Busy Busy Busy and Getting No Where Quickly

This semester has been really rough. So many distractions from school. So much need. I am ready for a break. I am ready to quit school. I am so tired. My final project? LOL.

I don't know if anyone, besides Mr Winge, will read this. But just in case, get your education while you are young. Stay in school and stay focused. It is so much easier when you are young to get a degree. I dropped out the of school the first time when I was a senior. I had just changed my degree for the third time, from Secondary Ed to Communications-Journalisn (with a minor in photography) and I had four or five quarters to go (basically three semesters--maybe four.) I got engaged, but the plan was to stay in school. Then my fiance was offered a job in his hometown, Monterey, CA. We decided to make the move. I would take a short break and after getting settled return to school. My fiance promised my dad that he would make sure I finished. We got settled. But.... Monterey, at that time, only had a Junior College. I talked to a counselor and I needed three classes to get a general ed associates degree. Around that time I was offered the job of manager at a fabric store and I decided to put school back on hold. Two years later I had my first baby and I started my own business doing special event planning. Things seemed to be going great. When Caleb was 18-months old I decided to go back to school. I discussed it with my husband. We decided I would take one class a quarter and get my associates. The first night of class, I kissed my son and husband good-bye and went to class. 20-minutes into class, my husband showed up with my son and said, "I talked to my parents and they won't watch Caleb while you are taking classes, and I feel if one of us is going back to school, it should be me. As a woman you don't need to go to school." He left Caleb in my arms. The teacher told me to leave and not to come back with a child.... I spent the next three months in Southern California with my parents trying to decide whether to save my marriage or not. I went back. I focused on building my special events business and running the business end of my husbands commercial wrought iron business. Over the next 12-years I had three more sons and two daughters (Roxcy the younger daughter died of SIDS in 1993.) We bought four beach cottages--lived in one, rented two, used one as my studio. I stayed busy. I tried to stay sane. I didn't think about returning to school. In 2000 I filed for divorce. Sold my business. Sold my property and moved to Southern California. I bought a house and enrolled in classes at the local Junior College--but dropped the classes because I decided the kids and I needed time to settle and adjust. In 2002 I remarried. In 2003 my last son was born and we moved here. My 2nd husband worked at UNM and the plan was for me to use his tuition remission and take one class a semester, but after I applied, he decided I needed to work ful-ltime and again school was set aside. I divorced in 2006 and in 2007 I enrolled in classes. I had to retake many classes and began school as a sophomore. My goal was to graduate in May 2012. Going part-time it feels I will never finish. Life has been harsh with too many surprises and a lot of stress.  My current is to Graduate in December 2013. I will be 51 years old.

If you read this and learn one thing.... Just stay in school. No matter what.

Pictures for this week to be added when I am on my PC....

Two Weeks To Go

The web page I am designing is due in about two weeks. I am really starting to feel the pressure. I downloaded a free 30-day trial for dreamweaver, but I am more confused now..... I am making slow progress. Making a lot of changes as I go. Need to focus.

I am also struggling with my 30-day challenge to carry the camera everywhere.... however, I have gotten some great pix lately.

Jeddy and Delaney felt too cool to go to the prom, but they dressed up and we got some MORP pictures--or UN-Prom. What better way to not go to the prom than to find this cool ride and pose near it. It wasn't going anywhere.

 El Jay helped me with some home repairs. The light was so awesome that I turned it into a photo OP.

One advantage to having a teen age driver is that I can shoot pics from a moving car. This was a crazy, overcast, windy day. I got creative using filters.

Sounds Like....

Today in class we learned how to add audio to our web pages. It was a very involved process and I may need help to add sound to my web site. I am not that far yet, though. We have less than a month now til this project is due and school is over.

I have been trying to do my graphics and stuff at home, but have yet to seriously work on my webpage here. I wish I had Dreamweaver at home. I did find a site where I can download Dreamweaver for 15-days for free. I may do that, but I need to do a search for the equivalent of Fetch for PCs..... With my PTDS I am so much more comfortable working at home, in my own space, on my own computer.

I've worked on two designs so far for the home page, this is a draft:

Lost My Mind

I am sitting in my web design class feeling like I am getting no where. Somehow I got to class with Jeddy's thumb drive. OOPS. The USB drive with everything I've saved to it--the backgrounds I scanned, the graphics I've made, my pictures, etc..... it isn't here. It is.... somewhere? I decided that I could start by writing in my BLOG for today. Then I'll work on things I can do....

We had snow this week. I wanted to take some pictures outside and grabbed a red umbrella. Unfortunately, El Jay had played with it (well, I did buy it for him) and it was broken. It became a photo prop.

Life is hectic and crazy. I have had three photo shoots lately (with three more scheduled) Here are two of my favorite images.

OH NO! I Forgot

I sat up in bed, heart pounding. Full of panic and anxiety. "Oh No! I didn't submit my 2nd set of reading notes!" HOW could I have forgotten?

Ah, well.... a plethora of bad excuses ran screaming through my mind as I tossed and turned in bed for the next four hours, hearing the rain beat it's own tune on something metallic that must have been left under a rain spout on the house...listening to the neighbors dog howl....  and watching the shadows change on my bedroom walls.

It's just, kind of, how life feels right now.

Where Am I?

This should have been posted to my Indigo Studios Blog.... I thought I was logged in there, not here. I logged out here, logged in there and successfully copy and pasted this blog there.  I could delete this here, but why?

The theme for WK 12 of the M4H 52 WK Challenge was {SPARKLE}. I have to admit that as the weeks have gone by I've gotten less excited about doing this challenge--but I think that would be the case with any challenge. I have started my own on-going 30-day photography challenge (I'll have a theme or challenge for 30-days at a time and at the end of the 30-days, I'll start a new 30-day challenge with a new theme....) This way I will challenge myself to grow in the areas I need to grow. I'll continue to post almost daily at the SMUGMUG Daily Forum and to follow along with the My Four Hens or other challenges when I feel inspired.

It seems that each week I struggle to get a photog for the M4H challenge. I did not have the {SPARKLE} image until Sunday morning, March 25. I was walking along Rt 66 in Nobhill, making images of old hotel signs and I noticed that if I positioned the camera just right a ray of sun would shoot thru a pinhole sized crack in this sign..... creating a spectacular sunburst. The pigeons add some interest, along with the various textures and the sky. If you considering the theme is Sparkle, and you associate Sparkle to things more glamorous,then  this one small sunburst  coming thru a beat-up, no longer useful, pigeon roost sign is a huge contrast to true bling.... Perhaps the message is that no matter how bad things are, there will always be sunshine on a new day.

Here are a few more images from my stroll down Central Ave/Rt 66.....

 

Dreamweaver

 I'm posting early, because I may not be in class today. My after school babysitter, who picks up my 9-year old at school and brings him home is not available today. I warned El Jay that he might be walking home alone and that no one would be home until his 17-year old brother got home. He was OK with that. He really is becoming independent.  I, however, am struggling with this, a lot.

This week we started playing with Dreamweaver in class. We will create the websites using Dreamweaver.  I have a few good ideas and I'm having fun looking at other sites and, also, looking for backgrounds and graphics.

I found several free (maybe) sources. Here is  a blog with some nice backgrounds and textures. (Click image)

 This one really grabbed me, yet, it isn't at all the direction I've been going in my mind with this project. Except that I've been playing with the idea of using my last name, GARDNER, and the word GROWING. Any input about this would be appreciated. You can contact me at gardner@unm.edu. (Click the image to read a blog with more great textures.)