A Monday on a Wednesday

This last Wednesday ended up being a Monday for me. Carter and I had issues getting out the door to school, Casey was crying when I left him at the babysitter's house, I tried to dry my dress slacks for just a little bit and forgot them and shrunk them!!!, I packed my lunch for work and promptly dumped it on the floor, I have a sick cat that threw up yet again and Al joked we were starving him to death.....the list goes on and on. I was a poster child for a bad day.

So, I decided that maybe if I took some pictures before I went in to work that would make me happy. The frost was amazing and I'd been itching to get out and take some pictures anyway.

Here are my attempts at seeing beauty in my day!! I actually did feel better after being outside, however I neglected to notice that it was only 2 degrees outside and by them time I went back to my van I couldn't feel my fingertips and they hurt the rest of the day!!!!!

I think I got some really cool shots for all of my trouble, though...

I took this as I was heading back to the van through this shelter area. Remember when I was trying to take pictures of spider webs?? Just add frost...
This is kind of fun with the sun shining through this cool weed.
I couldn't resist even after I went back to my van...I drove up on the bridge above the dam and had to snap a shot of all the frost, running water and beautiful blue sky.
Wow! Look at that blue sky and cool tree!
Funny how Blogger decided that this picture needed to go on its end?.. I liked the way the berries looked against the blue sky with frost all over them.

I did figure out that I should try some different angles to get more blue, etc., but I'll have to save that for another day and dress a bit warmer next time!!!

Hope your week is going great!! Al and I and some friends are off to a Brad Paisley concert and overnight in a hot tub hotel!!!

Funny Face

My Mom and Dad, Al, Emily, Carter, Casey, and I went to my second cousin's house this weekend in Marion to celebrate his birthday and Emily learned to make bread from scratch!!(more pics to come) My Dad was talking with Casey and raised his eyebrows while he was talking. Next thing you know, Casey is trying to raise his eyebrows when he talks with you. It's hilarious when Casey trys it. And now he does it all the time when he is talking.
The picture doesn't quite capture it. I'll have to keep trying...

Best Gift I Ever Bought

Al and his new itouch. Who knew??

Sweet Poem

I have this sweet poem stuck up on the side of my refrigerator so I walk by it many times a day. Emily wrote this for me some time around Mother's Day in 2008. She didn't sign it or date it, she didn't even finish it. But it is still so sweet and special it about makes me cry.
My scanner at home is broken so I scanned this at work because I suddenly thought I might lose it or forget or something...I didn't want to forget. I don't want to forget.

Snow Day A-G-A-I-N

I can't believe we are having another snow day!!!! I think we'll end up going to school in JULY!! UGH!

So, yesterday, on that snow day, the kids got out the K*Nex and built creatures to play imaginary play with(something they hadn't played with in a very long time). Each creature had all kinds of powers and different parts. Their minds were really working and creating.

Every time Emily helped Casey with his, he wrecked it! So here it is on the floor.
I went to work in the evening and it seems big sister and brother just plain tuckered the little guy out!! He's not used to them being home this much.

I {Heart} Faces Two

I mentioned yesterday that I found this new photography blog:


Well, I already entered a child's pic and now I've talked myself into entering an adult face. I've really enjoyed looking at everyone else's entries and I hope people have enjoyed mine as well. Maybe this blog will inspire me to take more pictures just so I can enter more often!!! Click on the icon above to enter your own or to just browse some awesome photos of faces and get ideas of pictures to take of your own special faces....

The first picture below is my entry, but I put both up to see what everyone thinks. It was kind of fun to "antique" this picutre of my dad and daughter, but in the end I think the color says more. What do you think?

Big Boy

Al came home from work the other day to this look of concentration and our two year old playing computer games. He said he wasn't quite ready for that sight yet...

Me either. My baby is getting big so fast.

This Morning

The kids had a late start day this morning due to the snow and high winds of yesterday. So, as I sat down to play Legos Star Wars for the Wii with Carter I noticed this out my window.
The sun and the huge icicle looked really cool through my lace curtains, but it was hard to capture on the camera, so I pulled the curtain back and took this one.

Plus, I was too much of a wimp to actually step outside in the below zero temperatures for a photo op.

I {Heart} Faces

So, I ran across this new photography blog called I {Heart} Faces and they are running a photo contest every week. I talked myself out of entering their contest because I didn't think I'd win, but I keep going back to it and looking at all of the cool faces, so I guess I'll just enter this photo for the heck of it! At least this way, someone else can hopefully enjoy my photos too and I can get new ideas along the way.
The contest is open until Wednesday night, so if you have photo of a face, children or adult, go ahead and enter!!

Double Fives

Double Fives is this game that a good friend of mine from high school gave to Al and me one year for Christmas and then we in turn made one for my parents. It has a board that you put pegs in and you use 2 packs of Rook cards to try and get five pegs in a row twice. Emily and Carter are just getting old enough to play on their own. And Casey just likes to put pegs in and pull them out.

It had been awhile since we'd visited my folks so on Sunday, we went over for a supper of beef stroganoff (yummy!!) and games. Double Fives takes and even number of players, so we all played the first game and then Carter wanted to watch Star Wars The Clone Wars so I sat out too and took pictures.


The boys won one game and the girls won one game. Next time we'll have to have a rubber off!!
Here's my new haircut; it's shorter than it looks.


My dad and Emily "smoochin'"

We are having a photo contest at the library right now and one of the entries was a close up of two faces in black and white, so I thought I'd try some. But, alas, I liked the color better!
Do you have any poses you really like for people?? It's been too cold, or I've been too lazy to shoot pictures outside, but I still want to practice and try new things. Actually, I've been missing my camera. So give me some new ideas, if you have any and I'll try 'em out!!

Happy Tuesday all!

Random Acts of Kindness

Some of you know that I occasionally write articles for a local newspaper insert for the library. I haven't figured out how to find it online with any consistency to be able to link to them, but I wanted to share a story that I am going to submit to the paper soon. I may edit and embellish a little more for the paper, but this is my article/story that is about something that happened this Christmas season:


Over the Christmas break, I had some teenage girls do some babysitting for me, letting the kids sleep in and stay home and play with their new toys. The night before one of the days we had arranged, the girls’ mother called to let me know that the school had recently scheduled a basketball practice and that it was going to interfere with their babysitting and my work schedule. She went on to assure me that she was willing to step in for her daughter for that one hour time period the practice was going to take her away. Whoa! She was going to come home after having worked her 8 hour day and then “fill in” for her daughter babysitting my three children for me! How kind is that?
I was, however, instantly stressed. If she only knew how messy my house was…Having her teenage daughter come to my house is one thing, but having a full time working mother of three of her own children come into my house is entirely another. How embarrassing. It was already close to bedtime when she called, so in the morning I quickly tried to straighten up the house. You know, piling a bunch of stuff on my bed and shutting the bedroom door, leaving a blanket in the middle of the floor that needed vacuuming and doing a load of dishes and laundry. I made sure to tell the kids to be good and asked the girl babysitting to try and not make any other huge messes because I felt “funny” having her mom come to my house and babysit. Off to work I went.
Later in the day, my husband calls to let me know he made it home and “boy the house is sure clean.” I asked who did it and he said well not me. Oh no! Not only did my babysitter’s mom come to my house, but she cleaned it too!!! I was so embarrassed. But, when I walked in the door to my home, it was so refreshing to see a clean floor and a picked up living/dining room. It was such a little thing to make me feel so good. And she wasn’t even there for that long, an hour or less. As I’ve told this story to my co-workers, I’ve come to see it for what it was, a random act of kindness. She wasn’t worried about my mess or the fact that she was at my house babysitting, she was just taking the time she had to give me something, to help me out.
There’s a country song about the kindness of strangers and how one kind act of helping someone change a tire led to a huge tip for a waitress that was pregnant and down on her luck, but smiling nonetheless…Anyway, my point here is: Pass on a random act of kindness. You’ll be surprised how good it makes you feel and how great it makes the recipient feel.

A Funny Story From Carter

Over Christmas, my cousin, was home. We don't see her very often for whatever the reasons and so the kids don't know her very well. She's not married and has no children, so I guess they don't pay her much attention. Anyway, we ate, visited, took pictures. The kids played wii and just had a good time. This is a picture of me(excuse my hair), my aunt, and my cousin.
So when we were getting ready to go, Carter turns to my mom and says, "I thought my mom was an only child." She said, "She is." Then he said, "Well, who was that you were hugging then?"

Too cute to not remember.

Dress up

Okay, so this was a really funny picture of Casey "smiling" while playing dress up. And for the life of me I can't figure out why blogger has turned it on its side. I've checked and doubled checked and deleted and uploaded more than once, but it continues to make this a portrait picture. I wonder if this is any indication of what my day is going to be like?? I digress...

One Sunday in December, after church, Casey comes up to Emily and says, "Come on Sissy, I want to go dress up like Mom."






Funny, Emily didn't dress up with him....

Headless Snowmen Attack!!