Here we go again?

In an exciting turn of events, I have bought a camera! It's not a D80...I'm just not ready for that yet, but it is a Panasonic Lumix that I got at Costco on the camera guy's recommendation. I have a 90 return if I don't like it, so I plan on playing with it for awhile and putting it through the paces. But I have a camera! I can blog again! I know you are all just dying to see all the exotic sights in South Carolina!

In other news, Mackenzie has a staph infection (his forearm, of all the weird places). But he hasn't wrecked anything lately, and this isn't a MRSA, so I can deal with it.
My dd is dating someone and called today to see if we wanted to meet him for lunch in a few weeks. Ack!
My job is going well, and I just finished up teaching an online art appreciation class (thanks, Julie!). I had a great time with it, but I'm ready to enjoy the last few days of summer. I start at my job with regular fulltime hours next week.... that's going to be an adjustment for someone who was a stay-at-home mom for 21 years! But it will be fun.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start photoblogging more regularly!

Major life change

Well, the decision has been made. The confirmation has been sent. The background checks will be done tomorrow. If I pass that (and I'm not a skeleton-in-the-closet kind of gal) I will be gainfully employed. The last time I drew a paycheck Ronald Reagan was in the White House, Amadeus was on the big screen, and the first Ford Taurus was rolling off the assembly line. So you can imagine that this is a major change around here! I accepted a job at the boys' Catholic school, as the assistant director of advancement. (And for all you Office fans, that's NOT the same as "the assistant to the director of advancement".) I start in a week. I feel good about the work I'll be doing and the people I'll be working with, and the school I'll be advancing. My duties will be to orchestrate the fundraising events, to oversee parent volunteer groups, to oversee communications with donors, etc. Of course, that means an end to my art classes. But to everything there is a season -- (I can't say that without hearing that Pete Seger song say "Turn! Turn! Turn!"). I hope one day I can take at least a few more classes. Actually, I'm going to take a Photoshop workshop in August. But for now, this season of life calls for me to focus on a job.

I'm happy that I was able to find a job relatively quickly, and that the whole "homemaker gone back to work" thing wasn't so much of an issue. I'm also happy with the schedule, giving me half-time in the summer, and enough vacation days & school holidays to spend with the family. The pay is what you'd expect in the education world, but the easier schedule and the tuition breaks make it more attractive. I think getting back into the work world will give me a new challenge, and I like that. It will be good for my kids to see their mom in a new role too. Maybe with my first paycheck I'll get a digital camera and start back up with blogging! :-)

News from Camp Pendleton

Grayson has informed us that the Marines will be deploying him on a ship for 6 months, leaving in November. He has 30 days leave before then, so if we're lucky he'll chose to spend that leave time here in SC.
I'm visiting my daughter tomorrow (she's living in Charlotte for the summer) to help her out with grocery shopping and cooking. She's trying a pretty restrictive diet and some nutritional supplements, to see if she can avert gall bladder surgery. She's been doing well since the event a few weeks ago, but in order to get to the point of being really healthy, she's got to stick with this for some time.... there are no easy fixes when you opt out of the surgical method. So I'll be up there encouraging her to hang in there!
I'm getting tired of not having a camera, so hopefully soon I'll just break down and get one, even if it isn't THE one I want.
As for me, I met with a headhunter yesterday about re-entering the workforce after a 22 year break. :-) I may put my school on hold in order to start working. I'm not sure what the future holds for me! Bill's working hard, as always, but his field is severely impacted by the current economy.

It's always something!

This morning my 21 year old daughter pulled into the driveway in tears. (She lives an hour and a half away, at college). She was having a gall bladder attack. She drove all the way home by herself, in excruciating pain. She said she felt like she was going to die. She's my child who has a very high toleration for pain, so I knew it must be terrible. I spent the morning with her in the doctor's office, then she fasted for the rest of the day and we spent the late afternoon until now (11 pm) at the hospital, where it was determined that her gall bladder is not functioning. We're going to a natural nutritional-type practitioner tomorrow, then she'll weigh her treatment options. We could be looking at surgery. And of course, this is the week that Grayson leaves for San Diego. Ah, being a mother. Sometimes it tears you up.

My apologies

Since I don't have a digital camera anymore, and since my photo class is finished now, I haven't been posting anything here. I'm sorry! Hopefully a new digital camera will be in my future (I'm not sure how, exactly, but maybe santa or the tooth fairy or mother's day? .... nah.) In the meantime, I will try to post something, anything, so I won't completely lose my readership!

Here's an update on my life: 3 stresses.

My last exam is today, and I'm finished with this semester of school. I give the experience two thumbs up! I'm not sure what the future holds in that regard though. The economy isn't being kind to our family right now, so I may have to postpone further school while I get a job with a paycheck attached. I'm not sure how a full-time mom returns to the workforce successfully, but it looks like I'm going to have to give it a whirl.

PFC Grayson is home on leave right now, but will be shipping off in a week to San Diego, his permanent duty station. There are a lot of bittersweet feelings rolling around in me right now, but I just can't give voice to them.

My mom's cancer is active again. She's had breast cancer, uterine cancer, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma for over 25 years now. Somehow she's managed to live a great life nevertheless. Though she's had several surgeries she's never taken radiation or chemotherapy, and she's not about to do it now, although the cancer is now inoperable. She's doing a nutritional thing while she contemplates another non-chemo type of therapy.

Project 365

I started this blog on December 27th last year, and 405 posts later, here I am.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the photoblog format. It's been a fabulous creative outlet, helping me to notice things that would have passed unnoticed - and DID pass unnoticed until I started this project. Textures, light effects, cropped sections, subject matter -- thoughts such as these have become second nature. Even if I don't take the shot, I SEE the shot, and that in itself is satisfying. I notice Life more. I've LOVED being part of a community of bloggers with the same project in mind, and learning from them, and appreciating the work they've put into the project knowing from personal experience how much work it is. I have appreciated a venue existing that I can point people to and say ... this is my life. I have liked having a place to record my thoughts, and chronicle my events, yet without the pressure to write a "real" blog post. The pressure to have a picture a day was sometimes burdensome, but not so much as I thought it might be. I have loved commenting, and my pics being commented upon -- it's so rewarding. I have appreciated the fact that my library of photos has given me fodder for my art projects, and has stimulated my thinking in other creative avenues.

The downsides: I lost my camera, and I really feel like that event took the wind out of my blogging sails. From that date on I borrowed Grayson's camera, used my cellphone, and finally bought a replacement camera that I never did bond with. (I gave it to Clark for part of his Christmas yesterday.) So now I'm back to borrowing Grayson's. Besides losing the camera, when I started to school in the fall and had to produce so much artwork, I found that my creative juices were diverted, and there was little left for the 365 project. For those reasons I feel like my best work happened earlier in the year, and I haven't been as satisfied with the last half of the year's photos. In December, I've almost abandoned the project, at least compared to the level of involvement I had the other 11 months. So maybe it is time for the project to end. Part of me is more than ready for that to happen, and part of me regrets calling anything of such personal importance and value to me "over". I regret that few of my "in real life" friends and family visited the site... some commented to me that they saw something on my blog, but by in large the blog didn't make the jump to "real life" I had hoped for.

In two weeks I'll be starting back to school. I'm taking photography, ironically. But it will be b/w film photography, not digital. And rather than producing drawings, I'll be producing old-fashioned prints in the darkroom. I imagine I'll have little time for digital, and with Grayson returning January 25th from boot camp, and then leaving to start his life, I will no longer have a digital camera. I will probably eventually buy another digital, just to have for recording life, but for the next few months, I'm sure I'll be consumed with film photography. So ... realistically, my project 365 days are waning, as is my creative energy for the project. However, I don't want to just stop, and fall off the planet (or at least the cyberplanet). I hope I can continue occasionally to contribute, just without the daily commitment. I hope you'll keep me on your Google Reader feed, as I will keep you all on mine. :-)

I could go back and look at all the posts and pick out my faves, and talk about the special memories, but I'm not too big on nostalgia. I'll just say this: Thank you for a fabulous experience together.

Atonement

I'm trying to atone a bit for my lame photo posting of late. So here are a few entries, hoping to garner your forgiveness. :-)

Apologies

I misplaced my cable to download pics....and just found it a minute ago. I'll get caught up this weekend! Sorry.

Just to let you know...

I haven't disappeared. Grayson took his camera to London (his last fling before the Marines) and so I'm camera-less (because, of course, my REAL camera is at the bottom of the Green River). So I plan on buying a camera tomorrow and playing catchup! I've got one drawing back that I want to post anyway. So hopefully you can check back on Saturday and I'll have fresh shots up.

Back to School

Today, I became a college student again! I enrolled for two classes, Design and Drawing. I'm hoping to get some fundamentals down, as I feel like my painting has been a hodgepodge. I've done well with it, but I feel like there's a large body of info that I'm missing (since I never had even one art class the first time I was in college!) This sharpener made me feel like I was back in elementary school, with two orange #2s. My children all started school today as well, so we've all got the shared experience tonight of being overwhelmed with syllabi.

Saturday's project

I haven't had much steam for yard projects lately, but the thought of my family coming over for a Fathers' Day picnic spurred me to at least ornament the deck a little. So I bought concrete planters and made two of these, as well as finally replacing the sad, faded pansies from winter with impatiens, petunias, lantana, etc. Can't say it made a huge difference, but at least it's something.

Mother of the Year

OK, I have never won it. Haven't even been nominated. And based on the effusive adolescent gratitude I get around here, I probably never will be nominated. But if getting up at 4 am and making these divine morsels doesn't get me a nod, I don't know what will. Raw milk, a pound and a half of Irish butter, cane sugar, freshly milled organic flour, all baked to mouth-watering perfection (though my picture here is of them rising). Breakfast of champions, indeed. This was actually in honor of my son's 19th birthday today...happy birthday, Grayson!

Anybody else having trouble?

I keep trying to upload my photo for the day and it erases the photo I've selected whenever I click "Upload Now". So I'll keep trying....I don't know what the problem is. It was doing it last night, and again today. Grrrr.