Gratitude

Posted by Jannie on 2 February 2010

Kelly & Alyssa — Chester, Nova Scotia, 2008

Gratitude –  this month’s R.A.O.K.A. theme.  Where do I even begin?!?!  I have nothing but GREAT things in my life.

I am so grateful for my Awesome Wordpress Consultant friend, Kim Woodbridge, who made my blog vision of Big Photos come to life, yay!! Thank you so so much, Kim!  People — if you want someone you can absolutely trust 100% to help develop your Wordpress blog, Kim is it!! She’s been tweaking my blog for over a year now. And it’s no wonder she’s now got close to 5000 Twitter followers — she adds value to lives!!

Summer Cousins On A Beach At Sunset,2008

Speaking of photos, I am grateful that when my laptop’s power recently died, I didn’t lose any files on my hard drive!! Whoo-super-hoo!! I have experienced the heart-break of lost digital photos before, but not this time.

So so grateful, People.

(All pictures in this post are ones I thought were gone forever.)

Austin & Alyssa, (niece and nephew)2008

Yes, I know in the grand scheme, losing one’s digital photos is pretty far down on the list, but still — I’m so happily grateful I recovered them.  And all the new songs I’ve been writing!!

First Time Roller Skating — age 5

And lastly but very very far from leastly, I am grateful for bloggers like Happy Lotus Nadia, whose following comment to someone recently helped cement my decision to stop blogging on a set schedule.

“So often people fence themselves in by rules that they created and then forget that the boundaries can be broken at any time.”  Nadia — Happy Lotus

It’s only been 3 weeks, but I already feel so stifled by my self-imposed MWF blogging schedule, an experiment to see how it might affect my Google Analytics stats. But what do I care about stats if I feel hemmed-in while blogging?!  Where’s the spontaneity, joy and fun in that?!??  Duh, Jannie.  As of today I’m back to posting when I’m ready to, (whoo-hoo) and stats will take care of themselves.

And if I ever get to the point where I occasionally close comments because I’ve got a lot going on in life, I guess I’ll just have to take my blogging lumps. 

ALRIGHT!!!

Oh, wait — another wonderful Gratitude Thing today!!  Jeanne’s in town!!!  Jeanne, who’s been rambling this great country in a 30′ motor home for the last 4 months — is finally swinging our way. I’ll be meeting her in a few hours and we’ll hang out hopefully a lot until she has to leave Monday.  How great is that!?!  I’m even going to wash my hair after I post this and don a pair of matched socks in Jeanne’s honor!!

As to R.O.A.K.A, I am not quite sure who is still in, but check here with Sami for the gratitude posts.

And of course, I am wondering, what are you grateful for today?

xoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

Passing conversation on one of his old (and still beautiful,) girlfriends

Posted by Jannie on 30 November 2008

Photo credit: Crooked House on Flickr

Me:  Jo-Ann!  She’d be a good one to sign the petition.   Did you see her last fall when you were up? [In Nova Scotia]

He:  Yep.  She’s still got her Market.

Me:  How’s she looking these days?  Wrinkled from all those years in the sun?

He:  Actually, she looks like she’s aged about a month since I met her. 

Me:  Wow, surprising.  Wonder what her secret is.  Good genes I guess.

He:  Mike was pretty smitten with her.

Me:  He’s quite the ladies man, eh?

He:  Of course you’ve only aged a week since we met.

Me:  Nice recoup, Hon.

Both: laughter.

I Need Man With A Chainsaw

Posted by Jannie on 4 October 2008

My musical’s plot, setting and character motivations are totally starting to come together! 

Show will be set at an outdoor cafe with a motorcycle cop, a man with a chainsaw, a girl who had a wedgie on her wedding day, a broken-down Toyota, three goats, two chickens and a cow.  (Well kinda on those last 3.)

Here’s an Mp3 of part of the title track…   i_need_a_man_snippet

And here’s the Wedgie Wedding song, most of it…  wedgie_wedding_snippet

The third verses of each of those is  a bit of a secret.  You’ll have to come to the show to hear the twist at the end of each!

(P.S. above’s a picture our house in Nova Scotia which is currently not rented, bla, bla, bla,  whose trees do need a man with a chainsaw.  But that’s another story.)

Crescent Beach, 10 cords of wood and a musical

Posted by Jannie on 29 September 2008

Kelly and Alyssa in Canada two months ago.

Evan-shually I’ll have big pix in my posts by default and will be blogging until about 2064 or so.  Big plans, people, big plans!

Canada…

Dad stacked 10 cords of firewood in his basement last week!  Split from trees he grew and cut himself and hauled a mile from his back lot last winter.   With his horses and sled.   Over snow and such.  In Canada!!!  And he’s 72.  What a guy.  Lots more on him, Mom and the rest of my clan evan-shually.

Jim, Kelly and I will be moving back to Canada In a couple years – lock, stock and summer apparel.  It’ll be hard to leave wonderful Austin but all of our 368 relatives (and that’s only out to 3rd cousins,) are in The Great White North.  And musically it could be a great fit for me as N. Y. City is actually a lot closer to Halifax than to Austin – less than a 3-hour flight.  The theatres of Broadway do beckon so brightly for the musical “I Need A Man,” I’m writing.   Plus, it’s only 2 hours from Halifax to Bermuda for those winter respites.  And direct non-stop flights to London, maybe even Paris fly out every day.  So maybe the move back won’t be so bad after all.