Ready, Set, SHOOT! - First week of 365

So I've been successful so far...for all 3 days. :)  It's been something that I've really had to be conscious about.  I've already found that I actually have to keep my camera out.  One of the impediments to taking photos has been the inconvenience of getting my camera down from the closet in my bedroom. I was just too darn lazy to go and get it when a photo opportunity arose.  Now I just keep it out on my desk and it's easy to grab.

So here are a few of the photos from my first week.  And it's obvious that I've got a lot of improving to do!

Friday, June 17, 2011 -- I took the theme "Purple" and looked around for something to match the theme.  I appreciated having a theme to inspire me otherwise I'd be looking around for the normal things I take pictures of, and I've got way too many pictures of the normal.

Anyways, my niece was over and playing with the fridge-magnet alphabet letters.

And it's officially summer because we've had more than 5 days in a row of 100+ degree temperatures.  The munchkins were over to go swimming on Friday. (nothing to do with purple but loved his expression)

Saturday, June 18, 2011 - A CRAZY day.  I was going from 6:30am - 10:30pm, non-stop.  My nephew was baptized on Saturday, so it was definitely worth a few pictures.  I learned on Saturday, that there is a time and a place for taking pictures.  After the baptism we all went over to my brothers house for lunch and it was just so darn crowded that it wasn't really practical to whip out the camera.  Besides that I was hungry and so I chose a plate of food over my camera. :)

Here's my brother with his son.

They barely stood still long enough for me to take there picture. Can you tell which ones are brothers?

The little girls stayed still longer, but weren't any happier to get their picture taken.

This was my favorite photo of the day - my parents.

Sunday, June 19, 2011 - Today was Father's Day.  I have the best father in the whole world.  He has been and will continue to be my hero!  This evening we had a family dinner to celebrate Dad.  I made a delicious roast and we had along with it a few of dad's favorites.

My youngest brother and my dad.

One of my dad's favorite desserts - german chocolate cake.  I even made the frosting from scratch and boy, oh, boy what a difference.  It was delicious.

A food post because of my dad

This is a food post, which I would normally save for my food blog - Cre8ToEat; however, this is mostly a blog about how awesome my dad is.

I, in some fit of insanity, offered to cook teriyaki chicken for the ward luau which was scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 19th.  Mostly I offered because I can't stand bad teriyaki chicken.  I also offered to make some Hawaiian style salad dressing. Agghh!!!

So this last week was crazy busy (way crazier than usually). I've been working late every night.  I bought 8 giant bags of chicken thighs from Costco on Thursday and stuck them in the fridge at home (thankgoodness for the extra fridge in the garage).  Friday after work and before my RS Presidents meeting and before all my VT sisters were coming over for game night I went shopping for teri-marinade ingredients.  Had my meeting, had my fun VT friends come over.  We played games until 10:30pm at which point I chased them all home.

This is where my dad flies in with his super cape.  My dad helped me make marinade and get all 160 pieces of chicken de-iced, and into the marinade.  We're were up until midnight.  I went to bed with cold stiff fingers.

The next morning at 7:30am, we got up and played an hour of Wii fit - he kicked my butt at golf and hula-hooping. Then he fired up the grill and the two of us spent the next 3 1/2 hours grilling chicken.  I know that had my dad not helped me I would have been in tears, and only half-way done, by lunch time.

My dad ROCKS!!!!  I bought him a Chipotle bowl for lunch to thank him.

By the way, everyone at the ward party LOVED the chicken.

Randomness

I have the greatest dad in the world. Among other things, he helped me clean out my rented storage unit yesterday at 6am (when it was only 96 degrees). He is always willing to help, and never complains. I think, because I'm single, I rely upon him much more than my other siblings, and he offers his service with a smile. I am sooooooo grateful for him.

Speaking of cleaning out my crap...I think that I have finally reached the time where I can give-up my college stuff. I've been hanging on to hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of pounds of material related to my graduate work. I have binders and binders and files and books all with material related to Great Basin studies, subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, Freemont activities in southern Utah, and floral and faunal analysis of subterranean pits. I've just been unable to get rid of it, because it represents such a HUGE (emphasis on HUGE) portion of my life. I put blood, sweat, tears, and prayer in to the two years I spent working on my Master's degree. I just couldn't bear to part with any portion of it.

However, yesterday as I was lugging around the giant bins of school stuff, for the 4th time (I've had to move them 4 times since I graduated), I finally accepted that there was no earthly reason why I should continue to lug this stuff around. I'm pretty sure at this point in my life I'm not going to go back and get a phD. However, should this change, everything I'm dragging around with me can be found in a library, somewhere. None of it is original work.

SOOO, big epiphany time (drum roll please)...I will be dumping all my archaeology/grad school stuff. BUT WAIT, lest we get too carried away, I will be hanging on to all of my original research, and all of the books I bought -- I haven't received any blows to the head that would completely alter my personality. I am still a hoarder of books.

With this new edict, I should be able to purge at least 150 lbs of junk for my collection. Now I just have to tackle the mission stuff. Do you think 10 years is long enough?

Random Archaeology Pictures

Clovis artifacts from the Gault Site, TX. I worked at the Gualt site during my last year of undergraduate school.
Because of the clay in which all the materials were embedded, we had to wet screen all the soil removed from the excavation pits at the Gault site. Here my crew is taking their turn at the screen...Katie, Rob and our crew chief ??? I built up some serious arm muscles that summer from lifting the buckets filled with water and clay up on to the screens, not to mention some serious bruises on my thigh because the buckets had to make a pit stop there on the way up to the chest high screens.

During my final year of grad school I went back for a few weeks to work at Kay's Cabin, a site in Goshen Valley, UT where I had worked as an undergraduate. It was a Fremont site with two pit structures that we excavated. Here I am taking F1 Notes (a record of all activity on the site) and logging artifact bags.
My best-friend at BYU, Sarah Baer, and I went through the whole program together. Here, she and I are creating a profile map of the end of this vent shaft.I can say that I desperately miss archaeological field work -- the discovery, the attention to detail, and feeling of success and accomplishment that I had when I looked back to see what I had done. However, I don't miss working outside during the months of June, July and August, nor the black crickets, nor sleeping in a tent for months and only having two showers a week. :)