Double click on photos to see trees close up!

This is our front room tree and we basically decorate it the same very year--the kids insist on it. (However, this year, T's green ornaments aren't on the tree because he wasn't interested in helping.) L and J helped quite a bit to decorate but eventually tired out. I finished. This tree is time-consuming to decorate because it is loaded with ornaments, picks, and other babbles--just the way I like a tree.

Thank heavens it is a pre-lit tree. Although we had the "100 strands of lights with 50 lights per strand" tree for two years and it was beautiful, I wouldn't do that again for love nor money. (It stayed up the whole year which is why we had the lights for two years! We didn't use the front room back then.)

Bryan's contribution is the cute train that runs around the bottom of the tree.

I think we have had these particular decorations for the front room tree for about nine or ten years and this the first year that I haven't purchased something to put on the tree to try to tweak the look of it. I'm not sure this photograph does the tree justice.

I usually put my wooden German ornaments on my front hall tree but I did not put them up last year or this year because I did not want the puppy to chew up any of those ornaments. We did not even put up this tree last year. This year, I decided that we would put up the tree but decorate it with things that I wouldn't worry about or that wouldn't entice the puppy. L jumped into the design project and later J joined us. We decided the ornaments had to be red or white, and then we searched through my stash selecting just the right things--white birds, red birds, crocheted snow flakes, red hearts, blown glass ornaments, little plate ornaments, and lots of others. Bryan and I bought the glass tree topper on our honeymoon and we haven't used it since we lived in St. George. I thought the tree turned out great. In fact, I have had the little white and red plate ornaments for years and this is the first year I used them. Yea!

As it turned out, the dog left the ornaments alone, but the cat did snatch one of the low-lying birds from the tree and was making her get-away when she was caught. I did buy some silvery glass picks that look great on the tree. I also used some red and white glittery picks I'd bought two years ago for the German tree but they'd clashed with the other reds, so it was great to use those since they're pretty.

For the past few years, when ever the after-Christmas sales start, I have wondered whether to get another tree or two because I have enough ornaments to decorate them or I think I'll start a completely new set of decorations! Every year, I want to do something different with the trees I have--I have some kind of primal creative Christmas tree decorating urge. The kids always veto messing with the front room tree (which is why I HAD to get the hall tree for my German ornaments) but the hall tree looked so good this year, I may need another tree for my German ornaments! :-)

And then here is our front room tree made interesting with photo shop witchery! I couldn't resist--its that decorating thing again!

Life is like . . .

Life is rather like a tin of sardines
--we're all of us looking for the key."
--Alan Bennett

Threads

Chains do not hold a marriage together.
It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads
which sew people together through the years.
--Simone Signoret

. . . bring your own sunshine.

"Wherever you go,

no matter the weather,

always bring your own sunshine."
--Anthony J. D'Angelo

Time passing . . . .

How is it that Christmas vacation

does not last as long now as it did when I was a kid?

Post-Christmas Post

Today was a good post-Christmas day. I was able to get a few of my gifts out and check them out.

I did get a calendar maker program and I spent the morning trying to get January through March 2009 typed on to calendars for Young Women. It was Broderbund's The Print Shop 23 and it did not work exactly like I had hoped but the calendars do look better than the plain (ugly) ones I'd found online a month ago.

And good news for any of "my" blog followers, if I have any :-), I did receive a new digital camera for Christmas. So now, there's no stopping me! (Well, I do need to figure out how to use it and charge the battery and start taking pictures and upload them, but it is my own camera and there is a new scan disk to fill! Yea!)

Tomorrow looks like more of the same pace (at least I hope so).

Christmas time is here and almost gone.

Christmas has come to our house and the day is nearly done. I think our Christmas was fine and dandy. It was a working vacation for me. However, the shutterfly book came a day earlier than expected and I think, over all, it turned out OK. My in-laws seemed pleased with it. I am hoping for MY Christmas "vacation" to be tomorrow. Wish me luck with that! It is time to go try to make up for missed sleep!

Book in, author kaput, don't know the results, yet.

Hello. The person at the desk (above) is yours truly--I'm totally given out. Pooped. Kaput. Fix und fertig. I was able to submit my photobook on Friday afternoon five minutes before the "delivery-guaranteed-by-Christmas" deadline. I am now in that limbo between (A) having worked as hard as I could for two weeks to (B) not knowing how the book will turn out until I see it on (hopefully, if Shutterfly keeps its word) Christmas Eve. It was a herculean effort--far more was involved than I ever guessed when I naively started out. I kind of wish I'd never started it. Once started and "knee-deep" in the project, I was committed to make as good a product as I could and I felt I had to finish ASAP because I would not come back to it later, particularly as I grew so sick of it by the second week. I hope that the book can be more than the sum of all its parts and can be a keepsake rather than error-filled junk.

Can the end be in sight?

Tomorrow, Friday, is the last day that I can submit this photobook (by 4 p.m. PST) and still have it arrive for Christmas--assuming I am understanding the website information. It is nearly 2 a.m. and I have not been able to be "finished" until I was "finished"--it was important to me to put in my best effort clear to the end, if I'm going to do this at all. I have finalized everything but about three loose ends (although they are not important). I'll try tying those up tomorrow. I have worked on this since Sunday evening, Dec. 7, until today, going all day and often late into the night. It has driven me crazy. I love this type of project but not in an insanely condensed period of time, at Christmas time and under great pressure. I feel welded to my computer chair. I hardly know what to do with myself if I'm not sitting here, so detached from reality have I become.
I started innocently on this project, not at all estimating its problems and time requirements.
It is so hard to proof read my own material when everything is so fresh. I like to let things sit and then proof when I've forgotten a bit about things that I've written. Plus, there is no way to see all the text without clicking on each little individual text box (probably about 72 x 3 text boxes if not more). I think this has redefined the word tedious. I was dismayed at the number of typos or "unsmooth" :-) sentences this last go-round. I even spell checked all the boxes BEFORE I proof read them tonight. But I can't do it again tonight. I'm getting a bit foggy-headed and I need to quit for the night. Say a prayer for me. I desperately want this to be a quality product.

Don't believe all you read in the last post.

I THOUGHT I had all the pictures scanned and in place, but I have probably scanned nearly 60 or 70 since I wrote that post--some I have scanned twice. I have also agreed to pick up some more pictures tomorrow. So, no, I'm not finished. I am still deep, deep, deep in this project. Perhaps there is no such thing as "finished." This reminds me of the Christmas when I wrapped each individual branch of the Christmas tree with lights--100 strands with 50 lights per strand--only this is far worse. I am trying desperately to finish. I am here all day and late into the night. I leave only for absolute necessities. If you hear plunking sounds, those are my marbles dropping to the ground.

If you don't hear from me for a while . . .

If you don't hear from me for a while, know that I am totally consumed with this photo book project, because I am trying to finish it, order it and, HOPEFULLY, get it back in time for Christmas. I now have all the photos that I will use--scanned [EGAD] and dropped into their now permenant slots. (Meine Gute!) I have the order of the pages and the order of the photographs established (these were not small tasks). I have tried to give all photos proper captions. I have added quotes in places too small for text or too disconnected from the main text to serve as anything but spots for quotes. I have added text in most places where text is required but, frankly, I need more text, so I will need to talk with my in-laws to get more stories from them. My ex-sister-in-law had written histories about them and their parents (bless her) and I have used every shred and I am now to the point that I am ready to MAKE THINGS UP so that I can fill the text boxes with something. I feel bad that I have to "tip my hand" at all so my in-laws will even have an idea I'm doing this but I don't see any other way. I have also switched text around--with a program where you can't cut and paste, mind you--and I have now lost track of some text in the merry-go-round-of-text that I've been on as I've arranged and rearranged the page order and picture order and text order. It is 2 a.m. I am not a night owl. I can't seem to get the task done any faster than I can get it done. It is happening just one key stroke at a time.

I'm trying something new.

I am trying my hand at a photo book through the site "shutterfly." I want to give it as a gift at Christmas to my in-laws. I spent yesterday evening scanning about forty old photographs and putting them into the format on the website. I have all of them inserted into the book format. I have passed the twenty page minimum and it is $1.05 per page after that.

Now I need to decide whether I need more photographs and what those photographs would be. Well, let me put that another way. In my opinion, I need more photographs but where I will get them and what they should be are still questions to be answered. I don't want to infringe copyrights and I'm not sure where I'll find enough photos of B's siblings and children--that's the kicker.

Then, when all the photos are in, I will enter the text. I was trying to enter the text as I went along but I kept changing the photos around--trying for perfection--so I decided I'd save the text until I'd set the photographs in their permenant spot.

I love doing stuff like this. I think I've missed my true calling in life all these years. :-) I'll keep you posted. The only downside is we're in a time crunch here, folks.

Photos in of graham cracker creations

Look at previous post for pictures of L & T's graham cracker creations under caption "Pictures are here."

Dog tired

I am dog tired. I worked so hard on my YW lesson for yesterday--"Choosing a Vocation." I worked harder on that lesson than on any other lesson I've ever given in my entire life--hours and hours and hours. I've taught Gospel Doctrine for nine years, Primary, Laurels when I was Laurel advisor, and Relief Society, and I don't recall EVER spending this much time on a lesson. Ever. I've never been more elated for a lesson to be behind me than I am about this lesson. I thought the lesson was just OK. I'm not allowing myself to be disappointed about it, that it wasn't EXCELLENT for all the time invested. Thank Heaven it is over. Thank Heaven I don't give a lesson for another three months and next time when it is my turn, I have a normal topic--thank goodness. In addition to all this, we had more young women in attendance than we have ever had in my experience. We had four visitors, fourteen young women from our rolls, two advisors, two other presidency members, and we met combined. If L hadn't been ill, we would have had fifteen! Wow. We had more interruptions that we have ever had before. We had to have interviews for baptisms for the dead during that time because we go this Friday, so about every two minutes, someone was coming into or leaving the room--for a total of about fourteen times--plus we had several people poke their heads in to ask something. I am finding that I spend so much more time in preparation for lessons and activities than it takes for the lesson or activity itself. What a calling. I think I will be living my life in dog years while I'm in this calling.

Deck the halls . . .

Today we're decking the halls! B & T are hanging iceicle lights around the house, adding to lights that are already there. I think they're nearly finished and then B will probably set up a few more Christmas yard decorations. L and I have been decorating inside. We have nearly all the decorations up but we don't have the tree(s) set up yet, so we've hit a stopping point. J is sick. He's miserable. We hope he feels well soon. L drew this picture several years ago.

True wisdom

"True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by." E.S. Bouton

Choosing a vocation . . .

"Find purpose in your life. Choose the things you would like to do, and educate yourselves to be effective in their pursuit. For most it is very difficult to settle on a vocation. You are hopeful that you will marry and that all will be taken care of. In this day and time, a girl needs an education. She needs the means and skills by which to earn a living should she find herself in a situation where it becomes necessary to do so.
"Study your options. Pray to the Lord earnestly for direction. Then pursue your course with resolution.
"The whole gamut of human endeavor is now open to women. There is not anything that you cannot do if you will set your mind to it. You can include in the dream of the woman you would like to be a picture of one qualified to serve society and make a significant contribution to the world of which she will be a part."
President Gordon B. Hinkley, "How Can I Become the Woman of Whom I Dream?," Ensign, May 2001, 93.

From days of yore . . .

A blast from the past: SB, L, T, J & B on a fire truck in the 2006 Washington County Fair Parade. (I wasn't there because that was the year of my foot surgery.)

Desert floral display

As I was looking for a picture to match my mood, I came across this in B's photo stash. I always like red flowers and red plants and red things. I also need to get a new disc for my camera so I can add new images, but in the mean time, this is pretty, in a "deserty" sort of way. :-)

Pictures are here

I had to drive to Wal-mart in order to get reasonably priced "Meringue Powder." I made all seven pounds of powdered sugar into royal icing and it was just about right.

The gingerbread/graham cracker activity went well. I will need to become accustomed to teens preliminarily acting like an activity idea stinks but jumping in and enjoying the activity.

There were a lot of creative creations (T asked that I quit calling them "creations"). Some of the most memorable were the trojan horse dog, T's camp area, a train, and a vintage truck. Of course, there was also J's sheriff's car, and L & Ch's house, and B & ?'s house. All of the "creations" were interesting and imaginative, even the one that MJ head-butted into oblivion.

Frankly, I personally needed this to go well and I'm happy that it did go well.

Now I need to turn my attention to getting my Sunday lesson ready: "Choosing a Vocation." I've struggled with this lesson. On the one hand, it is good for me to have such a huge challenge. On the other hand, I'd prefer a different topic, particularly for my first lesson in YW.

Here's to edible royal icing!

This will be me tomorrow making edible royal icing and making edible royal icing and making edible royal icing. For the YM/YW combined activity, we are going to make gingerbread (aka graham cracker) houses and we need royal icing.

How much royal icing you ask? Well, I thought twenty cups with one cup per bag and two icing bags per station (we are planning 10 stations) but when I read that one pound of powdered sugar makes three cups of icing, it gave me pause. That's seven pounds of powdered sugar. Might I be overshooting the mark? I will need to contemplate this. One half cup of icing in a baggie hardly seems adequate, even if there are two per station. But realistically, how big can a graham cracker house be? I don't think any of them will be building Chartres cathedral ala graham crackers.

Do I have seven pounds of powdered sugar in my house? Short answer: no.

Why royal icing? Because it holds like cement and a good graham cracker/gingerbread house needs to be cemented in place.

Why edible royal icing? First, there is no doubt that the YM will eat the icing. And second, because there is also inedible royal icing made with egg whites. The edible kind requires meringue powder. Let's hope I can find meringue powder here in the local stores.

I had planned to buy icing from the bakery at the local market but I never did arrange for it and it will probably be cheaper to make it. (Don't those sound like famous last words?)

My good sister-in-law C helped me get the graham crackers and candy at Wal-mart on Saturday. We have gum drops, mini candy canes, mixed hard candy, Skittles, M&Ms, and mini marshmellows. Then we the candy horders at our house have contributed our ancient candy from the house--LOTS of Tootsie Rolls, and also suckers, caramel, packages of candy like red hots, Skittles, mini M&Ms, gummi Life Savers, Cracker Jacks, sour Skittles-- just about anything one might see in a trick-or-treat bag--and each group of house makers will get one STUFFED sandwich baggie full of these tooth-breaking delights.

"Let's go on with the show!"

We wish you a . . .

Today is Monday. Thanksgiving vacation is over. The Thanksgiving dinners have been eaten. The house is being restored to order (well, to its former chaos). We had a good holiday. We enjoyed visiting with lots of family members. We enjoyed the food. We are thankful.

Now we turn to Christmas. J said this morning that we have fourteen more days of school before Christmas vacation and T said we had twenty-five days until Christmas. We're on the countdown. Let's deck the halls!