Proudest Mom in America,

I think I just might be the proudest Mom in America today. Yesterday we had parent/teacher conferences and workshops at Noah's school. For those of you who know Noah, you know that behavior can sometimes be a struggle for Noah. He has at times been physically (hitting, biting, scratching himself and others) and verbally (yelling and screaming loudly) aggressive. This isn't something new - it's something that has been going on for years. The frequency has slowed down a lot over the years though. His teacher was very happy to report that he has not had any verbal or physical aggression since NOVEMBER!!! It's hard to put into words how proud I am of that little guy!! Noah is the type of child who responds very well to praise so J and I told him (and later Nana and Grandad did too!) how proud of him we were over and over. I told him I was the "proudest Mom in America." He thought this was funny and wanted me to say it over and over. I think I really am the Proudest Mom in America. :)

Project 365: Jan 29 - Feb 4

The latest installment of my Project 365 Photos........

Thursday January 29 (Day 29 ) I love pictures of sleeping children, especially mine!

Friday January 30 (Day 30 ) Me - Cooking dinner. I'm making one of my specialities, a recipe I invented called "Mississippi Girl Chicken Enchiladas." (They are one of J's favorites.) You probably can't tell in the photo but my apron says "Domestic Diva."

Saturday January 31 (Day 31 ) Sushi for lunch - yumo!

Sunday February 1 (Day 32 ) My Momma with her kitties

Monday February 2 (Day 33) J's new GPS thingie. It was an early birthday gift from my parents and came quite handy on our trip to Atlanta. I really like the restaurant finder!

Tuesday February 3 (Day 34) We had lunch with my Bestest Bud on the way home from Atlanta.

Wednesday February 4 (Day 35) Nothing could be finer than to be back home in South Carolina!

I'm So Vain

For Christmas one of the things on my list was a tripod. My original reason for asking for a tripod was to be able to take posed pictures of Noah easier. While I prefer candid photos, there are times that I want posed pictures. Studio pictures just never seem to turn out too well with him so I've decided to just take my own from now on and thought a tripod would be helpful in this manner. I did receive a tripod for Christmas. I waited until school started back up to use it and played with it on the first day Noah went back to school. I took some self portraits that day and it was fun! I went to use it again later and it broke!. I think that my camera might have been too heavy for that type of tripod. My parents were nice enough to buy me another one and I got it last week. Since I got it, I have been taking a lot of self portraits and still haven't used it for the purpose I had intended. I didn't realize taking self portraits would end up being so fun! I'm still learning and getting used to using a tripod as well as the timer on my camera that lets me be able to take self portraits. I aspire to take self portraits as creative and good as this gal's. Although, I don't look so hot in this picture, there's still something about it that I like. It feels a smidge self absorbed to take self portraits so I've had that song "You're So Vain" (by Carly Simon) stuck in my head.

You're so vain, You probably think this song is about you. You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you. Don't you? Don't you?

Project 365: Jan 22 - 28

Thursday January 22 This is my quote box. I love quotes and this way I can keep them handy. Each time I come across a quote I like, I jot in down on an index card and stick it in the box.

Friday January 23 (Day 23) I love these snowman salt and pepper shakers that were a gift from a friend. Sadly, it's almost time to put them up. I've been on the lookout for some Valentine's Day salt and pepper shakers as well as some Easter/Spring/Summer themed ones. Aside from these, I have leaf shaped ones and tigers for football season.

Saturday January 24 (Day 24 ) During this time of year, this "Uncle Sam" can be seen on a busy intersesction in our town holding a sign for Liberty Tax Services. He cracks me up!

Sunday January 25 (Day 25) My new glasses - picked them up yesterday.

Monday January 26 (Day 26) In the buggy at Wally World.

Tuesday January 28 (Day 28) I received this card in the mail today from my Secret Sipper. I love the quote she wrote on the inside: "Those of us who have hope have everything."

Wednesday January 28 (Day 28 ) Unlce Sam was out earlier in the week but today (the male version of) the Statue of Liberty was out waving at drivers. This time I just snapped the photo from the moving car.

Project 365: Jan 15 - 21

1'm more than half way through the month and I still have my photo mo-jo although it's been a smidge harder lately as I have been having some wicked headaches.

Thursday January 15 (Day 15) I was playing with the night settings on my camera and took this shot of the moon.

Friday January 16 (Day 16) Using his puppy as a pillow

Saturday January 17 (Day 17) The view from the end of our driveway. You can see the mountains in the distance.

Sunday January 18 (Day 18 ) Mine and Noah's hands

Monday January 19 (Day 19 ) Brrrrrr! Baby, it's cold outside!

Tuesday January 20 (Day 20) Today I woke up to this!

Wednesday January 21 (Day 21) Noah and I watching history as Obama is sworn in as our 44th President. (Yes, I cheated a smidge here as this photo was taken yesterday but I wanted to include it and the snow.)

That's it for this week!

Project 365: Jan 15 - 21

More than half way through the month and I still have my photo mo-jo although it's been a smidge harder lately as I have been having some wicked headaches.

Thursday January 15 (Day 15) I was playing with the night settings on my camera and took this shot of the moon.

Friday January 16 (Day 16) Using his puppy as a pillow

Saturday January 17 (Day 17) The view from the end of our driveway. You can see the mountains in the distance.

Sunday January 18 (Day 18 ) Mine and Noah's hands

Monday January 19 (Day 19 ) Brrrrrr! Baby, it's cold outside!

Tuesday January 20 (Day 20) Today I woke up to this!

Wednesday January 21 (Day 21) Noah and I watching history as Obama is sworn in as our 44th President. (Yes, I cheated a smidge here as this photo was taken yesterday but I wanted to include it and the snow.)

That's it for this week!

Project 365: Jan 8 - 14

Update: I’m still enjoying Project 365 and taking a photo a day. I’m not burnt out yet, as we are only 2 weeks in. Hopefully, it will remain fun! Here are the photos of Week 2:

Day 8/Thursday January 8 My fuzzy pink monkey blanket and a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup; the perfect combincation on a cold, dreary, winter day.

Day 9/January 9 "Every boy needs a puppy and every puppy needs a boy."

Day 10/January 10 J is having a serious talk with Noel in this picture telling her to stop getting in Noah's trash can. Moments later he tells me he can not fuss at her because she is too cute! Day 11/Sunday January 11 We left around two o'clock today and drove to my BFF's house in Atlanta. We hadn't seen other in person in a year!! So it was great to see her and her boys. Like always when we are together, we had to take some goofy photos. Day 12/Monday January 12 I saw a cornea specialist at Emory Medical Center in Atlanta today. Day 13/Tuesday January 13 Season 8 of American Idol started today. Love it!

Day 14/January 14 "Thinking of you" cards from friends that arrived in the mail today. I feel so loved! That's it for Week 2!

Quote of the Week: Hope

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that you will get through something and eventually learn from it regardless of how it turns out.” ~ Valar Haver

Project 365: Jan 1 - 7

Here's the photos from the first week of P365 along with the journaling that goes with them. Although, I have only been doing this for a little over a week at this point, I'm really enjoying it. It's making me appreciate the little things in life. Some days it is really hard to choose just one photo!! While being a Mom is the center of who I am, I'm really making a conscious effort to include more than just photos of Noah because I am more than just a Mom. I really want this book to end up being MY interpretation of MY world through MY lens in 2009. (which is what I"m thinking the title will end up being) I'm still working on the first layout but probably won't get it done till next week. I'll share it when I do though. Some people are doing their layouts by weeks, "week one, week 2" and so on, but I think I might break mine into months and do a monthly page with a cover photo using my favorite photo from the month then simply scrap the "pics of the day" through out the month. I need to keep it simple or I won't stick with it though! I do think I'll try and post my photos from the previous week here on my blog every Friday....

Day 1/Thursday January 1

The start of a New Year, a clean slate. It’s not a fancy photo but I like what it represents. It’s a calendar that was a gift from a friend and I have a purse addiction so the calendar is very ME. It seemed a fitting photo of a new year for a new project and a clean slate for ‘09.

Day 2/Friday January 2 My boys watching the Gator Bowl on TV. Clemson lost the bowl game but my boys still look smashing in their matching jerseys.

Day 3/Saturday January 3

Noah just loves to look out that window. That’s the window in our bedroom so he has to lie on our bed to look out of it. I call him our little greeter because he will look out the window when he knows that someone is coming over and then he will get all excited yelling when they finally arrive.

Day 4/Sunday January 4 Although my Dad’s birthday is actually New Year’s Eve we didn’t have a chance to celebrate it as a family until today. My Dad is 58 years young.

Day 5/Monday January 5

My first self portrait using my new tripod that I got for Christmas. It took me a few minutes to get used to the tripod but once I did, it worked and I did pretty well I think. (At least for my first self portrait with a tripod photo) And while this photo isn’t that glamorous, I like it. Even though I'm in my fuzzy pink snowflake robe with wet hair and no make up at 7 am in the morning, I like it! I’m drinking my caramel truffle coffee after putting my son on the bus for his first day back from Christmas vacation. I’m basking in the solitude and silence!

Day 6/ Tuesday January 6

I’ve been trying to get a photo of Noah in his hooded Cars blanket since he received it for Christmas. He finally let me as he was being a goofball tonight after his bath.

Day 7/ Wednesday January 7

Some days it’s just about the simple things - today is one of those days. These are my favorite socks.

That's it for week one!

A Boy with a Funny Personality

One of my favorite things as a parent is watching my child’s personality shine through. I love the fact that Noah is such an individual with this really cute and goofy personality. Let me share a recent example…… Noah likes fun socks and received multiple pairs of fun socks for Christmas. He received six pairs that are all animal socks, all different animals. The other day we were getting ready to go to my parent’s house and Noah was dressed except for socks. I got the doggie socks and the duck socks and showed both to him and asked him to choose. He chose the ducks so I put them on his feet. I leave the room and come back a few minutes later and he has one of the duck socks off and is trying to get the doggie sock on. So, I ask him if he changed his mind and now wants the doggie socks on and he says yes. I put the dog sock on the now bare foot and then go to take off the duck sock off the other foot when he says no. After a minute I realize that he wants to wear one dog sock and one duck sock. For a moment I begin to try and reason with him, try to tell him that the duck and dog doesn’t match, blah blah blah. Then I give in.   When we get to my parent’s house, my Mom notices the socks and I relay the story and she starts laughing and comments that Noah is marching to the beat of his own drummer. That’s my funny, silly, goofy, lovable little boy!

Project 365 A Go!

So, I mentioned in a previous post I was debating on doing Project 365. I've now decided that I will definately be partaking in Project 365. I'm excited and hope I can keep the momentum and still be this excited in a few months. I don't think I will be posting a photo a day in the blog though. I'll probably just do some kind of recap post weekly or share my weekly layouts here or something like that! I am sharing my first photo though. The calendar (It's a 365 days of purse calendar and I LOVE purses!) was a birthday gift from a friend and I've been waiting to use it so thought it was fitting to snap a picture of it for the day one photo and the new year.

Project 365

I am contemplating doing Project 365 for 2009 and would start this project on New Year’s Day.

You may be wondering what Project 365 is. In a nutshell, you take a photo every single day of the year for the entire year. Of course, there will be photos of the special events in life like birthdays and holidays but even if you don’t have anything exciting going on that day, you still snap a photo of something in your life. I've seen other bloggers mention it before or do it before but recently read about it on a digital scrapbooking blog I frequent as Creating Keepsakes (a scrapbooking magazine) is offering a new Project 365 scrapbooking kit. When explaining this to my BFF one of her initial questions was would I be taking photos of myself or Noah or what? Well, that’s just it – since it would be my project and my interpretation of my year then it could be photos of anything in my life; anything that has importance or matters to me at the time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be people. For example, one day I could take a photo of my favorite pair of shoes or maybe something extravagant I made for dinner.

But what’s the point of taking a photo every single day you ask? Well to each person it probably means something a little different but in the years to come it will be a great way to reflect back at this age and stage of my life. One suggestion I read was to photograph things such as a gas station displaying the current price of gas. I think something like that will be interesting to look back on from years from now to not only look back on my own small world but the world at large.

So, what do you do with these 365 photos? Some people post them on Flickr or on their personal blogs and while I may do that (if that part becomes more work or too much of a hassle then I won’t do it) My ultimate goal is to scrapbook these photos. After reading some of the ideas from other digi scrapbooking addicts like myself, I think that I will scrapbook the photos in a two page layout that will feature two weeks worth of (so that’s 14) photos. I’ll make the layouts very simple as this is more about the photos than the embellishments of the layouts. Once I do my first layout, I’ll have a template and can just use the same template over and over and just plug in different photos and journaling.

And you're probably thinking that it seems a little overwhelming, eh? Well, yes, it seems big and overwhelming which is probably why I have never even considered it before but looking at it broken down into increments makes it seem much more do-able. After all it’s only one photo a day and I take a ton of photos anyways! I can manage this. From the testimonies of others it will be a very neat way to record a year and something I won’t forget.

Have you participated in Project 365 before? If so, did ya love it or hate it? Or if you have never participated, does it sound interesting to you? Does it sound like something you might get into? Here’s a few links that I have found helpful in case you want more information…. How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way - Great explanation and breakdown of Project 365. Taylor McKnight’s Recap – This guy did Project 365 in 2004 and 2007 and recaps his experiences. A Free Template - There’s a free template to digital scrapbook some of the photos from Project 365 and this designer is promising more. List of Ideas - This is a great list of 365 ideas to get you started and keep you going.

If you're doing Project 365 and you are blogging about it, leave me a link to your blog so I can come cheer you on! Updated to Add: 3/9/09 - Thus far Project 365 is going well and making me appreciate the "little things" of my everyday life. Check out all my Project 365 pictures and posts here. I've made (freebie!) templates from a few of my layouts. You can download them here. There's some great P365 templates here.