And It Goes A Little Something Like...

I always say it. I always mean it. I love working at a place where I love the people and adore the subject matter. Even though I've never considered myself an artistic person, I am constantly inspired to create when I look through each project for the magazines we put out. And, nerdily enough, I seriously love the challenge of my particular part of it all - words and punctuation are my favorite!

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Anecdote:

Caleb was recently needing classes to fill up his schedule. He was looking through the fine arts courses, listing off, "Drawing, Bookbinding, Ceramics...." At the mention of ceramics, I immediately blurted out, "My ceramics class in high school helped me achieve my greatest artistic feat!" I then commenced my story about a small ceramic statue of my friend Tom Mitchell. I was taking a ceramic class in my junior year, and we had to do a small piece. At the time, I was in a physics class with my friend Tom, a lanky guy who I knew from drama. I decided that he would be a perfect model. 

I worked intensely hard on this little Tom, the toughest thing being his mop top hair cut. I finally had to make a bald Tom and then a separate hair piece, which I added on later. The end result was pretty good, and I got brave enough to enter it into our school art show, Chepulechi. I also entered in my Pirate pig mug, which continues to be a classic piece of high school memorabilia.

Our ceramics class took a tour of the art show in the Multi-Purpose room a few weeks later, and to my surprise, my little Tom had won an honorable mention ribbon! I was so thrilled - little, non-artistic Holly had won something for her art! For being my inspiration, I gave my little Tom to big Tom at the end of the year. Last I talked to him, many moons ago, he still had that award-winning piece of art.

And out of all of the high GPAs, the scholarships and the perfect scores, the accomplishment I am the most proud of is the one I thought I'd never achieve - honorable mention in the Small Ceramics.

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This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Caleb and Jack, even though it's dark as all get out and totally cell-phone quality. This was the first real night we spent in the hospital (see how I'm not counting the night of active labor we spent there?), as Caleb was getting ready to go home for the night. It was a difficult decision for Caleb, to leave Jack and I at the hospital to go home and get a good night's sleep. So difficult, in fact, that even though he was a walking zombie, he still had a heck of a time putting down his brand-new son. 

And don't tell anyone, but there were tears streaming on both sides of the camera. This was probably the most spiritual, beautiful time we ever had in Jack's first days.