Wedding Photo Slideshow

Here's the slideshow I promised. Just click the link below to view it.

Our Wedding - April 7, 2007

Disclaimer: There are tons of pictures, so if you don't have a lot of time, I suggest you pause the slideshow and click on the images you want to see. I've purchased the release of copyright on these photos from my photographer, so if you would like a copy of any of them, just let me know. I can have them printed for you.

If you do have a lot of time and can sit and look at all the pictures you can watch a montage here:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm going PINK for October!!

Come on everybody, let’s go PINK in support of Breast Cancer Awareness!!



Hundreds of web sites and blogs “will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.”

Visit the Pink for October web site to find out what you can do to help!

Possible Move

I've transferred all my posts from here to WordPress, but I'm not getting rid of this blog until I decide which one I like better. I've been using both for awhile now, but I haven't made up my mind yet. In the process, I screwed up the changes I made to this blog and don't feel like correcting them again...

I'll let ya know which I choose.

Melissa's 10-10-20

I attended a great cardmaking class this past Saturday. It's Melissa's 10-10-20 class where you make 10 cards in 10 minutes each for $20, plus she provides lunch and beverages. I had a blast and made some really fun cards.

They were only paperclipped stacks of paper and ribbon before we started, but just look at how they turned out!

Aren't they fabulous?! I can't wait for her Christmas card session!!

LPL Relay for Life 2007

Okay, okay, I'm a wee bit late on this post, but I felt it was too important to overlook, like I do with most of my bloggy ideas. Seriously, I could probably post three times a day; however, I'm just not that ambitious.

Moving on to the relay. This year I joined Liverpool Public Library's Relay for Life team and helped raise money for the American Cancer Society. This is only my second time ever to get involved in relay, and I'm suspicious that I'll be involved every year from here on out. LPL's team captains are amazing and inspiring. They fund raise relentlessly in the months building up to the big day. This year's relay took place from 7pm Friday, June 15 until 7am Saturday, June 16. I'm told the turnout was only around half of last year's, but I'm so proud of my team because we surpassed our fundraising goal of $1500 with a total amount raised of just over $1800.

I'm also proud of myself for going over my personal goal. I was able to contribute $235 toward my team's monies, thanks to those generous people who donated on my relay page. Thank you so much for helping me achieve my goal. You know who you are. You are helping empower others to fight back against cancer.

I want to share a pic of the members of our team who were left standing the next morning after an entire night without sleep.


I'm so proud of them. We had a looooooooong night! Here are our puffy eyes and delirious expressions to prove it.

I must be insane because I left relay at 6am and went home to sand the floors in my house. I made it until 'noon, about 29 hours with no sleep, and then napped until 2pm. My loving husband continued to work without me. Well, as much as my body wanted to sleep, my brain wasn't havin' any of that. It said, "The sun's out, get off your bum." So, I did. I continued sanding most of the evening. My body was completely drained, but I had to keep working. Our goal with the floors is to sand, stain, and polyurethane so I can set up my craft area upstairs. (We're done sanding, but haven't stained yet. We're taking baby steps.)

I got my second wind around 5pm on Sunday and sanded more until midnight. I swear, it took me about 3 days to get over the relay!

a penny for my thoughts?

I find it amazing that books, fictional or no, have the ability to bring me to tears or have me laughing out loud instantly when my usual person finds difficulty showing any abundance of emotion whatsoever. I typically come off as mildly pleasant to others when inside, I'm so excited I could burst my spleen with anymore happiness. (Anger appears more readily, however.)

I've evolved into a crier. Yes, Mother, a crier, just like you. Most things make me cry these days, whether sad or happy. I haven't read a book in the past year and a half that hasn't brought tears, and if you look at what I've been reading, you may question me on that. I didn't cry during my wedding though, which is weird because I always cry as a guest at others' weddings. I even cry while reading about someone else's wedding. That's what I'm trying to say, I guess, is that I'm filled to the brim with emotions when they involve other people's lives, not my own. It's very strange. I must admit that I did weep silently on my wedding night, long after all the guests returned home and the only people left were my husband and me. What a relief...followed by four days of illness during my honeymoon. I guess the release was too much. I still managed to enjoy myself very much in Victoria. And, I got a little reading in while there.

I'm so blessed to have a career that allows, or demands, reading books so often. I'm naturally drawn to text. What can I say? I'm a reader. I love being able to free my emotions, even if through empathy alone. Maybe I'll be able to someday look back at the various events in my life and put the feelings I felt down on paper, giving them life after all. I'm thinking of a book of sorts here, but another thought has surfaced. What about scrapbooking? I've recently become very motivated to start creating books of memories, and I think journaling on the pages will accomplish this need to externalize my inner expressions, emotions as I feel them, not as I show them. I'm inspired anew. 'Til next time...

Put your back into it.

You know how it goes...on your birthday each year, someone or many someones ask, "So, how's it feel to be XX? or one year older?" If you're like me, you usually respond with something like, "pretty much the same." Well, I can honestly say that I've discovered something I've lost at turning a quarter of a century old, my ability to plop down and sleep wherever my body takes me! I can no longer sleep on hard surfaces without tossing and turning and waking to an achy hip and moaning back. Now, I don't feel any older than normal; however, my body keeps me in check. I'm enjoying life, and I hope that stays with me as I progress.

...this won't keep me from camping, you'd better believe it!

Creative Memories Party

I had an inspirational afternoon where I met with others interested in preserving their memories through scrapbooking. I've never been very good at designing pages and sticking with them through completion. I usually have tons of ideas, become overwhelmed, and give up altogether.

Well, my high hopes in scrapbooking were restored today at a Creative Memories party because I was introduced to new ways of organizing memorabilia and great new ideas for page layouts. I'm excited again about tackling my huge boxes of photos and what I like to call junk (i.e. ticket stubs, playbills, etc.). The person giving the presentation today gave me some sound advice: "Start with the most recent pictures. Then you'll be able to finish a project. Once you feel that you've actually got something accomplished, you can move on." I think I can do this. I've got my most recent pictures handy, and I can actually remember what was happening when they were taken! It'll be easier to start with those because they're all in one place, not scattered between several boxes.

Take a look at what I did today! I made three mini scrapbook pages just to get me headed in the right direction. If I like, I can put these small pages right inside a larger scrapbook when I am ready. I think I did a great job for my first go 'round. I can't wait to find time to do more!

NEW Flour Tostitos!

Dalzell's Darwinist Causality OR Propaganda??


These are two reactions to Tostitos' campaign for their new flour tortilla chips. I rarely view television because I only get two stations at my house, but I recently caught Tostitos' new commercial. I liked it, mostly because it gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling, and if you've seen it, you're probably thinking I've really lost it this time. Well, I didn't really pay any attention to what these other bloggers saw; I was simply floored by the idea that a parent would continue providing answers to the redundant "Why?"

Growing up, most adults would give up after oh, say, the second why and start answering with, "Just because," which is what I'd probably do in the situation given my prior training. This commercial really opened my eyes. The more I work with children, the more I realize how important a role I, and all other adults, play in their lives. We're the examples; we're the "models," so to speak. I'm constantly teaching parents in my preschool storytimes to model proper behavior for their children to pick up. Eventually, even the most rambunctious 3-year-old will pay attention and start participating because hey, that's what mommy or daddy is doing!

While my narrative skills are lacking, I am learning from my career as a librarian that I can (and should) take some things from my professional life and use them in my personal life. What I mean is this: I am constantly saying that librarians don't have to know everything, they simply need to know where to find the answer. If I took this home with me, I'd be able to say to a child who asks why that if I didn't know the answer immediately we could search for it together. That way, I'd not be putting the child off or skating around the answers. That child would feel that he/she is deserving of an answer and he/she would hopefully learn through my example to try very diligently to address concerns, instead of brushing them under the rug.

Winter Wonderland 2007

Here are as many pictures as I could take before my camera's battery died this morning. I'll add more when I can.

Silent Library with Ernesto Hoost

This is what we do in the library...