Sunrise

Took this picture Sunday morning standing on our porch while getting ready to leave Florida.

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Do I Really Look Like This?

One of my students, Anthony, sketched me one day.

We got back from Florida tonight after flying down to see our moms for Christmas. Great to see them but much too short of a visit!

Kylie Turns Four

I've been waiting for a sunny day to take pictures of my journal but that isn't going to happen this week! So, I turned a bunch of lights on and took one. It's a bit dark but not too bad.

My Mother-in-law's Scrapbook

I made this scrapbook for Gloria several years ago. This is a page about her father.

And this is her mother.

This is Gloria on her first wedding day in 1950.


Here she is with her firstborn son, my husband, Gary, and her second son, Derek, whom we always called Rick.

I got the biggest kick out of this series of photos. Gary was such an imp and here he throws snow into his baby brother's carriage.

Here she is with her second husband, Ken.

Gary is school. Can you see in that class picture that he's the only kid turned around?

Little League

Pictures of Gloria with my kids, Nathan and Erin.

Nathan and Rick had a great time this day. A few years later Ricky died.

Gloria visited us in 1992 when we spent the winter in Hawaii.

She and I had such a blast the day we went to Waimea Falls and spent way too much money on pearls and jewelry.

Here she is a few years ago enjoying a ride on our boat.

And then she bacame a great grandma to Kylie. Here she is holding her when she was one week old. I made this card for her birthday in the June after Kylie was born.

Here's the inside of the card.

Gary's Bananas

I used bits of puzzle pages from my Games magazine for the background and then Gessoed over it.

Gary just loves his banana tree even though I think it's really a pretty ugly thing. So, he was thrilled when his mom mailed some of the first ever bananas up to us.

Secret Santa

I participated in my school's Secret Santa game last week. Each morning for 3 morning, the special ed kids deliver our small gifts.

I always open mine and read the clue in front of one of my classes and they help me try to figure out who my Secret Santa is.

On the fourth day we all meet at a popular local restaurant and take turns going around the table trying to guess who our Secret Santa is. If we guess right, we get our big gift. If not, then we have to wait until everyone is done for a second chance.

I guessed mine right away. Suzanne is our newest English teacher and I'm also her mentor.

For the background, I used the wrapping paper from one of the gifts.

In the top right is a thank you from the person I had. She also gave me a poinsettia plant. So thoughtful! She had a hard time with my clues and it took her a few tries. Here they are:

1. You can see me in the Berlin Daily Sun.

2. Or you can see me in the Berlin Dairy Bar.

3. If you still haven't figured out who I am, look for me in the Berlin Dance Studio.

Do you get it? My name is spelled out in the last three letter of Berlin and and first two letters of the next word. For example, Berlin Daily Sun.

Anyway, we had a blast!

A Snowy, Foggy Morning

Saw this as I was getting out of my truck at school a couple mornings ago. It was about 30 degrees and a new inch of sticky snow was on all the branches.

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Metallic Black

Layer after Layer

This is another background inspired by Soul Journaling.

I started with sheet music, then applied a light layer of Gesso and wiped some of it off.

I did the reverse image of the wine opener that ended up looking like a person.

On top of the Gesso I wrote a bunch of adjectives.

Then I splattered paint over everything but I've got to learn how to splatter better.

After that I scribbled lines all over with a marker.

I also wrote my name with a pencil.

Lastly, I applied some blue metalic as a border and in a haphazard way over everything.

Very busy! But fun to play with! Oh, the red bow is from junk mail!

Pea Soup

I used a bunch of different tapes and paint on this page just to shake things up a bit.

Last Saturday I made pea soup and I think it subconsciously contributed to the color I used here!

I was tickled to get my Advanced Reading Copy of this world we live in by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This is her third book in the Moon series and I loved it as much as the first two.

Bloomfield, Vt.

I took this picture last Sunday at my husband's logging job.

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Fun with Inchies

Something a Little New

Found a blog called Soul Journaling by Sarah Whitmire. She has a 22-day program to help journalers stretch their artistic legs.

My legs need stretching so I decided to try her suggestions.

I started by gluing on pages from an old book.

When that was dry, I took a permanent marker and completed this sentence, "Today I feel..." over and over all over the page.

Then I Gessoed lightly over letting a couple of the words show through.

After that I sponged a little metalic purple on top.

Then she wanted us to find a picture of something that represents our armor. How do we protect ourselves against the everyday issues that try to steal our creativity and ruin our day? She used a knight but that didn't feel right for me. Instead, I thought about it and realized that I just keep smiling and that gives me strength. I found the picture of the woman and cut out a big smile to put on her face.

It was fun doing something a bit different!

Thanksgiving is Over

I used pretty swirly tissue paper for the background. Then I used gigantic bubble wrap to add some circles.

My mother-in-law gave me a couple of old stamps from 1955, I think. The postmark was hard to read but that's my best guess.

Look What I Found!

I was in the cellar this morning and saw this old tin.

I opened it up and this is what I saw:

A bunch of old letters I wrote to my husband and he wrote to me. Some are from before we were married. Others are from after we'd been married about 5 years and he went to Alaska to work for about 7 weeks. Some are even letters from his mom and grandmother to him at that time.

There was also an embarrassingly horrible poem I wrote for Gary and my eighth-grade graduation card from St. Patrick's Grammar School in 1963.

The large picture was scrunched in the bottom. It's my high school graduation picture containing all 250 of us. I looked for myself but couldn't find me. The high school I graduated from is the same one I now teach at but it's in a newer building. Each graduating class now has only about 100-125 students. Our city has decreased that much!

I'm so mad at myself for not taking better care of that photo! But thrilled to find these treasures. Look at the old stamps! Can you see that some of the ones from Gary are upside down? That meant something at the time. I love you? I miss you? Something like that, anyway. Does anybody remember?

The End of the Diet: 10 Weeks=10 lbs.

I'm happy with the ten pounds I've lost. I've been eating my regular foods only in smaller portions (well, most of the time!) so I haven't felt deprived. I've been walking at night which is something I always do, anyway.

I'm hoping I can maintain this because it's natural to me. Sure, I could have gone on a real diet, you know, one of those programs that spells out every meal for you, but once I was done, I know I'd just go back to my regular eating and put the weight back on.

Occasionally, I'll update my weight here just to keep myself in line and maybe analyze my food intake.

Sure, I could have lost another ten pounds and looked like the trim girls I see every day at school, but I'm not a teenager. I'm sixty, almost sixty-one, and I feel really good right now so this seems like the right weight for me to be happy. Food, after all, is part of my happiness, and if I'm satisfied with what I'm eating, I won't over indulge looking for satisfaction.

All my clothes fit again and I'm not winded when I run upstairs. I'd say that is success!

Day 71: Thursday

WEIGHT: 157.0

BREAKFAST: 1 slice of homemade toast with I Can't Believe it's Not Butter (ICBINB) and seafood salad, a banana, and a glass of skim milk

SNACK: 6 Triscuit Crisps with natural peanut butter

LUNCH: seafood salad in homemade WW bread, carrot sticks, and an apple

SUPPER: Gary made it. A Spamwich: fried Spam, fried egg, american cheese in a WW Deli Flat, a glass of skim milk

EXERCISE: only twice around the block because it started pouring so I ran for about a quarter of a mile to get back home

Moon Rise over Cates Hill Berlin, NH

I saw this moon about 3:30 in the afternoon the other day.

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Day 70: Wednesday

It's been 10 weeks and I've lost 10 lbs. I'm happy with that but hope to lose another five, maybe. Although, tonight didn't help.

WEIGHT: 156.5

BREAKFAST: 1 slice of homemade WW toast with SB and seafood salad, a banana, and a glass of skim milk

SNACK: popcorn

LUNCH: seafood salad in a WW Deli flat with carrot sticks and an apple

SNACK: 2 glasses of merlot and a few Triscuit Crisps with whipped cream cheese with chives

SUPPER: Mary's with Dottie. A small homemade spaghetti with 2 meatballs and another glass of merlot.

EXERCISE: a mile around the block and a jog to the corner store.

Day 69: Tuesday

WEIGHT: 157.0

BREAKFAST: 1 slice of homemade WW toast with SB and tuna/egg mixture, a banana, and a glass of skim milk

SNACK: popcorn

LUNCH: tuna/egg mixture in a WW Deli Flat, carrot sticks, and an apple

SUPPER: 2 tbls of baked beans, 2 hotdogs, coleslaw, and a glass of skim milk

SNACK: the rest of the crud