It's that time. FINALLY.

This past week, (yesterday to be exact!) I turned in my final research paper. I have read 1000s of pages in both English & French, written 100s of notes, & 20 pages into a paper... I'm exhausted. I'm ready to take a break from school. I have literally 1 week & 9.5 hours before I will be graduating from university. It's been a long time coming. I've learned so much, not just about history, math, French, literature, but about myself, what I love, how I want to live my life, & where I want to be. I'm ready for next Saturday to come & pass. I'm sure it will be a whirlwind of an experience, but I want to absorb every moment.

I'll leave you with a photo of my giant stack of books that I literally turned back into the library yesterday evening, just before I turned in my final draft, after having them for a few months!

I will be back tomorrow with a new layout to share with you. 

MIA

I've been totally MIA from here for over a month! geez. I'm counting down the days until graduation... but more importantly I'm counting down the days until my HUGE research paper is due. I have just over a month to finish it. & that may sound like a lot but that means I need to be writing at least 1 page per day & editing it at the same time. I'm in a slight freak out mode.

Lately the only scrapping I've been doing is when I'm cropping with friends. So I haven't been making videos, sorry. I switched our guest room & my scrapbook room around, so my video set up is gone, I need to figure out a new way of doing it now. I may force myself to take photos of my scrapbook room & organization, it's nothing special though.

I do have a few layouts to share today. I went on a weekend cabin retreat with some of my friends and the weekend was memorable to say the least. I did get 2 layouts & a mini album finished... which was awesome for me. (I hardly accomplish anything around others haha, what can I say? I'm a talker)

Okay so here's the first layout:

I think this is my favorite photo of myself to date. It makes me want a haircut though. lol.

& the second layout:

 

I love this photo of Ryan. The title says it all. 

I don't have photos of the mini album to share yet, I'm working on figuring out the binding... it is TINY, so I have to find a way to bind it without ruining it, or the photos inside. 

Tomorrow, I'm going book hunting with my dad. We're trying to track down a book that is sure to help us in our genealogy quest. & Friday we're hoping to get over to the Archives in Atlanta before they close it... is the state still planning to do that? I hope not. But just in case, we're going there to copy anything that we can. Gotta get some advice from my genealogy pro friend... best to go in knowledgeable than to look like a schmuck. :) Saturday I'm having friends over, we're going to crop until the late hours of the night. I've still got to find out what foods to prepare... yikes. Better get on that!

Remembering

Remembering lives lost
Remembering sacrifices made
Remembering a country united
Remembering the tears
Remembering fear
Remembering uncertainty
Remembering this day
Remembering forever

This day will always be imprinted on my mind. I never want to forget how fortune I am to live in a country so wonderful, that can recover from tragedy and unite. It's been 11 years, & every year it feels like it happened just last year, but also so long ago. I won't ever forget it.

Remembering 11 September 2001

My Life, Right Now!

I'm in full on research mode. I never imagined how much research it takes to keep a 20 page paper interesting.

Everyday I right a new question to bring up to my professor.
Everyday I read a portion of a book, either in English or French.
Everyday I search for new articles.
Everyday I write down ideas.
Everyday I alter my topic just slightly, narrowing it to precision.
Everyday I take notes.
Everyday I reread those notes.
Everyday I think.
Everyday I post-it something new.
Everyday I bookmark another site.
Everyday I print another piece of paper.
Everyday I write a few sentences.
Everyday I talk out my topic to myself and to Ryan.
Everyday I ask an opinion.
Everyday I translate.
Everyday I stress.
Everyday I think about what I will present about.
Everyday I change my idea of which primary source is the most important.

Whew. I'm tired just thinking about it and everything left to do. I'm ready for December to be here. I'm ready to get my presentations over and my paper printed. I'm seriously ready. You know what's really crazy, though? I already have another research topic in mind for my six or so months off between undergrad and graduate programs. I hope it works out.

Okay I'm off, I really need to get back to reading and writing.

September My Creative Scrapbook Guest Designer!!

Hi everyone!! I'm dropping in from the uncomfortable seats of my school, to share some EXCITING NEWS!! I was asked by Pam & Delaina from My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club to work with the fun Creative Kit for September. Of course, I jumped at the chance... Literally, when I got my box I opened it, stressed a bit, since I've never worked with a "kit" before, then embraced the challenge, & got to work... by the next afternoon I had finished 3 layouts and 2 cards!!! I was on a serious roll. I loved working with the group. They are all so sweet & they treated me like I had always been meant to be there! So anyway, I'm here to show you my projects... drum roll please!

Seriously. Love how this card turned out. I've only made 1 other card that I absolutely loved. ONE! but this one changed that. I did stuff I'm not used to doing, like creating a background scene with the strips of paper as buildings and the clouds. & That yellow flag piece, was a happy coincidence... it was the leftover piece from my layout below [Let's Go Explore]... I had cut it to make a shorter banner for the layout & the curve of the leftover piece just looked like one of those flags that fly behind special planes with messages or advertisements!

I was on a mission to use every one of the small diecut papers. So when I only had the circle one left, I knew I had to turn it into a card. There I am again, creating a background. Stepping out of my comfort zone into something that I love! I would've never known that without this kit!

I tell ya. After walking up 425 steps to see the waterfall at Amicalola Falls more closely, it deserved to be scrapbooked. I mean, what an accomplishment. It doesn't sound like a ton of steps, but try doing it in October, while it's still steamy hot here in GA, with 2 kids that have just eaten lunch, & are probably ready for a nap in the car on the drive home. I didn't think we would ever make it. But we did. & It sure was beautiful.

Ryan and I are always on the lookout for some cool places to walk & explore. I love just walking next to him all by our lonesome, & just talk. We talk about the mundane, the future, where we are together as a couple, what we want to be doing next, where we will be this time next year... & so much more.  It's these kind of adventures that really make me appreciate what we have together. It's not very often people get to marry their best friend. 

This was my very first page I created with the kit!! I LOVE the color combo on this. I used an EK Success & Crafter's Workshop Mask to trace all of the stars. I love stars and I love how if you think outside of the product box, you can find so many uses for the tools you already own!

Everyone should go check out the My Creative Scrapbook blog today... they are having an awesome blog hop with their Design Team!

Lastly I'd like to say thanks again to Pam & Delaina for including me! I had a great time with the kit!

Now I'm off to take a look at everyone else's AMAZING projects! 

I survived...

my first day back at University after a 3 month summer break. whew. & I could still speak French. I'm always terrified that if I don't practice for that long that I will lose it all. I don't want that! Also. I had the most amazing time the night before... Incubus + Atlanta + me & Ryan = one of the best nights of my life... again.

I do have some photos to share with you.

So the night started out kinda rough. We were late leaving, but since it was a Sunday there wasn't a ton of traffic so that was a plus. Then after we got there & got seated [on the lawn, mind you...] it started to rain. It wasn't some terrible downpour or anything, just the slightly annoying, slow drenching kind...
Luckily I remembered to pack our rain jackets... best investment ever, here in GA we get that nasty, cold, rain that will soak through your clothes quickly & leave you shivering afterwards [all winter long]

So the first band that played was MuteMath... they were cool, but honestly I was so distracted by being cold, the non-stop rain, & the already drunk people being escorted out of the venue, that I didn't really pay that much attention to them... my favorite being a pair of young women coming in already stumbling, pouring beer all over each other... quite the scene, & not a good one at that... more like a wreck you can't look away from. yikes.

So finally the rain starts to die down, just in time for Incubus to be on stage. [insert extremely happy face here]... They were amazing. & honestly much better than last year, BB was joking around, playfully singing INXS, & BK was really into it, he was all over the stage & I LOVED EVERY MINUTE. The best part, they were about to go off stage & BB asked if there was time for one more... HELLO??? OF COURSE!!! so M.E. brings out a lute & nearly DIE. They started playing my ALL TIME FAVORITE SONG!!! Aqueous Transmission. I think I had the biggest goofiest smile on my face the entire time. That's the first time I've heard that song live & it was amazing.

So here are some of my favorite moments/photos of the show...

Then after they were finished playing I had a brief moment of sadness because it has been reported that they are going to go on a hiatus for a bit... not as long as last time [5 years!!!] but BB wants to work on another solo album & the others have things they want to do too... sad. I guess If Not Now, When? will have to keep me going for now. 

I love you Incubus, I can't wait 5 years to see you again, so please don't make me wait that long & I will continue to love you forever. Sincerely, obsessed & in love. 

Genealogy

My dad has gotten into this kick of wanting to learn about our family's ancestors. Boy is that a job. Being his only kid, I'm always asked to help. I enjoy it, it has the potential to be fun & interesting,... & sometimes it is. But most of the time its just plain hard. Seriously. Didn't these people keep photo albums or something... where's that family Bible that every family seems to have... except ours. So we dig and dig. Sometimes we find a tiny sliver of hope, sometimes we feel like we found the whole pie, but most of the time we just have to continue digging.

It's funny how times change. I have known almost all of my aunts & uncles... even my great ones, but my dad didn't even know that his grand-parents had brothers and sisters... he was the 2nd youngest of his bunch, and his mom died early in his life, so that may have something to do with his lack of knowledge... but here we are trying to learn all we can before I get back into the grind of university, because to be honest I'm going to be doing so much research for my final undergraduate paper that my family history is going to have to sit on the back burner for a while.

I'm literally sitting here in the Genealogy Room at the Waycross-Ware Public Library. We've been working almost nonstop for 2 days now, & we have half of a day tomorrow before we travel home. I don't know if I've ever seen my dad so excited and enthralled in something before. It's nice to see him invested in something so heavily... he must think about this family tree everyday.

So as we continue on our journey to discover our ancestors... the Pioneers of Wiregrass, GA, I'd like to ask anyone who has done this sort of research before if they have any advice.

All of that being said. It makes me realize why I do this. Scrapbooking that is. I don't want my grandkids and their grandkids to have to guess about who I was. I mean seriously. & after looking at countless pages of newspaper on microfilm, I'm going to start documenting the small stuff... you know like what gas prices were like & why, how much a bottle of coca-cola costs, how much an average trip to the grocery store costs & what the store looked like. To me these are the things I wish I could learn about my ancestors.... but for them their everyday might have been like what their seasonal crop looked like, how much money their agriculture was worth, what their house looked like, heck, even what they looked like, town gossip [who doesn't want to know that ;)], where their friends lived and what transportation they used.

For me this solidifies doing Project Life again, among other things...
I've also considered using my digital skills to create a quasi-family tree book, to keep all of the stories we can find, facts about the people & where they lived, & everything else I can find. Wouldn't that be nice to have as a shutterfly book or something.

So I better get off of here NOW before my dad starts to get anxious about me helping him out. Seriously, if you have any advice I'd really appreciate it or projects like this, I would love to see them! & maybe it will inspire me, then I can share mine. Yay!

okay, bye now.