A blurred busy week

That week went quickly!

Busy, busy, busy with preparing for the wedding, family arriving, fun activities and then of course the wedding on Saturday. Sunday was a big day of recovery and sad airport goodbyes.

Now it's on to Thanksgiving day preparations. I'm hosting this year at our new place. The one thing i'm dreading is touching the raw turkey. Normally i never touch raw meat but i have to rub in the seasoning on the bird so... touchy, touchy, for me.

Hope everyone has a really good Thanksgiving day in the US!

Update

Thursday I really forgot to post. I was half asleep when i realized that i hadn't and considered reaching over and typing a quick post on my phone. But then i realized that ultimately it doesn't matter and that i should just go to sleep. Thus ending my NaBloPoMo perfect records.

Friday I didn't have time. Again chalking this up to I had other things that needed my attention.

Saturday i was busy painting my studio and then went out to my cousin's bachelorette party only to remember that my phone took bad pictures in low light. I did have a really good beer. I did get my studio painted - I only have 1 more coat on all the walls to do tomorrow or Tuesday.

Sunday - slept in, had yummy coffee, went to the in-laws for birthday lunch for my husband. Early bed tonight - stayed up way to late last night.

Monday - work and then dinner for my husband's birthday.

Out with the girls

Out on the town. Enjoying a great coffe beer: Kona Pipeline Porter. One to try Big Sky Brewing Moose Drool.

Color Inspiration

Wondering in Target a few weeks back I went through the towel isle. I find this color combo very appealing. Specially the coral & teal next to each other with a touch of yellow & I'm not a fan of yellow usually.

Might have to pull in some coral & yellow into our master bathroom that has classic baby blue counter and accents.

Shoe Shopping

On my quest to find wedding shoes I ran into these that I like. All of them can be found at DSW but good luck if you have wide feet.

Love the leather flower detail on the strap.




I picture these going well with jeans.

I have worn out my blue converse (there are holes in the cloth). My husband told me if i replace them i have to get a color that isn't blue because i've had blue for years. I'm liking the pink a lot:

These could be perfect for an everyday type of shoe for work:

At the conclusion of my shoe quest i ended up with 2 pairs of navy heels, i don't have pictures of those ironically and neither of which were purchased at DSW. I got one from Avenue in a 9w but i think i'll have to exchange them for a 9.5w if i keep them. Then the other from Famous Footwear.

After trying on half a dozen pair of shoes at DSW I confirmed my suspicion that i can only comfortably wear heels in a wide width. I can buy some heels in a medium width but i have go with a size 10 which fits my toes ok but are 1/2 inch too long so the heel of my foot slips in and out easily. Even then 10s are not super comfortable. Which is why my shoe buying habits run toward sneakers, flats or strap sandals with a small heel. Plus i'm 5'2" i just can't wear super high heels with out feeling like my center of gravity is all off.

Does anyone know of a good place to buy shoes in a wide width? I can't believe it's that uncommon.

Almost Forgot

I almost forgot to post! I was busy playing Guitar Hero World Tour and then realized it's 10:30pm and no post.

The most exciting news is we finally purchased out Christmas tickets to Texas. I'm VERY excited about going down for the holidays this year.

I'm also getting pretty excited to see my family for a little bit while they're in town for a wedding. Can't believe it's only a little over a week away. I have to find shoes! My goal is to go to DSW & Ross tomorrow on my way home, they're both in the same shopping center so that'll be convenient.

Realized that i have to go shopping this weekend for Thanksgiving preparations if i expect anything to be available - let alone a Turkey. Gees, this weekend is going to be crazy busy. I know this week is going to fly by and then a bit of panic will set in. Maybe i can go shopping during the week, what an idea. I can plan the menu tomorrow after shoe shopping and then on wednesday go shopping or Thursday after my dress fitting. Yeah... ok, this could work, knock something of the list before the weekend.

Hope everyone's Monday had some good news.

The Weekend

The only thing i got crossed off my list is attending the bridal shower. I did go look for shoes but was unsuccessful. I've come to the conclusion that for heels i need wide instead of medium width shoes. I also found the 6 month out photos but didn't get editing them. At least i touched on 3 items on my list.

Back to work tomorrow... it feels like i just left on Friday, bummer.

2010 Calendar

When I first saw these fantatic calendar set by Moleskin (12 little color leather calendars!) I tried really hard to justify the purchase a few weeks ago but couldn't. I've become good at keeping a digital schedule and was always bad at the paper no matter how pretty it was.

Well now I think I've found a solution. Daily paper journaling - but not paragraphs just key info - event highlights, top 3 moods of the day, main topic discussed, etc. A way to document detials without getting caught up in pages of mind dribble.

See if it works out - haven't gone back to Borders to buy them yet.

Any other reasons why I should have them?

Friday

Well, turns out I don't have anything too intesting to post about today either.

I have plenty of plans for the weekend.
- edit photos from a b-day party 6 moths ago
- paint my office
- unpack some dishes
- attend a bridal shower for my cousin who's wedding is on the 21st ( 2 weeks away!)
- shoe shopping for said wedding (I'm a bridesmaid)
- nursery duty at church

Yeah that should be enough. I hope I have time for it all.

Have any good plans for the weekend?

Thursday

Well, don't have much to say today. I got a graphics table at work today and that's great. Had chipotle for dinner and that was tasty. Watching The Mummy 2 and relaxing with sweet dogs on my lap and that is good.

More eventful post tomorrow.

SweeTarts Candies

Picked up Halloween candy that was on sale and included in a bag are SweeTarts. These are in my top 3 favorite non-chocolate candies, Jolly ranchers & Sour gummy worms would be the other two.

I was eating some at work and among my musings of wanting more I considered how i'd rank the different flavors:

1. Blue (pickled punch) - i did have to look up Wikipedia for the official name, didn't realize this is the same ingredients as PixyStixs
   
2. Green (green apple)
3. Yellow (lemon) - wiki said they stopped making this flavor this year which would explain why i haven't seen any in these packages.
   
4. Orange (same)
5. Pink (cherry)
   
6. Purple (grape) - i make my husband eat these

Then i went on to wonder why they always seem to include lots of the pink & purple and wishing i could put in a custom order for my top flavors like you can custom order m&ms. I went to the official Wonka site but couldn't find anything like that - ah well, probably not enough money in it anyway.

Guest Book - Family Tradition

During the first visit to my husband's Grandparent's I was introduced to the concept of a guest book for your home. They live at the coast so every time family or friends came over for a visit they insisted that you write in their guest book. The guests write a little summery of what happened and a thank you for putting them up if they spent the night. I fell in love with this concept of documentation right away.

I haven't started a book yet for my own home. Not exactly sure why not because I've hosted out of town guests and family events that would have qualified for a little write up. So, it's a little trendy but this idea struck me of how to combine a guest log with the typewriter i recently acquired. If i pull the typewriter out for when guests arrive, i can start a page or note card off with the date and a little prompt like "Notes" or "Leave a Message". I've yet to know anyone to resist punching a few keys of a typewriter. The only draw back is that this looses the ability to also record someones handwriting... hm...something to consider.

Does anyone else have a guest book for their home? Is this a regional experience? Even in hotels along the coast line will have guest books in the room for you to write in.

A Collection of Random Short Paragraphs

I spent the day hunting and pecking for code for the blog. I'm not satisfied with the current layout. There are a few things i want to add and adjust.

***
Tonight I also got caught up on all the recent episodes of The Office. I think this season is shaping up very well. It's surprising how much this show utilizes additional features for the websites, they have webisodes, blogs for actors and the characters, behind the scenes... props to the creators behind the concept to give this TV show a huge web presents. Some people don't watch the show because they work in an office and they don't want to watch a show about their day job but i have disagree - no one works in this type of office!

***
We've been in this rental house for 2 months and i'm still deciphering between good and bad noises. Never did i realize how much i paid attention to sounds at the apartment and could quickly judge them as normal or potential danger. Just 2 minutes ago an odd frog croaking sound started that i haven't heard before. I'm in the front bedroom and can hear just about anything in the front drive and now i think there is a frog out there. Why do we have frogs?! Ewww.

***
I hate the transition at this time of year into darkness. Sure it was nice to have some sun at 6:30am but it was completely dark when i left work at 5:15pm. What makes it worse is that nothing can happen outside when i get home. I can't play chuck-it with the dogs when i get home because they can't see where the ball went! I guess my only solution is flood lights for the backyard for a little evening running about with the dogs. Course when the wind starts up i won't want to be out there anyway.... {where i live is known for its crazy high winds in the winter}

And We're Off

First post of the month!

I've been wanting to do a blog redesign and there is no better time than for NaBloPoMo. Mostly i moved the sidebar info to the footer in 3 columns. Now, if i could only figure out how to link Archives, Tags/Labels, and Google Reader feed for links across the top, i'd be happy. For today i've reached my max of thinking in code.

I thought pushing all the extra info stuff below the post would be helpful in clutter control. I read a lot of blogs and a good majority of them have the standard 3 columns across the whole page. As ads and widgets have grown in popularity I've found it increasingly difficult to read the person's posts among all this other information. I'm going with the train of thought that if the readers are really interested in what I'm up to then they'll scroll a little farther or click one more link. I'm also thinking that if i don't overwhelm the reader with visuals they can easily see what is available to find out.

Good luck to everyone who is participating in NaBloPoMo.

In other news

I was introduced to Google Wave - it's a social networking/group collaboration for everything: email, instant messaging, photos, video sharing, documents, polls. It's a giant mix up of all things interactive web and it's still in exclusive-invite only-beta. Which is fine, i watched the premier demo video and i'm interested to play around with it but i'm willing to let more bugs be fixed first.

Sunday marks the first day of November, which marks the first day of National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). It will be a whirl wind of posting here. I'm expecting to take full advantage of being able to post on the go from my phone. There is a wedding on the 21st with several activities planned so i'll need to stay on top of it. Anyone care to join me?

I had toyed with the idea of doing National November Writing Month but came to my senses to realize, i don't have that kind of time this month and i have other more important projects i need to work on.

Miss You

I miss you little blog. I'll come back to you someday soon, promise.

Into a Rental House We Move...

I am filled with such optimism when i think of the rental house we are blessed with renting. It's a split level, 3 bedroom + den, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage and the crowning glory is a fenced backyard for the dogs! I'm also equally excited about having a washer and dryer after 5 years of an on site laundry mat.

The question has been posed to me by a few people about what we're going to do with that much space. At first, it crossed my mind that maybe it was a little selfish to have all this space for 2 people and 2 dogs. Then it occurred to me that the house is everything we've been wanting (except it has carpet and no AC). So, I've come to the conclusion that we're going to love it. I'm going to love being able to spread out. My husband and I each have our own office/studio. The TV will be downstairs in the den so when he stays up late i won't hear him in the bedroom. The dogs will have space outside to burn some energy. We will have SPACE!

The other awesome thing about moving into a house is the quiet we're going to get. No one walking, stomping, running, yelling, throwing, banging, playing, vacuuming above our heads. No more revving car engines right outside our bedroom window. AAaaahhh....

Of course with moving comes packing. I have not even started. There has been planning with the buying of supplies and getting boxes from work. Hubby started packing his office yesterday. Although, today at work i panicked a little bit when i wrote the date. It occurred to me that i only have 2 full weekends and 1 Saturday to get it all done. ALL of it, purging, packing, cleaning and moving. Gotta get going on that!

Is this year going super fast for anyone else? It feels crazy fast to me.

Wild blueberries

Was surprised to realize one day on the drive home that there are blueberry bushes in a road median I pass.

Vintage cafeteria tray becomes collection display

Vintage cafeteria tray becomes collection display - Reinvent your stuff: 20 fun DIY projects - Photos - Sunset.com

Shared via AddThis

LOVE this idea!

eBooks

This is more for me than anything else. I find my blog can be a good place to keep notes on things i want to find later. Course there are other services like Evernote.com that i've signed up for but then I don't think i can share this note with you here. I'll have to research and see if there is a way to link the two. Anyway...

I was surfing around and found out that Amazon is selling Kindle for $300 now instead of $360 which really, is only 60 bucks cheaper but note worthy.

If you need a cool cover for it, these are very nice: http://www.buymedge.com/

If you need free ebooks, Feedbooks can help you out: http://feedbooks.com/

Happy 4th

After a day of leasure I went out to dinner and the movies. Transformers in an IMAX theater was amazing! Not sure what the critics were going on about but I followed the plot. Then we saw a few fireworks from the roof of the parking garage which is were the little video came from. Hope everyone had a fun day!

This summer, I'll be eating marionberries

marionberries

Marionberries!!! They are the best summer berries ever.

One of my quirks: I change the thermostat frequently

I change the thermostat frequently
I get cold and then i get hot and it repeats. The car's thermostat range gets used a lot.

I talk to traffic
that one is fairly common.

I flip through the radio stations when on commercials
i don't like commercials. If i'm traveling with a woman then i leave the music on low so we can talk w/o yelling over it.

Fun time

My two days at the coast was a good time. That's haystack rock in the distance.

If only...

I've been on the look out for and older typewritter because I think it would be fun to have and use as long as the ink ribbon allowed. Found this beauty at an antique place on the coast. If only I had $175 for it.

The chicken came first

When God created the earth and the animals on it, I don't think they were babies & eggs. Adam is an example of being created fully formed and aware.

Dreading the Weekend

I've been in denial about the horrible status of my house this week. This weekend something has to be done about it. I'm imagining hours of cleaning in a hot & smelly apartment. I don't know why but it seems i can never get the apartment to smell good. If its not some dog odor, it's a mystery smell in the kitchen, if it's not that it's a dead mouse in a closet.

Gonna see if i can find a good audio book from the library. Maybe if i distract my brain from all the mess i won't mind cleaning it. Or at least be able to clean it with out too much judgmental thought processes.

Two bright spots:
- Seeing Pixar's new movie "UP" with my MIL on Saturday
- Life Couching call Sunday morning

Maybe i can convince the husband to go out tonight, have dinner at a Sweet Tomatoes or something.

Good coffee

This morning I have a ladybug in the foam of my latte.

Latte Art

Visiting a new cafe this morning because the normal one is closed (not sure why). The new place put an awesome smiling sun in my latte this am.

iTunes

I received a $25 iTunes gift card for my birthday. I've been wondering what i want to purchase. Pretty sure it'll be songs that would be good for working out to.

I was reviewing my big case of music CDs and realized that except for about 2 discs i haven't purchased anything in about 5 years, nor listened to anything out of that case in about 3. I actually want to listen to most of it again too. I think i've swung out of my Indie phase and back into alternative. For example listening to Disturbed suddenly seems appealing again. Not that i'll cross of Sufjan Stevens off my list but he's a little too mellow for what i've been wanting lately.

In general my taste is pretty diverse, i'll listen to country just as readily as hip-hop (i'm probably a little more picky about what hip-hop than anything else).

What songs do you like working out to?

Affairs - An Opinion

I don't normally don’t state my opinion about what celebrities are doing but Jon & Kate of (Jon & Kate Plus 8 fame) has brought up an intense subject, that was sparked from a Facebook Status and subsequent comments. The story goes that Jon had an affair and now the couple is wondering if they'll stay together. A majority of the people who commented thought that Kate caused the affair.

Let me state clearly i have watched about 3 episodes and do not like Kate for her over all personality that she projects on the show. Kate comes across as being the ultimate control freak. Controlling to the point that she treats her husband like another child who knows nothing.

However having a bitch for a wife DOES NOT justify the husband having an affair!

I hold Jon responsible for his actions. He could have grown a pair and sought out healthy ways to correct the unhappy marriage. Instead he chose to seek comfort from a source that lead him to the path of the affair. I'll give him reasonable doubt that he was not seeking an affair at first that the relationship evolved to that. Regardless thought, he ultimately chose to sleep with another woman, it did not accidently happen.

Now, i do hold Kate responsible for her part of making the marriage an unhappy one. She definitely contributive to the status of their marriage.

I just refuse to buy the stereo-type that if the husband strays it's the entire wife's fault.

Naming Matching - it's fun, go play. The names are based on the fact that a lot of design businesses use a color and an animal for their name.

Sunshiny Day

Not sure how it shows on your screen but these are royal purple irises. Are they not beautiful? Not sure I've seen this exact color before.

Cured from Baby Brain

All the events of last night put me off the obsessive path of "Do I want a baby soon?" the answer is again firmly back to "No."

Hubby tried to go to bed early last night at 9 and wanted to take Nitro with him. They were not gone 5 minutes before M. was yelling at nitro to get out of the bedroom. I'm thinking he ate something fast but oh no no no. Nitro had peed all over the bed and blankets, amazingly missed the pillows. It was our last set of clean good sheets and we only have one down comforter (which i'm hoping we can save tonight at the laundry mat). So, we had to strip the living room chairs of their sheet covers for bed covering and amazingly our 1 big blanket was big enough.

By 9:30 M.'s in bed, dogs are in crates, i'm in the living room trying to get my blood pressure down then Z gives us 5 minutes of barking followed by 5 minutes of silence. Over the last 3 weeks or so she's become increasingly inconsolable when put in the crate. Even with a Kong toy filled with treats and peanut butter she'd rather bark. I have just typed and erased about 2 paragraphs worth of dog rant material but this post isn't that story so i'll spare you. I gave up and went to bed at 10 (Z thankfully stopped shortly there after).

10:30, M.'s phone goes off and by some amazement he's asleep (insomnia issues) but i wasn't and chose to ignore it thinking if it was real important they'd call again. They called again. Turned out it was M.I.L. checking in because she'd just arrived back from Italy and after quizzing her boys they'd reported not hearing from us after our arrival back from TX. I wasn't sure if she was calling to tell us they were safe or if she was checking to make sure we were safe. She lets me go after she realizes she woke us.

THEN the up stairs baby starts to cry and cry and scream and then choke on his crying and then cry some more. This went on for about 30 minutes and i had to explain to hubby that sometimes babies have to cry them selves to sleep. I also thought it was good retribution from the upstairs neighbors for us having a dog that barks any time she's put in her crate.

So after all that i got to sleep around 11 and after all that i'm really not ready for a kid.

i realize that to some getting to bed at 11 is reasonable but we get up at 5:30 and i function best on 7-8 hours of sleep. Sleep is another thing that would change if i had a kid... yeah, no kids.

Babies on the Brain

The topic of babies seems to be in every conversation* i have. I guess it's natural considering my husband and i have been married almost 3 years and we're both on the downhill side to 30.

I realize that we're not in a place to have a baby. If tomorrow i found out i was pregnant my first reaction would be dread followed by a nap induced from the overwhelm of emotions. But still my mind can't seem to let it rest.

Should we have one let alone three?
Should we not go down that road at all?
What about all the responsibility?
What about all the things that change?
How much more will i love my children if i know the love i have for my niece?

My brain can get pretty obsessive about something once it's latched on to a topic and can't come to a firm conclusion. If the options are pretty endless then it will loop around and around thinking of all the different possibilities. As it has now seems to be doing with this topic.

I keep telling my self that we have nothing to decide for another couple of years. That if we're having them then being pregnant with the first at 28 is completely acceptable.

Do you hear that brain? You can let it go for now!

*friends, family & co-workers have had this conversation with me this past month.

On Our Way

Its 5am on my 26th birthday and I'm blogging from the airport. For the next few days I will be soaking up Texas rays (wearing SPF 60).

Possible New Camera

I currently have a Canon Power Shot A630 and enjoy it. It's small and fits easily into my purse for those short notice shots. The best thing about the camera is the swivel view screen. I heart that feature!

I've had lots of issues with low light situations with out using the flash. It's annoying when 50% of the time the shaky hand icon comes on screen. The camera does allow for manual change of the ISO and shutter speed but then i run into the issue of grainy shots and digitally grain does not look good. I'm not above saying it's user error half the time but even if with help from my photographer husband it's hard getting good shots in low light.

The other downer is that the zoom while it is 4x optical & digital, it's still pretty lame. When I move into the digital zoom the screen goes pixilated and makes it very difficult to know if the shot is still good.

I'm looking to get the Canon Power Shot SX10 IS - it's bigger but has 20x optical zoom and an image stabilizer system which i'm hoping will correct for the formally mentioned problems. Thinking that i'd keep the A360 in my purse but take the SX10 for when i know i'm headed to big events - party, ocean, aquariums/zoo - things like that.

Anyone have any experience with the Canon SX10?

Spring morning

These photos were from a week or so ago. It was a really beautiful spring morning. I thought I should post something pretty after not posting for the month.

We've been plummeted back into rain so don't be too jealous.

What Next?

Coming back from weekends at the coast always cause a little bit of "where is our life going?" melancholy. Specially after this weekend. Friday we had dinner with a friend who has his life fairly mapped out. He kept asking legitimate questions about what we're doing and we kept saying "We don't know" or "There is this option or this option" or "if we go this route we'll choose this". Life is in a little bit of a limbo.

I feel this pressure inside my self to pick a direction already! Which I've noticed before in groups of people where 30 minutes are spent discussing options and i'm thinking "pick something already, they're all good!". Which is exactly what i'm feeling about our options on the table. Lets pick something already and if we don't like it we'll switch to another one, we can't pick a choice that would be the end of the world. Or you know, if the end of the world does happen i'm cool about dying and not having to make any more decisions.

Quote: On the Topic of Weight

"Be open to home improvement but love where you live."

I was listening to an interview with Jackie Guerra who has lost 170 lb. but grew up always being overweight. The context of the quote comes from her talking about how she has always liked her self regardless of weight.

Top Projects for April

1. Becoming an Aunt baby book for my niece and sister (a collection of emails my sister and i wrote back and forth while she was pregnant that start from me finding out to the birth and first meeting Noel. It will also include photos and thoughts.)

2. Make gift for s.i.l. that i've had for over a year (yikes!)

3. Print, hand color & frame birthday gift for older niece (very excited about this)

4. Read and do the exercises in my marketing books

5. Start a newsletter focusing on missions for my church

The first 3 are must-get-dones in April because i'm leaving for Texas May 6th (my birthday!) to visit my family that the gifts are for.


What're your plans for April?

This Weekend

Today is the official day of spring but there isn't much happening in Portland to show it. The weather is a touch warmer, fine in a sweatshirt and a scarf but it's also raining. There are are plans for it to rain all weekend. The only other difference is the reappearance of birds that make fast high pitch chirping sounds in the mornings around sunrise (about 8am here). Still I'm getting that spring cleaning fever.

Cleaning plans:
- Kitchen, you won't believe how horribly dirty it is.
- Office, you'd probably believe how cluttered it is.
- Laundry, i have quarters.

General Creative Plans:
- Edit photos for 365 project

Other Plans:
- Lunch with a friend on Saturday
- Dinner with the church missions team to find out what their plans are and if/how/can we help in a way.
- Church on Sunday, we have a guest speaker so we'll be attending all 3 sessions.
{I don't really know how this sounds to anyone else but i don't enjoy going to church almost all day on Sundays. We've most recently started going to the sunday school in addition to the service. This takes all morning from 8am till 12:30pm i'm getting ready for church and then sitting through it. Then there is the evening service that starts at 6 and runs 1hr-1.5hrs. I struggle a little with the guilt that i'm being selfish that i don't want to go spend all that time fellowshiping with other Christans but uh, the truth is, i don't. By the time we get home from morning service, have lunch, take a nap and get up again to be productive it's about time to get to church again which interrupts the evening being productive. In addition i'm part of a Monday night woman's bible study which i actually find more helpful than most Sundays because it's more communicative and not lecture. So there you have it, i don't go to evening church services because i enjoy my Sunday evenings at home.}

How much of this list will get done this weekend? I'm really hoping a little bit of everything because it all really needs to get done.

Short Fuse

If you want to see me go from calm to raging in just 2 seconds, call me a derogatory wife title.

NEVER call me his mother, as in i have taken the place in my husband's life as the authority figure for approval of activities. This is not the same as being called like his mother, that's completely different and not really derogatory.

Talking over with a spouse about activities that will take up MONTHS of time is a legitimate conversation to have before making a commitment to said activity. It's not like he needs to clear it with me if he's going to the movies with the guys. In that case, i'd just like to know when he'll be gone so i can make plans to finally watch a girly movie at home.

The stereo type that the wife is out to ruin the husband's good time is infuriating because we're not.

P.S. my husband was not the offender that caused me to write this retort.

The blue represents what i would have added the first time around if i wasn't writing in such a huff.

Test

This is a test of blogging from my phone.

Let's see if this works

Top 5 things in my purse.

Canon A630 digital camera
i like taking a picture at a momments notice

Wallet
i like to pay for things

Notebook
helps to keep track of random thoughts

G1 cell phone
Incase i need to make a call, send a text, read my email, or play Pac-Man

Pouch of pens and lipstick
The pouch helps to keep these little things form rolling around in the bottom.

Favorite Sound

The video quality looks awful but thankfully the point of it is the sound. There is a beach at the base of the cliff that Yaquina Head Lighthouse sits on. This beach is made up entirely of black rocks of all sizes. One of my favorite sounds is when the waves wash out over the rocks causing them to tumble over one another. Saturday {21st} the tide was high and the sound of the rocks was so loud! I'd guess because it was washing over the larger rocks and not just the small ones like it does at low tide.

Marriage Update

Considering marriage is the 3rd item mentioned in my subtitle it seems it would be appropriate to bring the topic up.

Over the last year it has been easier for me to build walls of supposed protection then to be vulnerable and communicative towards my husband. Yes, that is a sad way to function in a marriage or any relationship.

To make a long story short things have been changing over the last week or so.

Biggest change: he became saved {born again Christian} on Friday the 6th. Which ironically is the 5th anniversary of our first date. Hallelujah and praise the Lord this is great news! But, this is also confusing news to me because he was a proclaimed believer since the day we met. However, I believe his choice on the 6th was sincere because of some of the changes i've seen. Most notably, he prays where as before i only saw him pray over a meal. His patience with me has suddenly become remarkable high. I actually pull an antic that could have easily bated him into a fight and he didn't rise to it which basically left me no choice but to apologize for snapping at him. Slice of humble pie anyone?

Another odd occurrence in our household, is that he's reading. A non-fiction, self help book none the less. Plus the Bible. Last night was the first time EVER we sat in the living room and read on the couch together. The other night he asked if he could join me in bed to read before sleeping, also NEVER happened before. Both of these things I have previously wished we do together and it was great.

Equally as odd, he cleaned the kitchen. While he did this on occasion and when it got really on his nerves, this time it was more a random act of kindness.

I am watching all of this with a cautious heart. I'm a mix of "it's about freakin' time" and "who are you?!". I'm being sure to at least say thank you to a kind gesture because i may not fully trust his motives but at the same time i don't want them to stop simply because i was ungrateful.

I'll let you know if anything else new happens like he picks up his clothes out of the bathroom.

Coraline in 3D

FANTASTIC!!!

We went to a swanky movie theater that shows all movies in HD and they were only showing Coraline in 3D. I was hesitant but we also had a free ticket to that theater so we went. The new digital 3D is amazing! The 3D actually works, not kinda gives an effect if you get the glasses just right but works all the time. Plus it works even with them over my normal glasses. The theater gave out these big plastic 3d glasses.

The 3D part aside, the visuals in Coraline are great. I'd like to go see it again just so i can absorber more. The story line in general is a good one, kinda creepy. The parents are a little over the top rude to Coraline to get the point across quickly that they ignore her and she's miserable because of it. The other characters are over the top eccentric but good entertainment. I agree with some reviews i've heard that it's not for young children. It does depend on your child but i wouldn't think anyone younger than 8 would like it. The subject matter is a little mature, Coraline's parents ignoring her, her looking for better options, having to deal with a witch, encounter ghosts that want Coraline to find their eyes again. These are not things that younger kids would find funny or interesting i'd think. The movie does have a happy ending.

I recommend checking out the offical movie website too. For those of us that love special features go to the "Theater" section of the site and you can watch varies short clips on how things were done.

Valentines

I for one relish the thought of romantic gifts of flowers, cards with words of devotion, and small gifts chosen with thought. I appreciate these things any day of the year. I do not appreciate trying to get out in the craziness that is the official day of love. We have no romantic plans this year.

Part of me wants to try a matinee showing of Coraline mostly because i didn't get to go see it opening weekend. I've heard rave reviews of it in 3D but here's the thing, usually wearing the special glasses don't work over normal glasses and then i end up with a headache by the end of it. In general the movie has received amazing glowing reviews so it could be one i'd try to see twice in theaters, the first being just a normal viewing.

The other thing that i'll be trying to complete this Valentines is curtains for the backdoor. We've had part of the fabric for a year and then purchased the second half of the needed fabric about six months ago. But the final motivation is that the dog ripped a whole in part of the current curtain and has bent the rod they hang from. So, we have a missing chunk of fabric and the rest of it dragging the floor. It looks AWFUL. This will be an interesting attempt considering i'm going to use heat set fabric glue instead of sewing. I would sew the straight lines that are needed for the hem but i don't have a machine. I wish i did though.

Is anyone making it as a 3 day weekend with Monday being President's Day? I'll be at work on Monday because my company is a little odd and we don't get holidays but in exchange we have 9 extra days of PTO. We can request holidays off as PTO but i chose not to because I'd rather save it for days i really want off.

What will you be doing this holiday?

A day without a cell phone

I did have a day without it but not out of a self discovery choice, i simply forgot it on the charger one morning. It was the most inconvenient day to do so. It was one rare day where i was in and out of the office and still needed to stay in touch with a few people there.

Watch "Mad Money" next time you're home sick

It's a fun adventure story of 3 women robbing a bank. When you're sick and can't do anything, it's nice to fantasize about what you'd do if you suddenly had millions of dollars.

If I've had enough drinks, I'll sing these songs at a karaoke bar

I picked these songs because i know the lyrics. I've never done karaoke.

Spiderwebs by No Doubt

Here It Goes Again by OK GO

So What {i'm a rock star} by Pink

Starbucks

For the past 10 years Starbucks has a played a part in my life. A majority of those years it was a place for me to study and then in the past few years a place to grab my coffee before work. My drink of choice: Grande Vanilla Soy Latte

Everything changed last week. I'm not really sure what i'm going to do about it.

Wednesday i got my usual drink. It tasted different. I thought maybe someone had used the sugar free vanilla by mistake or maybe the syrup changed and it's now French Vanilla. The latte was had an odd buttery undertone. It was drinkable but only ok.

Thursday i ordered it again, same location. I asked, "Has the vanilla syrup changed?". The Barista awkwardly says "no". I go on and explain that my drink tasted different but that i'll go ahead and try it again today, Grande vanilla soy latte. The Barista perks up, "oh we've changed the soy we use!". Ooooh, of course!

Here is the irony, i'm not sure if it taste only ok because it's different or it only taste ok because it really just taste bad. They use to serve Silk brand soy, most people who don't normally have soy, thought it was nasty stuff. I'll agree that once it got cold, don't touch it with a 10 foot poll. The fact that the new soy has a buttery taste may allow for a larger audience. BUT my dilemma is, do i want to keep drinking it, do i want to get use to the new taste or here's a radical thought, let the latte go at Starbucks and enjoy drip from home with the occasional special drink from an independent cafe near work.

This seriously, disrupts my daily morning routine but not necessarily for the worse. I use to spend on average $6 every morning between a drink and breakfast item at starbucks. That's $120 a month, not including the occasional weekend. Now, i bet i could take that same $120 and have the same thing of coffee and breakfast with money left over. I can usually finish off 1/2 pound in a month, that's like $8 or so a month just for coffee. Then i've been loving oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit - i'm sure i could buy a months worth of this supply for i don't know $30? Leaving about $82 dollars for whatever.

Yeah, yeah, i might just have to say fair well to my old stomping ground for my morning routine.

It's Negative

The pregnancy test turned out to be negative - big sigh of relief. It does turn out that i have extra fluid in my inner ear. Since Monday i was struggling with dizziness when i'd lay down and then turn my head or get back up. It progressively got worse all week, by Friday i was slightly dizzy any time my head would move. Looking down really sends me for a loop. Called the nurse line and she recommended I seek treatment with in the next 6 hours. Off to the urgent care we went, turns out to be a very nice place and faster service with a lower bill then the ER. A pregnancy test had to be given before the Dr. could subscribe the meds she wanted to give to dry up the extra fluid. It seems that the inner ear is very important to balance and that any time the head moves the fluid moves and if there is too much it just keeps going once the head stops which causes a person to be dizzy.

Today is my first day on the meds. One side affect is slight drowsiness but thankfully it seems it's not going to be a big deal. Other then feeling lazy, which i think is a combo of meds and not wanting to move my head, I'm fine. Hopefully all will be normal after the week of meds.

Therapy After Therapy

Saturday afternoon i had my first appointment with a counselor. I'm at a point now where I don't think i can pull my self up by my own boot straps and a little outside help would be good. This is not my first experience with a therapist. I had 2 between the ages of 18 & 20. I had 2 session with a woman in July, did not work out because of insurance and i could not afford her out of pocket or out-of-network or really, i don't think we were a good match.

Unfortunately I don't think i'm a good match with the woman i met on Saturday either. When i have to call both of my sisters to rant about how she got on her soap box about a particular issue which was a side subject and not the main reason i was there. That i'm actually angry, feel belittled, and not just a touch manipulated by the counselor instead of feeling encouraged that this is a woman who can help me through a struggle. I don't think this a good sign. Still, I dread canceling our second appointment scheduled for this coming Saturday. Both my sisters immediately said not to go back and that i don't have to have any since of commitment to her. And i keep reminding my self that giving people a second chance after they've pissed me off once is how i'm in the situation i'm now in.

At the same time, i'm discouraged, it's a lot of freakin' paper work to meet with someone and then in the first hour boil down the problem to 10 min. of an explanation and be able to articulate exactly why i'm there when the only really good answer is that i can't sit on the couch numbing my feelings with ice cream forever.

Another thing on my mind is that I HAVE TO figure out something to do after a counseling session. Usually, i'm tired, sad and a little weepy after that hour. My default is to of course go get a good girly movie and some chocolate and then waste the rest of my evening. I just don't see how the wallowing can be constructive anymore. I'll need to find something nice for my self to do to transition between the session and life.

Desire

I'm lusting after a vacant suite in the building I work in. One day couple of weeks ago I walked to another part of the building, to get to a balcony that has a wonderful view of hills that at the time were dusted with snow, perfect for a photo. The suites have an odd feature here of big windows cut into the walls that face the hallway, maybe psychologically it helps the rooms feel bigger. Anyway this particular suite is along the outside wall so it also has real windows that give it light and a view of trees and sky and if you look down a building.

That particular day it caught my attention with all it's light. "Oh, how nice!" i said to my self and then immediately started day dreaming about it becoming my space. A studio of my very own. The space is not very big 8x16 or 24 feet - it's long but narrow. I could image an over stuffed chair with an ottoman. Table for carving blocks on. Walls to hang inspiration on.

I haven't moved a muscle in finding out if it's even really available. There is a sign that says they rent studio space for artist, there are other artist and a variety of business in the building. The sign says they start at $200 a month and considering the size i can't image it being much more. Today I'll at least take the step to write down the contact's number but really i wish there was an email address, email seems easier.

There are some questions:
- Would i mind having my studio in the same building i work in?
- How do i balance time in the studio with time with my husband? Not that this isn't already a question just for every day living.
- There is the cost of running the net to the room {maybe i don't need it? i shudder at the thought...}
- It's currently annoyingly far enough away from home to make it inconvenient to come on the weekend. I hope this can be remedied by moving closer. Supposedly we have a goal of moving in March but frankly we haven't made a lot of strides in that direction.

But oh my, to just have a space where i can control the noise, how wonderful is that thought!

Branding

On Thursday I was walking through Borders. Passing through the non-fiction section on my way to the cafe, a book setting on the end of the shelf display caught my eye. "Oh, great Eric Larson's come out with another book!". I got as far as reading the whole title American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood & the Crime of the Century and thinking it sounds like a good read before i read the authors name, Howard Blum. Ah, so not Eric's work after all.

This is a great example of how branding can work for artist recognition. Simply based on imagery I assumed the book was of Eric Larson's work. Also, an example of how others can capitalize on someone else's branding, lending to themselves the original creator's reputation. Even after realizing my mistake I still thought it sounded like a good book.

It could also be a case of a snap reaction from me and the designer/publisher had no intention of any kind of tie in but non-the-less the design got me to pick up the book.

Eric Larson's popular historical, true crime books have similar covers which build a visual recognition for readers.


Howard Blum's cover has similar qualities; book title on arch and angle, long subtitle, large monotone location shots as the imagery.

Happy Anniversary to Me

It has been five years to the day since I arrived in Oregon. Don't regret the choice to move at all.

2008 Recap - 2009 Goals/Dreams/Ambitions

I'm not interested in recapping the year in detail. Frankly, it was a hard year and i'm glad to see it go. I am optimistic about '09 as i am in every January about the coming year.

A list of random 2008 statistics:

77 - the approximate number of movies i rented in the year {felt like i watched more}
-- that's about 154 hours or a little over 6 days worth of movies

19 - the number of movies i watched in the theater

28 - the approximate number of books i read {i'm sure i missed documenting some but have now completely forgotten i read them}

8 - the most posts i had in a month that were not prompted by NaBloPoMo

4 - block prints carved {disappointing, should have been more}

5 - projects i completed or were apart of that were not my own personal projects

70 - approximately how many photos i uploaded to Flickr

***
My words for 2009 is conscious. I feel like most of '08 was in autopilot and reactive. A lot of the goals i set for last year i still want to work on {some are life long} and accomplish {some are completable} this year. I posted last year about wanting to say "No" to more things and this year i'm doing it. Over and over and over again last year i'd say Yes and i didn't really enjoy any project i took on. I'm putting ME first this year.

For an exercise in conscious i thought it was be interesting to try taking 1 photos everyday for a year. Plus, what a great collection at the end of it all. Of course, there is already difficulties such as, i get up in the dark, i leave work in the dark and my house has bad lighting. I've still taken photos though, even if they are yellowish or have that ugly flash glare.

I signed up for the Creative Every Day project at Leah's site. At first i wasn't because i was boycotting signing up for anything but realize that it offers something i want, a way to create an online community. Leah is doing a great job of giving the participants a place to point others to what they've been doing and when i did participate last year i noticed people actually said 'hi' to me and considering this blog and creativity can be a lonely road i chose not to close that door. She posted about keeping a creative log - i started mine in an old '07 weekly calendar that i didn't use and it's going well!

As far as my creativity goes, i want to actually complete some projects. I want to be conscious about completing my ideas. I have a back log of things i was going to post to this blog from October. For example, i was going to show before and after pictures of my haircut {i cut a lot off}. I was going to post videos of my plane taking off as inspired by another artist. I was going to post sideshows of a beach trip in Nov. I was going to post snow pictures that happened before, during and after Christmas {i'll still do that one}. Point is, the photos are doing no good just sitting on my hard drive and i want this to change.

Among other projects of 2009:
- blog regularly and with substance {not just a paragraph griping about the weather, not that this is completely prohibited}
- Block prints {get some of those images from head to paper}
- Editing photos from my move from TX to OR {i realized i could no longer beat my self up about not doing this sooner or that it was too late. The realization that most people wait decades to write memoirs and it's fine if i start this one 5 years later}.
- Scan childhood photos {i have a box full that need proper respect to be archived}

There's a lot going on this year!