To my readers without live journals - please feel free to write. You can post an "anonymous" comment, but please tag them with your name so I know who you are!

I have Christmas cards to out-of-state people in the mail already. (Okay, almost all - still a few addresses I'm scrounging around to find.) I'd have in town people set too if I hadn't run out of envelopes.

Thanks to Mindi and Susan for the creative production day we had last month!

Yay, me!

Continue to be pretty busy. Work has slowed down a little, but I have to write and administer employee evals, which always take a while, before the end of the fiscal year (June 30). Recent events/activities of note:

My friend Susan and I went to the Ansel Adams exhibit at the DIA. Colin got us bounced out of the exhibit. We had to take turns viewing the rest, while the other watched him.

Belatedly for Mother's Day we took Mom and Brian out for a very nice lunch at Rochester Mills and then to the Rochester park. Colin enjoyed grammy-back rides, walking by the river, chasing ducks, sliding, swinging and other assorted activities with them.

Alleluia Choir, the choir for the traditional service we were attending, ended for the summer, so I've joined the Praise Team. Our church recently added another contemporary service, so some Sundays I go in at 7:30 for practice, sing at the 8:30 and then the 10. Other days (like today) I sleep too late and just go in for the 10. :) I've also been named the creative director for our church's website and am currently working on redesigning it.

Yesterday for Father's Day we were supposed to go to Pirates of the Caribbean 3, per Andy's request. However, I had pinched a nerve, and had pain down my back, arm and neck. Luckily my chiro let me go over to his house for a home adjustment, but I'm still pretty sore. Didn't feel like sitting in theatre for 3 hours though, obviously. Today we took Dad and Rita out to dinner at Macaroni Grill and tried to go to a park for some fun, but it was just too darn hot and sunny. Colin did go down slides twice, swing a little and climb on a giant caterpillar. Mainly he just tried to steal our cameras and say "chee!"

Colin's valentines are almost done, but may or may not make it out in the mail tomorrow. People we are seeing in next week or so will receive in person.

Thanks for your patience.

I'm excited. Today I get to spend some time with my friends Mindi and Susan (together) for the first time since...October? Early November? We're taking some scrapbooking skills classes, and it is a great chance to get out of the house and do something fun without having to chase a little one around.

It's funny. I used to scoff at scrapbooking and scrapbookers. As a graphic designer, I felt it was cheating; ready made art for those who weren't really creative. But when Mindi started making scrapbook pages for Colin, my appreciation started growing. And when I tried my hand at a few pages myself, I got really into it. Sure, if you just buy all of the ready made kits or you take the classes where you re-create a sample exactly piece by piece, it still is lemming-esque. But if you sketch out your own layout and go your own path with your themes and objects, it is a lot like what graphic design must have been in the days pre-QuarkXPress. It is nice to have an outlet for my creativity other than the same old Pistons, DTE, Palace, etc projects.

My problem now is having the time to do it. I need to clean up my home office area so I can have a set of pages layed out and at the ready, so I can work on them on once Colin is in bed. Packing and unpacking all the gear every time leaves no energy to actually get going.

(Can't do it...must inject baby info...tomorrow Colin and Kennedy have their first play date since her birthday party in October!)

Another cool thing about the Toddler A room is that they do a lot of art projects with the children. Just this week Colin's Roller Print, Colin's Texture Art and Colin's Truck Track Art (titles per the teacher, not me) were awaiting me in his cubby. Colin's Big and Little Animals is on display in the classroom. As the collection grows, I am sure I can pass some on to decorate the refrigerators of interested grandparents, aunties and friends.

The photos here are what I view as Colin's first art project - and one he created himself, no help from a teacher, nonetheless. I had dumped the end of a box of Joe's O's (Trader Joe's extra apostrophe, not mine) on his highchair tray, and then went to prepare his lunch. Andy discovered his little design first and called me over. I was so proud and felt he had nice use of shapes and repetition.

Note: As you can tell by the hair, this is a few months back. Just trying to catch up on some older pix. Christmas coming soon to a Live Journal near you!