We received a CD with new pictures of Brian in Escondido, California.
(click on a photo to view them all in a gallery)
New pix from Brian
Wherein I Try Something New
I tried something new: I made an online photo book. I am a paper scrapbooker who hasn’t really had time to fuss with learning any digital scrapping except cropping and printing photos. A friend regularly makes online photo books that become hardbound books and has been encouraging me to try it for a very long time. I saw a big sale on winkflash and decided it was time. I wanted to make a book for Brian for Christmas that included all his theater gigs to date. This included 4th grade to 12th grade and seemed like a good candidate for such a book. It turned out to be more complicated than I had originally envisioned as I tried to collect the photos. I found that even though I have tried to be good about organizing our digital photos, there was room for improvement because I couldn’t find photos I knew I had taken.
Over the course of three weeks I found photos, sorted, gathered, cropped, fixed red eyes, picked backgrounds, wrote journaling and made a book. It just arrived in the mail and I was very excited. I looked through it and saw some things I would do differently on the next book I make, but overall, I was very pleased and it was fun to learn a new skill and be creative.
wrap-up The 2nd Challenge 2010
Challenge Guidelines:
There are four levels:
— Curious – Read 3 novels that are 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.
— Fascinated – Read 6 that are 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.
— Addicted – Read 12 novels that are 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.
— Obsessed – Read 20 novels 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.
Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.
My original post said I would choose Fascinated and read 6, but things changed during the year. I kept going and ended up with Addicted……..
1. Round Robin, by Jennifer Chiaverini (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)
2. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)
3. The Missing, by Beverly Lewis (2nd in a series)
4. Fairest, by Gail Carson Levine (2nd time for the author)
5. Monster, by Walter Dean Myers (2nd time for the author)
6. The Queen of Attolia: The Queen’s Thief #2, by Megan Whalen Turner (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)
7. The Sea of Monsters: Percy Jackson & the Olympians #2, by Rick Riordan (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)
8. Dragon’s Gate, Golden Mountain Chronicles 1867, by Laurence Yep (2nd time for the author)
9. Born in Ice, by Nora Roberts (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)
10. The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #2, by Michael Scott (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)
11. Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen (2nd time for the author)
12. The Fourth Bear: Nursery Crimes #2, by Jasper Fforde (2nd in a series)
Some good news from each of us
Scott: switched our TV service from Comcast to Direct TV so that we have the correct stations to see ALL the BYU football games this year.
Sue: received “Mockingjay, book 3 of the Hunger Games” in the mail today and will be starting to read it tonight.
Mark: after spending all summer talking to various people at BYU, he just found out that he really had been accepted into the Music Dept. in February but some kind of mix-up sent him the denial letter instead of the acceptance letter; he has been stressed and praying and investigating other options since he got home from his mission in May but now he can do what he really wants to do with his life; not only is he now a music major but they’ve also approved the lateral move to a sound recording emphasis because he’s already taken some of those courses.
Brian: after spending almost 6 months in his first area of Escondido, he is being transferred (we won’t find out where until Tuesday); he is being made a senior companion AND a district leader with this transfer.
Bad luck comes in threes
Ever have one of those days where things just go wrong? Yesterday Mark had two tires go flat on the way to work requiring a tow truck, two new tires and four new struts on the Mazda. In the afternoon his buddy bowed out of going to the Jack Johnson concert with him tomorrow night leaving him stranded and disappointed. In the evening he and I were working outside and found our front faucet is leaking. Not into the house but the plumber coming later today will probably have to punch a hole in my craft room wall in order to fix it. If so, this will require massive moving of lots of really cool craft stuff. Scott wants the back one done at the same time which will punch a hole in the office wall. The office is another area that will be a mess to move stuff around. Because we never use the back faucet I have negligently let the lilac just grow over it. So I went out at 6:30 am to prune the lilac in back and lavender in front so that the plumber can actually work.
Ugh! The only bright spot in all this is that Scott has been working 60-70 hour weeks lately so now we have overtime to pay for repairs. But Mark and I haven’t actually seen much of him so I’m not sure it’s really a bright spot. Still evaluating that idea. But the outlook for the future must be good since we’ve had our run of bad luck for the month.