In Search of Myself

Christmas in Pictures

Ok, so here are some pictures of our Christmas, on Christmas day at our house, then on the day after at my mom's house.  I'm saving the pics of our celebration with Lou's family until we finish it on Friday with another get together.  ;o) 

 

 

Glad it's over.

ok, now that Christmas is over, I don't feel bad for saying this: I really don't like Christmas.  I just don't.  I like what it represents -- I LOVE what it represents -- but so much of what Christmas ends up being has nothing to do with that anyway, so I don't really see the two . . . what Christmas SHOULD be, and what it ENDS UP being each year . . .  as the same thing.  So yeah, Christmas as it is every year, I'm not fond of.  Growing up, Christmas always sucked because my mom didn't GET how to make holidays special or buy the gifts that we were hoping for.  And now as an adult, I hate the traffic, the rush, the crowds, the consumer-mentality, the craziness and busy-ness, the obligations you force yourself to smile through (thank GOODNESS there were no random parties I had to go to this year, except for the one open-house that was actually fun), the stress of a piano recital for my girls every year (I ENJOY it, I just don't like the planning and the stress on the kids and everything) . . . I'm just glad now that it's over.  Only it's not REALLY over, 'cause the tree overflowing with ornaments is still up, I have to figure out what to do with all Jake's new stuff, I have to write thank-you cards, I have to do something with the hundreds of pictures I took in the last week, and we have one more left-over family Christmas this Friday (but I'm looking forward to it, I really like Lou's Aunt and girls.)  The very best part of the Christmas season is the week I get off work.  But that just gets me depressed 'cause it's so nice to be home and then I have to go back soon and I SO don't feel like it.

And I don't want it to seem like I'm not thankful.  I'm thankful we have a house to have a tree up in, that we were able to give Jake a wonderful Christmas, and that we were able to be with both of our families for Christmas.  That's all great.  Just that overall, I'm glad it's behind us.

Christmas eve . . .

Jake woke up this morning and said "Mom, is it Christmas now?"  Poor kid.  He's been so patient.  We're having dinner and opening presents at my mom's tonight, then in the morning doing the family thing just the 3 of us, then having Christmas with Lou's family at 1 p.m.  (and my parents are coming with us to that, so that's good.)  Right now Jake and I are finishing up a brunch of chocolate milk and peanutbutter and M&M sandwiches (yum!), while I finish uploading the 215 pictures that are in my camera so the card is empty for the Christmas festivities.  Lou is working today but then we both don't work again until Thursday.

I spent FOUR HOURS yesterday cleaning my house.  Mom had kept Jake for the night so I could get stuff done (ok, and the night before I had myself a chick movie marathon and watched Ella Enchanted and Princess Diaries.  I have to admit I LOVED both.)  So I cleaned the house top to bottom (and I'm totally sore today), then mom brought Jake back with some Arby's.  We ate together then made Gingerbread cookies.  I LOVE the Pillsbury cookie dough cookie sheets, already ready for cookie cutters!  Jake went crazy on the sprinkles, but that's the whole reason we do it.  Lou's grandmother came over for dinner and we had Italian food that Lou had cooked.  (Lou's grandpa and my dad are off running around right now, otherwise Pa would have been here, too.)

One night earlier in the week (Sunday maybe?), my mom was finishing up a scrapbook for an old friend, and she wanted to know how to attach vellum.  (Vellum is mostly clear, so you have to use a special tape so the tape doesn't show through.)  I brought over my vellum tape and she and I assembled all the text and journaling to the scrapbook while my dad played with Jake.  I realized, sitting there, that I am SO LUCKY my parents live nearby now.  I spent 6 years living over 2,000 miles away from them -- and while that was completely my choice and I think was good for me, I really do enjoy them now.  Another night this week my mom had made spaghetti so I stayed after I picked Jake up and we ate dinner together -- Kathy about knocked me to the floor when I stole half of her bread (just the soft part), and I about fell over laughing.  We're trying to convince her not to move back to Montana.  What she REALLY wants is to not live with mom and dad anymore.  So we'll see how that goes.

Oh, Jake got REALLY sick on Wednesday.  Kathy and mom had Jake out in Murfreesboro, shopping and running around.  I think the milk he had at McD's made him sick, because he puked twice in the car and then about 8 more times that night.  It was NOT fun.  Mom and Kat stuck around for a while and helped me clean him up and calm him down -- Kathy gave him the 2nd of the 3 baths he got that night.  I was up literally all night with him, giving him water so he wouldn't get dehydrated, then waiting with a little plastic green bucket for when he threw up again.  It totally sucked, but my morning he was feeling ok (THANK GOODNESS!!!)

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas (thank you, Sue, Kate, and Kelly for the Christmas cards!!!) and I'll post again soon!

More New Pages.

yesterday was totally dead at work (since pretty much everyone on campus but US is gone already), so I finished up several more pages for dad's book.  go me go me.  I have several more to do still, but at least I have enough for a really good start to the book.

What I've been busy with.

Ok, so for Christmas I'm making my dad a scrapbook.  Sounds like a cop-out, I know, but this is actaully WAY more work than going to pick out a present!!!  Dad is horribly difficult to shop for, and he has expressed frustration lately at the lack of printed pictures since we all got digital cameras.  So that got me to thinking I would put the best pictures from the last few years together.  But then I wanted to cover more than just current, so any old pics I already had scanned in, I've been throwing together, too.  I have to admit I'm cheating and I'm printing 8 layouts I already had done, just for me, 'cause they fit.  LOL.  And I've re-done two sets of layouts that were in 8.5x11 format, down to 6x6 (which was HARD!)  Anyway, here are some examples of the 32 pages I sent off to be printed today.  I'm still working on finishing SEVERAL more, but I need to go ahead and get the first batch printed!  I haven't tried to make them impressive, just wanted to throw them together quickly . . . dad doesn't care about the latest scrapbook trends, he's just after the pictures.

Where am I getting so many images printed?  Each 6x6 page will only cost me 50 cents!  Click here to read about price comparison between ShinyNickels.com and ScrapbookPictures.com.

Sheri and Sara: I have a SEVERE shortage of pictures of dad before my mom met him, and of the two of you (you and your boys especially, Sara!!!)  I also have only ONE picture of Aunt Katie before 1980.  Help a sista out!!!  ;o) 

 

 

 

 

 

Um, hi.

Piano recital is done.  It was fun, the girls did a good job.

Mag deadlines have been met.  At 1 a.m. Sunday night/Monday morning.  Working Mon - Wed. this week, then I get a week off (woo hoo!!!)

The goal for today (Monday) is to finish my dad's Christmas present and get it uploaded for printing.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

New pics.

Ok, so I'm still trying really really hard to get stuff done (thus my extreme lack of posting this week), but here are a few new pictures.  (I am SO FAR BEHIND on pictures and cute Jake stories!!!)

Kate, I got your Christmas card in the mail -- SO CUTE!!!

This first picture is my OTHER favorite Christmas ornament.  The others, just Jake being happy about his Christmas tree.  ;o)  (Jake LOVES Christmas.)

 

Becca!

So I'm still trying VERY hard to meet deadlines and finish projects, but every once in a while I take a step away from that to do something for a friend.

Becca e-mailed me Sunday night with this:
HELP JEN!!!!  You there???  If so, could I e-mail you a pic right now to try and doctor for us? It is a pic we want for our christmas cards - us in front of our house at dusk. We wanted to send one of both us a family and our new home. Is there any way to just make us look less "bright"? I like the house, but we are way overexposed I think? Can you save this picture??? I'd love to print them out tonight.    Thanks!! ~ Becca

First, here is the original picture.  So then I fixed the picture and came up with this:

 

Becca e-mailed me back on Tuesday and said:
Hey Jen - you wanna know what my mom asked? She was curious if somehow we could copy that red bow on the one light over porch to the other light between the garage doors lol. Is that possible? :)  I thought if anyone can do it, you can. We got so much grief for being short a bow!

So first I made this, for the fix:

Then I made a special one, just for her mom.  (click below to see it.)

Deadlines.

My goal for the day is to finish up as many of my deadlined projects as possible.  So no blog-fun for me today.  LOVE YOU ALL.

Happy Birthday, Austin!

(Kelly, I'll e-mail you a larger version of this image later, k?)