January 31 31/365

Lauren, with Sadie and Callie. Love!!!

January 30 30/365

January 29 29/365

I was taking some pictures of my students doing historical re-enactments today, and this one was not very good quality, so I just played around with some of the software features for fun.

January 28 28/365

January 27 27/365

Poor puppy. No one will play with her and Willie.

January 26 26/365

Sunni was my student during the 2003-2004 school year. She graduated in 2006 and was attending the University of Texas in Austin when she was tragically killed in a car accident in November 2007. I only knew Sunni for a few years, but I still think about her every day. I can only imagine the loss for those who had more time with her. This brick is found on the Walk of Memories outside our school.

January 25 25/365

The Guadalupe River at Gruene Crossing

January 24 24/365

Great Uncle Ralph's antique tea set.

January 23 23/365

One of the European hinges on the bathroom cabinet Jeff is building.

January 22 22/365

Princess Pea

January 21 21/365

January 20 20/365

At President Obama's Inauguration

January 19 19/365

From the Holocaust Memorial Museum

January 18 18/365

The chandelier in a ballroom in Columbia, MD. I did nothing to this photograph, because I had 4 hours of sleep last night, I'm looking at 5.5 hours tonight, if I go to sleep RIGHT NOW.

January 17 17/365

I took this picture this afternoon in the Kohl's parking lot. It is hair. Artificial hair. If your hair fell off in the Kohl's parking lot, don't you think you'd at least stop and pick it up?

January 16 16/365

This is where my daughter, The Princess, lives.

January 15 15/365

One of my favorite places.

January 14 14/365

This is the view from my classroom window. Gotta love the Texas Hill Country.

January 13 13/365

One of three candle holders in the kids' playroom. Apparently, you get the red cast when you hold your finger over the flash. Who knew?

January 12 12/365

Sweet boy Leroy. Notice the notch in his ear from fighting.

January 11, 11/365

Another one for the chronicle of my daily life. Back on Labor Day 2007 my husband and I started a complete remodel of our master bath, without a plan. All we needed to do was replace the old toilet. One thing leads to another, and next thing you know, we're breaking up tile, smashing cabinets and scraping up vinyl flooring. This empty space is the last thing before the project will be complete. Until this weekend, the old, painted cabinets were still in here. The original plan was to take off the old doors, strip the paint off the face of the cabinet, stain and Handy Hubby was going to make new doors. Fine. Remember that "one thing leads to another"? Well, we discovered they'd made the entire thing out of the cheap-ass plywood you use for roofing. Jeff was horrified, and that stuff doesn't lend itself to staining, so out it came.

January 10 10/365

I spent some time on Saturday morning playing around with different settings on my camera. I sat on the couch and took dozens of shots of this pile of laundry with my camera at different settings. This may not be the best of the bunch, but I'm tired of looking at them, so I just picked one. Besides, this project is also supposed to be a chronicle of my everyday life, and a lot of my couch time is spent looking at laundry on the floor.

January 11

I haven't given up, I just can't find my camera cord to upload the pictures I've been taking.

January 9 9/365

I planned on taking my new camera's instruction manual to work today and studying it some before taking any pictures. There was Much Drama in High School Land today, however, and I didn't even realize that the manual didn't make it into my bag until I got back home. Oh well. Did I mention that my new camera has a special "food" setting for photographing delicious dishes? It doesn't even require any advanced knowledge! So, here are some strawberries that I plan to serve over the most delicious pound cake I have ever eaten tomorrow.

January 8 8/365

This is what seven years of No Child Left Behind has gotten us. What a legacy!!! (Actually, this is an AP World History class, and these students are anything but slackers.)

I promise this will be my last bad photo. I got some tips on ISO and improving the resolution of my photos and I will be reading up on it before I take pictures tomorrow.

January 7 7/365

The wading pool in Landa Park. The Comal River is fed by a natural spring, so the water is always 72 degrees. That, combined with high humidity, gives us the eerie steam coming off the surface of the water.

January 6 6/365

It wasn't the National Championship, but it was better than nothing.

January 5

This is why you shouldn't leave your holiday decorations up past New Year's.

January 4

Sunday. Cloudy and cold. Back to work and school tomorrow. We all spent the day doing pretty much what Sadie is doing here--lazing around trying to keep warm.

January 3

My best friend was in town for the weekend and we drove up to Wimberley to look at the houses my dad and brother are building. We stopped for lunch and some window shopping downtown. Wimberley is your typical small touristy town with a historical/shopping district and lots of boutiques and shops selling pretty much all the same stuff. There are probably 20 of these towns in the Texas Hill Country. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday and we had a nice drive and walk.

In between two shops was a little hidden garden area, where a local artisan had set up his wares to display. His "wares" were animal sculptures made from recycled scrap metal, roofing shingles, wood, antlers, and other found objects. There were probably 15 types of animals, including a platypus and a t-rex. Here's a "longhorn" I particularly liked.

January 2

Every school day my son Garrett and I pass this house on our way to his school. These people really like to decorate for the holidays. Actually, they like to decorate all the time, but when it's a holiday they add large inflatables, plastic characters and garlands.

January 1

I didn't make any resolutions this year. I usually don't, because I feel bad when I don't keep them. Instead, I try to do something different or new. I heard about this project from a friend on Jan.1, and since I had snapped a pic of myself with two friends shortly after midnight, it was easy to jump in and get started. After all, I've had this blog set up for a year, at least, and haven't done anything with it.

So, let's get started. This is me on the left with friends Shannon and Judy. I've known Shannon since birth, practically, and Judy since high school. They are neighbors. (It's a small town.) Shannon had a little get-together for New Year's. I had just gotten a new camera and had it along in my pocket. So, after midnight and a couple glasses of champagne, out it came!