Here We Go Again: The Last Post

I make New Year’s resolutions every year. I try to keep them small and quantifiable. So my resolution to take a picture every day for a year was much grander in scope than I would normally consider. I had read The Happiness Project (one of my favorite blogs and a great book) and one of her resolutions was to keep a one sentence journal. The idea being it's a doable way to record your life rather than a typical journal or diary. I modified that idea to a photo everyday because I am much too wordy to only write a single sentence and I thought photographs would be more fun to look back on.
At times it's been difficult, partly because sometimes our lives are very boring and sometimes, like coming home from Colombia, I didn't feel we had anything we wanted to say or share. However, this year unfolded in a way we never could have anticipated and it has been an incredibly rewarding project to capture the highs and lows as well as the essence of our everyday lives.
We talked a lot about if we wanted to continue our project into 2011 and, if so, if we wanted to change it so maybe it would just be a few times a week rather than every day. In the end, we chose to continue it in its current form, with a photo every day. Even though that necessarily involves some photos that aren't the most exciting, we think it's worth it to have a more complete record. My original intent was not to have 365 "frame-worthy" pictures, but to photograph our everyday life so we could have a record of it. I think the great thing about every day is that you don't stop and think, "Is this a photo-worthy moment?". Instead you just take a picture.
We invite you to join us as we start 2011 at http://thousandwords2011.blogspot.com/ . I believe I have added everyone who is a member of this blog to the new one. If you have any problems accessing it or know of someone who would like to be added, please let me know.

Our Top 5 Posts: The Year in Review

Here are my (Meghan's) top five favorite posts, in chronological order:

1. Happy New Year’s (1/1/2010): I like this one because New Year’s is always one of my favorite feelings in that it’s a new start and the year is so shiny and new and full of promise. When I look at this photo I think of how excited we were about Colombia and also how much fun we had in Manhattan that night and in years past and also makes me think of the freedom of not having kids yet and this picture is just full of happy memories for me.
2. The Little Guys are Back (1/14/2010): This is one of my favorites because it makes me laugh every single time I see it. Natalie’s expression is hilarious and I think their little personalities are more evident in this photo than a lot of the ones I take of them.
3. Orleans (3/31/2010): This photo is in my top five because it is very powerful to me in its ability to bring back emotions even if they aren’t all pleasant. Firstly, it makes me remember the experience of living in Colombia for two weeks, which despite all the events that occurred there, I really value. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that “living in a foreign country” opportunity again and I loved Medellin and that experience. Secondly, I remember that combination of despair that we failed at our plan and confusion about what our life would be and also satisfaction that we had made the best possible choice and relief that we were no longer in a very bad situation. It was an emotional time that was hard to process and this photo brings that back. Thirdly, I think this picture and remembering this time will always give me hope to know that life always has good and bad and it always goes on. So even when things seem so disappointing, that doesn’t mean things won’t be better in the future so this definitely is a reminder to trust in God and retain optimism for me.
4. Bling and a Gourd (9/30/2010): I love this one because firstly I absolutely love the earrings I got and wear them every single day. But more than that, I actually think the squash part is incredibly romantic and I just love that I am married to someone who gets me so much that he knows that a warty gourd is an absolutely perfect low-cost gift for me. I drew a face on the squash and kept him for two months until he went bad. It made me really happy and looking at this photo makes me happy thinking about a good birthday and a very thoughtful gift.
5. Reason for the Season (12/24/2010): It’s really hard to choose only one more photo when I find several of the ones with Joshua in them very meaningful. However, since I do have to choose just one, I think it has to be this one. Firstly, even though we stopped going to COR a long time ago because it’s far too big and impersonal to me, I find their Christmas Eve service to be an incredible experience that is so meaningful and enjoyable every single time. To be able to share this with Joshua and see him hold his own little candle, even though he has no idea what is really going on, was just wonderful. Also, I think that night was sort of a microcosm of parenting. The service itself was more stressful and less enjoyable to me personally than previous years because we had to constantly worry about keeping Joshua happy and quiet and we couldn’t be quite as engaged in the carols and sermon as I would prefer. But despite that, it was ultimately far more happy and rewarding than it had been in previous years because Joshua was there.

Here are my (Jason's) top five favorite posts, in chronological order:

1. The Little Guys are Back (1/14/2010): Every time I see this one, I laugh.  Natalie's facial expression is hilarious, and it's cute that Meghan can hardly get in the picture because of the horde of pugs on her lap.
2. Technical Difficulties (2/1/2010): This is a great picture not only because of the humor involved with my poorly-built CPR infant dummy, but also because it reminds me of all the preparation that we had to do prior to leaving for Colombia. Even the things that were tedious had a degree of excitement to them because it was all part of the process and the crazy journey that Meghan and I got to go through prior to us leaving for Colombia.
3. KC Sports Day (9/13/2010): I don't have a lot of time to hang out with my friends these days, so I try to make the most of it when I do. This post marks one of the most fun events I've had with my friends in recent memory. From tailgating at the stadium complex, to finally catching a baseball, to being part of the ear-splitting crowd at Arrowhead during a torrential downpour, it was an awesome day.
4. Three Generations (10/23/2010): I've always been proud of my dad, and I've always tried to be a good son for him. I've also always wanted to someday be a father myself. Taking this picture when my Dad first met Joshua was special because it makes me so happy to be able to be a son to my father and to now have the chance to have my own son and to be a father to him.
5. Two K-State Fans (11/23/2010): I love this picture because it gets me so excited about the future with Joshua. My passion for K-State is a big part of my life, so just even seeing him in a K-State shirt makes me really happy, even though he doesn't yet have a clue what any of it means. But I'm also so excited in general to teach him things and play games and sports with him and to do all the things that fathers and sons do together, and this picture represents that to me.

Jason's Awards and Stats for 2010 In Pictures

Although we decided to do our Top 5 overall posts, I also decided to do some other awards and even some statistical analysis on the 365 posts for the year.

Top 5 Best Titles (in chronological order):

1. Spending the evening with a model
2. A Little Bit Knotty (Meghan's love of puns makes her laugh at this every single time)
3. Dazed and Contused
4. How Now Bejeweled Cow
5. 2 Jasons and Some Babies

Best Write-Up:
Chad Wears His Sunglasses at Night(12/3/10)


Top 5 Best Photography (in chronological order):

1. Happy New Year (1/1/10): This picture looks like someone took it of us, but somehow we were able to take this ourselves with an unseen extended arm.
2. Fuse (6/29/10): It took me a few tries to be able to show something that small in the foreground and still have me in focus in the background.
3. Mountain Biking (8/10/10): My coworker took this and did a great job of creating the scene.
4. The Sweet Smell of Freedom (9/29/10): Meghan was able to get down to the ground and get a close-up of Alex as he plots his next move. This reminds me of a wildlife photo.
5. Daddy's Home (11/3/10): This is a great picture with a lot of emotion in it.

Top 5 Coolest Visuals (in chronological order):

1. Some call it laziness, I call it efficiency (5/10/10): I love the lighting effects from the chandelier.
2. Independence Day (7/4/10): I got lucky and happened to capture a firework at just the right moment.
3. Going to the Vet (9/16/10): Meghan took this photo at an angle, and that combined with the almost 3-D effect of the depth difference between Natalie and Terrence makes for a good photo.
4. Birthday Girl (9/28/10): I really like the effect of the fire in this one.
5. Fall is Falling (10/3/10): The late morning sun creates awesome color effects in this photo.

Most Unnatural Pose:
Do They Always Come in Threes?" (2/5/10): I thought I would pose like I was in the middle of shredding something. Instead I look like I'm posing for a cheesy magazine ad for a shredder. Poor performance by me.


Least Recognizable Person:
Who is the guy in my 7/20/10 post? Does that even look like me?


Most Unlikely Blog Happening:
Because we were not able to bring the children back from Colombia with us, we had to remove all photos from the blog which included them. This left a lot of empty spaces where photos once were, which resulted in an oddly appropriate feeling of loss at the time.


Biggest Blog Coincidence:
For the post on 4/16/10, I decided to call it "Fuel" since that was the name of the place where Nick and I went. The next day, the post was about replacing the fuel (propane) for our grill, and I almost called that post the same name until I realized I had just done that the previous day. Two completely different subjects, same potential blog post name.


Shortest Post:
New Car (1/2/10)


Longest Post:
Adventures in Beauty Products (4/22/10)


And now for the nerdiest of stats:

Posts by Jason: 211
Posts by Meghan: 154

People (and pets) and how many days they appeared in the blog (minimum 2):

Jason	233
Meghan	136
Joshua	50
Natalie	39
Terrence	20
Christine	12
Peg	11
Joanna	10
Alex	10
Barb	8
Ron	8
Julie	7
Jason H.	7
Callie	6
Jason K.	6
Nathan	6
Jim	5
Andrew	4
Vincent	4
Drew	4
Michelle	3
Matt	3
Abby	3
Nick	3
AJ	3
Jeremy	3
John	3
Brent	2
David	2
Chad	2
Steve D.	2
Kevin	2
Derek	2
Trevor	2
Phil	2
Tony	2
Tricia	2

Yes, I'm a nerd.

Happy New Year!

Tonight we celebrated New Year's Eve at the home of our friends, Jason and Callie. It wasn't the wildest New Year's ever, but it was nice to spend it with good friends and family. Here we are with Joanna shortly before midnight.

Wearing Purple for the Pinstripe Bowl

Today was the K-State bowl game against Syracuse.  Since it was gameday, Joshua and I both wore our K-State shirts, though only one of us wore purple socks.  For the game, I went to Fuel to meet up with the Keeler brothers.  Unfortunately, saluting the crowd after a touchdown constitutes an excessive celebration penalty these days, so K-State wasn't able to complete the comeback.  But it was an exciting game, and I had a good time hanging out with Tony and Jason.

Bedtime

We have decided Joshua is old enough to have a set bedtime rather than it being whenever he happens to fall asleep. Right now it's midnight because that's the schedule that he has tended towards, but once we get in a routine I would like it to be 10 or 11 at the latest. So 30 minutes before bed, we dim the lights, feed him, play soothing music, and read him a story. As you can see he hasn't totally "gotten" the whole story thing and is a little more interested in the lights than the book, but hopefully consistency will be enough. It's gone pretty well so far.

Finally, some tunes

I keep my to-do list online, so any task I don't get to in a day, I click postpone and it gets moved to the next day. I think I set some sort of record for number of times postponed when it came to loading Joshua's MP3 player. But finally I loaded it with some albums for kids as well as lullabies. We have a portable speaker, shown here, for our room and also radios that it can hook up to in the dining room and his bedroom. So far he seems to like the music a lot and I am really glad I finally got that done.

Short Guy in a High Chair

Joshua is getting to the point where he is able and wanting to sit near us when we eat, so it was time to get a high chair.  While looking at high chairs, we found this kind, which is really nice because it can recline for infants, and it attaches to an existing chair so it doesn't take up so much space.  Here he is in his new chair and then shouting for joy.

Mobile

For Christmas, my very talented sisters Julie and Joanna hand-made us an amazing mobile which perfectly matches the theme in the nursery and is even personalized with Joshua's name and initials as the letter blocks.  It's very impressive, and is such a perfect addition to the nursery since it fits the theme and is a personally-created gift.  We're very excited to have it as part of his room.  I was able to hang it tonight, which means the nursery is officially completed!

Merry Christmas!

Today we celebrated our first Christmas with Joshua. It was very nice. We spent the early part of the day by the fire unwrapping gifts and later we enjoyed our traditional Christmas meal of sauerbraten. Here is Joshua with his gifts.

The Reason for the Season

Tonight we went to Christmas Eve Candelight Service. We went to the 11pm service and Joshua did very well. He is always up at that time of night and today was no exception, but he was very quiet. Since he has just gotten excited about holding things in the last couple of days, here he is holding his first candle (the church has battery-powered candles for kids).

The Replacements

We hung the blinds shortly after the windows were replaced, but we had to mount them on the outside because replacement windows take up a lot of the inside of a window so there is no place to put blinds anymore. This means we need extra deep curtain hardware to account for the blinds on the outside. We were able to get the parts we needed so today Jason hung the curtains in the guest room as well as the valence in Joshua's room.

Cause and Effect

One thing Joshua does not understand is the impact of his own actions. Today he was really happy playing with his baby gym as well as shaking the new keys he got for Christmas. He seemed really excited about all the noise he was making. Then I got the camera out and he suddenly smacked himself in the head with the keys. So this is him being unhappy after he did that. He's totally fine, but I am sure he has no idea why his head suddenly started to hurt.

Gerald and Me

Today I went to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I saw no rapids, grand or otherwise.  I flew into the airport there, which is called Gerald R. Ford International Airport.  While there, I got a picture with the man himself, or at least a statue of him.

A Leach Family Christmas

Tonight my dad, Julie,and Joanna came over for our Christmas celebration.  Unfortunately Andrew was sick and wasn't able to join us.  We had our traditional Papa Murphy's pizzas for dinner, and we had a really nice night as our first Christmas in which Dad was also Grandpa Jim.  Joshua celebrated the event by spitting up on Julie, which he had only ever done once before.  The previous time it was on Joanna, so maybe he has a weird way of showing affection for his aunts.

Holiday Dinner

Tonight we had a dinner with some of my friends and their wives.  Jason, Callie, Sonia, John, Nathan, Meghan, and I all got together for a great dinner at McCormick and Schmick's.  Joshua joined us, and he was quiet and very good the entire time.  Most of us enjoyed the restuarant's signature dessert, the Chocolate Bag, which was delicious as always. 

A Nicholl Family Christmas

Today we celebrated Christmas with Peg and Ron and the family. It was nice to see everyone as well as getting to see Joshua get his first stocking and celebrate his first Christmas.

The Worst Time of Day

Joshua likes the shower quite a bit and he doesn't even really mind getting out because I dry him off before we get out and then I wrap him in a dry towel. But then I put him in the Pack 'n Play with a blanket because I need to comb out my hair and brush my teeth and stuff like that. He absolutely hates that part more than anything. This picture was right before he started to cry. It only takes me a few minutes to be able to hold him again and get him dressed, but he really is not happy during that time.

Special Delivery

When I landed at the airport late tonight, Meghan called me to let me know that Christine was sick and really needed someone to bring her some soup, Saltines, and ginger ale.  Meghan was going to have to go tomorrow, but we realized it would be easier if I took care of it on the way home from the airport.  So I stopped by a nice new Price Chopper in Platte City to buy the supplies, and then I headed off to Basehor to bring them to her.  To avoid getting sick, we agreed I'd leave the stuff on her doorstep and then text her as I was leaving.  I felt like I was leaving a bag of ransom money under a park bench, but the operation was successful, and Christine got her supplies.

Shots

Today I took Joshua to the pediatrician for his 2-month checkup.  Part of the visit was getting four shots.  He was pretty brave.  He cried a bit when he got them, but he got over it very quickly and was back to normal after a few seconds.  Here he is right before the stabbing started.

Naptime

When I am working during the day, usually Joshua sits right next to me on the bed. Sometimes he has tummy time and sometimes we just talk while he looks around, but he isn't a big napper. I am overall okay with that because most nights he sleeps 8 full hours. But today he did nap and he looked so cute propped up on the pillows right beside me.

Epic

When Sprint releases new phones, they initially don't make them available to employee accounts, because they want to make sure there's enough inventory for potential new customers.  Meghan and I are on employee accounts, so we were subject to this restriction.  I've been waiting months for the Evo 4G and the Epic 4G to be made available for me to buy.  Recently this happened, so I was able to get my new Samsung Epic 4G.  It's an amazing phone, and I'm elated to have it.

2 Months Old

Today Joshua turned 2 months old. He has grown a lot this month and we are curious to see how much he will weigh at his doctor's appointment this week. It's really exciting now because he has been learning things like cooing or sticking out his tongue or holding up his head longer and things like that. We know he will learn new things even more in the coming months so that should be a lot of fun.

C is for Cookie

Today Meghan made us some delicious sugar cookies.  She put on the wrap in case she needed to hold Joshua while making them, but he helped out by sleeping during the process.

Blind Guy

As part of our window replacement project, we are also replacing the window treatments in our master bedroom.  The first step of that was installing the new blinds, which I did today.  Next on the list are the new curtain rods and curtains.

Hall of Fame

There are two great halls of fame in Ohio: the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.  I travel to Ohio a lot, so I've been hoping it would work out that I'd have time to see one of them at some point.  Today, I finally got to see a hall of fame in Ohio, except it wasn't for football or for rock and roll.  It was the Amateur Trapshooting Association Hall of Fame.  So not only is there an Amateur Trapshooting Association, but they have a hall of fame in Dayton, OH.  Needless to say (hopefully), this wasn't a chosen destination of mine, but it was just something I saw along the side of the road, and I didn't go in.  Hopefully the next hall of fame I see will be one that I'd actually like to visit, not just to use for a photo opportunity.

Playtime

Today we used the baby activity center someone gave us for the first time. I wasn't sure he would like it because he is just now learning to grab. But he did like it quite a lot. He reached for some of the things and also liked kicking the chimes with his feet.

New Windows

Today we had our windows installed, though they are finishing up some trim work tomorrow. We got them replaced in all the upstairs bedrooms.  This is Joshua in front of the new window in his room.

Feeding Partner

When we feed Joshua, Natalie always wants to be nearby for some reason.  We now know to save her a spot in the recliner during feeding time.  Here I am with Joshua as Natalie dutifully waits next to me.

Chairbreaker

While moving some furniture around the house I knocked over one of our wooden kitchen chairs.  It fell to the ground and the top pieces broke off.  Fortunately I used my master carpentry skills to do what any skilled tradesman would do: I grabbed the wood glue.  Using a bottle of Gorilla Glue, I was able to glue everything back together.  Problem solved.

Getting Medieval

Tonight we went to the Hansons' for dinner, and Vincent was excited to show me his knight costumes.  We fought with the swords until he eventually brought out a long battle axe, which gave him a decided reach advantage.  Here we are in our gear.

Chad Wears His Sunglasses at Night

One of my good friends from college, Chad, was in town for the evening, so Nick, Jason, and I met him out for dinner.  We rarely get a chance to all hang out together these days, so it was good we were able to have some time to see each other.  It was also good to get dollar cheeseburgers because it was happy hour, even though the waitress claimed the restaurant takes a $3 loss on every burger sold.  Chad provided her some free financial and operational advice on the benefits of buying in bulk which caused her to leave immediately.  Good times were had by all.  Except the waitress.

High in the middle, round on both ends

A few months ago I was assigned to work with a new sales rep whose territory is Ohio.  He's new to the company, so he's working extra hard to find sales opportunities.  So he's in Ohio a lot, and because I'm his sales engineer, I'm in Ohio a lot too.  Before this, I'd never even been in Ohio, and now I'm there every week.   

Meeting Donna

Today our friend Donna came by to meet Joshua and hang out. It had been awhile since we had a chance to chat so it was nice to get together.