{One Little Word} Cultivate

Embarking on a New Journey
I've decided to bring the One Little Word® project into my heart and embrace it this year.  

Ali Edwards - One Little Word®
Ali Edwards is the source of this little project and this is what she says on her blog:

In 2006 I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January – a word to focus on, mediate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life. My words have included play, peace, vitality, nurture, story, light, up, open and thrive. These words have each become a part of my life in one way or another. They've been embedded into who I am and into who I'm becoming. They've been what I've needed most (and didn't know I needed). They've helped me to breathe deeper, to see clearer, to navigate challenges, and to grow.

So what do you do with this One Little Word®?You live with it. You invite it into you life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities and no right or wrong way to approach the adventure.

The Quest for My Word
I've spent about a month trying to narrow down the word that needed to speak to me this year.  As I ended a year full of challenges and victory, I wanted something that would continue the quest of really embracing and allowing my spiritual journey to grow and  I wanted a word that encourages to focus on all relationships in my life, those at home, church and the workplace.

One night while pondering words and reading the bible I was led to the following scripture which really spoke to me:

Hosea 10:12 New International Version (NIV)
Sow righteousness for yourselves, 
   reap the fruit of unfailing love, 
and break up your unplowed ground; 
   for it is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.

As I researched this verse, I came across a blog where this verse had also spoken loud and clear.  

This is what she said:

That verse contains so many layers of beautiful truths and promises, that I think you could meditate on it for quite a while and find lots in it to take away. But the phrase that struck me between the eyes and reverberated over and over again in my mind and heart was the phrase “break up your fallow ground”. You know those times when you know it’s the Lord speaking directly to you? Well, this was one of those times. I knew God wanted me to “get” this. To hear it. To think and meditate on it and take it to heart.

Break up your fallow ground! What areas of my life are fallow ground? Are there places in my life I’ve left unattended or neglected? Was there places in me that could become useful and much more productive? Were there ways God wanted to use me that He wasn’t able to before?

As I thought about the implications of this verse and how it all tied in to what I had been thinking and feeling about my goals and visions for the year ahead, the word cultivate came to me.

I couldn't have said it any better than that!  It was as if she took the thoughts and feelings right out of my soul and expressed them in words that I couldn't seem to find.

Continuing on with my research to learn more about what God was probing me to hear, I found another verse that focuses on cultivating:

It was clear, the word that I needed to focus on this year was Cultivate!  It spoke straight to me and at a season in my life where so many relationships were wilted as a result of neglect, hurt and pain...it is past time to cultivate them, to help them grow and produce great things in the coming year by doing so!

God is faithful, God is kind, God is loving, and God works all things out for the greater good. In doing so, he tends to our wilted crops, our hurting branches, and jagged roots.  He changes us and our circumstances so that we can glorify Him and reap the amazing benefits of his grace, tenderness, promises and truths.

Here's to a wonderful 2015 that is sure to produce an abundant supply of flowers after the rains my family has endured in 2014.

I hope you'll join me in selecting a word for you to invite into your heart and watch how God uses it to grow and strengthen your journey of faith!

Love in Christ,
Jamie 

Happy Birthday to Us!

Has it really been over a month since I've posted anything? Oh my...I'm such a slacker!! I have things to say and pictures to post, just haven't posted for all to see!

Today's post is to celebrate the birthday of my sweet daughter and I.
-- 34 years ago today, at 11:45am, I was born.
-- 8 years ago today, at 12:08pm, Amanda was born.

It's a special day that I am blessed to celebrate every year. A day that I can reminisce about the pregnancy that led up to this day. The worry, wonder, and excitement. Awaiting for her arrival, was peaceful yet intense -- I'll never forget the feelings I had after she was born. She was ok with perfect 10 Apgar scores, I was crying tears of joy!

It's also a time to reminise about the last 8 years...

Last week it was her turn to be a celebrity at school. It was all about her. One assignment during the week was for us to write a letter to her which would be read to the class.

I sat there with a blank screen wondering what the heck to say! I decided to focus on our special day as it just seemed fitting with it right around the corner.

Due to the wonderful weather we had last week (not), Celebrity week was postponed to this week since school was closed for 4 days.

Her teacher read the letter and they all laughed and said that was the best one yet as nobody else had pictures included! I imagine she was grinning from ear to ear!

Since today is the day, I thought I'd share what I wrote to her and riminense (again) about the 8 wonderful years I've had with her so far!

Enjoy!

{Project Life} Birthday Card - Created by Amanda

I've slated Thursday nights as project night with Amanda for us to work on Project Life together (I promise...more is coming for her little book soon!) Anyways...

Tonight we digressed a little as tomorrow is her teachers birthday, so we first sat down to create a card for her.

As I sifted through the overflowing supply of scrapbook 'stuff' that's been collecting dust, I passed right by the 'perfect' embellishment. But...Amanda's eye caught it and said "Mommy, wait!...that's perfect!" and she proceeded to look back through the stack I had placed in the 'nah' pile.

When she found it, she held it up and exclaimed "See...LOOK! It's a Dragon with a birthday hat Mom and it says Happy Birthday...duh...Daulton Dragons!" (school mascot)

Oh my...yes my dear daughter of mine, you are right...that is perfect.

So she decorated and I captured the moment...she even had the creative idea to place music notes above the mice playing the trumpet and she was SO proud of herself!

The point to the story...stop trying to do for them and just let them do for themselves...they are growing up and mom's don't always have the 'perfect' idea for creativity. Lesson learned!




And...I put this same collage of pictures in the card for her teacher...the perfect gift!

{Project Life} Just Another Reason Why

This is so inspiring! Can you imagine finding something like this? Can you imagine if the images you're taking today had a similiar impact on those around you?

Street Photographer’s Work Discovered A Few Days After Her Death
Vivian Maier’s street photography was recently “discovered” just a few days after she died at the age of 83. The Chicago nanny took over 100,000 photographs and many say she may rank among the top street photographers of the 20th century.


(Source)

Consider this...not only should we take the pictures and store them for safe keeping, we should be sharing the stories that go along with them. Project Life is the easy way to accomplish this. If you aren't a scrapbooker, that's OK! All you need is pictures, a pen (or a keyboard), and a story to tell.

Would you rather send future generations (of your family perhaps) on a wild goose chase to learn more about you so that they had a deeper undestanding of who they are and where they came from, or would you rather tell the story in your own words so they aren't left wondering?

This is your story...your legacy...how will you choose to leave it behind for those that follow you? Will you leave it locked up on a hard drive or have stacks of photo albums somewhere without any names or stories to go with them?

Just some food for thought...

Note: The paper version of the Project Life kits are currently sold out...more are on the way and should be available in a few weeks! There is also a digital version available.

And no, I'm not affiliated with Project Life other than the fact I love and support the idea!

{Project Life} Pursuit of Data Recovery

As I reflect on the eve of what would have been Brianna's 9th birthday, I'm reminded of a careless mistake I made in November 2005.

I was so caught up with what was going on with Jacob, (at least that was July onwards, can't remember the reason prior to that) I neglected to backup my hard drive from March until October/November of that year. The drive became non-bootable, unrecognizable. Most likely a mechanical failure.

You can imagine the heartbreak I instantly acquired:

• 6-8 months of Amanda's life in pictures...gone
• Pregnancy pictures of Jacob...gone
• All of Jacob's life...gone (I was saved slightly on this one as a result of this blog. Documenting his life frequently in an online form provided me a backup of his precious images. Granted, it's not all of them, but it's at least some of them. If I didn't have at least this I probably would have paid whatever price they gave me in 2005!)
• Not to mention tax documents and whatever else was important at the time

I researched data recovery options in November 2005 and was told the cost would be somewhere between $500-$2700 with a minimum fee of $200 if the attempt was unsuccessful. Not something I really could afford at the time.

Almost 6 years have passed now and as I look back at pictures, I'm reminded of the gap. Being a person that is all about capturing life through pictures, well, this just tends to eat at me.

Now I can't even remember all the memories and moments of those months. What pictures did I take? What activities did we do? What memories have been lost?

Today, I dug up the hard drive and I searched for data recovery services (again). I found one local where I can drop the drive off and not worry about it getting lost in the mail.




I even found the original emails I had sent to the other company in 2005 detailing the directories on the drive I was most interested in (I was surprised I still had this!)

With the make/model/size of the drive in hand, I submitted an inquiry at www.securedatarecoverytx.com. They responded within 15 minutes by email as well as called me. This is what they said:

• The analysis is free
• Cost range is $500-$1700
• They will provide a quote and I can decide to pursue or not. If I don't pursue at this time, the drive will be returned in tact and all I pay is $25

Ok...great!, I think. Maybe I can finally get the 'what if I can recover the data?' answered. But what happens if I can? Where do I come up with the funds to pay for it? How much are these pictures worth (priceless right?).

So then I'm stuck with knowing I can get my hot little hands on those memories again and not knowing how to pay for it and when. I've waited this long to get the answer, what's another year if I have to save for it, right?

Sigh...what can we all learn from this? Backup your important data! Being in the computer industry myself, you think I would have done that, however, life can get in the way for us geeky folks too sometimes and that's what happened to me.

So...do I make the attempt? Do I find out at least if it's possible or do I just wait some more...save some money and then figure it all out at once?


Knowing I can and not being able to get them now may be worse then just not knowing if I can!

{Project Life} Angry Birds

“Angry Birds” Hits 42 Million Free and Paid Downloads (as of December 2010)

What is Angry Birds?
The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green bigs who stole the Birds' eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs' fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 210 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.

Angry Birds on the iPad is so much more fun! This is just one example of how we spend our free time! Have a minute...angry birds...have 10 minutes...angry birds. It's fun, it's addicting, and it causes you to 'arrgggg', 'shooottt', and yell back at the screen! Now that is liberating!!!

Apps in the iTunes store is just one of the advances in technology these days. How did we ever live without all this technology at our fingertips? I wonder what the next great invention will be?!?

{Project Life} Gun Show, Nintendo, and Project Life for Kids

January 1 - Ken attended the gun show with Brian today...maybe he's coming home with a new toy...we'll see! I guess this is what happens when I buy him a years membership to a gun range! (verdict, he came home practically empty handed...just a mat to clean them...shew!)



January 2 - Blending the old and the new. Graphics and technology have come a long way since I played Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo, some 20 years ago! Watching Amanda play the 'old school' games really brought it into perspective for me!



January 3 - I wanted a way to include Amanda in the Project Life adventure as a means for us to have some quality time together doing something we both love...being creative. When I told her we were going to do a year long project together, her eyes beamed with excitement! Today we searched out the perfect album for her to capture her memories, a basic photo album to store the pictures until they make it into the perfect album and a few embellishments to go alone with it! She couldn't wait to get home and start on it right away...love her enthusiasm...it's contagious!
(I'll be sharing more ideas on how I'll be helping her achieve this goal soon...stay tuned!)

20 years later...2011

It all began 20 years ago while I was on summer vacation in California visiting my mother. You see, my mother had a friend, Monica who had a son named Kenny. They thought it would be cute to have their 12 year old kids meet, so one night shortly after I arrived, we met at Sizzler and I was introduced to Kenny.

That first night at Sizzler

  

We were inseparable those 6 weeks I was there. We played Super Mario Brothers (the original!), watched The Little Mermaid a million times with my little sister and brother, pictures in a photo booth, and even went to Disneyland (where we were tortured into listening to "It's a small world" more times than I care to remember!

The photo booth

  

Disneyland

  

Those were carefree moments and we dreaded the day I'd go back home to Alaska. No matter how young we were at the time, the feelings were real. There were tears when I left and we had no idea if we would ever see each other again.

We kept in touch throughout high school, but eventually the phone calls and hand written letters to each other would dwindle away as we went about our daily lives. I never did see him again.

I went on to marry, divorce, marry, have 3 kids, divorce. He went on to marry, divorce, marry, have 3 kids, divorce.

20 years after that summer, we were reunited thanks to the technology, Internet, and a social network site - Facebook.

He had just a couple friends on Facebook as he had only joined the network recently. He started to think back through the years for others he could look for. He thought of me and when a search turned up empty, he started looking for my family...first my mother...nothing...then my sister and there, staring back at him was my name.

I imagine his heart skipped a few beats as he stared back while proceeding to write the first email message to me...

It was titled "Blast from the Past". I'll never forget the feeling I had as the message showed up on my phone. Seriously, I thought? After all these years...oh my heck!! I was giddy as the memories and feelings came back to me.

The "what ifs" started going through my mind.
- what if we had stayed in touch?
- what if we had lived closer all those years ago?
- what if the feelings we had then are still there?

We were reunited in the fall of 2009 and sparks went flying. We reminisced and shared hopes, dreams and just tried to catch up on lost time. We even took a new photo booth picture!

Photo booth

  

With the Uhaul packed, January 1st, 2010, Kenny and his buddy Richard started the long drive from Wever, Iowa to Grand Prairie, Texas. It was the beginning of a new adventure...one that should have continued all those years ago.

2010 brought us many challenges financially and emotionally, but despite it all we pushed on through and I'm very happy to have married my soul mate this year!

Our Wedding (more layouts to come soon!)
     


     


     

2011 is the continuation of our new beginning and in July, our first child together will be born into this world. I don't know what kind of trials we will face this year and in the years to come, but I do know having him by my side, holding my hand, makes it so much more bearable.

I wonder where we will be 20 years from now? What kind of life will we have shared? What dreams and goals will have been attained?

Time to go make more memories, beginning on this 1st day of January 2011.

Which brings me to a hobby I love so much but haven't taken the time for these last few years. I haven't felt creative or motivated to document my story, it was just too painful to relive the moments that were already stripping pieces away from me day by day.

I'm slowly regaining my passion and desire to share my story again...and it feels so liberating. I have a lot of catching up to do and I don't know how or where I'll begin, so I'll just have to dig in...stop procrastinating and stop thinking about how and just start doing!

So here's to 2011...to capturing the moments and sharing them as we go along so that we can reflect back on them anytime we want or need to. Here's to Project Life, just one way I'll be going about documenting our life this year.



I haven't blogged since May 2009 and I haven't scrapbooked in I don't know how long! To all those who used to enjoy my blog updates, well I'm back! You can look forward to many more this year as I restart my quest to capture the memories and spread the joy of scrapbooking and life!

The most beautiful gift I can leave behind for my loved ones is...my story...my legacy. It's one thing to live it, it's another to share it for future generations.

Happy New Year, from our house to yours! Here's to living life this year and documenting the stories both past and present.

The 1st Tooth is Out!!

The story went something like this…

We had just arrived at the Macaroni Grill for dinner and Amanda started wiggling one of her 2 loose teeth.
“Mommy look, it’s really loose!”
“Wow”, I said. “You know what would be really cool? If you would pull that tooth out on Mother’s day, I would always remember when you lost your first tooth!”
(reached in, gave a yank, and out it came)
With eyes real wide, she looks amazed at her talents!
“MOMMY, IT’S OUT!!!” “I DID IT!!!”

She couldn’t stop talking about it, she was so excited she lost it on Mother’s Day!

When we arrived home, we carefully placed it in a container, and headed upstairs to bed. She placed on a plastic part of her headboard, so the pillow wouldn’t move it around too much! Once there, she sat on her knees and started clapping, smiling with so much happiness!

Fast forward to this morning…”MOMMY, the TOOTH FAIRY CAME!! She CAME MOMMY!! And guess what?!?!? She took my tooth and left me $5 dollars!!!!” (when did teeth become so expensive?!)

As she stands by my bed, she seems to be sad all of a sudden, so I ask “What’s wrong?”
“I want my tooth back”, she said
I started laughing, and said “that tooth is gone forever! Time for the next one!!”

The tooth fairies were giddy as they replaced her tooth with money, I told Kevin I was so happy we were both in town for this momentous occasion – so fun!

So there ya have it – enjoy the pics! The one of her eyes real wide is about the same look she had when she realized the tooth was between her fingers and the one where she is smiling wide reminds me of her reaction as she placed the tooth under her pillow.

Reflections

Often times throughout our lives we lose sight of purpose. It's easy to do. We get caught up in our daily lives with the stress of our jobs, the duties of a wife & mother, and all the other roles we may play as we move along.

Recently, I've been doing some self reflection on my own life. There are so many things on my 'bucket list' that include both short term and long term goals:

* things I need or want to accomplish in my professional career
* make the household more efficient and organized
* spend more quality time with Amanda and be a better listener
* be more aware of finances
* healthier meals for the family
* get out of the house & meet people so this becomes more like home vs. a place I live
* travel more with Amanda both near & far so she can experience the world
* visit my long time friend Angela whom I haven't seen since I was a freshman in high school
* spend more time in the Word and allow God to lead the way
* me time -- where I can be creative, reflect on myself, and work on improving every aspect of my life
* grow in my marriage and be a better wife (not that I'm a bad one, but that's always a work in progress, right?!)
* share my thoughts with others more often!
* master time management skills
....

And the list goes on & on. How do we manage everything we want to do? How do we find time to complete everything that means so much to us? How can we continue to live life to the fullest day in & day out where we make a difference not only to those immediately around us but to others we may never know?

In my recent days of reflection, the above questions are just a sampling of what's been going through my mind. For the past couple of weeks, a radio advertisement for the Breast Cancer 3-day walk has been playing constantly and there is a song that plays in the background. I knew I had heard it before, but I couldn't place it.

I heard it again this morning, and looked it up. As I listened to the words and read the lyrics, it took me back to 2003 when Amanda was a baby and the Crop for Cancer journey began. How much joy was in my life at that time for all the good things we were doing to make a difference. How successful we were with the event and how proud I was to be a part of it.

We all need things like this to give us perspective. Reflecting back on this this morning has brought more clarity to my above bucket list which has led me to post my thoughts and share this song with all my family & friends, as well as those strangers I may never meet.

There is always hope among our daily struggles & triumphs - let this be a reminder to you as it has for me.

~Jamie was here

2008 Christmas Card and Letter

Here's hoping you and yours had a wonderful Christmas!

I Spy 2 Blooms

Huge Scrapboooking Sale! Don't Miss It!

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Kindergarten Update: Part 1

I think the verdict is, she loves school! She can't wait to go to bed every night just so she can wake up early for school. We drove the first day since we had all the school supplies to take with us. Yesterday we rode our bikes, and today we drove because she wanted to wear a pretty dress. It was so nice to be able to drive up to the curb and watch her exit the vehicle all by herself! Little Miss Independence!!

She came home on the first day with a cute poem that I thought was worthy of sharing.

And on the back, she had written her ABCs!

Gratitude

Challenge layout I created for Faith Sisters.

Childhood Home

Another challenge layout I created for Faith Sisters!

Lake Arbuckle with the Garcia's - 2008

Soccer 2008

1st Day of Kindergarten

Yes, I know, I am very behind in updating this blog. I can't believe its been since March! Crazy how fast time flies.

Amanda was very excited to start school today. I think I was more anxious & nervous then she was! When we arrived at Ms Gunter's classroom, she immediately went to her teacher to give her a picture she had colored for her. After about 10 minutes of getting her all settled, she looked up at Kevin & I and said bye mommy and daddy!

I wasn't ready for that! I can't wait to pick her up this afternoon to hear all about her first day of Kindergarten!

I am dependable when...

This morning was one of those days...you know the one...where the children don't want to listen to a word you say so they throw a complete fit?

Here's the play by play this morning

8:00am - Pitter patter feet enter my bedroom, sniffles begin when she reaches my bedside...
8:02am - I finally roll over, asking whats the matter? why are you crying?
8:04am - after asking repeatedly, "I don't want to go to school"...yes you have to..."noooooo"
8:30am - please go get dressed so we can go to school, "I don't want to GO TO SCHOOL"...Yes you are going to school!
9:00am - I decide to shower while she is crying and screaming, which she continues right outside the bathroom door.
9:10am - In my towel, I promptly get her attention and yell "go to your room", apparently she thinks the living room is now her room, so I follow behind "go to your room" and point her in the correct direction. She now determines the bottom of the stairs is where she sleeps every night. I quickly get dressed so I am not running after her in a towel...
9:12am - Return to the stairs, "I said GO TO YOUR ROOM!", pick her up, place her on her bed and close the door. She continues to scream, attempting to get my attention.
9:20am - I don't hear anything, so I open the door to check on her...she is fast asleep.
10:15am - Pitter patter feet coming into my office, "do you feel better, I ask?", she nods yes. Come here, so I give her some hugs, some lovins etc.
10:20am - OK, lets go get dressed...sniffles begin "I don't want to go to school", here we go again?? I start asking her questions as to why she doesn't want to go, when she replies with nothing valid, we proceed to get her dressed. She's crying the entire time.
10:25am - Once we are in the truck and on our way, she is silent.
10:35am - Arrive at school just as her class is going outside to play. I stop the teacher, is there anything I should be concerned with? Is she doing ok while at school, causing any problems? The teacher assures me she is doing great and is only upset for a few minutes after I drop her off.
10:37am - I get back in my truck to go home...

I've been thinking about this behavior all day. She's 5 years old now, why does she throw tantrums like this? Is she trying to pull one over on me thinking I'll just let her stay home? Kids!

6:30pm - Kevin and Amanda arrive home, she's happy and had a great day at school. She sheepishly smiles when she sees me...then shows me the coloring she did at school...

so...does this mean I need to start feeding her ice cream for breakfast so the day can begin on a better foot???

Oh yeah...and wouldn't ya know she actually asked me if she could have ice cream for breakfast this morning...