Day 30 - Story Time

Again, a book is the answer. Maybe I read to much?!

This particular book was actually a gift to my sisters and me when we were young children back in 1978. I have held on to it, because well I consider the book mine although the inscription clearly says it is for all three of us. I love fairy tales - another reason I love romances - grown up fairy tales.

I enjoy researching some of them sometimes and seeing the different versions out there like the common ones we know. I have held on to an old English text book because it has a section comparing different Cinderella stories. I love watching the Sci-Fi channel when they show stories that are similar to fairy tales, horror movies made based on the fairy tales (I can recall one about Snow White).

I have started to pass this love on to my daughter as she likes me to read the stories from this book to her. I often have to alter the story as some of them are just a bit to graphic for her right now at the age of four; or I try to read a different story to her because several of the stories are very long. I am glad that I am passing on a joy of reading and writing to my daughter though.

This book has been so well loved that a group of pages at the beginning of the book are loose and you have to handle the book with care so that the pages are not lost, something my daughter learned quickly when she handled the book roughly and almost lost the pages.

Day 29 - Silliness

So, I was sitting here reading and thinking about the prompt for this day and it occurred to me that other then my husband and daughter one of the things I find humor in is my books. I have started to sense a theme recurring throughout this challenge so far and am starting to think I have to get out more often. My daughter and books have been my response for many of these prompts.

I wandered over to my library and took a picture of the author's name of some of the books I have purchased because I know they are hilarious and sometimes you just need to lighten your mood. I find the Janet Evanovich books just hilarious. I have started her Plum stories - but prefer listening to them on audio tape so haven't gotten past the first couple even though she is up to what.. 13?? Since she has gained in popularity they started publishing her older hilarious romances - and sometimes I am laughing so hard I am crying.

Nothing better then a light-hearted read after a stressful day!

Day 28 - Memory Lane

There was no way I was going to scan in my senior high school picture - no offense - it was BAD BAD BAD BAD, what I did do was take a photo of one of my favorite senior year pictures. I leave this picture, and one other in with my diploma so that I always know where it is.

Graduation day and my two closest friends, Blanche and Rose. For a long time Blanche and I lost touch with Rose but thanks for Facebook we were able to reconnect with her and within moments it was as if we had never been apart - although it had been several years since we had last spoken. Now, we speak almost daily and the only bad part of our new relationship is that all three of us live in different states and are unable to pop over for quick visits just to relax and hang out.

I pretty much look the same nowadays - I am blessed with good genetics that means we age really well and never look as old as we are. I am also very overweight but thanks to those genetics I carry my extra weight so it is hard to tell that I am 100 pounds heavier then I should be - in high school I was even heavier.

Thanks for reminding me that it is ok to look back at the past and recall some of the best memories a person can have and how close my friends and I were and thankfully still are today.

Day 27 - Sentimental

I find most photos sentimental even though I have several scrapbooks full of items. I've been evaluating my life over the past couple of years anyway, and have slowly been giving things away, throwing them away, or realizing that I just don't need them.

What I find I am never able to get rid of are the two pieces of jewelry that I cannot wear currently because the rings are broken. The heart shaped one was given to me by my mother and had once belonged to her mother, a grandmother I never knew. I have never worn it because it was broken when it was given to me when I was eighteen and I have always intended to get it fixed but have never done so.

The other braided ring was a gift from my parents for my sixteenth birthday, I wore this ring on my wedding finger from the day I got it until it broke - several years later. My Dad made the comment when we were leaving the store that it even cost more then my Mom's original wedding ring - I think that increased it's value to me only more because my parents were willing to still spend that amount on me.

Whenever I look at these rings I just feel the love my parents had for me and I never feel alone when I have them in my possession.

Day 26 - Silly Memory

It took me awhile to figure out what would represent silliness in my life without including my daughter and I happened to recall a memory of our bird. I quickly snapped a shot of him and thought that represented best the memory.

Our bird was semi-rescued from my husband's family when his original owner passed away. He was left a lone in a cage in a trailer and had been fed the wrong food and not had the interaction he needed, it is also believed that the family member was so sick at the end that she had neglected him. We believe this because he has plucking issues and is not used to being handled. His cage was so dirty that my mother-in-law bought us a small cage to help transport him home in.

After having for a while we got our cat, she still gives him a wide berth as she was just a kitten when we got her and Sammy would open his wings wide and squawk at her when she came near his cage. The memory I recalled is actually about what happened when we bought our second bird, Cookie. She is a lot more curious than Sammy - having not had the rough life and being exposed to plenty of toys at the pet store we purchased her. She would climb upside down in the cage and Sammy would watch and watch her - giving her a wide berth.

After watching her for a day or two, Sammy himself attempted to climb upside down in his cage. He ended up hanging by the top of the cage by his beak for a second or two before falling to the bottom. He was uninjured and from that point on would just watch Cookie climbing all over the place and as far as I am aware he never again tried to climb upside down on the top of the cage. I'm just glad that I got to see Sammy starting to learn to try new things.

Day 25 - Sleeping

I almost had to take a picture of my daughter for this one as very often she does fall asleep in positions that seem to defy gravity and well known physics. I however decided to stick with my goal of few pictures of my daughter for this challenge and I hunted down our pet cat.

Jessie very often cuddles in the middle of our bed, but I found her huddled sleepy eyes on her pillow. It was almost a year before she even set foot on the pillow, but we kept it on the floor in our closet (one of her favorite places to sleep) and we made sure to keep everything else picked up.

She's a cutey and loves to lie near your neck and purr her little heart out. I couldn't have asked for a better lovable kitty.

Day 24 - Togetherness

I've mentioned before that I love taking photos, this is just a small sampling of my photos before I went digital. One box are my panoramic pictures while the other box is sorted by various subjects. Each mini album contains one type of subject and makes locating my photos a lot easier. Although you cannot see it in the photo, the two boxes are sitting on a file box which contains older photos sorted by subject as well.

Most of these photos are photos of my family and I cannot think of anything else that represents togetherness more than that. I have always believed that family comes first and that spending time with my daughter - be it just watching tv or creating art projects is more important then cleaning the house or doing laundry. I try to balance this out since the birth of my daughter so that she can learn good habits - as my habits are not the greatest ones and I want her to be a better person than I am.

Although I am not the neatest person, when it comes to finally putting something where it goes or organizing my papers I am borderline - ok no border I am downright anal about how it goes. As I mentioned, each mini album has one subject inside, the front of the album carries a title (ex. Caves, Towns, Sisters, names of the individual pictured inside). The file box below has one section where I store the negatives in file folders labeled with the date and subject and then another section with the actual photos with their date and subject matching the negative folders. Even my photos on the computer are organized in a manner similar to this. I once came across a hint (and it may have very well been on Gotta Pixel) about labeling my photos with the YEARMONTHDAY_SUBJECT_ORIGINALFILENAME.JPG/GIF/BMP - I go farther then that and often have file names that look like this 2010January20_365Challenge_Day20_picture1.jpg --- if I have the time I am even known to fill out the properties including comments I have about the photo... how anal is that??

Day 23 - Weakness

Candy is a huge weakness of mine, but not just any candy. Lollypops, bubblegum, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (I have none in the picture because I refuse to buy more then one at a time because otherwise they are all I would eat.)

I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish this picture since I tend to not purchase the candy I want to eat. I am terrible with self control when I'm at home but I'm great at least when I'm buying items at the store.

Day 22 - Addiction

I am addicted to my computer/typing/chatting. I have been doing it for many many years and can usually be found with a keyboard in my lap or my cell phone in my fingers and I'll be typing away.

I have gone without using a computer for a couple periods of my life, but I am more likely to turn off the cable tv and keep my internet connection if I'm watching how I spend my money.

I can always watch movies and tv shows on my computer, but I can't keep in touch with my family and friends through my tv!

Day 21 - Shoes

I've mentioned before that I don't like to wear shoes; however, as I've grown older I have found that my toes are almost always freezing so during one of our first winters here I requested a bunch of fuzzy fun slippers. These are my favorite ones and I wear them almost none stop.

It has even gotten to the point where I am known to wear them while wearings socks because my toes will still be freezing - I wonder if it is a sign of old age or just a really cold winter!?!

Day 20 - Architecture

I don't really pay that much attention to buildings, I might say "Oh that one looks neat/cool (insert other adjective here)" but for the most part I look to mother nature and not man made features.

I took this shot of or portion of our house - one of the features I love in addition to our fireplace, which I've posted pictures of. There were originally glass shelves between each beam and the wood was a green color of paint. These posts are in a section of the house that had some other wooden features and all were different shades. They all now sport this darker shade of paint to resemble a cherry wood.

It took me a lot of thinking about this one and made me wonder about how I look around the world around me and how I take the man made features around me for granted. I am known to appreciate sculptures and other artistic pieces but very rarely do I look at a building as artistic.

Day 19 - What the . . .

What do you see?

These are my favorite type of photos to take of Mother Nature. Natural objects, that to my knowledge, have not been altered by human hand. This was the photo that really spurned me on this quest when I am out and about. When I look at this particular stalagmite it seems to make the face of a dragon to me.

I wonder what you see when you look at this object. The stalagmite pictures was taken many years ago, I can no longer remember when exactly.

Seeing things within nature is something that comes as a second nature to me and I often wonder what this says about my personality and imagination. I like to think that it means I have a creative and active imagination and is one of things that keeps me young and entertaining to those around me.

Day 18 - Grandparents

It's hard to recall memories of my grandparents as we didn't often see them, I decided to pay homage to three Grandmothers (two I knew and one I did not).

My Mother's parents both passed away before my Mom was very old and she was raised by her grandmother, my Great-Grandma Ruby (pictured in the bottom photo cooking with unidentified male). I can vaguely remember my Great-Grandma and my sisters and I just called her Grandma Ruby; it did not register with us for many years that although we knew our Mom's mother was dead that Grandma Ruby was actually our Great-Grandma. I can mostly remember her being a very tiny woman who was a lot of fun to be around. I can remember bowls of candy on her side tables and doilies all over the place, and she cooked - all the time.

My Mother's mother is pictured in the the black and white photo off to the side with my mother, aunt, and uncle as children. The story I can recall being told about her death is that my Aunt I. was caught in the ocean and my Grandmother and Grandfather went out to save her. My Grandmother did not make it and my Grandfather and Aunt were in the hospital for awhile - my Grandfather longer then my Aunt. After this incident my Grandfather left his three children with his mother and father and eventually passed away within a couple of years. (I'm not sure of those facts as I can recall the story being told to me many years and it is just something we didn't/don't discuss in our family.)

The above photo is a picture of my Father's mother with my older sister and me. I carry her first name as my middle name so I have always felt a sort of closer kinship with her. I can remember her being tall and stately and it was a shock to see her as I grew older and suddenly she seemed smaller. She was a big smoker and when her health started to decline and she had to quit she also started gaining weight and the image in my mind is still overridden today with images of her being a tall stately grandmother who loved watching college football. I can remember looking through our family photos and finding one of her doing a handstand in the backyard and that is an image I carry close to my heart even today.

I often wonder how my life would have been affected if we had lived closer to our grandparents and gotten to know them even better. I was often jealous of my Uncle's children and how they knew our Great-Grandmother so well. I thank God every day that my daughter is able to know and love her grandparents.

I strive hard to make sure she knows all of her Grandparents by making them a large part of our life even though thousands of miles may separate us. We are always in touch via e-mail and teleconference several times. My parents live close enough they are able to come up and visit and my husband's parents take the time to come visit as often as they can. My daughter has photo albums of family members that we go through almost weekly, daily before trips to visit them. We did this enough that the last visit we had she knew her Great-Grandma B. was and was able to go up and give her a hug and call her Grandma. This made her Great-Grandma's day as she is able to see my daughter so infrequently, yet my daughter knew who she was.

Exactly what I want for my family. A connection that lasts and makes an impression!

Day 17 - Weather

The weather in this part of Arizona doesn't really change much; sunny and bright, cloudy and rainy, a little overcast but not very chilly, bright but a bit chilly, and hot - just gosh darn hot. I do love some of the dust and thunderstorms we get out this way and that was one of the things I loved living in our third floor apartment.

We had a great view of the north eastern valley and could see the storms move in from the south and just sweep across the valley like somebody had drawn a line across the sky - one in pale blue/grey and one in dark stormy grey. The last couple of days have been overcast with the threat of rain looming. Although, I'm not sure how much a 'threat' it is when you live in the desert and winter doesn't mean snow it means green grass, fat saguaros, and bushes blooming all over the place --- in other words "Spring" in other parts of the world!

I took this pictures while leaving work and thought about putting my truck in the shot to show the raindrops covering it but decided I loved the sky more. I really love staring at the sky and the seeing differences night to day, day to night, sunny to cloudy.

No matter hard hard we try we can only harness the power of nature but never truly emulate its power and beauty. Mother Nature is truly an inspiration to the artist that lives within us!

Day 16 - Kicks

My kicks - I hate wearing shoes, any kind of shoes.

I am known to drive barefoot because when I started driving I would speed when wearing sneakers! I usually have two to three pairs of shoes sitting inside my truck because if I can slide the shoe off when I get in, I do.

Due to my new job, I need to wear closed-toe shoes and tennis shoes are the best ones for the job. I pretty much wear them all the time now but within 2 minutes of getting home this is how they end up.

Living in a hot climate pretty much ensure that I always wear shoes when leaving the house and I miss the freedom of being able to go more places with no shoes on. With many searches you can actually find out that it is not illegal to enter stores, restaurants, and drive barefoot. Most places frown upon it but unless they have posted signs all they can do is request you leave. If you ever push the issue there is usually no policy about it however.

Sometimes I wish I lived near or on the beach because going barefoot there would be something so common that people would not look at you funny when you do it.

Ah well, I wear shoes because I need to for work - but at home I am barefoot all the way.

Day 15 - I'm Pretty

I don't really do my nails, wear makeup, or do my hair. This is not something I enjoyed as a teenage girl and would rather get going in the morning as an adult woman. I often wonder how 'female' that makes me.

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy dressing up every once in awhile but putting on makeup and doing my hair every morning is SO NOT going to happen. I am not a morning person and feel only the desire to get dressed and leave to get started on the things I need to do that day.

I often don't even wear my contacts every day because this is an extra step in the morning. I use contacts I can sleep in to help avoid this issue but since they often get dried out and leave bags under my eyes I often avoid this as well.

Because of this I decided to take a picture of something that is along the lines of "Spa Day", a nice long soak with water, candles, a book, and a tub full of hot water. The results usually leaving me feeling relaxed and feeling "pretty."

To top it off, a locked door ensures that my husband has to deal with any issues and nobody gets to bother me. What could be better?

Day 14 - Junk drawer

I racked my brains for a junk drawer in our house and can honestly say - we don't have one. I however do have a junk corner - and not really junk either. I cleaned out my craft room hoping to get organized and cleaned up - and this is the pile I still have to go through. My craft room is back to it's trashed state as well - but as this craft room is also my office and my daughter shares the craft space with me, it is even harder to clean up.

Let's put on top of that, I have a hard time cleaning and papers are a bane of my existence. Slowly over the last few months I seem to be making a dent in some of it as my goal is now to scan it all and trash the originals! I'm becoming a CD hoarder instead of a paper hoarder!

I hate the stress level that goes with looking into that corner and often find myself walking into another part of the house to avoid it. I am trying to remember that each little bit I get done slowly helps things move forward. One of my hardest tasks is not in getting involved with a new task while I'm trying to complete the ones I already have. It's a daily struggle to move past my avoidance and procrastination tendencies.

Day 13 - Grief

What causes me grief - this answer jumped out to me immediately from my desk top - bills... bills... bills. I hate dealing with money and making sure things get paid on time. This is a task I have often struggled with and often have to remind myself daily...weekly...monthly to deal with this.

I have been working hard over time to battle this avoidance tendency of mine. Thanks to technology available today, I have alerts sent to my cell phone and I use e-bills. I have to battle the nature to ignore these by NOT doing some things automatically. I have to personally enter and reconcile my Quicken accounts instead of doing their automatic download. I have to personally save and attach my bills and statements. I track the change in my purse - ever two weeks along with entering my paycheck.

It is still a struggle to make sure things are paid on time, but by using these features and making sure my bills are due at the end of the month and paying half of the bill from each paycheck it gives me a little extra money in my pocket and a little more going to the debt I am trying hard to lower and get rid of.

Day 12 - A Treat

I didn't think I would find this particular prompt difficult but even knowing about it all day it ended up sneaking on me at the very end of my day. I often do things for others and often have others do things for me; however, today seemed to be a passing and gossiping day more then anything.

I thought I would take a picture of the dinner my husband made for us tonight - a wonderful steak with vegetables and pasta meal, however I was already finishing it when I realized I never took the picture. The thought of taking a pictures of my clean plate crossed my mind but I moved past that one as well.

It wasn't until I was in the middle of doing something for my daughter that took me a long time to do and was starting to frustrate me beyond measure that I suddenly realized I had it. The treat for the day. I was doing something I generally don't mind doing, playing with Legos; however, due to the fact that my husband encourages my daughter to throw every piece in the same bin without any organization it took me over an hour to make the piece she was asking me to make while I shifted through the seemingly thousands of small pieces. With so many different sets in her box I was getting ready to throw it across the room although I knew I was almost finished with it.

I also realized at that time that I really hated putting the pieces together when I couldn't find anything and that a toy, a past-time that should be enjoyable was made only frustrating because I couldn't find the piece I wanted when I wanted it. I almost pulled out a box of baggies and started sorting.

I am not a neat person but I have come to learn over the years that I have to see everything or nothing will get done. I need open shelves and boxes or projects would never happen. I need a system and priorities that my husband disagrees with to get the things I want done, done. I will let dishes slide because I would rather scan my daughters artwork and make a memory book. I will forget about laundry so I can sit and cuddle with my family on the couch and watch a movie. I will be lackadaisical about what is for dinner because I honestly couldn't care and my husband insists that every meal must include a meat when I could be happy with a salad so I struggle to make the meal.

I have become better over the years, getting rid of objects, trying various systems to try and find something that works for me. Scanning objects so I can then trash the original but 'have it' if I want it. I am fighting my border-line hoarding tendencies and can only hope that I will not pass these tendencies on to my daughter. I try to make sure she learns better habits and that I show her better habits and follow them myself. A daily struggle.

Day 11 - What Fun

It was nice to get a prompt that took me almost no time to find an answer too. Some of the funnest things I do are online - chatting, scrapping, web surfing, shopping, facebooking, and gaming.

I found this game, Runescape, through Facebook and eventually turned my husband and mother-in-law onto it. I don't play it often anymore, but it is a great escape and I can spend hours improving my character and doing a quest or two!

I would have taken a picture of a book - however that escape is often very short lived for me and provides an escape for only as long as I'm reading the book which as I've mentioned before doesn't really take me that long! I play many computer games and this is the only one I play live online.

I have found one of the downsides is the fact that most of the players, at least that I run into, are under 20 and therefore I tend to keep away from most other players.

I find I do the same thing offline too and it is a big struggle for me to reach out and encourage interactions with others. That is one of the things I love about new job, I was already friendly with my now co-workers and making the change from patron to co-worker has been easier then any other position I have ever had. I have already gone to a couple of parties and will be joining them on one of their "Ladies Nights" and I've been there less then 5 months.

A huge change in my life since I am usually in a position for a couple of years and still find it hard to socialize with my co-workers outside of work.