We dressed Caleb up in this little western outfit (complete with boots!) and took pictures of him in my parents' basement. They have a Roy Rogers themed room complete with a saddle and other western stuff. This is one of my favorite pics because he gave me this hilarious serious face. Josh is actually behind him holding him by his shirt so he can sit on the saddle.
I gave it to my parents for Christmas and they LOVED it!
December 2007 Archives
This year we sent out our Christmas letter in e-mail. Is this a lame thing to do? You decide.
We considered getting pictures done and printing out a letter and addressing envelopes and stamping them and driving them to the post office.... Then, Josh and I looked at each other and said, "Why?"
So, as of this year, we are done sending "official" letters via snail mail. We still have the same love and heartfelt feelings as if we had sent actual letters, only now we're making the letters easy to archive and simpler for us to execute (and FREE). If anyone actually needs (wants) a hard copy, they can print it. Otherwise, electronic format seems to give everyone the update just as well!
Friends & Family,
Josh and I are sitting together enjoying the sparkle of the Christmas tree, the beauty of Minnesota snow, and our favorite Christmas present - the new laugh of our son Caleb Stephen.
This past year, I worked at Hyde Middle School teaching art while Josh continued his job as an Engineering Program Manager at Apple Inc. I finished my master's degree in Instructional Technology at San José State University. In August, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of our friendship and our 7th wedding anniversary. Caleb was born September 5th, and we are now enjoying new parenthood!
It has been an amazing year and we are in awe of how God has led and blessed us. May you and yours also feel the gentle leading of His hand in 2008. Glory and Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ!
With Love,
Josh, Stephanie & Caleb Lewis
I did several photo sessions of Caleb this month. These are some of my favorites:
I get a lot of books from the library in Cupertino to read. But I always chuckle when I go to return my books. The book depository has a line up of slots to drop your books in. Here is a picture of it:
From left to right, the slots say:
Book Donations
Children's Books
Children's Books
Media
Adult Books
Adult Books
Yes, that's right. It says Adult Books. Here's a close-up:
The first time I returned a book to this library, a book on African art, I went to the book drops and walked back and forth trying to figure out which slot it went in. It wasn't a donation, not a children's book, not media, and certainly not an adult book. ADULT BOOK? Does the library have books that only people age eighteen and up can check out? Since when did the library start carrying adult books? And why hadn't I seen them there? Were they behind a curtain I didn't notice before? Or perhaps they were in one of the back rooms and you needed to know a secret knock to get them. Do they check IDs?
Knowing that the library didn't actually have adult books, Josh and I discussed what a more appropriate term would be to put on the book drop, but couldn't come up with anything good. The only thing we really thought is that the library people wanted a "not a children's book, donation, or media" slot. But, that's too long and too confusing to write on a little door-thing. Could they call it other? Or perhaps non-children? Way more confusing. Oh well.
I still snicker like a teenager every time I go there...
A lot of the Recycle Replanet bins have been turning up in grocery store parking lots around here. Based on the name, I figured they had something to do with recycling. But, the word replanet really threw me for a loop.
I imagined mankind deciding that our planet was overused so we voted to get a nice new planet. All of civilization got shipped off to Mars for awhile while Earth got replaneted. They put earth in a crushing machine, then shredded it using some gargantuan robot with ripping teeth, then melted it in a really hot oven, then recast it into something better that we could all appreciate. Then, we came back from Mars to enjoy our replaneted Earth. Nice. It made us feel better about all the horrible things we had done to the planet. I mean, we could have just dumped this planet and moved on to a different one, but we were better than that. We replaneted.
Turns out that the replanet concept just means that the recycling center sorts your recycling for you. So, you can just bring all different kinds of cans and bottles and stuff and the machine will sort them accordingly, they'll weigh it all and pay you for bringing it in.
Which reminds me - why do I have to pay the local garbage company to pick up my recycling bin? If I brought it to these places they would pay me. Seems that the curbside recycling bins should at least be free....
Josh and I just got caught up on all of our favorite shows. Tonight was the first night we really felt the pain.
If any of you have been following the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, then you know that many of the television networks are running out of new material to cover their airtime.
Then I saw the add for Clash of the Choirs. It's a reality show that features Michael Bolton, among others, going back to their hometowns to see who can put together the best choir. Check out the video.
Is it just me, or is this one of the lamest show ideas ever? Seriously, what kind of committee made up of people in nicely pressed suits came up with this? I think I'd rather watch Police Cops.
May a miracle occur to help the Writer's Guild of America get paid so we can have intelligent television. I long for shows that include things like plot and symbolism. I've been supporting the Writer's Guild by reading during the times of shows I would otherwise watch. Yeah, real books with paper and everything.
This pic of Caleb is priceless. I love the "My Mom Rocks" shirt, which he's wearing along with a hat that Jen Alward made for him. Actually, you may recall seeing Caleb & Josh wearing the matching hats that she made for the two of them!
Josh gave me my Christmas present early (so we could use it to take our Christmas photos!). It's a Gary Fong Lightsphere II Cloud. I tried it out today on my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. The following are some comparison pictures to show how awesome my new Lightsphere is. I stuck Caleb in his jumperoo in his bedroom with two lamps on and took the following pictures. All of the following are done on the camera's automatic setting (I found better settings to use with the Lightsphere later).
PHOTO 1: This picture is taken using the built-in flash on my camera in automatic mode.
PHOTO 2: This picture is taken using my Vivitar 283 attached flash with the camera in automatic mode.
PHOTO 3: This picture is taken using my Vivitar 283 attached flash and the Gary Fong Lightsphere II Cloud with the camera in automatic mode.
It is pretty clear that the Lightsphere does the best at lighting the picture without harsh shadows. I'm still learning the finer points of using it, but I'm excited about what kinds of sweet pictures I can take now!
Some women get the baby blues after their babies are born, I got a bad case of the volleyball blues. Man I miss the game. I miss the camaraderie, the quick strategy thinking, the discussions over how to beat a certain team, the exercise. All of it.
I got to play with some friends on Sunday. Man do I stink. And boy did I feel like the queen of excuses. I kept saying, "Wow! This is what I get for not playing for 6 months!" or "I cut my finger on a saw blade in June so I can't feel part of the ball when I set!" or "I had a baby in September, man that takes a lot out of the body!"
I pretty much felt lame. And there were a bunch of people there who I have never played with before so they must've thought I stunk. One of my friends even declared, "She's usually much better than this." Gee, thanks.
But, that's what I need to do to get better, right? I need to suck it up and get back in the game without complaining and just do my best to get back in shape at a reasonable rate. Two of my friends said they are going to take a volleyball class at De Anza and invited me to take it with them. I figure that's probably the best for me (rather than jumping back into tournament play). I can just take it easy and have fun. And I'll probably still be above average in the class. So, we'll see!
