it runs in the family...

many years ago, i remember sitting at our dining room table with my grandfather, my dad's dad, on thanksgiving day. i was in fourth grade and learning to draw. art class was my favorite class back then... well, it always was a favorite of mine...

at the time i was at north falmouth elementary school, in fourth grade. my beloved art teacher, mrs. moran, asked me to paint a picture on the wall. i worked hard creating a drawing i could project onto the wall and to this day it is still on the wall... some day i'll take a picture of it, for keepsake purposes. it is a painting of pippi longstocking, tommy, annika and their adventures in the south seas...

one of my favorite child hood characters was...
pippi longstocking

since those days, i dabbled in art.

back to thanksgiving day... i was having a hard time drawing someone sitting. how can you possibly draw someone's legs showing they are sitting? well, my grandfather patiently sat with me; he drew on a napkin showing me how to draw someone sitting. i treasure that memory... i remember finding a scrap piece of orange construction paper and drawing family sitting on the couch in the next room over while my grandfather gave me tips.

so maybe art runs in the family?

my grandfather was able to create wonderful drawings, among other things...

my uncle tim builds gorgeous, beautiful furniture from hand. he creates designs on paper and then forms the wood into phenomenal furniture. in fact, he practically furnished my parents' house. (pictures on that later)

my uncle larry built us a fabulous swingset when we were younger. it was without a doubt the best swingset on the block. we had monkey bars, swings, two floors, a fireman's pole, a rope to climb up or down and a super fast slide. we could swing soooo high on those swings and the swing set would never rock. it was solid. the best thing about swingsets when you're a kid is to be able to swing soooo high - like the big swings at the playground. we had those in our backyard! he then built us a fun go-cart. it didn't have a motor, although he could have easily installed one... it had a brake and a steering wheel. it looked like a little red race car.

my uncle ray is the "artist". he can paint beautiful pictures. when we were little, he would paint us pictures. now, he dabbles in photography, computer generated art and continues with the painting...

i could go on about my dad's other five siblings and their artistic talent, because they all dabble in the "art" in some form or the other.

now, my brothers and i grew up encouraged to do what we love...

but this post is not about me, it's about two of my brothers - pete and phil. they are a senior and freshman at wheaton college in illinois.

they are both talented and have done photography, web design, videography, etc.
in fact, phil, designed my company's website: www.mmisi.com after his senior year of high school. mind you, he's been using a computer since he was 2 and that's no joke.
we had a computer in our family room and 2 year old phil would sit at the computer and play learning games and figure out how the computer worked. i thought i was young using a computer at age 8, but he was the first of the 4 of us to use a computer since he was able to use the keyboard and move a mouse by himself...

this semester at wheaton, pete and phil collaborated on a timelapse video. they took thousands of pictures and put them together in a video...
check out the video and let me know what you think.

(note: watch it at 720p if your computer is skipping, the video was created in high definition)

Wheaton College Time Lapse Video

i am a proud big sister, and slightly jealous of their talent...

this is my recent photo creation that i'm proud of... and pete helped me photoshop it! (a little)

(photo: Sara Giguere - Kiteboarder at Chappoquoit Beach - Sunset)

not quite as exciting as a timelapse video, but i'll be proud of my picture for now... there's always room to improve...

do you make time for doing what you love????
whether it's your job or a hobby?

101 reasons...

A Tribute to Caleb



101 Reasons Why I Love You
(in no particular order)

1) You make me laugh
2) You tell me I'm beautiful
3) You take me on adventures
4) You speak French
5) You speak Spanish
6) You're learning Swedish :)
7) You love God
8) You love the mountains
9) You love rock climbing
10) You're athletic
11) You know how to cook
12) You do the dishes most of the time
13) You do the grocery shopping
14) We take turns cleaning the bathroom
15) We read books together (Bible, etc)
16) You are passionate about your job
17) You love photography
18) You have an appreciation for art
19) You give fabulous back massages
20) You play w/my hair
21) You humor me
22) You can ALWAYS recognize a movie soundtrack
23) I can tell you part of a movie and you know the name of it, even if you haven't seen it (if I can't remember the name of the movie, it will bug me)
24) You came to Sweden with me
25) You proposed to me IN SWEDEN!
26) You took me rock climbing
27) You took me on overnight hiking trips
28) You let me take you snowboarding - even though you hadn't been in over 3 years!
29) You spend Christmas with me and my family after ONLY being together for less than 2 months
30) You support my dreams & endeavors
31) You bought me fabulous art supplies (see #30)
32) You have an awesome family
33) You have 3 sisters and I have 3 brothers - now you have 3 brothers and I have 3 sisters :)
34) You are the oldest of 4 (I am the oldest of 4)
35) You go along w/my crazy ideas sometimes, but you keep me grounded!
36) You make me waffles on Saturday mornings
37) You take care of me when I'm sick
38) You love sushi
39) One day we will make sushi :)
40) Did I mention you humor me?! ;)
41) I'm type A; you're type B - we work things out!
42) You balance me - see #41
43) You let me register for most things blue when we were doing our registry; it's my favorite color
44) I suggested you register at REI and you were SO excited
45) You CAME WITH ME to register
46) We had dates at the Derby Street Shops
47) We had dates in the mountains: in New Hampshire, in Maine, in New York and in Sweden - hopefully we'll have many more dates in the mountains :)
48) Our first 'kiss' was on top of a mountain at sunset
49) You proposed to me on another mountain top at sunset
50) You goof off with me!!!!!
51) Did I mention you make me laugh?
52) You have good ideas
53) You wear flip flops ;)
54) You didn't like to read when you were little; you've now read more books than me in the past year!!
55) You set goals and achieve them
56) You used to play soccer
57) You used to surf
58) One day you will teach me to surf
59) You get excited about the little things in life...
60) You appreciate the beauty in the world that God has created and you find ways to capture it on film
61) You gave me a beautiful picture of a water lily for my birthday that I will always cherish (see #60)
62) You were the one who couldn't keep their hair under control when we got married...
63) You had long hair at our wedding... I'm not sure WHY, but this is a good thing.
64) You came with my family to Maine; the last time my morfar EVER came to America :)
65) You don't mind if I wake you up in the middle of the night when I've had a nightmare, and then you pray w/me (for some reason, I've been having HORRIBLE nightmares lately - last time this happened was Fall 2003)
66) You are real
67) You give me fabulous hugs and kisses!
68) You buy good presents
69) This is good b/c I feel loved by cards, gifts, etc
70) The presents you give ALWAYS have a good deal of thought behind them
71) You get excited about going out for ice-cream, pizza, dinner, etc
72) You love going to the movies
73) You dislike shopping; unless it's for hiking or other athletic paraphernelia - then you get REAL into it
74) Which means you CAN relate about my love for shopping... when it comes to certain things...
75) You love my cooking (most of the time - but you don't complain if you don't like it) :)
76) You love that I experiment with cooking, right?
77) You go all out when you make your lunch for work
78) You look good in a suit, even w/long hair
79) You think outside the box!!!!
80) You are a good Youth Pastor
81) You care about your students
82) You love God (I mentioned it already)
83) You preach good sermons
84) You know how to play guitar - this is a PLUS and I wish you would play MORE!!!
85) I live in organization, you can live in disorganization - this is puzzling to me
86) You have traveled to quite a few countries and APPRECIATE America as well as have an APPRECIATION for OTHER cultures
87) You know that the US isn't the ONLY country that exists
88) You are diplomatic
89) You enjoy learning
90) You enjoy good conversations
91) We have enjoyable and inspiring conversations
92) We can vent to each other
93) We laugh with each other
94) We exercise together (not always, but sometimes, and it's fun)
95) You pour your life into your job (sometimes I don't LIKE this, but I really appreciate it about you!!)
96) We both love living in Ipswich
97) You spent your Tuesdays (day off) coming to see me and we usually had dinner with my family :)
98) You get along with my family
99) You give me cards that make me cry (I don't cry easily - for the most part)
100) You married me
101) You love me