I didn’t mind the snowstorm much at all. It was a minor inconvenience, combined with a bevy of benefits. My husband at home for a few extra days. Family play time in the snow. A little girl’s first snowman. Soup with grilled sandwiches. Hot chocolate (Gem would be sure to verify that her’s was “warm”). Days packed with guilt-free snuggle time and togetherness.

Until my internet went out. Then it got personal.

Oddly, up until I noticed the outtage, I’d spent little time online. But in the hours, minutes, and seconds that have creeped by since that devastating discovery, I’ve thought of little else. We are all safe and well. We have electricity, heat, water, stockpiles of food, and an ever-deepening wonderland of snow and ice outside. It doesn’t matter.

I’m not connected.

I cannot share my every passing thought on facebook. I can’t pin pictures of food I will never cook, and clothes I will never wear. And since we dropped cable in favor of using the internet for tv, we might even have to break out the boxes of dvds that have been gathering dust in the closet. Even my phone is on Roam.

I’m quite certain I’ll weather this trauma just fine, and I’ll try not to spend my time counting the moments till I can post this message. In the meantime, I hope you are all safe and sound, warm and dry, that your problems are more frivolous than substantial, and that the storm leaves your homes and loved ones unscathed.

She offers up snowballs as precious gifts, then tosses them up in the air like so much confetti, squealing and laughing as the snow tickles her face.

And when she catches a snowflake on her glove, she blows it away, and says “make a wish.”

I have no idea where she got that from.

She made her first snowman

And she set about playing as though it was her most important work

It is.

Even when seasoned with whimsy.

Sunday, she asked if Santa was going to come back, now that it snowed, so that he could have Christmas in the snow.

We learned that bears like to eat dandelions

My daughter discovered the most fascinating animal at the zoo

I spent a little time in our back yard capturing ducks and lily pads

my daughter showed off her fashion sense

I trespassed in a beaver family’s back yard

I listed my 10 favorite places to be 

I got up close with some Poppies - I had no idea they were so hairy

I tried out the macro lens chasing down raindrops

My daughter and I explored Turnagain Pass in Alaska

I went tourist at Pike Place Market

I got all deep and philosophical about a Foggy Day

and I can’t finish this post without including another picture of the sweetest little girl in the world

My life has changed a bit since then.

For starters, I have hair.

Photo by Darrah Parker Photography

There was some awesome

My little girl grew up so much:

Then

Now

While Aaron was finishing his master’s degree, Gem and I went on a 3000+ mile road trip with Grandma, through Canada to Alaska.

I completed cancer treatment with the help of some amazing people.

We took a couple trips to the coast

I was on CNN telling the world about my hero, Debbie Cantwell and the Pink Daisy Project.

I can’t say goodbye to the cancer experience just yet, I’m still dealing with some residual complications, but I am in the process of moving on. I did so much more than deal with cancer in 2011, but it featured prominently in my life.

Before we get to the rest of my life, I did write up a post detailing what a day of radiation treatment is like, which has been quite a popular post over the past year. I hope it helps people who are facing this treatment, and a little nervous about what they are in for. (I also wrote a similar post about chemotherapy.)

What else did I do this year?  

I learned you can experience beauty without feeling guilty for not taking a picture

I am still learning to look past the angry in others

I’m embracing the idea that improvement comes from habit  

Made a fun discovery in my journal

Random act of kindness: I received an amazing gift that still brings a smile to my face and checks my attitude every time I use it

Looking Forward

I am so ready to get on with 2012.

I’m not doing resolutions this year, instead I’m picking a couple of words on which to focus as a kind of guiding principle for the year.

I picked “habit” and “kaizen”

The two are related. By habit, I mean I’m going to be intentional about creating healthy habits, slowly and gradually, the same way my bad habits get their start. For instance, I’m gradually improving my diet instead of going on a crash diet cutting out everything at once. Kaizen was a new term to me, meaning small improvements made every day will lead to massive improvements overall. This year is going to be all about incremental, sustainable change.

Do you have any plans, resolutions, or words of the year for 2012?

Her favorite toys laid out on a piece of pretty wrapping paper

Carefully wrapped

and topped with a pretty bow…

Berry Christmas, Mommy!

presented with both hands and a proud, beaming smile

It’s not just her toys. She’s used this one piece of paper to gift me with a book, a deck of cards, a shoe, my cell phone, the remote, and a dirty fork. But she has discovered the joy of giving.

A tree decorated with an assortment of lanterns.

Love

Love

Love this effect.

Happy Chanukah. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.

The other day, she started our day at 6 am, by saying “adventure makes me happy, and I have my shoes on.”

I’ve always known she was adaptable, and maybe even adventurous, and she’s happily rolled with the punches of every upheaval we’ve thrown at her, family illness, new home, road trip, frequent changes in routines…

But this time I saw another dimension. Not only is she adventurous, she’s a go-getter, she doesn’t wait for adventure. She’s got her shoes on, and she finds adventure everywhere we go.

The park is full of adventure, leaves, things to climb on, trails, squirrels to chase, and even in winter we can usually find a flower. The grocery story is full of colors, and signs with letters and numbers, balloons, magazines, apples, brownies, and the greeting card aisle can entertain us for hours.

Even the commute on those days we drive Aaron in to work is full of adventure, cars, trucks, signs, buildings, sometimes we can see an airplane take off or land as we drive by Boeing, and some of the trucks have letters and pictures on them!!!!

Life is just so full of adventure.  It’s wonderful to go somewhere new, but if you’re willing, you might even find a little adventure in your own back yard.

I’ve got my work cut out for me.

Add to that, I’ve got the world’s  S L O W E S T  scanner.

Yes, yes, I know. I can pack them all up and ship them off to a service that will scan them all in for me, quickly, and for a nominal fee. Nominal being defined as an arm and a leg, and my first-born child. But I’ve already lost a few body parts in the past couple years so I have none to spare, and I wouldn’t give up my first born for my life; that option is not on the table.

So back to the slow scanner, and my ADHD.

[That's Grandpa. He was a dentist. I'm sure his patient there would be thrilled to know he's been immortalized in my blog. Just doing my part here, helping everyone live forever.]

ADHD? Oh, yeah.  I get distracted easily. Especially when going through old pictures.  I was that kid who could never complete cleaning her room because I KEPT FINDING THE COOLEST STUFF IN THERE. Sorry for yelling, but you have no idea just how cool some of your own stuff can be. Especially when you’re supposed to be cleaning.

There’s just so much to see in here.

There’s proof that my dad once had a mustache

There are good times

adventure

garage bands

and precious memories

What am I going to do with all these pictures? I’m really not sure yet.  For starters, I’ve got to get them scanned in quickly because they are starting to fade, and some are falling apart.  Also, storage space is becoming a problem; my husband has accused me of being a photo-hoarder, and he’s not entirely wrong.

But once they’re scanned in, what next?  I’m going to upload them to our family Flickr page, and hopefully family members will help with tagging names, dates, and locations, and then at least we will have the photographs in one central location that is accessible to everyone. After that? Well, that’s a few years out yet. I’m telling you, it’s a lot of photos. They have their own closet in our home.

So, now it’s time to get back to work. I’ve got some skeletons to dig out of my family’s closet