Ship Of Dreams

It's hard to believe that it's been one hundred years ago tonight...

As I type this... at this moment... people were dining and dancing and others were just preparing for bed. How could they have known or even anticipated what would occur in the few short hours to come? One hundred years was not that long ago. It could have happened to any one of us. Just like 9/11 could have happened to any one of us. And did.



I have always been so intrigued by this story... even as a child.

Even LONG before meeting Jack Dawson and Rose Dewitt Bukater...

And then... my kids came along. Which is another story altogether about how all the emotions of it somehow fit in.

But tonight I just want to pay tribute in some way to those 1,517 human beings who losts their lives that night as well as to the countless others who were forever impacted by this tragedy.

Don't get me wrong... I love cruising and the gentle rocking to sleep that a ship provides. And I love the water. But just not THAT much water... and especially not all at once. And the thought of drowning or freezing to death absolutely freaks me out a bit, especially if it were to happen in the middle of a dark ocean... at 2 am.

So for those who had to endure it... that was for you. <3

I hope nobody ever asks me to write a memorial for anyone... Even though I was seriously trying my hardest to be serious and write a thoughtful blog here. : )

So Hard to Choose!...

I honestly don't know how Daryn ever learned how to do this. I mean, I know she comes from a talented family (ahem)... but this is just way far beyond any talent I could ever imagine having...

But anyway...

I'm having a hard time figuring out which of these two to post on YouTube. (I have Daryn's permission to post... something.. : ) haha

So which one do you like the best? Which do you think works best with the song?

This one...

Or this one...

And after giving your input... please don't forget to click on the link and go out to Daryn's FaceBook page to support her... comment... "like"... and download the song! Thanks!

Ker-Plunk...

Ok, blame it on Pinterest, but I've finally made an executive decision to clean my house. And I've gotten quite a bit done this weekend actually! All of my one-of-a-kind (meaning the only one of their kind in my cupboard) glasses and dishes have finally and mercifully been tossed out. Along with the bay leaves circa 1989...

Kitchen shelves have all been re-lined with (omg) contact paper but it seriously looks a lot better and cleaner than the particle board. I had planned to re-paint all the cabinets as well, however once the first one was painted I realized that I need to go back to the hardware store and dull up my pure white paint a bit. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that my next project would have to be completely replacing my dingy kitchen floor...

Anyway, today it's the pantry cupboard which seriously needs repainting but I'm at a total standstill. Because I just don't know how I'm ever going to cover up THIS...



Moving on...

As some of you know I've been collecting piles of stuff in my basement for years for that eventual garage sale. I've held a couple of those in the past and to be quite honest the thought of having another one completely makes me shudder. All those people tromping through my yard and handling all my um, wonderful stuff. So as I was dumping my bag full of one-of-a-kind treasures into the basement corner yesterday I made yet another executive decision.

No more garage sales for me!

Tomorrow I will sort through the storage closet at work for boxes which I will then label "Trash", "Goodwill" and "Kindling/Firewood." The dumpster stuff will have to remain in the garage for the time being...


Just one of my corners...

My only dilemmas are first,... what to do with all the Beanie Babies:



And next, the waterbeds:


Daryn's old bed looks a ton nicer with the lush down comforter, but it just seems to work better, with only the cats around, when I cover it with this ugly, I mean cute old thing.


I always loved Whitney's green/pink room. But I should probably wash the cat barf off of the bedspread before I try to sell it...

Unfortunately my camera batteries seem to have suddenly gone well, Ker-Plunk...

But fortunately PhotoShop has a way of forgiving a multitude of sins...


There... All clean!


And Voila! Switch-a-roo!!!...

Down comforter courtesy of decorlinen.com with a little help from PS...



lol!

Craig's List... here I come!

Who Ever Knew It Could Be This Easy? (PhotoShop Tutorials...)

I can seriously remember trying to follow along with some of them back in the day and not even having a clue when they'd say something like "Ok, now change the layer blend to screen or multiply..." etc.

But its amazing just how much an ungodly number of "having absolutely no idea what you're doing" hours can eventually teach you... Because today this one went pretty smoothly.

Transparent, suspended letters...

I just chose a string of random ones for this exercise...



And now I've got exactly 2,427 more tutorials saved to my bucket list...

A Snow Day For Grownups Revisited...

Exactly one year ago today my work shut down completely for the first time ever since I'd started working there 18 years ago!

And for no apparent reason...

*kidding*

But no seriously, we all woke up to two feet of snow that morning... and that's a lot of snow even if you're tall! But still, let's rephrase that. Some of us were "awakened" (at 6:30 am) to two feet of snow that morning, because you see, at least one of us already had a scheduled vacation day off that day but that still didn't stop the phone from ringing... What's that song? "Isn't It Ironic?"

But anyway, we just have this simply marvelous Business Continuity Management Team at my place of business and they were simply doing their job...

And so why I was just sleeping like a log and then and majorly annoyed when abruptly awakened?..

Fast forward to one year later...

Today is Groundhog's Day 2012 and the temperature is about 45 degrees (which has nothing to do with anything about this blog really.) But tomorrow I'm entering this video I made about this day last year into our campus's "SuperBowl Commercial Contest" wherein each department has a chance to compete in the fun by submitting a commercial depicting "the things we do." And so, since Business Continuity Management is essentially my department afterall, I thought I'd take one for the team and do something for once...



I know... too cute!

"Happy Birthday Two You... Happy Birthday You Too"...

I can't believe it's been a year already!

And I still can't tell them apart!...


1 Day


1 Month


2 Months


3 Months


4 Months


5 Months


6 Months


7 Months


8 Months


9 Months






10 Months


11 Months

Ok, well I can sorta tell them apart... at least when they're both together and staring at me like deers in headlights. But when they're on opposite sides of the room, or in individual photos, and one or the other of them is either laughing or crying... forget it. I think that's the hardest part of being a long distance Grammy.

The second hardest part is the gift buying and trying to keep things all sorts of even but not the same. And trying to buy coordinating clothes? That's the worst! Because as soon as you FINALLY find two outfits that will look cute together but that won't be exactly identical, the other pair of pants in the size you need, doesn't ever exist on the rack...

I'm looking forward to the day when they can just tell me what they want.

Really??? All you really want is for me to move to Idaho? Ok well trust me, that will SO be in the works, just as soon as I can figure it out...


Birthday Cake!!

Love you GUYS! Happy Birthdays!!!

Travel Well in 2012...

Time flies by so quickly! It's amazing and somehow sad even. I realized today how much time and how many years. months, weeks, days of my life have been devoted not so much to enjoying, but to either anticipating or remembering. And let's not forget worrying endlessly about everything... Yes, that's a big one. Not sure how to fix that.

Being honest here... I'm not one for adventure so much any more. Though there was a time when my life was full of it. But I think I eventually found the solitude and warmth of my own home to be considerably much more to my liking, though agreeably at times a little boring... (Except for the 40+ hours a week that I get to go to work.. :)

Resolutions are funny things, and I'm not sure I really have any, except to maybe think of myself a bit less and to think of others a bit more and also to stop and smell the roses a little more often while I'm out there pulling the weeds and mowing that big yard all summer. And also to take just a couple of more walks or drives just for the fun of it...

But while sequestered at my computer in my dank and dark basement on this very, very cold first day of 2012 I was still able to finish this....

Finally a video montage to one of my favorite 'Daryn' vocals from back in... like 2004.



I think I'm going to at least put on some really warm clothes and try to take in just an itty bitty walk now... We'll save the driving part for later...

P.S. I skipped church this morning...