Wednesday, December 31, 2008

THE SHACK

I just posted this on my other blog, so if you read both, you need to read this again so I can further prove my point. :)





I just finished reading The Shack and recommend it to EVERYONE. What an AMAZING book full of hope and working through the challenges that life and grief bring. I'm not an avid reader at all, but it is a goal of mine. However, when I find a book that I like, I will read it cover to cover as quickly as I can, as I did this book.

This book is not written for Christians. It is written for everyone no matter of their religious preference or level of faith they do or do not have. Please give yourself an amazing gift in 2009 and read this book! I would lend you my copy, but I am not letting it go. When you read it - which is very soon I hope - be sure to read the foreword. It will make the book fit together like the beautiful puzzle that it is.

The past two nights of reading "The Shack" have reformed my mind, my relationships, and my outlook on life. I feel a sense of purpose, comfort, purpose, and (*gulp* dare I say it?) . . . hope . . . that I haven't felt in a long time.

Monday, December 29, 2008

People are Talking . . .

. . . about this photo from prom my junior year of high school. What of it?


I'm sure my high school boyfriend (with whom I am still friends) would absolutely love that his photo is available for all the world to see. :) I'm even more sure that I would never post a picture of this caliber had Todd been standing next to me. I have to be married to the guy, ya know!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Project 365 - A Photo a Day

I found this on my friend Misty's blog, and I am going to join her! Granted, some of it will be under the ruse of wanting a new DSLR camera for my birthday. Until I hopefully get my birthday gift, I'll have to use my phone's camera and my point & shoot. (Which is close to the point of shot.)

I think I'll post my photos here (maybe weekly?) unless I decide to start a new blog for my project. That's doubtful since I have a hard time managing the blogs I already have now.

Why don't you JOIN ME? If you do, let me know. We'll need one another for inspiration!


Here's the info I pulled from the Project 365 website:

WHY DO IT?
Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it:

Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)


Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.

Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.

TIPS ON HOW TO DO IT

6 Tips on How to Do It....

1. Bring Your Camera Everywhere
Yes, everywhere. Get in the habit. Grocery stores, restaurants, parties, work, and school. Going to a movie theatre? Snap a pic of the flick with your phone–there are photo-ops everywhere. If you have one of those tiny tiny cameras, you have no excuse not to have it in your pocket all the time. And if you don’t? Camera phones are a great substitute.


2. Make Posting Easy
You can install blog software like Movable Type or Wordpress on your own site and create an entry for each photo, but for true ease of use, try a photo sharing site. Flickr will let you post a week’s worth of photos in 2 minutes flat, and fotolog and Photoblog are geared toward a photo-a-day workflow. Making it fast and easy means you’re much more likely to do it.

3. Vary Your Themes
Try to capture the day’s events in a single photo. Perform photographic experiments. Take a photo of someone new you meet, something you ate for the first time, or something you just learned how to do. Take a photo of something that made you smile. And don’t forget to take a photo of yourself at least once a month so you can remember how you’ve changed, too.

4. Tell a Story
Use your blog entry, or your photo description, to explain what’s going on in each day’s photograph. How good did that dinner taste? What made you want to take a photo of that stranger? It’ll help you remember down the road, and it gives friends following along a better appreciation of why you took the photo you did. You don’t need to write a lot, just enough to add some color.

5. Don’t Stop, No Matter What
This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place.

There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.

Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.

N.b. It helps if you’ve told your friends about the project and asked them to follow along. Their encouragement will keep you going!

6. Post early, post often
Plan on going through and posting your photos at least once a week so you don’t get backlogged and feel overwhelmed. Ideally, post every day or two. Again, spend the time up front to make sure it’s quick and easy to post. It’ll make all the difference.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas 2008

I've gotten terrible at taking photos - both the process of taking them and actually doing it. Here are a few I did take though.


Our Christmas Card, 2008

I had to share because I love the photos! I removed our last name in case some of you want to dognap our precious babies. :)

Front:
(No, Mindy is not pictured since she doesn't travel well!)


Back:
The photos were taken by our awesome photographer Melissa, who has the patience of Job after dealing with my neurotic OCD behavior, Todd's frustration, and three wild & crazy dogs. And that was just for Christmas photos! It doesn't include our engagements, my bridal portraits, and shooting our wedding for over 8 hours! Love you M!

Friday, December 26, 2008

HUGE RAVE!

I finally did it. I dismantled all of my photo frames and old photo albums (which killed me!) and collected all of my photos. Nervously, I packed every single photograph I could find into three boxes. Everything from wallet-sized to 8x10s, they were shipped to Irvine, California, so the fine folks at Scan My Photos could shoot them all through their high-powered scanner.

Less than one week later, the wonderful postman dropped three boxes on our doorstep, full of all of my photos plus three DVDs contained over 5100 scanned images! Yes, I had over 5000 photos!

Now it's time for the really hard work. I have copied every image to my external hard drive, and I am cleaning up each photo and categorizing them. I'm also adding in all of my digital photo files. I will then burn images to CD or DVD and give them to family and friends. For Christmas, I gave family members an empty jewel case with a poem inside telling them what would be coming . . . eventually!

I hope everyone enjoys the photos as much as I am. I'm absolutely thrilled with the work done by Scan My Photos, and I am enjoying seeing all of these photographs from the past. Best of all, I know my photos are safe now. That's truly the best part.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas

Todd and I wanted to wish you all of the blessings that Christmas provides us. Our Lord brought to us His son, so that He may provide us all the miraculous gift of eternal life. While we know the holidays can often be difficult for many of us, know that His promise is always with you.

If you are celebrating Chanukah, we wish you blessings as you join with family each night to celebrate. Whatever your belief system, we hope that you are able to take this time of year to spend with loved ones, to relax and reflect, and plan for the renewal of a new year.

I started this blog as a way to entertain myself and find a way to journal a little of what life brings us. I doubt you find as much entertainment in it as I do, but I appreciate you reading our blog and getting a little view into our lives. Merry Christmas!