Busy, Photos

Honestly, I wasn't excited for this week at all. James had parent/teacher conferences, Kenny a doctor's appointment and eye appointment, Joseph an orthodontist appointment, and all of us stake conference. I know I shouldn't grumble about extra church meetings, but I was this weekend. I made a point to go to all 3 meetings, though, and I was both humbled and inspired by the messages given. I'm grateful that I've been able to do many good things with my time at home, and I know that my next step is to study Spanish in preparation for our trip to Ecuador.

But first, pictures. Here's a boring recap of what I've done thus far since I've now spent 155 hours on it for the Heads:

*Sorted loose photos and envelopes by month/year and scanned from 1954 - 2008 (2 huge boxes!)

*Scanned photos from older scrapbooks that weren't in the loose ones

*Uploaded all the scanned photos to Google Photos (mine, Melodie's)

*Consolidated 200 GB of stuff on a hard drive, sorted by month and year and uploaded those photos, mostly from 2008 - 2016, and backed up to her other hard drive

*Cleaned up Google Photos for Melodie from 2017 - present day

*Named faces on Google Photos

*Created self-updating albums for my family, Sam's family, and Anna (Melodie's account)

*Made a comprehensive Shutterfly book of James's childhood since such a scrapbook has never been in existence

*Made albums for future FHE's which include all 4 of our parents' childhoods and early marriage

*Made an album for James of historical sites and museums

*Made an album of the extended Head family and shared it to the FB group

What's next?

*Make note of which photos in the later albums (1988 and on) I didn't have loose pictures for. In July, I'll get the albums out and take pictures of them on my phone. I have books for 4/7 of these albums, so that helps a lot. I don't think there will be very many, but I don't want to miss anything important.

*Put Grandpa Head's book in order in a binder.

*Get my parents to download Google Photos and upload all their pictures to the accounts. Add those to my Phenix family album.

Maybe?

*Look into getting a device to convert slides to digital and do my dad's and Rex's photos (mostly from the mission, I believe).

Spring Break: Rexburg and D.C. Trip

We had an uneventful drive to Rexburg on Friday (the 29th). Saturday, we dyed eggs and did a hunt for plastic eggs filled with candy.  Jesse and I went to the Thai place for lunch with Melodie for our birthdays. We also enjoyed a "Jerusalem dinner" of gyro meat, bulgur pilaf, flatbread, olives, and grapes. I've been in NC some years for Easter, so I've missed that tradition. It's both delicious and fun.

Easter Sunday, we attended church and had a delicious dinner afterward, the usual. I contributed by making the funeral potatoes the night before and deviling the eggs Sunday morning. I was still feeling a bit sick, but I took a quick nap and felt better afterward. I still wasn't too sure about how I'd feel on the D.C. trip.

James and I left on Monday for our D.C. trip. We spent the day in Salt Lake getting lunch at a German deli, browsing IKEA and a few other stores, and trying Raising Cane's for dinner. Our flight didn't leave till 10:50 P.M., and we arrived in D.C. Tuesday morning around 9 with a layover in Boston. We'd been hoping for a little sleep, but I think we each got an hour. Luckily, there were movies to enjoy during the long (and short) flights.

Tuesday morning, we headed straight into D.C. on the metro. We carried only backpacks since we knew we'd be walking around all day with all of our belongings. We started with the Museum of Natural History, got sandwiches at Potbelly's, and did a part of the American History museum as well. By the time things closed, we were pretty exhausted and got on the metro to head to our hotel in Alexandria. We got pizza for dinner at &Pizza, then relaxed for a little bit and crashed for the night. I went to bed at 8 P.M. Eastern, which would be 6 P.M. Mountain, then slept for about 11 hours. Haha. I guess I was tired.

Wednesday, we got an early start but unfortunately got soaked in the rain. We started at the Museum of African American History and Culture and finished the American History museum before lunch at a Peruvian-Chinese-Japanese place downtown. I absolutely loved the fusion food. We went to both buildings of the art museum after lunch and then dragged our tired bodies to Chinatown for a delicious dinner. It was well worth the extra steps. At the hotel, we strategized for the next day since we found out we needed tickets for a couple of places.

Thursday, I watched like a hawk and snagged tickets for both Air & Space and the Library of Congress. We spent the morning at Air & Space, got lunch in Eastern Market, and then headed to the Capitol for a tour. It was absolutely gorgeous, as was the Library of Congress. We got a little lost in there! On the way to find dinner, we bumped into the outside part of the botanic gardens. It was Potbelly's again, but a couple of disinterested teens didn't give us the best service. Oh well.

Friday, we rented scooters and saw the monuments and memorials. After a delicious lunch at the Hamilton, we reluctantly headed to the airport to make the long journey home. I found some delicious Korean food in the Boston airport as my final "fun" meal of the journey. We got back to Salt Lake fairly late and finally got checked in to our hotel at midnight. Kenny turned 12 without us!

Saturday, we drove to Rexburg while listening to Conference, watched Conference with Lars and Emily, and watched even more Conference with eating breaks during and in between.

Sunday, we listened to all of Conference in the car as we headed home. It was a bummer to be in the car again, but we had a good trip and got things unpacked that night. AM radio didn't let us down, so we didn't miss anything either!

It's been an okay week so far. The trip was so amazingly fun that it's been hard to get back to "real life". Everyone is still slightly sick, but that awful illness is almost gone. I had all the stamina I needed to do a lot of stuff in D.C. We walked 80,000 steps from Monday - Friday!

I'm now working on the 3rd and final round of Head photos. They are from the second box and range from 2000 back to the 60's when my in-laws were kids. My plan is the scan all the photos back to 1988, then make James's photo book, then tackle all the photos (plus about 10 scrapbooks) from before then. I don't know how long this round will take, but I'd guess another 50 hours. There are more pictures than I thought, but that has been true the past few times too. James's family took a lot more pictures than my family ever did.

I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm going to publish this so I can work on the other blog on Thursday.

Still Sick, My 36th Birthday

Well, I did not get better by my birthday. Though I tried to spend the weekend resting, the cold ramped up in intensity by Monday. I've felt absolutely horrible with one symptom or another since then. It seems like they keep trading off; one thing gets better but another gets worse. Since Monday, I've had a horrible cough, extreme fatigue, headache, and overall malaise. I had a few good nights of sleep, but last night I coughed a lot and kept waking up. I'm glad to be at home where I can rest. I've tried to do the bare minimum, but that's easier said than done. We're leaving for Rexburg tomorrow, and James and I will be in D.C. for a good chunk of that, so I really need to get better!

My birthday was all right. I'm glad we celebrated Sunday since I didn't feel horrible yet. I made devil's food cake, and Joseph made cookie dough ice cream. I got books and chocolate, both of which I've worked on this week. One big indicator that I'm not feeling well is the lack of appetite. That only happens with the worst of illnesses.

I've been this level of tired before, when I was pregnant with Samantha. Obviously I wasn't coughing a lot, but dang, I don't know how I survived that. I know I'll be doing a lot better in a few days. I already am, or at least I feel like I'm over the worst of it. This cold is like the one I had last year after NC, but I haven't lost my voice to that degree.

Time for a nap. I'm glad the kids can pack their own stuff now.

Rexburg, Sick, Pressure

James and Katie had a good trip to Rexburg, but it wasn't restful for anyone. This week has been a bit of a drag since everyone has a little bit of a cold. Naturally, that means headaches and fatigue for me, plus a sore (though mostly just scratchy) throat. It's a good week to be sick since we're not traveling, and I don't have any projects I'm working on yet. (I'm still excited about Phase 3 of the Head photos because it means I can finally make James's epic photo book.)

Over the weekend, we watched several movies: the Eras Tour, Wonka, PotC, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I had a RS brunch and broadcast Saturday and Sunday and kept busy during the days so only the evenings got lonely. I think this is the worst cold I've had all winter, and it's the first one that has progressed beyond headache/fatigue. I'm getting impatient because I want to be all better by Monday (my birthday). Though I haven't had a big project to work on, I've still been busy with my regular stuff. I'm also making a Holy Week book so we can study and sing about Easter all week long. I've been meaning to do it for a few years, ever since I made a Christmas Advent book, but I've never gotten around to it until now.

I keep getting the questions about when I'll start working. Here's the thing: I still have no idea. I know because of the photos project that I only have a part-time number of hours to spare in a week, maybe 15-20. It takes a lot of time and energy to take care of a house, husband, 5 children, and myself. I've been volunteering in Samantha's class once a week for 2 hours, and I don't feel particularly excited to go start teaching. I'm an introvert. Having hours at home alone has been amazing for my level of patience when the kids get home. They deserve a happy mom who isn't stressed out from being around other people's kids all day. Because of various projects this year, all the spare time I've had has been spent on canning, family history, and taking care of sick children in between. I've had very few instances of getting bored, even though I've had 4-7 hours alone every day.

Our neighbor mowed his grass already, and that's another kind of peer pressure I don't enjoy. We don't need to water till it gets to 70 degrees, and we're not there yet. It still makes me feel a little bad this his yard is so perfect. Yeah, we have grass, and we spend a fair amount of time maintaining it, but we don't go all out like he does. And yeah, that's a silly thing to feel pressure over, but it happens every year.

I resent feeling rushed in any way. I have my own timelines for things. I can be decisive about things when I need to be, but thinking too far ahead has only led to more anxiety, which I don't need. Today, I'm staying home with my children and not mowing or watering my lawn, and I will not feel bad about it.

Chill

I've had a fairly relaxing few days, or at least I've tried to. Since Saturday, I've read 4 books and done 0 projects. The time change on Sunday was a bit rough, and I didn't feel my best, but it turned out to be a minor cold and PMS on top of regular old fatigue.

It's nice to have nothing to report. A few of us have a minor cold and I have a presidency meeting soon, but that's about it for this week. James and Katie will be leaving for Rexburg tomorrow, but there should be enough going on during the weekend to keep me busy.

Photos

The photos project is almost finished! What I have left today is to sort through a few videos, add the new photos to my PC from 2009 and later, and double check to make everything is on the right drive. Not counting 2ish hours today, I spent a total of 100 hours on the project and ended up with an album of 6, 253 items. There is another album with 128 that don't have dates yet because they're very old. All the photos for the Phenix family and Head family are sorted by year, month (when possible), correctly dated, uploaded to Google Photos, and saved to the correct locations, depending on the family.

Well, it's a day later, and that didn't work out like I expected. I asked Melodie about putting everything on her Google Photos account, and she gave me her password, so I found myself with more work than I anticipated. I cleaned up random older stuff, added all the stuff I'd scanned, and then sorted through the years 2016-2023 since I hadn't seen most of them before. I also downloaded those photos to the external hard drives. Rather than sort them into months, I left them in zip folders. On Google Photos, I created a self-updating album for my household so when any photos of us are taken, we'll get them automatically. I added all those photos to my own account, computer, and external hard drive. We ended up with at least 1,000 new photos.

I stressed myself out a little too much yesterday, but I've found the end of the project for now, or at least for the next week until James goes to Rexburg. Melodie has some scrapbooks she wants me to scan and another box to sort through when I visit next, but I think there won't be a lot of new stuff to add. I kept up on my house and family for the most part, but yesterday did not have a good balance. I hate it when I get close to finishing something but it ends up taking longer than expected.

Next week, my plan is to sort through the videos of my kids from Melodie, edit where needed, and get them up on YouTube. I also have a pile of books I haven't looked at, so I'll work on those in my spare time instead of anything relating to pictures. This has been a great project, but at least for now, I'm tired!

Anna's Visit

Anna arrived Friday afternoon, and we had a wonderful time with her here. We did a little shopping at thrift stores, had delicious food, watched Abbott Elementary, played board games, and went to see Emma: the Musical. All were fun, but I especially loved Emma in musical form. 

Not all of my Saturday was great. It started off with a long wait at Walmart to get a new battery for the van, which cost almost twice as much as a few years ago when we last bought one for the Yukon. Both Katie and Samantha had birthday parties that overlapped, which I didn't realize at first, so it was stressful to arrange drop off and pickup. I stayed with Samantha at hers but regretted it because I didn't know anyone. I didn't feel comfortable leaving her with a bunch of strangers since she's too little for a phone. It was cold and dark at the black light place too. I was so glad to get home.

Anna left on Sunday after lunch. The girls cried. We love our Auntie Anna.

The kids didn't have school Monday, so I met James for lunch at the Thai place. It was delicious even though it took a while to get our food. 

Tuesday was Samantha's first full day of school. She loves it so far. I volunteer on Tuesdays, so my first whole day alone was yesterday. It was kind of weird, but I don't hate it so far. It helps that for my first day, I had a new stash of truffles and some leftover pad Thai.

I got right in to the second round of Head photos starting on Sunday. So far, I consolidated all the digital photos from memory cards, flash drives, CD's, and external hard drives onto the biggest and best external hard drive. Next, I took everything out of folders, some 6 layers deep, and put them into folders by year. I also sorted the physical photos by year and put them in bags. There are only digital photos from 2019 back to 2009, but there are both from 2008-2000 and the just physical photos before that, some going back to the 60's. For each year, I create folders for the months. Then, I delete the duplicates and bad photos, fix dates as needed, and back them up to Google Photos and the other hard drive. Once I get to 2008, I'll also scan the photos that aren't already in digital format. All of those need date adjustments, of course. Everything from 2008 and before will also go on my computer's hard drive. I haven't decided yet if I'll include any from later years. I've already made scrapbooks for 2009 and on, so there isn't a big reason to include photos from later, but there are a few cute ones in there I might download just so they'll pop up on my screensaver. Everything goes into the Head family album too. There are currently over 3,000 pictures in there! I love this project, even though it can be tedious and takes a lot of time. I'm going to make James a really nice Shutterfly book of his life before we got married. I can't wait.