candi-lynn-riding-hood-

2011-01-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

I just got 10 free Thank You cards from Shutterfly just for ordering my holiday cards at Christmas!! Great time for thank yous anyway, but check out what I got!!!

Lovely Branches Green 5x7 folded card

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Cards

2010-11-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

christmas cards from shutterfly

2010-11-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

It is that time a year again, to pull my favorite snapshots from this last wonderful year, and mail them out in the form of a "look at my happy family" holiday card. i am so excited to do this, because for the first time i am using shutterfly for their awesome selection of pre-designed cards. drag and drop, then order, easiest thing ever. and this year, i am even getting to be part of this incredible promotion where they are giving 50 free cards to bloggers, just for supporting their printing and photo products!!! so i highly recommend this site to anyone looking for online photo cards. my sister-in-law has used shutterfly for years to create photo books for the family, and is even working on her daughter's baby book online, and i can't wait to start with my very own cards. and probably progress to photo books and other items as soon as i can choose which ones to make from the vast array of selections offered.

Here are a few links to some of the shutterfly products I intend to personalize very very soon.

Christmas Cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Desk calendars: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

Can't wait to get started!!!!

my new baby

2006-01-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

Meet the newest member of my family. Her name is Sadie and she is a 10 week old (now) boxer puppy weighing in at 9.4 pounds (not for long I'm sure). We decided Phoebe needed a friend and even though Phoebe doesn't necessarily agree, I'm sure they'll learn to love each other...

the Ghost of Christmas Past

2005-11-19T07:15:00.000-08:00

With the upcoming holiday season rapidly approaching, I have a tendency to find myself basking in the nostalgic emotion of Christmas past. I come from a divorced family, which doesn't really bother me as I believe that if my parents hadn't divorced when they did, one of them would probably have been murdered by the other by now. And, of course, this meant I always had 2 Christmases. Custody rules stated that my parents took turns each year for the privilege of my company on Christmas Day. Up until the age of 9 years old, my parents lived in the same town, and this allowed me to share the holidays evenly. Traditionally, my mom's Christmases would consist of a quiet family dinner with my Meemaw and my brother, opening gifts and playing, until 6 pm on Christmas Eve. Then, I would be transferred to my dad's and await anxiously the glorious next morning when Santa would have left me a bag full of presents. This was followed by a short trip down HWY 49 to Waldenburg, Arkansas where we would proceed to open gifts with the entire Davis family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents, and of course, Papaw and Yayo. They were the staple of these holiday gatherings.

Sixteen years ago, my Meemaw died of pneumonia. Immediately after, my mom moved me and my brother to Houston, Texas where we began our own lives away from the pain of her childhood in northeast Arkansas. Around the same time, my dad took a job in Mississippi and through the years traveled to New Orleans, Florida, and Michigan. Holidays were quite different and much more quiet. The years with my mom were usually me and her alone and we would go to the mall with a spending limit and I would pick out my presents, then we would go home and wrap them up for Christmas Day. My dad's Christmases also involved his wife and my sisters, and eventually his new wife, her kids, my sisters, and their son, and sometimes Papaw and Yayo would meet us wherever we were as well. Santa came like clockwork for years and I imagine he still does as my littlest brother is only 9.

When I was 14 we moved back to Arkansas and my mom and I were close as ever, but now my dad would come home to Papaw and Yayo's house for Christmas, along with aunts, uncles, and cousins, so I could again be with both parents on the holidays. Life was good and I had a great family to whom I was very close.

Then six years ago, two things happened. One, I moved away to college, which seems in my memory, the beginning of my maturity into adulthood. Two, my Yayo passed away with breast cancer. Since then, my Papaw, and literally the entire Davis family has been torn apart. My dad and my aunts don't communicate, my Papaw is depressed at the holidays and shuts himself into his house. The first couple of years, he still put up his tree and lights. Now, the only glow from his house is the blue reflection from late night Steven Seagal movies on TNN. My aunt and uncle, the ones without kids, make a point to schedule their vacation each year for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.

Now, I am married and we are beginning to adjust to the actual stress of fitting everyone into the few days we have off work at Christmas, so that noone feels left out. My celebrations no longer revolve just around mom and dad, but both them and Ryan's family. We are building new traditions, and schedules, and memories and although they are wonderful, I can't help but remember the holidays with my family as a child. The warmth, the comfort, the happiness, the security in knowing that a couple days a year everyone I loved would come together and share their time. Those days seem so different now, and new people in my life are sharing my holiday happiness: my husband, his family, my brother's wife and children... In fact, I haven't even been with my dad on Christmas Day since my first year of college and unfortunately, that year I came down with pneumonia and slept through Christmas.

I wonder if this is all a part of growing up. If the evolution of your family is natural or simply caused by emotional loss and petty disagreements. I have cousins all over the country, some I haven't seen in years, but I remember the games we played as children and I know that I will always have those memories that mean so much to me now. My nucleus of a family is beginning to split into many small families that each have their own agendas and obligations at Christmastime. I had no idea as a child that one day my family would change so much, and the security I felt was so innocent. I suppose that naivety is what brings the excitement to holidays in the first place. The idea that for a couple days a year, everyone is happy, and in love, and together, regardless of anything. As an adult, I now understand the sadness at holidays too, where as a child, everything was happy. Now there are different faces in my holidays, some new family by marriage or birth, some missing by the natural cycle of life, and some emotionally changed by the evolution of the family, but at least for a couple days, these faces are warm, and in love, and together, and in the end, I guess that's all that really matters.

cruise control

2005-10-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting at the hair cuttin place about 2 weeks ago (16 days ago to be exact), chatting with my hairdresser, trying to catch each other up on our last three months of life between my appointments. As she is snipping away at my bangs, my phone starts ringing, and as it is nearly 8 pm, I assume it is my husband calling to ask where his supper is. Strangely enough, it was anybody but Ryan and I simply sat frozen in my chair open mouthed and bug eyed as I listened to a job offer being poured into my ears. I absolutely thought I was dreaming, because it was so unexpected and unplanned (and if you know anything about me, you know I am a very anal planner. Example: my budget is worked out to the penny for the next 6 months including the days I will actually send each bill. Perhaps control freak is a better word.)

Now this is a firm I am very familiar with; I interviewed with them in college and received an offer then, but turned it down because it would require too much of a commute for me and my husband. Instead, I settled with a cozy little firm 45 minutes from home, my husband drives about an hour, and we bought a house in a great little community of about 8000 people. Life is steady and planned, just the way I like it. Then this phone call. Now since I turned down the first offer, I have visited with them time to time at conventions and things and they always seemingly teased about me coming to work for them. Or so I thought they were teasing... Basically, this phone call began a 10-day stretch of stomach knots, awkward conversations, pretty heavy soul searching and long term career planning.

I like to consider myself an ambitious person, although at the same time, I am fond of the philosophy, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The truth is, I like the job I have. It is a comfortable, relaxed environment with 5 people, and as an intern I am given an incredible amount of freedom. The job sizes vary from house remodels to master planning for small community colleges. It is good experience in each part of the design process and luckily pretty good design on the part of this firm. I had always just assumed I would work here til I get my license and either stay a little while, or try to start my own small firm in my new hometown. Of course, the planner that I am, I had already compared this schedule to my personal life regarding our plans for a family and decided my life was in cruise control and the details would work themselves out. Then this great firm calls and says they're thinking long term and they want some good folks, their average size project is about 5 times bigger than I've ever worked on which will be great experience, and they even offered to let me work at home 2-3 days a week to balance my commute!! In the meantime, my husband has been accepted to a management training program with his company and has been told that every 6 months for the next 2 years he will change jobs including two 6 month rotations in Dallas. Yes, he is moving to Dallas from July to January each of the next two years and I will stay in Arkansas. Interesting that we will again have to share custody of Phoebe.

Suddenly our happy little worlds took a giant leap into new opportunities and hard core career/financial/family planning. It was quite stressful, but after generous consideration, we both decided that sometimes good opportunities come at you when you are least expecting them. It's up to you to weigh the risk of changing what is comfortable and secure to what is unknown. Ryan and I are facing many unknowns now and although that seems unstable for both of us, somehow I have this feeling that everything will be OK. Now I won't force religion onto anyone reading this, but sometimes I think the best way to get a laugh out of God is to tell Him your plans. His often tend to be quite different and obviously this is a good example. Ironically, all of these changes have come about in the last 3 weeks and although the hard part of making the decisions is over, I have learned that I am going to have to be a little more flexible in making my plans for my future. Sometimes opportunity knocks on the door when you're enjoying the peace and quiet and you have to sacrifice that familiar comfort for the insecure hope that you've made the right decision in answering the door. Even in cruise control, you have to slow down for traffic jams or curves, but now that I'm past that, I hope I can hit that little resume button and see what happens.

the last 2 months

2005-09-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

ok i guess i'm not a very dependable blogger, but to be real honest, i just haven't been much in the mood to share thoughts and feelings about my life lately. i've had tons of things on my mind but nothing in particular to share with the world. but, for those of you interested, here is a short list of some of the things i have done since my last entry (in no particular order):

-celebrated my 2 year wedding anniversary by fixing a damn good supper: homemade pan fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, and butter crescent rolls, with gooey butter cake for dessert. although not for those on atkins, i've definitely confirmed my existence as a southern girl.

-rode a camel at the kansas city zoo and stood four feet from a kangaroo with no fence in between us

-took a week off of work and spent 3 of the 5 days off lounging around my own house

-learned how to quilt; i still have to finish the edges of my first attempt at a quilt, but it's definitely a new hobby of mine

-saw my name in a concrete sidewalk at the u of a campus

-watched as a prominent american city was drowned in a toxic, lethal soup and cried as thousands of people and animals were uprooted from their homes and forced to relocate

-joined the master planning team at my church to plan the next 10-15+ years of church facilities

-lost 3 pounds... then gained 5 back.

-agreed to introduce a speaker at the state convention, which entails standing in front of every architect in the state of arkansas and talking 2 minutes about a guy i've never met.

-turned down the chance to see the cardinals play the cubs, and lost my last chance to see a game in (the original) busch stadium (nostalgic tears)...

-read the 6th harry potter book, "the notebook" and "the guardian", and i am rereading the 4th harry potter book before the movie comes out in november.

-bought "sin city" and "million dollar baby" on dvd.

-opened a savings account

-painted my kitchen to match my living room

-weeded my front garden and mulched it in preparation for winter

-watched the hogs lose to vanderbilt. needless to say, it's going to be a looooooong season.

-contemplated my life as an architect/mother/wife/homeowner/philanthropist/southerner/professional/democrat/liberal/gardener/designer/daughter/quilter/reader/friend/confidante/team member/humanitarian/christian/financial planner/dog lover/house cleaner/... and still haven't come to the conclusion i'm fully capable of all these titles simultaneously.

so that's about it. not much to tell, but it may seem i've been busy. not really, just basking in the wonders of everyday life, working day in and day out in search of this so-called american dream, and trying my best to enjoy every minute of it.

junk in the trunk

2005-07-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

july 4 weekend, ryan, me, his mom and sister kelly went down to florida for a 4-day vacation that happened to overlap with his cousin's wedding. it was a nice little break- very far from a relaxing vacation since there were 12 family members sleeping in the house each night (granted, it's a huge house) and strangers in town for the wedding were coming and going non-stop the entire time we were there. the wedding was nice though, on the beach at sunset, very casual (the groom wore cargo shorts), no chairs or anything, we just stood around the couple. nice and cozy. the rest of the time was spent lounging in the sun, visiting and drinking beer. i was really glad we went.

for 2 months before this "bikini trip" as i called it, i worked vigorously to remove the excess 10-15 pounds i had accumulated since graduation last may. i have been virtually the same size since 9th grade, and this junk in my trunk is quite unacceptable to me. you see, i have always been a pretty athletic person, even through college i kept up with some kind of exercise routine. but since i started working day in and out, that routine has turned into, well, i'd call it sort of a thought process. i can plan all day long to work out when i get home, but i always think of a reason or two not to carry out that plan once my car is parked in the garage.

anyway, around easter, ryan and i made firm commitments to each other to workout, eat healthy, cut back on the beer drinking, and lose a little weight before flaunting our bulging bodies in front of the entire family. (that description is not intended as an insult to ryan of course, simply a statement reflecting our mutual decision to upgrade the health of our lifestyles.) so we did, and by the time we left, i had lost 9 1/2 pounds, and ryan had lost nearly 25.

as proud as i was, it was short lived. once i was there, the crab legs, chips and dip, wedding cake (who can turn down wedding cake?), and endless supply of cold bud lights completely ruined my diet and i have yet to revert back to my healthy habits. no running, no baked chicken, and entirely too much beer drinking to save the belly flab. so, needless to say, all that hard work, while it did its justice somewhat in that i wasn't completely embarrassed in my swimsuit, has been flushed down the drain. i have been told to expect this as i get older. that my metabolism will shut down and all my unhealthy habits will catch up with me, because of my new routine of driving to work sitting in my car, sitting at my desk all day at work, sitting at home watching tv at night, and then sleeping for 7 hours. sounds like a lot of laziness when put into that perspective, but it's like i'm so drained from doing nothing, i don't have the motivation to do anything. if that makes any sense. anyway, i imagine i can at least keep feeling guilty with each bud light and speedy gonzales lunch until that motivates me to do something about it. it's definitely a vicious, vicious cycle, but presently my attitude is, who gives a damn?

forecast calls for partly cloudy skies-or is that mostly sunny?

2005-06-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

my commute home from work everyday consists of a 37 mile trek i have subconsciously divided into 4 zones. first is the busy, 7-miles-in-25-minutes-bumper-to-bumper-through-road-construction-part from my office in downtown hot springs to just south of lake hamilton. this is followed by the 12 mile "dead zone" where i have absolutely no cell phone service all the way to the booming metropolis of bismarck. my drive along scenic highway 7 continues 13 miles through very beautiful landscape to lake degray, one of the few projects completed by the army corps of engineers that i really appreciate. the final 5 miles is a quick jump on I-30 into arkadelphia. the same drive 6 days a week for a year (we go to church in hot springs too) and i still find it to be quite a relaxing transition time from office to home and vice versa.

lately, i've felt this sorta "high-on-life" kind of attitude. it's been pretty easy actually. my wonderful husband and i just bought our first home, and we're arranging things just the way we want them. my precious puppy is finally housebroken after a year of training, and just in time to move into a new house. we're going on vacation in a couple of weeks and plan to do nothing but lay on the beach for 4 days straight. and recently, i've even been on the "pro" side of internship where i realize that being an intern architect is what i make of it. (this is opposed to the side where i think interning sucks-where i was at last week. this area of my life has its extremes). but lately, life is good.

so i'm drivin home yesterday in my new volkswagen, beltin out my karaoke version of some 80's song, and approaching the final zone between me and my happy bubble world at home. all of a sudden, it pops, literally. as i was pulling on to I-30, an 18 wheeler was passin me in the left lane and unknowingly chunked a loose rock right at me. i saw it hurling through the air at 80 mph toward my face and i helplessly swerved as much as possible without losing control, but obviously not enough to miss it. the rock hit the bottom left corner of my windshield and the cracks immediately crawled through my drivers side view and down into the depths of rubber sealant bracing the windshield itself. i had an instinct to speed up and flip off the oblivious trucker or to call "roadway" and complain, and the surge of dread of telling ryan, flowed through my body. this is our new car and he's constantly telling me not to follow too close to truckers. i knew he'd blame it all on me even though it really wasn't my fault.

then i stopped and thought to myself, ya know, it could be a lot worse. i may have to pay $300 for a new windshield, but after a year of driving 75 miles a day, i'm pretty fortunate nothing a whole lot worse than a cracked windshield has affected my commute. i mean, i guess ya never know when something will flip your world upside down and i know from experience that it's pretty hard to keep a happy-go-lucky attittude when the cards stack up against ya, but in the big scheme of things, i guess i just realize now that bad things happen, kinks are made to mess up my schedule, and everyday isn't a 6 year old's christmas morning. but ya roll with it. you make the best of it, thank the One who put you on this earth, and make due with what ya have. not the easiest bit of advice to digest when life seems full of misfortune and hardship, but when everything is put into perspective, i can't help but realize that the little stuff isn't worth fretting over, especially when there are people in the world who have things a lot worse than i personally have ever imagined. if life were analogous to weather, i guess i can handle a few small rainclouds and save my real worrying for the tornadoes.

you get what you pay for, or do you?

2005-06-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

throughout college as an architecture student, business and economics classes were not a requirement for my degree. however, i decided my very last semester it couldn't hurt to try one out, so i chose the broad topic of "macroeconomics." after a semester of GDPs and endless parabolic graphs supposedly representing supply and demand relationships, i concluded with the broad analysis that econ sucks. primarily this opinion stems from the fact that a large majority of the "greeks" in my econ class would graduate college with a starting salary much higher than any architecture graduate can hope for and they certainly won't have to include the word "intern" in their job title for 4 years (minimum) after they've received their degrees. did they ever suffer through 3 days of no sleep in studio building tiny little parti models or coloring layer upon layer of one square inch on a prismacolor drawing? i think not. so why is it that architecture graduates are so under-appreciated? i've yet to find a happy little intern architect working steadily away at their bathroom details content to be bringing home a salary among the lowest of graduates with professional degrees. so why do we do it? we complain about the recording of every 15 minutes of every day for 4 years to wait 4 months to qualify to take/pass 9 tests to wait 4-6 months to receive our licenses. we complain about the hell we went through for 5 years trying to obtain a degree in the first place and of course we complain about the lack of actual design in so many of the projects we work on. so what is the payoff of being an architect? is it the rewarding experience of seeing a budget cut, value-engineered building completed? is it that when you tell people you're an architect, they kind of look at you like, wow, that's really interesting. (even though you can see them secretly filing that information away in the back of their mind so in the future if they need a new house, you'll be sure to give them a discount). or is it really finding the art in that one project that has an endless budget out of the hundreds that are stretched so tight the architecture is squeezed right out like water from a sponge? yeah, that's it i guess. i momentarily forgot when i received my paycheck that is nearly half of my engineer husband's, but now i remember. it's all about the "art". who needs to pay their bills?

high-tech redneck

2005-06-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

well i guess i'm movin up in the computer world, i officially have a blog. i don't know why, i really just accidentally found a friend's and thought, huh, i could write some stuff that doesn't really mean anything to anybody but me, too. so ... where do i start? for some reason, it seems like this would be a great place to vent about my frustrations with the incredibly over-bureaucratic IDP process or share my liberal opinions about politics and the ways of the world, or at least the ways i think things should be. maybe later. for now, i actually am pretty busy at my job as an "architect intern" although the definition of "busy" is becoming synonymous with sitting behind a desk spending more time drawing infinite blue and red lines in PowerCADD than checking cnn.com for news updates. there's just something so tempting about that little blue e representing an escape to the outside world from my 5'x5' cubicle. i can't hardly help but drag my cursor to that vicinity of my desktop every 30 mintues or so. don't get me wrong, i like my job, and i am very grateful that i have it, i think it's just a psychological tension between the need for both vacation and productivity. ahhh, life in the "real world".