bye-bye, july...

summer is turning out to be even busier than i planned. sorry i'm not around much. i'll be back.

one week later...

ok, didn't really mean to leave anybody hanging for a week... not that you're the most voracious blog readers, but i did just up and disappear without warning, so - sorry about that.

and i'm back. i didn't really go anywhere - just got busy and quiet. such is life. so i thought i'd do a bit of a catch-up post. here we go:

• matt is suffering from some serious short-timer's disease at work. he's down to three work days left, and then it's on to the next chapter of life. i'm excited for him. and for us. (i am, however, mourning the loss of his free afternoons. the 5am-1pm schedule meant that he could do my grocery shopping. *sigh*)
  
• sunday was our monthly Special Sunday event with the kids. every month, we do an event that is normal Kids Church, but kicked up a notch - usually with a theme, a give-away or a prize. sunday was our "Snow Storm". the kids wore hats or scarves for a treat; had a "snowball" (newspaper) fight; and enjoyed "hot" cocoa (chocolate milk, with marshmellows). totally fun, and definitely had some buzz around it as they desperately tried to figure out how i'd do snowballs.
  
• this saturday, i'm having a bunch of the girls over to my house for an "art party". speaking my language, baby.
  
• our 3rd anniversary is coming up. can you believe it? i can't. (not sure what to get him. the traditional gifts say glass, crystal or leather... hmmm.) we're taking that weekend off and going to sequim, which is on the north side of the olympic peninsula. it should make for beautiful scenery, and there's lots of nature-y stuff to do out there. i'm looking forward to a little get-away.
  
• sunday will be my first sunday "off" since i took this position with the church in january. our church participates in an annual "church in the park" event, which means no Kids Church. as much as i love kids church, everybody needs a break now and then, and i'm frothing at the mouth in anticipation of adult contact.
  
• truly a child of my generation, i grew up watching the simpsons. i "fell away" for a few years when my mom wouldn't let me watch because i'd picked up a little of bart's less-obnoxious vocabulary (i remember a big "to-do" being made over the word "rad". whatever.) anyway, matt and i enjoy it from time to time, and it's especially funny because we get the adult humor that we missed as kids. and now the movie's out. i probably wouldn't be so interested if they hadn't gone all-out with their marketing - including turning our local 7-11 into a kwik-e-mart complete with products like Buzz Cola, Squishees and Krusty Flakes cereal - which just shows that marketing works. we went ahead and bought tickets for opening night - friday, our usual date night. then we remembered that we have a birthday party to go to that night. bummer.
  
• last saturday, matt put his teaching gift to use and addressed about 30 of the men in our church at the monthly men's breakfast. he worked hard preparing his message, and apparently rocked the house. he's the first to admit that he's not a natural-born speaker, and has a fear of public speaking, but he really felt God calling him to do this. he put together a very motivating message, which was very well received. i'm extremely proud of him.

ok, that's all for me. maybe a photo tomorrow.

it can't possibly be november... can it?

i know i'm constantly remarking about the expedited rate at which time seems to pass, but is it possible that it's november already?

no, surely it's still july. the 18th to be precise. people say so. clocks say so. calendars say so.

but outside my window, it's clearly november. heavy clouds, drippy-droppy rain, and that early-dusk feeling that comes with... well, november.

and inside, my mood matches. there's just something about this kind of weather that makes me ready to hibernate. *yawn*

i guess i'll lure my mind to more tropical destinations...

good news!

i know i said something friday about having good news by monday, but it took a little longer to work out the nitty-gritty.

the good news is that matt has accepted a new job - as Maintenance Tech for an apartment complex in south seattle. it's a longer drive to work, but his hours match mine, which means we'll be able to carpool if i can be generally flexible. the job comes with a substantial pay increase, and compensation for benefits. but the best part about it is that we see this as a step in the direction of a career for him, and he's excited about the opportunity to develop his handy-man-ish skill set.

so, he starts august 1st. and he's downright giddy. :)

happy tuesday.

what a week!

it's been an exhausting one, and the heat made it a real challenge. wednesday brought us 98 degrees, which is fine when i'm comfortably chained to my air-conditioned desk all day, but not so great when i'm in our house that has it's own air-flow problems (as in: there is none). we were too tired to go to community group, so we went for a dip in the lake instead. we weren't the only ones with that idea - it was a zoo!

matt's been on the job hunt for several months now. it took us a while to figure out exactly what his experience will allow him to do, and what is too much of a stretch for now. this week brought a few interviews with an organization, and it sounds like we might have some news before monday...

i'm in the vacation mindset - not planning, but re-living. a few weeks ago, i got a wild hair to make a scrapbook (sorta) of the trip to kauai that i took with my best friend several years ago. i had to sort through my film (yes, film!) and have reprints made (which i promptly scanned for future use). i brought back a bunch of sand and seashells from our trip (they have the most unique sand there...) which i've had in big jars in my bathroom forever. i'm toying with the idea of making a little beach scene in a corked bottle...

that's it for me. off to meet up with a friend. i'll leave you with a few more fireworks photos:

it's *that* hot in here...

it was 96 degrees outside when i left work today. our house feels at least as hot, and without the breeze that makes it tolerable. the cats are miserable... i also have a photo of matt in the exact same position... but something tells me that posting that on the internet wouldn't go over very well...

yay tuesday!

yesterday was the most manic monday (yay bangles) i've ever had. i was late getting to the bus - which was even later getting to me - and then we got stopped in serious traffic due to a power outage and a major-intersection turned four-way-stop. (yay seattle traffic!) when i realized we weren't even out of my neighborhood, and it was already 8am, i panicked and called into work. but no one answered - not even voicemail. i got through to someone via cell, and got into the office to discover our phone line was down. and our internet too. got on the phone with qwest, got our calls routed to my cell phone (yeah, let me tell you how thrilled i was to route our company calls to my personal cell phone), and tried to slog through my morning. it was well after 11am before phone/internet were fixed. (have a mentioned we're an "internet company"? i use the term loosely, because we try to avoid labeling ourselves, but we do indeed rely on internet to function.) it turned out that someone had cut a bunch the wires for our phone and internet in our building phone room. we're assuming it was not intended for malice, but still - it was pretty frustrating. and the rest of the day went similarly - one after the other, all occupying a fair amount of my attention. i was toast when i got home, so we opted for a "game" of tennis at the local courts. (yay tennis) dinner was a frittata-gone-bad (read: scrambled eggs with stuff) and entirely unsatisfying, so we treated ourselves to dessert, feeling entirely like we deserved it.

thank goodness today is a normal tuesday. (yay tuesday) and it's my grama's birthday. grama, if you're reading - your card's in the mail, i hope you got it today. happy birthday!!

there's alot to be said in photography for putting thought into the photograph you're taking - each individual photograph. knowing in your mind what you will see in the final print. taking your time to create each image. i admit, i'm something of a rapid-fire photographer. but i do think ahead about each image. i just think quickly - even if that means not thinking it all the way through - so that i can shoot even more quickly. and with kids, you have to move fast anyway.

with fireworks, much of that gets thrown out the window. like kids, you don't know what to expect from the fireworks, and you have a limited amount of time to catch them. but unlike kids, you are forced to use super slow shutter speeds (to the tune of 2.5 or 3 seconds each) which means that you have no choice but to slow down. but you can't think each shot through either.

maybe that's why fireworks are one of my favorite things to photograph. that, and the fact that i can only do it once a year, so i hardly have the chance to get sick of it. (though i may very well be sick of proofing them when i'm through all 100 images from wednesday night.)

and on another note, i have a very productive weekend ahead of me. or at least that's the end toward which i'm striving... tomorrow, a Field Day event for our K-3rd grade boys and sunday, church and some quality scrapbooking time (in theory) with my bff. and somewhere in there, i gotta clean my house, tidy my office and finish these {blessed} firework photos.

more next week.

happy 4th!

okay, so i'm a day late - but that seems to be the story of my life.

no really - what's the point of a 4th of july post, if there are no fireworks photos to accompany it? and i certainly wasn't going to proof & post 4 photos when i got home at 11pm last night.

so anyway, here we are. friends, food (lots of it), and mojitoes. oh, and a brand new picnic table, adorned with a brand new table cloth (handmade by yours truly).

after dessert, we headed down to elliot bay to watch fireworks on the huge lawn of the company matt works for, open to employees only. possibly the most low-stress fireworks show ever. no crowds - just enough people to fill up the lawn without crowding. no traffic - we were far enough north of downtown that we beat the crazies out of seattle-proper. and i was in bed around 11pm. unheard of in this city. perfect.

more:

the curtains i made for our bedroom are done. and they look great. fresh, clean, white, simple. i love them

too bad one set is 8 inches shorter than its window.

how the heck did that happen!?!?

*sigh*

happy tuesday.

happy july!

can you believe it's july 1st? i know - i say that every 2 weeks, like clockwork - but time is just going SO FAST!

i had a very nice weekend. friday night, "date night" consisted of a home depot run, potting some herbs, and staining our picnic table together. saturday was almost painfully relaxing. matt had the car all day, so i was forced to spend some quality time at home, and it was so good for me. i accompished quite alot, including the picture on the left there - reorganizing the frames on my picture collage wall, which had become somewhat disarrayed. i'm pretty pleased with the layout now.

and sunday was exhaustingly awesome. it was a long morning, including a free pancake breakfast before church to celebrate the 4th of July, at which our kids came up to lead the adults in the pledge of allegiance - to the flag we made last month. that was the highlight of my morning. and our kids service was equally awesome - good numbers, good teaching, and more helpers than usual, which let me relax a little and focus on the things i needed to focus on, making the day practically a breeze.

exciting week ahead - matt works short days every day this week, the lucky bum, and of course wednesday is the holiday. the picnic table is coming along - and we're having company wednesday to give ourselves a deadline. and i still can't believe it's july. next thing we know, it'll be christmas. hehehe.