not much to say

Hi all. I don't have a whole lot to say on this cold January Friday. The week has been not our best, but not our worst either. Jeff is about 98% mended, and Em is about 80% there. Her appetite has come back with a vengeance, which I interpret as a good sign. I'm still holding my own and am quite hopeful...well, I'm just not going to finish that thought, but you get the idea.

I do want to tell you that I have the BEST husband ever...Emerson woke at 5:30 yesterday morning and was up for good. I dragged my sorry self out of bed and tried to get her back to sleep, but I was grouchy, tired, and dreading the next 7 hours before nap time. Jeff came in, and sensing that I was at my breaking point, took over and told me to lock the door and go back to sleep. Mind you, he'd been sick himself for 2 days and had a LOAD of work waiting for him at the office. But he let me sleep until 7 {which is like noon in Mama time}, kept Emerson entertained, and went in a bit late to work.

Sigh. Now THAT'S hot.

Have a great weekend. We're supposed to get a heat wave...gonna be in the mid-thirties here!

I'm holding my own

So far, so good for me. Em is still making quite a mess from her nether-regions, and Jeff is upright and even ate some dinner. Things are progressing as expected. But, THIS HAS BEEN THE LONGEST WEEK IN HUMANITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need a break.

make mine a double

now BOTH of my kiddos (read as: the BIG kid who lives in my room and the little kid who is my offspring) now have the plague. my day has been awesome.

sickie

we have a sick kiddo (as in SICK!), so my time to play is limited. i've done 4 loads of laundry in the last 24 hours and have a feeling that i may not be done. she's getting better, but i gave her milk at bedtime so i'm not holding my breath. think tranquil gastro-intestional thoughts for us, K?

here's my project 365 picture today...it's a non-graphic way to show what the day was like, don't you think?

toot toot!

Hear that? That's the sound of me tooting my own horn. I, all by myself, revamped a darling Christmas dress that Emerson got from Grandma into a darling Valentine's dress that she can keep wearing for a bit longer. Yay me!

I am generally a person who aspires to be crafty but does not believe that I actually am crafty. I do a fair amount of scrapbooking, but I CASE {Copy And Steal Everything} most of my designs from magazines and websites. And I did make and sew felt designs on onesies for the kids in our playgroup for Christmas, but I based my designs from Clipart. So this {albeit simple} transformation tickles me a bit.

BEFORE

AFTER

Ok, now I know you're saying "all you did was rip out the reindeer, cut out some BASIC hearts, and sew them on." And you're right. But the difference is the follow through. I actually DID it. Instead of letting the dress get packed away, I've kept it in the rotation. {If it were up to Jeff, she'd still be wearing it with the reindeer, so at least give me credit for disallowing THAT!}

There may still be hope for me in the Halloween-costume-sewing-department after all. For now, I'll take small victories where I can get them.

do you know jack?

Do you know these guys? It's Jack, Mary, and Mel from Jack's Big Music Show on Noggin. Emerson has fallen in love with this show and asks for it by name. (Even at 2 in the morning when she should be sleeping!) And I've fallen in love with it too. Not just for the great variety of music that it introduces kids to (zydeco, samba, Irish folk, yodeling, and much more!!), but also for the references to one of my favorite comics of all time, Jack Benny. In fact, the creators are huge Jack Benny fans and even named the main characters after Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, and Mel Blanc. If you're a Benny fan, you'll love the references to the old show (picture it: the doorbell rings, the crew says "come iiii-n, and who should appear but the Schwartzman Quartet! Mmmmmmmmm!!) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you'll still love JBMS. So check it out on Noggin...8 and 8:30am daily (CST). You can also find in On Demand (at least thru Comcast in Chicago anyways) under kids shows, and then Noggin.

In fact, I love the show so much that I wanted to drop a quick email to the creators to thank them for such a creative and educational show. After going through many hoops, I finally found the website for their production company, Spiffy Productions. The email link didn't work for me, so I decided to call them and leave a voicemail. I was surprised to see that they're a Chicago-based company. When I called, man answered, and after stammering that I wanted to leave a general message for the JBMS crew, he said that he would be happy to answer my questions. Then I explained that I didn't have any questions...just wanted to tell them what a great show they have and how much I appreciate the Jack Benny ties. Well, THAT really got him going. He said "YOU know Jack Benny? So you GET all the jokes?!" (he was suprised to hear that since I'm only 31.) He asked how I got invovled in Old Time Radio, and we found out that we both listen to the same show on Saturday afternoons called "Those Were The Days" with Chuck Shaden. We even commented that the annual "Jack Benny Month" in honor of Jack's b-day is coming up soon!

I finally asked who I was speaking with and found out that it's none other than David Rudman, aka JACK from JBMS! What a thrill. Now, if you think this is all crazy, let me put it to you this way. David Rudman was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayl of COOKIE MONSTER on Sesame Street! He was on that show for over 20 years! He's also done work with the Muppets (he was the Swedish Chef among others), and was even the "finger" in the Ziplock bag commercials!

We went on for about 15 minutes. I honestly think he as appreciative of my call as I was with his show. So you can imagine my horror when I found out that the show is no longer in production. BOOOOOO!! Noggin only ordered 2 seasons, and as of now, they're not planning on making more episodes. But David implied that he'd love to keep going. He told me that it's all up to Nick (Noggin's parent company). So people, I know you're out there. Watch JBMS. See what it's all about. Then email Nickelodeon and tell them that you want more!!!!

Phew. Ok, enough with my infomercial. If you watch JBMS, I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you try it out after reading this, let me know what you think!

Make it a great night~
a.

4:03 am

That's what time Herself decided to awaken this morning. 4:03 am. WTF!?!?!?!?!? And she would not, could not go back to sleep. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!! Needless to say, I DID NOT get my run in today. Better luck tomorrow, I guess.

All kidding aside, I literally prayed for strength as I gave up on getting her back to bed and began to go about our day at 5:30. I knew that we would both be tired, cranky, and impatient. It was setting up to be one of those days. But as I look back, we had a pretty good day. She was great at playgroup and had fun playing with Lily's toys. She had patience with me when I was cooking her lunch and dinner. We went to Grammy & Grandpa's house to pass those late afternoon hours when we both get squirrely. And she loved every bit of her Moroccan roasted veggie & couscous dinner. She was generally a sweet pea today. How did I get so lucky? Now, here's to a GREAT NIGHT'S SLEEP tonite and a great day tomorrow.

Before I go, I got some pictures from the 1/ 2marathon and wanted to share them with you. This one was taken as the first wave of runners took off. There are runners in the starting chute as far as the eye can see. I think there were nearly 40,000 of us running that morning!

This is the picture that I have had in my head for nearly a year. That's me with my cousin (and super good sport!!), Amy.

You know those Visa commercials...new pair of running shoes: $125, airfare to Orlando: $300, running through the Castle in the Magic Kingdom: Priceless

Here's me rockin' out to Bon Jovi in Epcot during mile 12. The guy in front of us looks horrified!

We were SO HAPPY to be finished! I feel compelled to point out that our actual chip time was 2:21:46. The clock is 11 minutes slower because we were in the second wave.

Happy Inauguration Day. Here's our Project 365 photo of the day~

yippee!!!

I got GREAT news today. I had my first PT session for my defunct right knee, and found out that I can start running again TOMORROW!!! It's my IT band that is the culprit (good call, Am!), and we're going to do some stretching and ultrasound to rehab it. She's also going to watch me run to see if she can correct my wonkiness. I pronate (step more on the inside than the outside) with both feet, but much more on the right. It's amazing to me to think that the placement of each step has such a profound effect on the long term wear and tear of my body. It's something that I just don't think about when I'm running, but will definitely be more aware of from now on.

I'm so excited to run. I haven't run since the 1/2 (9 DAYS AGO!!!) and that's the longest it's been since I was pregnant. Ugh.

Here's to happy feet!
a

on second thought...

...sledding was NOT a good idea. First off, we went with a big kid (gasp...a 3.5 year old!), so the hill was actually a REAL hill, complete with a mogul and hay bales to keep you inbounds. That was fine for Em's friend, but a bit daunting for our first real sledding trip. AND it was FREEZING. My car read 31 degrees, but it was really windy here today. I'd guess we were in the single digits for real-feel temp. Emerson and I went down once, almost crashed into the hay bales, and dumped off the sled. Oh so fun. Then she went down with Papa who used his legs in front of the sled to steer and brake. This kicked up a bunch of icy snow into her face, and I could hear her wailing from the top of the hill. Oh so much more fun. To top it off, her #*$%!#@ mittens would not stay on, so I had to keep taking mine off to put hers back on. I think we both had frostbite starting! That was it...two runs down the hill, and then I pulled the plug. I carried her screaming, cold self back to the car to thaw out while Jeff took a few more runs. In the future, I will not be joining them on their sledding expeditions. And we'll wait for a bit warmer temps before we try this again.

Oh well. Live and learn.
a.

a thaw on the tundra

I know that the whole country has been in a deep freeze this week, so I'm not alone with my griping about the weather. But being stuck inside with a 17 month-old for any length of time is quite trying! We've played with play dough, blown bubbles, watched Jack's Big Music Show ad naseum on the Tivo, ridden the zebra, read books, done the laundry (Emerson really is getting to be quite the helper girl!), and played with ALL of our toys. This morning, she finally had it. She woke up and asked me if we could go outside. I think we're gonna give it a whirl after her nap. Some friends down the street called to see if we wanted to go sledding (with a toddler, "sledding" takes more time to get dressed than you actually spend outside, but at least it's something different!) Yesterday, the thermometer temperature was -30, but today it's +22, so that's a big improvement. And while it's not balmy out there by any stretch of the imagination, we take what we can get. So bring on the snowsuit, and let's have some fun outdoors!

Stay warm, wherever you are~
a.

project 365 pictures

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted some pictures, so here are a few from the last week or so.

1.8~ When we checked into our resort at Disney World, this guy was waiting to greet us.


1.9~ Emerson hung out at her babysitter's house while Jeff was at work while I was away. Yes, she did spell all of those words on her own ;)

1.10~ A hard-earned smile whilst showing off our bling.

1.11~ That's Kate, my God daughter, on It's a Small World. Yes, I know the background is blurry. Yes, I did that on purpose.

1.12~ This is the flight board from the airport on Monday night when we got in. Notice the ONE flight from Orlando that wasn't cancelled. And guess who was on it?!1.14~ Our lovely patio as it sits right now, buried under heaps of snow. And, as an added bonus, we're experiencing EPIC cold temps here. The thermometer temp. is -8 right now, but factor in the wind chill, and we around 40 below! Awesome!

No matter where you are, I'll bet it's cold so STAY WARM!!

1/2 marathon recap

Alright. Herself is sleeping, so I have some time to fill you in on my weekend. My good friend Adri is a master at adding loads of details to her emails, so I'm going to attempt to follow her style and give you an in-depth look at Saturday morning.

First off, we had to be on a bus at 3:45am to guarantee that we'd be at the starting line by 5am. Mind you, our wave started at 6am, but it's better early than late, I guess. We got up @ 3 (after getting in bed @ 11pm...a bit later than we had planned!) I expected to toss and turn all night, but I actually slept pretty well, all things considered. I hopped right up when the alarm went off (my cousin set her iPhone to "quack"...apropos since our race's mascot was Donald Duck.) We had set everything out the night before; our running clothes and warm layers to wear while waiting around outside, our bags to check in with drinks, snacks, phones, wallets, etc..., bibs pinned on, plastic dry cleaning bags to wear to keep us warm after we ditched our layers. You know, the usual stuff. After a quick 45 minutes, we walked to the bus stop where the bus was waiting. They started running @ 3am, and before we knew it, we were in the EPCOT parking lot with a swarm of other runner. By swarm, I mean somewhere around 40,000!!! There were about 18,000 running just the 1/2 marathon, and another 25,000 running what Disney calls "The Goofy." They do the 1/2 on Saturday, and then the full marathon on Sunday. I can't even comprehend wanting to do this, but I digress.

Once we got there, we just followed the masses towards a very bright light. No, we weren't walking into the great beyond...just into the pre-race area. There were tents for gear checks, merchandise (Disney being Disney!), and medical attention. And there were porta-potties. Like 200 of them. All in all, between the race area and along the course, I think there had to be 1,000. I'm sure there weren't any available for rent in the whole state of Florida this weekend! If you run this race in the future, don't worry about standing in the mongo-huge line in the first parking lot to use the bathroom...there are PLENTY more along the way before you get to the start! We did make a friend while standing in the aforementioned mongo-huge line. A nice guy from Detroit who was down to run the Goofy. He was alone, and his wife and small daughter were not going to watch the race, so I think he was kind of lonely. He seemed nice enough, but the poor thing was chattering and had blue lips as he was talking to us. I was pretty warm, so I gave him my dry cleaning bag to wear. At first, he was trying to be chivalrous, but then common sense kicked in and he was quite grateful. It was, after all about 45 degrees at 4:30 am!

Then Amy (my cousin) and I checked our gear and started the 15 minute or so walk to the starting area. This was very cool for me as a Disney fan, as it was my first experience being "backstage." We saw the huge white trellis that is up in EPCOT (near the lagoon) at Christmas. We also saw trams from the Studios' Backlot Tour parked alongside the service road that we were on. And all of the booths from the Food and Wine festival are also stored here. I was definitely more excited about this than Amy was!

At this point, there's a surge of nervous energy building up in the crowd. There was a stage set up right at the starting line and live entertainment was being (LOUDLY!) blared from speakers to keep us all pumped. I had known that there would be a long time between getting up and starting the race, and I was pretty worried that my adrenaline would crash and I'd be "down" at race time, but the music and energy was enough to keep me excited and ready. The first wave of athletes were the wheelchair racers, and they left at 5:40. Before the big send off, we sang the National Anthem, and the fab 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto for you non-Disney types) came onstage to wish us all good luck. Then, with a countdown from 10 and a cluster of fireworks, they were off. Next up were the runners, setting out in 3 waves. We were in wave 2, and tried to get close to the front so as to avoid the bob-and-weave that happens in crowded races. More fireworks popped, and then we were off. Just like that. A year of planning and training, and visualizing, and there we were. Amy and I had a good laugh after running for about 2 minutes...dozens, and I mean DOZENS of men were running off the road into the trees to relieve themselves. WHAT?!?! We were just at the starting area for an hour...couldn't they have gone then!?!?! Gotta love nerves!

Over the last month or so, my right knee has been giving me grief when I run 5 miles or further. In fact, I hardly ran at all during the last 2 weeks to give it a break in the hopes that it would return the favor on race day. No such luck. In fact, it started to bark at me at mile 2, which sent me into a mild panic. I tried to lengthen my stride to stretch it out, which helped, but ultimately, I knew it'd be a battle of will...me VS. my knee.

There were high school bands, people with subwofers wearing costumes, DJ's playing music, funny signs along the road, all kinds of things to keep us entertained as we ran. We headed towards the Magic Kingdom for the first 5 miles or so, which was incentive enough for most people. As we ran through the TTC (that's Transportation and Ticket Center, right Amy?) there had to be 1,000 people cheering us on. And because our names were printed on our race bibs, you'd hear "Way to go Alison!" and "Keep it up, Amy," which was AWESOME!! There was a bit of a hill as we ran under the waterway near the Contemporary, but at that point, the Magic Kingdom was in sight, so we were feeling no pain. As we turned into the service entrance into Tomorrowland, I was literally smiling ear to ear. I just don't have the words to adequately describe the feeling of running through the Magic Kingdom. As I've told anyone who would listen this weekend, I don't think my feet ever hit the pavement on that mile. And to see my mom as well as Amy's husband and daughters there cheering for us, well it's certainly a moment I'll never forget. Right up there with getting married and Emerson's birth. Period. I'm so glad they were willing to get up at the crack of dawn to be there for us!

After we ran up Main Street, we headed right into Tomorrowland, past Stitch's Great Escape and Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin. There was LOUD techno music blaring from the speakers, which is a far cry from the usual Magic Kingdom music. We ran past the Speedway and turned left into Fantasyland. Dumbo and the Carousel were lit up and on and everything looked so vibrant. I braced for the moment that was ahead...running through the Castle. I wanted to slow down time to make it last. I really tried to take it all in...Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters waving to us and posing with runners who wanted a picture, the glistening mosaic tiles on the Castle walls, looking down Main Street at the thousands of runners making that magical trip. There were a few photographers on the other side of the castle, so there was a bit of a logjam, but that didn't bother me at all. My mom and cousin Maddie ran over to see us coming out of the castle and even got a few pics. Very cool! Then we were heading towards Liberty Square and Frontierland to make our way out of the Magic Kingdom. We took the parade service road to the left of Splash Mountain and before we knew it, we were out. Boo! But up ahead of us was a giant pirate ship captained by none other that Captain Jack Sparrow. To this day, I SWEAR that was Johnny Depp. Man, did he ever look like it! Loads of people were in line to get their pictures taken, but we just kept running. By this point, my knee was letting me know that it was NOT amused, but I just kept shouting back (literally, shouting at my knee...just ask Amy!) that we were indeed going to keep running, for another 7 miles in fact!

Mentally, I knew that this would be the hardest part of the race. The "high" of the MK was done, and the scenery was not tremendously exciting. The Grand Floridian would come up on the left in a few miles, but now it was me against my body. I did stop and stretch at one point, which helped keep me moving. I know that Amy & I were talking, but I couldn't tell you what about. Anything to keep our minds off the monotony of not being halfway done yet. Writing this now, a few days after the race, I know this was a hard part for me, but I really don't remember what I was thinking. I think my brain was pretty clear and totally focused on just getting to the finish without walking. Miraculously, before I knew it, we were at mile 8, then 9, and then the glory of double digits! With only a 5K to go, I started to relax. I also started to really feel the pain in my knee. Those 800 mg of ibuprofen that I had taken at 3:30 were NOT helping at all. Plus, to compensate for my knee, I was doing something wonky with my stride, so my hip and other knee were feeling it too. There was a long stretch around 10 miles where everyone was in the same, painful boat, and there wasn't much talking on the course. Out of nowhere, a guy near us shouted "HEY! Why is everyone passing me!??!!?" We all had quite a chuckle, and strange as it may sound, that got me through the rest of that hellish mile. In sports, it's often a matter of momentum, and all too often, I've seen momentum shift towards and away from my Hawkeyes in the blink of an eye. This was the same kind of thing...he lightened the mood, and the momentum shifted. Thanks, tall Goofy hat guy!
The last couple of miles involved running up cloverleaf ramps that weren't too bad from an elevation standpoint, but were brutal on the knees. Everyone was feeling it (and moaning about it!) But at one point, an older guy wearing a shirt commemorating the fact that he's run 50 marathons in 50 states told us to look down off the bridge we were on at the the literally 10s of thousands of people who were behind us. Another momentum shift in our favor. That probably rallied me to be able to get into EPCOT.
Pretty soon, we were running into the EPCOT parking lot, and through a service entrance near Spaceship Earth. For the last 12 months, I can't tell you how many times I've envisioned that moment. Whenever I'm dragging or don't want to run, I picture running "by the ball" and it's always picked me up. So when the moment came to really run by the ball, I lost it. Full blown ugly cry. Couple that with lots of pain, 2 hours of running, and a change in my breathing pattern, and I started to hyperventilate. Awesome.
ME: "Am, I...can't...breathe...Can't...catch...my...breath!!"
Amy: "Al, you've run 12.5 miles. Pull it together! Slow down and relax. In and out. In and out. In and out...."
Too bad the photographers didn't catch that one! I quickly got it under control, though. At this point, I knew the knee would hold up, so I was just enjoying the last few minutes of the race. As we ran towards World Showcase Lagoon, Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer was blasting from the speaker. Um, hello...Bon Jovi??? HELL YEAH!!!! So I went from crying and hyperventilating to singing/screaming at the top of my lungs. Nice. I'd like to point out that I was NOT the only one singing, however!
We rounded the turn and ran back towards Spaceship Earth. Then through another Cast Member's only area and past a huge gospel choir. Then just 2o0 yards more, and the finish was in sight. Amy spotted our family waiting for us, cheering their brains out as we ran past towards the finish. And, just like that, after 2 hours and 21 minutes, we were done. The next minutes were a blur. Grab a drink and banana. Someone cut my chip. Someone else placed a medal around my neck. We stopped to stretch and catch our breath, and just smiled and hugged and didn't say much. But WE DID IT! I'm so proud of both of us and so thankful that Amy let me drag her into this crazy thing. She may not believe that she's a runner, but SHE'S A RUNNER!!! And so am I!

i'm back

Greetings and salutations! I'm back from my whirlwind weekend and running extravaganza, and I can't wait to tell you all about it. I don't have time to give you the details now, but check back later tonite or tomorrow to get the goods.

Thanks for all of your emails, cards, and facebook posts...it meant the world to me!!!

a.

it's game time

This is it...the bags are packed, the iPod is charged, and I'm ready for my early flight to see the Mouse tomorrow morning. A year of training all comes down to this. I'm so excited that I'm about to burst. I NEVER, EVER thought I'd be able to run 13 miles, but I CAN, and I WILL (do you hear that, right knee!?!?!?!?!)

I can't wait to tell you all about it when I get home. Make it a great weekend...I know that I will.

See ya real soon~
a.

new year, new look

I was never really happy with the "look" of my blog, and finally did something about it. Here's to our little facelift. I'm sure there will be more as I tire of this one!

ttfn~ (name that movie!)

a.

to shoot or not to shoot...

As you've heard here, I'm running a 1/2 marathon at Disney World this weekend. I've heard that there are characters along the route as well as other fun unique photo opps that come from participating in the race. I REALLY want to bring a camera to get some pics, but can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. I don't want to have to carry it the whole time (we're talking 2+ hours!), but don't know where to stow it.

Any thoughts? Any of you ever run a distance race w/ a camera before?

TIA~
a.

what about where you live?

Just a quickie today. Here's my Project 365 picture, taken this morning. How 'bout where you live? I get the 93 octane (as prescribed by my Acura manual), but this is much better than earlier this fall! I filled up a more-than-3/4-empty 18 gallon tank for $33 on the 26th. Nice!

back to reality

I commented to Jeff today that with Christmas Eve and New Year's being in the middle of the week, he's been off for the better part of 2 weeks. I think he's gone into work 3 times in the last two weeks. Nice! But tomorrow, we're back to reality. No more sleeping in (if you count 7:00 as sleeping in!), staying in our jammies until naptime, and generally bumming around. I guess if we were able to do that all the time, it wouldn't be that special. Oh, and we'd be big time slackers!

Sad as I am to stop the non-stop revelry that has been our life of late, I am a creature of habit. I've missed our weekly routine of grocery shopping, playgroup, Gymboree, Tot Rock class, and all of the other mundane stuff that fills our days. So here's to January 5th, the first day of the rest of the year!

(This is all easy for me to write as I'm off to Disney World sans the hubby and kiddo on Thursday...it's easy for me to cope with reality for three whole days before I take a vacation!)

I have a few pictures for Project 365 for your viewing pleasure.

1.2~ I got some time after the kiddo was in bed to scrap the other night. Here's my first LO of the year. The pictures are from April, but at least it's done!
1.3~ We were feeling cooped up, so we headed to the Y for some fun. Jeff and Emerson chased a ball around the racquetball court...she LOVED it! I snapped some pics from the observation deck up above the court. Her shirt (from Uncle Craig) says "Sport Diva in Training," and he got her some superfly Nike kicks too! (They're sure to have their own photo soon!)

1.4~ Herself LOVES to brush her teeth. (Not the worst habit, right?) She'd probably carry her toothbrush around all day if we let her. Don't worry...it gets frequent baths in the sterilizer!

Make it a good week~

a.

my last long run

My 1/2 marathon is one week from today. ONE WEEK! When I signed up for this waaaay back in February of 2008, it seemed light years away. But as I turned the calendar to 2009, the race is staring me right in the face.

Now, I've definitely put in my time and training. Over the last 2 months alone, I've logged about 100 miles or so, and that's only since November! Physically, I know what the distance feels like. Mentally, I know that I can run 13.1 miles. I just hope my body gets the memo. My right knee and I are currently experiencing irreconcilable differences. A divorce may be eminent. We'll see what the next week brings. I did 6 miles this morning, and it felt significantly better than it has in 2 weeks. But it's still not 100%.

Anyway, that's what's looming in my mind. It pretty much consumes my thoughts in my waking hours (and quite a few when I'm supposed to be sleeping too!) I'm BEYOND excited, and nervous too. I'm not out to break any land/speed records by any means, but I want to run a good race. Keep your fingers crossed for me (and my knee!)

I'll post more Project 365 pics next time. Oh, and I added the answers to the the iPod song game. (scroll down to the original post to see.) I was not tremendously impressed with your efforts, by the way! There were some REALLY easy ones on there. Oh well. I guess is just wasn't your thing. :)

TTFN~
a.

project 365

Happy New Year to all of you! As my dear hubby said to me at midnight last night, "2009 will be just fine!" And I'm SUPER EXCITED to be starting a new quasi-scrapbooking project this year. It's called Project 365, and I'll be taking a picture of some aspect of our life every day this year and putting them in an album along with some journaling. At the end of the year, I'll have a fantastic look into the every day life in our household.

I already scrapbook, but my pages are mostly filled with special events and milestones. This will be more of a "day in the life" album. I'll include pictures of laundry piles, gas prices, projects we're working on, and the like. You know...the everyday mundane stuff that fills our days. I CAN'T WAIT!! When I was in high school, I thought about pursuing a career in photojournalism, and this appeals to the storyteller in me.

I actually started a bit early on Monday, and I'd love to show you what I have so far. (And I promised a fellow photo-phile, one Mr. Jimmy O'Brien, that I'd post my pictures here...your turn, Sir!)

Monday 12.29~ We took Emerson to the zoo to see the holiday lights, and I snapped this one of her with Grandpa. I love it!

Tuesday 12.30~ I know someday she'll kill me for this one, but I just can't resist her little buns. Don't you just want to give them a squeeze?

Wednesday, 12.31~Santa brought me a new camera for Christmas, and I was playing around with aperture while shooting my other baby, Jiko. I love the blurred background! Not bad, if I do say so myself!

Thursday 1.1~ Ringing in the new year. Happy 2009!!

If you want more info on Project 365 and the woman who dreamt it up (I wish I could take credit for it!!), check out Becky Higgins blog. There's info about ordering the kits, but if you scroll back a few days, she has posts explaining the concept.