Movin’ on up

Welcome back! Coffee's always on around here. Pull up your favorite chair and a grab a cup. Enjoy your visit today! And don't forget to stop back by again soon.

First, let me apologize in advance for the length of this post and it’s ramblingness. So many things have happened in the past several weeks since I last posted, there’s just no way to catch up without going on and on and on.

But I promise I will not be like the energizer bunny and never END.

So, having said that . . .

I’m happy to say the first order of business is to let you know that my former brother in law is doing much, much better! In fact, he is even going to be able to go home this Friday! We’re so glad about that. For the first several days after his stroke, it looked like he may not even make it through the weekend. Fortunately, he has LOTS and LOTS of people who just love him and his family who have never ceased praying for his recovery.

It’s been a very long road for him but he’s surprising his doctors and nurses and therapists with his bravery and his inner strength to get through this, to become whole again. All of that inner drive has certainly paid off. Even though he still has a ways to go, it’s looking better every day. For that, we’re all thankful. Just in time for summer, too!

And speaking of summer . . .

We’ve been so busy lately with school winding down. Lots of activities at the kids’ schools – committee meetings, award ceremonies, family nights, book fairs, concerts and the like – that I’ve barely had time to breathe. In between all of that, I’ve been working on design projects and writing projects, both volunteer and paid.

In fact, one of the committees I was on this year for The Short Dude’s preschool, was the cookbook committee. It was very fun and I met a few other moms and kids. It gave the Short Dude some other friends to play with once in a while during non-school hours as our meetings were usually on Friday’s when the pre-schoolers didn’t have class. He enjoyed the meetings as much as I did.

When everyone on the committee learned that I do graphics, they asked if I would create the cover and inner pages for the cookbook along with the flyers and what-not. I was blessed to be able to say yes even though it was A LOT of work. I enjoyed it.

The group and I came up with a cute cover, if I may say so myself. Honestly, though, I was skeptical about what it would really look like in print. I was afraid the background color would be way too bright and set an obnoxious tone. Since it’s all about kids, the cover features pictures of the kids from the pre-school eating fruits and veggies and it’s all in bright, primary colors. We called it “Children’s Chow of Choice” and I think it fits rather well.

So last week when I found out the cookbooks were in, my heart was pounding! I was both scared and excited to see them. Our group leader (who is a staff member at the school) assured me they turned out fabulous. And when I saw them, I must admit – they did look rather great!

Even though I’ve been doing graphics for almost 20 years, it’s still exciting to see something I’ve created in its final form. Often these days when I design something for a client, I never actually see the finished, physical product, (except for things like business cards). I’ll take a picture of the cookbook later and post it.

After such a great time working on the cookbook committee, when the director asked me if I’d be willing to work on the end of year celebration (graduation) committee, I agreed. So now I am working on the certificates for the pre-school ‘graduation’ celebration next week. The theme is “stars” so I’ve put a cascading rainbow of stars on the side of the certificate. I don’t want it to be overwhelming – it’s just a very simple design. I designed 3 different styles for the committee to choose from and now I’m just waiting to hear which one is a go.

Also coming up soon are the elementary school concerts. Gman’s class is performing a band concert with their recorders and other instruments they’ve learned to play in music this year. And Little Girls class is doing kind of a spoken word and music play of some sort. Not really sure but she’s says it’s going to be fun.

School is getting out almost a week late, though, because of the snow make up days. They were originally supposed to have half days this week but that changed too. I’m kinda glad, though – they’ll be home all day soon enough!

The highlight of the first week of summer vacation will be spending some time with my husband’s sister and her girlfriend. They are doing a 30-day long road trip around the Western US visiting as many of the National Parks (and friends/family) as they can. They are Zion National Park now, I think, and will be here June 12th for a few days before they head over to the Washington Peninsula to the Olympic National Park.

I’m very excited because this will be the first time I’ve met my sister in law! She lives in New York – almost as far away from Seattle as you can get and still be in the continental US – so getting together is not easy, especially when you throw in jobs and kids and school and those good things.

And the other thing I’m really looking forward to is the sun and BBQ’s and going to the beach! We’ve had such a cold, dreary winter, I’m definitely ready for a change of pace. This week has been quite nice – in the upper 60’s and low 70’s – just about perfect!

What are your summer plans? Has summer vacation started yet in your area? What are you most looking forward to this summer?

I hope whatever you do, you enjoy the time with family and friends.

I’ll be back soon with some pictures and maybe a reading list along with a few new recipes I’m itching to try out. Oh – and look for a new post over at The Weight Loss Papers soon too.

In the arena,

Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you will still land among the stars. ~ Les Brown

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.