365 Days of Memories

Saturday, August 10, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 221 (So far behind!)

*Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.*

- American Splendor -

Friday, July 5, 2013

365 Days Of Memories Take Four - Day 185

Just... rain. That's bout all I can say about the last few days.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 182

Tropical Storm Passing through.

*I wish I could lay down beside you when the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun.
But like everything I've ever known,
It'd disappear someday...
So I spend my whole life hiding my heart away.*

I joke around a lot with my friends and family about how I'll probably never get married because I don't have time to even think about meeting someone, or how I'll never have kids because the little ones at work drive me crazy... but the truth is that's really just a defense mechanism. When I look at pictures like this of a couple walking along the beach at a storm rolls by in the distance I see everything that I want and hope to have someday... and I wonder if I'll ever get the chance.

I've always said I think it's harder to find love the older you get. I remember being 20 and thinking it would be so easy... and having boyfriends and always thinking that would be 'the one' I would marry someday. But none of them were ever the one and I'm not the kind of girl to settle so when I realized this, I let them go... and sometimes they let me go. And now, the older I get the more I realize it IS harder to find love in your late 20's and early 30's. Probably because at my age you aren't looking to just fool around.

But the truth is,

I just want to meet that guy who loves to take walks on the beach and understands the beauty of a sunset or a sunrise or just a blue sky on a clear day.
I want to meet that guy who will pull the car over so I can take a picture of an awesome storm coming in.
I wanna find someone who likes staying up late on Fridays but knows that you don't have to go out drinking to enjoy it. That sometimes just being at home curled up by the fire with a good book is enough.

I want to meet the man who stays in bed late on Saturday mornings because that's what Saturday mornings are for.

But most of all I want to meet the guy who loves me... and who I love back.

I don't know... sometimes I guess it just seems like it'll never happen.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four -- Day 173

Super Moon

Taking pictures of the moon is no easy task. You have to have the right type of camera, zoom lense, and no how to use the manual settings. I do not have an extreme zoom lense on my camera so I just used what I did have. Didn't do too badly though. Seeing the Super Moon last night was a really neat thing though and it looked so cool just hanging out there in the sky :)

Friday, June 21, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 171

*All the noise and the voices are screaming what they have to say.
And the headlines and sound bytes are giving me demons to hate.
And the man on tv, he tells me it's ugly but if you ask me,

It's a beautiful world,
It's a beautiful world.

Oh there's tears and there's fears and there's losses and crosses to bare.
And sometimes the best we can do is just to whisper a prayer,

and press on because, there's so much to live for and so much to love...

In this beautiful world.
Say what you will, but I still believe
it's a beautiful world.

And I know, I'm not dreaming it.
I just choose to believe in it.

So I hate that I sometimes miss what's right in front of my eyes.
And I know at the end of my road I'll be wanting more time.
Just another sunset, one more kiss from my baby, a smile from a friend...

In this beautiful world.

Say what you will but I still believe,

It's a beautiful world.*

-- Dierks Bentley and Patty Griffin --

Thursday, June 20, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 170

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 168

Gone Fishin'

June 2013Bodie Island

Outer Banks, North Carolina

*When the frantic pace of life attacks me,
and weighs me to the ground,
I long for someplace to escape to,
the one place I have found.

No stoplights to obey.

No signs or limits there.
Just drop the hook and make your home,
almost anywhere.

Where the sky meets the water,
Where the wind is my song,
Where the sun is my brother,
That's where I belong.

The gentle motion of the seas

just rocks me off to sleep.
No sirens, cars or screams
Just the quiet ocean breeze.

A frigate bird encircles me a thousand feet above
She dips her wing and bows her head
Like we share a common love.

Where the sky meets the water,
Where the wind is my song,
Where the sun is my brother,
That's where I belong.*

-- Alan Jackson --

Friday, June 14, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 164

Egret/Heron at the Bodie Island Lighthouse

Thursday, June 13, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 163

Bodie Island Lighthouse

*We are told to let our light shine

and if it does,
we won't need to tell anybody it does.

Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining...

They just shine.*

- Dwight L. Moody -

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four - Day 161

Second Day at the Beach... Clouds rolling in.

Monday, June 10, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four! - Day 160

Back from vacation and I have many photos to share of our wonderful trip. This first one is of sunset over our beach house on our first night. I had an amazing time with my family and definitely did not want to come home! I love our annual Outer Banks trips :)

Saturday, June 1, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four! - Day 151

*They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Maybe that's true... maybe it isn't.

I only know this;

It has to make you better.
It HAS to.*

-- 10th and Wolf --

Sunday, May 26, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four! - Day 145

The invariable mark of wisdom

is to see the miraculous

in the common.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Saturday, May 18, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four! -- Day 137

It's been a crazy week of getting back to work and making money... YAY! But it's been amazingly wonderful. I'm thrilled to be back in the swing of things and back to working with 'my' kiddos and co-workers again. This Calvin and Hobbes quote caught my eye today and it is so true... my life is better than I could have imagined even if it's not quite how I imagined it would be, and I truly do believe that from here things will only get better :)

Friday, May 10, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four -- Day 129

*Well, when the path is steep and stony and the night is all around,

And the way that you must take is far away,
When your heart is lost and lonely and the map cannot be found,
Here's a simple little spell that you can say;

You've got to face facts, act fast on your own,

Preparation, perspiration, dynamite determination
Pack snacks, make tracks all alone.

Don't be cute. Time to scoot. Head out on your destination,

Chase the future,

Face the great unknown.*

-- Fraggle Rock --

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

365 Days Take Four! -- Day 126

My homage to last night's amazing episode of How I Met Your Mother... :)

Monday, May 6, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take Four! -- Day 125

*One Hundred Years from now it won't matter
What kind of car I drove,

What kind of house I lived in,
How much money I had in the bank,
Nor what my clothes looked like.
But,
The world may be a little better
because I was important in the life of a child.*

Forest Witcraft

Today marked the end of a long journey as I finally finished my student teaching and turned in all of my paperwork. On Saturday I will 'graduate' (though I'm not participating in the ceremony since this is my second degree) and I will officially have my teaching degree.

There is nothing more fulfilling in life then getting to watch dreams come true, and being a teacher gives me the opportuity to be a part of helping others discover their dreams every single day. I have worked with children for 15 years beginning when I was 13 and started babysitting for my neighbors. I have been a Lead Head Start teacher for 3 years now and before that I worked in a day care in infant, toddler and preschool classrooms. I've worked with every age group from birth-5 and I love it!

Nothing, absolutely nothing compares to working with children who come from at risk and low income populations. Getting to be a constant in their lives, to show them that people do care about them, that education is a good thing and that they are LOVED beyond measure makes all of the hard stuff completely worth it.

And it's because of this experience that I look forward to the next chapter of my life and can't wait to get back to working with my kiddos!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take FOUR -- Day 123

Nothing big or insightful today...

Just Squidward in sidewalk chalk :)

By my goddaughter, who was five at the time.

Pretty impressive stuff.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take FOUR -- Day 120

Awareness.
Warning... some of these images are not for the faint of heart.

On March 7th 2011 I was sitting in my bedroom working on sewing a quilt for my nephew and my back itched... that simple itch led to me discovering this;

This funky looking mole on my back that immediately

left me thinking something wasn't right.

Long story short, the next day I called a dermatologist office in town, a day later they saw me and less than a week after that my back looked like this;

A five inch incision for the .35 mm Stage I Malignant Melanoma I was incredibly lucky to have caught myself. Especially considering it was on my back, a place I rarely look.

I am lucky.

Stage I Melanoma comes along with a 99% cure rate, though deligence is key since many melanoma survivors have experienced multiple melanomas. Beyond stage I the survival and cure rates drop dramatically.

Since my diagnosis I have had 14 other moles removed. Only 3 of those moles have been considered 'benign' and 6 of those were considered atypical enough to require additional surgery. The rest will be monitored for any changes.

I've had people tell me that melanoma really isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

Tell me, does this look "not that bad"...

Melanoma isn't something to joke around about.

I'm not a person who spent her teens or young adult years vegging in the tanning bed.

In fact, I probably spent a total of less than 45 minutes of my life in a tanning bed.

I have no family history.

One bad burn in your childhood can lead to melanoma.

Know the facts that I had no clue about.

Melanoma is the leading cancer in young adults.

It is the leading killer of women aged 25-30.

It is also HIGHLY CURABLE when caught in its earliest stages.

May is Skin Cancer

and

Melanoma Awareness Month.

Help spread the Awareness.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

365 Days of Memories Take FOUR -- Day 119

And then... sometimes even the simplest prayers go unanswered.

But maybe it's not a bad thing.

I don't know.

I've got another dermatologist appointment under my belt which means I've lived another 6 months cancer free and it also means simply that I've been alive another 6 months. 6 months I might not have had if I hadn't found the melanoma when I did.

So yeah, I had to have another biopsy today, and yeah it sucks. And yeah I'm back to bandages and vaseline and a nice sized hole in my back for the next few weeks.

BUT,

The good news is the doctor doesn't think it's melanoma this time. And she did the first time apparently right away (though she told me she didn't think it was anything that time too...).

So now a week or so to wait for any news... which is not the news I was hoping for, but it could be worse.

Could always be worse.