Dream a little dream - or a BIG one!

When you cease to dream, you cease to live.

- Malcolm Forbes

Week 22: Dream

I don't remember not dreaming.  From long nights as a kid (I'm a long-time insomniac) to daydreaming in class to dreaming intentionally and declaring those dreams publicly, I have always been a dreamer.  Sometimes my dreams were nightmares - I could always tell when I had a fever, because I would have the craziest, scariest, most vivid dreams - the stuff Stephen King novels are made of - but thankfully I always woke up before something terrible happened to me.  Most of my nighttime dreams are good ones, albeit usually pretty mixed up - people and places and times that don't make sense once I wake up.  I dream in color, and I can almost always recall a dream, at least for a short while.  I have a few distinct memories of dreams that seemed so real that even hours after waking I still thought my dream was reality.  As an adult, I learned the power of dreams, even though I think I'd really already learned that lesson intuitively.

Once, my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Crutchfield, took me out of class and led me down the hall to the shelf full of encyclopedias.  There, she pulled out the volume that had the CHE words in it, and introduced me to the word 'Chemistry'.  She told me that she thought I would like chemistry, and that I would be good at it, and I believed her.  I asked for an got a chemistry set for Christmas that year, and when I started college, I was a chemistry major.  While I ended up majoring in zoology instead, I did become a pharmacist - pretty close!  Now, I'm not sure I dreamed of being a chemist, but Mrs. Crutchfield knew what she was doing.

Before Rex and I got married, I was having a conversation with his dad about our plans for children.  I matter-of-factly told him that I wanted two kids, a boy first, followed by a girl three years later.  He threw back his head and laughed uproariously as he told me that was great, but things didn't always turn out the way you want them to.  I nodded, and told him I understood that, but that he'd asked me what I wanted, and that's what I wanted.  I kind of chuckle when I think about my beautiful children - first David and then Kim, who happens to be 35 months younger than her big brother.  Sometimes dreams do come true, just because!

When I was a Creative Memories Consultant, my dear friend Jenny became really invested in the power of dreams and even did dream workshops for us.  I've never forgotten the lessons I learned from her.  I remember declaring in front of a whole CM regional convention that I wanted to visit all fifty states before the end of my 50th year.  I missed it by a week, but made it to state number 50 (Oklahoma) in the same month as my birthday.  A few years later, I attended a workshop where we were prompted to complete this thought: "If money were no object, I would....."  I didn't remember what I wrote, but as I was packing to move here to Texas (years later), I found that paper.  I had written that I would live in a house on the water, near the ocean, and that the house would be big enough for friends and family to fill it with love and laughter.  And here we are...

Travel has always been a big part of my dreams, and many of my younger friends have told me how jealous they are of my travel schedule and ask me how I do it.  I generally laugh and remind them that when I was their age, my travels were limited to trips to the grandparents' houses, annual trips to the beach, and annual trips to CM conventions.  Sometimes you have to let dreams percolate and then wait for the timing to be right to see them fulfilled.  Just like my marriage to Rex - we met when we were 17, living in different states and planning to go to college in different states - him in Texas and me in Tennessee.  We kept in touch (through snail mail and occasional visits) until seven years later, when the time was right.  We were both single and entering in our last years of professional schools (still in different states) but we'd never stopped dreaming of each other - and here we are!

So, if you're not a dreamer, it's time to change that!  If you can dream it, you can do it!

Girlfriend Power

“All I can tell you today is what I have learned. What I have discovered as a person in this world. And that is this: you can’t do it alone. As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”

- Amy Poehler

Week 17: G is for...

I've just spent the last few days hanging with some of my best girlfriends, and boy, was it fun! They came to Tiki from across the country - Tameka flew in from New York City, Kim from California, Anne from North Carolina, and Mary drove down from Dallas.  We're not just separated by miles; there is a 30 year age difference between 'Baby Bear' Tameka and 'Mama Bear' Anne, with the rest of us somewhere in between.  Our political views cover both ends of the spectrum and some spots in between.  We don't share the same religion, and our levels of education vary.  You may be wondering what we have in common and how we ever became friends.  And that's what today's story celebrates!

Years ago, and for many years, I was a Creative Memories Consultant.  I helped people organize and preserve their photographs by making scrapbooks that allowed them to share the stories behind those photos while having fun and enjoying a creative outlet.  Originally, this was done in traditional paper scrapbooks, but by 2006, my focus had shifted to digital scrapbooking, as Creative Memories introduced a cool, albeit limited, digital scrapbooking program called StoryBook Creator.  A year later, a more powerful version of the software was released and something ignited in me.  I quickly picked up the program and soon was trying to make it do more than it was designed to.  Since much of my 'real job' life as a pharmacist (back in the day) had involved computers, and since I took my first computer classes in high school, I only had to learn to use the program, while many women my age had to learn to use a computer first.  That meant the software was not intuitive for them, and in fact, it was overwhelming and somewhat terrifying.  Soon, I had found a niche teaching my friends (customers and fellow Consultants) how to use the software.  I even gave people lessons over the phone, without the benefit of screen sharing!

Fast forward to late 2008 - Facebook was a 'thing' and we CM Consultants were given permission to use it as a business tool.  The third version of StoryBook Creator had been released, and the floodgates opened!  We could do so much more with the software, and of course my friends and I were still pushing the envelope to get it to do more.  I joined the beta test team for future versions of the software and I was still providing training for Consultants and customers, but now we could post our completed pages on Facebook, and two friends and I started a Facebook group that provided a forum for people to ask questions and get them answered.  The next year, I was doing live webinars for Creative Memories and I started a blog to help people learn how to use the software.  And now comes the good part!

Creative Memories was an international company, and I started seeing lots of pages posted by women in Australia.  They were beautiful pages using techniques that were different than those I was used to seeing, and then I learned that they were still on version two of the software.  That meant that they were really pushing the envelope!  I had to get to know these women! I watched to see who posted the coolest pages and took names, and then I sent them all a group message.  Soon we were chatting (via Facebook) on a regular basis, and before long, one of them suggested I come to Australia.  Haha - they didn't know me well enough yet to know that casual invitation was all I needed!  By August, I found myself on a flight to Sydney with a gig to speak at the Down Under version of the Creative Memories annual convention.  I met all of the 'Digi Divas' and lots more wonderful women and I stayed there a month!  Rex joined me after the convention and we traversed the county, going to the homes of all of the women I had met on Facebook.  And we didn't just go to their homes - they invited us to stay with them, without knowing whether we were ax murderers or decent humans.

What the Digital Divas didn't know was that I already had this crazy idea to gather together a team who embraced digital scrapbooking and training as much as I did.   I envisioned a website where we could pool our resources and work to our strengths instead of trying to do it all individually.  As great as our little Facebook group was, I found myself answering the same questions over and over, as there was no way for people to search to see if their question had been asked and answered.  (I've since learned that most people don't search for an answer even when they know it's there - it's easier for them to just ask it again!)  Anyway, I thought my new Australian friends might not be willing to join me in this 'adventure' if they hadn't met me in person, so it was important to me to let them get to know me on their turf.

Back home, I was taking names of American and Canadian 'friends' who seemed to know how to use the software and who were patient and friendly when they answered the same questions, over and over, in our Facebook group.  I noticed who had blogs themselves and who had really creative ideas.  By December, I was ready to put my plan into action.  I called or emailed a dozen women, all Creative Memories Consultants, and basically asked them if they were interested in joining me to do something that would probably get them deactivated from CM.  All twelve of them said 'YES!!' and the week before Christmas, we had our first (of thousands) group phone call.  [Side note: while I had met the five Australians in person, I only knew two of the other women personally at that time.  And by 2011, none of us were still CMCs.]

Talk about giddy!  Even though we were only 'meeting' each other by phone and computer, it was so cool to talk to each other and hear all of the different accents.  We very quickly learned that there is indeed a language barrier between America and Australia!  We also learned that we not only brought different skill sets to the table, but that we had almost exactly the skill sets we needed to do what we wanted to do.  Never mind that none of us had ever started a website or a company before!  By January 2010, we had a name (pixels2Pages), a mission statement, and a few domain names - it was really going to happen!  And it did!  We launched the website on 7 April 2010 - happy birthday, p2P!

So that's the beginning of the story of how I've spent the past ten or so years, and how I came to be the best of friends with my wonderful tribe.  When I read today's quote by Amy Poehler, I thought, "I could have said that!" (and I probably have...) and it is so true!  Working together may not have made life easier for any of us, but it certainly changed our lives!  We sold the company we started to Forever.com a couple of years ago, and p2P is currently training on the fifth version of the software, Forever Artisan.  I retired from active service last August, and while the p2P team is only a fraction of what it once was, pixels2Pages lives on and continues to thrive and share the joys of digital scrapbooking with a wonderful community of women around the world.

At pixels2Pages, we have a saying: 'Once a Pixie, always a Pixie', and so it is.  Nothing can take our time spent as p2P team members from us, and each Pixie has made contributions to the team and to the website that are still viable, important, and valued.  And so it was that while Anne, Mary, Kim, and Tameka were working at Tiki this past weekend, we toasted all of our Pixie friends.  Here's to you, Shelley Alexander, Carolyn Bodkin, Tameka Bond, Mary Browder, Jeannine Campbell, Justine Forrest, Janice Gilhooley, Kerrianne Hobbs, Marilyn Innes, Anne Lineberger, Jenny MacKay, Kim Mannino, Penny Peterson, and Allison Woof!  From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for taking a giant leap of faith with me, and I thank you and honor you for being team players and for sharing your hearts, your knowledge, your ideas, your creativity, your lives, your time, your families, your stories, your photos, and your magnificent pages with us.  Thank you for challenging me and inspiring me, and thank you for making a difference in the world. Cheers!

LYMI!!

Jan

P.S.  If you'd like to get a little taste of what pixels2Pages does, take a look at Pages magazine.

Only in Paducah

Despite the forecast, live like it's spring!

                                                                                              - Lilly Pulitzer

Week 12: Spring

I had the best week last week!  I got to introduce three of my dearest friends to my wonderful hometown of Paducah, Kentucky.  The trip didn't end up being exactly what we had planned - you know how life gets in the way sometimes - but it was just perfect.  Our original plan was that two of my good Durham friends, Dana and Deanna, would meet my ex-Galveston, now Tennessee friend Mary Jo and me in Nashville, make the short drive to Paducah, and spend a few days exploring.  So, while we all flew to Nashville (except Mary Jo, who lives nearby), we didn't get there at the same time or leave at the same time, so we sort of did the town in shifts.  What that meant for me was I got to stay longer and see more hometown friends than I would have, so it was all good.

If you've never been to Paducah before, or if you've only driven through it or spent time there without knowing what to do, add it to your list of places to go when you have a few days to explore, relax, and enjoy all it has to offer.  Paducah is not a place most people just happen on, although four US Highways (60, 62, 68, and 45) and an interstate go right through it - you sort of have to want to be there.  And there are plenty of reasons that you might want to be!  You may not know that Paducah is a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, thanks to the efforts of my friend and high school classmate, Mary Hammond, who works tirelessly to promote Paducah and all of its charm through her position as the Executive Director of the Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Paducah is also home to the National Quilt Museum (Quilt Week is coming up next week!!) and it brought artists of all kinds to town due to its forward-thinking Artist Relocation Program, which revitalized the Lower Town section of the city.  Situated at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, and less than 30 miles away from the Cumberland and Mississippi Rivers, Paducah is the consummate river town.  In the spring, summer, and fall, riverboats full of tourists dock at the foot of Broadway, and barges pushed by towboats travel up and down the rivers every day.  And you know that where there is river traffic, there are railroads.  I grew up listening to the sound of trains passing in the night, so it was almost comforting to hear the wail of the horn and the clackety-clack of the wheels in the middle of the night.

Because the city was formed due to its proximity to the rivers, you might deduce that flooding can be an issue.  Paducah had three major floods - two in the 1800s and the big one in 1937, when 90% of the town was under water.  After that debacle, a floodwall and earthen levee system were built around over 12 miles of the perimeter of the town.  The concrete wall (3 miles long) is 14 feet high and has twelve pump stations and 47 vehicular openings (which are closed with pressurized gates in case of the threat of flooding).  Tested as recently as 2011, when the river crested at 55.03 feet (the '37 flood was at 60 feet, but flood stage is 50 feet!), the floodwall has saved Paducah more than once.  Gates have already been closed once this year!

The wall was constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1939 and 1949, and today, the downtown portion of the wall is covered in gorgeous murals depicting the history of Paducah.  This project is called Paducah Wall to Wall and was created by artist Robert Dafford and staff of Lafayette, Louisiana.  In addition to being beautiful, these painted panels tell the story of Paducah from its founding by William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) to its heyday in the 50s when Paducah became the Atomic City.  It's a great way for visitors to get a feel for the city I proudly call home.

OK, so much for the commercial - Paducah really is a great place to visit and an even better place to grow up!  But back to the present.  Dana, Mary Jo, and I arrived in Paducah on Monday afternoon and checked in to our downtown boutique hotel, The 1857 Hotel.  Our room was on the front of the building, so we had a great view of Kentucky Avenue and the historic Market House Theatre.  We were really hungry, so we headed off to Tribeca for a quick bite of Mexican food, then we walked by the huge Carson Center for Performing Arts (holds 1800 people - not bad for a city of 25,000!) on our way to admire the floodwall murals and check out the riverfront.  We took the obligatory 'Port of Paducah' photos and I explained about the geography of Paducah and its rivers.  After we'd seen all of the murals, we walked down Broadway to 9th street and then headed back down Kentucky Avenue to our hotel.  Like many small towns, the combination of the interstate (I-24 goes right through Paducah, too) and the building of a mall out by the interstate was almost the death knell for our downtown.  While it is not yet the vibrant downtown full of shops, movie houses, businesses, and people that I grew up with, it is not dead by a long shot!  I love seeing new businesses opening up each time I return.

Next it was time for a driving tour, past the home and neighborhood where I grew up, with detours past my schools, church, and high spots like Noble Park and Hancock's Fabrics.  Dana and I have another friend in Durham who also grew up in Paducah, so we went by her old house, too.  Dana was driving, and I'm telling you that by the time she left, she could have given tours of the town!  As a real highlight, we went out to Barkley Regional Airport and actually saw a plane land!  Paducah is not big on air traffic, but if you want to go to Chicago, no problem!  Thankfully, it's only two hours to Nashville, and you can get most anywhere from there.  Our next stop was the Coke Plant, which is a fun Art Deco building just down the street from my childhood home.  It's been refurbished and re-purposed and is now home to a Mellow Mushroom, Dry Ground Brewing Company, Piper's Tea and Coffee, and more.  Mary Jo and I enjoyed a local brew and then we headed back downtown - it was almost dinner time, and Doe's was calling me.  Doe's Eat Place is right on the corner of 2nd and Broadway, and it serves legendary steaks, tamales, and chocolate cobbler, among other delicious things.  Now Mary Jo and Dana are Doe's fans, too.

Tuesday was our day for the National Quilt Museum, so we needed to start off fortified!  My friend Judy met us at Gold Rush for a hearty breakfast, and then we walked over to the museum, which was the initial reason for this trip.  As always, the museum exceeded expectations - I have never known anyone, male or female, who has been disappointed with their visit to the Quilt Museum.  In fact, "mind blown" is the typical response.  This is not your grama's quilt museum!!  If you like art of ANY KIND, do yourself a favor and visit this museum someday.  Just don't go during Quilt Week if you're not a quilter!  You can read Dana's thoughts about the museum and Paducah HERE.  Although it is mostly under wraps due to renovation, I wanted to show off our impressive City Hall, which was designed by the architect Edward Durell Stone, who designed the Kennedy Center, MOMA, Radio City Music Hall, and loads of other important buildings back in the 60s.  Thankfully, we were able to go inside and get a feel for things, even if we couldn't see the outside.

No one was hungry at lunch time, so we decided to go back to Hancock's while it was open.  Dana may have purchased a bit of fabric after being inspired at the museum.  Since we were practically there anyway, I took my friends across the river to Metropolis, home of Superman.  I think that seeing Metropolis and how depressed (and depressing) it is made me appreciate Paducah and its efforts even more.  Once back in Kentucky, we picked up Judy and took off for Parker's Drive In out in Lone Oak (a suburb of Paducah) for a little afternoon pick me up.  After that, we drove by my mom's last house, returned Judy to her house, and did a drive by of Whitehaven, the only interstate highway Welcome Center that is in what used to be a private home.  Next we were off to see my dear former next door neighbor, Mrs. Yaffe, who is in a nursing home now.  Dana and Mary Jo are good sports, and it was wonderful to see Mrs. Yaffe.  When we left, the nurses admonished us to hurry back to our hotel before the storm hit.  Storm?  Had we missed something?  Turns out we had - major tornado warnings, in fact.  So we moved the cars over to the porte cochere at the Carson Center (in case of hail) and then we hunkered down in the interior hallway of our hotel until the danger passed.  Thankfully, it passed just in time for our evening meal at Paducah's only farm to table restaurant, the Freight House.  One of my oldest and dearest friends, Mary met us along with Judy for this fabulous dinner.  Oh my, was it good!  We closed down the restaurant - it takes time to share three desserts...

Since Mary Jo was heading for home on Wednesday afternoon, we needed to squeeze in a few important bits, namely, lunch at Starnes Barbecue.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, as breakfast comes first.  We walked over to Kirchoff's Bakery and Et Cetera Coffeehouse for some breakfast foccacia and the necessary caffeine, and we may have lingered a bit, as our schedule was light today.  We wandered over to the Paducah School of Art and Design and looked around it, rode around a bit more, and then met Judy for our BBQ fix.  Aaaaahhh.  Now I can say I have been home!  We said goodbye to Mary Jo there, and Judy headed home, too.  Dana was ready for another trip to Hancock's, so I met another good friend, Rick, for a drink while Dana shopped.  Rick and I enjoyed watching the par 3 tourney at the Masters and caught up on each other's lives.  One of the things I appreciate most about going home is getting to see old friends and I especially appreciate that they make time for me.  Dana picked me up and we rode around a bit more before it was time to welcome Deanna and meet Mary and Judy for dinner at Cynthia's Ristorante.  First, Mary and Judy stopped by our hotel for a drink (yes, it has a fabulous bar!) and Deanna got there just in time to share a drink before we walked over to Cynthia's.  Believe it or not, I had never eaten at Cynthia's!  I can assure you that this won't be my only trip there - it was fabulous!  Again, we closed down the restaurant.  Another great day in the books.

Dana would be leaving us on Thursday afternoon, so I asked my friend Kim if he would have any time to take us on a tour around Lower Town.  He's a Paducah Ambassador and a fabulous storyteller, photographer, and lover of Paducah history, and best of all, he was free to show us around!  We opted for a light breakfast at Kirchoff's again, and then we picked up Kim at the auto repair shop - sometimes things just work out!  Dana drove, and Kim directed and narrated - Deanna and I just listened, looked, and learned.  Kim is a wealth of knowledge - I learned so much!  Before long, it was time for lunch, this time with Mary and Mary, who was back from her UNESCO meeting in Iowa City.  Judy had taken off for New York City, so we missed her and Mary Jo.  Kim joined us, and we all met at Artisan Kitchen, which was also a new place for me.  Score another big win!  Everyone's meal looked so good, and they had tea with mint!  We dropped Kim off to get his car, and then we had just enough time to stop by a little shop called Ephemera that I've been wanting to visit for years.  It was so cool - an art studio and shop, run by the delightful Kristen, who I learned is the daughter of Jack Reese, who was Chancellor of the University of Tennessee when I was there.  So fun!  Even better, my friend and classmate Dick was there with some of his friends, so we got to reconnect and see what they were working on.  And even more better - they invited Deanna and me to join them on a guided tour of the Quilt Museum the next morning!

We said goodbye to Dana and sent her off to Nashville, and then Deanna and I did the floodwall murals, the riverfront, and a walking tour of downtown.  This time, I used the Paducah Cell Phone Tour, which was very informative.  Again, I learned a few things.  Oh, and I also re-met one of my junior high teachers, who works at the Visitors Bureau with Mary.  Whenever I'm in Paducah and on my own, I always wonder if I'm seeing people that I used to know.  Then I started recognizing children of people I used to know.  Sadly, now it's probably grandchildren I would recognize!  Mom left here ten years ago, so it's been a long time since I've had family here, but it will always be home.  After walking around as much as we wanted to, it was time for the driving tour.  You may be seeing a pattern here!  We ended up having dinner at Flamingo Row, out near the mall.  Man, they still have some scrumptious burgers there!

On Friday, we started our day at Kirchoff's again (never had the same thing twice!) and then walked over to the Quilt Museum to meet with Dick and his friends.  Our guide, Robert, is also a Paducah Ambassador, and he did a wonderful job.  I will have to share what I learned with Dana and Mary Jo!  They had rotated a few of the quilts in the main gallery, and one of the side galleries had a new exhibit that the early crew would have liked better.  The new exhibit was quilts by Japanese artists, and they were fabulous!  After being inspired by the quilts, we wandered downtown a bit more until it was time for lunch, which we decided to enjoy at Shandie's, also downtown.  This time, I got my catfish fix.  Mmmm....  After lunch, we spent some time in the Market House Museum, learning more about Paducah.  Have I mentioned that my friends are really good sports?  If it was more history than they wanted, they didn't say so!  We opted to take a little break this afternoon and watch the Masters and maybe even have a bit of a nap. After all, we had to rest up for dinner!  Tonight, we met Mary, Mary, and their significant others, Jon and Paul, at Max's, where we had another great meal.  I had to laugh - in landlocked (but near the lakes) Paducah, I had had silver carp, scallops, catfish, and tuna this week, balanced out by my Doe's steak and Flamingo Row burger.  And it was all great!  After dinner, I realized that I had not taken Deanna to the Coke Plant, so off we went!  All too soon it was time to pack up and be ready to check out, because we had an early morning coming, and snow was in the forecast!

Sure enough, it snowed!  In April!  Yikes!  But it wasn't bad, although we did have to clean off the car.  We popped by Red's Donuts and grabbed some of those delicious balls of dough. (Did you know Paducah has a Krispy Kreme connection?)  Paducah is blessed with some really good doughnut shops!  Then we were off to WKCTC (West Kentucky Community and Technical College, aka Wicky Ticky) to meet up for our tour of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which is where my dad worked.  The plant, as it was known, was one of three places in the US that enriched uranium for bombs and later for nuclear reactors.  It was a highly secure place - I really only remember going there once the whole time Daddy worked there (which was from 1952 until 1985).  The Department of Energy offers tours there several times a year, now that it is no longer in operation and is, in fast, being demolished.  It is a HUGE complex - almost too big to fathom - and it is sad to see it in the shape it's in now, even though I understand why that is.  In its heyday, it used as much energy as the city of St. Louis or Washington DC used (in a day).  The tour was largely done in the bus - we got to go inside the communications building and we drove through one of the buildings where Daddy worked - but I'm so glad I went.  Thanks for humoring me, Deanna!

After the plant tour, it was time for Deanna's introduction to nirvana via hickory smoked pit barbecue, so back we went to Starnes.  Had we been in our car out at the plant, we would have dropped into Leigh's, which was Daddy's favorite, but it was too far to go back out there.  We had time to run by the PSAD so Deanna could see it and to drop by Ephemera again - and we saw Dick there, again, too! Oh, that reminds me - our quilt show guide, Robert, was on the plant tour, too, as were Char and her husband, who run the horse-drawn carriage business downtown.  They will be busy in these next few weeks, once the dogwoods actually bloom for the Dogwood Festival and of course for Quilt Week, which is next week.  One last trip to Kirchoff's for cookies for the road, and we were off to Nashville and our respective homes.

It was a spectacular week for me, as I love sharing Paducah with friends.  Let me know when you are ready to go and I'll be happy to show you around!  And I'm thinking Judy, Mary, Mary, and I could be Paducah food ambassadors.....that could be a real business, y'all!  And while it may sound like we did all there is to do in Paducah, I could write an even longer blog about the things we didn't do!  Paducah is full of surprises!

Jan

PS - You may want to plan now for the next full solar eclipse, which will be on 8 April 2024, visible in Paducah (again)!

Chocolate, cookies, cakes, Cokes....and connection

What is it about the letter C?  Curiosity, creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, the 21st century skills!
                                                                                                                 - Stephanie Harvey

Week 9: C is for....

Happy Monday and happy March, y'all!  Can you believe that this time next week, we will have 'sprung forward'?  I've been in North Carolina for a week, and I'm loving all of the gorgeous trees in bloom - the Bradford pear trees are stunningly full of white blossoms (and they don't stink yet!) and each graceful forsythia I see makes me smile - and reminds me how much I miss spring!  On the Texas coast, we have two seasons - summer and not summer.  They aren't kidding about that, by the way!  I'm hoping my drive home will be full of blossoms and sunshine!

As I thought about this past week's 'C is for...' theme, the word that kept coming to me (other than the obvious C words of chocolate, cookies, cakes, and Cokes) was connection.  I loved connecting with other digital scrapbookers last weekend, with my Belmont/Durham/Raleigh/Chapel Hill friends this week, and of course, with my children and grandchildren.  It's a precious gift to have all of those relationships, and I value each of them tremendously!

The past few days have been special in that it was just the boys and me around this house this weekend, as the girls went to a special Fairy Tale Princess event in Virginia.  Gray and I had more quality time than usual, and I loved every minute of it!  He finally has started calling me 'Happy' (my grandmother name) and I just giggle whenever he says it in his little gravely dinosaur voice.  Tonight we had a big surprise when my nephew Kevin called Dave to say he was in town for the night, so we all went out to dinner.  Good timing, Kevin!!  And I was so thankful that Gray had taken a late (and long) nap this afternoon!

I have to admit that I missed having Elliot and her sweet smile around the past few days, and I always enjoy spending time with Markee, but I know Elliot had fun being a princess and being with princesses, and Markee got to visit with her mom, too.  At least I'll get a big E hug before I go, and I'll be back again next month - yay!!

I didn't get to Durham as often as I would have liked, and while there were some good friends I missed seeing this time, I did get to see a lot of people whom I miss a lot!  Thanks for making time for me, y'all!  Gray and I attempted to go to the Duke Lemur Center on Saturday, but the tours were full, so we spent the afternoon at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham.  We had so much fun!  We petted farmyard animals, rode the train, looked at butterflies and insects, dug in the sand and filled dump trucks, and climbed in tree houses.  We were outside and on the go for hours!  Gray was a real trouper - no stroller and no complaints from this kid!  He didn't even have lunch or a snack (but we had a fantastic breakfast at Simply Crepes on our standing date with my Raleigh friend Jenny)!

I loved being in town for the big Duke - Carolina game Saturday night, but especially since the pendulum swung in Duke's favor this time.  It was really interesting being in Durham most of the day Saturday, as most everyone was sporting one of three t-shirts or sweatshirts.  Around here, you're either dark blue, light blue, or red.  You can be dark blue and red, or light blue and red, but you can't be both blues!!  Our house is the first - Duke and State fans - so it was a good weekend for us.  And now the ACC tourney starts this week (although it is so odd that it will be in NYC!) and then my favorite weeks of the year will be upon us.  Love me some college basketball!

I hope your week was as fun, friend, and family-filled as mine was - you can color me happy for sure!  Make this a fabulous week, too!

Jan

PS  This week I finished The Ladies Room and The Heavens May Fall (a murder mystery/detective/lawyer book by Allen Eskens)and I've started The Mercer Girls.  Enjoyed both books I finished and the new one seems promising.  Still anxious to hear your book recommendations!

All my loving

All my loving I will send to you |  All my loving, darling I'll be true
                                                                                                        - Paul McCartney

Week 7 - "I love..."

Well, that page was easy!  And it was hard...as you can see, I had to add an extra spot for Crockett!  And while these are the people I love most in the world, there are others that are right up there.  And things, and places, and foods, and things to do - there is so much to love.  I decided to be as true to the 'photo a day' theme as I could, so a Cajun meal for Mardi Gras and my wonderful massage when I got home made the list, too.

After getting to see Mary Jo and sister Kim last weekend, I got to spend a few days at daughter Kim's house this week.  In fact, I headed there immediately after dropping my sister off at the airport Sunday night.  I think I got to Kim's about the same time Kim got home.  It was the first time I'd gotten to see my sweet dumpling since Christmas - she has grown so much!  And she is still a happy baby - a good sleeper and content to be awake and entertain herself, too.  It's fun to watch Kim bloom into motherhood as well - she's a natural.  Sadly, it's almost time for her to go back to work, and although she's excited about getting back to it, I know she will miss spending her days with her baby.

It was foggy and dreary and cold the first few days I was there, so we didn't get out on any walks, but we did manage to make a Target run, a Costco run, and a girls' lunch.  We FaceTimed Elliot on her birthday, went to a fun little Cajun bistro for Mardi Gras, and watched lots of Winter Olympics.  We sat in stunned silence as we mourned yet another school shooting.  While I don't claim to know the answers to America's issues with guns, mental illness, and bullying, I know that what we are doing currently is NOT working.  It's past time for us moms to demand change.  Parents should not have to worry about their children being murdered at school!  I suspect I was not the only one hugging my babies a lot tighter on Valentine's Day.

On Thursday morning, we took Miss M to her day care for the first time, even though Kim wasn't going to work yet.  She had decided to have a few 'trial run' days before it was real.  Good plan!  I think it was a teeny bit easier to leave her knowing it was just for a few hours, even though Kim wasn't sure what she would do with herself.  I was impressed with the place they had chosen, and Kim did great until the director looked at her sympathetically and asked how she was doing.  Cue the tears!  To cheer her up, we enjoyed a nice Mexican brunch of yummy breakfast tacos, and then it was time for me to head back home.  As I drove, I finished the fabulous book I had been listening to for the last week.  If you haven't read Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan, I recommend that you give it a try.  While it is a World War II novel, it is based on a true story, and it's set in Italy.  If you've read many WWII books, I suspect you haven't read many about the war in Italy.  There's a reason, and you'll learn more about that when you read this book.  Although there are parts of the book that seem unbelievable, there is a lot about WWII that is hard to believe but is true, so I'm willing to suspend judgment.  I found it compelling and enjoyed listening to it.  I believe it is being made into a movie.

The book I started after that one is a new one called The Wife Between Us, by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.  As you might suspect, it is about a love triangle.  Most anything else you suspect will be wrong, and  that's all I'm saying.  Well, that and I listened to it all day Saturday because I had to know what happened!  Other books I've listened to so far this year are The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea (don't waste your time), Beartown by Fredrik Backman (love all of his books - this one is relevant and gripping), and Before We Were Yours: A Novel by Lisa Wingate (this one is sadly based on true events in Memphis, and it will haunt you - read it anyway!).  In December, I listened to Column of Fire, the third book in a trilogy by Ken Follett, and I loved it so much it inspired me to listen to the previous two books, Pillars of the Earth (one of my all-time favorites, but last read in the mid-90s!) and World Without End.  All of the books are historical fiction, set in England starting in medieval times and ending in the early 1600s.  I found them fascinating, and the narrator, John Lee, is fantastic.  The books stand on their own, but I recommend reading them in order.  They are long - be forewarned!

Next on my list is The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (The Nightingale) about Alaska.  That should make my upcoming drive to Alabama and NC go by quickly!  What books are you reading and enjoying?  And do you read real books, books on devices, or do you listen to your books?  I've always been an avid and voracious reader, and nothing was better than curling up with a big, thick, hardback book.  Until I got a kindle...  

For years, before kindles, when I traveled by car, I rented books on CDs at Cracker Barrel, and I found I loved listening to a good book.  And then, four years ago, I started listening to books so I would walk more.  I can't tell you when I last read the words on the pages of a book, either a real one or a virtual one.  I still read plenty (on computers and devices), but I listen to all of my 'reading for pleasure' books now.  I've found I pay more attention to detail and I'm not in a rush to finish and I don't skip over things when I listen.  The only drawback for me is when I don't like a narrator - thankfully, that doesn't happen much, but when it does - I stop listening!

Can't wait to hear what books you love and how you enjoy them.  Hoping you have a fantastic week and that you take time to tell the ones you love how much they mean to you.  Happy Monday!

Jan

PS  Today my wonderful daddy would have been 96 years old.  That's hard enough to believe, but it's even harder to realize he's been gone from this earth for 26 years.  I miss him daily and am grateful for all he gave me!

Alphabet Soup

"To the uneducated, A is just three sticks."  - A.A. Milne

This is the first 'alphabet soup' week of Day2Day themes, so of course it's A is for....  I rather enjoy looking for good representative photos for letters or colors and getting to take a lot of creative license as I do.  I'm happy to say that one 'A is for...' this week is ALMOST ALL DONE with my recent illness.  I still have a bit of a cough, but I finally felt human again and the flu is almost a memory.  Yay!

I had a great week - sure hope you did, too!  I did some house cleaning, working on the Christmas closet and getting three huge boxes of papers to be shredded ready for Rex to take to the Tiki free shred day on Saturday.  If only he had read the multiple messages I shared with him so that he would have gone to the right venue....I learned today that he thought it didn't happen (due to rain!) because he went to the wrong place.  Good thing I love him!!  And thankfully, I saw a billboard about another shred day coming up in Galveston in a couple of weeks, so I have time to gather even more boxes of 'tutts' to be shredded.  How do you handle your paper stuff?  I get most everything paperless these days, so it's crazy to me that I still have piles of paper to deal with.  Bonus was I got to look through old CM things, letters from my mom (and I found a book she had written for Kim and me about her life!), and the file box full of my precious childhood mementos.  Time to be doing some digitizing!

My friend Ann invited me to a 'Lip Sense' party at her house on Monday - cool product - and it was fun to meet some new peeps.  Ann is a fabulous cook - her homemade biscuits with ham and honey were heavenly!  I was invited to lunch with the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UT (Tennessee) on Tuesday, and I had a lovely time talking about my time at UTK with her and her assistant.  I was impressed that they drove down to Galveston (from Houston) to meet with me.  And no, they did not do a pressure-filled push for donations!  I had a fun little walk down memory lane and look forward to getting back to Knoxville for a tour of the campus.  Sounds like a lot has changed since I was last there.

By far the highlight of my week was my annual trek to the mountains of Colorado where I shared a little knowledge and a lot of love for Artisan at a p2P LIVE event at Southpaw Retreat.  This was my third year to train at this event, and it was fun to see 10 familiar friends and meet five new ones.  These women are quick studies - they made fantastic pages - and I even got some work done on the baby's first year calendar I'm making for Morgan (yikes - I'm already two months behind!!)  Southpaw proprietors Sheri and Bob always make me feel welcome and I ate so much that I am loathe to step on the scales just yet....  I hated to miss sharing a hot toddy with Bob, but it is still Dry January.  Thanks for your fabulous hospitality, y'all!  I am looking forward to February, but am glad to report that it's not been a problem to lay off the sauce.

Being at Southpaw meant I didn't get to watch the Duke v UVa game, which I guess was a good thing.  I was following along - sure wish the Devils had pulled that one out!  I was glad State finished strong, and UT did well, too!  It's another great ACC basketball season - I'm watching Duke play as I write.  There sure is a lot of talent on that team - it will be fun to see how well they mesh as the season goes on.  I also missed the Grammy's - hoping I'll be able to see some of the best clips later this week.  It was great to have a very social week and spend time with women I enjoy and admire.

Looking forward to the super blue blood moon and lunar eclipse this week and hoping the weather will cooperate!  Be sure to look skyward on Wednesday night!  I realized that one of the things that intrigued me about being in Denver was seeing snow on the ground and having it be a non-event.  Really put our two day non-stop news about a little bit of ice in perspective!  It is worth noting that it is not nearly as cold feeling when the humidity is low, even if the temperature is lower.  I took my big coat and never had on more than a sweater...

Make it a fabulous week!

Jan