone (still sore from the week prior when I started) was on fire. Luckily we had a week off due to weather. Lesson #3: I loved it! It was awesome... the snow was great, there was lots of powder, I stopped falling all the time. It was really perfect. I was ready to quit if it didn't go well. Lesson #3 was make it or break it and I'm so glad that I stuck with it for one more week!

Alex's story of snowboarding is a little more straightforward. Lesson #1: He loved it. Lesson #2: He loved it even more. Lesson #3: He loved it even more again. He loves the snow. He has a great attitude and never gives up. Whenever he falls, he just pops right back up. It's awesome.

I'm really glad that we're learning this together and I hope that we can continue to enjoy the mountain for quite a while.

Wednesday

2011-02-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

I love Ted. No, there is not a new man in my life. If you haven't discovered Ted, their mission is simple: spreading ideas. They post videos of speakers that are inspiring, thought provoking, entertaining and simply worth the time. I was browsing and came across this video of a ukulele player. Sounds crazy, but take a couple of minutes and watch this. It's rare to see someone tackle anything with as much passion as this young man does his instrument.

I'll be back with more layouts tomorrow because seriously, how can I can compete with that?

LOAD Day 5 & 6

2011-02-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

I'm keeping up pretty well this round! One of the things I love about a challenge like Layout-A-Day is that it works to get my creative mind kick started. I start to have more ideas and often, the thing I started working on leads to lots of other ideas that I can work on.
Here is day 5:

Isn't he just the cutest? Our dear friend Matthew captured that awesome picture of Alex blowing out the candles on his cake and it was screaming to be highlighted!

Day 6:

This photo is pretty awful, but I grabbed a bunch of photos my mom took at her place and created a story. Alex is really very photogenic, so that's about all it takes to make a great page!

LOAD Day 4 ~ ChristmasCard

2011-02-04T20:13:00.001-08:00

ChristmasCard, originally uploaded by jashepler.

Today's layout is basically the "gag reel" of my photo shoot of Alex for our Christmas card. I had the idea to wrap him up in lights like a Christmas tree. The execution didn't quite match what I had in my mind, but he had a lot of fun playing with the lights and I had a lot of fun playing with my camera. And, in the end, we ended up with a pretty cute picture for the card!

LOAD Day 3 ~ This is Our Life

2011-02-03T21:32:00.001-08:00

This is Our Life, originally uploaded by jashepler.

Today's entry was pretty simple. Just a few photos from our everyday life back in the fall of 2009. I really love to have photos like this included in our scrapbooks to remind us just how things were in real life!

LOAD Day 2 ~ Family & Friends

2011-02-02T21:42:00.001-08:00

Family & Friends, originally uploaded by jashepler.

Day two of Layout-A-Day (LOAD) finds me using this fun, huge photo that was taken at Alex's surprise birthday party this year. Here's the back story:
Alex had been asking and asking for a surprise birthday party. We tried to explain that if he knew it was coming that it wouldn't be a surprise, but he wasn't to be deterred. So, while we continued to plan a fun party with his friends at the Skagit Children's Museum, we were also planning a family party, only this one was to be a surprise!
We totally pulled it off! When we pulled up to Mom's house, we explained that she was having some friends over so we could only visit for a second. When everyone shouted SURPRISE!! it was perfect! He was definitely surprised.
He'd been playing with his camera all week and, when everyone started to disperse to take a little of the pressure off of him after the surprise, he had me call everyone back together so that we could take a family photo. I love that he wanted to do that! Clearly my love for the photo is rubbing off.

LOAD - Day 1

2011-02-01T17:23:00.000-08:00

Layout complete for day one! I got this idea on a blog I like to read, Life is in the Details. I love the idea of capturing a year like this on one page. I feel like I captured some of Alex's best looks and funny faces.

Saturday night thoughts

2011-01-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

I came here to write a post about my "one little word" and got completely distracted. Does that ever happen to you? First, I wanted to figure out how to change the little symbol up in the tool bar (also known as a "favicon"). I'd taken a class at Little Light Studio a while ago and it was part of the lesson that I just never got around to. Well, tonight I decided to give it a go. It was harder than I thought. An hour later, I had that taken care of and realized that I needed to add the most recent LOAD button to my side bar. That was a bit quicker.
So, now to the reason I came to post tonight, my word:

I chose grace after thinking about some things that I want to accomplish this year and how I want to approach my life this year.
I want to have a more graceful home (less stuff, more organized)
I want want to live a bit more gracefully (be a bit more mindful in my actions and with my time)
I want to grace my life with my presence (be intentional with my decisions)
I want to be more graceful in my relationships (less stubborn, more consistent)

I'm a month in and can report that I have remained mindful of my word and my intentions. I see it showing up in little ways (being a little more quick to pick up after dinner, cleaning out that nagging end table drawer, asking more questions). I think it will be a good fit and am anxious to see how the year progresses.

LOAD

2011-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited that it's time for Layout-A-Day again! Last February was my first go at LOAD and was hooked right away. I love the instant support group, the creative nudge and I was lucky enough to win the big prize my first time out so that was super fun! This will be my fourth challenge. I can't wait to get started.
As I get ready, I wanted to share a couple of thought about how I get ready and how I overcome obstacles and how I make the most of LOAD.

1) Make a list.

This is what I have so far. I like to have a plan going in. For some reason, I'm not a good prompt follower. Once in a while a prompt will align with something a layout I have in mind and that works, too. Most of the time, I have quite a few layouts planned that are from classes I've taken and not finished (there are three this month). A also have a monthly review album and if I'm not caught up, those layouts go on here as well. I finished November this week, so it's already crossed off the list!

2) Allow for spontaneity.

Last year, this layout wasn't on my to-do list, but we had a great day at the pumpkin patch with some friends and some awesome photos to go with it. How could I not include them? When I'm in the "LOAD mode" I go with whatever feels right. I try to put things on my list that have been on my mind or that are stories I've wanted to tell for a while, but creatively, I think it's important to do what moves you.

3) Live in the moment.

Both of these layouts I did with photos I took the same day. In the first case, my husband and I had taken a weekend away and did a little hiking. I didn't want to skip a day and we had some great photos from our hike. While he was in the shower getting ready for dinner, I put together this simple digital layout.
The second layout is of the day we moved my mom. My dad died a little over a year ago which prompted this move. The day was much more emotional than I thought it would be. I put together this layout as I was processing through those feelings and it made a difference for me.

4) Be easy on yourself.
You may miss a layout. That is OK. The second time around I got so sick that I didn't even want to be on the computer and I missed about three or four days. The third time around, life got in the way. While it's rewarding to complete the whole challenge, every layout you complete is one that may not have gotten done if you weren't part of the challenge. Celebrate what you do accomplish.

5) Be active on Flickr
I know that it can take additional time, but the layout that get posted in the gallery are so inspiring. Make a comment! Celebrate the layouts you love. I try to go through at least the 10 or so layouts that were posted before mine and often more than that. I love to read the comments on my layouts so I try to comment generously.

That's it! Have fun and I can't wait to see you! If I've sparked some interest, check out Layout a Day with Lain Ehmann.

Four Random Things...

2011-01-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

Well, since it's the fourth, and I haven't been doing a super great job of keeping up my minimum posting schedule of once per week, here goes nothing!

1) We went to Seattle last week and visited Harry Potter: The Exhibition. If you have any Harry Potter fans in the house, it's totally worth going. I read all the books as they came out and our seven year old son is a big fan so we really dug it. You get to see all sorts of props from the movies; costumes, wands, the beds from the Gryffindor dorm, Hagrid's hut. Super cool. The only bummer... no photography allowed. WHAT?!

2) The exhibition was at the Science Center which is at the Seattle Center. Photos were allowed outside and it was gorgeous:

3) We spent another New Year's Eve at a good friend's home and this year marked the third since Mark and I've been together that I've seen him awake at midnight on December 31st. Happy New Year to all!

4) I'm participating along with Ali Edwards (and hundreds of others!) in One Little Word at Big Picture Classes. I've got my word chosen and will post about that soon!

Christmas Card 2010

2010-12-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

So, after several years going without, I decided to put together a Christmas card. It was all spurred by my friend Amber who every year without fail sends a really nice card and letter, leaving no detail of their year out. I love it and decided I needed to do something, if perhaps on a smaller scale.

This year I found some great (and free!) card templates at Becky Higgins site. Now I just needed a picture. Since I put these together at the last minute, I knew I wouldn't be able to pull together a decent shot of the whole family, but if I got creative, I could convince our son to pose for me.

My idea was to wrap him in lights like a Christmas tree... cute and fun. Well, I couldn't quite get enough light on his face, but got some cute outtakes. Here are some of my favorites:

Pretty cute! Here is the final result:

Aww...
Thanks to Costco for the quick printing job! They're already signed, sealed and delivered!

Another long break...

2010-12-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

So, when I decided to start a blog, my intention was to have a place to ramble, organize some thoughts for scrapbooking and to practice writing. You see, I've never really felt like myself when I write. I'm not sure who exactly I feel like, but I have this desire for my writing to sound more authentic, more genuine. In 30 years when Alex is looking back at the scrapbooks, I want him to know that I wrote all those words, not wonder who I got to write them for me.
So anyhow, that was my intention and so far, I'm not off to a great start. I've made a decision that I can post something once a week at least. I'm not putting any kind of restrictions on myself, but even if it's one sentence, I can muster up something once per week! Hopefully it will grow from there.
I did participate in LOAD in October, but it didn't go so great. I just really didn't feel the mojo and let myself slide. I got a few layouts done, though. Here are a couple favorites:

This one I actually completed about an hour after that photo was taken. My husband and I were camping for our anniversary and went for a hike. When we got back to the trailer, I got my layout done. This was early in the month when I was still on track!

My mom recently moved and I inherited all our our family albums. My project for the new year will be to get those photos out of their magnetic albums and scan the ones worth scanning. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

See you next week!

Vacation...

2010-07-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky to have worked the same job long enough to have earned five weeks of vacation a year. I tend to forget what a luxury this is until I take a couple of weeks off together. I'm just at the tail end of a two week break and it has been great! My boys took of for a couple of days of water park mayhem leaving me at home to get caught up around the house and, with the help of a friend, get two rooms painted! Then we met up with my side of the family in Leavenworth (WA) for a nice and hot weekend before the three of us headed over to Lake Chelan (WA) for a few more days of fun in the sun!
In Chelan, we met up with some new friends. The wives took the day of from mommy duty and hopped in a limo for a tour of the wineries in the area. This was totally decadent and fun. I've never been to a winery before so I learned a lot and would recommend this to anyone interested at all in wine.
The next day we all spent on the lake. We are lucky that these friends had boats and jet-skis so we really enjoyed the water.
I'm home now feeling a little tired, a little sunburned, but relaxed and so thankful for some wonderful family time!
Some photos from the trip:

1) The boys heading out 2) My mom and her sisters with my cousin and I 3) My son Alex introducing his cousin to bubbles 4) Alex rapping in the pool in Leavenworth 5) Alex at the skate park in Lake Chelan 6) A photo-op during our wine tasting adventure* 7) The ladies of the limo 8) Willow taking Mark out on a jet-ski** 9) Gaye, Barb and me on the 'tube' 10) Alex with the girls on the tube

*I spotted this wine barrel when we were pulling into the third or fourth winery. I said something like "Oh, I have to come get a photo of that!" and two of the ladies I was with asked if I was a scrapbooker! So funny.
**Mark took me on a jet-ski ride in Puerto Vallarta in 2001. It felt like he was trying to rearrange my organs; he was jumping waves, driving super fast. I tried to convince Willow to give him an equally crazy ride, but I'm not sure it happened.

That Time of the Month...

2010-07-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

No, not that time of the month! The time of the month to share an awesome monthly project!

I've been using Cathy Zielske's "The Monthly 8.5 x 11 Album Set" from Designer Digitals for the past three months and it is really cool. It's designed in Cathy's signature clean style and makes getting some memories preserved really easy. Here is my creation for May:

This is actually four 8.5 x 11 pages and you can see them (along with some other layouts) by clicking on my Flickr Photostream on the left. I'm printing these to go into an album along with a divided page protector with some memorabilia, notes and additional photos. I am so happy with these! I don't really believe in the notion of being "caught up" with my scrapbooking and only really worry that our most important stories are being told. But, if I was determined to be "caught up" this would be all I needed to feel complete. It's simple, classic and perfect.

Father's Day...

2010-06-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Father's Day caught me a bit off guard this year. Not in the sense that I didn't know it was coming, but in how much I really missed my dad. I've thought about him every day since his passing and Father's Day, frankly, was never such a big day for us. But knowing that he isn't there to make a card for really hurt.
I liked to pull old pictures of the two of us to include in my cards, so I thought I'd pull some together here:

All of these photos are (obviously!) quite old. I was three days, about 18 months and about five. I'm forever grateful for the lessons my dad taught me and what he brought into my life and into my son's life.

I have to remember another very special father in my life, though. My wonderful and understanding husband. I couldn't leave him out of the photo fun:

Photos of my husband Mark with our sweet kid, Alex. On the day he was born, at four and about five. I know how lucky I am to have a husband who's totally involved and happy to have the role of dad.

But that's not all! I have one more amazing dad to celebrate in my life! I was adopted, brought home from the hospital when I was three days old. When I was 20, I was lucky to meet my birth parents and even luckier to have them become part of our lives. My birth father, Keith, is just awesome:

Here's to celebrating all of the dads in our lives!

A video share...

2010-06-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well, the May edition of LOAD turned out to be a bust. First I got sick; I mean SICK. Whatever it was knocked me out for a week and then some. No energy, no scrapbooking mojo. Just in bed, TV on misery. Then we were on vacation down on the Oregon coast. I knew all along we'd be taking this vacation,I just didn't know we wouldn't have cell phone reception. No way to send a photo anywhere. I did end up with 13 layouts in May, which is 13 more than I would have done left to my own devices, so I can't really be too disappointed.

I did manage to put together a little video memory from our trip to Oregon. This was Alex's first time out on his quad in the sand dunes. He had a wonderful time. Please enjoy...

Work in Progress...

2010-05-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

So, I'm still working on this blog. I hope that a few of you have come back a time or two. I am big time posting my LOAD layouts, but promise to be more diversified than that! I just updated my comment section (I hope!) This is my test post to see if it works. If you stop by, you can check it out for yourself!

Real Life

2010-05-14T13:22:00.001-07:00

RealLife, originally uploaded by jashepler.

This is one of those photos that I have LOVED since the moment I shot it. Alex has the worst look on his face but what I really love is the look on my dad's face! I shared in my journaling on this page how special their relationship was from day one and that really is so true. Those two are best buds.

It seems as though I've seen the question on a couple of different message boards, as well as discussed on a recent episode of The Paperclipping Roundtable, about how you deal with scrapbooking challenging times. I've been working through this process over the last six months or so and this layout is a part of that process. I thought I'd share my take on the subject.

My dad passed away a little over six months ago. His death was a shock; completely unexpected to anyone who knew him. At the time, I couldn't imagine ever feeling right again. It was the worst feeling I've ever experienced.

But something happened as I was going through decades worth of photos in preparation for my dad's memorial service. I realized that all of these photos that have been part of my life for as long as I can remember had taken on a new meaning. I started to get a different sense of what it is we do as 'memory keepers'.

Shortly after, I stumbled across a website called Good Grief. This website was the brainchild of Amanda Probst and hosts challenges related to scrapping memories of loved ones who have passed. I honestly hadn't thought about scrapbooking anything, let alone my dad's passing, until I came across this site. So I took the plunge. I think the first challenge had to do with documenting your loved one's handwriting. It felt like a release. It didn't make me feel sad the way I thought it would; I felt more connected to my dad and realized that in preserving our stories, I could keep those small pieces of him with us always.

Now, I never shy away from scrapbooking with pictures of my dad. It doesn't soften the blow of our loss, but it is a gift to be able to share our most precious memories in a beautiful and heartfelt way.

Love My Boys

2010-05-11T20:29:00.001-07:00

Love My Boys, originally uploaded by jashepler.

I really do just love these boys so much! Don't know how I got so lucky.

Righty or Lefty?

2010-05-10T17:32:00.001-07:00

Righty or Lefty?, originally uploaded by jashepler.

Today's prompt for LOAD was "Holiday"; specifically to use holiday product in an untypical way. I wasn't feeling particularly inspired today, but I went through a stack of 'stories' that I had pulled prior to starting LOAD that I wanted to tell. When I came across these two photos, I knew that I would use them and I had the design pretty clear in my head. The little pieces of patterned paper were an afterthought to stick with the challenge.
Do love this page though and those cute pictures of my boy!

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T16:17:00.001-07:00

MothersDay, originally uploaded by jashepler.

We spent a beautiful and fun weekend down in Portland for Mother's Day. We really lucked out with the beautiful weather and totally took advantage of it. Since I had these fresh photos to use, they became my inspiration for my layout today!

While I was working on this layout, I decided to try creating a layered template as well. I've wanted to do this for a while to save some of my favorite designs so that I might use them again (hey, stick with what works, right?). Anyway, I think that I was successful and wanted to share! Here is what the template looks like:

and here is the link to download it:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ntzficmcntd
Disclaimer: I've never done this before! The way I think this should work is you click the link above which will take you to a page where you can download a zipped file of the template. If it doesn't work for you, let me know! Or, if you know an easier way for me to do this, I'd love to know that as well!

A copule more catch-ups...

2010-05-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

I've been working hard to complete a layout-a-day, even while on a little mini vacation! Here are my last couple of layouts:

This layout highlights a camping trip that Alex and I took with my parents last summer. In hindsight, I am ever so thankful that we took that trip!

These photos were taken the very next week when Mark, Alex and I had an adventure in Florence, OR. Super fun!

Think that is it. I'm all caught up for now. Eight days down, 23 to go!

Birthday Brunch

2010-05-08T20:39:00.001-07:00

Birthday Brunch, originally uploaded by jashepler.

This layout is a direct lift from a design that I did in the Cathy Zielske class "Design Your Life" at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It's one of my most favorite photos lately of Alex. It was taken at a birthday brunch that Matthew treated us to. A super fun day I think captured in a super fun way.

Gathering Wood

2010-05-05T21:43:00.001-07:00

GatheringWood, originally uploaded by jashepler.

It's day five of LOAD. This one was a little tough for me.

Today is the six month anniversary of my dad's passing and he's been on my mind all day. It's hard to believe that it's been that long. Grief is a strange thing... it sneaks up on you when you least expect it. It could be something as simple as a t-ball game and it hits me all over again that we won't be making new memories with him. It makes me that much more thankful for these memories that we have captured.

I showed Alex this layout when I was done. He's just barely two in these photos. I asked him if he remembers cutting wood with Grandpa. He thinks about it for a moment and then lights up... "I remember that saw and that hat and gloves. I think I DO remember!"

I love that boy.

Blackmail

2010-05-02T10:40:00.001-07:00

Blackmail, originally uploaded by jashepler.

Day 2 of LOAD and another featuring my son in a somewhat compromising position. Sometimes these silly pictures are just what inspires me, you know?
Anyway, the challenge of the day was to pick three adjectives that define your style. I think simple, clean and linear are three things that typically define my style. I like how this layout came together. It even got Alex's nod of approval!

Busted!

2010-05-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

Busted!, originally uploaded by jashepler.

Layout-A-Day (LOAD from here on out) is my favorite scrapbooking challenge ever. It really forces me to carve out some creative time every day and I feel super accomplished at the end of the month.

Not to mention getting memories like this one down on paper.

What I've Been Up To...

2010-04-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've been taking a class at Little Light Studio called "Bling Out Your Blog". While I'm not much of a "bling" girl, I have been interested in blog design for a while. I can get caught up pretty easily on how things look vs. what they do. I love the idea of a blog as a way to document everyday life, but didn't necessarily love how I could make it look so I found myself just not using it.
Now, it's looking more "me". There will be some adjustments still to come, I'm sure, but overall I'm much happier with how things are looking here.

On the scrapbooking front, this week has been Ali Edwards "Week in the Life" project hosted over at her blog. I started the week with really good intentions, but some technical challenges stumped me mid week. I'm thinking of giving it another go next week, but did capture some nice shots. Here are just a few peeks at our mornings:

1) Alex always ends up in our bed in the mornings. He's pretty sweet to wake up to.
2) Coffee...
3) Off to school
4) Eggo waffles... a new found favorite.
5) Alex is ~~always~~ usually cheerful in the morning

Have a great week!

Want more LOAD?

2010-02-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

Here you go...

Day 18... a layout for Alex's ornament book:

Day 19... Alex is pretty comfortable with the camera and in particular likes taking pictures of himself! I had a bunch of pictures developed from the summer of 2008 and found all of these:

Day 20... My dad took this picture a couple of summers ago and it is hand's down one of my favorites:

Day 21... I had this quote from Alex on the dry erase board in the laundry room for a year and a half! Happy to finally tell the story:

Day 22... Another fun memory of 2008:

Day 23... More summer fun! Alex was so excited to get this slide and loved watching it be blown up but was terrified when it came down to sliding down:

Still caught up with just a few days to go! This Thursday and Friday I'll be in meetings in Seattle which will make things a little tricky, but I'm loading some photos and supplies on my laptop and will go digital! Fingers crossed!

Still at it...

2010-02-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

Day 16 and I've yet to miss a day! Sixteen layouts complete. I'm really quite proud of myself. Here are a couple recent entries:

From today. I'm finding some solace in scrapping about Dad...

Day fifteen. A quickie Alex page...

Day fourteen. Another quickie highlighting Alex and Dwight's relationship. The first page I've done about the two of them...

Day thirteen. A special Valentine's Day 'card' for Mark...

I've done a pretty good job keeping up. I've even finished a couple of layouts first thing in the morning. Before work even! Twelve more days seems doable. I'm having a really good time seeing my completed work pile up! Even if my layouts aren't works of art, they are precious stories and they're BEING TOLD! This is the best thing of all!

LOAD #7

2010-02-07T13:03:00.001-08:00

(click on images to see larger)

Today's layout is from "Yesterday & Today" a class taught at Big Picture Scrapbooking by Ali Edwards. What a great class that highlights your personal history and makes connections with today.

I'm really enjoying the challenge of LOAD. I'm feeling so productive... I've probably done more scrapbooking this week that in the past six months! Here are a couple more layouts:

#6

#5

#4

#3

This one was a little tough. For some reason the last week I've felt a little sad about Dad. I know that 'they' say that grief comes and goes, but it's a whole other thing to go through it. I found this layout to be a great way to channel some of that energy and celebrate his life.

I think the best thing about this challenge is that I'm realizing I don't need to spend hours making a layout. Finished pages are way better than "perfect pages. I can't wait to see the stack when I'm done!

LOAD!

2010-02-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

So, I've taken on a challenge for the month of February... one layout a day, every day, for the entire month. I haven't been doing much scrapbooking lately. Not sure why. The inspiration ebbs and flows. I think about it a lot and have got some ideas written down to keep the flow going. Here's my layout for today:

I decided to catch up on some layouts from classes that I'm behind on. Should be a challenge, but one I'm looking forward to!

Six Things on Saturday

2010-01-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

Trying to find a rhythm and routine for writing, so I figured I could manage to find six things to write about each Saturday. On my mind today:
1) Photo-A-Day
I've been doing a pretty decent job this year of capturing a photo each day. I have simplified my approach this year and I'm just capturing the date rather than try to be too elaborate. Here are a couple of my favorites...

Theresa and I on New Year's Day. OK, technically it was New Year's Eve, but it was after midnight so it still counts! I have never felt such a sense of relief and joy at the turning of the new year!

The newest addition to our family. Alex is in love. The verdict is out for me, although I do love using the DVD player.

Really, who could resist this face?

2) Knitting... I've picked up this hobby again and finished a project that I started almost two years ago! It's pretty exciting to see something done. I can see that it would be a pretty relaxing hobby, although so far I have to concentrate too hard to call it completely relaxing.
3) 2010 is off to a great start. So far, so good. Much calmer than the year ended. I hope for it to continue that way.
4) American Idol has started! I love it!
5) I've been working up to more creativity. Looking forward to spending some quality time in my workroom. Results to come.
6) It feels pretty good to have a post done! Have a great weekend!

Twenty-ten

2010-01-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

So much talk about how to pronounce the new year... I love it. I think it's entertaining.

My brother-in-law passed along a link to this video. It moved me. It made me think. And, in this season of goals and resolutions, it seems somehow fitting.

Monday...

2009-12-14T21:12:00.001-08:00

Today was just one of those days from the very beginning. Very Monday-ish.

It started with a 5:00 am automated phone call from the school district letting us know that school was cancelled because of snow. First of all, why on earth did we need to hear that news at 5:00 am? I don't know any kindergarten mom getting the kids up at that time of the morning. Second, a snow day!? We had not even an inch of snow overnight and were only one of two districts in the state that closed. So frustrating, especially when I'm working a short week already and really had work to catch up on, plus Alex was home last week sick and really needed to get back into a routine. UGH!

OK, rant over. In all seriousness, did you ever have that day (or week or month) when you just didn't feel like all that effective of a parent? When your kid's acting out of sorts, not listening and your patience for doing the "right" thing is about nil? That's how I'm feeling today. The past few weeks have just been awful and I know that Alex is going through dealing with his grandpa's death in his own way. I'm just so looking forward to a new year and a fresh start.

So, I thought it would be nice to pull a fun picture, taken a few weeks ago when Alex was into experimenting with the auto-timer on my little camera. A goofy family shot does wonders for the soul!

Wishes and Wisdom

2009-12-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

So, this is my first challenge layout for this great blog I found called the Good Grief Blog. I was surfing around some new to me scrapbooking blogs and found this a couple of weeks after Dad's death. It was serendipitous in a way. I'd been thinking about some pages I might want to do about Dad and that I might find it healing and here was a whole site about it!

Anyway, the challenge is to use handwriting in a layout. Dad wasn't much of a writer. Most of what we have are little notes about something he was working on, a phone call he'd made, etc. When we were getting ready for his memorial, the funeral director asked for a quote or saying that we could include on the program and I remembered this gem that we had from Alex's baby shower.

Dad's passing has solidified my belief that we need to use our handwriting more! It doesn't matter that it's messy or if we don't like it. It is a precious piece of who we are. I only wish we had more of Dad's.

(Journaling reads: We don't have many handwritten notes from Grandpa Don. He wasn't really a writer. But, during our baby showers, we had everyone write down a piece of wisdom or a wish for Alex. I'm so happy that we have this piece of wisdom from my dad. It's something he believed in and totally lived by. He loved the work he did. Building up Specialty Forest Products was one of his proudest achievements. I sincerely hope that Alex is lucky enough to find work that he loves as much as Grandpa loved his.)

Santa and Alex

2009-12-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

Made our annual trip to see Santa last night. We got there just in the nick of time... it was almost Santa's dinner time!

Alex was not shy, as usual, and had a list of items that were mostly electronic (XBox 360, a new TV, etc.). Don't know where this kid gets his tastes, but hope he's not too disappointed when it isn't all under the tree!

I was looking back at all of our Santa pictures. It's amazing how much change happens over the course of one year and how unaware we are of it happening. Somehow, Alex has turned from a toddler into a boy right underneath our noses. I'm not sure I'm ready for that!

I was happy to finally make this trip. This holiday season hasn't felt that festive with Dad's death. Luckily, Alex is as excited as any six year old should be. Our decorations got put out a little late, and most of our traditions are a few weeks behind, but it's great to have Alex helping us remember a bit about the holiday spirit.

Remembering Dad

2009-12-05T09:01:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about recording memories of Dad, and sometimes it feels a little soon... feelings are still pretty raw and I'm feeling almost zero creativity. But I was thinking about his service and what a great celebration it was of Dad and his life. That morning, Mom said "we're having a party! It isn't one we wanted to have, but we're having it!" We were determined not to be sad and we mostly succeeded. I want to remember this day for what it was and all it took was one great picture. Almost no creativity required!