39/365 Monday 12-9-13

This is what happens when I have the snacky's and go by the store on the way home from work.  I made a batch of caramel Crispix.  It was really good.

38/365 Sunday 12-8-13

This was the kids Christmas program at church.  Gage and Grace were also suppose to be in it but they were both sick so it was just Jentry.  She did a great job and I got pictures of the many many expressions she had during the program.

37/365 Saturday 12-7-13

Went to Lowes to pick out our Christmas tree.  It's not quite as exciting and going to cut our own but at least it is a live tree.

36/365 Friday 12-6-13

 Maesyn loves to play on Grandpa's tablet.  She gets to do that when the others are playing on the iPad.  Sign of the times I guess.

35/365 Thursday 12/5/13

These are the cross stitch stockings that I made for Brian and I several years ago.  They are a couple of the pieces that I'm the most proud of that I have stitched.

34/365 Wednesday 12-4-13

I set a small goal for myself.  I am going to try and journal every day for the month of Dec.  I'm hoping if I can stick with it a month that the habit will carry over for next year.

This is the journal that I bought at The Strand bookstore in NYC.  It is a huge bookstore and I wanted to get something with their logo on it so I got this journal.

33/365 Tuesday 12-3-13

The 12th and FINAL stocking is finished.  I have made these stockings for Nick, Jenn, Caleb, Amy and all the grandkids.

Actually Maesyn's should have been done last Christmas but I just didn't quite get it done.  She is big enough to get stuff out of it this Christma

32/365 Monday 12-2-13

Midford Snowmen from Hallmark decorating the mantle.

We got all the house decorations up except for the tree.  Hopefully will get the tree this week or maybe the weekend.

31/365 Sunday 12-1-13

Left over turkey made into turkey salad.  It was a pretty tasty sandwich.

30/365 Saturday 11-30-13

What an exciting day.  Mom got to go home.  When we got there to see her before she left she was grinning from ear to ear and laughing and talking.  She couldn't hardly get in the car and get out of there fast enough.

She has come a long way in a month and we are happy and thankful that she was able to go home.  The smile pretty much says it all.

29/365 Friday 11-29-13

During the last $1 tart sale at Yankee Candle, I stocked up.  This is the drawer where I store them.  Decisions, decisions, which one should I burn tonight?

28/365 Thursday Thanksgiving 11-28-13

I don't think she could look any happier to be at our house.  Pops was able to bring her to our house for the day to celebrate Thanksgiving with the whole family.  She was ready to come right after she ate breakfast so they got here about 9:30.

Truly a thankful Thanksgiving for all of us.

I don't usually do two pictures of the day but I knew I had to use the one of Mom and I also wanted to document the Thanksgiving table and meal.

Jennifer brought all the decorations over and decorated the adult table and the kids table.  My jewel tea dishes went really well with her decorations so we used them for our meal.

Traditional meal of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes,corn, green bean casserole, strawberry pretzel salad, hot rolls, pecan, pumpkin and caramel apple pie.  Everyone brought stuff for the meal so it wasn't too much of one person.

27/365 Wednesday 11-27-13

I spent pretty much all day out with Pops and Granny so Brian and I didn't go back out for the evening.

Nick, Jenn and the kids came over for the evening.  Nick brought smoked macaroni and cheese for dinner.

This was how we ended the evening, watching "The Grinch".

26/365 Tuesday 11-26-13

Gage and I ran to the grocery store this morning.  We got our things and got ready to leave the store and when I turned to look out the back before backing out, this is what I saw.  Gage had put his "big" sunglasses on for the trip home.

25/365 Monday 11-25-13

Brian, Nick and the kids builds the first fire of the season Sat. night while I was scrapbooking so I missed it.  So this is MY first fire of the season and I throughly enjoyed it.

24/365 Sunday 11-24-13

All the kids came over and we celebrated Brian's 56 birthday.  The kids thought it was so much fun to put 56 candles on the cake and light them all.

I love this picture showing all the kids helping blow out the candles.

Its not a great picture or even good for that matter on the technical side. The lighting and white balance need some help but the pictures definitely captured the moment and the memories and thats what matters.

23/365 Saturday 11-23-13

This was above the candy/snack buffet they set up for us.  It is a really cute little old house and they have the place decorated so neat and fun.  It has 3 bedrooms, a fully stocked kitchen and plenty of room to spread out and scrapbook, or anything else you would like to do with a group.

I didn't spend the night because I was up early to go out and see mom before I went back.

After a slow start last night, I ended up finishing a cruise scrapbook that I had started a couple of years ago.  I think I ended making 24 pages.

It was a very fun time and we are already planning on going back sometime in the spring.

22/365 Friday 11-22-13

A group of my friends and I reserved the Creative Cottage for a scrapbooking week-end.  We all got there Friday night.  Some spend the night and others went home.

It was a great night for lots of food and lots and lots of talking.  That's mostly what I did for the first 3 hours but then I kicked it into high gear and got some pages done.

21/365 Thursday 11-21-13

Our niece Katie is living with us this year while she finishes her last year at MNU.  This is where you will find her every night.

She spends every evening, all evening doing homework in her spot on the couch.  I have never seen anyone do as much homework as she does. (guess that explains a lot about our boys)

We have enjoyed having her here and we will miss her when she leaves.

20/365 Wednesday 11-20-13

Brooklynne was in a school musical and Brian and I went to the afternoon performance.

19/365 Tuesday 11-19-13

When I picked up Gage at Kids Day Out today he had made three different Thanksgiving turkey things.  He took two of them home and the big picture we are going to hang on Granny's wall in her room at the hospital.

18/365 Monday 11-18-13

A boring picture of a boring lunch on a boring day.  Nuff said.

17/365 Sunday 11-17-13

We took a homemade meal out to the rehab hospital for Pops and Granny to eat.  I think it would get old eating the same food all the time and I know Mom isn't that excited about the food to begin with.

We made homemade pizza and of course dessert.  These look like I did a really good job making chocolate chip cookies but I have to be honest.  They are the Toll House cookie dough tub and all I did was scoop them out and bake them.

It was a nice change for their meal time and we ate with them which made Mom happy.

16/365 Saturday 11-16-13

Brian likes a challenge so he decided to rake leaves in 40 mph winds this morning.  He did get most of them picked up.  Now we just have to wait for the bradford pear trees to lose their leaves.

15/365 Friday 11-15-13

Granny is doing much better and getting stronger every day.  Today Amy brought the kids over to visit.  That always makes her smile.

14/365 Thursday 11-14-13

This is a scene at my desk, way too often.  I always tell myself I WILL NOT get behind on uploading, deleting, editing, keywording and posting pictures.  But it seems like I ALWAYS am.

As you can see there are 8 SD cards there to be worked on.  I did work on them today and did make some progress but I have a long way to go.

Maybe one of these days in the near future my picture will be of my clean desk without any SD cards that need to be uploaded.  Ha, who am I kidding?

13/365 Wednesday 11-13-13

Decisions, decisions, decisions, which book shall I read tonight.

I opted for the reader (in the pink cover) to continue reading The Book Thief.

12/365 Tuseday 11-12-13

The art of eating a sprinkle donut.  You can't see it in this picture but there were sprinkles stuck to her face on the other cheek also.

I have had my new camera for a little over a month and a half and last night was the first time I have put my 50mm lens on.  Thought it was time to play around with it.  I tried different focus points, like the donut or the sprinkles and then just her face.  Decided on this one with her face in focus.

She certainly was a willing model.  Give them donuts, thats one way to get cooperation:)

11/365 Monday 11-11-13

When the temperature goes from 62 at 1:00pm to 36 at 6:00pm and to 29 by 8:00pm, its time for the first caramel macchiato of the season.

We were headed home from visiting Mom and made a stop at QT for a warm drink.  I'm not a coffee drinker at all so this is the closest I can get to a coffee drink.  Now for the true coffee drinkers out there, they will say there isn't any coffee in this drink.  If you dislike coffee as much as I do, you can tell there is just a hint of coffee taste but its bearable.

Maybe one of these days when I grow up I will learn to like coffee but for now, QT caramel macchiato will do just fine.

10/365 Sunday 11-10-13

Brian spent the afternoon today and yesterday studying for a test that he is taking tomorrow.

He is taking the last test that he needs for his Master Code Professional certificate.

9/365 Saturday 11-9-13

Mom was really bothered with her long fingernails.  She had even started biting them because she wanted them off so bad.

Today I cut them all off for her.  She was little nervous because she was sure I was going to catch her skin but I did a good job.

Love the picture of my Mom's precious hand that has done so much for me in the past 55 years.

8/365 Friday 11-8-13

On our way home from visiting Mom at the rehab hospital, we decided we needed a snack.  First choice was ice cream from Sam's Tastee Treat.  He was closed :(.  Second choice was a s'mores pizza from Papa Murphys.  They had run out of them.

So, Brian came through with a batch for rice krispie treats.  He makes them perfect.

7/365 Thursday 11-7-13

This is also what happens when you are gone every night.

Piles and piles of laundry.  Thankful for a washer and dryer.

6/365 Wednesday 11-6-13

Since last Thursday we haven't been watching our weekly shows.  And since we are gone every evening out at the rehab hospital to see Mom, we got behind.
Tonight we will see how close we get to caught up.

5/365 Tuesday 11-5-13

I stayed with the kids a little while this morning.  They have lots of windows in the dining area so I practiced with the natural light.

This is pretty unusual for her to stand this still, but she was looking for their dog in the yard.

4/365 Monday 11-4-13

This was Noah's first Jr High band concert.  He is following in his Grandpa and Grandma's footsteps by playing the trumpet.

It's pretty tricky getting good exposure and white balance in a gym.  Still have some learning to do.

I'm sure there will be many many more concerts and pictures.

3/365 Sunday 11-3-13

HE DID IT!!!!!!  He finished his very first marathon.  It wasn't as fast as he wanted but he started having knee and feet issues  the last 4 miles that slowed him down.

His main goal was to finish and he did that.  As for the next marathon? he said he will stick to 5k's

2/365 Saturday 11-2-13

Brian has been training for a marathon for 16 weeks.  He registered for the Bass Pro Marathon in Springfield a month ago.

This was the big week-end.  We made a very quick trip to Springfield Saturday afternoon to spend the night for the marathon on Sunday.

We went to Bass Pro to pick up his packet and this is number and his new shirt.  He sure looks like he is ready to run the marathon.

1/365 Friday 11-1-13

Well so much for getting off to a good start considering I'm over a week late in getting my blog updated.  I have been successful in taking the picture every day, just no time to get the blog up and going.  So,  now that I have made a start, I hope to stay on top of daily or at least every other day blog posting.

This was not how I had planned for my 365 project to start.  I was going to make it a priority to take, edit, journal and post my picture everyday.  But then life happened the evening before the first day of the project.

My Mom and Dad came up to celebrate Halloween with all 8 great-grandkids.  They wanted to see them all dressed up and to see all the trick or treaters.

I took them out to our youngest sons house the afternoon of Halloween to see those 4 kids because they were going to trick or treat in their neighborhood instead of coming in to our neighborhood.  They were all getting their costumes on and my Mom was going to get up on a bar stool and sit and watch.  In the process, she fell off the stool, which was high off the floor and landed on her right side.

After much pain and trying to figure out what was hurt, we loaded her up and got her to the hospital.  The good news was, she didn't break her hip.  The bad news was, she broke her pelvis.  So they admitted her to the hospital.

This was taken Friday evening while we were keeping her company and entertaining her.  This will be a long healing process which includes time at a rehab hospital.

So suffice it to say, this was where I spent my day.

A New 365

I can't believe I'm this excited about doing a 365 project again.  I completed one in 2012 and started again January of this year.  I only made it until May and to be quite honest, I wasn't enjoying it at all.  I quit the project.  Actually I took a picture taking sabbatical for a few months.  I really think I was burned out.  I didn't think that would ever be the case for me because I have always taken pictures and LOVE doing it.

The past couple of months I have given thought to starting another one, maybe in January,  because I learned so much when I was taking pictures everyday.  I have heard people say it was the best thing they did for their photography and I have to echo that.  It forced me to be more creative and to learn new things with my camera.  It was at that time that I switched to manual from auto.  If I had only taken pictures of events or celebrations I would never have made the progress I have.  Now, I'm far from where I want to be but I'm way ahead of where I would have been without the 365 project.

A few days ago I read Click It Up a Notch and Courtney talked about starting another 365.  I read it and it sounded like a good idea but I didn't really give it any more thought.  Today, when I read her latest post, it stirred the excitement within me and I knew I wanted to start and start in November along with her and others.  I think sharing my photos and following others that are also participating will be great motivation and accountability for me.  Thank you Courtney for the push I needed.  Now lets just hope I can follow through with this commitment.