Our 21st anniversary

Another post from Victoria! How do I do it? Well last weekend actually. I love how this page turned out and it came together so easily. Another inspiration from Pencilines!

I am still plugging away with my year 2000 pictures. These were taken Oct 6/2000. David and I celebrated out 21st wedding anniversary with our pastor and his wife - we were married on the exact same day - hours (and one province) apart.
Blessings!
Julie
ps - don't forget to do my survey (top, left) - Your opinion is important to me.

Haleiwa

Nope I am not scrapbooking in Victoria - I wish. I uploaded this last weekend when I was at home and am posting it today...so here it is.

This is the Kamehameha Hwy heading to the Northern shores of Oahu and the surfing town of Haleiwa. Hawaii is a beautiful place to visit! I took this shot just after we left the Dole Pineapple plantation.

I love MM rub-on letters but this page used up just too many a, e, m, and h's. :) LOL I think the Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters and most of them are vowels.

Thanks for looking....and don't forget to do my survey - on the left of the screen...at the top...go ahead. It is totally anonymous.

Julie

From Victoria

Blogging from Victoria, British Columbia tonight. My Dad had some pretty serious surgery for bowel cancer yesterday and I am here to help my Mom get to and from the hospital, spend time with Dad so mom isn't exhausted and keep the extended family (which is rather large) updated. Mom and Dad are in their 80's - yah I know that makes me kind of old too. :)
I miss my sweetheart though - just can't stand being away from him...love you dear!

I am on my Dad's computer which is a bit of a dinosaur to say the least - like over 3 minutes to get onto the web and f...o...r...e...v...e...r to load my Blog up. I am wondering if my music is slowing it up. Sooo the music is gone and instead a new survey - REALLY I am interested in what you think. I LOVE music - I sing in a community choir and every Sunday at church...but maybe, just maybe other people don't like to listen to music on a blog and maybe they don't like my music choices...then again maybe they do. So please take my survey. Thanks!

Girlfriends

Allison is having so much fun at Bible Collage and at Thanksgiving she brought home one of her dorm mates to spend the weekend with us. A few more friends came to Saskatoon and stayed with various relatives. What a beautiful, sweet group of girls. I took this photos as they waited on the front lawn for their friends to pick them up for the drive back to school.

The new My Mind's Eye Heartstrings line "Adore" is in at Just Scrap It! - so many pretty papers to choose from. I also used Me and my Big Ideas bling, Basic Grey big brown flowers, BG buttons and some other misc buttons. And the new die cuts at JSI! This was a fun and easy page to do.

Thanks for Looking!

Julie

New Look!

I have been playing around with a new look/template for my blog. Not sure I like it yet and I have yet to figure out how to edit the HTML code on the banner so my picture will fit all the way across - work just keeps getting in the way of playing on the computer!! Drat! Oh to be free to take photos, play with them and surf the net all day...I suppose that would make me fat and lazy if that wish came true! Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Psa 90:17

After following a gazillion links though I found a great new site that is doing photography challenges and this weeks/actually months (that's about my challenge rate) challenge was to take a picture of your favorite coffee cup. Check out Ashley Wren's site and then check out "overlooked items " # one submissions- the coffee cup on Flickr.

I did two - one of my coffee cup from "Intermission House" formally AJ's which I pick up on my way to work - this picture is on my desk at work - I stayed an hour late at work today then took this picture (why can I never get out of there on time?) The second is my favorite mug from home.and it is sitting on my desk at home.

I like the theme of this group - taking pictures of overlooked things in our life, journaling about them and then, hopefully scrapbooking them some day....of course I have about 1000 photos waiting to be creatively put into a scrapbook right now, so why am I creating more...out of overlooked items no less??? Because!

Julie

Another page!

I have been home sick today and when you can only sleep so much what do you do? You finish another page. This is a collection of pictures of Allison from the fall of 2000...and she was and still is our Totally Sweet girl! She was eleven when I took these photos and she is every bit as sweet today as she was when she was eleven - what a blessing~

Hey check out the u-tube on the left!

Blessings!

Julie

Boffing!

Finally - I finished a page. Sometimes these old photos (year 2000 still!) don't make for great pages and they are hard to scrapbook - so many to get on to two pages to tell the story - but I remind myself that it is about preserving memories for my kids - sooo lots of journalling and get the photos on the page. Harold grinned as he remembered these great memories and helped me get it down on the page. The journalling (which is tucked behind the left page) reads....

Combat with foam weapons is referred to as boffing and in the fall of 2000 our boys learned all about it from the boys and some of the fathers at Grace Fellowship in Leask. As a result they were spending all their spare time and allowance on PVC tubing, foam and copious rolls of duct tape to create their swords, spears, staffs and shields.

Some of these farm boys were quite rough and I always worried when the boys were out “boffing” – Cody was especially good at causing bruises and sometime what was supposed to be touching became out right blows. But the boys assured me all was okay and stay out of it Mom!!

Some of the rules:
• You are "killed" when you are struck in the torso (front or back), head (above the eyebrows and behind the ears) or abdomen..
• Every point of contact of your opponent's weapon(s) counts, so if they hit your arm and then your leg, both are lost.
• If you are hit across both buttocks, you lose both legs and cannot kneel, but should get in a sitting position. • If you lose a leg, you should not use it at all, not even to balance yourself when you are standing.
• When you're hit in the arm, say "arm", when hit in the head, say "dead", etc... If you are hit and your armor protects you from that blow, say "armor".

So here were a bunch of kids hopping around the field on one leg, an arm behind their back or lying on the ground yelling “dead” or “legs” – rather amusing to watch. The mothers and most of the fathers stood by the side lines along with the group of “maidens” yelling “HUZZAH” “HUZZAH” I never knew what it meant. The day wrapped up with a medieval feast – in which we broke the rules and allowed people to eat with cutlery! Grandma and Grandma Cortens spent the day with us which was a real treat, but it was a long day and I distinctly remember almost falling asleep on the highway on the drive home from Leask. David had gone ahead in his car with Grandma and Grandma. I had Mark next to me watching the highway, talking to me and making sure my eyes were open!

Thanks for looking,

Julie

Amazing Grace

I am in a bit of a scrapbooking void right now - so little inspiration...I keep staring at the photos on my desk and nothing comes. However I had time last night to just sit and make it happen and it feels like the creativity is starting to return - I know we all go through these uncreative phases. I have so many wonderful photos I want to journal about and get onto the page - so hopefully I will be productive and prolific very soon.
In the meantime I want to share this with you!
Before you start, scroll down to the bottom of my page and drop the volume of my back ground music way down - it might interfere with this video.



May you be blessed!
Julie

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Google Reader empty, comments - none.

When will they ever return?

When will they ever return?

Sunrise with my sweetheart and my camera!

I have an amazing husband. He always knows just what to get me for Christmas. Last year he surpirsed me with a Lensbaby - a new lens for my camera - I love it! Very fun!! This year he surprised me with a new Velbon tripod - it does everything! fast and easily - wow! I can be set up in seconds. And he picked it out with very little help. Thank you Don's Photo for helping this guy out...next year I will stop by and give you all a wish list. hehe

So as per my usual I was up very early this am (I won't tell you when)- put a pot of coffee on and read a great book David and I got for Christmas from our pastor - funny thing is we bought him the very same book!! Total Church - great book - lots to discuss and talk about from this book. Anyways I have been ansy to try out my new trypod on more than just family photos in the house and thought it was shaping up to be a good sunrise this morning ...a few clouds but I was hopeful they would burn off. Perhpas some nice frost in the air. I asked Mark, my 24 yr old photo enthusiast son to join me but alas he wanted more sleep - but the sun doesn't rise until 9:15 Mark! still a no and he rolled over to pull the covers over his head.

Hmmm, maybe David would come - what a husband - sure, he said but we have to stop at Intermission House for a coffee to give him something to do in the car while I play - agreed. So out the door at 8:24am.

We arrive at my chosen spot just NE of the city, I get set up and David gets out of the car and says "make sure you get the shot along the fence dear with lots of depth of field" ...LOL ...I am stunned....this guy never takes pictures! I ask him " what do you think I should set my F stop at dear?" he looks at me dumbfounded "How would I know?" ...exactly my point! I didn't actually say that - just smiled. He gets back in the car to warm up with his coffee. But I am very amused and actually excited - you see David has recently started becoming interested in photgraphy. In Hawaii he took my old Olympus point and shoot and took some very good pictures - he has a real sense of composure and actually took some very artistic and unique shots - I was impressed. So I am slowly teaching him bits and pieces about manual settings and he is actually listening and getting it.

Back out of the car again David trudges through the snow to the fence. What IS he doing???

"Try a shot from here dear" he says...I was trying to avoid getting snow up my pant legs but he IS right! I love it! So here are a few of this mornings pictures...and the sun? Did not perform. It became even more overcast. But that's okay - God's creation is always beautiful to behold...even when cold and icy. And I loved this time with my sweetheart!

...he was right - worth the snow up the pant leg! LOL

Thanks for letting me share!

Julie