Thankful

First, I am thankful for a four day weekend and second, I am thankful I didn't come near my computer the entire time (which explains why this is five days late). Third, I am thankful I also didn't go near any retail outlet on Black Friday (or Saturday or Sunday for that matter). That whole "tradition" is just silly if you ask me.

But now, for my real list of "thankfuls." This year I'm thankful for so many things, here are just a few of them:

1. I'm thankful for my husband. We've had a hectic schedule this year, but the past 8 months have been our best ever. There's something magical that happens when you get married and something even more special that sets in once the dust settles. I love you James.

2. We are thankful for our jobs. Both James and I love our jobs. We have been lucky enough to find work careers doing what we love and what we're good at. We are both in challenging positions that keep us motivated and stimulated. James worked his bum off this past year and got a healthy raise for his efforts. Hard work pays off and we're definitely thankful for that!

3. Family. This year my brother and sister-in-law moved to Connecticut. To be able to see them every week and watch our niece and nephew grow up has been so wonderful. And soon we'll be neighbors!

4. We are thankful for our health. My chronic running related injuries have taken a significant turn in a positive direction this year thanks to a simple change of running shoes (as in simply taking them off). I'm thankful that I can now run without pain and that I'm enjoying marathons again. James has had a very good year controlling his type 1 diabetes. In a year where we have seen some of our cohorts stricken with life threatening illnesses like cancer, we really couldn't ask for anything more.

5. Mom and Dad. Among all of the great things they do and (mostly) good advice they give, we wouldn't be able to build our new house without our parents. Enough said.

6. We are thankful for our creativity. While our handiwork takes on different forms for each of us (I'm not sure I'd ever get James to pick up a paintbrush or sit at a sewing machine and you'll never find me cutting metal in his workshop) our desire and ability to create is a big part of who we are. Our biggest DIY project is right around the corner and we can't wait to put our creativity to the test in designing our new home.

7. Our friends. I think we have the greatest friendships in the world. Okay, that might be a little biased, but seriously, how many people can say they've had the same BFFs since second grade? As we get older and our lives are filled with many, many more things than they were in grade school (or even college for that matter), it's been interesting to see how friendships have changed with the times. Some friends come and go pretty quickly, but most of our core friendships have stood the test of time and for that, we are most definitely thankful!

8. We are thankful for Summit. She is the best. dog. ever. Okay, again, probably biased, but Summit is a special dog. Crazy? Yes, definitely. But she's perfectly ours and perfect for us. And she knows exactly how to stick her nose into the middle of any of our silly arguments and squash the drama before it starts and she's a pretty good toe warmer on cold winter nights.

9. We are thankful for the good fortune to be able to be in a position to build our own house next year. We will never take that for granted.

10. Finally, I am thankful for time. Yup, that's right, I am thankful for growing older and experiencing life - the good and the bad. I'm thankful for my marriage and for grown up responsibilities. I am thankful for the mistakes we've made and the lessons learned. I know we have a long way to go, many more mistakes to make, but that's a beautiful thing afterall, isn't it? Let's just hope we don't make too many of those mistakes on the house, eek!

Family Photo Op

For Mother's Day this year, we arranged to have professional family photos taken of the Chadwick family for my mom (for all of us, really). It took several months to find a time and place that worked for the whole group, but we finally settled on a date in early fall to spend the afternoon at Harkness Park on the coast in Waterford, CT. We hired the photographer who took our wedding photos, Olivia Gird. Olivia is simply wonderful and totally affordable. Plus she already knew the whole family so the afternoon was fun and easy. Below are a few of my favorites from the afternoon.

Okay, maybe that was more than just a "few" of my favorites! It's so hard to choose, they are all wonderful. The hardest part is deciding which ones to frame!

Perspective

If you read my last blog post, you might have been left with the impression that I'm a crazy woman. In fact, some days I am, especially lately with the stress of a busy work schedule, traveling too much (hard to complain about that!) and trying to figure out how to build a house from scratch.

My older (and wiser) brother left me a bit of advice after reading that post. I thought he was spot on: "I too have a hard time making what seems like important decisions. Try to keep it all in perspective. Anything more than the clothes on our back, food on our table and a roof over our heads is gravy....gravy! Chances are you or someone else someday will remodel the kitchen your about to put in or repaint the walls! (not that you are) but don't let the house get in the way of whats really important in life...your relationships."

Which is why I'm sharing this picture with you all today. It's a reminder of perspective. These two sleeping beauties are my whole world and the decisions about counter tops, paint colors and furniture are all just the "small stuff." These two, and the rest of our wonderful family are what it's all about!

Indeed, I know this, it's just nice to be reminded once in awhile. Thanks, Curt! And bonus..having strong relationships with our wonderful family members means we have lots of people to bounce ideas off of for the house which means fewer "crazy lady" days for me!

Decisions, Decisions

So far, building a house seems more complicated than completing a space shuttle mission. There are so many decisions to be made. Very. Important. Decisions. Big decisions and small decisions, yet decisions none-the-less. Decisions we have to live with for...well, forever. A lot of the big decisions about the structure of the house are done. After several revisions, we have plans (hallelujah, we have plans!). We are working on a few other ginormous decisions like geothermal and solar energy (more on that later) and now that we have a long cold winter ahead of us before we actually break ground, we have more time to think more about the interior of the house. More time and more decisions. If you know me at all, you know I'm not great at making big decisions. I'd rather be on the space shuttle heading to the moon. Yes, please. That is not a hard decision at all.

I often invest a significant amount of time agonizing over decisions. Simply put, I am a perfectionist and I am afraid of failure. There I said it. In an effort not to turn this post into an irrelevant delve into my psyche, let's just leave it at that. I've always been that way, it is my strength and it is also my weakness. As such, I have trouble with decisions. James doesn't help either. He generally makes decisions quickly and without fanfare (too quick and easy sometimes if you ask me!). And it can get real ugly when his decision isn't quite in line with mine.

The fundamental problem is there are just way too many choices. For me, the key to making a decision on big choices lies in doing my homework. My perfectionist side likes to have all the information available so that at least I think I am making the best decision (even though it doesn't always end up so). Through this "fact finding" mission, what we have found is that there are many different ways to build a house, and so many alternatives to method, material and philosophy. There are many "experts" and believe me, they are not all saying the same thing. I like to get to the bottom of things before I decide on something. I can now add building a home to the list of near impossible things to get to the bottom of.

Take, for example, the pile of books, catalogs, handouts and fact sheets that we have collected from home shows, websites and design centers. Talk about getting to the bottom - there is no bottom! It never ends!

organized madness!

So, as you can imagine, at times we have felt overwhelmed by the amount of decisions to be made: vinyl or fiber cement? yellow or green? how about blue! bamboo or hardwood? oil or gas? geothermal? wait, how much does that cost?! is our site suitable for solar? no, we aren't cutting down trees. okay, maybe just that one. what kind of floor do we need for radiant heat? what about our wood stove? how high are the ceilings? how about we add a window here? can we do built-ins there? carpet - really? it better be recycled. what kind of counter tops should we get? I don't like granite. how about concrete - seriously, concrete? how do we make the living room comfy, it's too big. where will the TV go? over the fireplace? Whaaaaat!?!

OMG. I need a vacation. And advice. Feel free to dish it out if you have any.

Oh, sNOw

Connecticut woke up to this on Monday morning. Isn't it too soon for snow!?!

Such Great Heights

Last week I was traveling, yet again, for work. This time, I headed back to San Francisco to conduct two trainings on how to use GPS and publish geographic information on Google Maps. It was a nice trip, the trainings went well and I got to see two of my college roommates that live in the Bay area. Additionally, the San Francisco Giants were in the World Series and two of the early games were taking place in the city while I was there, so the atmosphere was electric. But this post is not about work, friends or San Francisco. It's about my flight across the country.

San Francisco Bay Bridge and Ferry Building along the Embarcadero

Those of us that are lucky enough to get to fly on a regular basis, often fail to see it as an opportunity to experience something truly unique. We get on the plane, fight for the last available blanket, hope for anything but the middle seat and a smelly and/or oversized neighbor and at the first opportunity, check to see what the in-flight entertainment will be. Except for perhaps some of the smallest travelers, those in the 4-10 year old range, for whom it may be there very first flying experience, most of us get on, get seated and for the next several hours get lost in our own world of headphones, DVD players, iPhones and GameBoys. Very rarely do we think to look out the window.

I can remember clearly the first flight where I happened to be traveling across the country on a clear day and found myself in the window seat. At some point early in the flight, I looked out the window and immediately was captivated. For the next five hours, I barely took my eyes off the everchanging scenery that played out before my eyes. In school, you learn about landscapes and all of the great wilderness areas that have been preserved for their natural wonder as National Parks. We've all seen pictures, some of us have been fortunate to visit a few of them in person and they certainly do leave a lasting impression on their own. But to see the transformation of our great American landscape happen before my eyes all in a few hours of a single day was an experience I will never forget and one that you can't get from books, photographs or even from visiting some of these places in person. It is a unique vantage point that you can only get from peering out of a small oval window on a clear day at 30,000 feet.

So now, every time I travel from one coast to the other, I fight for the window seat and hope for a clear day. I don't always spend the entire flight with my eyeballs looking out the window like I did that first time around, but I do make sure to glance up at regular intervals and more often than not, I get a gimps of something spectacular. Above are some of my photos from my journey across our magnificent country last week. I was headed east to west on a not so perfect day in a not so perfect plane, so clouds and window gunk make the quality of my iPhone photos less than ideal, but hopefully you can get an idea of some of the sights I saw on that day. It wouldn't matter if these images were perfect though, no photograph can be a stand in for seeing the real thing. So I encourage you, the next time you find yourself on a 4 or 5 hour flight over land, put down your book or peel your eyes away from that movie and simply look out the window.

More images of aerial landscapes from one of my favorite photographers on the subject, John Griebsch. His are a LOT better than my iPhone pics! Check out more on his website: http://johngriebsch.com

Top to bottom, left to right: Washington State; South Dakota; Gulfport, Mississippi; Lancaster, PA; Virginia, Suburbia, USA. All photos by John Griebsch.

Fall Fishin'

Last weekend we decided to try our luck off Grandma and Grandpa's dock. Andrew had all of the luck, the rest of us did not.