Jnut's Journal

Ker-Plunk...

2012-02-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, blame it on Pinterest, but I've finally made an executive decision to clean my house. And I've gotten quite a bit done this weekend actually! All of my one-of-a-kind (meaning the only one of their kind in my cupboard) glasses and dishes have finally and mercifully been tossed out. Along with the bay leaves circa 1989...

Kitchen shelves have all been re-lined with (omg) contact paper but it seriously looks a lot better and cleaner than the particle board. I had planned to re-paint all the cabinets as well, however once the first one was painted I realized that I need to go back to the hardware store and dull up my pure white paint a bit. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that my next project would have to be completely replacing my dingy kitchen floor...

Anyway, today it's the pantry cupboard which seriously needs repainting but I'm at a total standstill. Because I just don't know how I'm ever going to cover up THIS...

Moving on...

As some of you know I've been collecting piles of stuff in my basement for years for that eventual garage sale. I've held a couple of those in the past and to be quite honest the thought of having another one completely makes me shudder. All those people tromping through my yard and handling all my um, wonderful stuff. So as I was dumping my bag full of one-of-a-kind treasures into the basement corner yesterday I made yet another executive decision.

No more garage sales for me!

Tomorrow I will sort through the storage closet at work for boxes which I will then label "Trash", "Goodwill" and "Kindling/Firewood." The dumpster stuff will have to remain in the garage for the time being...

Just one of my corners...

My only dilemma's are first... what to do with all the Beanie Babies:

And next, the waterbeds:

Daryn's old bed looks a ton nicer with the lush down comforter, but it just seems to work better, with only the cats around, when I cover it with this ugly, I mean cute old thing.

I always loved Whitney's green/pink room. But I should probably wash the cat barf off of the bedspread before I try to sell it...

Unfortunately my camera batteries seem to have suddenly gone well, Ker-Plunk...

But fortunately PhotoShop has a way of forgiving a multitude of sins...

There... All clean!

And Voila! Switch-a-roo!!!...

Down comforter courtesy of decorlinen.com with a little help from PS...

lol!

Craig's List... here I come!

Who Ever Knew It Could Be This Easy? (PhotoShop Tutorials...)

2012-02-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

I can seriously remember trying to follow along with some of them back in the day and not even having a clue when they'd say something like "Ok, now change the layer blend to screen or multiply..." etc.

But its amazing just how much an ungodly number of "having absolutely no idea what you're doing" hours can eventually teach you... Because today this one went pretty smoothly.

Transparent, suspended letters...

I just chose a string of random ones for this exercise...

And now I've got exactly 2,427 more tutorials saved to my bucket list...

"Happy Birthday Two You... Happy Birthday You Too"...

2012-01-06T14:56:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been a year already!

And I still can't tell them apart!...

1 Day

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

Ok, well I can sorta tell them apart... at least when they're both together and staring at me like deers in headlights. But when they're on opposite sides of the room, or in individual photos, and one or the other of them is either laughing or crying... forget it. I think that's the hardest part of being a long distance Grammy.

The second hardest part is the gift buying and trying to keep things all sorts of even but not the same. And trying to buy coordinating clothes? That's the worst! Because as soon as you FINALLY find two outfits that will look cute together but that won't be exactly identical, the other pair of pants in the size you need, doesn't ever exist on the rack...

I'm looking forward to the day when they can just tell me what they want.

Really??? All you really want is for me to move to Idaho? Ok well trust me, that will SO be in the works, just as soon as I can figure it out...

Birthday Cake!!

Love you GUYS! Happy Birthdays!!!

Travel Well in 2012...

2012-01-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Time flies by so quickly! It's amazing and somehow sad even. I realized today how much time and how many years. months, weeks, days of my life have been devoted not so much to enjoying, but to either anticipating or remembering. And let's not forget worrying endlessly about everything... Yes, that's a big one. Not sure how to fix that.

Being honest here... I'm not one for adventure so much any more. Though there was a time when my life was full of it. But I think I eventually found the solitude and warmth of my own home to be considerably much more to my liking, though agreeably at times a little boring... (Except for the 40+ hours a week that I get to go to work.. :)

Resolutions are funny things, and I'm not sure I really have any, except to maybe think of myself a bit less and to think of others a bit more and also to stop and smell the roses a little more often while I'm out there pulling the weeds and mowing that big yard all summer. And also to take just a couple of more walks or drives just for the fun of it...

But while sequestered at my computer in my dank and dark basement on this very, very cold first day of 2012 I was still able to finish this....

Finally a video montage to one of my favorite 'Daryn' vocals from back in... like 2004.

I think I'm going to at least put on some really warm clothes and try to take in just an itty bitty walk now... We'll save the driving part for later...

P.S. I skipped church this morning...

First Christmas In Heaven...

2011-12-31T14:51:00.000-08:00

David left in Sept. as you all know
I was surely not ready to let him go.
He had to go 'cause he was old
And that's God's plan, as we've been told.
At age 93, he'd had a good life
But he sure didn't want to leave his wife.

If a death could be perfect, then David's was
He just slipped away with no obvious cause.
He'd seen all his kin in the last week or two
But to see them together, just woudn't do.
To his room they all went, one or two at a time
They visited and talked, (just can't make this rhyme)

For a week, he'd' been talking 'bout traveling on
But I just never thought that so soon he'd be gone.
He wanted to talk about things and such
But to talk about death was a little much.
So I wrote him a note just two days before,
I told him my love went right to the core.

I said if his time should come before mine,
He should just go in peace and that I would be fine.
"We have good kids who will take care of me,
So don't you fret, and don't you worry!
When Father is ready he'll call you back home,
Where you'll be safe and sound, no more to roam."

He felt funny and different, he said that day
But I took him out for a drive anyway.
He wanted to spend some time just with me
His legs were painful below the knee.
To the farm we went on that sunny day,
Saw horses and cows and then some hay.

A ride in the country was David's delight
He'd go any time without a fight.
I drove the car at a very slow pace
It wasn't as if we were running a race.
Driving home very slow, we laughed and we cried,
and when we got home, he just up and died.

There wasn't a struggle, there wasn't a pain,
With a smile on his face, leaning onto his cane.
Holding on to me, holding onto the door,
He just slowly went down and laid on the floor.
He didn't suffer at all, for which we give thanks,
He was anxious to go join the Heavenly ranks.

When the ambulance came, there was no sign of life.
He'd gone past the veil, leaving friend, love and wife.
We'd been a great team for thirty-four years,
So that when he left, I shed many tears.
But because of our covenants, I know that we'll be
Together forever through Eternity.

What a reunion in Heaven he must have had,
There was Marge, Lucy, Ann, and then his Dad.
To say nothing of his Mother, "Auntie Mame"
Who was known the town over for "Nephi" fame.
Now they all work together, some souls to save,
They'd all been waiting for their dear Dave.

In this very special month, David's no longer here,
He's now with our Saviour, whose birth we revere.
May this knowledge give us assurance and peace,
So that much of our mourning will certainly cease.
By God's own voice and God's own word,
Our loved ones are now in the arms of our Lord.

Written by my mom (Lois Peterson H. Salisbury)

The New Headstone...
I think it's beautiful.

But to be perfectly honest, the other side of it freaks me out a little bit... I mean, wouldn't it you?

And I SO want to change the "my" to "our"... But I guess it's already "cemented in stone"... And being joined at the hip as they were... I guess that "my" sort of makes complete sense anyway.

Oh, haha I just realized that that is a scripture quote... Ok then, well, alrighty, um, nevermind...

Seriously, Mom... David... thank you so much for this wonderful legacy! It's absolutely perfect.

A Stolen Life

2011-12-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

A Memoir...

At age 29...

I'm not exactly sure why I'm sharing this here, except that since I read this book, this girl has completely and utterly touched me and completely changed my faith in human resiliance. Not only with her story, because it was horrible... and certainly not always easy to read. I'm sure it must have been even considerably harder for her to write. And I'm not even recommending her book unless you really like true reality kind of stuff... and yet, on second thought, this wasn't true reality kind of stuff so much anyway... really. True nightmare stuff is more like it.

And so why did I read it? Because I am a complete sucker for survivor stories and happy endings... And because I sort of knew how it was going to end to begin with... And also maybe because as a mom and a grandma I think that losing a child would be a heartbreak so huge that it would certainly never, ever mend.

I'll never forget the day Whitney called me and told me that Elizabeth Smart had been found! And of course, though I didn't even know her, I still remember that day as being one of the best of my life. Seriously.

So anyway, this is the story of a girl who was abducted at age of only 11 and spent the next 18 years being held captive in a tent in her abductors backyard. She was finally rescued at the age of 29 along with her two daughters (who were also born and raised in that tent and yet somehow she still managed to raise to be healthy and well adjusted teenagers)...

I remember hearing of their rescue.. but could only imagine what all those years must have done to her...them. I was seriously imagining a much different outcome.

And so I guess this is where all that survivor love kicks in....

Because she is amazing! And due to this I don't think that anyone one should ever again be allowed to blame who they are today on any of their past circumstances. I especially love how she gives credit to all those years of lacking sunshine for the perfect skin she has today...

Her story was horrific and heatbreaking, yet at the same time sweet, inspiring and triumphant!

Anyway, if you want to watch the Diane Sawyer interviews, I warn you they're pretty long, but totally worth it. Though, trust me, you won't be able to fast forward through the commercials...

Diane Sawyer Interview Part One

Diane Sawyer Interview Part Two

What can I say? I tend to read a lot...

It Was An Almost Perfect Christmas...

2011-12-26T12:11:00.001-08:00

My Christmas Tree...

Thanks Mom, Whitney, Aaron, Jade, Everest, Calder, Daryn, Jon, Rachel, Thom, Cheryl, Mike, Renee and anonymous!...

It really WAS a perfect day!

I am SO truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in my life!

And miraculously, my really old camera was still somehow able to rise to the occasion as well!... So bonus!

But next year? Well, it's gonna be Frequent Flyer miles for sure.... yeppers.

Christmas Memories...

2011-12-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

Today I was thinking about some of my Christmas memories and how very much they have changed over the years...

For most of my childhood, each and every Christmas arrived pretty much on schedule like a cookie cutter version of the last one. I always knew exactly what to depend on and what to expect...

Laying under the tree on Christmas eve, my head resting amongst the packages and staring up through the branches at those beautiful frosted lights above, pine needles falling in my face. It was magical.
Trying to get to sleep at night but never succeeding, not realizing that my mom who would stay up all night wrapping presents would probably have given anything to be in my place.
Never understanding how, even though I hadn't slept a wink all night, there was always that pajama and slippers present lying on the floor next to my bed the next morning. Again, like magic.
That really sick feeling I would always have in my stomach while waiting to go into the living room and my sisters and I all being allowed to open just one additional present our rooms in order to give mom time to put on all the finishing touches.
Finally being allowed to open the door and the next hour of saying "Oh my goodness, Oh my GOODNESS!" over and over again at all the many treasures I would discover.
Opening presents until 2:00 in the afternoon...
Choosing my own corner of the room in which to pile my loot...
Seperating the wrapping paper from the ribbons/tags/boxes/etc and putting them each in their appropriate recyclable place...
A dining room table covered end to end with goodies... jelly fruit, chocolate covered cherries, nuts of every kind... See's Candy!

Fast forward to Christmas's many years later...

Pretty much exactly the same scenario with the added traditions of "The Nutcracker"... Amy Grant and Slim Jims... and that this time I was the mom and the one staying up all night wrapping presents... plus I've always been a little less stringent about ripping the wrapping paper....

Anyway, I just really miss all of that for some reason, even while sometimes majorly questioning it...

But now with my kids both on their own and celebrating with their own families (in, thankfully, much more moderate ways!) even with the small gifts being shipped back and forth I realize how truly unimportant the gifts really are and probably ever were! Because looking back, when I squeeze my eyes shut and really try to selectively choose my best Christmas memories, they always come back to the images of just being together with my family. Most of the other gifts have unfortunately long since been sent off to Goodwill or D.I.... and some, even more unfortunately, to the trash.

I would, one year, like to spend a Christmas with just my family and without any presents at all. I think...

I Photoshopped that earlier today but after writing this I think I've had a major change of heart. Because afterall, Skype is a miraculous and perfectly FREE and selfless gift that somebody somehow gave to us! But I'm just not exactly sure who... Mike maybe?

At any rate, I think I just really need to start all over again from scratch on this Christmas thing...

Better Late Than Never... eh, Ray?

2011-12-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

I've been such a slacker on this thing lately. Didn't even manage to give thanks on Thanksgiving for all the many, many things I'm grateful for... and there's a bunch! But here's one for starts...

For Rachel... exactly 45 days late! I thought about saving it for Christmas but just couldn't wait....

Love you!!!

Grammy J

11:11:11

2011-11-11T10:54:00.000-08:00

Very weird...

So I don't really have too much else to say about today, except that it seems like it would be a really fun day to be born on...

But not to waste a completely good blog on a half dozen "1's" so I guess I'll try and say something else.

Ok, well it snowed last night for the first time this season. And there was major ice on my windshield driving home after attending the 2nd annual "Auction to Benefit Project SEARCH."

My feet hurt like heck afterwards but it was a great evening. I got outbid on everything I bid on (which was probably a good thing) and was stuffed to the brim with all the yummy food. I'm anxious to see what funds were raised! It was the culmination of about nine months of "teamwork!"

As for my yard? Well, Mother Nature does not always cooperate with us here in West Michigan...

This was taken last week, and it's been raining/snowing/freezing ever since...

Gosh, I wish it STILL looked that good...

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T18:56:00.001-07:00

Though I'm not really sure I'm even that fond of the holiday!

Perhaps it's because of remembering being sick on this day all throughout my childhood, and once I became a mom having to stay up until the crack of dawn the night before trying to finish costumes... And now that I'm an empty nester being forced to sit in my basement all night with the lights off...

Yeah I know... Bah HallowHumBug, right?

But at least it's one night out of the year that gives me no other choice than to do my laundry...

Hope you have a good one!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This just in! And my Halloween spirit is suddenly back!

And then there was Batman and Superman...

So I'm pretty much just left with nothing but schmoopie now.

And Now Jadie is Four!

2011-10-28T02:00:00.000-07:00

Out of 365 days, how did I end up with two granddaughters whose birthdays are a day apart... and just days before Halloween? I'm pretty sure they'll be completely sick of scary pumpkin and spiderweb cupcakes before they're twelve.

Trust me...

But today is the day to honor MISS JADE and that wonderful early morning that she came into the world!

Whitney had called me from the hospital really late at night, so I knew it was inevitable, but I still didn't have any trouble sleeping. Because what could I do from 2,000 miles away anyway? Childbirth is so much easier when you're the grandma! But don't get me wrong, I still had wonderful, smiling dreams that night about my soon to be born, toe-headed blond, first granddaughter.

And then Aaron called me right before the crack of dawn to announce that Jade was here!... and that she had the thickest crop of black hair he'd ever seen.

And I'd simply LOVE to be able to share a picture of that adorable thick head of black hair right here and now, but I've been given the error message "Image cannot be uploaded due to an internal error" for about 4 hours now!

Don't you just love it when technology is on your side?... And on your granddaughter's birthday yet!!!!

Anyway, please trust me. She was beautiful then... but she's even MORE beautiful now! With an unruly crop of lightish brown hair!

Happy Birthday Jadie!!!

I love you!

Grandma Jannet

AND I"LL SEE YOU SOON!

*whines*

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FINALLY!

One day old...

AND

Four years old!..

Happy Birthday Little Miss Rachel!...

2011-10-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

My sweet little granddaugther Rachel turned ONE today. And so how can that be?

Can you slow it down just a little bit Ray?

Not that I don't want you to learn to walk and talk and read on schedule or anything like that, but it would just be really great to be able to be there the first time you do SOMETHING... anything. Perhaps it'll be your first dance recital? Or maybe the first time you discover the joys of Sushi...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it!

I just miss my big girl!

A Letter to Rachel (Written a couple of weeks ago)

Happy Birthday Rachel! I can't believe you're a year old already!

I remember when your mom and dad found out they were going to have you and I was so happy to hear that I was going to have another sweet granddaughter. And then I was especially excited to see your very first pictures that the doctor took when you were still in your mommy's tummy. I think it's amazing how they can do that these days. And well you just had the most perfect little head and feet and I just knew that you were going to be a beautiful baby. And were you ever! When I saw that first picture of you in your bassinet after you were born, I told everyone that I'd never seen a newborn that looked more alert and well... just any more perfect.

I live so far away right now, but I've still gotten the chance to hold you and rock you and play with you and see you grow three different times already since you were born. So that's good! The first time when you were 3 weeks old, and then twice again when you were 6 months and 10 months. I'm hoping that I'm able to continue doing that as you grow up so that I can experience all your little first things, even if I don't get to see you do all those things the very first time. I hear that you just took your first steps the other day, and I'm so very sad that I wasn't there to see it. But I know I will smile SO big the first time I hear you say Grandma!

You are such a precious little girl and I look forward to watching you grow and seeing all of your accomplishments. You have a long and wonderful life ahead of you and I know that you will live it well... and that you will be a wonderful daughter to your mom and dad and make them proud. I'm so proud of you already!

I think the best thing your mom ever sent me was a video of you laughing. I watched it over and over again and couldn't stop smiling. It just made my whole day, that day! Make sure mom saves that one for you forever and ever, ok?

This is getting too long, so I'll just say that I can't wait to see your beautiful little face again and to give you a big hug and kiss! I hope I'll be able to move out closer to you soon!

Love you Rachel! Hope you have a wonderful 1st Birthday! Tell your mom and dad to take lots and lots of pics of you eating your delicious 1st birthday cake!

Rachel eating her delicious 1st birthday cake...

Thanks mom and dad!

Say "Cheeze" Boyz...

2011-10-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

But American, Swiss, Jack or Cheddar? That is the question.

Note the little slice of "cheeze" in Jade's hand at the very end!... lol

So I think I'm gonna have to go with Cheddar...

I don't know about you, but in my opinion that was WAY too much cuteness to even contain!

Thank you Jade!.. And Boyz!

Two Guesses Who This Is...

2011-10-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hint: We're not related.

Sorry, but I just found it... and don't have a folder to stick him in anymore. So I had to stick him somewhere...

Watch for him on Celebrity Apprentice some time in 2012. Not sure when exactly. See how out of the loop I am?

Why?... Because I Can. And also because I had a three day weekend...

2011-10-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

My only regret is that I have way too many pictures/videos and not nearly enough music...

For the kids. And nothing more...

Ok, well maybe just a little bit more.

It Was Time...

2011-09-26T18:01:00.001-07:00

I know... crazy.

Because it's been 8 years already... living like this.

But I have so many other things right now that are just itching to occupy my bookshelves. Pictures of grandbabies for one... and some cats. Along with all those many books which have been waiting patiently in boxes on the floor, forever, having had nowhere else to go all these years. So yes, it was time...

But still, in all honesty, I had a blast. Best time ever! And I know that I must have really, really adored him.

Because, I mean, well, I even had A BLOG about him once.

Not quite sure what I'm gonna do with all this stuff now though.

Thank goodness for Tupperware, I guess.

What follows is probably not for the weak of stomach...

Direct Link to Album with more elaborate eBay descriptions...

Just kidding...

*sigh*

I swear that was NOT easy!

In fact it took me ALL weekend...

Papa's Passing...

2011-09-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

The first time I saw Papa he was sitting at a picnic table with a friend outside of a hitching post/food stand in Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts. I'd joined my mom for a couple of days on her LDS Church History tour which she'd decided to go on alone as a 46 year old and recently single woman. The tour had passed through NYC, where I was living at the time, so it only made sense for me to go along and be able to spend a couple of days with her.

Anyway, I remember approaching that picnic table with her that day and suddenly seeing this big smile appear on his face. Of course, at this point you have to remember that I didn't know him from Adam, but still somehow sensed that this probably wasn't a case of love at first site for ME on his part. And since they'd been traveling on the same bus together for a couple of days already, and because I was at the very astute age of 19, I was pretty much able to immediately surmise that that smile was most likely for her.

It was July and freakin' hot and what else I mostly remember about that moment were the bees buzzing around in the trash barrel right next to the patio deck. There was a paper basket full of french fry remnants still smothered in ketchup in it and several half full cans of coke along with whoever knows what, and the bees were buzzing wildly. So I decided to move away. I can't remember exactly how long it was before mom finally decided to come over and join me, but I do remember it was a really long time. Sheesh, what a floozie!

Of course Mom doesn't remember any of this...

*SAVES SPACE FOR A PICTURE FROM 1974 BECAUSE I KNOW MOM MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE PICTURE FROM BACK THEN TUCKED INTO THAT INCREDIBLY ORGANIZED PHOTO DRAWER OF HERS*

I would never be a great historian because I pretty much just always "guess" at dates and timelines so I'm just gonna go ahead and leave any dates and timelines out of this...

But in a nutshell, what eventually came of that tour, and what I'd like to believe was due to that little meeting at the picnic bench, was this:

* A beautiful marriage of 35 years! (I remember when hitting the 25 year mark how they joked about having been married for 50!... even if it hadn't exactly been to each other...) And two people's lives which suddenly became the ONE they were meant to live and with the person they were meant to love.

I just like that picture so much because it encompasses everything that a hundred more pictures ever could.

But still, here's just a couple more anyway...

Thank you so much David, not only being my children's Papa, but for being mine too. You've been the most wonderful dad and grandpa that any child or grandchild could have ever hoped to have. And I'm not even gonna start with the huge lists of all the reasons I say that... because I'm hoping you know them them just as well as we do, and truly hope that you've known them all along.

Love you!

Papa passed at the age of 93 on September 8th 2011, last Thursday following a beautiful afternoon drive with mom. But he was just ready. And when he passed he went peacefully and perfectly... as difficult as it was for the rest of us to let him go.

A Matter Of Terribly Crappy Customer Service ~ an anagram...

2011-09-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

C.O.M.C.A.S.T...

It all started after those really fierce storms we had the beginning of August. And I lost cable. Or at least I thought I did. But when I called Comcast two days later they swore there had been no outage in my area... so it must be my computer.

Well a few days later, figuring that my Ethernet port had just been fried I called the Geek Squad who happily took on the assignment of setting me up with WiFi for a mere 102 bucks. And it worked just fine for a couple of days...

But then Geek Squad agent #2 came out and swore that my new outage had nothing to do with my computer and it must be my cable. Which Comcast then finally confirmed...

So as of August 13th I've been up and running thanks to a Comcast repair man who came over and put a temporary patch on my line and ordered a completely new one to be buried. Miss Dig came by the very next day! Wow, what super fast service!!! That was 3 weeks ago...

Since then I've been to Utah and back, mowed and weed-wacked around those flags three whole times and called Comcast more times than you could shake one of those flags at. Each time, my work order has been "escalated" with a promise of a call back within 48 hours. Meanwhile, it's now Labor Day weekend and I have to keep apologizing to my neighbors who also have to keep carefully mowing and weed-wacking...

Now I know those pictures probably aren't that seriously impressive. They'd probably be more so if I'd had the presence of mind to take some "before" pictures... Because then I'm pretty sure you'd be really, really impressed! (As if you're not already impressed enough at the time I spend mowing my lawn as it is...)

I wonder what Comcast would do if I just decided to not pay my bill. I'm pretty sure they'd just report me as a bad credit risk and cut my service. But if this irresponsiveness on their part lasts for much longer, what recourse does someone like me have? I guess I could always just smash my box!... And then where would I be? Not writing this blog dissing Comast, thats for sure. Sometimes consumerism sucks.

And just for the record... I didn't do this to my box.

Though I did try to put back as best I could the parts that I found just laying on my lawn 3 weeks ago...

Fastest Fly By Summer Ever!...

2011-08-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well, they seem to be quickly wrapping up all the road work around here that has caused major detours to my routes all summer, but school buses have a quickly ensuing and important function I guess. It seems like just yesterday I was crossing my own school's campus, slipping and sliding in all my winter gear. Yep, summer has just flown by! But pausing in my sadness to raise a glass half full to that thought... I'm done. I'm really, really done! No more Septembers for me!... or at least in the back to school sense of the word. And now I'll be able to focus even more dilegently on the upcoming leaf raking...

I remember (back in the day) when summers seemed to present such an endless stretch of possibilities. Sometimes I sure wish I could be young again. Except minus all the stupidity. The funny thing is that I think we sometimes only appreciate the past once we are finally past it. So I really tried to totally appreciate the few days (and thus my essential "summer") that I was able to spend with my wonderful family out in Utah last week and I think I succeeded. I love them! I had such a great time. Visiting with both the very young and the very old of my clan... gave me such a new appreciation for the circle of life and the old adage "For every time there is a season..."

*Raises a very wistful glass to Seasons!*... of which yet another one is about to expire...

A couple of pics...

Poolside

Bedtime

Four Generations

With Papa

And here's my Summer 2011 Album: Though I was only able to be there for a very brief part of it. Still, technology is awesome!

Direct Link to Summer 2011 Album

Direct Link to my PhotoBucket and All Albums

Finally... Fini!

2011-08-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

I know, it's a little crazy that I made such a big deal about graduating last April. I knew I still had one more class to take but it was still pretty cool. Little did I know that this last class would be so hard and encompass every waking moment of most of my summer.

But I done! Fini! And driving home from class last Wednesday night it actually crossed my mind that I might not ever have to drive in the dark again. Or go downtown, unless it's for something fun! It's been 10 years of spending a good deal of evenings at school after working all day. Not sure how I did it. It was really tough! But like my mom always use to say... um, hmmm... I must have blocked it out. But I think it had something to do with the impossible just taking a little bit longer. I don't even remember when I got to the point of believing I'd ever be done!

Anyway... Here are my projects from my last class. You can click on them to enlarge, but after that hit your back button to come back. I just don't have the energy to create "open in a new window" codes right now...

An Ad Campaign for a Fruit. I chose the raspberry...

A Public Service Announcement Series for "Hand Washing"...

A Mock Website for a Sheet Music Company...

Home Page

Home Page Dropdown

Browse All

Browse Dropdown

Broadway Page

Broadway Dropdown

Order Sheet Music

An Ad Campaign for a New Organic Vegetable Drink (Natural Gas)...

The Billboard

Marketing Giveaway

An InfoGraphic for Light Pollution...

Trust me... they took a lot longer to do than it just took to navigate through them.

Haha

And... YIPPEE!

My portfolio can be seen in my FaceBook photos.

"Officially" Checking In...

2011-07-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know about anyone else, but I was getting a little tired of looking at that graduation picture week after week... for two months. As if there was nothing else at all going on in my life. Well, you see, that's sort of the issue. Not that there's NOT anything else going on in my life... I mean.

But yesterday I got THIS in the mail. So I figured I should probably post it...

Now please keep in mind, this is only my "general" one. I guess after 130 credit hours they figured they should probably finally send one to me. But I should be getting the "real" one in the mail any day now, or at least as soon as I finish up this last little degree requirement (which is also one of the main reason I haven't been posting much of anything lately...)

And maybe the "real" one will actually be signed by the actual President of my college (who I could swear is Stephen C. Ender... Because I really have no idea at all who this person with the initials A.C.L. is!

On the other hand, it DOES sort of bring things around full circle...

In fact, now that I think about it... I actually kind of like it!

Anticlimactic...

2011-06-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

So yes, I "graduated" about a month or so ago but just yesterday received my (very expensive) pictures in the mail... And I'm rather impressed with them because I always pictured myself being old and gray and hobbling across that stage on a cane by the time I finally got my degree. But in actuality, I didn't feel a day over 25... ok 55.

Here I am with the Dean (who I think is still most likely younger than me...)

But now for the anticlimactic (and depressing) part...

I only got to "walk" because I was graduating within the year. But I still have one more class to go... and it'll probably be my toughest one yet. Advanced Graphic Design! Seriously... who was I trying to kid? I have no idea about all this stuff!

So today I sat down and opened up "Illustrator" and started messing around just to start warming up and all, because I've never, ever used that program before in my life but have a feeling I'm going to have to use it ALOT this summer! And voila! A pencil! Drawn from scratch! Haha.

And a very useful tool to have too, I suppose, when one is going back to school...

Grand Rapids Lip Dub...

2011-05-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

What to say... What to say...

Well, first of all, when I found out about this a few weeks ago I was all over it! On the very top of my bucket list is to someday be a part of a lip dub, mosh mash, flash mob, whatever! I mean, nothing ties me better to my computer than an afternoon of watching these things!

So it was first scheduled for the 15th of May (which I couldn't even comprehend because that would mean them having to block off downtown for two days in a row given the River Bank Run the day before.) But luckily the production was rained out that day, which, by luckily, meant that I could just sleep in and not have to think about driving downtown on a Sunday morning.

And then, I found out on Google that it would be re-scheduled for the next Sunday. So thank goodness, right?

So then next Sunday rolls around and I open the door to let the cats out and realize that even at 7:00 am the weather is feeling a little bit (more than) steamy. And anyone who knows about the relationship my hair has with humidity will completely understand why I decided to just go back inside and shut the door, content to stay on the computer in my cool basement for the rest of the day.

It wasn't till again a few days later, after mentioning it to my friend Cheryl, and after learning that the premiere of the production was going be shown on the big screen at Celebration Cinema North on Wednesday night, that I truly regretted not having just dealt with the humility of having been born with frizzy hair.

Us: So why didn't we do it? Me: Why didn't you ask me to do it with you? Cheryl: Why didn't you ask ME?!! And Etc. Etc. Sigh. Sigh. Whine. Whine...

So ok... here's what we missed out on...

And Now, My Humble Review...

I think the fact that it was all shot in ONE shot is amazing but which,of course, are the rules for a lip dub anyway. But I mean, how difficult must it be to pull something like this together? Unimaginable. The direction, camera work and the timing (in parts) were incredible, I thought. But the fact that this had to be shot on a Sunday afternoon was the unfortunate thing, sort of making it look like a dying city afterall... (This whole project stemmed from NewsWeek's article about Grand Rapids being one of the top 10 dying cities in America...) sigh

Plus... I'm really kicking myself as well for not having had the wherewithall and forsite to have volunteered to be a choreographer for all those extras. I thought the principals were really pretty good though! (Except for those people in the cars on the bridge who had absolutely no clue to the words.) And where was the Grand Rapids Ballet during all this?! But I'll stop now.

I just wish that all 200,000 of us would have turned out! That would have really been something! But then again, that probably would have been a little bit too much for a 22 year old (Forest Hills Central HIgh School) graduate to manage...

Anyway, he sure is cute!

Grand Rapids Lip Dub Premier, Rob Bliss, Celebration Cinema, May 25, 2011...

Check out Rob Bliss's ArtPrize 2009 Paper Airplanes entry if you want to see wall to wall people...

Anyway... I still really, REALLY love my super cool town!

P.S. Cheryl, was I right? It really DOES work better on a smaller screen doesn't it? But it's still only a sadly half filled bridge...

And this just in!!!! Roger Eberts calls this the best music video ever made! So WeeeeeCoooo!!!

For My Girls...

2011-05-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't made one of these in a really long time, and to be honest it was much harder than I'd remembered. But not as hard as childbirth... and not even NEARLY as hard as raising little munchkins, by any means...

I had SO many pictures to choose from, so I had to be choosy...

Love you guys!

Hats...

2011-05-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

'Twas the night after "Mom's Day" and all through the flat(s)...
Not a creature was stirring, except for the cat(s)...
And if I were feeling creative right now...
I'd be able to make this rhyme, somehow...

Because it's like this... Ya know how it is when something becomes such a permanent fixture around the house that you don't even notice it anymore? Until it's gone?... And then you become COMPLETELY aware of the empty space? Well, that's sort of what happened to me yesterday while I was spring cleaning and attempting to take this thing down.

I know, this is probably not the MOST perfect analogy when it comes to missing your kids and all, but still...

Anyway, the hat rack stays...

Haha.. Screencaps!

2011-04-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

I knew there was a reason for studying Multimedia Technologies..

Please don't muss my hair!...

Thanks...

And a few more...

I'm not quite sure I'm completely comfortable with this being out there on YouTube...

But anyway... The first 10 minutes are pretty much just introductions. Sort of cool for me to watch it again, but probably not so much for anyone else...

And then after the introductions, they made the 40, or so, of us talk a little bit... I'm on at about 30:00.

So yeah, it was a really, really long half hour of not wanting to do much of anything else... besides throw up...

Delta Pi Alpha Recognition Dinner

Ack...

Delta Pi Alpha...

2011-04-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well this was pretty cool, I have to admit...

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from the Dean of GRCC inviting me to attend a banquet to honor the top 5% of the graduating class of 2011. I was asked, in turn, to invite either a professor or a member of staff that had somehow been influential to me during my time at school. I was also able to invite up to 4 other guests, being either family or friends.

Unfortunately none of my family is here!... but it didn't take me too long to decide on my friends, or a professor either. And it sounded like a fun night, and I felt truly, truly honored to have been invited to be a part of it.

I have to interject here that I seriously could have had no idea that this would ever happen when I walked into that first French class on that evening of September 13th 2001, after nearly 25 years of being out of school. To be honest, I really had no idea what I was even doing there that first night back to school!... and I didn't learn a heck of a lot of French that first night anyway. (<-- that might take a moment...) I don't think there could be anything more overwhelming than staring down at that frightening list of classes you know you're going to have to take just in order to get to the place where you should have been at when you were 20.. Particularly when you're 46 and working full time... Which also brings to mind the fact that, at 46, you typically don't go back to school just to "get a degree"... like it's going to have any real major impact on any future prospects or anything. I think maybe you do it then because you finally realize that you just really want to finally do it!. And if you're going to do it, you might as well do it WELL. Because otherwise, well, what's the point? Really. So yeah... that was pretty much me.

So anyway, back to the banquet... I was just really looking forward to a nice dinner (catered by the Culinary Arts department which is rated +++++) and spending a great evening with my friends. But about 5 minutes after sitting down, my guest Professor Pat Higgins, who I'd invited, mentioned to me that she thought it had been a tradition in the past for all of the "honorees" to be given an opportunity to speak during the program as to each of their unique experiences at GRCC.

*panics!*

You're um, joking right?...

And then suddenly I remembered how that little silver-haired lady who had once taught me everything I could ever need (or not AT ALL need) to know about Telecommunications... didn't have one possible ounce of "joking" in her...

And so I think that was right about the time that I asked..

"Excuse me, but where's the ladies room?"...

And so yes it was all true. They came and got us, each one at a time, and brought us back to stand in a line to wait our turn to receive our medallion and then to (God forbid)... speak! And there was really no way to get out of it. Trapped, in other words. And I wondered later why they couldn't have at least (in the invitation or something) to have asked us to prepare a few words or something about what our time at GRCC had meant to us. And then I realized, that if they had, most of us probably wouldn't have wanted to come! So I suppose it takes a college to be smart, I guess.

And to be honest it really wasn't all that bad. I somehow managed to pull something somewhat intelligible out of my hat even though when I was handed the microphone I was still not sure what I was going to say. I babbled on for a minute about how I had stepped into my first class at GRCC two days after 9/11 and how though these 10 years had felt like a really long road I'd be graduating this summer with a degree in Multi-Media Communication Technologies. And then I explained how I had actually switched majors around six years ago because the first one I'd chosen (Communications) would have required me to take Intro to Public Speaking...

So it was pretty easy after that. But here's the really sad part.

I'd brought my camera, but was mostly just planning on using it to take a picture of me and my friends enjoying our nice dinner but then, of course, completely forgot about it. So when Julie grabbed it off the table to try and get some shots, it wasn't at all set appropriately. But I thank her SO much for trying!

I was able to salvage them a little by tossing PhotoShop filter on them, which actually made them appear a lot less blurry than the originals. And though they look sort of "surreal" this way, in truth, that's kind of how the whole evening felt to me to begin with...

From left to right: Olivia Margo Anderson (Chairman Board of Trustees), Steven C. Ender (Dean of GRCC), Me, Fiona Hert (Dean of Workforce Development)...

Here's a picture of the Dean without the PhotoShop filter added...

Me with my Professor, Pat Higgins...

And it was just SO great to have my friends Mel, Renee, Julie and Cheryl with me there as well! Hopefully that picture of all of us taken with Julie's phone will turn out much better than the ones up there. If so, I'll add it here soon!

... Oh well. lol

P.S. Fortunately my camera seems to be working much better this morning...

Front Cover

Back Cover

Honorees

(You may have noticed the asterisks after a few of the honoree's names. That's because they earned a 4.0. I only earned a 3.993, so I wasn't quite deserving of an asterisk : ( Thank-you World Geography class back from 2002...)

*sigh*

My medallion, with my book bag as a backdrop.

Wow, it just occurred to me that I had a pin kind of like that back in 1972. Except that it was from Alpha Delta Pi, and was pretty much achieved by just being a good partier...

Anyway, off to study for my final Final...

This just in...

2011-04-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

See... I lost my camera while out in Idaho. I could have pretty much left it anywhere...

At Jade's gymnastics class...the in-laws house... the grocery store... the restaurant where we went to eat... Walmart... the Dollar Store... the possibilities were pretty endless. The snow out there is pretty deep.

Turns out, after all this time, it was on the floor of Whitney's car. Or more likely underneath the seat of her car, and then one day just decided to roll out. But anyway...

Thank you so much for sending it back to me Whit! I would have absolutely hated to have lost these pics!

Me and Rachel

Rachel and her Mom

Tetonia 8:00 a.m.

Tetonia 8:01 a.m.

Tetonia- Pretty much the rest of the day...

Good sis!

Snug as bugs in a rug!

And two other pictures that I didn't take, but wish I had...

Everest Smiling...

Calder Smiling...

Ok I think I'm caught up now...

Shades of Gray...

2011-04-04T18:58:00.000-07:00

So, this "Light and Optics" class this semester has been a real stretch for me. I'm not very science minded at all and, though I'm fairly good at memorizing facts for tests, to be honest?... there hasn't really been a whole lot I've learned this semester that I feel I will probably take into "real life" and be able to use it in any way effectively.

But tonight I learned something that moved me somehow to immediately come home and first create a PowerPoint of it... and THEN figure out how to turn it into a movie! So obviously the deeper, yet subtle, concept of it impressed me a bit...

But anyway I'll stop yacking now and just let you watch...

Anyway, if you "got" the point I was pointing at, then cool! But if not, well I still hope it was a really fun illusion for you...

And if you still don't believe your eyes then here's a clickable image for you to print out. After placing a sheet of white paper over it, cut out the applicable squares and you'll be able to prove to yourself that what you see at first glance is not always, necessarily, what's really there...

Spring Break Part 2... Tetonia, Idaho...

2011-03-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

Just got back from spending a wonderful week with my daughters, my son-in-laws, and my 4 very beautiful grandchildren! I just don't get out there nearly often enough!!!

Apparently nobody else does either...

The neighborhood...

I just don't know how they function living out there. Even though, I have to admit it IS absolutely gorgeous! God's country for sure! How I love this little house!

(Much, much bigger inside than it looks btw.) Nothing could possibly be any cozier during a sweeping blizzard inside there with the fireplace blazing. And I love the little footbridge over the stream (off to the left) that Aaron's brother built, and which they get to enjoy for at least 4 months out of every year.

Streams, rivers, mountains, ridges and lots and lots of snow covered dirt roads. These next scenes are only about a mile or so from the house...

*clickable*

And so, I guess if I'm being totally honest... I have to admit that I'd really like nothing more than to live in a place like this someday. But just not until I retire and don't have to be at work at 7:30 every morning... Because seriously, when you wake up at 6 am and look out of the window, you feel as if you are totally at the end of the earth...

But enough about Geography...

The real reason for my visit...

Storytime with Jade...

Being beat at Dr. Mario by a three year old...

Playing in the snow... because you can just never, ever get enough of all that stuff, ya know?

Holding that beautiful Rachel...

Melting at her infectious smile!...

Finally meeting the boys...

Crazy...

A duet...

The 28 hour flight home including the late night stopover at that seedy motel was somehow all completely worth it!...

Spring Break Part 1... "Tried and True"...

2011-03-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

So, this is a really, really hard blog to write! Mostly because I've been so totally obsessed with this guy for 8 years now and suddenly... it sort of, kind of feels like it's finally over. But I've already been through 2 divorces, so it seems this should be old hat for me by now.

I even owned a blog about him once! Yes, really.

Please don't get me wrong, he'll always hold a very special place in my heart, we've been through far to much for him not to. I think I've seen him in concert something like 36 times (give or take a few). But his last tour closed in San Francisco on Saturday night and from his lips to our ears has basically said he has nothing else at all planned at all for the future. Maybe it's me, but I don't see him being all that motivated to continue on doing this forever. All he ever really wanted to be was a teacher. He got talked into going to the American Idol audition! I don't think he ever even fathomed the extent that it would change his life.

I'm sure there will be those who will spend the next year on the message boards speculating on what he'll do next and continuing to kavetch over his hair. Because there are those who have pretty much done nothing else for nearly a decade. It's a hard habit to break. Perhaps he'll finally just buy a home in Branson... and semi-quietly raise his son. Who knows? I honestly and sincerely hope he doesn't do that...

But still, it was so much fun going to Ft. Wayne this one last time with my Grand Rapids peeps!!!

And to finally have a good picture taken with him! The last picture I got with him 7 years ago in Salt Lake City... his hair was sticking up all over the place and it looked like he'd just rolled out of bed!...

Wait...

(Whit and I had tons of fun playing around with his collegiate UMASS hoodie the other day. Actually I was just using the opportunity to give her a quick tutorial on PhotoShop...)

Anyway, here's his show closing banter from his second to last show in Mesa, Arizona. See if you can spot his major "shout-out" to me at around 00:23...

And here's the beautiful rendition of "In My Life" that followed...

And if you'll just humor me with one more... one of my favorite songs from this tour... from his stop in Pittsburgh.

*sigh*

I think I'm really, really, going to miss him...

Two More Weeks!...

2011-02-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

Ok... so since the only two people who ever read my blog are my kids, I'm really not quite sure what the point is in posting these pictures... since I got them from THEM... except for the fact that I'll probably love looking back on them someday, remembering how adorable and tiny they were.

I get to hold them and squeeze them and hug them in just 2 weeks!!!

And I don't care what anybody says... I seriously have the cutest 4 grandchildren on the planet!

Jade... who has taken to Princess role hopping is now raising princesses of her own in the form of toilet paper origami...

Here she is as "Rapunzel"... or as she calls it... "Tangled."

Princess Jade...

Even in her sleep...

I'm not sure I can say that I've always looked forward to the day that someone would call me "Grandma"... but when SHE says it, my heart definitely melts.

Meanwhile Rachel... who is now 4 months old, is already doing 360's in the blink of an eye.

I've only had the joy of holding her for a couple of days in her short little life so far. Can't wait to do so again. She is such an adorable little precious!

*sigh*

As for "The Boys"....

Ah "The Boys"...

Well, I have no idea, because I haven't had the immense pleasure of meeting them yet!

*sigh* again...

But I simply cannot wait to schnuggle those little monkey butts!!!

The Little Ones...

The Big Girl...

I just absolutely HATE living 1,540.06 miles away!!!

Finally! A Snow Day for Grownups...

2011-02-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

Apparently we just had one of the biggest snowstorm in these parts in over a decade. One of the biggest? Well, I've been here for 2 decades and I don't remember any of them being bigger.

But the even bigger news was that work was cancelled. Seriously. And that's never happened in the 17 years I've worked for this company!

I don't have any meteorologist equipment on hand or anything so this isn't exactly precise but still, it was a lot.

I tried to find the most accurate place in my yard to stick my measurer. I know that it looks like a drift, but it's not.

Speaking of drifts... I just went out front to attempt to shovel my driveway and promptly came right back in. I think I'll just take a nap.

Oh yes, and my class has been cancelled for tonight as well.

So sad...

Lightyears...

2011-01-28T17:09:00.000-08:00

I'll never forget that day, staring at the college catalog and wondering how in the heck I'd ever manage to ever be able get that degree. It's gonna take lightyears!!!... I distinctly remember thinking that.

But I registered anyway...

That was in 2001... and my first class landed the day after 9/11. I truly didn't want to go, I just wanted to stay home and watch the news, but I was already registered and had already paid and everything. It was French class... And so I went and that night we pretty much put the curriculum aside and just talked... And I'll never forget my French professor... she was just awesome. One of the best I've ever had. So awesome, in fact, that if it hadn't been for her I'm really not sure I would have ever had the motivation to continue.

So I kept going... But I'm not gonna lie, it has been really, really tough.

But now, ten years later, I'm on my last class! My Science/Lab (The Science of Light) which, by no coincidence, I saved until the very, very end thinking that it would possibly give me some sort of momentum to... get through it! And it worked!

So here I am... So close to my goal and at the same time realizing how much I've learned in the meantime, because really...

The light-year is a measure of distance, not time. It is the total distance that a beam of light, moving in a straight line, travels in one year. To obtain an idea of the size of a light-year, take the circumference of the earth (24,900 miles), lay it out in a straight line, multiply the length of the line by 7.5 (the corresponding distance is one light-second), then place 31.6 million similar lines end to end. The resulting distance is almost 6 trillion (6,000,000,000,000) miles!

So I guess I was wrong because I haven't put anything close to that much mileage on my car in doing this...

Some fun stuff I'm learning...

Ugh...

Even though, surprisingly... some of it makes sense! lol!

In particular...

And it's been really interesting learning how to calculate my driving speed in the actual lightspeed scheme of things...

Not...

What's In A Name?...

2011-01-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how many times over the past week, when I've told people the names of my new grandsons, they've said... "Wow, super cool names... but where did their parents come up with them?"

Well, I'm really not sure... so I'm just taking a stab here. Whitney and Aaron, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Aaron Everest
Well, his first name is obvious, but his middle name not so much. Until you see this...

Grand Tetons

And while it's not exactly Mt. Everest, ya still get the gist, right?

Calder Reed
Even given his daddy's middle name as his middle name, his first one would still remain mysterious if it weren't for the fact that his daddy is a sculptor and his mommy grew up in Grand Rapids. Anyway, here's a pretty cool pic of both his mommy AND his namesake...

Calder Plaza Grand Rapids

Making a little more sense now?

And then there's Jade who was named after her mommy's middle name, which came by no other reason except that I loved it and it was also the name of the heroine in "Endless Love." And Rachel who I think was probably named by her parents, Daryn and Jon, to ensure that nobody would ever, EVER mistake her for a boy... and plus it's a really pretty name.

And Let's Not Forget About The "Big" Girls...

2011-01-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful... and SO truly blessed.

A Couple of Early Valentines...

2011-01-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of little miracles!

Aaron Everest - 5 lbs. 3 oz. - 17.75 in. - 4:56 pm

Calder Reed - 4 lbs. 3 oz. - 18 in. - 4:58 pm

They'll be in the NICU until they're strong and healthy enough to go home. With Mommy and Daddy's love along with all the good care they're getting at the hospital, hopefully it won't be too long.

Everest

Calder

Mommy and the Boys

Hope I got them right! They look identical to me. It's SO hard being 1,500 miles away!

New Year's Resolution...

2010-12-31T15:51:00.000-08:00

I was thinking a lot about this today...

And it was hard, because there are so many things to resolve NOT to do... and for me there are plenty of possibilities there. But I can still fit into a size 10... so thank goodness dieting isn't one of them...

So my question tonight is... What IS a resolution? Is it something you stop?... or something you start?

Stopping is really hard... but seriously...so is starting sometimes! And this next thing has always been an especially hard one for me to start.

And I mean being thankful for everything! The joy and the pain, the good and the bad, the ups and downs, the effortless and difficult, the springs and the winters... inclusively... because everything's exactly the way it is, for a purpose! For our good. And everything is it's own "gift" for us to accept in whichever way we choose. (This has always been such a difficult thing for me to wrap my mind around.) And I have SO much more to be thankful for than I could ever NOT be thankful for, in a million years. A million years! It's all... perfect. It is. So why do I keep blabbering to myself in such negative ways sometimes? I'd give examples, but I don't want you to hear them.

(Ya'll really have no idea how hard this is going to be for me.. do you?)

So that's my resolution for tomorrow... and then the next day after that... and the next day after that.

I'm going to give it my best shot.

Anyway...sorry for confusing the holidays.

My Christmas Eve Thoughts...

2010-12-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

I left work a little early today. My boss let me. The roads were crazy. Crazier than usual. And the people in the cars I passed looked pretty crazy too... And it just made me wonder about where everyone was going and about all the things they felt they just "had to do"... by tonight! And I guess I just felt really, really thankful... that I have absolutely nothing at all to do tonight... for once.

Well, except for maybe this...

Finale-eeeh...

2010-12-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

I can't say I hate drawing, but don't know that I'll ever do much of it again. It's just SO time consuming, and I'm not sure I'm really that good at it. But anyway...

Most students on finals night get to go in, take their test... 45 minutes max, right?... and leave. Not us? We got to spend the full 4 hours doing whatever we wanted to. (???)

So I spent my 4 hours darkening up this background. Over and over and over...

There's a scriptural passage somewhere that talks about opposition in all things... in other words how one can't fully appreciate pleasure without having first experienced pain. Well all I know is that I am finally going to be able to appreciate the immense pleasure of cleaning my house for the first time in 14 weeks!

Two more classes to go towards my degree!... and then what? Not sure.

C'est Moi, non?

2010-12-15T15:55:00.000-08:00

Voila!

And that, folks, is the extent of my memory from French class, which incidentally was my first back in 2001 when I first embarked on this crazy degree.

And also, seriously... this sketch (haha... sketch... it's 22x16!) looks tres, tres better in person.

Egads!...

2010-11-29T18:01:00.001-08:00

When will this endless class ever end?

At least I spent LAST weekend with my family so I had absolutely nothing else better to do over this entire Thanksgiving weekend. "Thankfully" I had no need of a clear dining room table...

Here's what's left of my pencil...

A Thankful Mom...

2010-11-24T19:08:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking today about all the things I have to be thankful for... (how timely!) There is just so much! A warm home, a job, health, family, friends, two cats... a fun and fulfilling past and present...

And then I squint my eyes... and what I see MORE clearly than anything is how thankful I am to have had the wonderful privilege of raising two beautiful daughters... and of all the memories I have of them growing up. And then.. I think about how it was in those moments of sending each of them off to college, and being scared to death knowing they were now out there all alone and facing the world on their own... and missing them. It was really hard! And sometimes it all seems like just weeks ago!

So really, what I ended up really thinking about today is how very thankful I am that both of them (as impossibly far away as they could ever be from me nowadays) are at this moment now each surrounded by their own wonderful family... who love them every bit as much as I do! At least!

So... not too shabby a thing for a mom to be thankful for on this day of thanks, eh?

Comfort Food...

2010-11-21T12:05:00.001-08:00

Today is one of those days that reminds me of all those cold and chilly Sundays growing up. It was always grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch after church.

I tried to continue the tradition for years with my own girls until one of them put her foot down and made it perfectly clear how much she hated tomato soup. So then we switched to quesadillas.. which then somehow became the new tradition and ended up being pretty good comfort too.

But now all alone on these cold and chilly Sundays I, again, get to fix whatever I want for lunch...

I'm just really missing my girls today. All of them! Here's my newest one.

I have this thing about color coordinating....

A Charcoal Effort...

2010-11-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

This was my first time doing anything like this, and it's not perfect... but I still have tomorrow night during class to fix it.

I started with a blank page of pure 40% charcoal and then just added and subtracted... Interesting that you can do that and come up with things like this, no? Just wish I had more and better artistic tools...

Meanwhile... I miss my granddaughter Rachel! What a beauty! Didn't get any great pictures on my trip to Idaho since I was pretty sick the whole time and plus, my camera sucks. But I still feel like I should be sharing pictures of HER right now... and not just a drawing of some tea-kettle.... *sigh*

Waiting for Whit to send me pics...

This Is Harder Than It Looks... or maybe not.

2010-11-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Basically, it just involves an entire Saturday of crosshatching... from sunup until sundown. Wash, repeat on Sunday.

Yardwork? pffffft...

Project SEARCH Silent/Live Auction Fundraiser

2010-10-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

I remember when I used to work for a bank...

Oh, I still do, of course, but sometimes I forget. Because for the past year I've been working with a group of awesome individuals towards this event to raise funds to expand the Project SEARCH program across West Michigan.

What IS Project SEARCH? Well, it's a school-to-work program that takes high school seniors with physical or cognitive disabilities and places them into an actual work situation over the course of the school year, with the goal of finding gainful employment upon graduation.

This will explain it in a nutshell.

And here's a video with the Project SEARCH students on our own Operations campus here in Grand Rapids.

The Auction to Benefit Project SEARCH will take place this coming Thursday, November 4th at Noto's Italian World Dining in Grand Rapids. A chance to do some early Christmas shopping (from a choice of incredible items!) while at the same time, supporting a great cause. Not to mention sampling a heavy course of some of Noto's most delectable hors d'oeuvres and desserts!

(Updated: This post was from last year! And this year's auction to be held again at Noto's on Thursday, November 10th promises to be even better... with a "Strolling Dinner" added, along with some even more incredibly awesome items to bid on! Scroll down for the link to our current FaceBook page for a preview.)

As for my part.... (besides hauling them up to our super secure storage room and eeeing and oohing over every single wonderful donation that came in)...

Save The Date

Poster

ThankYou Cards for donors

Ticket...

The Program...

300 programs in a box ready to go...

Anyway, it's been tons of fun living my dream of being a graphic designer... while still earning a weekly paycheck!

Please contact me if you're interested in attending. It's gonna be a SUPER fun night! And by the way, the auction items are WAY cooler than my artwork. *g*

You can find us on Facebook!

And we also have a new Website!

Rachel Mae

2010-10-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

October 27, 2010

7 lbs 8 oz

Priceless...

Everyone's fine.
and resting...

But Daryn, did you do her nails first thing? Because folks are asking...

Tutu Cute... and also probably her last day being my only Grandbaby...

2010-10-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

I don't know whether to laugh or cry or what! So adorable this one... What a beauty!

Daryn should be calling me at any moment about grandbaby (Rachel) number two!

It's Really Great Having My Kitchen Counter Back!...

2010-10-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Because this took me nearly three weeks!

The culmination of a homework assignment, which was to create a still life drawing conveying a light source, line value and texture (but without the use of shading.) That will be our next lesson I guess...

I haven't even thought of what to name this piece. Any ideas? Just off the top of my head I'm considering "Things That Haven't Been Out of My Kitchen Cupboards in Probably 10 Years"...

P.S...

I figured I'd share my classroom project in this blog as well. Same concept, same assignment... except that it's WAY more enjoyable to do these things at home, sitting in a cozy chair, listening to my own music rather than standing at an easel barely tolerating the freakish music my Professor chooses to play.

The upside to this classroom project, however, was that I didn't have to clean it up...

Drawing One Oh! One...

2010-09-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

It's no coincidence that I didn't have any artistic talent prior to my discovering PhotoShop. Because I didn't. But then I got hooked on it and got this wild and crazy dream about going for a degree in Graphic Design. (no less!)

I've held off as long as I could on this ONE required class... But since I'm finally down to my last three I figured it was finally about time to go for it. But you see... I've never even been able to draw stick figures adequately! In my opinion, PhotoShop is a much tamer beast than the pencil!

So I'm now into my third week... and trust me, so far I've drawn a lot of junk! The first week was absolutely laughable! But at least now I've been given a few tools with which to make it all make sense.

A ruler... for one.

I think I've done about 15 pages like this so far. I've drawn, let's see...things from my kitchen drawer, my junk drawer, my yard, antiques, my bathroom, my garage, my lamps, my furniture, my basement, my guilty pleasures...pretty much everything and shoot, well, I'm still sure I've forgotten some. But they're all on the grading table right now except for this one, which I did this afternoon... of things in my refrigerator... which thankfully managed to meet the minimum number of 6 required items...

It's really strange how I'm now looking at everything I see...wondering how I can draw it. The whole concept of drawing is bizarre though. It's amazing how we don't ever really see things the way they really are. You really have to LOOK! So, hopefully, if I learn nothing else from this class, that will be an important concept that I can improve on.

Here's my first ever "Still Life"...

And another one... using "the ruler"...

I'm trying really, really hard to be positive and hopeful... even though I only got a C+...

It's Finally Here! The Weekend Forecast!

2010-09-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

I actually thought maybe I'd dreamt it or something...

Single available at iTunes.

And if that wasn't enough of a Benji fix... check out this trailer for his movie Leading Ladies. This movie is currently only being shown in select Film Festival venues... but keep your eyes open because it's getting amazing reviews!

Hmmm... Wonder if I have the nerve to drive to Champaign, Illinois on September 25th...

I Wonder How Many Others Might Be Out There...

2010-09-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

So somehow I got tagged in a photo on FaceBook from an old friend from my theatre days who, as it appears, had this picture of me that I'd never seen before. I don't know why that seems so strange. I guess I figured I'd seen about every picture of me ever taken...

I mean, pictures are pictures. And usually I just try to avoid being IN them as much as possible (unless of course Daryn has just finished doing my hair)...

I DO have a scrapbook... and my theatrical career is definitely preserved in it, enabling me to relive it over and over whenever I want. But seriously, when a new picture like this one surfaces?... well, it's like I never even lived it before... until now. And then I get to live it again for the very first time.

Does that make sense?

Anyway... I just LOVE this picture! Because there is just SO much going on in it!

In other words... it's pretty much a "Word Bubble's" dream!...

L to R: Me, James Bontempo, Rita O'Connor, Stephanie Eley, Tracy Shayne, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jamie Torcellini.

And speaking of the devil.... this just in!...

L to R: Tracy Shayne, Gay Marshall, Sachi Shimizu, Wanda Richert, Jannet Moranz, Rita O'Connor ~ Pre-recording for "Baryshnikov On Broadway."

Wow! I guess it's true about how if you build it they will come...

Fast Forward to September...

2010-09-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

Ok... well August sure flew by!

Had a great time at the Clay/Ruben concert and my seat was excellent. Only 6 months to go until I see him again in Ft. Wayne! But this time with a Meet & Greet... courtesy of my friend Julie! I know, I know.... I'm suppose to be over him. And I am, for all intents and purposes, but a M&G with my best Clay buddies? Well, you're just never too old to look forward to being 14 again. And I am SO looking forward to it!

Anyway... here's how I spent my last week of August...

* Co-hosted a baby shower for my youngest daughter...

Isn't that just the most adorable diaper cake ever? It was made by my older daughter, who is expecting twins and hopefully didn't bemoan the fact that she was giving all those diapers away.

(Here's a pic of my two preggie daughters.)

No intended disrespect directed towards that wonderful miracle of motherhood, but honestly?... it really is a cuter word than "pregnant." Don't you think? And aren't they cute?

* Attended a pseudo family reunion at Aspen Grove (near Sundance) in Utah. I call it pseudo because there were really only about a dozen out of... a lot of family... who were there the whole time. Most people came and went, or showed up for a day... or a night. But it was still fabulous! One of the most relaxing weekends I've had in ages and I thank my mom so much for doing all she did to arrange it.

Here are just a couple of pics... Ok... nevermind. There are too many. If you want to see 'em you can go here.

*I went along for crib, big girl bed and BIG car shopping!

*Spent some good quality time with my folks and was able to show my mom for the 125th time how to save photos to a folder on her computer.

*Ate WAY too much... packing it away for those lean winter months.

*AND I got a totally awesome backwards arm hug from granddaughter Jade...

Which in itself, was almost worth the price of the plane ticket.

But oh, I forgot to mention the thing about Marzipan (my ever so fat kitty) and how just before leaving for a week realized he hadn't pooped in like well, forever. And he eats alot! Anyway, lets just say that heaven reserves special places for friends who are willing to step in at the last minute to help out our furry friends in those kinds of moments of crisis. And so thanks to Cheryl, who dealt with carting him back and forth to the vet multiple times in my absence, along with the aftermath... Marz is now still an ever so fat, but totally regular, guy...

And now it's September, but it feels like October. We just had a cold front blow in and I'm already mourning the passage of summer.

School busses start Tuesday... but my bus is already running. My drawing class began last week. I know you're all waiting with bated breath to see what I come up with...

Only problem is... I can't draw.

No, really.

So this should be a really fun Fall.

Evangelists and Microphones...

2010-08-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

I didn't have really high hopes for this tour, I'll be honest!... But the two of them play off each other like Tommy and Dick... like Tim and Harvey... like Peaches and Herb!

They are hilarious together! And their singing's not too bad either.

This should definitely be a SNL skit and perhaps someday it WILL be...

Can't wait for my one and only concert coming up in 6 days!

SpittleClack...

2010-07-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

I am such a huge fan of Clack Goddesses! I don't know how it is they do what they do! It must be really, really, really hard and stressful work!

I mean, most of us get to go in, sit down and just enjoy the show!... while those "often taken-for-granted few" are just beginning their evening of gruelingly hard work... at times risking their admission, cameras, video cards, cell phones and even their own pocketbooks!

So as a habit, I don't do it.

(except for once in Indianapolis...)

And I did it with this big ole' honkin' video cam of all things!

I hadn't yet acquired a state of the art, tiny little digital one with which to do the work so I just stuffed my old faithful big crappy one in my oversized bag (the same one that I'd used for the last 10 years to tape the thousands of dance, soccer, choir, band, pom pom and every other imaginable silly, cute or memorable moment of my kid's lives) ... and walked in.

Security must have been really lax that night...

And it did the job!... And I got some really good stuff! But I seriously had no idea how to share it... as much as I wanted to!

(Keep in mind, this was 5 years ago after all, and some of us were much slower in developing our techno savvy skills than others.)

So these tapes have basically just been sitting idol in my tape drawer for the past 5 years now... Until last night when, for some reason, watching the new "Juke Box Tour On Crack" clack, made me want to pull them out and watch them again!

(except that I no longer have a VCR to watch them ON!!!)

And so... it's in times like these... when we realize that our techno savvy skills acquired over the years... have finally begun to pay off!

Here's just one (and quite hilarious, I might add) little sample... from it.

Lightbulb moment!!!

Looking for another NINE little gems sort of like that one!

Clay's New Backup Singer..

2010-07-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

Why can't I ever seem to escape it?

But good for her! And HERE'S to continuing employment.

The song sort of resonates in me too...

Shoot, you'd think that I'd at least be able to somehow finagle another pittance of a Meet & Greet out of it...

But a year from now I'm sure that link won't make any sense at all... and I'll completely wonder what the point was.

The Timeless Juke Box Tour (on Crack)...

2010-07-26T17:22:00.001-07:00

And so we're off! On a 17 city tour!

I'll be downloading continuously I'm sure. It's been a heck of a long time!

Today I tried to "left click and save!" haha

Anyway...they are absolutely hilarious together!

Can't wait for my one and only concert...

in Hammond, IN.

*sigh*

A Sad, Sad Day...

2010-07-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

But it's time, ya know?

Today I peeled about 30 pages of old theatre reviews out of a magnetic scrapbook and tried to salvage them as best I could. Please, don't ever put anything thats important to you into a magnetic scrapbook!

And that was just the beginning...

Please... to all you future Camp Directors! Never, ever give your swimming champs ribbons made out of felt, embellished with macaroni alphabet letters. Just don't!

Hopefully I'll be able to salvage some of the other stuff that was in that scrapbook...

Anyway, the time comes eventually, for everyone I guess, when you figure you just don't really need to keep ALL THAT STUFF anymore. I've given most of it about 40 years... I looked at it all once again just now... and realized that this one moment of a memory was probably the reason I've been saving it for all these years. And it was worth it I guess because it was one sweet afternoon of memories.

Some of my memories even got an outdoors photoshoot!

My Lambie...

His Profile...

I can't even remember when Bunny wasn't in my life...

This is really, really hard!

And it gets worse!!!

But after reading a dozen or so entries that said pretty much "Didn't do anything today" or "Danny said he had to pretend not to be my boyfriend or his friend would tell his mom" I figured I could probably live out the rest of my life without it... along with the cheap pink nail polish.

But the very saddest of all was this one.

Mom made for me when I was 3 and she sat on my bed for probably 10 years. But since then she's been sitting in a box in my basement for nearly half a century... and somehow cardboard boxes don't bring out the best in maintaining a healthy and youthful glow and they also promote major mildew....

*makes note to self to keep the really important things in my life on my bed from now on...*

But I guess if I was finally able to toss out these (ruby, custom-made) shoes from the "Hollywood/Ukraine" tour... you can pretty much believe I could probably toss out just about anything...

(Thank goodness I accidentally left my bag of Chorus Line shoes on the subway after my last performance so at least I don't have to deal with THAT...)

All this... even after seeing "Toy Story 3" and sobbing!...

But for sure all my kid's stuff stays! Or at least until they come back someday to claim it...

Shocker!...

2010-06-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not exactly sure how THIS happened, but I'm really glad it did... and I'll wear it proudly!

Except that I SO prefer it in Chartreusse...

Finally... Finis!

2010-06-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

This has been a really intense 7 weeks! But tonight I turned in my final project. A revision of our very first design.

You may remember the assignment from part one where we were asked to create a design depicting an image of ourself along with a graph which represented our proficiencies in the various Adobe applications.

No?

Then I'll remind you...

The biggest critique I received was that there didn't seem to be a light source, given such a bright day. The second was that the bubble "splat" was unrealistic and it wasn't clear that it was actually the "Apple" bubble that had burst. So those were the problems to solve. The first was easy. The second?... well, I am still only so-so on bubble making so creating a realistic bubble burst seemed incomprehensible. So I decided to rethink the whole thing...

And this is what I came up with.

I also submitted a couple of extra credit ideas for a new bp logo. Yes, they're pathetic I know. As is the whole tragic situation.

So not to make light of it or anything but...

...and

Anyway... Let the summer begin!

My Graphically Designed Summer... part yadayada

2010-06-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

Only one class left!

I was gonna take the second one... during the second half of the summer but I think I'm gonna pass. Graduation will just have to wait a couple more months.

Because enough's enough for now, ya know?

So far I think I've probably got a "B" I think. Imagine that? After ten years of maintaining a 4.o. Guess I'm just not up to snuff as a professional designer yet even though this IS only "Graphic Design ONE" for goodness sake. I guess we'll see.

Perhaps the extra credit project of redesigning the BP logo will save me.

anyway...

Our assignment this week was to create a personal logo. So I created three...

The first one is really just a possible banner for my blog (but not really because I already have one sort of like it...)

The next two I created as possible logos for my (maybe) future sideline.

And well, also because my Professor told me I had to...

I think this one is my favorite.

Perhaps I'll use it.

Class is over on Monday.

How many days until Tuesday?
!!!

My Graphically Designed Summer... part Three

2010-06-10T17:15:00.000-07:00

Ah, the color wheel. Let's not forget the color wheel!

Assignment was to design displays of the various color groupings:

The Full Twelve Hue
Complementary
Split Complementary
Analogous
Triadic

The journey was a trip! And it only cost me three vacation days!

Ridiculous...

Anyway...

(Please feel free to click to enlarge... and I hope you're viewing this on a Mac! *g*)

The Twelve Hue

Complementary

Split Complements

Analogous

And this one, just for schnicks...

Triadic

...which just reminded me to stash away that $20 to gamble away in Hammond, Indiana on August 13th!

ON to creating a personal logo...

Karen 'eh!... I think I may need your help!!!

I Have The Most Adorable Grandchildren!...

2010-06-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Awww....

And Eeeeee!

Thanks Whit and Aaron!

Suddenly my family is just multiplying like rabbits!

But isn't "he" just absolutely gorgeous?!!!

...or do EPT's come in pink too?...

Two...

2010-05-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

I have two wonderful sisters

Two ex-husbands

Two dads

Two computers

Two cats

Two jobs

A two car garage

A two story house

Two lawn mowers

Two beautiful daughters

Two amazing sons-in-law

An adorable granddaughter... who's two

And another one on the way (courtesy of daughter number two)

who has two very cute feet...

And one very perfectly perfect little nose...

I am two lucky!

My Graphically Designed Summer... part Two

2010-05-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

So this is how it went down.

I had this idea all planned out about how to demonstrate the 5 major elements of Design...

Emphasis
Balance
Sequence
Unity
Proportion

I even took last Thursday off from work as "vacation" day to work on it. That was the day of that major downpour and thunderstorms for any of you who live around me may remember. Anyway, just as a reminder to anyone within the sound of my voice, please do not ever forget to "save your work" as you're going along. Yes, that is exactly what did not happen in my case...

So after the electricity came back on I decided to completely dump the old idea... and come up with a new one.

Which I think turned out better than the first one would have anyway...

Here goes: (clickable)

Emphasis

Balance

Sequence

Proportion (The Golden Triangle... and my personal favorite that began as one.red.umbrella and resulted in a ton of recoloring, resizing and rotating.)

And this one that I completely and utterly ripped right off of the Internet.. but somehow managed to make it my own anyway...

Unity

Oh yes, and I got some extra credit for this one. The totally under rated element of... Surprise.

...which I totally ripped off of the Internet as well.

My Graphically Designed Summer... part One

2010-05-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I have so been dreading this. Not that I don't like doing it and I do it all the time anyway, but 2 nights a week until 10 pm when I HAVE to do it is a little bit tough.

That being said...

Our first assignment was to help our professor put a name to a face and to give him an idea of our proficiency in the following applications...

PhotoShop
InDesign
Illustrator
Dreamweaver
Adobe Acrobat
Apple OS X

Not necessarily in that order (except it just so happens that that's pretty much MY order.)

Ok, so anyway... Voila!... My first assignment.

If nothing else, I am now a fairly proficient PhotoShop bubble maker...

My Inner "Fangirl" Is Finally Back!!!...

2010-04-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

Who'd have ever thought? (!!!)

Sorry... This preview version has been deleted because the full length version is now HERE.

My First "Professional" Gig g

2010-04-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

My First Professional "Gig"... *g*

Ok... so this was fun.

I work for a bank (which shall remain nameless...)

But anyway, we have this BIG celebration... on 5/3 of every year...

This year, the overall goal of the bank has been for each department/area/affiliate to refrain from working in silos and to become "ONE BANK" to meet our customer's needs.

So anyway... our affiliate, being the West Michigan one, (or me... I seriously can't remember)... came up with this silly idea of doing a music video set to Bob Marley's tune of "One Love."

And as silly as it may seem, it really ended up being pretty amazing overall!

Each department in our Operations Center was given exactly ONE day to learn the words to the music and THEN given only a 5 minute (one chance shot) to record it. We did this whole thing in about 2 hours!

Fun stuff! And corny? You betcha! But this all happened somehow seamlessly during our lunch hour. There's something to be said about teamwork!

And then I had the fun challenge of editing it... which was actually pretty easy since there ended up being MORE than enough material to work with!

Wow, It's April Already!

2010-04-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

Seriously... I had no intention of neglecting my blog for this long! And I'm sure that all my avid and loyal readers have just been waiting with bated breath...

But this winter went by for me really quickly! Huge projects will tend to do that to you.

Ok, so this is the first thing I've posted since I got my Mac and I have to admit everything feels a little bit weird. Just saving pictures to post has been a major challenge! But I did manage (somehow) to get this screencap which features all the iDVD files that I've been working on ever since the snow began to fly. I think I only have one or two left to do!

My children's entire young lives captured in that one little screencap...

I hope they'll be excited...

Winter Retreat...

2010-02-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

I know! I haven't been around HERE for awhile.

But I'm still hanging around...

How many more weeks?

Technology Shmechpology...

2010-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

I don't even know what to say...

I've been doing this for a while now. I mean, I almost have a degree in it

even!!!...

But somehow burning one little project on iDVD has taken me now a little over 96 hours. And STILL the chapter markers don't work!

And those people that answer questions when you "google"??? Well, they only THINK they're helping!!

*calming down now...*

I do realize that someday I will look back on all this and laugh.

Holy Mackerel!...

2010-01-10T12:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I realize I haven't blogged in a while. But this new Mac is just so darn confusing! I mean, everything I thought I knew about technology and the media has just gone out the window. Bye Bye. And I've been doing that sort of stuff for a while now. But I'm a died in the wool PC girl!

My latest endeavor (not to just jump in head first with the most difficult thing I could imagine doing) has been to get all my 150 VHS tapes of my children's lives to digital. And there's about 6 hours worth of footage on each tape. This is where the math skills come in handy...

And so far so good, as far as converting them, but here's where the fun part starts.

In which format do I use to share them in on this thing? To save them for posterity? I've each of them saved in all of the following formats; wmv, mpg, avi, mov, mp4, m4v, mpeg-2. LOL. And it's like putting one person from every nation into one room and expecting them all to be able to communicate with each other. I have more and more admiration for lingualogists daily.

And I think this is gonna take a while...

Meanwhile... I've been finding lots of other cool things that my Mac can do...

I don't think those are Mackerels...

A "Reindeering"...

2009-12-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

Look what I got from Jade for Christmas!

And well, from her Mommy and Daddy and Uncle Neal too...

I just love it!

What I Really Meant To Say Was... "Merry Christmas!"...

2009-12-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

Though in actuality, this picture WAS taken at Thanksgiving...

My "This Year's 10 Most Favorite Things To Be Thankful For" List:

Passing three of the hardest classes I've ever taken in my life with flying colors.
Remaining gainfully employed in a wonderful company with management that always nurtures my somewhat random abilities and talents.
Getting a new car and some direly needed home repairs done while at the same time snowballing myself almost completely out of debt (for the most part). *thank you Dave Ramsey*...
Discovering a miracle cure for Poison Ivy.
Reconnecting with so many friends from my past. (Technology can be a pain but it can be such a blessing too.)
Not sliding off the road even once.
Being able to see my family TWICE this year and hearing my granddaughter call me by name.
Knowing that Daryn and Jon are now together forever.
Getting over Clay Aiken.
Finally training my kitties to not sleep right on top of my feet when in fact they DO have the whole entire rest of the house.
Netflix

Ok, so I guess that's eleven...

I probably could have gone for twelve...

Merry Christmas to all of the many, many of you who are reading this... and even to those very few of you who aren't... *g*

{{{hugs}}}

This Took More Work Than You'd Probably Imagine...

2009-12-13T07:22:00.000-08:00

After 14 weeks of working on this thing (along with around 20 hours per week of additional homework assignments) I somehow managed to finish up my final project for my "Flash" class a week ahead of schedule.

Now, please understand... I GET blogging. I GET MySpace and FaceBook... but this was nothing like trying to figure out any of those. Rather like comparing boiling an egg, toasting a bagel or making jello to creating a Boeuff Bourginione from the recipe of Julia Child...

Ok, so anyway... Please feel free to click on the (very large) thumbnail below.

Tada!

GaGa Ooo-La-La...

2009-12-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

Shoot I just can't help it. I freakin' love this video!

Earworm to the max!

Should my mother be concerned?

Or my granddaughter for that matter?

As for my kids, I'm sure they're both just rolling their eyes...

Technorati tags:
Lady GaGa, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , Bad Romance

This Is Me Today...

2009-10-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

Don't even ask...

My Sister's A STAR...

2009-10-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

I'll never forget how I directed her in her first play! It never got off the ground much... in fact we never even performed it. But we sure had fun rehearsing it for that whole year and a half...

But anyway, this endeavor of her's actually took off! And I'm so proud of her!

She's the gorgeous, sometimes bitchy, blond with the infectious smile... the one who keeps putting her hand over her face and cries alot (I taught her how to do that...) But it's pretty effective, don't you think?

Technorati tags:
Alison Trouse, Stand Strong, The Movie

You've Been Warned...

2009-10-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

No, seriously...

Technorati tags:
Adam Lambert, Time For Miracles, 2012, The Movie

I Finally Have To Admit It... Grand Rapids is a Very, Very Cool Place to Live!...

2009-09-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

However, when I moved here 20 years ago, it wasn't so much. Downtown was pretty much of a disaster and an absolute ghost town after 6 o'clock on any given evening. And especially on the weekends when you particularly didn't want to travel down there, unless of course you had to take your children to ballet class...

But things have most definitely changed. Over the past few years Grand Rapids has become, really, the most amazing city/town!

Just look what they did on Monroe Avenue last weekend!!!

And seriously, this was only a single entry in the ArtPrize competition taking place in downtown Grand Rapids from September 23rd thru October 10th.

Here's the jist of it...

The Basics
At ArtPrize, any artist—from established to emerging—has the chance to show work. Any visitor can vote. The vote will determine who wins the largest art prize in the world. We also took the unusual step to allow people in the city to open a venue and choose the artists to show in their space. There is not one official curator or jury for the competition.

The number of venues is fluid, so the number of competing artists is fluid. The possibilities are wide open.

We can't predict what will happen, but it should be a lot of fun finding out.

There is artwork all over the city! In every nook and cranny. So exciting! There is even a LochNess Monster sculpture in the Grand River!

Rob Bliss, the artist/creator of the "100,000 Paper Airplanes and Melodies Over Monroe" is a 20 year old, Sophmore music student at Grand Rapids Community College (My School...Yay!) and is currently in the top 25 standings!... amongst (I don't even know how many entries exactly but) literally hundreds I think!

~ He was ridiculed by many beforehand as to the potential litter problem this would cause to the city... so he'd hired a clean-up crew out of his own pocket to clean up the "mess" afterwards. As it turned out they weren't really needed. Pretty much every single person on the street took home at least one of every color as a souvenier....

The voting will continue thru October 1, 2009 when the top ten works with the most votes will be announced and become the only works eligible to win the ArtPrize. Those ten works will continue to receive votes until October 8, when the work with the most votes will be announced and win the $250,000 ArtPrize.

How in the heck did a 20 year old come to coordinate something like this!

The Promo...

The Backer...
Rick Devos Unveils $500,000

Technorati tags:
Art Prize, Grand Rapids, Rob Bliss

I Swear... If It's Not One Thing... it's probably nothing...

2009-09-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

Just to keep you all up to date on my latest Poison Ivy debacle...

Well, I finally procured the services of Poison Ivy Control of Michigan after several landscaping companies told me they wouldn't even touch the stuff.

So the 'guy' (who shall remain nameless) stepped out of his black, Ford 150 or something like that, yesterday afternoon looking absolutely drop dead gorgeous in his thigh high rubber boots. And then I remembered that he really WAS probably half my age. I tend to forget about those kinds of things sometimes...

Anyway... on our walk back to my woods I extraopolated over my sad tale of poisonous woe and he seemed so very symphathetic. However once we got out there it didn't take more than a second for him to say "This isn't ivy." (He called it "ivy"... how cute! Like it was a completely non-threatening thing to him.) But I absolutely love honesty, if you know what I mean.

The only saving grace for me, after having him travel half way across the state ON A SUNDAY no less (and one that helped me to feel much less like an idiot) was the fact that he DID actually find quite a lot of it crawling on the floor of my woods along with a big ole mother vine... (and I use that term in a purely horticultural sense) growing up a tree in the far back in my woods that would have surely dropped a ton more babies onto the floor of my woods this fall. So he took care of what was there with his humongous canister (which I'm sure is still 3/4 full) and he'll return in 2 weeks to completely yank it all out.

He also confirmed that the thing I pulled out of my flowerbeds (with my bare hands) a couple weeks ago was indeed... "ivy" which he then shot dead. Bang! So thankfully, somehow in the end I was saved from being TOO totally embarrassed about my complete ignorance.

And then he left me a card with his cellphone number, along with the word "Anytime..." Now I'm more than certain all that meant was that THAT was the best number to reach him at... anytime... but still. lol

Meanwhile... I'm now wondering how to apologize to this very innocent plant for all but annihilating it last weekend!

*sigh*

IN MEMORY...

Shoot! I sure do hope it grows back...

These Things Are Just Weird...

2009-09-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

I mean what would someone have to be guilty of in a past life in order to be given an assignment such as this in this one?

Uck... that thing was just huge!

And whaddya think that little pincher thing on it's back end is for anyway? Seriously!... now that's.just.scary.

But still, I just love this time of year and all it's many wonders...

My Continuing Woes of Yardhood...

2009-09-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

I swear that I seriously never meant for the premise of my blog to focus on the neverending battles of yard ownership. It's just sort of happened that way.

See, the weather has just been so incredible lately and I've thusly felt motivated to get out there and clean a few things up. Namely my flower beds, which seem to year after year sprout up some other odd new something or other. This year it's been these long leafy vines...

So yesterday, beautiful as it, was I got out there bright and early, did a few push ups to limber up my arms and then started wrapping these buggers around my wrists so I could yank 'em up with everything I had. And trust me, it took about everything I had!

Anyway... the flower beds look great now!

But there's more...

This morning I woke up (after dreaming all night that my kitties had been scratching the dickens out of my arms)... and lo and behold? Well, I'll spare you the grisly details...

I really don't know exactly what power it was that manifested itself in giving me such hindsighted intuition, but I was suddenly prompted to Google Poison Ivy.

And there it was in black and white... whaddyaknow... a crucial nursery rhyme I never learned!

If There's Three... Let It Be...

So I took a walk out to my property line where my yard meets the woods, just due to the fact that I was yet again being hindsightedly intuitive... and well just shoot!

Because this was for all intents and purposes is and has always been the only navigatable entrance way into my woods, which for 15 Falls and Summers has been my saving grace as the final resting place for all my exorbitant amounts of yard waste.

And I can see now that this is basically the horticultural landscape of my entire woods... (now that I'm educated.) And to think that all this time I've been appreciating it as just lovely green foilage...

So I am in a bit of an overwhelming state of shock and disbelief right now... remembering all those gazillions of times I've treked through this patch wearing nothing but shorts!... and most recently only Crocs! (or well, you know what I mean...)

They say that some people can be immune to this stuff for years and years and then suddenly have a reaction to it. And once it affects you, you only become more and more sensitive.

Tonight I scrubbed down the lawn mower handle before mowing my lawn, after washing every imaginable thing in my house. My hands and arms have been scrubbed to the point of obliteration. The final task on my list is to douse down this keyboard with extremely hot and soapy water just as soon as I'm done here.

**Note to self: At least use the weedwacker in the flower beds next time!!!

But still, what's a yard-ho like me suppose to do now?

This just majorly sucks.

UPDATE:
But this just in!!! Oh my gosh! I gotta buy stock in this stuff! It really, really works!!!

Technorati tags:
Poison Ivy, Zanfel

Back To My Roots...

2009-08-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Seemed like a good place to start...

So, anyway... it's like every weekend I just stare at them and scream "I'm just not at all in the mood!!!"

Because you see, I have these "things" growing in my lawn. And I've tried every which way and a half to get rid of them, but these are some really heftily burrowed buggers. And not even TruGreen could help!

So I finally "Googled" them. Yes, Google is my friend. And it seems that they are Wild Violets. So how do I get rid of them? I asked 'Ask Google' timidly. And lo and behold I received an answer!...just like that!

And the answer WAS.. of all things,... "Well, You don't! Just try to enjoy the pretty purply flowers they bring each Spring. And also... they are edible and provide for a really lovely garnish."

Um OK....except not.

Anyway, I just spent a really long weekend in my yard...

So much for a bright and lucrative future in hand modeling.

Technorati tags:
Wild Violets

Jannet's Book Club...

2007-12-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

...(or at least books I wish I hadn't ALREADY read and could still look forward to...)

I've never really been much of an avid reader... there always seems to be SO much else to do...

But in 1963 I DID read "Charlotte's Web." And in 1967, "The Little Princess." Both of them much more riveting than I think Disneyland could ever be. And then, believe it or not, in 1969 I read "Gone With The Wind" and was so moved by it that I actually sat down one day and began to scribe it out longhand, just to retain the beauty of the writing in my mind somehow. But after two weeks or so, having only made it to page 10 or so out of 689, my fingers finally just gave out and gave up.

And then my good friend, Thom, just reminded me of a book that I pretty much wore the cover off back in my college days... Sheila Levine Is Dead... And Living In New York by Gail Parent. And I loved rereading it! Some of the most quick-witted lines ever written on a page!

"The Stand" in 1979 was pretty good as well as were several of Stephen King books which came shortly before and after... and I had some time to read them between matinee and evening performances on Wednesday's and Saturdays in my little loft in Shubert Alley. But then... I ended up having kids and it was a long, long, LONG time after that before I ever read a book again!

Until, I read "The Bridges of Madison County" in 1992... which I totally related to!... and which probably ended up being the catalyst that changed my life as I knew it. But looking back, I'm absolutely sure it was for the best. Still, I guess you have to be very selective in what you choose to read at times. The mind can be a powerful trap, ya know?

Anyway, until this year, I think that was my last fling... with the novel. And then suddenly it just flared up again in full force, probably having something to do with discovering the fact that reading is the ultimate free means of entertainment and an escape from any and all of life's other addictions. And it's relaxing and pleasurable as well!... without being too terribly sinful or blatantly slothful... of course, provided you've attended to all of your other responsibilities first. So basically, reading works for me on a guilt level with which I'm fairly comfortable.

Here's my list of favorites reads and trust me, I've read a ton. Not sure what made me choose one book over another except that to make my list a book probably had to have accomplished at least 6 of following 8 requirements:

Kept me rivited from the first to the last and final page
Made me think really hard about things
Made me cry a little
Kept me up all night
Made me feel really thankful and fortunate that I was only reading it
Made me succumb to the tempatation of sneaking in multiple peeks at work
Scared the h*ll out of me
Or just moved or touched me in some way beyond my ability to express it...

So here they are... in no particular order. I realize the common thread is a fairly dark premise... but they are each so very, very hopeful in their own way... at the same time.

Kind of like me...

Click on the book title for further details and editorial comments and then decide for yourself if you think it might be of interest to you. But like I said... wish I could just take each and every one of them back back to bed with me and start all over again.

A Stolen Life... A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Black Wave by John & Jean Silverwood

Somewhere In Heaven by Christopher Andersen

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

Tweak... Growing Up On Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Hope's Boy by Andrew Bridge

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Long Walk by Stephen King

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Messiah of Morris Avenue by Tony Hendra

Derailed by James Siegel

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

Cell by Stephen King

False Memory by Dean Koontz

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hoesseini

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Loverboy by Victoria Redel

Hope you enjoy them at least half as much as I did! And please feel free to include your recommendations in the comments section. Got a couple of leisurly vacations coming up...

Technorati tags:
Books, Reading, Recommendations