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!!