Snow!!! (Book of Me: Prompt 15)

I picked a doozy of a post to be my 1st post back after more than a year of not blogging.  Dates and links and photos OH MY!  Well, here we go...

It's been pretty cold here lately, so I decided to pick up where I left off on the Book of Me project (out of order of course) by talking about SNOW.

It's only snowed 5 times in my hometown of Lake Charles, LA in my lifetime:

February 7, 1988 (1.6 inches) First time either Dave or I saw snow.

This is one of my favorite pics.  My dad and I are having such a serious conversation!  Plus it kinda looks like we're in Narnia.

December 1989 it snowed the same week my sister-in-law Melissa was born.  I was getting snowed on too, but in VA.  My parents and grandparents and 2 of my uncles had Christmas at a friend's home.

December 2008 & 2009 snow flurries happened in Lake Charles, but less than half an inch each time.

And this past January 2014... a whopping .1 inches!! But it was so unusually cold for coastal Louisiana that we ended up having a total of 5 "snow days" from school! The funniest part was that grocery shopping the night before was panic-level "pre-hurricane", but instead of people buying out all the cases of water and batteries... almost every store in town was out of roux. HAHA!

Other memorable snow experiences:

Christmas Challenge Retreat (1997??) on Lookout Mountain in Georgia with the youth group at Sale Street Baptist Church. My husband David and I were actually both on this trip, although we didn't know each other yet! I'll have to hunt down some pictures from this.

Ski trip to Maine in January 2008

11-month-old Isaac came with us when we went skiing in Sugarloaf, Maine with our friends the Tarver family.

I have a photobook of this, but the original digital photos are lost and I can't share the book via the snapfish website like I can shutterfly.

If you have an account with snapfish.com you can check this out

Christmas in Grapevine 2012:

This magical Christmas when, for the 1st time in 20 years, it snowed in Dallas, TX... while we were there... on Christmas Day.

Click here to view this photo book larger

February in Philly with McGrath cousins:
I will post about this soon over at Knowing William, but here's a quick pic as a preview.



Here is the link to historical snowfall data for southwest Louisiana from the national weather service

Merry Minton Christmas!

I thought I'd do a little Christmas post this Christmas Eve as we begin to wrap up 2013. To see a sort-of scrapbook of my year on facebook, check out my facebook Year In Review Then check out our Christmas card from this year! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

2013 Christmas card

View the entire collection of cards.

Our time capsule - Book of Me: Prompt 8

I love the idea of this prompt. I considered making a time capsule about our houses history and our remodel/addition and our family in it and leaving it in the attic for a future owner to find. (I love house history, so I'm not ruling this out for a later project!) I considered a family time capsule of who each of us is and what we like right now, maybe with a letter or video to our future selves, that we could bury and plant a tree over to be dug up in 10 or even 20 years. (Also still a fun potential project.) I considered doing a yearly time-capsule-in-a-mason-jar as seen on this pinterest post here.

Right now I am leaning toward a decade time capsule. Working with timelines and scrapbooking has really gotten me thinking about how a person's life splits into decades. Just hitting the highlights of a decade with records, pictures, and personal items would paint such a unique picture of a person or family's evolution. For Dave and I a 2000s decade time capsule would probably include my high school diploma and senior pictures, a band picture of me and my drum major manual, a picture of me singing in my high school show choir, church choir, and with my band Soul Vacation, possibly a cd of a few of the very first digital pictures dad and I took with our very first digital camera, a circuit city shirt to remember my 1st (and only "real" job, and my college diploma. For Dave we would probably have a folder full of newspaper clippings from his high school sports, his green Fury t-shirt from rec soccer, some Saint Louis HS memorabilia, a picture of his Granny perming his bleached-blond hair, a picture of his station wagon and his broken arm, his high school diploma and senior picture of him at the piano, his bachelor's degree diploma, and some of the early brochures Dave made for Lonnie Harper & Assoc where he works. For "us" I think we would include a photo or maybe a recording of us playing in our friends Corey and Eric Tarver's praise band for 1st Church of the Nazarene, called Joshua's House; a picture of us at my senior prom; the video and maybe the silk flowers from our wedding and our marriage license; pictures from our trips to Disney World, Chicago, & New York; pictures or newspaper articles from Hurricane Rita; birth certificates and baby pics for Isaac and Zoe; pictures from the Curry and Chambers reunions in Arkansas; a Christmas or family portrait from each year; a picture of our 1st apartment; and the sales agreement for our home.

OK... that's a lot. I'll have to do research and find out what sizes and types of boxes are available. Should I get fireproof? Waterproof? Archival? Just a cardboard paper box for now? Before we finish and publish this Book of Me project by our 10th anniversary in May 2015, I'm going to make one of these time capsule things happen.

I'll keep you posted.

Journaling - Book of Me: Prompt 6

I'm behind on my entries AND going out of order, but I suppose as long as I'm still plugging away that's alright...

I have kept various journals and diaries since I was pretty young. When I was in elementary school, I loved those pre-made, fill-in-the-blank "about me" books. I'm sure mom still has at least one of them. I remember we made black and white photocopies of all the pages of one that had teddy bears on it, so I could fill it out again at a different age. Mom just gave me the blank copies recently so that Zoe could fill it out when she's a little older. I also remember having a pink, electronic diary with a password, although I never really had to hide anything since I didn't have brothers or sisters to spy on me.

Most of my middle school journals were about various crushes and got chunked when I got married along with a boot-sized shoe box of notes from boys and friends. As I got toward the end of high school and beyond, my journaling because more self-help-ish: to do lists, goals, projects, exercise and food journals, etc.

If a notebook is more than half full and mostly memory-worthy, then I usually keep it. My journals vary from beautiful store-bought journals to spiral notebooks and everything in between. I have at least a few entries in almost every notebook I've ever owned. I have a fair number of saved files from old computers, too.

These days my 2 most common forms of journaling are facebook/blogging and prayer journaling. My ADD leads me to really struggle during my prayer time with "being still" to listen to God. If I write as I pray, it keeps me from getting distracted. It's often much more clear when and how God is answering me.

At this exact moment I have 4 journals and a daily planner within arms reach of my bed. I'm sure I will continue to journal and keep my notebooks. I believe it is good for my soul.

Successful Husband-Arm-Twisting - "Book of Me" Prompt 1 for my better half

Woohoo! My sweet hubby let himself be talked into doing this project with me. On our mini-roadtrip to NOLA this weekend I go him thinking about the prompts and he read my posts so far. I even got him to complete Prompt 1! One down, only about 59 more to go! Lol! Without further ado...



My husband David is

... daddy of Isaac
... daddy of Zoe
... daddy of Brody
... husband of Jess
... an engineer
... a leader
... a manager
... a helper
... a Christian
... a soccer player
... a competitor
... a nerd
... legally blind
... a piano player
... awesome
... humble
... a snuggler
... a perpetual student
... an entrepreneur
... a hard worker
... an inventor

You Want to Know WHAT?!?! Book of Me: Prompt #3 (physical description)

Well... this prompt is a doozy, isn't it. Especially for women I guess. How to physically describe myself without being verbally abusive. I once had someone tell me to quit critiquing my appearance all the time, especially in front of my daughter, or she would grow up believing that always feeling not-quite-good-enough is how she's supposed to be. Anyway, I'm a work in progress on that front, so here goes.

I am 5'7". I'm about 190lbs and blessed with an hourglass-shaped figure that I got from my mom and "Martin women" hips. I wear a size 14 and I'm determined(ish) to drop at least a size so that its easier to shop. I've always felt like my weight was a struggle, but of course now I'd LOVE to be at a size that would've been unacceptable even 5 years ago, lol! Having 3 kids will do that I guess. I felt the most physically attractive my senior year in high school. Oddly enough, I'm much more confident now that I base my feelings about myself on how my husband and my Jesus see me, both of whom think I'm beautiful. : )

I have grey-blue eyes and brownish mid-length hair. I used to be blond. I kept it up artificially for a while, but I'm too cheap to get hi lights every 6 weeks, so now I don't.

My ears are pierced, but I don't often wear earrings or jewelry of any kind. I'm trying to dress better these days, wearing something besides yoga pants (which I wore to lunch today, and no, I don't actually do yoga) at least twice a week. I'm not super girly. I rarely even blow dry my hair, much less style it. And with 3 young kids I'm lucky to wash it more than twice a week. : |

I don't often wear make-up, but I like to get dolled up sometimes. The picture I have on here is what I look like now when I'm trying, hehe. It was taken in May 2013 at the Charleston Hotel in Lake Charles. I was sitting in at a fundraiser gig with my old band Soul Vacation.

When I'm just putting on basic make-up I use concealer under my eyes (which have BAD dark circles), powdered bronzer that I use as foundation, blush, and eyeshadow, and blue eyeliner on the inside on my bottom lashes. I hate mascara.

I have pretty big feet. I wear a 9 1/2. My hubby makes fun of my little toes by calling them "Quasimodo" since they're hunched up and have almost no toenail. My fingernails have ridges and grow in weird ways, which my Aunt Mary says I get from the Martin family. But when they do grow out they have very pretty natural white tips like a French manicure.

I have 7 birthmarks of various shapes and sizes, with the most obvious being an oblong tan one on the inside of my left knee. I have several moles, which I hate, and a few freckles. I also have a half inch scar under my chin from busting it open on our big claw-foot bathtub when I was a kid (twice) and not getting stitches.

I've always been told I have my Aunt Deanie's (my dad's sister) nose. My favorite thing about myself is that I have perfectly heart-shaped pouty lips.

*whew* That turned out to be easier than I thought. And quite therapeutic actually. Do any of you have a hard time describing yourself in a unbiased way??

Just FYI, I'm going to have to do a flashback to Prompt #2 about my birth later in the project as my mom is in possession of my baby book and is in the middle of a move right now.

Genealogy 101

Are you a family history beginner? Need a refresher course? Trying to knock down a brick wall? Check out these How-to articles I've posted. Happy Hunting!

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