Day 05 - A Picture of Somewhere I've Been

I've been to Panama! That's the farthest I've been from home. (I'm not going to go over the whole lengthy trip synopsis here though.)

Yeah, that's a palm tree beach. They really do exist. 

 Beautiful sandy beach. 

Proof that I was in fact there. I'm the one on the far right by the way.

The Panama Canal is in Panama (surprise!) and I got to see it.

Ridiculously huge freight ship going through the Canal.

Also, there are really big ferns in Panama.

Day 04 - A Habit I Wish I Didn't Have

So I thought a really long time about this. I thought about putting chewing my fingernails, but I've almost completely eliminated that habit. Actually now my nails have been growing so strong that I doubt I could even chew them.

This may be a stretch but slouching. I have atrocious posture! I fault my mother, it's her genes. Every time I walk past a mirror or see a picture I realize how horrible it looks, like I'm transforming into the Hunchback of Notre Dame. There is a girl who was in one of my classes who has the straitest back ever, like her mother strapped her to a papoose carrier through her whole childhood. She never even leans against the back of chair, just sits upright during class. I'm so jealous, she looks amazing, beautiful, confident and refined. I can never remember to sit up or stand up straight, so if anyone was any tips feel free to give them to me. Someday, hopefully I'll learn to stand up straight, though more likely I'll just be mistaken for Quasimodo in my later years.

Day 03 - My friends and I

This was a rather difficult task for me. See I don't really have friends. Well the ones that I do have are very few in number and live far away. I don't do a lot of socializing. And then to try and find pictures with any of my friends is even harder. (And I now, there's another post with the same challenge coming up later, I may stage photos with random people.) But nevertheless I found one! Behold!

That is my dear friend and I at her baby shower several months ago. She now has an adorable little daughter. Anyways, we met way back in high school, were we swam on the swim team together. She was my conspirator in harassing JP (love you, sweetie). We also meant a great deal of time in the pool office, or locker room or anywhere talking, always talking and sharing our deep dark secrets to each other. But then we grew up. I got married and ran away. She was one of my lovely bridesmaids at my wedding. And shortly after that, she got married and ran away, like really far away, not even on the same continent far away, so the friendship and communication dropped off a bit. But she is back, though still a long drive away.

Now look back at that picture. Do you see that awesome diaper cake and diaper wreath. Yeah, I made those. I'm pretty proud of them, I think they looked awesome. So now you have to get more pictures of my craftiness.

Pretty pink diaper cake, with adorable teddy bear topper.

See those flowers, their actually rolled up baby socks. Functional and cute. 

And a diaper wreath with the leftovers. The big center flower is actually a massive headband.

Up close of the wreath decorations.

Day 02 - Blog name

My blog name really isn't that creative. It's the number of minutes in a non-leap year.  It's from the song "Seasons of Love" off of the musical Rent. I really like the song, it's about loving life and capturing every moment. That's what I originally set out to do on this blog. I started out trying to complete the challenge to take a picture everyday, a picture for every 1,440 minutes. Maybe I will take up that challenge again when I have a phone that takes good pictures, since it was difficult to remember to always carry around a camera and extra batteries. 


Season of Love
525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?
How about love? How about love? How
about love? Measure in love.
Seasons of love.

525,600 minutes! 525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes - how can you measure the life of a woman or man?

In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died....

It's time now to sing out,
the story never ends let's celebrate remember a year in the life of friends.
How about love!
How about love! How about love!
Measure in love.
Seasons of love! Seasons of love.

Day 01 - 15 "interesting" facts

07/31/2010 - Counts as recent enough for me. Picture is shockingly (for me) completely unedited, so ignore all zits, dark shadows and whatnots. This was taken during my family's trip to Colorado. Thanks go to JP, who took the photo, and my grandma, Jo Ann Poulsen, who taught me how trick the camera into making me look skinnier than I really am.

I don't know if there are 15 interesting facts about me, but we'll see. So bear with me if they are uninteresting. 

1. I go through stages with clothing. When I was younger I hated jeans and tennis shoes, and now that's all I wear. 
2. I love berries, really really love blueberries, raspberries, and salmonberries. I wish they were more available and affordable.
3. I don't like pancakes, except for my late Grandpa's blueberry sourdough pancakes, which are amazing. 
4. I can't stand to take test with my hair down, when I'm trying to think I find it very distracting to have my hair on my neck and face. 
5. I think the most beautiful part of the body is either the arbor vitae or the optic chiasma. (I tried to find pictures, but I couldn't find a good one on Google.)
6. I love being in the mountains. 
7. I hate the winter, I hate the snow, I hate the bitter stinging winds, and I hate the gray, sunless skies.
8. I am absolutely terrified of talking on the phone. I have mini panic attacks every time I have to call someone. I'd rather text, or talk in person.
9. I am horrible at updating my blog, but I love reading others blogs. (Hey it didn't say it had to be 15 facts you didn't know, so I can include a really obvious one on here.)
10. I think my daughter is the cutest thing I've ever seen. (The second cutest thing is baby monkeys, which my daughter has been known to resemble, so she's even cuter.)
11. My husband thinks I'm an amazing cook. I think I'm a horrible cook. I have like 10 things that I ever cook, and I just recycle through them. And they are all just recipes that I follow the directions for, so it's not really to my credit if it does taste good, it's be the inventor of the recipe.
12. We need more bookshelves in our place. We already have a 5-shelf bookcase, a 3-shelf bookcase, plus one shelf on the computer desk, and one shelf on the entertainment center that have books on them, and we still have more books than space. Of course part of the problem is that the lower shelves are really underutilized, thanks to the subject of #10. 
13. I lose pencils at an alarming frequency. Taking a guess, I'd say I lose at least 1 pencil a week, sometimes more. It's very frustrating. (Shout out to my amazing aunt, G.P. who once gave me an amazing gift of a giant pack of mechanical pencils, actually that was only part of the gift - the rest was pretty cool too. But thanks, that pack has been my lifesaver.)
14. The color of my laptop, and that it has a cool texture, so I can run my fingers across it and make noise were large factors in picking the laptop I did. 
15. I got my laptop this year. My husband tried to tell me that I should use a laptop for years, and I resisted. But I finally had to succumb and admit, that I could really really use one, and it's made things so much easier.

Woohoo! I didn't think I'd be able to come up with 15, I was struggling there at the beginning. 

30 Day Blog Challenge

So I'm going to take this blog challenge I saw off of a friend's blog forever ago because now that I submitted my application I have nothing to do. (Not really, I still have tons, I just don't care as much anymore.)

So here is what to expect over the next month:

Day 01 - A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02 - The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03 - A picture of you and your friends
Day 04 - A habit that you wish you didn't have
Day 05 - A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06 - Favorite super hero and why
Day 07 - A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08 - Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09 - Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10 - Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11 - Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12 - How you found out about blogs and why you made one
Day 13 - A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14 - A picture of you and your family
Day 15 - Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16 - Another picture of yourself
Day 17 - Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18 - Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19 - Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20 - Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21 - A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22 - What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23 - Something you crave for a lot
Day 24 - A letter to your parents
Day 25 - What I would find in your bag
Day 26 - What you think about your friends
Day 27 - Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28 - A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29 - In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30 - Who are you?