1st post of twenty sixteen

*I just discovered this post that I didn't quite finish and therefore hadn't published. Here it is anyway.


I'm sure you all thought I've fallen off a cliff somewhere. Nope. Still alive. I've enjoyed a month of no school. That all comes to a screeching halt tomorrow when my 8th of 12 classes starts, Teaching Science in the Elementary School. We are on the downhill slide, people. August 26th can't arrive soon enough.

What did I do over break?

• Slept a lot. Took naps. Slept some more.
• Cleaned up after my dog.

• Scrapbooked a little. I started a December Daily album using photos from 2013. Haven't gotten very far because, apparently, it's more fun to read about what everybody else is doing in their December Dailies than to actually work on mine.

• Watched a lot of HGTV.
• Started hanging stuff on the walls in the dining room. Still not finished.
• Went on a musical date without my husband who stayed home sick. I took my friend Barbara. We stopped for a look at the tree in Portland's living room.

The show was An Appalachian Christmas with Mark O'Connor. Lots of fiddles, guitars, bass, and singing. It was so good I think I'll go again next year and take my husband.

• Took selfies in front of the tree with my guy.

Happy New Year!

christmas at evcc

Phil and I (along with a bunch of other people) helped decorate our church a few weeks ago. I wanted to document it because some of it I made. . . like this pretty gold banner. I was very adament that we needed a Nativity somewhere, because if there's ever a place to express the birth of Christ in Nativity form, it's at church. The one that was purchased was a little bit smaller than I imagined for this space, but it's nice. The wall behind it, however, was clearly lacking in all its light beige-ness, so I whipped up a little sparkly gold lettered banner.

I also created this silhouette Nativity for the bulletin board outside the fellowship hall. It was based off an art project I did with several of my classes in year's past. That project was a much simpler barn outline, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the manger. The scene I got from google images had the donkey and palm trees. My trees look a little funky, and I'm just now realizing that I totally forgot the star. Oh well, there's always next year.

I spend a lot of time over here in this little corner of the sanctuary. And our two trees now have red and gold ornaments. In all the eight years we've been attending, these trees have only had white lights. The gold and red glitter add just the right amount of sparkle.

The last several years, we've purchased pointsettias in memory of Phil's mom and dad. We didn't get a flower this year, but we bought the two boxes of ornaments for these two trees.

In loving memory of Rev. Clifford & Dewyone (Devy) Bergland

great and precious promises

So I mentioned the other day that I'm going through an Advent Scripture reading plan every morning. Yesterday I happened to read the account of Abram in Genesis 12 when God told him to pack up his family and move to the place He would show him. "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."  I thought about how we, as Christians, are a recipient of that blessing. Through Abraham as the first listed in the geneology of Christ in Matthew 1, we have received the promised one. Emmanuel, God is with us. That led into more thought about promises in Scripture. I sat there and thought of a few and reflected on how He will never leave us, that He will complete what He has started, He will satisfy our needs, He heals the broken-hearted, He will give you rest, His love is unfailing. So many wonderful things. In fact, we briefly touched on the same topic in church recently. The pastor had people in the congregation call out promises that we can claim.

So, I get in my car and leave for work and as I turn off our street, I see the most amazing sunrise. You know what immediately popped into my head? His promises are new every morning. I kept adjusting my side mirror so I could see it better. The sky was like electric. That yellow was glowing. I finally had to pull over in the Safeway parking lot so I could snap a picture. I think when God is pounding something into your head like that, it's good to stop and take a picture. It's kind of like how the Israelites built the stone altars to remember the things God had done for them. I zoomed too far and it turned out blurry, and rarely does a picture ever do any sunrise justice, but it was too beautiful to pass up. I was also hoping to snag Mt. Hood in it, but I'm pretty sure that it's hidden by the trees.

So I continue on my way and I get into traffic and head for the freeway. I turn right to merge onto it and what do I see right in front of me? A rainbow. Anybody seeing a theme here? 

I get off yet another exit and turn right again, and I kid you not, there's another rainbow. Well, maybe it was just the other end of the first rainbow, I don't know. I didn't take a picture of that because, well, I do mostly try to drive safe. But it was the neatest thing, to have that all play out right before my very eyes in the matter of about two hours time. 

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. 2 Peter 1:4

santa came to school

I was subbing for a reading intervention teacher today and had a bunch of small groups. Just after lunch I had a small group of 2nd graders come in. The first boy said, "Look Mrs. B., I got new shoes!" I oooed and awwwwed and made it out to be a big deal, because to them, it is. These kids don't have a lot. Most of them get free breakfast and lunch, they go home with food bags, they visit the family resource center for school supplies and clothes. Getting new shoes is a pretty big deal. So I was surprised when another one of the boy says, "I got new shoes too!" I was like, "No way, you both got new shoes?" And then one of the girls pipes up and says, "Ya, Santa came and brought all of us a new pair of shoes, our whole entire class!"

You guys, these kids were so excited about their shoes. They had the biggest, happiest smiles on their faces. I don't know, it's like I immediately felt the spirit of Christmas wrap around my heart, and if I had a moment, I would've teared right up in front of them. At recess a little while later, I went in and talked to the teacher and told her how stoked her kids were about their new shoes. She said, "I know, isn't it great?" And I think we both got a little teary eyed.

So, whoever it was that donated shoes for an entire class of 2nd graders, thank you. You reminded me again of what it's all about.

4th grade art 101

The class I was in had art today. Some of them stayed in at recess to finish up a mural. I'm thinking this is one of the coolest art projects I've seen in a while that wasn't on pinterest. Each student got to make their own individual picture with the monochromatic blue background and then six or seven of them finished this one. I had to turn in a laptop to the library before I left and this caught my eye on my way down the hall. I had to just stand and stare at it for a bit.

It reminded me of a Christmas Nativity scene art project I did with my students a couple of times. We'll revisit that in a much larger format sometime in the next few days.

early december stuff

December's here, people. Only 23 more days until Christmas. Haven't even started our shopping yet, so there's that.

I'm going to attempt another December Daily, a little scrapbook project that documents the month of December. I don't think I've actually finished any of them that I've started in years past, but what I do have done and documented, I love. You can see some of mine here. So I'm starting 2014 by including the following random bits of December.

Our new pastor asked Phil and I to help with the Advent candle on Sunday. Phil read the Scripture passage and I lit the purple candle. Growing up, Advent wasn't something that was really ever talked about in our church. It wasn't ever mentioned that I recall until the pastor got married and his wife got the church going with the Advent wreath. But, both churches that we've attended in our days of marital bliss incorporate Advent in the Sunday morning services leading up to Christmas. I like it. I like the reflection. The promise of hope that it brings. The sense of thoughtfulness that you feel across the congregation. I like that it includes the softer, more mellow carols like Come Thou Long Expected Jesus and O Come O Come Emmanuel.

I tend to get all stressed out in December. There's always so much to do right at the beginning with the women's ministry lunch, and then once that's over, I have to hurry up and get the house decorated in time for my cookie exchange, and then figure out what kind of cookies to make and then get them made, and then there's list making and shopping and trying to budget and figure out how to do all that. I hate that feeling. So this year I've decided to try to get my focus off the stress and remember what it's all about in the first place. I'm following along with a couple of daily Advent Scripture readings that I found on pinterest. I pull the verses up on Biblegateway.com and then read them in a couple of different versions. Here's one of the passages from this morning in Isaiah 9.

Needless to say, I had Handel's Messiah running through my head all day.

Today I was in the staff room eating lunch and I noticed these cute little Hershey's kisses. I tried one and fell in love. Guess what I bought at the grocery store? It makes me want to figure out how to make peppermint bark.

I also came home with some egg nog for Phil. First quart of the season. It's always a special day. Only I forgot that last year he started getting the non-dairy kind because of his issues with milk products. Sorry babe, it's the thought that counts, right??? And at least it's the low-fat kind. I should get some bonus points for that anyway.

Happy December! Now go make some memories.

my december {not so daily} 2011

So before Christmas gets here and I am taking pictures again for another December Daily project, I thought I should get my buns in gear and finish last year's album. Novel idea, huh? What started out as a daily project ended at like day 6. It was a hard month. My aunt passed away and I was sick for most of it, but I still had some good pictures and fun memories to record. So I ditched the "daily" part and just went in chronological order with the things that happened in December. So now I have a finished 2009 album, an I-have-the-paper-trimmed-but-that-is-all album for 2010, and I'm over half-way done with 2011.

For this album I used up some chipboard, stickers, dimensional embellishments, and what-not from one of the previous year's DCWV stacks from JoAnn's. Part of the collection was in the kraft/red/green color scheme {which is what I've got trimmed and ready to use for 2010} and the other part was in this wintery blue/lime green color scheme. It's more winter than Christmas, really, but that's ok. I like to mix it up a little.

I'm using an 8X8 album that I got for cheap at Tuesday Morning. It's really sold as a baby boy book, but the color matches perfectly, and, like I said, I got it for cheap. I also used some matching Bazzill cardstock to try to balance out all the different patterns and my trusty Cat's Eye chalk ink to make everything show up. Here's a view of what is finished so far:

page 1: close up picture of our front door wreath.

pg 2-3: getting ready for the ladies' Christmas luncheon and my pinterest inspired centerpiece.

pg 4-5: a 5X7 collage of the luncheon and picking out our tree.

pg. 6-7: decorating the house. I like how I added the "Deck the halls" text on the photo and then I found the little journaling card that said "fa-la-la-la-la" on it. I was also experimenting with layering different patterns on this page.

pg. 8-9: our tree and the decorations in the living room. I used my cricut a lot for the titles. The cursive font is from the Opposites Attract cartridge. I spritzed my titles with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in pearl.

pg. 10-11: the outside lights, a reference to our anniversary, and a note from the Christmas card our realtor sent us. This was our first Christmas in our new house. . . thus the title "First Noel."

pg. 12-13: my 2nd annual cookie exchange {so much fun, you should try hosting one!} and pictures my sister texted me of her elf on the shelf, Stuart. He was named after Tony Stuart, their favorite Nascar driver. It was their first year of having him around, so I would get ideas off pinterest for her. The kids LOVED him and we got the biggest kick out of all the crazy stuff he'd do. I used my trusty Creative Memories hexagon punch on these pages, and I still need to journal about Stuart.

pg. 14-15: I learned how to make pocket pages on youtube, so I made one to hold some things from my Aunt Nancy's memorial. I felt the title Home for Christmas was more than appropriate for this page. On the other side I used my 2 inch square punch and went to town ala Ali Edwards' style with some of the photo cards we received. Strangely, the 2 inch punch didn't quite turn out to be exactly 2 inches, so I had to cut down a few of them, but I like the collage look - especially Phil's Aunt Mary Jeanne with Elmo!

More about my pocket page: on the front of the tag I included a copy of her obituary, on the back is a copy of the Daily Bread from that day my mom sent me. It talked about heaven. I also made two accordian fold books - one for pictures when she was first diagnosed and undergoing treatment, the other for pictures that were taken of the police officers lined up at her memorial. She had worked for the chief of police and was buried with full honors. I left room for lots of journaling.

What I need to remember for this year:

• get someone to take pictures of me. I think I'm in two pictures last year. Sad.
• more pictures of me and the mr.
• if I do photo collages on picasa, don't use black as the color for the dividing lines. Makes the pictures way to dark.
• take lots of cute pictures of my dog wearing a Santa hat.
• keep better notes. I really slacked last year in that department.
• don't wait until October to start working on the album.

december daily 2009

Last year I decided to join the scrapbooking bandwagon and make an album for the whole month. Ali Edwards is kind of the inspiration behind the project and she showcases hers on her blog every year. The idea behind it is to prepare the album ahead of time so that when December rolls around, it's pretty much ready to go. All you add are the pictures, journaling, and little bits and pieces of December.

I started out gung-ho in the preparation part, used up a lot of scraps from papers I had used for school projects and that tag book I made my mom two years ago, but knew that I wouldn't be able to get to it every single day. So I took notes on 5X7 index cards (which I left on my nightstand so I'd remember to jot something down about the day). And I blogged. And I kept all sorts of things in a big plastic container. I worked on it a little bit last December, but didn't really get very far.

But now it's that time again, to start prepping the new album for December 2010. And I want to do another one, but I thought that first I might want to finish the one from last year. Yes, I'm a procrastinator and proud of it.

Here's the cover. It started out as two pieces of 8X8 black chipboard. I covered it with patterned paper, inked the edges, added some chipboard die cuts, stuck on the title, and bound it together with 1 1/2 inch binder rings.

And then the story begins with Day 1. I also added a little blurb about this being my first time attempting this project and using this kind of album with all sorts of different page sizes. I still want to add the year on the inside cover, just haven't gotten to it yet.

Didn't really have much for day 2, but I did record a little conversation that I had with Phil505, so I just used this little he said, she said journaling block.

I wanted to save some cool Christmas cards and the photo cards we'd received and so I included them here and there. There you are, Dawn!

I love these little Bingo cards. I used a little bling to circle around the 4.

I covered the back with paper and stuck some pictures on with some journaling strips.

Another photo from a card on the back and then the record of our first hand cut Christmas tree. I used the Printing Press cartridge for all the numbers and a few titles. I like how it looks like an eclectic mixture of fonts :)

Day 7 was a Sunday and we decorated the tree after church.

On the back is a picture of the tree all lit up and on the other side I used a Starbucks cardboard sleeve to make a pocket. I put a strong adhesive on the sides and across the bottom. I found my shopping list from last year in a notebook the other day, so I folded it up and slipped it on in.

I would've liked it a little lower on the page, but I had already attached the little tag and it was impossible to move. Such is life when you preplan pages.

On the back, another photo card, and on the other side, I have a picture of a favorite ornament from my friend, Marilee. I wrote a blog post about her on the 9th of December, so I printed it out and used that for my journaling.

It was a long post, so there's more on the back.

And even more underneath when you lift up the tab. And yes, I punched the holes in the wrong spot, and I'm trying not to let that bother me too much. The next page is a skinny half of a circle. It's just different, and I like it.

I got to showcase how I won a blog contest that day. Woot!

I've worked ahead on some other pages, but I'm not ready to show them yet. Plus this is an incredibly long picture heavy post anyway. So I'll save some for another rainy day.

It's really turning out to be my most favorite album ever. I'd highly recommend you make one. Just so we can be on the same bandwagon.

december daily

I've been reading about the December Daily project for a couple of years now, but have yet to jump on this particular crafting bandwagon. Until yesterday, that is. I got on some major crafting mojo and went to town.

I have a Christmas album. It's 8X8" and includes our yearly photo cards (except one which got lost when we moved into the apartment a few years back, so if anybody out there still has the one of us with Mt. Rainier in the background, please send it my way) & my cheeseball newsletters, pictures from usually Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, and whatever other memorabilia (I love that word) I might decide to include. I started it after my first Christmas with Phil, back in the "we're young and in love and still engaged" days. I'm a year behind (go figure), but I love looking at this album.

If you've kept tabs on my Project 365 blog, Snapshots and Snippets, you know I failed miserably after about the first week of April. . .if I actually even made it that far. I just found that my life was not so exciting and that I really didn't want the whole thing to be pictures of discontinued mop heads, Costco toilet paper, and pictures of us making out. But then I was telling my friend Barbara about this December Daily thing and saying that my life wasn't exciting and I might not do it, and she says, "You can make anything exciting." There folks, that was all it took. Thanks, Barb, for the inspiration.

So I'm hoping that I can keep up with a month. One month. Actually, only 25 days of a very busy month. But I'm going to try because I've got all my 25 pages all ready to go. Well, kinda. I dug out my stash and remembered that I had a ton of stuff left over from mom's tag book. (Remember that precious little thing?) So everything I've used so far is stuff I already had (which my husband really appreciated.) As days go by and I take pictures and journal, then I can embellish. I still have to do the cover - I'm thinking chipboard covered with patterned paper - and do the title page - which will, of course, have a great big B on it. And maybe an e, r, g, l, a, n, and d. Because I like big B's and I cannot lie.

Here's a little preview. . .

The pages are all different shapes and sizes. Some are plain cardstock, some are patterned papers back to back. I cut out all the numbers & letters on my cricut and can't wait to fill it all up. I'll keep you posted.