another year added to the win column

which also means we have reached picture #...

the third year of Project 365 is now complete. This brings a total of 1095 consecutive days (3 full years) that I have taken one or more pictures, never missing a day. Whewf, no wonder I am tired. There has been some AWESOME pictures, oh my a few very LAME ones, a few on the QUIRKY side, a smattering of artisitic and lots of photos that I hope have made you SMILE.

Now what? you ask

will there be a Year #4?

of course, I am way too competitive to stop at 1095 pictures. I will celebrate the end of year 3 and take the rest of the

night off. It will all begin again tomorrow.

I wish ALL of my faithful readers, my lurkers, my family, my friends, my critics, my co-workers and anyone I may have missed a VERY HAPPY and SAFE New Year!

a few more pictures of Miss Shelby getting ready for her New Year's Eve out.

do these shoes not SCREAM Happy New Year!

364/365

preview of the 2022 Winter Olmpics perhaps?
~ complete with the pre-race pep talk (that is Scott in the black)~ and of course beautiful winning form

disclaimer: Shelby was not home today for more than 3 and half minutes so I was unable to get a picture. I keep telling her she is not on the blog because she is never home and if she is home she is in her basement with Matt, she says she is always around. That is why I am adding a daily disclaimer so she can see how hard it is to get a picture of her.

363/365

apparently the blog has been a little Kaeden heavy,
and there have been requests for more Shelby content...

so here you go, the first Shelby installment:

her and Monkeybutt (our family mascot) who got changed from his Christmas tee to his hockey sweatshirt

362/365 - birthdays are just ducky

13, 870 hours

456 months,

38 years,

3.8 decades,

38% of a century

that is a lot of mathematical data to support my 38th birthday,

and it begs the question...what do I have to show for it?

~a marriage of 18 years (and both of us are still standing).

~2 relatively well adjusted children.

~an unbelievable family and friend network, I went with the quality over quantity theory and it works for me.

~a career of 18 years that has taught me more about who I am and the world I live in than I would have ever imagined.

~a creative outlet that has evolved from sporadic posting to daily pictures and blogging.

~the ability to see my world through the viewfinder and share it with others.

the reader's digest version of what do I have to show for it is...a lot.

Year 37 was fascinating and I will have additional reflection

in my year end review.

For now I will say that Year 38 will be

one of either radical, all encompassing,

soul searching change or it will be the same old thing.

I am sitting on a ledge,

and can go either way.

It would be so easy to continue on the path I am on

as it is a good one.

It has pushed me out of my comfort zone,

has forced me to look deep inside and reflect.

I am making little differences,

being the change I want to see in the world,

I have embraced authenticity,

and worked very hard on being

the best me.

however, there is more,

a harder path,

one with a bigger pay off,

to those around me,

to the world I live in,

to my soul.

It will be a leap of faith

for me, my family, my support network.

It would mean facing my fear of failure,

letting go of my need for control,

and trusting in myself.

It would not be about

stepping outside the box,

more like setting fire to the box

and not being confined to any shape

or defined lines.

Will my word(s) to describe year 38 be status-quo or holy crap, what have I done?

stay tuned and hold on, it may be an interesting 365 days...or maybe not.

361/365 swoosh, hitting the slopes

ok maybe more sliding than swooshing for now
but it's just a matter of time before he is
ruling the slopes.

He certainly looks the part...

360/365 Sunday, December 26th

359/365 Christmas Day

Merry Christmas.

One of my favourite days of the year.

Everyone is full of love,
peace seems possible
and there is joy everywhere you look.

I need to find a way to bottle the Christmas day feeling
so it can be used throughout the year.

I spent the day being in the moment and really
concentrating on the emotions and events of the day.

However, I do have a few photos to share:

Tetley's favourite toy,

until she discovered this...

Kaeden's new Maraca's (from El Salvador)

that kept Tetley entertianed for hours, until their rightful owner took them back for his own dance/shake fun

358/365 Friday, December 24th

a great day.

It started with a very relaxed errand morning
with Scott and Kaeden, for the first time in a
very long time we were all ready and had just a few little things to do.

We were invited to my parents for a Christmas Eve visit and
appetizers (which are my favourite food group).

Our evening ended with 2 events that for me really
put the spirit of Christmas in practice. Details will be shared in the next post.

Onto the day described in pictures...

Lisa made these adorable brownie/cupcakes. I told my dad, who has diabetes, a little white lie (that he saw right through) that these were absolute awful so he wouldn't know what he was missing out on!~ our favourite rent a child, McKenzie who was there with her parents, Mike and Lisa, checking out the wonder of the Christmas village.

~ Mckenzie doing a little Christmas twirling in the dress that we bought her for Christmas.

~ we were meeting our group for the event in Inglewood, the rest of the people were running late so Shelby and I decieded to go for a photo walk.

357/365, Thursday December 23rd

a little Christmas house tour,
it's a short one as I am a minimalist at heart
so there is only a little touch of Christmas here and there

but what there is, I love...

~ the above candle, which I had planned to make 4 and only got one done was inspired from this great blog (click here). My "grand" intentions is to switch out the fabric per season to dress up the mantle. In reality we will see how long the Christmas Fabric will stay and the other 3 will remain bare!

356/365 Wedensday, December 22nd

there are many things I love about the Christmas season and a children's Christmas concert is high on that list... Kaeden is the last child on the far right. He was so great, had me (and the rest of the audience)smiling and giggling at his dancing and his solo "air sax" performance.

a few of my and Scott's special ornaments that we have collected over the last 18 years...

our first house (date stamped on the bottom, 1995)
~these birds were bought in just the last few years. Scott had antique birds up until the disastrous family picture/tree falling over drama of 4-5 years ago when they were smashed. These aren't exactly the same, but special just the same. I am a sucker for romance and always clip my bird onto the same branch as Scott's.
~ from our first year of marriage (1992)

355/365 Tuesday, December 21

El Salvador - 2 weeks 1 day later

I am starting to get it.

It? you ask.

The fact that I need to realize that my reality is here.

In my home,
with my children and husband,
driving 55 minutes to work one way
spending 8 hours a day, 4 days at week at my job,
living in an environment of excess,
where people are always looking for the next thing,
never finding that elusive sense of final achievement,
where the focus is on collecting more stuff
and relationships become secondary.

I can not immediately change my personal environment
and much to my chagrin,there are many things in our society
that I can not control.

On Saturday, we went to Stepper for the children's Christmas party
which also allowed me the opportunity to see a few of the people
we had gone to El Salvador with. It was very comforting to speak with
the ladies that have had the same experience and learn that they too are
struggling and we are all wondering the all important question...

what now?

there is a fear that we will settle back in our routines
and all that need we felt to change the world will
fade in the face of our fast paced Canadian lives
where our daily responsibilities and routines will become center stage.

Sharon (whose husband Dave is the General Manager and was with us our week)
was unfortunately unable to come with us but we had a chance to catch up at the party.
We had a great conversation, she was a very calming voice and explained to me that our confused feelings make sense and it will take time for us to process everything. It is also important to not feel that
we have to change the world at once, we can make little differences that will add up.

A few of us ladies decided we would like to get together in the new year
put our minds (and hearts) together and start making an action plan.

I always feel better when there is an action plan!

In the meantime, I am still working through my feelings and thoughts
day by day, sometimes minute by minute.

However, what I know for sure already...

I am thankful for my family, my old friends, my new friends
my opportunities, my health and my everyday.

In all of this self reflection I have given my home country a hard time,
but at the end of the day, I am proud of being Canadian
and yes we have issues, but we also have and will continue to
make amazing changes in our world.

I will become the change I want to see in the world.

I will make a difference.

When a group of us who are being the change we want to see and are destined to make a difference get together, things, good things, no EXCELLENT things will happen.

Things worthy of a shock and awe adjective.

I can feel it, there is a shift happening,
and it will go viral, it is the type of pandemic we need.

Forget H1N1, we need the kick a little "creating positive change and working even closer to world safety, health and peace" pandemic arse.

I know many of you are with me
and that makes my soul smile.

Happy Holidays to all,
I wish you peace, love and joy now and always,
Dee

354/365 one word Monday...

brrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

353/365 Sunday, December 19th

a quick little photo shoot tonight
for Kaeden's birthday party

352/365 Saturday, December 18th

Hi Santa,

Ummm have I been good? well how do you define good?

I would like Bey Blades and Rudolph.

Rudolph? Santa asks.

Yes, the real rudolph. He can fly me to school.

So Santa has an issue. This is probably the last year Kaeden will believe so whole hearitly as the scrooges at school are telling him he is dumb to think that there is really a Santa. Just my luck this is probably the hardest request as he really thinks that he can look after Rudolph during the "off season". Santa and I figured it out though and we are good to go.

Saturday night was also my work Christmas Party and

I was having a hard time getting into the party mind-set

so Scott bought me this killer pair of shoes...

killer in both look and feel!

I looked like a baby giraffe walking in them

but managed to stay upright and only

took them off for a short time.

the following is not a "365 project" picture as my mom took it for us...

the first time I think I have ever been taller than Scott.

351/365 how do spell you trouble?

well tonight we spelt it K-A-E-D-E-N, M-A-X and S-A-Mthese boys are so fun together
loud, wall bouncing excitement
oh sure they look innocent and quiet here
but I tell you 2 seconds before this was snapped, so not true!

350/365 ummm, pardon me...

have I screwed up on the counting again or are we

SERIOUSLY only 15 days until the end of 2010.

12 days until I turn 2 years closer to 40.

9 days until the celebration of peace, love and family.

7 more days until my baby boy turns 8.

that my friends is a big WTF.

oh boy.

where oh where did 2010 go?

ok, well I go breathe in a paper bag and figure out exactly how I misplaced the last year,

I leave you with pictures of my new Christmas forest...

349/365 too legit to quit...

look at me
getting all legit
with business cards.

I got them through Moo which kicks a little arse by the way.

Their service was excellent and for $20 US I got 50 cards and was able to choose up to 50 images. I think I went with about 23 of the photos that I have for sale. The quality is really good and it is neat to have a little mini portfolio with me when I am asked for a card.

If you would like one just email your address and I will send one in the good old fashioned snail mail.

340/365 (Monday, Dec 6th) to 348/365 (Tuesday, Dec 14th)

back to our originally scheduled programming...

the last week has been tough,

my cold has turned into something a little nasty,

both the kids have had a violent stomach flu,

and so I have been gobbling the Vitamin C, D, Oregano oil, green tea

and washing my hands constantly to try and avoid it as my hands

are full with this cold.

as well, as you probably noticed, I am struggling getting back into my daily life

but I am getting there. I have received great feedback (emails, comments, in person) about

my El Salvador posts and I appreciate them all. Especially the ones from my new friends at Scott's office who reinforce that they are right there with me with my feelings and they are just as unsettled.

however, with everything, it is important to keep moving forward so this post will catch me up on my 365 project pictures. I warn you they are not all stellar, it was all I could do some days, especially early in the week, to pick up my camera.

348/365, Tuesday, December 14th

house cleaning night. my bamboo that I have actually kept alive for 10 months, this is a shocking turn of events...

347/365, Monday, December 13th

how can I not love going to bowling when I have a team mate who loves her bowling like this...

346/365, Sunday, December 12th

my nephew Maks

345/365, Saturday, December 11th

note traitor tetley all snuggled up on Scott's chest. I tried to snuggle with her and she just got up and moved back to Scott.

344/365, Friday, December 10th

Kaeden was very sick Thursday night to Friday morning and the two of us were in pretty rough shape as neither of us slept as he was throwing up pretty much non stop for 8 hours.

We laid low all day and he was so adorable sitting on the couch going through the Sears catalogue circling what he would like from Santa. I have been struggling with materialism but I must admit I loved this scene as it reminded me of myself at Christmas when I was his age, sitting on the couch,carefully going through the wish book picking out what I wanted more than anything in the world. He said to me "I know, I know mommy, I only get one thing and there are children that will get nothing and I need to be thankful". He can be so cute when he is sick!

343/365, Thursday, December 9th

preparing for my cookie exchange Friday night. I made my specialty (chocolate haystacks)

342/365, Wednesday, December 8th

Christmas Lights

341/365, Tuesday, December 7th

my feet, hey I warned you that I was really reaching for photos early in the week!

340/365, Monday, December 6th

a photo session with Miss Avery (and her sister Miss Sophie)