neither witty nor profound

Its new years eve. I feel obligated to mention that because people like to make a big deal out of it. I've never really understood why. Because they are excited about their new calendar? Maybe last year they had cute puppies dressed like humans and this yeaar they are moving on to cats in awkward positions? Maybe last year's calendar had a lame picture for their birth month? I know its the first thing I check when I get a new calendar.

Sometimes I wonder if the hype about new years eve is related to an out with the old sort of attitude. You know how what happens in Vegas is suupposed to stay in Vegas? Maybe people are hoping that what happened in 2011 will stay in 2011. Of course, reality is that neither holds true, since whatever happened still happened regardless of where or when. So much for out with the old. And since you can't away with the past, the new isn't as shiny as everyone pretends it is.

Gosh this sounds depressing.
That's not my intent.
I just felt obligated to make mention of the timing and then defend myself for posting a blog instead of going to a party and kissing random strangers.

Reality is, I'm babysitting. Two little girls that I adore. They went to sleep as perfectly as they always do and I probably should be cleaning up their toys. But instead I'm taking advantage of the internet and the quiet.

Apparently I've taken 376 pictures in the last month. I'm downloading them to my computer now. I don't know yet how most of them turned out, I'll probably delete more than half, but I'm going to post a few here for fun. Let's do it by choosing some of my favorite numbers. I may or may not comment on them. Lets see what picture number 8 has to offer. (I like the number 8. It looks like infinity.)


That's nice. I like the exposure I used. If onlly I actually knew what the trick was. My only complaint is that its crooked.

On to 42. The answer to the question of life, the universe and everything is....


A very hogwarts chritmas! This is the set for the concerts we did this year. It was amazing. As you can see.

Alright, I'm at a bit of a loss for numbers, so lets go with the highest prime number I know off the top of my head, which is 97


It's a picture I took of the hubble feed at the clark planetarium, which was telling me amazing new wonderful things about galactic discoveries. My friend becky and I spend hours and hours at the planetarium. We watch the movies (educational and unintentionally hilarious) and we play with the toys... errr, experiements intended to educate children, and we laugh and laugh and laugh. There are very few people in this world who let you really let go and just be you.

alright, indulge me for a second while I post some photos I selected because they are awesome. We had the best, loudest, most fun table at the choir christmas dinner. mostly because of this person right here


I'm going to have to have her autograph it for me.




And the women in the picture with me. They make up the most amazing women I know and have ever had the pleasure of calling friends. I seriously can't tell you how very awesome each of them are.


I'm going to go with number 113 now. Because that's sort of my birthday. I believe this will launch us into the family portion of the month.



Ok, I fudged. When I saw which picture this was going to be, I selected the next one in line, but only because it was the exact same people and pose, just not blurry. This was probably my favorite picture of the whole lot.

What's that? I've posted a gazillion shots and we're not even halfway through? Whats half of 376? 188.


Christmas morning.

now. on to the christmas hymns. 210?



heh. match-y match-y!
I spent christmas at my sister's house, which meant I got to participate in the santa experince and then attend church in a tiny branch where one of the talks included the statement "I've decided I really don't prefer the christmas hymns in polka-style"

are you bored yet? we're nearing the end. the next 40 or so pictures were taken by my niece Katie. Which means they are all blurry, but she (being the darling only girl youngest of 7) managed to get smiles our of every person she captured. I could devote an entire blog post to a series of photos, all slightly blurred, but of every grown up in my family giving katie the exact same grin. Its pretty funny to look through. and right at the end there are no less than 10 shots of her cousin charlotte's cinderella doll.

here is 243.



now on to a nice bouncy sort of number. 275. (only 101 to go!)


can you see how she's showing you that she is "sooooo big!"?

ALright. I'm getting tired. let's wrap this up

Four in a row. I went to bemidji, minnesota. its far away and cold and its where the mississippi river starts. We tok small children swimming, we fed them chocolate, and I braved the cold for just long enough to get a very important picture.


See how I'm picking Babe the Big Blue Ox's nose?
Amy told me to.





The shacks on the frozen place are ice houses on the lake. I know lots of you may not have experienced this before, so I included it for your education. People build towns on the lakes in northern minnesota in the winter. in some places they even create roads using sand and stop signs. while there are no roads in this shot, my dad did say that he counted 48 ice houses. We only saw a couple trucks and vans out there on this day, but I'm sure that since it was the day after christmas, people were off doing some other important thing like buying AA batteries for sven and ole's toys or returning that sweater from cousin brita. I came back with a pretty strong accent.

Well that wraps up my photo review. There are lots of others worth sharing, but maybe some other time. or maybe not. school starts up again in 4 days.
:)

Happy new year!