Day 213: New Year's Tree

A tree in Orem

Happy New Year everyone!  This will be my last post in 2010, and I'm excited to get moving on 2011!  Hopefully it will be a year of awesome experiences!

I was out running errands with my mom and sister today when I saw this tree at a stop light.  I thought it looked remarkably well for the dead of winter in Utah, so I took a picture of it.  I know I should have put up a picture from our New Year's party tonight, but I've decided to save my favorite shot of the evening for tomorrow's blog post, since I took it after midnight.  :)

Day 212: Menthol

Cough Drops

This image sufficiently portrays the day I've had.  This stupid cold that I've had for the last 8 or 9 days has finally gotten the best of me.  I've hit the cough-up-a-lung part of the cold, and it's wearing me out, so...

This is what you get.

Goodnight!

Day 211: Snowed In

Trees in my neighborhood

So the storm the newscasters have been predicting all week finally hit today.  It started out strong this morning, with heavy, wet, slushy snow that covered the walks and cars and especially the trees.  When I finally made it upstairs around mid-morning, it was a winter wonderland outside.  By mid-afternoon, when I took this shot, the snow had ceased, and the wet snow on the trees had rapidly melted and fallen off.  These trees were still pretty covered, but almost everything else in the neighborhood had cleared up.  By early evening, the winds blew harder and colder, and the mini-blizzard (as I dubbed it) hurled itself on our windows and back door.  It didn't last very long, but it did manage to re-cover all the freshly shoveled walkways and scraped cars.

I loved it!  I had no plans to leave the house today, so I got to watch it all unfold from my living room as I did a few chores and read my book.  My favorite way to experience a storm!

Day 210: Cat Portrait...

Jasper

It's glamor shots for cats!

Actually, I was sitting in the living room with mom this afternoon after spending hours in front of my computer trying to finish a week's worth of backed up blog posts, and I noticed that Jasper was a acting kind of funny.  Dad was making some serious noise in the kitchen on some home improvement project, and Jasper was trying to nap unsuccessfully.  Every time dad would start the drill or hammer something, Jasper's eyes would get really big and he'd jump a little.  Then he'd immediately lay his head back down and try to sleep again.  This went on for several minutes before I decided to capture it.  Of course, I was as unsuccessful as Jasper, but it was fun trying.

Day 209: Happy Birthday Christine!

Christine's birthday cake

Today was Christine's birthday, and it was super fun and very busy.

Some of the fun stuff we did today:
*Shopping with the girls
*Tasting the deliciously evil rum cake that Christine insisted on baking herself
*Lunch with the girls
*Movie and dinner with the fam
*Reminiscing over Christine's childhood
*Laughing over dessert
*Eating and spending way too much
*Family night movie at home with our new Blue Ray player: A-Team

Day 208: Sunday Puzzles

A jig-saw puzzle

I gave Mom a card table for Christmas.  It's something she's been asking for the last few years.  So today after church, she set it up and started a jig-saw puzzle on it.  It was fun to sit together in quiet and work on the puzzle.  Especially after the hectic day at church, and the loud (but very fun) Christmas.

Remember how I mentioned getting a cold a few days ago?  Well it's here to stay and so annoying!  I couldn't sing at all today, which was a problem since I had to lead the children in Primary.  Oh well, I guess.  At least I won't have to miss any work because of it since I have this next week off.

Day 207: Merry Christmas Day!

Dad/Santa

This is my favorite reaction of the day!  This is Dad's face after he opened his Christmas present from Dave (an iPod Nano).  I didn't catch the initial reaction he had which can only be described as a mixture of disbelief and chastisement.

It was so funny!

He asked for an iPod for Christmas a while back, but promptly took it off his list because he thought it was too expensive.  So when he saw that Dave got him one anyway, he was shocked and a little worried that Dave paid too much.  This is the face he made after he found out that Dave didn't spend anything on it because he won it at work. Ha!

I hope you all had a great holiday!  I'm sorry for being so remiss in my blog posts.

Day 206: Christmas Eve Party

Becca

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!  I had a great night with the family tonight.  We went over to my sister Sherry's house for Christmas Eve dinner, and it was great to have some time with the family.  Usually when we get together, we fill to bursting whatever house we are in, but since half the family is out of town for Christmas this year, we had a comparatively small party.  It was nice to hang out and open a few early presents.

It was especially nice because I'm out of time on the present issue, so now I just have to let go the stress and enjoy myself.  Usually that's easier said than done, but I'm feeling pretty good right now. :)

Day 205: Fake Flowers

My mom's plastic poinsettia.

Such a hectic day!  Today was the last day before my office shuts down until the new year, and I was scrambling to get everything done in time!  And now that I'm home and able to put work stress out of my mind, I'm freaking out at all the stuff I haven't done yet for Christmas!  How am I going to fit everything in before Saturday!?

Aaack!

Day 204: Colorful Darkness

Our front windows.

I'm so sorry for such a long absence.  I've been so stressed out trying to get everything finalized at work, and get all the presents ready for Christmas, that I've actually gone and made myself sick again.  This time it feels like the beginnings of a head cold, but still...quite possibly the worst timing ever.

So the next few posts will probably be short, since I don't have a lot of time.  But then again, by the time I get around to posting these, I'll probably have time to add a few lines.

We'll see.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Day 203: Snow Cap

Me.

It snowed last night.  Boy did it snow.  And it was wet snow all day today (mixed with rain).

When I saw how bad it was outside, I armed myself with my new scarf/hood.  It's very convenient for days like this, when it's cold and wet, and I actually did my hair.  When I got home from work, I decided to take a picture of my new favorite accessory because I haven't done a self-portrait in a while.  

The thing is...this picture makes me look like Lara from "Doctor Zhivago."

I promise I'm not from revolutionary Russia.

Day 202: White-board Christmas

A Christmas Tree I drew on the white-board at work.

No, this is not a home made greeting card from a first grader.  Unfortunately, I drew this Christmas tree for my office potluck today.  I was so impressed at the immaturity of it, that I had to take a picture.  Once I saw the picture, I realized it would need a lot of help to make it look not so bad...so that's why there are lights and stars all over the place.

My favorite part on this tree?  The lone blue ornament hanging from one of the branches.  I didn't think to make any of the other ornaments hang from the branches like that.  Just the blue one.  It's like something you'd see on a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Day 201: The Santa Connection

My mom's Santa collection.

Another Sunday gone, with little to show for it.  Except for the awesome scarfs I finished.  But I couldn't take a picture of those and ruin the surprise for the people to whom I'm giving them.  I'm just glad I actually accomplished something for Christmas.  Yesterday's shopping trip was a bit of a bust, so this makes me feel a little better. 

Now if only I can not get overwhelmed by everything else I haven't done yet...

Day 200: Rain, Shopping, and Work (Updated)

Day 200:  Rain, Shopping, and Work

Rain on my windshield.

So I had to work almost all day today, and when I finished working I had to run and do some long overdue Christmas shopping.  Unfortunately, I forgot my wallet at home.  So after an embarrassing scene at the checkstand, I had to wait for my very nice sister to drive my wallet from Orem to American Fork.  That's when I took this picture, while I waited in my car to avoid the uncomfortable looks from the checkers at Target.

****UPDATE****
This was originally posted as four days in one, but I didn't like the look, and so broke them out into individual posts.  Sorry for the confusion.

Days 198 and 199: Catch-up Begins

Day 198: Knitting

My knitting yarn.

So because of a few cut-backs at work, I'm short on funds this Christmas.  Not the worst thing in the world.  At least I still have a job, and at least I'm single so no one else is really affected by my lack of funds.

But in order to give gifts to everyone on my list, I've had to come up with a few creative ideas.  One of which is knitting.  Not the best idea, I realize.  It's kind of a hackneyed Christmas present idea, but it's something I had the resources for, so there you go.

The problem is, knitting is not a fast process, and I didn't start soon enough.  I'm now scrambling to get all my projects completed in time for Christmas.  We'll see if I succeed. :)

Day 199: Christmas Candy

A candy jar.

I don't remember much of today because I was so busy playing catch-up at work and home.  In fact, I forgot to take this picture tonight until after my midnight deadline (at least I'm not freaking out about it like I did last time), but it's close enough for me to not despair at missing an entire day.  Hopefully this weekend won't be too crazy.  I'll have to work tomorrow to continue to make up the hours I missed from Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll be even more crunched for time.  

Days 196 and 197: Delirium

Day 196: Sustenance 

Cranberry Juice.

Day one of hell:
5am - Wake up in a cold sweat with nausea.
7am - After 3 agonizing trips to the bathroom, call in sick. (Temperature: 100.8)
9am - Give up on going back to sleep and make a feeble attempt at ingesting food.
10am - Pay for trying to eat.
11am - Fade in and out of consciousness. (Temperature: 101.4)
2pm - Start ingesting Cranberry juice because nothing else will stay down. The aches start.
4pm - All of my joints are inflamed.  The aches get so bad, I check my temperature again to see if I'm as close to death as I feel. (Temp: 102.9)
6pm - Get a blessing from Dad, try to walk around to alleviate the pain.  My hips feel like someone smashed them with a baseball bat.
8pm - All of my limbs suddenly gain 300 pound each, can't pick up small objects or move my head.
10pm - Gratefully drift off to a fitful sleep after the Advil finally lowers the fever.  My last thought, "I wonder if my hip bones are being eaten by microscopic bone termites with sharp teeth?"

Day 197: The Sickbed

My home.

Day two of hell:
6am - Wake up feeling hardly any pain and get excited that I can go to work.
7am - After an emergency trip to the bathroom and checking my temperature, I call in sick again. (Temp: 101.7)
9am - Try to go back to sleep to escape from the nausea.  Mom visits me and tucks me in.
11am - First attempt at real food after I wake up feeling a little better. (Temp: 101.3)
2pm - It takes me 2 hours to eat my very small lunch, but it stays down!
4pm - Start feeling strong enough to brave the stairs and walk around a bit.
5pm - Shower and clean up my sick room a bit, then rest for another hour from the exertion. (Temp: 100.9)
8pm - Hope reigns as I check my temperature and find the fever has finally broken on its own! (Temp: 99.6)
10pm - The "stomach" part of the flu retaliates, but not with gusto.
11pm - Blissful sleep.

Sick Leave

Please excuse my absence.  I was in the throws of a terrible flu most of this week.

Rest assured, I took a picture every day (although I technically missed the midnight deadline one of the days), but I didn't have the energy to even look at my computer until yesterday.  I'm pretty behind with everything right now because of getting sick in the middle of crazy time during the holidays, so I didn't get the pictures downloaded to my computer until tonight.

In order to speed up the process, I'll be posting another round of pictures in one.  Hopefully I'll get that all finished tomorrow, and I'll be back on track before you know it!  Until then, please don't give up on me! :)

Day 195: Red, Red, Red

A music box.

There are so many little trinkets around my house right now because of the holiday decorations, and I can't seem to keep myself from taking pictures of them over and over again.  I really like to take close-up shots.  It's fun to look at things from a different perspective and to notice the tiny details.

Day 194: Strawberry Shortcake

Esther.

I love my nieces and nephews!  RoseAnne and her family came over for dinner tonight, and it was so fun to hang out!  I was being a bit of a recluse for most of the evening because I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I did hang out a little bit, and I got to hang out with the kids downstairs.  Because we won't see RoseAnne or her family before Christmas, we exchanged gifts tonight (I wish I had realized this, because I'm not finished making my gifts yet).

RoseAnne gave me these awesome homemade soaps, and mom gave the family a card game.  Mom also gave each child a coloring book and it was so fun to see their reactions!  RoseMarie was my favorite.  She kept hugging her book of Minnie Mouse coloring pages and saying, "Ohhhh!  I love her!"  She thanked mom at least twice for her Christmas presents.  It was adorable!

Hyrum and Esther loved their coloring books too...especially the stickers in the coloring books.  Esther's coloring book was of Strawberry Shortcake, and RoseAnne told Esther it was a coloring book just for her since she was Strawberry Shortcake.  The second RoseAnne said this I realized just how much like Strawberry Shortcake Esther actually is.  She's got the hair and the cute personality to boot!

What a fun night!

Day 193: Holiday Parties

Little D, enjoying a sucker.

This morning was our ward Christmas party.  It was so fun to watch all of the kids playing the nativity, and hanging out with the ward members during the breakfast.  It was nice to get out of the house and do something social.  Especially after this weekend when I didn't basically nothing but knit and watch Christmas movies.

This is the season for parties, so I'm trying to enjoy them while I can, because I know my social abilities will only go so far.  Soon, I'll get too overwhelmed to hang out with people, and I'll have to hide out and act the social outcast until I can recover.  But until that hits, I'm trying to get out and show my face.  Maybe if I hit enough social events before I become catatonic, no one will notice when I disappear for a while.  Maybe...

Day 192: Weekend Wimp

Some more Christmas decorations.

So, another weekend is upon us, and I've put off my posts once again.  I would say more on the subject, but what else is there to say?

I actually don't have much of anything to say lately.  It seems I'm just going through the motions each day, waiting for something interesting to come along.  I could try to create something interesting, but I'm pretty sure we all know that isn't likely to happen.  Maybe one day I'll get brave and do something crazy that I can write about.

Until then, we'll have plenty of boring posts like this one. :)

Day 191: Gadgets

Christine's Kindle

Christine won a Kindle through a promotional thing at work over a month ago, and it came in the mail yesterday.  Christine was excited when she saw the package, because it was really late arriving.  But after she opened it and skimmed through the instructions and played with it for about 15 minutes, she plugged it in to charge overnight, and promptly forgot all about it.

I, however, have been obsessing over it ever since she let me turn it on.  I have already logged onto it with my Amazon account and downloaded close to 10 free books.  I stayed up playing with it late last night, and started to read 2 different books.  I almost brought it to work with me this morning to show it off, before remembering that it doesn't belong to me.

Gadgets.  I love 'em!  I really do.  I'm not even joking.  Give me a fun little gadget, and I will be perfectly content to spend hours in a corner, fiddling with the settings and learning the ins and outs of it.  I get so obsessed with new gadgets that I'm usually an expert on whatever new gadget I get, mere days after purchasing it.  I'm a complete geek.  I love it.

Day 190: A Study of Light

Jasper

I resurrected my old strobe flash tonight.  I thought it was broken, but I wiggled a few wires, "rebooted" it by removing and replacing the batteries, and voilà!  It is reborn!

I'm a bit out of practice with the strobe flash, so I took it for a spin with Jasper.  He wasn't too happy about it, but being the good kitty that he is, he put up with it gracefully.  It took me a few tries to remember the settings I prefer, and the directions to face the flash when working with different different objects, but I think I've got it down again.

Now that I have the flash back, we'll see if it helps in future pictures, or if I'll just bury it away again.

Day 189: Food Deliberation

My dinner

I was supposed to get a bunch of things done tonight, but I didn't do a thing.  Instead, Christine and I sat in the living room for a good 30-45 minutes deliberating on what we should do and where we should go eat because neither of us felt up to doing anything.  It was laughable how long it took us to decide on a restaurant.   Once we decided (Goodwood), I had to go shower and get ready to leave the house because I was still in my work-out clothes.  We ate at record speed once we got to the restaurant because we'd waited too long to eat and both of us were starving.  But when we got home, the apathy continued.  Should we try to catch up on our TV shows or go straight to bed, or maybe just sit on the couch and space off for an hour?  We basically missed our entire evening because neither of us could make a decision.

It was awesome.

Day 188: Home Is Where the Hearth Is

A Christmas decoration

Another work week started today.  Another Monday. I'm starting to feel the stress of the holiday.  I usually feel it sooner than this, but I think I was in denial.  This time of year is full of family and friends and good will, but it's also filled with stress and over-booking and lots of missed deadlines.

Not only do I have more personal errands than usual to run during December, but I also have more work to do.  I have more church responsibilities, more family functions, more chances to screw something up.

And I feel it keenly, that I will have an epic fail at any moment and disappoint everyone around me.  It's not like I'm jumping at shadows here either.  I've done it before, and I'll do it again, because the more I have to pack into my schedule, the less I get done.  The more responsibility I have when I'm stressed, the less responsible I am.

The only difference this year is that I'm one year older and one year wiser.  And most importantly, I have perspective.  I may get easily overwhelmed.  I may freak out and forget something important.  I may fall short of mine and others' expectations, but at least I know that it's not the end of the world.  I will live through it.  January will come around, desolate and boring, and I'll still be here, intact and relatively unscathed.

Day 187: A Case of the Sundays

Lauren

Today is quite possibly the closest I came to quitting the photo project.  Not that I was contemplating failure in any way today.  I simply didn't feel like picking up my camera, and when I did pick it up, I couldn't bring myself to take anything.  I completely spaced the fact that I have to take a picture every day to keep up with this project.  I would have been lost completely if I hadn't taken one, pitiful shot of Lauren tonight when her family was visiting.  I tried to take better, clearer shots of her, but like I said, I lacked motivation.

That's not to say that I didn't have a great time with Lauren around.  In fact, I think I was so busy cracking up at her playing house with our toys and making up stories that I forgot about my camera.  Shocker, I know.

At any rate, I did survive the photographic lethargy of the day, and I'm still on track with the project!

Day 186: Family Portraits

Robert and Lindsey and baby Davis.

So I got to take Robert and Lindsey's family portraits today and it was so FUN!  Coincidentally, we went to the Riverwoods shopping center to take the pictures, and I was so excited, having traipsed through its deserted streets with glee just last night.  I was able to pose them in front of all the sites I drooled over last night.  And even though we took the pictures during the day, the lights were still amazing and provided a very festive backdrop.

I noticed today that when I get into the groove of taking pictures, I don't notice much else.  For example, I was so hyper-focused on getting the right angle for one of the shots with the family that I didn't even notice that I'd stepped in a very sticky mud patch.  I was walking all over the mud, taking pictures here and there, and not noticing that my boots were getting more and more glued to the ground.  It wasn't until I tried to move from the mud to a rock that I realized my boots were so gunked up and gooey that had no purchase when I stepped onto the smooth surface of the rock.  Luckily I didn't slip or fall, and luckily my boots weren't real leather, so cleaning them off at home wasn't that difficult.  I found it very funny because I honestly didn't care about the boots - I was more worried about slipping and falling - all I wanted to do was move on to the next location and get more pictures, but Robert and Lindsey were so worried about it.

The shot above is not one of the "portraits."  I just like candid shots so much that I decided to pick it for the photo project.  But we also got some really good portrait shots of the family that hopefully Robert and Lindsey will be able to use.

Day 185: Christmas Cheer

Our Christmas Tree

Sorry for the late posts.  As usual, the weekend caught up with me.

Tonight I went out to a movie with friends, and afterwards we walked around the newly-remodeled Riverwoods shopping center.  They have the coolest Christmas wonderland theme right now!  It's an outdoor mall, so you wouldn't think kiosks and Santa's workshop would be a good idea in Winter, but they skillfully placed fire pits and heat lamps all over the shopping center to allow shoppers to enjoy the ambiance without getting frost bite.

Our movie didn't get out until after 11pm, so when we walked around the shopping center it was basically deserted.  That made it all the more fun for me!  I just wish I had my camera with me.  The trees were gorgeously lit, and there were little icicle lights that "trickled" downward.  We walked around the entire area twice, and only went back to our car when the heaters and lights started turning off.

What a great way to get into the season!

Day 184: Lights

Lights shining through some dead grasses.

So it's the beginning of the Christmas season, and the beginning of the second-half of my project, and I was all set with a picture of our newly trimmed Christmas tree.  But on a whim I took this shot in a parking lot tonight, and when I looked at all my pictures from today, this was my favorite.  So, We'll have to save the tree for another day.

I'm excited about the holiday season and all the fun it brings!  Christmas music, societal good will, corny Christmas movies, parties, yummy food, and getting gifts for everyone.  Usually this is my favorite time of year because I completely ruin my budget and splurge on all my family and friends.  But this year I'm not as financially comfortable as I'd like, and it's the first time in several years that I have no money to spend on Christmas.  It puts a slight damper on my season, I won't lie.  But I'm trying to find a better way to look at it.  Now, instead of spending hundreds of dollars on impulse buys for family, I'll be able to take more time really thinking about each person I give a gift to this season, and spend a lot less money doing it.  There are very economical ways of giving gifts to family and friends, I know because I have a few siblings who have always been very good at thrifty and thoughtful gift giving.  So I just need to put my thinking cap on, and find unique ways of showing my family and friends that I care about them this Christmas.

Now that I've typed that all out, I'm getting excited about it!  This is going to be a great Christmas!

Day 183: Half-way Point!!!!

Sunset in my back yard.

Today marks the last day of month 6 and is the official half-way point in the photo project!  I made it half-way!!  Yay for me!  Tomorrow I start on the second half of the year, which is awesome and a little bit scary because I ran out of ideas a long time ago.  But I'm hoping with the holidays coming up, I'll have a lot more opportunity to take some good shots.

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on this blog!  I know your numbers are few, but it is a tremendous boost to me on days when I'm ready to give up because I can't stand the sight of my camera!

Some things I've learned so far:
*You don't know if you're good at something until you try
*Consistency is a nightmare, but totally worth it!
*You can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it.
*Cameras are expensive, sure, but printing the photos on 14x16 mat-board is worse
*Photography looks much cooler on paper than it does on the screen
*It's OK to let yourself be proud of your accomplishments every now and then
*It doesn't matter how many times my mom, or others, praise my pictures, I'll always be a little embarrassed at the compliments.