Photos galore!

Don't say I didn't warn you that this would be a photo heavy post. Happy weekend after Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and having a relaxed time. We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving celebration with Andy's family. Here are all the grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa: One of the activities of the day was to take family photos since for the first time in years everyone was there. I had the honor of taking most of the photos - lots of pressure in this photo shoot because it was a one time only opportunity! I haven't edited everything yet, but I think there are some satisfying photos to be had for everyone. Yesterday J and his cousin D (from my side of the family) and I went for a hike - those two did 4 miles on snowy trails - and D is only 5! We had a great time!

D looking beautiful as usual!

A beautiful setting for our hike!

Lots of sliding to be done on the little hills.

Doesn't she look like the quintessential hiker! Gotta love pom-pom ears! Some of God's beauty was scattered everywhere we looked!

Time to give some attention to cleaning and decorating my home for Christmas!

Enjoy your weekend!

Some Projects

Finally, some projects to share. All done within the last week. None will blow your socks off, but all are signs that I'm getting to do some crafting, which I love.

This ornament is something J is working on - and enjoying! Not hard, but the results are impressive, so he feels great about that!

I saw a page on Nic Howard's blog similar to this and determined to lift it. Her's is better, but I'm liking mine too.

And these tags are for place cards at Thanksgiving - just because I wanted to make tags and needed a purpose for them.

There are a total of 25 tags, each different, but all in similar colors and all with the leaf and ribbon for names.

Super busy day cleaning and other boring stuff. Hopefully back tomorrow with some more interesting pre-Thanksgiving updates.

I've done 48, how about you?

I saw this in blogland and thought it was kind of cool, the things I have done are in bold 1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland 8. Held a praying mantis 9.Climbed a mountain 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm at sea 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Run a Marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run 32. Been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught yourself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing 40. Seen Michelangelos David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had your portrait painted 48. Gone deep sea fishing 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain 53. Played in the mud 54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving 66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten Caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone 78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had your picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone's life 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. Been stung by a bee 100. Read an entire book in one day

Second post today

Time for more of an update on the people here. Sprinkled with photos from that walk I took late this afternoon. It was a crisp and cool walk, with the thermometer showing about 17 degrees when I got home.

All is well at the Breuner household. We finally got our car back from the repairs after hitting that deer. Being without it for 20 days was a challenge, and we are glad not to be a one car family anymore, but we are also glad we had a truck to drive while the car was being repaired.

J is happy, healthy and keeping his parents on their toes. He and Andy went to the library on Friday, and he is totally and completely immersed in some books on tape he picked up - Star Wars and a book in a series about dragons. He got 100% on his spelling pretest on Thursday for the first time ever, and that meant he did not have to take the test on Friday. That was a huge accomplishment for him. His school work took a nose dive for a bit there after Bo was killed, but it has really improved in the past week. I think it helps that he is talking more about Bo and his sadness.

Do you remember that last spring/summer J took a tumble off a ladder? Well today Andy and J got the ladder out to put up Christmas lights and guess who flipped out. J. He was so frightened it bothered him to even see his dad on the ladder. He came into the house and then said "I was so counting on being part of this. But I can't be near that ladder. I forgot we had to use the ladder to do this." Poor guy! It's something he'll have to work out.

Andy is busy with work, and although it is hard, there are some highlights that make it all worth the effort. He was appointed to represent a little old lady in a guardianship case - she has dementia, a family member is accused of abusing her, and Andy is appointed to represent her interests in the decisions about what is to happen to her. This is the first one of these, and it is a lot of work. As you would expect, he has taken it very seriously, interviewing all of the relatives and social workers, and even going to meet this sweet little thing. He came home from visiting with her with the biggest smile on his face. She told him he was beautiful and that she loved him - first time they ever met. He said it was like being around an affectionate three year old. She touched his heart, and it is nice that he can have that experience considering what he does.

He's also busy coming up to speed to be on the Board of Directors at J's school for a couple of years. They called and asked him to run, and all indications are he will be elected. It will be a lot of work, but he is really excited about it. I thought he would turn down the invitation because of his schedule, but I was so pleased it was something he would take the time to do.

In addition to work at the office, he's returned to Bible Study Fellowship this fall - and loves it. I'm a bit envious. He's also picked up some work around the house as we've had a couple of home repair issues. It's gotten so he just gets the job done right away. It used to be that he was intimidated because that kind of work did not come naturally to him. But today he fixed a leaking valve in the line from the wall to the toilet in less than 15 minutes. And no cussing or yelling or growling either. It is great to see him gaining confidence in that.

I am back to my old self - no indication of depression left at this time. I really suspect it was hormonal, but that means I have to be on the look out for cycles of it, perhaps. Something to keep my eye on, but not to let dictate my life.

I've been a bit artistic lately, but don't have any pictures to share - too dark outside to show you. I made 25 tags to use as place cards for Thanksgiving, and they were so fun to make. Each one is different. They are all inspired by Tim Holtz and his tag art, although they are simpler than what he does. I do wish for some of his masks though, and may have to put some of that on my Christmas list! I'm also working at night, after J goes to bed, on a rag quilt for him. It should be done in time. Lots of bright colors - I actually started it three years ago, and got all squares cut. Now it's just a matter of sewing it together. It's all flannel, and will be warm on his bed. I'm also hoping that it won't slide off his bed, as his comforters always do because he thrashes around so much. I'll try to sneak in a photo of it when it is done.

I'm totally in the Christmas mode already, and excited that this week is the beginning of the "Holiday Season." It's going to be a simple one around here, but already I just have the warmest feeling in my heart.

Oh, and I won something! Heather Prins had a give away on her blog of an acrylic album she put together (all but the photos) and I won! So cool. I'll post photos when I get it and put photos in it. It is with that totally cool SEI line of winter paper, and I know I am going to just love it. Besides, she is a gifted and talented lady, so I know it will be a wonderful addition to the mini album collection here at the house. Thank you Heather for such a generous gift/rak!

This week I'm going to work on some circle journals as well as everything else. Its busy, but it is good!

No Way!

Has it really been since Wednesday that I haven't posted! Ugh! I promise to do better this week.

I ended up with a dentist appointment on Thursday, plus some other errands, and working Friday and Saturday, so blogging didn't get done. Sorry about that. To make up for it, I've got a couple of blog posts to do today.

I did two planned photo shots, and a bit of a tag along one last week. The first planned one went well, although we fought glare and the wind a bit. Here are some of the pictures so far from this one. There are things to work with, but that's largely because I shot almost 1500 photos trying to make sure we would have something to work with. I am not done editing those photos yet, but here are a couple of what we got going.

The second planned shoot was cold and starting to snow, and my camera reacted differently than I expected, so I'm a bit dissatisfied with the results. Plus, the cloud cover made it really dark even though it was before 4:30 p.m.. the darkness resulted in too slow of shutter speed, thus some camera shake effect. So, I'm offering to do that one over again. This was really the first time I struggled with a shoot and I'm having to tell myself that one mediocre set of photos do not define my abilities. Here are a couple of photos from that shoot. I used the Midnight Color action on them, and that helps to hide the flaws.

The third little shoot (the tag along) came with the first one, on the bright and sunny windy day. It was three very cute little girls I had never met before. They and their mom came with the other family to bring along desks to use as props. I wish I had more of a chance to get to know the girls in advance because they seemed so sweet, but the youngest was pretty shy of me. I got this photo of her, which I like, but it isn't exactly the happy go lucky little kid shot I'm used to getting.

So, that is a bit of an update about photos these last couple of days. If I get a chance I'll take my camera for a walk later this afternoon, as we have a bit of snow on the ground and it might be fun to see what interesting shots are available in the fading light.

More posts to come! - I hope!

He is so cute!

J and I had a little talk yesterday. Before school he came to me and said: "Momma, I've lost my laughter." Talk about breaking a Momma's heart! I asked when, and he said "I think when Bo died." Yep, three weeks ago.

I know he's had his laughter since then, but I also know that the loss of that dog made a big impact on him. He's healing, but it sure takes time.

I response to his loss of laughter we talked about mourning, and how the Bible says there is a time for mourning, so it is okay for him to continue to feel sad. And that there may be times when he feels joyful again, and back and forth for awhile. He seemed pretty satisfied with that. And he cheered up knowing that there wasn't anything wrong with him for being sad about his dog dying.

I'll share a little poem he wrote for school last night. He was supposed to select an animal and write a poem that had five facts about the animal, without naming the animal. Then today the children read their poems to each other and tried to guess the animal. Here is J's contribution to this project (spelling all his own!):

I onse had a creacher

hoo liked to play in water.

He likes to Jump around

on the teeter totter

Neer the swamp where he was found.

He uses his webd tows

and very fast he goes.

In winter he goes to sleep

Under the mud without a peep.

He got a star for that one. Now he's all into poetry, trying to talk in rhyme all the time.

Just to keep you up on where he is otherwise, he still won't eat fruit. He'll eat small amounts of broccoli, loves refried beans, insists on having something in his lunch daily that he can microwave, and puts his scrambled eggs on top of his peanut butter and jelly toast every morning. He's on a ham and cheese sandwich kick for lunches - but no mustard or mayo please, he likes it dry, like his mother.

He won't change out of his school uniform after school because he claims it is the most comfortable things he has to wear - but come the weekend he loves his sweats and t's. He doesn't like to part his hair, but looks so nice when he does it because his dad told him to.

He considers toy catalogs to be magazines, and instead of making a Christmas list he is putting marks by the things he wants. Then, last night I found him with the catalog in bed, and he looked at me sheepishly and said he felt guilty because some of the things he marked cost more than $100. He said he asked for those things because he didn't want to have to make the effort to save his money for them. But he also knows that he's not getting five or six hundred dollar plus items - he's realistic at least!

He continues to love Latin. He likes school, but mostly because it's where he gets to be with other kids. He does well when he applies himself, but he is so easily distracted that he gets a few humbling grades from time to time. One low grade will usually kick him back into making an effort. He loves his teacher, and is really worried about her brother who they pray for daily as he is in Iraq fighting the war.

That's just a little snap shot. He's my boy, and I love him so!

Exciting acquisitions!

Last night to relax my mind I went a browsing in the 2 Peas Photo Gallery. And a young (I assume younger than I) lady had some beautiful photos posted and a little word about some PSE actions she had purchased. I've always been curious about actions, so I followed up on her information and ended up purchasing some actions.

Then of course I had to play with them! I was so excited! It worked! I feel like I have a whole new camera or something! Here are a couple I played with just for fun: first the original that I was previously very happy with, and then the result of the action, which just thrills me!

Honestly, it feels sort of like cheating! But I love it!

One of the reasons I was motivated to go ahead and get these things is today I'm doing a photo shoot with a family where they expressed they would like sepia. It was something that just kind of slipped out when she was talking and my heart sank because I'm not always happy with my sepia conversions. When I saw an action for that I was so thrilled! The first example above may be a great action to use on photos from this shoot.

This family will have their photos shot here on our property, but they are bringing some props (at my encouragement). They are a home schooling family, so they are bringing antique school house desks to put in the long grasses behind our barn! That could be really really cool.

I'm off to go get the barn clean enough for them to go in it for a couple of shots.

Have a great Tuesday!

Not what I expected!

So, my big crafting day was spent crafting! But, I did not get a single scrapbook page completed. I did complete our 100 Christmas Cards, and I began to make some tags for an advent project. But I have to admit, Mojo was fleeting - there in my head, not on the tags. So, no pictures to share as I expected. I admit, when Saturday night came around I was disappointed. But, it is good to have a box of finished Christmas cards!

We took our family picture for the Christmas cards yesterday. My brother was here to snap the photo, and, well, frankly we didn't have much to work with. It wasn't his fault. . . the sun was in our eyes, the poses were boring, J and Andy weren't interested in giving it a lot of time. It just wasn't this photographer's dream session. Oh well, I'll get over it. I did find one photo that wasn't straight out boring, and was technically okay, so we'll use it. Just for laughs, here are a couple of the boring rejects:

These meet my goal of at least once a month having a photo of J and I (my continuing tribute to Aleida). I've got September for sure, I think I did one in October, and now November is double covered - plus I've got the photo we are going to use in the card, which I will reveal after the cards are mailed out.

I have three photo shoots schedule between now and Thanksgiving for other families. It feels great that people want me to do their photos - and one of them is a paying job! Another may

be, but when the woman approached me at church we didn't really discuss that part. The third is definitely not, but that is okay. I'm trying to think of something really original to do with each of these families so that the resulting photos will be more than just technically good - can you tell I read a book that talked about going beyond the techniques and making an interesting photo? I feel a need for a special colorful bench or something that a whole family can be on. I love the chair I used for AL, but it only fits one. I may have to visit some thrift/antique stores to get inspired. (oh, now wouldn't that be torture!) So, Monday, here I come! Hope it is a good one for everyone!

Interruption

I interrupt the regular scheduled blog post (seen below) to say look to the right and see that picture of quilts? Its a give away here. Go check it out, they are beautiful quilts. If you win,let me know because I will be so jealous!

Yellowstone Vistas

The park is closed to automobile traffic at the west entrance in West Yellowstone, Montana, but I hiked in off an old dirt road that is partially covered with snow and got a couple of "vista" shots from the banks of a creek.

It was a beautiful morning, and I was glad for the walk. I didn't get as many shots off as I hoped, because most of the walk was in a forested area. By the time I arrived at the views I was in a hurry to get back and pick Andy up at the appointed time.

Before we left for "West" as we call it, I grabbed a couple shots of our returning neighbors:

Every year in November the horses come to spend the winter on our neighbor's property. They are pretty friendly, and I'm going out daily to say hello to them, hoping that this weekend J can get out and feed them a carrot or two. Always a fun deal.

And this is just a shot I got walking back from the horses to the house. The lighting here is always interesting, especially with the clouds we've had all week.

Quick post, but I'm off to go take J to school and go to a Bible Study at church this morning. Tomorrow is going to be a big crafting day for me, so I'm getting kind of excited! Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have some fun things to share along the paper crafts line.

Have a great Friday!

Bits and Pieces

There are a bunch of things going through my mind to share with you. And some pictures I took on a walk the other day.

I heard something I didn't know. It's very random, but did you know that Macy's is based in Cincinnati? I always thought it was based in New York, so I was surprised to hear that on the radio yesterday.

Also heard on the radio, the full moon this month is called the Frosty Moon or the Beaver Moon. Just the kind of thing that I like to share with J, because he is interested in that kind of stuff.

By the way, this is J through the back window of the truck (which needs to be cleaned). He gets the gate as we come home, and then instead of getting back in the truck, he rides on the bumper. I know, not what everyone wants their kid to do, but we go slow, and he loves it. One of those little unique to us things that he will probably remember when he grows up.

Also wanted to share that the Christmas cards are coming along - but they are taking longer than I expected. Isn't that the way these things go!

And, my depression continues to dissipate, to the point now, where it would be a bit of a stretch to say I was feeling depressed yesterday or today. That is a really great thing from my perspective, but I continue to be on the look out for ups and downs. I don't want to get cocky about this and think that I am out of danger. But I am optimistic that I will have some smooth sailing for awhile.

Today I'm off to West Yellowstone with Andy. He's got a trial in a couple of weeks down there, and needs to do some witness interviews. I, of course, am taking my camera and going to play. but the three hours of driving time there and back are a time we can spend together, which is a pretty good deal!

Have a great day!

Good Bye Rosie!

Yesterday my friend Rosie died suddenly of a heart attack.

I wish I had a better photo of her, but this is all I have right now.

I knew her through crafting. She took many of my classes - fortunately for me she was in the last two classes I taught! She was a joy to have around, always upbeat and excited for the projects. She never left a class without telling me how much she liked the project.

Rosie made beautiful cards and ATCs. She headed up the ACT club at Keepsakes By Design. A couple years back one of her cards published, even though she had only submitted on a dare from a friend. She got a real kick out of that, although she did not have big aspirations for being published

She took lots of scrapbooking classes, taking great care to document so many important things in her life and the life of her family. I pray that those pages with their stories will be a comfort for her family in years to come.

I should say, she knew what was happening with her body. She made the choice (and frankly, I'm not convinced it was a bad one) to go off of the medications her doctor felt she needed. You see, she tried the medications and they made her sick and tired. When she wanted to try lower doses of the medications to see if she felt better the doctor wanted her to take even more. She almost couldn't function and was canceling out of activities because of how the medications made her feel. She was very frustrated on the medications and determined that she would rather feel good and live less time than to feel the way the medications made her feel and possible live longer.

In the last month I actually saw quite a bit of her, and she showed not indication of suffering or feeling poorly. She was energetic, up beat, laughing lots and just a joy to be around. She took my cardboard book class in early October, and did a bang up job with hers. She shared the finished project with me at the retreat in late October - we shared a table that weekend. Her work on that book was beautiful. She used the theme of Yellowstone National Park, and she stamped and distressed and hinged and just made the most interesting book ever. I felt like I needed to revamp the sample after seeing the improvements she made.

I will miss Rosie!

Went for a walk in the rain

and saw this: I know the photo isn't the greatest quality as I was in a hurry before she ran away, there was rain, which makes it look grainy, and I'm still trying to learn to edit photos that were shot in the raw - it's all guess work at this point, but I may have a good book to help me get better. She really was not shy about my approach, and I was thrilled to just watch her for a few minutes.

I'm going to sprinkle this post with some photos that make me happy while I address the concerns I've heard expressed about my depression. That way it's not a post of words, and I get to share some things that I love. Once in awhile I may even comment on the photos.

Thank you to all of you who have expressed concern about me. I'm doing better. I've got more energy, and most importantly, I don't feel the heavy pressure of darkness on me any more. I recognize that I'll be a bit vulnerable to set backs, so I'm very motivated to do the things I know I need to do to continue improving and prevent a down turn.

I suspect that this event was a combination of stressful events and peri-menopausal hormonal instability. (Oh, sorry if that is TMI for some of you!) I will be charting to keep track of whether this becomes a cyclical thing. I'm hoping not because my experience with hormone based medications in the past (treating endometriosis) is that hormone therapy causes seizures for me, and that is not something I am willing to revisit - EVER!!! Thus, I'm not really open to the idea of hormone therapy to help me get through the peri-menopausal issues - and neither is my doctor. In fact, my doctor is very informed and aware of the issues I face and she agrees with me that it is much too risky to try any sort of hormone therapy.

I'm doing a lot to address the issue of depression. I am! And see I can even give it the proper name! I'm exercising, I'm making a point to put in a funny DVD that makes me laugh daily (my goal is 10 minutes of good heavy laughter daily.) Its interesting about the laughter, because on Saturday I saw a portion of an Anita Renfro act, and while I thought it was good, it really didn't elicit any laughter from me. Last night I saw the same clip and more, and had tears in my eyes from all the laughter. I'm taking that as a good sign that Monday night was much improved over Saturday evening. It was amazing, and it felt so good to laugh yesterday!

This photos means a lot to me because I know this man's story. It's not my story to tell you, but I know if you knew where he'd been in life and where he is now it would bring a tear of joy to your eyes! He's a member at our church, and this photo was taken on an outing with many families from church.

I'm talking a great deal with my husband about this depression and how to deal with it. (I'm not the type to keep a struggle like this to myself). I have slept much better the last three nights and that really makes a difference. I no longer have that numb feeling of being zombie-like. In fact, my normal-for-me passion to get things done and have an opinion as to how they should be done is starting to kick in (look out world, I'm going to be trying to take over again). And if I'm not totally myself (and I mean 100%) in another two weeks I'll be seeing the doctor. End of story. Yes, I have the self discipline to make that happen, and frankly, I'm too selfish to allow myself to suffer any longer than that - not that it feels like suffering anymore.

But, right now I am very encouraged by how I feel. There has been improvement daily since Friday evening, and huge steps of improvement in the past 36 hours. That's not to say there aren't moment when I wonder, but really, as a generally matter things are so much better. The short cycle of this is what makes me suspect that hormones are a significant factor here.

Yesterday was pretty productive for me. Some cleaning around the house, some office work, all the errands I needed to get done got done (grocery shopping, post office, stop at the court to file some documents for the office, and a couple of little dinky errands as well). That felt so great! Especially that I got the office work done, because that is often the first place I will fail if life is getting a little out of control.

I also topped off the day working on Christmas cards. Now all the pieces are cut, and I've used my new Martha Stewart boarder punch on all the pieces that need it. Tonight I'll be inking/distressing edges, and hopefully on Wednesday night I'll put the suckers together and be done with that! Yeah! Really, very exciting to me.

Also exciting yesterday was the arrival of my Studio Calico kit. It is so cool as usual, and I can't wait to get to work on it. I'm hopeful that I'll have time to work on it this weekend, if not before!

So, I'm off to exercise and get some more stuff done.

What goes on in my head . . .

Is kind of frightening sometimes! I don't know any better way to say it.

We had a . . . see now, here is that frightening stuff. I want to describe our weekend. Do I say "fine," which coming from a woman can mean I'm irritated and want to be more drawn out, but I'm not irritated about the weekend. Do I say "normal" because although it was fine, there was nothing special about it? That seems like it was boring, and boring is not normal for us. Do I say it was good? Well, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't really "good" either in that it wasn't super special. Does it really matter?

Here are the most exciting highlights: I got up Saturday morning and went out with my camera and took some photos. This was designed to help fight off the depression, and I wouldn't say it worked perfectly, but Saturday was a more upbeat day than Friday. So, that was good. I was not super inspired by anything, but I got a couple of reasonably good shots:

I'm trying to shoot "RAW" and learning to edit from that. I've got some learning to do!

Saturday afternoon we took a quick trip (like there and back in under two hours) to cut down a tree and load it in the truck. J didn't want to go at first, but once he was up there he had a great time and was very helpful - he cut little branches off with his hatchet once the tree was on the ground.

The tree was a big one (thick trunk) but still went very quickly. We must be getting better at this or something.

Sunday was church, a couple of errands and a quiet afternoon at home, topped off by a bit of a stressful evening as I ran out the door to a meeting and J and Andy tussled over some previously forgotten homework.

I'm feeling emotionally better than late last week, but not quite myself yet. I'm glad it's better because I was headed to a very dark place. I'm praying it will continue to get better because I don't want to settle for where I am now. I'm also throwing in a bit of exercise to try to get my mood up.

Off to a day where hopefully I'll get something accomplished that is worthy of sharing here.