Detox Bath

So after a bad night's sleep due to a migraine with all sorts of annoying symptoms, I decided I needed to do something relaxing today...so I took a bath. Which I never do. Mostly because our bathtub is tiny, and not a huge luxurious one like I'd like...but whatever. It's August and like a million degrees and I took a bath; I'm a weirdo.

But, I totally recommend it, because I feel better. And it was super relaxing.

Detox Bath:

Hot water*
1 -2 2 cups hydrogen peroxide (antibacterial, antiviral, and helps purge toxins)
2 T ground ginger (anti-inflammatory, increases blood circulation)
1 - 2 c. Epsom Salts (combats hypertension, flushes toxins, forms proteins in tissue and joints)
1 c. baking soda (cleaning, anti-fungal, softens skin)

Optional:
Aromatherapy oil (lavender, ylang ylang, tea tree, eucalyptus, etc. I used lemon) or
fresh herbs (mint, chamomile, lavender, or whatever you like) or even
tea (chamomile and/or ginger would be best, but even green tea would be good for your skin)

*Get the water as hot as you can stand it. Add fresh hot water when the bath gets cool while you soak.

You're going to sweat. A lot. And that's good, because it gets all the toxins and yuckies out of your skin and body. The ginger especially will make you sweat because of the increase in blood circulation.

It's important to soak in the tub for at least 20 minutes, but 40 minutes is best. The first 20 minutes, your body is expelling toxins, and the second 20 it's absorbing all the minerals and goodness from the bath.

I lit about a dozen candles, turned off the lights, and listened to Irish and Japanese meditation music. I definitely recommend the addition of candles and music, because it makes the forty minutes even more relaxing.

This bath would be perfect if you're battling a cold or the flu, or have sore muscles and nasal congestion like I did.

When you're finished, make sure to drink a lot of cool water (at least 3-4 glasses), and maybe even some organic tea, to replenish your body. If you don't get enough water, you could feel sick, damage your kidneys, or even suffer from cramps. And that is not relaxing! I recommend the detox water I've been drinking all summer (super hydrating and energizing):

In a pitcher, put in 1 cinnamon stick and a thinly sliced apple. Cover with ice, fill with water. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes before drinking.

Enjoy!
Love,
Vanessa

Summer Reading

Here's a list of the best books I've read so far this summer (and by "I", we obviously mean Vanessa, since Stephen doesn't like fiction...that's a whole other argument). But you should totally read these novels, because they were great:


"The Beatiful and the Damned" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. If you liked Gatsby, or any of Fitzgerald's writing, or sad love stories, or great writing, or anything to do with the 20's, you should read this book. Of course it was well written, of course the characters were broken and sad and self-destructive, and of course it was fantastic.

"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. Wow. This book. It was mystical and believable and beautiful. It felt grounded, and yet had fantastical elements to it that made it seem magical, like a circus would be to a child. It has a tragic love story and such astonishingly beautiful imagery that I just can't get it out of my head. Literally. I find myself thinking about it frequently. I want it to be real.

"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. This author has a real talent for plot twists. Seriously, just when you think you've got this mystery figured out, she completely turns things around. The ending is so painfully perfect though, you just can't even believe it.

"The Millenium Trilogy" by Stieg Larrson. (Also known as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series) I know I'm a little late to this party; these books have been on my reading list for like 3 years and I finally got to them - and OH SO GOOD. I could kick myself for waiting. If you like action, mystery, and clean, concise writing then you must read these books. And naturally, once you read the first one, you won't be able to read the rest.

"Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)" by Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess. Funniest. Book. Ever. That's not even a lie. It's completely inappropriate, heartbreaking at some points, and so impossible to believe that it's real. I read her blog every day, so this book was something I was looking forward to. And yes, I technically read it in April, but it was so totally good (and awkward) I had to include it. Maybe because I re-read it last week...


More to come...

Ness

Master Bathroom

Oh yeah, you know what this post means: we have a second bathroom. To clarify, we've always had a second bathroom, but it was never a functional bathroom. Okay, further clarifications: it was functional when we got the house, but then we tore it apart, and it ceased to be a bathroom for 2.5 years. But no more! We can now use the restroom at the same time. It's a big deal.


So here's the bathroom we inherited. It's pretty inoffensive, to be honest. And it was a lot cleaner than the other bathroom. The toilet was original, if you're interested. (1967)

This is the before shot. Pretty, right?
(More like pretty dang small)

Here's where things get crazy. You see, on the other side of the wall that the sink and towel bar were on was a tiny little "room" that held the water heater (and used to hold the furnace, but it had already been moved to the basement). That "room's" access was a hatch on the back of the house. I kid you not, a hatch. So, Stephen in all of his genius, decided we should use that space to make the master bathroom bigger. So at one point, one could stand in the hallway, look through two bathrooms into the backyard. (Keep in mind, this was two months before our wedding). Here's an example:

Stephen's dad helping with the plumbing! 

Here's the "room" that used to hold the utilities. It was nasty.

The future home of a shower! 

Stephen did his thing, which includes over-building and using lots of two-by-fours. Good news though: the two halves of the house are now connected (because formerly they were not...). [For those of you who didn't know, our house is a pre-fab]

This is the view from the hallway through two bathrooms. 

Once upon a time, we had to build a tiny retaining wall like thing by the shower, which left an odd little nook.

At this point we didn't know this nook would become shelves. 

In the process of rebuilding two bathrooms, Stephen noticed there was a big hole of nothing above the 7 foot ceilings in the hallway and the two bathrooms. He raised the ceilings in all three locations, which has made a huge difference in the perception of space. You can see in this picture where the drywall ends, that was the ceiling for both bathrooms and the hallway.

Just for fun - the view from the master bedroom. 

 Now, for those of you who haven't heard us complain about our house (haha), we hadn't originally intended on rebuilding the entire bathroom space. We thought it'd be more of a surface/aesthetic change, until Stephen and his dad got into the bathrooms and realized all the piping had to be redone. (I don't think a girl gets luckier than having a husband and father-in-law who are so knowledgeable!)

Thank goodness for work lights. 

 As we were working on the house before we got married, we quickly realized there was no way Stephen was going to be able to get everything done, so we decided the hall bath was going to be the easiest to finish, so that became the priority (because a bathroom is pretty important for a living space). The master bath got axed to a later date (in our naive imaginations, we thought it would be the spring or summer of that first year of marriage...ah...childish expectations).

Visualize a sink and a toilet here, oh, and a wall, too. 

 Stephen did decide (since he had the help of awesome friends like Aaron, Jeff, Andy, and Tristan), that it would be smart to go ahead and hang the drywall and do the ceiling, since those materials were widely used in the rest of the house at that time.

Shower to the right, potty to the left. 

So this is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in (yes, it even had the shower pan). And this is what the bathroom looked like until May of this year. (29 months for those of you keeping score at home)

Here's where it starts to resemble a bathroom again. 

 Although these pictures don't really do the space justice - it was totally used as storage for the pedestal fan, the box fan, a cork board, and some books (naturally - I mean, let's face it, it's probably a sign that you have too many when you're using the shower pan to hold stacks of books).

And it stayed like this for two years...

With the realization that we should probably finish the bathroom, my insistence on a second toilet (warning: over-share coming up) in a household of two IBS-prone people, and the completion date of my youngest sister's visit for Thanksgiving this year, the master bath finally made it to the top of the to-do list.

Primer was a big deal. 

 I hope you all realize that I say "we" a lot, but Stephen's the mastermind and the worker behind pretty much everything in this house. I pick out paint colors, help decide on fixture styles, and (basically unimportant, but fun) things like that. I did come up with the floating shelf concept, though. But yes, Stephen's the one who puts everything in. Because he's better than me.

The hole where the toilet used to be. 

  We think that Anya had no idea that this room existed, because she was seriously confused about it. Once I hid there, calling her name, and she ran between our bedroom and the office room about thirty times before figuring out where I was. 

Nonnie says goodbye to floor boards and drywall. 

 We didn't have to buy tile for the bathroom, because we'd already purchased it with the intent to use it in the kitchen (this was back in December '09, at the same time we bought carpet for the house). Then after further study of the house, it was determined that the kitchen couldn't support tile without the grout lines cracking because our house is so bendy. Silly, right? So the tile got re-assigned to the bathroom. Pretty convenient, actually.

Normal people do this, right? 

Unfortunately, the mortar didn't mix properly, and tiling a shower proved to be really irritating. Have I mentioned how lucky we are to have such great friends who can assist at the last moment? (Yes, you, Aaron and Haley).

Our neighbors think we're weirdos.
(They're right)

 But the shower tiling did get complete - and it looks totally awesome with it's thin and beautiful grout lines! 

Aaron and Stephen's beautiful tile work. 

And Stephen was able to finish the floor tile in record time. It looks even better than the first bathroom according to Stephen - but I think they both look awesome.

Look at them thin lines! 

 I'm just going to gloss over the finer details of crown moulding. Moral of the story: don't do it on angled ceilings if you value your sanity.

Crown Moulding - Stephen's favorite! 

And making the ceilings slanted once seemed so easy...

During this stage, there was a lot of ogling and hanging out in the bathroom enjoying the new, bright space.

The dog is totally weirded-out by this "new" room. 

We started to believe this bathroom would actually happen! (And naturally I kept asking when the toilet would be put in)

Betchya didn't notice that the trim tiles
are a different style than the large ones. 

Stephen's not one to rush through things (or thankfully give in to my impatient whims), so he painted and placed the trim, did all the water valves and whatnot.

Getting ready for the important things. 

Caulked, sanded, and touched up the moulding and trim. (I hate that step)

My least favorite step - filling in nail holes
and sanding. I always forget about this part. 

 Finished the wiring for the fan, the two lights, and the outlets.

Putting in the light and fan switches. 

 Our favorite boob lights. They were two for ten bucks, or two for twenty (I can't remember because we got them before we got married). This one matches the one in the other bathroom, which in turn matches the two in the hall. We're nothing if not consistent. Are they pretty? Not really. Are they functional? Heck yes. Can we live with them? Yup.

Welcome to my favorite part - THE PAINT.
Oh, the ceiling fixture is nice, too. 

I know the white-balance is totally screwy in some of these pictures, so just bare with me. I'm still learning how to use the Nikon. Stephen added the shower fixtures, and the toilet! He also built in the brackets for the shelves in the nook.

Look! A real bathroom. 

 I have a serious obsession with this paint color. So much so, in fact, that we're using it in the master bedroom, too. It looks so great with the white trim and fixtures.

We tend to sit on the bed and stare into the bathroom...

 There's only one switch for both lights, so it's a really bright and cheery bathroom. We are a big fan of lots of light (just check out our hallway).

It looks bigger with stuff in it. Weird, right?
(Granted, don't forget there's still a sink involved...)

 And once again, we hit a wall, metaphorically speaking. In Stephen's haste to find the cheapest, but still nice-looking shower door, the height may have been overlooked. In his defense, he did purchase a standard height shower door and our shower heads are placed above that height (since Esteban is tall). This was the weekend before our beach trip, so the whole project was put on hold for awhile.

Irritation. 

 It didn't mean that we were any less excited. This situation happens a lot: one of us on the bed, the other hanging out in the bathroom. We are the weirdest people we know.

Stephen = tired. Nonnie = confused. Ness = excited. 

After the vacation (and a mental cooling-off period), Stephen finally got the shower doors in - and I think they look pretty even if they aren't frameless or clear glass!

Privacy in the shower - check!

Then the dreaded sink. I say dreaded because we knew it would cut down significantly in "moving around" space in the bathroom. But unfortunately, sinks are kind of a bathroom basic, and thus a necessity. I jokingly recommended we should do a separate sink in the bedroom like the dorms in UCC, but Stephen didn't go for it. Probably a good call.

You know what TP means, yup, this baby's
usable! 

But don't let the sink fool you - the water wasn't hooked up. Haha.

Functioning toilet? Check.
Functioning shower? Eh...minus the drain plug (aka sock)
Functioning sink? Nope. 

Stephen smartly got a router to pretty-up the sides of the shelves, primed, and painted those babies. I'm in love. How functional!

Still too sticky for boxes...

 We spent many-a-minutes deciding where to put the toilet paper holder. If only we could have hung it from the sink. But that seemed impractical. So we landed to the left of the toilet, out of the way (and far enough back so one doesn't sit on it whilst using the throne).

The TP roll even came with a template. Win. 

Then come the arduous process of hanging the floating shelves. Note to all DIYers: go ahead and just do yourself a favor and buy new/nicer hardware than the stuff that comes with the shelves. Not even worth it. The shelves are from target, btw. And they are handsome.

My blank canvas.

I literally bumped into Stephen carrying out the shopvac after cleaning up with my arms full of all the necessities of the bathroom in my excitement. I may have a problem.

I'm. In. Love.

The boxes on the shelves also came from target, as did the linens (washcloths, towels, floor mat). The picture frame is from Ikea, and the print in it I got offline. We even have his and hers boxes on the top shelf for our stuff!

The boxes are so great for holding all
the bathroom necessities.

We do actually own a soap dispenser for in here,
but I'm waiting for the soap to arrive from
drugstore.com. Go figure. 

I love the nook. There's even a perfect little home for the trash can (big surprise, also from Target - on clearance for two bucks!.

 And yes, we have bathroom-themed art. Because it's fun. And funny.

Please and thank you! 

 I honestly can't believe how well this turned out. It's the smallest room in the house (we may or may not be taking bets on how many times I slam my hip into the sink trying to pee in the middle of the night), and I think it's my favorite.

I just need a black photo frame to compliment the mirror.
That's another DIY project coming up. 

Naturally I was excited about how perfectly the rug fit. 

 I can now officially say our master bathroom is complete. So exciting.

 From start to finish:

Before. 

After. 

 My husband is the most talented person I know.



Love,
Vanessa, Stephen, and Anya

Getting Personal...

So I've been thinking about writing this post for about two weeks now, but haven't actually sat down to do so.

Stephen and I were fortunate enough to go visit my littlest sister, Sam, for her high school graduation. She's seriously amazing. She's the recipient of the Horatio Alger Scholarship, among other academic and sport scholarships and is headed to college in Seattle in the fall to play soccer and become a nurse.

For those of you who are confused, Sam is technically my half-sister, but we are definitely full sisters, as we so deliciously found out during the trip. Attached at the hip? Check. Ordering the same food? Check. Making the same ridiculous faces during photos? Check. Honey Bunches of Oats fanatics? Double check. Plus we both think it's cool that we look alike.

That was something that was new - looking like family members. Totally new to me (being adopted - I do look similar to my mom, and Megan, my other sister, looks suspiciously like our dad, but it's a total coincidence - or God's way of pointing out we were meant to be in this family together). I had the extreme fortune of meeting cousins and an aunt and uncle that I'd never known before - and boy do I fit in to the Porter family well. Stephen's always saying my family would be an excellent study in learned and genetic behavior (this is too true).

Now for the gritty details: I've known my biological mother, Rhonda, my whole life. She's had a close relationship to my family (especially when we still lived in California - she visited all the time [bringing me stickers and rocks and other cool things! Yes, Momma Rhonda, I remember that]). But never once for eighteen years did anyone ever talk about my biological father. All I knew is he never visited me and my parents didn't know anything about him. Sometime during high school, I asked Rhonda about him and she told me his name and a bit about him. It was interesting. I was definitely interested - timidly interested, but still.

Right after my eighteenth birthday the coolest thing ever happened: Sally called my mom and told her all about how she had been married to Phil (my biological father) and they had a daughter named Samantha. I had been even more curious about potential siblings than I had been about my biological father - so this was totally cool. Sam and I started emailing back and forth (she was 12), and naturally we had a lot in common (both playing the flute? check).

When Stephen and I got engaged, it seemed only natural that I wanted both of my sisters as my bridesmaids. Even at this point, Sam felt to me just as much of a sister as Megan was. It seemed wildly unlikely that her mom would want to fly her fifteen-year-old daughter to a wedding for family she didn't know. It turns out I didn't know how great Sally was.

Me with my sisters - Sam and Megan! 

That was a great time in my life. Unfortunately, weddings are hectic, and I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with Sam as I'd wanted to. And also unfortunately, we're poor, so traveling isn't always easy for us. But I was determined to visit Sam for her high school graduation, and so we did - and it was one of the best trips we've ever been on. We loved Portland, we loved the family, and I really, really loved spending time with my little sis. 

Now on to the real meat and potatoes - the biological father. (cue dramatic music - no? okay, no.) So I figured I'd be meeting him at the graduation, but when the time came, I completely panicked. I've not heard nice things about him from anyone, and he doesn't mean anything to me. That seems cold, but the curiosity I had about him waned after I got to know Sam and realized how little of a positive influence he had been in her life. Part of me is angry at him for not treating her better and being a better father to my beloved sister. And I've got a wonderful father in my life, so why make myself sick with anxiety about meeting this man I don't know? 

Unfortunately life didn't see it that way, and the introduction happened - much to everyone's discomfort.  I mean, how does one strike up a conversation with a biological parent? It went a lot like "Hi, I'm Phil;" "Hi, I'm Vanessa," "We're in town for a few days." "Yeah, the weather's great." You can imagine the uncomfortable awkward glances and nervous gestures and foot shifting. Oh, there was handshake involved, too. I think it's cliche to say that the minutes dragged like hours...but oh, they did. So cliche or not, that's the way it was. Oh, and to cap things off, my IBS was acting up, so I physically felt super great, too. (Probably nothing to do with anxiety and nerves, right?)

But the kicker, the straw that broke the metaphorical-no-it-turns-out-I-don't-like-my-biological-father-for-sure camel's back was his parting remark to my husband: "Take good care of her."

Really?! The sheer audacity of that shocked me. I literally had nothing to say - in fact, it took me almost 24 hours to understand how I felt: I was pissed. What right did he have to say that? None. He's most definitely not my father. He's known about me for twenty-four years, known my name, had multiple opportunities to visit me when I was young, email me when I was older, and Facebook me in recent times. He knows that Sam and I are close, and that she came to my wedding, and that I was coming to Portland to see her. I'm not angry that he's never made contact - because I haven't either. I don't feel that pull - I don't feel any need or any want to know him or have a relationship of any kind with him. And it's okay with me that he (presumably) feels the same way. But that means he's given up any right to say something along the lines of "take care of her" to my husband. First of all, I'm 24 and perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Secondly, even if I weren't - he'd have no way of knowing that. 

Now while you're squirming in your seat with discomfort at this entire situation - I'd like to point out a few thing: 

1 - I have definitely encountered the most awkward moment of my entire life at age 24. Nothing in my life will ever top that - it's all down hill from here! I no longer have to worry about uncomfortable moments, because that was it. 

2 - Besides the awkward meeting - I adore the rest of his family. Amy, Mercedes, Mariah, Megan, Mark, Janice, and of course Vienna - you welcomed me into your family despite the fact that Phil is Phil, and made me excited to be a part of your family. I can't wait to visit and hang out more! 

3 - Sam's mom is like another mom to me (I mean, how many moms am I lucky enough to have!?) and never once made us feel like we were an imposition or unwanted because of our odd connection to the family - and is amazing for letting her 12 year old daughter get to know a complete stranger. 

4 - My sister. Words just can't describe that feeling. 

And yes, it was June 9th and we were wearing sweaters.
Gotta love the Northwest. 

So there you go - an in depth, awkward-filled story that I'm sure some of your are curious about. If not, rest assured the blog posts will resume normalcy shortly - I'm not sure how much soul-baring I can do on the interwebs without feeling completely creepy. 

Love,

Vanessa

Summer To-Do

Today's my first Monday off for summer break, and I'm enjoying it by doing some laundry and watching a lot of The Office on Netflix. Winning.

But, as both my mother and husband have pointed out, I should probably actually accomplish some things this summer (hardee har har you guys). So in the hopes of actually getting these things done, I'm posting them here for you to see (motivation, right?). So here we go:

• New window treatments in the master bedroom. 
• Window treatments in the small bedroom (Stephen's office).
• Window treatments in the guest bedroom (do you see a pattern here?). 
• Spray paint a whole lotta picture frames that are gathered in the basement. 
• Re-paint the master bedroom. 
• Upholster our boxspring for a makeshift bedframe. 
• Do at least one get rid of 100-things weekend. 
• Get rid of the fan in the guest room (okay, this is more something Stephen has to do). 
• Grow some basil and lavender. (I didn't tend to my garden this year...)
• Organize my classroom units into binders. 

I think that's about it for now, although I may definitely add to it. What about you guys? Any summer projects? I know Stephen's planning on finishing our master bathroom (woot!) among some other things.

Love,
Nessa

Yearbooking

You'll have to excuse my recent absence from blogging...it's been almost two months! But between preparing my English I and English II classes for EOC's, planning and executing prom (which involved doing the catering, building the decor, and photographing the event), and finishing up the yearbook, I've hardly had any time to do anything else except sleep and eat. So here's a blog post about my reason for not blogging: yearbook! 

We use an amazing company called Walsworth: 

As you can see, we've sold 120 yearbooks and can do everything from marketing
to keeping track of student and business lists on this site. 

Without this company, it's unlikely I would have been able to do yearbook. They provided me with everything from lesson plans to theme ideas and directions on how to use online design. Speaking of online design, here it is: 

This is where yearbook happens. You can see from our book progress that we have 52 spreads submitted (woo!). A spread is the two pages you see at the same time when you open a book. Submitted means it's 100% done and we can't make any changes without contacting the company and paying a bunch of money. We only have five spreads left before we're finished: one is the track spread - it's done, but we're waiting to see if one student goes to state today before we submit it; one is an ad page (we're waiting for one more ad to place, then it's finished); one is graduation (which doesn't even happen until tomorrow); and the others are the index pages. The end is in sight! 

From there, I can get to all spreads: 

This is the track spread. It's finished, but we'll add the info of the girl's times today if she qualifies for state track. Fartlecked is some weird track term they use - silly, right? If you look, you can see the blue lines that make columns. If I've said "Make sure you align everything to the columns" once, I've said eight thousand times this year. Apparently it's a hard concept to remember to line up your copy and photos and captions to the columns.

I spend a majority of my time super-zoomed in checking spelling, grammar, column alignments, photo quality, and just about everything you can imagine. Hence why my eyes are tired.

I usually catch things like sophomore being capitalized, a missing comma or period, and making sure the captions are justified correctly. This one is not, so I had to fix it.

You can see here how the captions are aligned to the columns and justified
so that the sides touch the column breaks. We do this on the captions to make
the columns more pronounced, which leads to a cleaner looking page. 

My editor-in-chief and I spend a lot of my time in the ladder section, checking the proofs, approving them or sending them back to be edited, and then submitting. It's laid out in a way that makes it easy for us to follow the progress of the spreads. Nothing is ever submitted until she and I have spent (probably hours) pouring over the pages and making changes and tweeks. We both okay it before I submit the final page.

Here's an example of a page that isn't complete: the colophon and first page of the index. As a rule, we don't do any collages in the yearbook, but they wanted to continue the tradition started by last year's editor-in-chief of adding a collage to the colophon. Our yearbook staff was pretty big this year (20 students), so the editors decided to add some of the silly pictures and quotes from throughout the year to this page. We're an odd group, I must admit, but we sure do have fun. 

The colophon tells all the information about the book (page numbers, paper type, fonts, etc.)
The white space will be the beginning of the index, but we can't flow the index until
all the pages are complete, so we're still waiting. 

I think our yearbook looks pretty darn awesome. The theme is "The Writing on the Wall", so for our divider pages we have different walls fro around the school that we photographed with pictures from that section. For example, the nerd page (academic spread) has pictures from classes. The theme copy is all about breaking out of stereotypes and writing your own story. My kiddos are pretty decent writers. 

In case you can't read the copy, it says:
"If a 'nerd' is defined as an intelligent person, then this school is filled with 'nerds'. Every student
here has a passion for something, whether it be math, foreign languages, conditioning, art, or chemistry.
At North Platte, there are a variety of classes providing everyone with the chance to be a 'nerd'. There are
classes that students excel in, and others they don't do so well in, but the most important thing is that
each student discovers the class that motivates him to be a 'nerd'. 

So yeah, that's the gist of our book. And because I just can't resist, I had to share a few of my favorite pages:

This is a special spread, meaning the topic changes each year. This year,
the students decided to focus on students who volunteer at the local
firefighting stations. 

For one of the academic spreads, they did a spread on Media.
Our photographer (pictured here, obviously) is graduating this year, so they
talked about that, and decided to share with the students how a yearbook page is set up.
It's pretty cool. 

The football spread is one of the best looking spreads, in my opinion. I love the background. 

So this is what has been consuming my life for the past nine months, but especially the past few weeks. We have 3.5 days of school  left and five spreads to complete. With graduation tomorrow, Monday's sure to be exceptionally busy - editing and placing photos, writing the story, writing captions, editing, and tagging the students that are quoted. 

I'll be sure to post pictures of the cover when the book is printed and shipped to us in August (I hate that I have to wait!) 

Were any of you in yearbook? Did you do the cut and paste onto the page instead of doing it all online? Yearbook's certainly changed a lot. 

Love,

Vanessa