A New Year

Okay, it's 12 days into the new year and it's time I start a fresh year.  Things have been crazy and I have felt a bit crazy myself.  So much is up in the air right now, but I'm not TOO stressed as I just keep reminding myself to put my life in the hands of God.  That's the only way to do it right.

As you know, Michael is suppose to be retiring from the Navy as of the 31st of this month. (BTW, yes, his retirement ceremony & reception went great!  More about that later).  Last week we found out he has 2, possibly 3, umbilical hernias.  I call it his alien baby and already told him I want to get a picture of it before they fix it.  We have his surgical consult this afternoon and hopefully surgery will be scheduled within the next day or so.  We are both a bit hesitant as we both remember the problems I had last spring when my hysterectomy was botched and I did not have the best of luck in the hospital for the 2 weeks I was in there.  It looks like it's the same hospital he'll be in.

Normally & hopefully they will be able to do the surgery with very small incisions, but there is a chance they will have to cut him open too.  His hernias are rather large.  They are often no larger than about 2 inches, but his is more like 5 inches.  Even the doctors were taking pictures of it as they had never seen one so big.  That's my baby!  LOL

He has had some violent coughing fits and they believe that is what has caused the hernias.  This is the time he was suppose to be doing some job hunting, but as I said, it's in God's hands.  This may actually delay him from being discharged from the Navy.  Might not be a bad thing.

Have you heard of LIFE 365?  Well, you take a picture EVERY DAY!  This way you remember even the little things.  We're only on day 12, so get started now.  It's not too late.  Then you can blog them, or scrap them.  But what a great way to remember your whole year.  These are some tips I found on another blog:

TIPS ON HOW TO DO IT

Here are six tips on how to create your own Project 365:

1. Bring Your Camera Everywhere
   Yes, everywhere. Get in the habit. Grocery stores, restaurants, parties, work, and school. Going to a movie theatre? Snap a pic of the flick with your phone–there are photo-ops everywhere. If you have one of those tiny tiny cameras, you have no excuse not to have it in your pocket all the time. And if you don’t? Camera phones are a great substitute.

2. Make Posting Easy
   You can install blog software like Movable Type or Wordpress on your own site and create an entry for each photo, but for true ease of use, try a photo sharing site. Flickr will let you post a week’s worth of photos in 2 minutes flat, and fotolog and Photoblog.com are geared toward a photo-a-day workflow. Making it fast and easy means you’re much more likely to do it.

3. Vary Your Themes
   Try to capture the day’s events in a single photo. Perform photographic experiments. Take a photo of someone new you meet, something you ate for the first time, or something you just learned how to do. Take a photo of something that made you smile. And don’t forget to take a photo of yourself at least once a month so you can remember how you’ve changed, too.

4. Tell a Story
   Use your blog entry, or your photo description, to explain what’s going on in each day’s photograph. How good did that dinner taste? What made you want to take a photo of that stranger? It’ll help you remember down the road, and it gives friends following along a better appreciation of why you took the photo you did. You don’t need to write a lot, just enough to add some color.

5. Don’t Stop, No Matter What
   This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place.

   There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.

   Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.

   N.b. It helps if you’ve told your friends about the project and asked them to follow along. Their encouragement will keep you going!

6. Post early, post often
   Plan on going through and posting your photos at least once a week so you don’t get backlogged and feel overwhelmed. Ideally, post every day or two. Again, spend the time up front to make sure it’s quick and easy to post. It’ll make all the difference.

I really think I want to give this a shot.  You can do it by day, or even by week or month.  I would suggest daily or weekly so it doesn't get overwhelming.  Make the uneventful days count too.  Will help you remember all the blessing God gives us that we at times take for granted.

I really need to get back on track with my digi scrapping.  Lack of creativity, fear of PS CS3 and lack of time are tending to get in the way.  But my dear cyber-friend Shannon (I got to meet her and her family right before Christmas!) of SillyBeanScraps has asked me to be her CT Leader.  What an honor!  I surely do not want to let her down.  Well, I need to get to work, so more later!