Another one from our zoo trip over the weekend. Love the meerkats. They have a special place in my heart. Lion King was the first movie Jake and I ever went to and it will always be special to me.
Today’s Nathaniel is just a snapshot I took in a hurry. Today was one of those magical days when Nathaniel didn’t wake up until 8:15 in the morning (even then he didn’t wake up, I had to wake him up so I’d have time to nurse him before we had to go drop David off at his school.) and then he came back home and took another long nap and then we picked up David and Nathaniel took another super-long nap when we came home. As if all that wasn’t enough, he took another nap at 4pm (brief one cause I didn’t want it to mess up bedtime. Holy cow! If only I knew today was going to go this way, I would have planned it so much better!!
This weekend I did some digging in the garage and opened up a few of the leftover boxes. One of them had David’s bike and batman computer in it. Today, he decided he wanted to play with them simultaneously.
We also got a headboard today. Our first one ever. I love it already. How I want to get a bedskirt but we don’t have a frame so it’s really hard to find short bedskirts that are just for the box.
I’ve just started my book of the week which is “Love Walked In” and I am loving it so far.
Journaling Reads:
i remember asking my parents for this computer for my tenth birthday. “you just want to play games,” they said. “no” i insisted, “i will learn how to program, I will use it all the time, I swear.” they were reluctant, I could tell. everyone else just used theirs as a fancy toy but i wanted one. I knew I wasn’t going to use mine as a toy, mine was a keeper. I don’t know what finally convinced them but I still remember the day my commodore 64 arrived. i fulfilled my promises, I took lessons, I worked, I played, I tinkered with that thing all the time. As it turned out, that was the beginning of a lifelong love of computers a career in programming and the internet. now i help build browsers. and it all started with one little machine. a present that changed my whole life.
Karen Says:
The Commodore 64 my parents bought me when I was a little girl was the very first computer I ever loved. Today, I have eight computers and I love them all. I made a career out of working with computers. I cannot thank them enough for believing in me, supporting me, and of course giving me my first computer.
Thanks to kids woot, I get to have this wonderful treasure that reminds me of my childhood. I’ve always ALWAYS loved Pink Panther and now I get to have it. David’s been watching it incessantly too.
And Nathaniel’s been sitting it up more and more. (Lest you worry, Jake was right next to him, just in case he tipped over.)
A quiet and wonderful Sunday here. I spent most of my day reading. I remembered that everything aside, my first is and always will be reading. To more days like this.
I have mixed feelings about this book. Maybe cause it came with so much hype.
The first chapter was absolutely impossible to read. I tried three times before I could get myself to finish it. The story for the first half of the book was interesting but not amazing. I liked the characters but there were so many of them that I kept losing track and wondered how important it was going to be to remember them all.
For me, the book started getting good halfway through. Once the case started unlocking a bit. But then it got really scary and creepy and I am not such a fan of that. I didn’t see it coming at all. I did read the last 500 pages in one sitting and I loved most of the characters.
All in all, I think it was a good book. I’m going to have to sit with it for a week or two to decide what I think.
Since Jake was out of town last week, we were scheduled to celebrate my birthday this weekend (and next!) so we went to the San Francisco zoo. It was teeny tiny compared to the San Diego one was but it was still a lot of fun. I’ll share more photos throughout the next few weeks but I love this one of the two penguins.
And Nathaniel was snuggled into his Daddy the whole time.
David made a face about half the time but I did manage to get him to giggle a few times.
And here’s the handsome man. Love him.
The book post is hopefully coming tomorrow. Still reading the book.
Following up on last week’s video, this week I talk more about aperture.
Feel free to let me know if anything is unclear or if you have questions. Next week is shutter speed. I am still planning on writing these up, please bear with me if you can’t watch YouTube videos.
Photography Tips is a weekly feature and is posted every Friday. You can find all of them here.
Last night I got some amazing amazing news about work. Our project got a really big award. So today, all four of us went to work for the celebration. It was really deeply wonderful to be a part of such an amazing thing. I am truly grateful and awed.
I snapped a shot of Nathaniel on the way back home, in the parking lot. He was really tired and fell asleep in the car on the way home.
I am suffering from a terrible bout of allergies suddenly and it’s making me really congested and drowsy. I hate it. I think it’s our new sheets so I am washing them and hoping that will do the trick. Yuck.
Today’s photography video is coming soon, YouTube is still processing it.
This week’s question is: “What sparks my creativity?”
Lately, I’ve been looking at a lot of other artists amazing work. That sparks my creativity more than anything else. The other thing that sparks it is limitation. These tags and their small size have made my creativity explode. I love doing them more than just about any other piece of art.
This tag is mostly fiber with some metal embellishments. Some hand stitching and some machine stitching.
Some recent events inspired me to open an etsy store to sell some of my tags. Just for fun.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
I snapped this weird shot in David’s class. I like it and I can’t even explain why honestly.
Here’s the Nathaniel shot for today. Love this boy. I know I say it a lot but I cannot say it enough. I can’t stop kissing him either.
Another good day so far. I woke up incredibly exhausted. Beyond words. But I recovered throughout the day and I did get quite a bit done so I am feeling good. And I got some amazing news at work so that helped, too.
You are welcome to play with these as much as you want and use them anywhere you’d like. You are NOT allowed to sell them ever. You don’t have to but I’d appreciate a link back if you do use them.
This is part of a weekly digital download series. They are posted every Wednesday. You can find all of the ones that were posted here.
I took this shot on a recent walk David, Nathaniel and I took. I can never capture the beauty of flowers the way I wish to. The way I see them.
So today I started working again after 5.5 months of maternity. This date was plaguing me for several reasons and I was really anxious about it. The amazing thing is, when the morning finally arrived, I felt at peace. Most of the anxiety is gone and I am feeling much more peaceful than I have in weeks.
I still have a lot to learn (moving into a new position) and I am nervous about some of it but I have faith that, in time, I will pick it up and it will be ok. And if it’s not… well, I am not worrying about that just yet.
The greatest thing is, I get to work from home. This is the original reason I chose to work with computers over twenty years ago. I knew I wanted to be home to see my kids grow up and I am blessed to get to do that. Blessed beyond belief.
Because I’m still trying to get Nathaniel’s naps organized, I work upstairs in the bedroom for now so I can watch him on the video monitor. Here’s a shot of what things look like in my room during the day.
And just in case you think Nathaniel’s not enjoying it, I assure you, he is.
It’s challenging to work from home, on many levels. And when I did it before it wasn’t for a company like Google and I only had one kid, so I expect this to be even more challenging but I am up for it. I am excited about it. This is going to work!
I did this to commemorate my recent cooking adventures. I like doing these layouts that are just about photos and words. I have an upcoming class on this sometime next year and decided to focus on it and see what I can do.
Journaling reads:
I can’t cook.
No I mean I really can’t cook.
I haven’t cooked a single dish in fifteen years.
But, now that we have this amazing kitchen. These beautiful, growing kids.
I think it’s time to learn.
So now we have weekly family dinners.
One recipe at a time, we’re all learning to be adventurous.
