Monday, February 26, 2024

January 2024 Randoms

Here's one of the few wrestling matches Sam did this winter. He wasn't fond of meets this season and it was a struggle. Hopefully, he'll develop more confidence and this won't be as much of an issue by next season!

One of my favorites 🎝

I saw these two cute owl things in a catalog, a wreath and a snow globe, and I was tempted to get them, but I didn't and took a picture instead. It was both owl-buying restraint and budget success! 

Here's another match Sam did, this one a home meet against a teammate. He didn't get nearly as nervous when he wrestled a teammate, and he won this one. 

We went out to dinner at Orale after the match.

I had a good time going to Framingham High's production of The Wizard of Oz with Sharalyn and her daughters. Our friend's daughter was in it. This school does such good drama productions—I was so impressed! I plan to go to more in the future.

(Intermission)

Imagine my surprise when I was reading through The Wall Street Journal and the big front page story in the Review section was written by my college friend Bradley Olsen, with three big pictures of him! So cool!


I messaged him and he said he was surprised and embarrassed by how big the pictures of him were. 😆
It was a well-written, interesting, and relevant article. I hope he'll write a Part 2 in the future.

I loved this soap display at Whole Foods. So zen! So organized! Such a good game of Jenga! 😄

This is one of the main reasons why I do this blog. It replaces most scrapbooking and photo albums. Every January I have the whole previous year of the blog printed out into books on Blog2Print

It's family history, and it's a fun and easy way to do it. I like having physical documentation of a fun hobby of mine, especially for the day when the lights go out and there's no more internet (sorry to inject that little bit of doom and gloom, ha ha!).

Another thing I do each January is I make a photo plaque on Shutterfly of some of our best/favorite/most representative pictures from the year before. I display it in the house until the next year's one is done. 
I made the background color on this one forest green even though I kind of wanted to match it to the sunset picture more, but the green was a reflection of John's high school graduation and that was more important!

This is the company I started working for last month. I'm the editor of Cape Cod Moms and I love it!
I still have my MWEG job and library job, and a few freelance clients as well, including a writing project I'm working on right now for a local magazine for fifteen towns outside of Boston that's launching this spring. I'm very thankful for my work opportunities and that they all involve things I like and care about.

I snapped this picture on the computer screen while watching a livestream of John's wrestling match. I'm so glad that I was able to see many of his matches this way. I miss him.

Some of the books I saw while working at the library that I want to read...




Hank Phillippi Ryan was an investigative news journalist on a Boston news channel when I was growing up. I remember watching her in the 90s. Now she writes mysteries too. I've seen her twice at An Unlikely Story when she interviewed Ruth Ware. I'd definitely like to give her books a try.

I don't necessarily want to read this; the title and cover just cracked me up. So funny and cute!

I got my first pair of Madewell jeans and they are indeed made well. I like the way my butt looks in them—an important quality for jeans. 😉 Plus they're really comfortable and they hug my legs and hips just right.
And no, I'm not a size 26, not even close! They just do different numbers for their sizing.

Que romantica! I saw this somewhere and thought the sentiment was sweet. Someday my prince will come!

This sweater was on sale at Lands' End and I liked it so I got it and wore it on Valentine's Day. 💗