Carey Family

Scott and Sue Family

Wherein I Try Something New

by Leave a Comment

I tried something new: I made an online photo book.  I am a paper scrapbooker who hasn’t really had time to fuss with learning any digital scrapping except cropping and printing photos.  A friend regularly makes online photo books that become hardbound books and has been encouraging me to try it for a very long time.  I saw a big sale on winkflash and decided it was time.  I wanted to make a book for Brian for Christmas that included all his theater gigs to date.  This included 4th grade to 12th grade and seemed like a good candidate for such a book.  It turned out to be more complicated than I had originally envisioned as I tried to collect the photos.  I found that even though I have tried to be good about organizing our digital photos, there was room for improvement because I couldn’t find photos I knew I had taken.

Over the course of three weeks I found photos, sorted, gathered, cropped, fixed red eyes, picked backgrounds, wrote journaling and made a book.  It just arrived in the mail and I was very excited.  I looked through it and saw some things I would do differently on the next book I make, but overall, I was very pleased and it was fun to learn a new skill and be creative.

wrap-up The 2nd Challenge 2010

by 1 Comment

2010-2nd-challengeChallenge Guidelines:
There are four levels:
— Curious – Read 3 novels that are 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.
— Fascinated – Read 6 that are 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.
— Addicted – Read 12 novels that are 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.
— Obsessed – Read 20 novels 2nd in a series or second time you’ve read the author.

Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.

My original post said I would choose Fascinated and read 6, but things changed during the year.  I kept going and ended up with Addicted……..

1. Round Robin, by Jennifer Chiaverini (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)

2. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)

3. The Missing, by Beverly Lewis (2nd in a series)

4. Fairest, by Gail Carson Levine (2nd time for the author)

5. Monster, by Walter Dean Myers (2nd time for the author)

6. The Queen of Attolia: The Queen’s Thief #2, by Megan Whalen Turner (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)

7. The Sea of Monsters: Percy Jackson & the Olympians #2, by Rick Riordan (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)

8. Dragon’s Gate, Golden Mountain Chronicles 1867, by Laurence Yep (2nd time for the author)

9. Born in Ice, by Nora Roberts (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)

10. The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #2, by Michael Scott (2nd in a series & 2nd time for the author)

11. Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen (2nd time for the author)

12. The Fourth Bear: Nursery Crimes #2, by Jasper Fforde (2nd in a series)

Some good news from each of us

by 1 Comment

Scott: switched our TV service from Comcast to Direct TV so that we have the correct stations to see ALL the BYU football games this year.

Sue: received “Mockingjay, book 3 of the Hunger Games” in the mail today and will be starting to read it tonight.

Mark: after spending all summer talking to various people at BYU, he just found out that he really had been accepted into the Music Dept. in February but some kind of mix-up sent him the denial letter instead of the acceptance letter; he has been stressed and praying and investigating other options since he got home from his mission in May but now he can do what he really wants to do with his life; not only is he now a music major but they’ve also approved the lateral move to a sound recording emphasis because he’s already taken some of those courses.

Brian: after spending almost 6 months in his first area of Escondido, he is being transferred (we won’t find out where until Tuesday); he is being made a senior companion AND a district leader with this transfer.

Bad luck comes in threes

by Leave a Comment

Ever have one of those days where things just go wrong?  Yesterday Mark had two tires go flat on the way to work requiring a tow truck, two new tires and four new struts on the Mazda.  In the afternoon his buddy bowed out of going to the Jack Johnson concert with him tomorrow night leaving him stranded and disappointed.  In the evening he and I were working outside and found our front faucet is leaking.  Not into the house but the plumber coming later today will probably have to punch a hole in my craft room wall in order to fix it.  If so, this will require massive moving of lots of really cool craft stuff.  Scott wants the back one done at the same time which will punch a hole in the office wall.  The office is another area that will be a mess to move stuff around.  Because we never use the back faucet I have negligently let the lilac just grow over it.  So I went out at 6:30 am to prune the lilac in back and lavender in front so that the plumber can actually work.

Ugh!  The only bright spot in all this is that Scott has been working 60-70 hour weeks lately so now we have overtime to pay for repairs.  But Mark and I haven’t actually seen much of him so I’m not sure it’s really a bright spot.  Still evaluating that idea.  But the outlook for the future must be good since we’ve had our run of bad luck for the month.

2010 National PTA Convention

by Leave a Comment

I attended the National PTA Convention in Memphis, Tennessee in June.  The convention was great and I came home with lots of great ideas for my volunteer position this year.  While there, I had a culinary tour de force and ate alot of great food.  I also bought several BBQ rubs for Scott to try on ribs.  AfterI flew in Lisa and I went cruising Beale Street and ended up at The Pig on Beale: Pork with an Attitude.  They had really good ribs.  My favorite place was B.B. King’s Blues Club which had the best ribs of all.  During dinner, we heard a blues band fronted by a 16-year-old singer and then B.B. King’s All-Stars which were great.  Alcenia’s Southern Style Cuisine was the choice for Ginger’s birthday lunch because Cheryl saw it on “Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins”.  I had fried chicken and waffles and lunch was topped off with a kiss on the forehead from the owner.  If you click the link you can see the short video from the Food Network.  Huey’s was Ginger’s choice for her birthday dinner because she was “sick of eating BBQ”.  This was a fun burger joint that had toothpicks stuck all over the ceiling.  We ate twice at The Arcade Restaurant, which is the oldest cafe in Memphis and is famous because Elvis ate there before HE was famous.  The sweet potato pancakes were scrumptious.   Before flying home we had a few hours between the end of the convention and our flight so we headed to the National Civil Rights Museum.  It was really well-done and I could have spent a couple more hours there, but then I’m a museum junkie.  It was really inspiring to see the motel and think of where Dr. King was assassinated.  It was then really creepy to stand in the window where James Earl Ray shot him and see the view right down to the motel balcony.  But I’m glad I got to see the museum and also the exhibits detailing the history of civil rights in America.

(Click on any photo below to see the pictures in a gallery)

Filed Under: Sue