good neighbor award

I found this on my counter when we returned from our week vacation in Minnesota. Joan is our neighbor lady who came by our place occasionally to play with our cat while we were gone, and she's the kind of lady who keeps you in mind even while she's at a garage sale. Now I've got the stuff to make more alphabet crayons! She also reads my blog. (Hi Joan!) Joan has served as my Nebraska mom and saying goodbye will be hard. She is also the one who gave our cat, Toonces, a new nickname. She said once, "Sometimes I can't remember his name so I just call him Tuna."

(here's the cat Toonces is named after.)

30 weeks!

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant and I feel like celebrating. Seems like a big milestone, a good landmark-type number and another week closer to baby.

I got to go to a baby shower yesterday for a girl at church and I realized that attending a baby shower when you are pregnant is similar to attending a wedding when you are engaged. I was so excited for every gift she opened, so interested in what was given and what it is used for, so happy for her and her baby girl.

While we were there a church friend started talking about Kelley Ryden. Kelley is a local Omaha photographer who specializes in newborns (thanks Stacy for the link!). Check out the picture above! I don't even get how this is possible...to have newborn arms support a newborn head?!! But apparently lots of babies can do it because she has lots of pictures (AMAZING pictures) on her site. Check out here site here and her blog here. Wowza.

***

Yesterday, Rory and I watched Father of the Bride 2, the one where Annie and her mom are both pregnant. At one point, Steve Martin is having all sorts of flash backs of his little girl throughout the years and realizing that she is now going to have her own little baby. Rory was looking at the screen and remarked, "this could be touching if it wasn't so cheesy." And then he looked over at me, a mess of crocodile tears, falling apart before his very eyes. I felt so busted and we laughed good and hard...and then my laughs turned back into tears. I ended up crying through the rest of the movie with Rory giggling and telling me repeatedly how he loves the pregnant Becca so much.

big balloons in the sky

We were driving to half-price books on Saturday night and found our hot air balloon friends again! There is a local group that goes out together and last year we were pretty good about following their schedule and watching them take off. But this was the first we spotted them this year.



It's a really calm and amazing thing to watch. I'm still not sure if I'd be game for going up in one...for some reason I can't quite get past the fact that you're basically swinging from a basket, suspended in the air by fire and hot air, dodging electrical wires. Rory said he'd go up though, and I suppose I would go if he would go...

We took this super-excited-cheesey picture and I find it quite fitting since lately I have been feeling rather balloon-like myself...

celebrity

I just emailed Ali Edwards a quick question regarding the type case picture display that I made. My pictures keep falling out, so I wondered what kind of adhesive she used to mount her pictures to the wooden frame.

She emailed me back within 60 seconds. And I about fell out of my chair. I admire her stuff so much, copy her projects so often (flattery, right?) and appreciate her spin on memory keeping.

A while back I emailed Cathy Zielske a question about where to order my Monthly album pages and when she replied I screamed and told Rory to "Get in here! You'll never believe who emailed me back!"

It's so funny how excited I got with both of these email replies. I know that in the greater world out there most people would say, "Ali who?" "And Cathy does what again?" But in the niche that I frequent, the niche that I love hanging out in, these women are huge and I really admire their work.

(I also think it's interesting to note that celebrities used to mainly be actors and rockstars...but now with blogs and youtube, celebrities can really pop up anywhere, as a tribe (thank you Seth Godin) can form around any particular interest or topic.)

I have seen many people meet my sister-in-law Sara. She's a singer and when fans get to meet her they often want to convey volumes of how her music has influenced their life, helped them through dark seasons and motivated them to take an active role in God's kingdom. And so often, when they finally get to the front of the line to tell Sara all of these things they end up tongue tied and awkward. (The funny thing is that when I was with Sara one time, we met Beth Moore, and I watched Sara herself become the one who was trying to convey years worth of learnings into one short conversation. And she was struggling to get the words out just like I had seen her fans struggle to get their words out while meeting her.)

It's so difficult, because at the core, I think we each want to say to these people: You have changed the way I see things and do things. I have been affected by your contribution to the world. I am inspired and now to want to contribute honest, thoughtful things too.

***

Anyway, these are just my thoughts while I'm trying to process the fact that my excited head is still screaming on repeat, "Ali Edwards replied to me! Ali Edwards replied to me!"

And speaking of inspiring people, remind me sometime to tell you about the time I met Leslie Nielsen at the Phoenix airport. That might be the end-all-be-all to starstruck interactions. :)

july in pictures

I've had a few girlfriends ask me about the monthly digital scrapbooking. I thought I'd take a minute to document the details.

1.This first link is the link to Cathy Z's page with all the how-to's and what-for's. I use purely digital and I love it. It's fast, my friend. Once you get this down it is possible to plug and chug a months worth of pictures in two hours. No kidding.

2. The templates can be purchased at designer digitals by clicking this link.

3. Now, to learn how to use these digital templates, as well as the basics of photoshop, you really should order Jessica Sprague's Up and Running with Photoshop class. During week three there is a tutorial on how to use digital templates. Watch this, and then watch your scrapbooking life change forever.

4. I print my pages at http://www.scrapbookpictures.com/ I did my first batch in matte, but I MUCH prefer the glossy (my second batch)...they look much more professional. And for the record, they have never been able to process my credit card on this site. They can take my order, but I always have to call the next day during working hours to give them my credit card over the phone. It's a pain. And when they answer the phone it's something like "Hello Instyprints" and so clearly this little printing website is just an offshoot of a local printshop. But the quality of the printing and the price make up for the hassel.

I did my July pictures last night and am finding that some months Rory and I never take pictures of ourselves. It made me smile to think of how this will change when the baby comes, documenting our own little family ALL THE TIME. I also realized how great my blog is for making me take pictures of the ordinary. I really love that I have pics of the orange goo I had to drink for my doctor's appointment. I know the camera was whipped out purely for the blog that day, but now I love that I have that picture. It tells a whole (sicky) story of its own...