I’m so excited that’s it’s finally time for Blissdom!

I attended the Nashville based blogging conference last year for the first time. You can read about that here and here.

This year, I’m even more pumped because I get to be a Community Leader.

I’m flying with Amber from The Run Amuck today, and we’d appreciate any easy travel prayers you want to throw our way. Her wee boy, Titus, will be along for the ride too! It’s cool though, I have some experience flying with babies. (I’m sure that surprises you!)

In fact, we’ll be in travel mode for a few weeks at the Carter house, so I thought today would be a good day to point you towards some of my packing tips, too.

Don’t worry, I’ll be checking back in with pictures and details from the conference!

Look out Nashville!

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday!

This year I’m using Becky Higgin‘s Project Life Kit as an easy and fun way to capture our little family’s daily life.  I’m using the Clementine version with a Signature Black Binder.

And every Tuesday I link up with my good friend Jessica at The Mom Creative. Click the button below to see other Project Life posts and much more.

Hello Week 7! I kept it pretty simple this week, but I did add a 6×12 insert page to hold some of Miles’ extra Valentines.

A closer look at the first page:

Top Photo: I forgot to snap a picture this day, so I found some cover art from two shows I’ve been watching obsessively lately: Downton Abbey and Once Upon a Time.

Bottom Photos: (L) Miles and I. I used my gorillapod tripod and figured out the timer on my camera. (R) I took my Instax camera to Community Group on Wednesday night. Seth had fun taking pictures.

Insert: front and back

A closer look at the second page:

Top Photos: (L) Miles playing with his LeapPad on the flight to close on our house! (R) Miles and Nora playing.

Middle: There are two instagram shots from our tattoo adventure!

Bottom Photos: (L) There are actually two photos here. I used one of these flip pockets. Details in the photo below.  (R) An instagram collage of me tasting sushi.

Here’s the photo flipped up:

Still really loving this project! Can’t wait to include photos from my trip to Blissdom next week.

** Amazon affiliate links used.

Yes, as I alluded in my last post, we made a trip to a tattoo parlor last week and I marked off #11 on my 30 by 30 List. This one was a little special though. I decided to post the story at A Deeper Story for my turn over there.

Here’s a snippet:

I’m not sure if you’ve ever had a reason to be sitting on a therapist’s couch, spilling your deepest hurts to a perfect stranger, but maybe you can imagine the awkwardness. I know she wants to help, she’s so kind, but still. It’s just an odd feeling.

She asks us, “What have you done to gain closure? To commemorate losing Whitman?”

We stare back blankly. Nothing really. I think of that plate stuffed in the back of my closet. The one with the tiniest set of footprints you’ve ever seen.

The thought of hanging it on a wall where I’ll see it daily makes me feel like I’m choking.

“You might think this is funny, but I’ve actually been thinking about getting a tattoo. Just something small…”

She visibly brightens. “I think that’s a lovely idea.”

My husband and I smile at each other. It’s a good idea.

Read the rest at A Deeper Story.

My Mom came over for the weekend and let Patrick and I (and my brother and sister-in-law) have a date night! Thanks Mom!

We chose a Japanese place to eat, and then I remembered that tasting sushi was #29 on my 30 by 30 List. So I ordered something I knew I would like as my main meal and tasted one of Patrick’s tuna rolls.

You’ve probably already guessed by that last face, but I didn’t love it.

And yes, I know, Arkansas isn’t the best spot in the country for sushi, but Patrick has had sushi all over and is kind of a snob about it. He gave it two thumbs up.

And just for fun, I’m including this little bit of cinematic genius. I told Patrick to take a few pictures, but he decided to film it without my knowledge.

Have you ever watched people try to eat bugs on Fear Factor? Yeah, that’s pretty much it. The video is really dark, but only a minute and thirty seconds…

Ah, well. At least I can mark it off!

After dinner, Patrick looked across the table and asked, “So you wanna mark something else off your list?”

So we did. More details on that soon.

If you’ve been following here for awhile, you may remember that we used to live in a hangar house in Kansas.

(Sorry about the tiny picture, it’s an oldie from my blogspot days.)

We moved to Northwest Arkansas last June, but our hangar house has taken it’s sweet time in selling.  Yesterday we flew back over to Kansas to sign the closing papers and HALLELUJAH it has sold. We are no longer home owners.

The excitement of selling is dimmed ever-s0-slightly by the loss we took on it, but did I mention IT SOLD?

We’re feeling quite free today.

As a part of my 30 by 30 list, I’ve decided to learn how to fly! More on the how and why in my Learning to Fly posts.

More flying!

Last week we flew over to Siloam Springs (a neighboring city) to practice taking off and landing more.  As I’m sure you can imagine, those two things are the most nerve-wracking skills to learn.  They certainly are for me, anyway.

After the landing, you can see me pull on my jacket and mutter something along the lines of, “Is it really warm in here?” I just get so nervous! I’ve been reassured by my instructor, my husband, and pretty much every other pilot I know, that after a little more practice it will be no big deal. We’ll see about that.

Also, Siloam Springs doesn’t have a control tower so there were some new things to learn about talking on the radio in that situation.

We did a few landings on this flight before we realized I was stomping on the brakes right after we touched down. Turns out, that’s not a good idea! Oops. (In my defense, the rudder and brakes are the SAME pedal, you just push in different places.)

I could see Patrick’s blood pressure rising when I told him that.  Good thing he’s not my instructor, eh?

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday!

This year I’m using Becky Higgin‘s Project Life Kit as an easy and fun way to capture our little family’s daily life.  I’m using the Clementine version with a Signature Black Binder.

And every Tuesday I link up with my good friend Jessica at The Mom Creative. Click the button below to see other Project Life posts and much more.

 This week I’m guest posting on Jessica’s blog, so you’ll have to click over there to see this week’s pages!

A few weeks ago I read a post by Tsh from Simple Mom called A Day in the Life. Honestly, I was surprised at just how fascinating I thought it was! There’s something fun about getting a peek into the nitty gritty of someone else’s life, isn’t there?

Then I saw this post by Ali Edwards about documenting a day in her life, and her plan to add it in with her Project Life album.

And I was sold.

So on Wednesday of this week I snapped pictures and jotted notes in a word file all day long. It was a fairly typical day, I suppose. Now that we own a small business and I stay/work at home our schedules are a little more fluid. Mondays and Thursdays are school days for Miles and I try to squeeze in flight lessons too, of course!

I’m going to print this 8.5 x 11 photo page as well as the text below, and put them in my Project Life album for this week.

I used Cathy Zielske’s Template from DesignerDigitals to make the collage

Notes from the day:

4:50 am Patrick’s alarm goes off. Two days a week he goes to a 5:30 class at the gym. I happily roll back over, but I’m expecting Miles any minute because if one person is stirring, he’s usually up next.

6:45 am Patrick comes back in, I haven’t moved since he left and Miles is still sleeping soundly!

7:00 am I drag myself out of bed and brush my teeth.  I ask Patrick about the weather (trying to decide if flying is an option) and get an impromptu lesson on reading the weather metar.  I didn’t score well. (Plus the weather is bad, no flying today!)

7:30 am Miles finally awakes! He’s in a happy mood and is thrilled when I offer to make him waffles (the frozen variety). I make myself a smoothie and Patrick reheats some breakfast casserole.

8:00 am We watch cartoons and check email while we’re eating breakfast. Then I hurry to get my running clothes on.

8:30 am Hurrying to get Miles dressed and heading out the door to meet Heidi to run!

9:00 am Drop Miles at the gym daycare and meet Heidi to run. We debate for a few minutes about running inside or out on the trail. Decide to run in due to her hamstring strain. She’ll be on the elliptical and I’ll run on the treadmill.

9:30 am After lots of stretching and even more chatting we get going. I walk for a ¼ mile and then start my run! Only plus with the treadmill is getting to watch TV while you run. Live with Kelly gets me through 3.1 miles in 38 minutes. Not too shabby.

10:30 am More stretching and cooling down and then I pick up Miles and head home.

10:40 am Detour. Miles spots Starbucks on the way and says, “I was a sweet boy at da gym. I get a cakepop?” So I cave. I call Patrick at work to see if he wants Starbucks too. Of course! So I pick up a coffee for him as well and then swing by his office on our way home.

11:00 am Back home! Miles plays with his trains for a bit while I jump in the shower. Running 3 miles really works up a sweat!

11:30 am Lunch. We eat and watch an episode of Little Einsteins. While that’s finishing up, I tidy up the kitchen and start a load of laundry.

12:00 pm  Miles goes down for a nap. Ahhhh….

12:15 pm  I sit down to pay bills and do some work online.

12:30 pm Patrick comes home for lunch. We only live a few minutes from his office. He’s on a work call so I keep working too.

1:00 pm Done with bills and sorting mail. I get up to check on Miles. Still out! That’s a surprise. So I start another load of laundry and work on his Valentines for his school party tomorrow. Patrick heads back to the office.

1:50 pm Miles is finally up!  He’s playing in his room and I decide to go clean out my car. It’s become a trash heap.

2:00-3:00 pm Folding laundry, picking up the house, playing trains with Miles.

3:00 pm Hit a wall. Running usually gives me MORE energy, but on the day of, I tend to feel really tired early in the evening. Whoa. Vegged out on the couch for a bit.

3:30 pm Ok. Must get things done.  Getting ready for my haircut appointment. I always want to dress cute when I’m meeting a new stylist. Like if I’m dressed cute they’ll give me a better haircut? Not sure about that theory.

4:30 pm Dressed and ready. I check email and etc and Miles watches some cartoons.

5:00 pm Patrick comes home and he takes over with Miles while I head out to my appointment.

5:30 pm – 7:00 pm Haircut! I love, love it! Took awhile because we decided to straighten it to see how it would look. That’s always a process.

7:15 pm I’m late! Patrick and Miles are already at our Community Group, we’re at the Mason’s tonight.  Love hearing about the guys’ trip to Africa. Love the time to hang with the sweet women in the group.

9:45 pm Finally drag ourselves home! Miles hates to leave and cries about a dime he wanted to take with us. It wasn’t ours.

10:00 pm  Put Miles to bed. LATE for him.  Patrick and I putter around the house some: cleaning up the kitchen, feeding the dog, and watch a netflix show about Alaska. Or was it sharks? Clearly I was dozing off.

11:00 pm We both crash hard tonight after working out earlier in the day.

So glamourous, right? I like the idea of doing this a few times a year though, even if it seems boring, because I think it will be fun to look back on down the road.

So what did you do on Wednesday?

I’ve already crossed #13 Take a Photography Class off my 30 by 30 List, but when Brandy from Bella Pop Photography contacted me about her online classes, she offered a deal I couldn’t refuse.

Brandy is a wedding photographer who decided to expand her business by teaching photography classes as well. She saw my 30 Things post and wondered if I would be interested in being a guinea pig in her first ever Shooting in Manual online class.

Let me think.

YES.

We’re on week 2, and so far I am so impressed. I love that I can work at my own pace, watching the videos and reading the lesson when I get a few minutes here and there.  And I really love the private facebook group where all the class members can share their weekly photos and get feedback.

These photos are from the first week. No, they aren’t going to win any prizes, BUT they are taken completely in manual mode. That’s a big deal for this auto-addict.

I can’t wait to learn more, and continue growing my photography skills.

P.S. She’s starting another Shooting in Manual class on March 1st. Maybe this would be a good Valentine’s present??

** Disclosure: Bella Pop Photography gave me free admission to the Shooting in Manual class, but all opinions are my own. As always.

As a part of my 30 by 30 list, I’ve decided to learn how to fly! More on the how and why in my Learning to Fly posts.

Sooo… an alternate title for this video would be: The Time I Almost Puked on My Instructor.

I don’t get motion sick easily and I have no trouble doing steep turns with Patrick or Adam (my instructor) but something about doing it myself makes me so ill. At a particularly whiney moment (that I edited out) I complained that it felt like we were going too fast. To which Adam replied “It’s supposed to be fast. Patrick would be so ashamed.”

Clearly my goal is not to become an aerobatic pilot. I’ll stick with nice, calm flight thankyouverymuch.

During the next lesson we worked on a lot of take-offs and landings.  I could definitely use more work in this area, but I’m getting a little better.

I’ve heard the word “solo” mentioned here and there.  Excuse me while I go breathe into a paper bag, okay?