So how long does it take for one to get their act together? I'm just wondering this as a general question so that I know the appropriate time allotment I'm allowed for certain endeavors. One such endeavor is creating an album of the two years we lived in Grenada. I think I have no end of wonderful pictures (if I include all those I fully intend on stealing from my friend's flicker pages and blogs), and materials to make a most fabulous album. I have many friends who have written creative and descriptive blogs which would make great books/journals of their time in Grenada, but my blog activity has been spotty at best so I think a picture album would be more up my alley (unless I steal all of Julie's blogs and pretend her adventures are my own).
This is one thing that I need to do in the near future. I may or may not be taking courses this Spring, and so I think a good deadline would be end of summer for this project. I don't want to leave it too long, and end up with no memoir at all (which is what happened to my lovely honeymoon album which is still in a "to do" box).
Although I love all the advancements of technology, having all my memories on a flash drive is not quite cutting it for me these days. Why does it seem like such a pain to actually print out pictures into hard copy? And then once you have them, what does one do with them anymore? I am not much of a scrapbooker, but I think albums can still be quite nice and less of a time commitment than the artistic undertaking of a scrapbook.
I am very ashamed to admit that I don't even have pictures of my son to carry around in my wallet! OK, maybe I have one of him on Santa's lap last Christmas (and I'm talking last last Christmas), but it's not really representational anymore, and when I pull out a picture of a 5 month old and then tell my audience that my son is really 18 months old, I think I get funny looks, and I'm sure they're for being a crap mother.
Maybe we need a family pic at the Sears portrait studio with all of us in matching outfits, or with Paul in a sailor uniform or something. Then if I carried this around in my pocket, I would at least have something to show. I think I'm also carrying around pictures of my friend's kids (instead of my own), and my nephew at 2 yrs (he's now 6). It's just pathetic.
But in my defense I am still new at mastering how one actually goes about developing digital pictures in to hard copies. I think I somehow have to take them out of my iPhoto, but them back on the memory stick, and take the memory stick to London Drugs, plug it into the machine and do some printing via computer station. It's all very confusing. The last time I did this, I tried to make my mom a brag book of all her grandchildren, and I ordered all the pictures in the wrong size so that none of them actually fit into the brag album that I bought her. I had to give her the little photo album with a bunch of giant pictures sticking out at all angles and be like "Hey, why don't you take this awkward package to Long Island with you to show all your cousins!" I think she ended up only taking out two pics on their own, and left the whole brag book and the extra pictures behind. It was a very sad attempt at a nice gesture.
So anyway, I would like to make an album, and suppose I should start it soon. Before I have new albums of New York and perhaps Denmark to create (and procrastinate). And hey, you never know. Maybe one day I'll surprise myself (and my husband) and finally finish that honeymoon album too!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Our First Month Home
Well, we have endured January in Canada, and I must say, it was nearly as cold as I was afraid it would be. Of the four weeks I have been home, probably three of those weeks have been fairly temperate (not going below -20C). I still have to work up the courage to walk Paul and Stan at the same time on snowy streets, but I think my reservations are more due to laziness than fear of the cold for Paul.
Our flight home was adventurous as always. Having Stan rejected on the flight at the last minute, missing our connection in a FREEZING Toronto and having to be shuttled in the dead of night to some hotel, just to be shuttled back 5 hrs. later. Although, I should definitely not complain, since they bumped some poor schmuck on the next days flight so that P & I could get out of dodge. Thank God for the infant advantage, is all I have to say!
The day after Paul and I arrived we moved into our house. We have lived here a month, and I can still count the pieces of furniture we have on one hand (and two of those are in Paul's room). However, it is a wide open, child friendly place for Paul to explore, and I have little need for much else.
Stan even has his own bedroom! The furnishings consist of one blanket on the floor. He's thrilled!
I had one week to get set up and organized before starting my practicum at Children & Family Services (basically Child Welfare). We are now beginning our fourth week, and thus far I have been really enjoying the experience. I am often intimidated, but I am captivated by all the new experiences, and all the ranges of cases that we are getting. It can be really emotionally taxing at times, something I don't notice until I have a day off and start reflecting about what has gone on at work. Then I sit and dwell on a particular situation until I am ready to move through it. Chris has been really excellent at listening to me when I need to debrief (social worker lingo), even though he's very far away and trying to focus on studying for the most important exam of his life. I try to limit talking about the heavy stuff, as it doesn't make 'feel good' dinner convo.
Paul is changing and growing into a little boy more and more each day. He's talking lots, so active that I can barely keep up, and being generally a wonderful human being, and joy of my life :) He has yet to tell me "no" ever, although he does make it abundantly clear when he's not interested in doing what you want of him. He even will take 'time outs' and will sit against the wall crying his head off until I tell him he can move.
Other than that, we're just sitting around waiting for Chris to come home. Three weeks and counting! I can't wait until the USMLE is over and we can enjoy some time together until clinicals start on May 5.
Happy February everyone! Enjoy the Olympics :)
Our flight home was adventurous as always. Having Stan rejected on the flight at the last minute, missing our connection in a FREEZING Toronto and having to be shuttled in the dead of night to some hotel, just to be shuttled back 5 hrs. later. Although, I should definitely not complain, since they bumped some poor schmuck on the next days flight so that P & I could get out of dodge. Thank God for the infant advantage, is all I have to say!
The day after Paul and I arrived we moved into our house. We have lived here a month, and I can still count the pieces of furniture we have on one hand (and two of those are in Paul's room). However, it is a wide open, child friendly place for Paul to explore, and I have little need for much else.
Stan even has his own bedroom! The furnishings consist of one blanket on the floor. He's thrilled!
I had one week to get set up and organized before starting my practicum at Children & Family Services (basically Child Welfare). We are now beginning our fourth week, and thus far I have been really enjoying the experience. I am often intimidated, but I am captivated by all the new experiences, and all the ranges of cases that we are getting. It can be really emotionally taxing at times, something I don't notice until I have a day off and start reflecting about what has gone on at work. Then I sit and dwell on a particular situation until I am ready to move through it. Chris has been really excellent at listening to me when I need to debrief (social worker lingo), even though he's very far away and trying to focus on studying for the most important exam of his life. I try to limit talking about the heavy stuff, as it doesn't make 'feel good' dinner convo.
Paul is changing and growing into a little boy more and more each day. He's talking lots, so active that I can barely keep up, and being generally a wonderful human being, and joy of my life :) He has yet to tell me "no" ever, although he does make it abundantly clear when he's not interested in doing what you want of him. He even will take 'time outs' and will sit against the wall crying his head off until I tell him he can move.
Other than that, we're just sitting around waiting for Chris to come home. Three weeks and counting! I can't wait until the USMLE is over and we can enjoy some time together until clinicals start on May 5.
Happy February everyone! Enjoy the Olympics :)
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