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A Happy Thanksgiving

It was fun, and it was good! We had such a nice day with our family today. All my sons were home and Mom, Jim, Jeff, Jana and Beth came too. We had turkey and all the trimmings, good conversation and an all around restful day. After we ate, the boys went to a movie, which is a kind of Thanksgiving tradition for them.

While we were cooking, I took these photos of Jesse and Matt. For years, Matt has used the same password for his banking, Facebook, etc. and he decided it was time for a change. All this time, Jesse has apparently been trying to figure out this old password, so now Matt was ready to reveal it, but he made Jesse play a sort of Hangman type game to solve the mystery. They are just so cute to be in their twenties and still acting like they are little boys. Warms a mom's heart!

The End of an Era

With my youngest graduating from high school in May, I am constantly facing milestones. Jonathan has played in the school band for seven years, and his team is still in the playoffs, but every week I wonder if this football game will be the last one. It was senior night at the game a few weeks ago. We got to go down on the field at halftime and attach a senior pin to Jonathan's uniform. I do not have clearance to enter the band section in the stands (they aren't playing around with security in high school these days), but with my camera and its big zoom lens, I must have looked important enough to get close. I just loved these shots of Jon!

The Family in the Family Room

Yesterday was a fun Saturday. I went to the scrapbook store and picked up my Scripts kit for November. It's like getting a present someone picked out for you on a monthly basis. Well, you do have to pay for it, but it's always a surprise to see what will be inside. I also went to Hobby Lobby and bought an acrylic album to make for Christmas. I have become enchanted with Ali Edwards' idea of making a Daily December album. You make the album in advance and then add pictures on a daily basis in the month of December. I got a little start on mine and I think I am going to love it! 

Speaking of Ali, I got to participate in an online chat with her and the other designers at designerdigitals.com yesterday. There were chats and freebies every hour, and they had 30% off everything in their store. I really loved this! I chatted, downloaded, and organized all my new stuff!

In the meantime, we were hunkered down in the family room watching football games. It was a cool blustery November day, and it felt good to be inside. Mark had ordered a new lamp for the table beside the sofa. He set it up and then did something I never thought I would see. He slit a hole for the cord in our Oriental rug. Shocking, I know, but what we had done with our previous lamp was to run the cord over the rug to the edge and then underneath the rug to the outlet. Just plumb dangerous and we were sick of this. Anyway, after he turned on the new lamp and lit a fire in the fireplace, the room was so cozy. I was feeling so maternal I had to snap a few shots:

And here's the new lamp:

Election Reflection

Just ask anyone in my family; I am not a political person. I do my duty and vote, but for some reason, I don't feel the passion for the candidate or the issues that some people do. For our family, this election was very interesting because of our young sons. Like many people their age, they found themselves in the Obama camp, and they had views about the topics which were fun to discuss at home.

I made a scrapbook page after election day, and by the time I finished it, I felt as though I had completed an assignment for history class. I think it will be fun to look back on this information one day.

For the main photo, I had this idea to use Photoshop to capture the excitement of the young people--to make it look like one of them was doing something slightly naughty born out of his fervor for his candidate. So Matt and I asked one of our neighbors if we could borrow her fence for a photo, and I used a graffiti font and paint drip Photoshop brushes to complete the effect. This was really a fun project for me, and Matt ended up posting my layout in one of the forums he's a part of! Here's what the text says:

November 4, 2008 marked the end of the longest Presidential campaign in U.S. history. After a 21-month long hard-fought contest, Democratic Senator Barak Obama of Illinois soundly defeated his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. The election was considered a historic one. Obama ran a brilliant campaign, winning strong support from young and minority voters. He is the first African-American to win a Presidential election. His powerful and brilliantly organized campaign was the first in history to be funded solely by private donations, financially dominating McCain’s effort. The Obama movement steamrolled forward to an election day marked by a record 130 million total votes cast. We hope that the national and international wave of support President-Elect Obama has generated will serve to move our country forward toward stability and peace.

And here's the page:

One of Those Mom Things

This weekend I made one of those layouts that expresses something deep in your psyche. My sons are ages 18 to 23, and right now 3 of them are living with us. Sometimes all 4 of them are home at the same time. They keep rather late hours, as opposed to their parents. My husband Mark is happy to close our bedroom door and doze off into never never land, but I sleep fitfully till I know they are all home.

Our driveway can only hold 2 of their cars, so the first two in park there, and the last two park on the street.  Every so often they throw me a curve and put a car in the garage. So I am getting up continuously and counting the cars till they are all home.

It's funny, since I made this page a couple of days ago, this topic has come up in conversation with several people. I guess this is the stage we are in and it will pass as the rest of them have done. I love all those Mom stages!

I tried something new with this page. The overlay behind the photos was without color in its original state and I colored in some of the spaces in Photoshop. Just like a good old coloring book!

Weekend Consult--Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a bone disease characterized by low bone density and abnormal bone architecture. It is most common in women after menopause because estrogen enhances bone integrity. Osteoporosis can also result from steroid use or treatment, excessive alcohol use, certain antiseizure medications, and overactivity of the thyroid gland. The main adverse effect of osteoporosis is fracture of bone, the most common sites of fracture being the spine and hip.

Osteoporosis is so common that I go to great strides to prevent and treat it. Every woman over age 65 should have a bone density test (DXA); I also recommend testing for anyone with the risk factors mentioned above, or a postmenopausal woman under age 65 who is underweight or has a personal history of a fragility fracture. A fragility fracture is one that occurs from a standing height or lower in the absence of significant trauma such as a motor vehicle accident. Many times my patients will tell me that they tripped and broke a bone, not realizing that this raises concerns that their bone density may be low.

Bone density is tested with the DXA scan; in this test the subject's bone density is compared to the normal bone density of 30-year-olds of the same gender. Several sites are measured in the spine and hip, and a T-score is assigned. This is a statistical term measuring the standard deviation from the 30-year-old norm. We use the T-score to make decisions about treatment and to measure improvement over time.

Every adult should strive to get enough calcium and vitamin D for bone health. Adolescents require 1300 mg of calcium daily at this crucial time of bone growth. Premenopausal women should get 1000 mg, and postmenopausal women 1200-1500 mg. Vitamin D requirements are 400-800 international units daily, the larger amount being recommended for postmenopausal women. To determine the number of mg in a serving of dairy products, look on the label and add a "0" to the percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) that is noted. A glass of milk, with 30% of the RDA, has 300 mg of calcium. This method provides a more accurate assessment for different age groups. Also important in the fight to keep bones healthy is regular weight-bearing exercise.

Most of the prescription medications we use focus on reducing bone resorption; common examples include alendronate (Fosamax), Actonel, Boniva, and Evista. For severe cases or when patients don't respond to these, there is a bone building treatment called Forteo that can be used for 2 years.

For those of you with children and adolescents, encourage calcium-rich foods and exercise, as these are crucial factors to enable them to reach a high peak bone density. After age 30 our bone density starts to decline, and if we have reached a sufficient peak, we can stand the loss without making us at risk of fracture.

Yummy Fall

I feel that fall is in full swing! The air is cool and crisp, and the wonderful autumn colors are starting to peek through. I find taking photos and scrapping them in fall to be so rewarding. Last night I got the chance to get a few at the Hoover-Pelham football game. It was Senior night for the band; at halftime they announced the seniors by name and each received a pin from his parents in honor of 4 years of service. I was very proud of Jonathan! I sneaked up behind him for these photos.

Today I celebrated fall by making this scrapbook page. It was for a challenge at designerdigitals.com. I am really enjoying participating in the fun activities on this site.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Tapas!

My 23-year-old son Matt recently took a two-month trip to Europe. He went alone, carrying all his belongings on his back. He knew no one there when he left, and had met lots of new friends by the time he returned.

He visited Spain for a couple of weeks, staying in Barcelona and Granada. He was enamored there by a popular dish called tapas. Actually this is a general term for a variety of appetizers. With tapas, apparently anything goes--seafood (like squid for instance), sausage, vegetables...just whatever you can eat in a small serving, allowing you to try lots of different foods while focusing more on conversation than a complex meal.

In Granada, when you go into a bar and order a drink, you get a tapa for free. Matt's favorite tapa was the tortilla espanola, otherwise known as a Spanish omelette. This omelette is made of potatoes as well as eggs. He took note of how it was served and was determined to try it after returning to America.

So tonight, we got to try this new dish. Matt started off by frying diced potatoes and onions in a skillet till they were brown.

He then added beaten eggs and let them cook till it was all set. Next, with Mark's help, he eased the omelette out of the pan and onto a cookie sheet, and then they flipped the whole thing back into the skillet to cook the other side.

To prepare the tapa, you toast mini bagels and spread on some Ranch dressing. Then you add a bagel-sized square of the omelette and top it off with lettuce and tomato. Very tasty indeed! 

This would be a great signature dish for Matt's repertoire. Could be a very impressive thing to whip up for a young lady, especially if he tells the tales of his adventures in Spain in the meantime.

I'm in the pictures!

I don't usually scrap photos of myself, for two main reasons...I am usually taking the pictures, and I am getting more wrinkles by the day! Sigh...inwardly you still feel the same as always, you just jump with surprise when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror! Thank goodness they say it's what's on the inside that counts.

But this weekend, I had some pictures that I was in, and I really enjoyed making pages with them. I was able to attend a bridal tea last Sunday and saw some of my friends from high school there. We were really close in high school and we just don't get to see each other much. The tea was for April, who is my friend Kristi's daughter. My friend Patti took these pictures and I ordered them from her Kodak gallery. She is the one who organizes our class reunion and she always takes tons of photos at any event. This is a paper page...so much fun to play with the felt embellishments.

And the next one is a digital page telling an unusual story about how I came to purchase the top I am wearing in this picture. I ran into the mom of a neighbor of ours in the store, and she casually suggested that I buy it so I did! Hopefully you can click on the page (it may take a few clicks) and read the journaling better. I used lots of blending modes in Photoshop on this photo to give it the bright and high contrast look. I thought it worked really well on wrinkles! I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Reflections on a Long Weekend

I have a confession to make. I feel guilty a lot of the time I am home. Not when I am preparing meals or doing laundry, but during the time that I indulge in being a couch potato. Now I know I work hard and I deserve some down time. But after a while, I just wonder why I don't accomplish more with the free time I have. 

I think I learned something about the answer this past weekend. Mark and I took off on Friday, something we just love to do. Now you would think that being your day off, you would spend it doing something unique. But what I noticed about myself is that on that Friday and Saturday, I did what I normally do on Saturday and Sunday--ran errands, did laundry, worked out and scrapbooked. Not that I don't enjoy some of this, but it was just my usual stuff. 

Then Sunday came around, and you know what? Even though I did some mundane things, for the first time in a long time, I really wanted to do them. For instance:

I made a roast in my crockpot. This was actually fun rather than drudgery.

            I cut roses from the back yard. 

I went to a bridal tea for the daughter of one of my high school friends. I hadn't seen my friend in several years and I didn't know if I would know anyone there besides her. As it turned out, several of my really good high school friends showed up and we had a marvelous time.

I went to visit my mom. When I got there, I found my youngest son mowing her grass.

The point is that after my normal two days away from work, spent doing things that I usually do, I actually wanted to do some new things. This actually made me feel like a human being again. It let me know that for most of the time, even though my life is really great, it does take a lot out of me. And if I don't feel like cleaning out closets, or cooking, or volunteering my time in some worthwhile endeavor, it's really OK. I am just doing the best I can. I wonder if any of you can relate?