Thank goodness for Photoshop...

What would the world be like without photoshop? Think of all those models who wouldn't look as lifted and svelte and smooth. With the advent of Photoshop Elements, Adobe put these tools into the hands of almost anyone who can figure out the program. Which I am truly thankful for. It means I can finally have eyebrows! Let me explain...

I recently decided I needed to get some contacts. Mostly so I could see better while taking pictures. I just felt like my glasses were in the way between me and the camera. I've worn contacts before so I wasn't worried about putting them in or taking them out or even adjusting to them being in my eyes. My biggest concern was facing my face without glasses on it. You see not only did my glasses help me see but they gave the illusion of eyebrows in place of the ones I have but no one can see. Nice eyebrows were just not something I was blessed with. And now that I no longer wear my hair with bangs my whole forehead is open for the world to see. And to see that I am lacking some eyebrowage.

Yesterday I came home with the contacts. Quite comfortable actually. No problem putting them in. And man can I see! EVERYTHING! Especially my forehead staring back at me in the mirror!

Today I wore a bit more make-up to see if perhaps I'd like my face a bit more drama. Mmmm, no, not really. I'm going to try and figure out how to put on false eyelashes though. Now that I can see without my glasses! And I just think it would be fun to wear them sometimes.

However, there still remained the issue of the eyebrows. Or lack of eyebrows. So I decided I would just give myself a nice pair of them! So here is my before picture and my after. With my nicely drawn eyebrows! What do you think??Now you might be wondering why I don't just pencil some in. Because they do make eyebrow pencils and millions of women do this everyday. My grandma was one of them. Although I think she was a bit overzealous with it. And my answer is simply this. By then end of the day I would end up with ONE eyebrow. It would get wiped away by my hand. I think it's better to go without than to just have one. Maybe I'll get them dyed.

While I was pregnant I prayed, seriously, that my child would have eyebrows. And thankfully my prayers were answered! For as hairy as my husband is it would only be fair if our child got a smidgen of that hair! And in a useful place!

Lots of Thoughts for Thursday...

I read this LONG survey of questions on Miss M's blog the other day and thought it would be a lovely post for today!

1. How long has it been since you've ridden a schoolbus? Not long enough. I'm not a fan of school buses. No AC, too many loud kids, and I don't get to drive!

2. What do you think of frogs? They are fine as long as I don't have to touch them.

3. What's the worst Christmas present you've ever gotten? An empty jewelry box. I had expected something else to be in it. But that ship sailed without me and I'm fine with that.

4. Suppose you *had* to get some sort of tattoo, right now. What would you get? I am not able to imagine an instance in which I would *have* to get a tattoo.

5. Which would you rather die from, burning to death or "bird flu"? I'm going to go with the bird flu. I think it wouldn't stink as much or be as painful. It's just a guess, but I'm going with it.

6. If weed was legal, would you smoke it? Yes. I've never smoked it before because first, if my mom found out she'd have killed me. Really! And second, I've got two college degrees and spent a lot of time working so I think I'm entitled to lose a few brain cells to feel good. After all I stay home with a two year old!

7. How about if heroin was legal? No, I'm not into injecting things. And I've seen heroin addicts. I don't want to become that.

8. Do you use any kind of lip gloss/lip balm? Chapstick every night. Burt's Bees stuff. Got it from my mama.

9. Do you like pumpkin pie? LOVE IT! So yes, I do. Like it. I like it a lot!

10. Who do you want to be President (it doesn't have to be an actual candidate)? Someone who can do the job and not be an idiot.

11. If you were alive in the 1960s, would you have been a hippie? Probably not. I'm a first born and really into being perfect and clean and responsible.

12. Do you like dinosaurs? Which is your favorite? Sure, they are fine. Since I can't encounter it in the woods, I'm totally fine with them.

13. What genre of music makes you want to shoot your ears off? That would be kids music. Not all of it is bad but some is worse than all the cussing done in rap music!

14: What was the last board game you played? Scrabble.

15. Would you let your grandma set you up on a blind date? No. She liked everyone and was a terrible judge of character.

16. Speaking of which, ever been hit on by a much, much older person? Yes. And I will leave it at that because my mom reads this.

17. You can't find the remote. Where is the first place you look? Wherever Owen is.

18. Where would you rather live, in a barn or in an inner-city church basement? The church basement. It would most likely have a kitchen.

19. How do you feel about Hello Kitty? Too cute for me. Give me that angry looking penguin anyday!

20. Paper or plastic? Paper for recycling, plastic for garbage and reuseable for groceries.

21: Compost heaps: yes or no? We have a container for that.

22: What kind of socks are you wearing right now? Who the hell wears socks when it's 90˚ freakin degrees!? That's just crazy!

23. Are you part of a "subculture"? Aren't we all?

24. Do you type with all your fingers, or just 2? All of them.

25. Do you believe in astrology? Yes.

26. Are you good at math? I can do math. And the math I do I'm pretty good at. Remember that I taught third grade though. NOT calculus!

27. Are you politically correct? Probably not.

28. Do you know what a semicolon is? Yes. I am familiar with them.

29. Have you ever worn a Hawaiian shirt? No.

30. Have you ever dated someone you didn't really like? Why? People I have dated have become people I didn't really like. It's why we aren't dating anymore. Because I was able to see them for the stupid men they were.

31. Do you resent members of the opposite sex? On occasion, yes. Like when I was in labor.

32. Atlantic or Pacific? Pacific.

33. What animal do you most resemble? A human. Because I AM one!

34. How often do you eat macaroni and cheese? Whenever I make it for lunch. Every couple of weeks.

35. Are you into philosophy? If so, what are your philosophical influences? Yes. I have lots of philosophies. I share them here quite often.

36. What was the best concert you've ever been to? Probably Bare Naked Ladies.

37. If someone gave you $100,000 to shave your head, would you? Yes. Hair grows back.

36. Have you ever met a hermaphrodite? Not that I'm aware of. I don't think that's something you can tell by just seeing a person!

38. I've deleted #38 because I thought it was totally inappropriate!

39. Do you sweat a lot? When I workout and it's hot yes. But not just sitting here I don't!

40. What, if any, hair products do you use? Shampoo

41. Do you enjoy thrill rides (roller coasters, etc.)? The scrambler. That's it. Oh, and the merry-go-round at the como zoo. It's a fast one!

42. Have you ever seen a 3-D movie? Yes.

43. What should someone do if they deliberately want to make a bad impression on you? Be an idiot and say dumb stuff. Dominate a conversation. Ramble on about themself. Get drunk and throw up on me. Stink.

44. Have you ever drank a whole bottle of liquor by yourself? No.

45. Does anyone know you're filling out this survey right now? No.

46. Do you smoke cigarettes, and if so, what kind? No.

47. What word processing program is on your computer? Word.

48. Have you ever read "The Odyssey"? What did you think of it? No.

49. What's the worst insult anyone's ever given you? Once, at our previous church, there was this woman who was just generally condescending and rude. Every meeting or encounter with her was insulting. It was as if she thought I was generally incompetent at whatever it was I was given to do.

50. The best compliment? That I'm nice a good wife and mother.

51. Do you sleep with your door open or closed? Closed.

52. What is your favorite item from your favorite fast-food restaurant? Dessert and I will eat it from a lot of places!

53. Do small children like you? Sometimes. It depends on if I like them.

54. Do animals like you? I don't know. I don't usually ask them.

55. Would you rather be too hot or too cold? Too cold. You can always add clothes. When it's 90˚ and humid and you are already almost naked there's not much else you can do!

56. What's your favorite beer? Henry Weinhardt's Root Beer

57. Have you ever lived in a college dorm? If not, do you think you could handle it? Yes. It was a riot.

58. Have you ever met a psychotic person (officially diagnosed)? I've been to downtown Minneapolis so I'm sure I've encountered one or two.

59. Which show sucks less: "The Hills" or "Wheel Of Fortune"? I've never seen The Hills and I don't watch Wheel. So I don't know.

60. Do you like spicy food? No. But Morgan keeps making it.

61. Do you read poetry? If so, who is your favorite poet? Yes. Dr. Seuss.

62. What else could you be doing, other than filling out this survey? Lots of things!

63. What is your earliest memory? Believe it or not I have lots of early memories. Most of them have something to do with my grandparents or my great uncle. We lived with them when I was very little.

64. What is something you consider "classy"? Minimal jewelry that isn't tacky.

65. What video/computer games do you like? Solitaire

66. Do you know your IQ, and if so, what is it? Yes. It's in the very superior/gifted range.

67. Do you drink TAB? No, but I have.

68. Do you talk about your friends behind their backs? Yes. But not in the way that this question makes it sound.

69. Do you use abbreviations such as LOL or OMG outside of IMs? I use acronyms. I like to make them up. It steams from working in a school where the head B@tch liked to make everything into an acronym and no one knew what she was talking about. So my friends and I started making them up too.

70. What is your favorite vegetable? Potatoes.

71. Sweet or sour? Sweet. I LOVE SUGAR!

72. What's the longest airplane ride you've ever been on? Mexico or Maine. I'm not sure which was longer.

73. Do you regularly take any medication? No.

74. What's the closest you've ever come to dying? I had pneumonia when I was a baby. My grandpa made it sound like I was VERY sick. But I don't think it was that bad. I hemorrhaged when I had Owen. But passing out and dying are not the same.

75. What are you really proud of that not many people know about? In college I received the Chancellor's Award at my University. It is the highest non-academic award given out. Each year a handful of people receive them.

76. Are you really into high school or college sports? No.

77. Do you regularly spend money on things you don't need? Yes. With the exception of groceries and TP there's not much that I NEED. So everything else is a luxury.

78. Have you ever practiced archery? No.

79. Do you eat the cherry on top of your ice cream sundae? No. I don't like them. Morgan or Owen will eat them though.

80. What does the color yellow make you think of? Flowers.

81. What is your local newspaper called? The Sun.

82. What city do you wish was your hometown? London or Paris or some where exotic.

83. You've just farted loudly in public. What do you do? Laugh and then look around to see who noticed!

84. Have you ever had a lucid dream? Yes.

85. How about sleep paralysis? Does pretending to be asleep count??

86. How often do you dream about zombies? Never.

87. What kind of accent do you have (EVERYONE has one)? The kind from MinnesOta!

88. Do you think mushrooms are cool-looking? Yes.

98. Are you dyslexic? No.

90. Do you think it's interesting to study religions other than the one you practice? Yes.

91. Have you ever felt an earthquake? No.

92. Suppose you're the greatest painter who ever lived, but you can only paint one last picture before you die. What is your painting of? Circles. I like circles.

93. What is the sexiest color of finger/toenail polish? Red.

94. What is the worst job you could possibly imagine having? The embalmer at a mortuary.

.95. Do you think pigs are cute? The stuffed animal kind and baby ones. Not the big smelly ones at the fair.

96. Do you pay your own bills? Yes. I pay all the bills.

97. How many methods of contraception are you aware of? All of the ones on the poster at the OBGYN. The others are probably not approved by a doctor and I don't want to know about them.

98. Do you own ripped jeans that weren't ripped on purpose? Yes. Because they were worn a lot!

99. Can you give a good back massage? No.

100. What do you do before you go to sleep? Wash my face. Brush my teeth. Put on jammies and shove Morgan out of my side of the bed.

How's that for interesting stuff!

Wordless Wednesday...

Before wordless Wednesday...

It's probably cheating to post all this 2 hours before Wednesday but I wanted to share all of these layouts and I have words to say!

Here are the rest of the layouts from Owen's album. These are Sept 07-May 08. I may have shared the first one already but I couldn't remember when I was photographing them so I decided to do it just in case! I believe if you click them you can view them larger.

The finished album. All 24 layouts plus the cover page!

This is a 12x12 layout I did of Owen and my best friend's daughter Ella.

This is what I'm currently working on. The M&M layout.

Here is my new cricut cartridge. I was so excited to get this!

Thank you to all of your who left me kind words today. I so appreciate them. Owen and I went to Lakeshore Learning today to get some supplies. I found a great book of easy plans for preschool age. It has themes for each week/month and all kinds of ideas. Just what I was hoping for. I also got a set of alphabet puzzle cards. The letter is on one side and a picture/word beginning with that letter. Owen already knows 1/2 of the pictures! So we can work on learning the letters. I wanted to get some counting pieces and beads but being a school store everything was in a larger quantity than I wanted or could afford. So we went with the those things and a plan book, which was free with my $20 ($43 actually!) purchase. The school store is in my top 5 stores to not take a child. Owen was of course thrilled with all there was to see and grab and touch! What frustrated me most was all the carts they had sitting in the aisles of product that needed to be put out. Where, I don't know, but the carts were blocking aisles all over the place which made it difficult to maneuver the stroller and look for things! I didn't think this was the best way for them to go about stocking but maybe they didn't care.

We also had lunch with my mom and sister today. Owen always enjoys going to see them and talks about them all the way there.

Oh, and this morning Owen woke up at 4:45am. I brought him in with us but he didn't go back to sleep so at 5 he and Morgan got up and I stayed in bed till 6:15 when Morgan got in the shower. I've mentioned before I am not a morning person. After Owen finished breakfast (brekist, as Owen says) we went in his room to play. He played, I laid in his bed. Yes, his toddler bed. Curled up. Oh, and I discovered that I can fit into the box the lawn mower came in, with the cover shut. It's downstairs for Owen to play with and he wanted me to get in it. Anyway, Owen was all wound up this morning so I decided he could get his wiggles out at the park with our tot class friends. We meet Tuesday mornings at 10am. So we got ready and left. The park is 10 minutes away. Owen fell asleep 5 minutes from the park! When we got there it was a bit before 10 so I decided to let him sleep while we waited to see if anyone else showed up. At 10:02 I decided I too was tired so we went home. 2 miles from home Owen stretches, looks up and says "hi, hi, hi... dump truck, dump truck, dump truck". The light turned green and I went and 30 seconds later he was asleep again! When we got home I put him to bed and laid down myself! Now it's 10:15pm and I'm wide awake and probably could stay up puttering around for another 3 hours. I need to learn to be a better sleeper.

Oh, and one last thing. Today I made the 2P's newsletter! There is a section of the e-newsletter where projects, photos or questions are featured from the members gallery and one of my photos of the butterflies was featured as well as a link to them in my gallery! I was so excited! Thank you to Aimeslee and It's Not Easy Being Green for letting me know!

Thoughts for Tuesday...

I taught for 9 years and I can honestly say I never got bored. Frustrated, irritated, angry, yes, but not bored. As a SAHM I'm bored a lot. In addition to the frustrated, irritated and cranky. As with teaching, there are lots of fun times too. But the part I struggle with most is the boredom. I've read in several books that it's okay not to like playing cars all day or trains or pretending with stuffed animals. I get that. I've gotten over it. But what do I do about the boredom!? I've come to a point where I either need to change something about what we are doing or get a job. A real job. The kind that requires the use of my brain.

There is some inner turmoil here though. I love staying home for many reasons. I like not having to get up and get ready to go to work. We don't run off to daycare or rush home to pick Owen up from a daycare. We are leisurely. I enjoy that. I like keeping my home clean and doing laundry and being able to have lunch with my mom and sister whenever we want. Going to Target during the day is great. I don't spend countless hours with work I've brought home. Grading papers or writing lesson plans or things like that. I'm not invested in the lives of other children anymore. But there is an element of that which I miss. I don't get to be with other people during the day. I don't get to entertain a room full of children. Just one. And he's much younger than I'm used to. I don't have a room full of materials at my disposal as well as curriculum and specialists for music and PE. I've decided I need to come up with a plan of sorts. However loose it may be, Owen and I need to be doing more. He's learning all kinds of things but I need to figure out how to tap into that and teach him some stuff purposely. Besides "Go Meat!".

My other struggle is that I've always enjoyed spending a fair amount of time by myself. Before Owen was born Morgan and I did a lot of things separately. We were okay with that. Now one of us (ME) does a lot of stuff that I would previously have done alone with someone else in tow (Owen). Like bra shopping. Or scrapping. Or using the bathroom. This alone time has been something very difficult for me to let go of. I knew it would be. I just thought by now I'd have gotten over it. I haven't. In the summers before Owen came along I would spend hours reading a book or taking a nap. Now there are limits on that time (O's naptime) and I just haven't gotten over that. Or accepted it. Or made peace with it.

So if you have ideas for what I can do with my little student during the day I would love to have them!

On a higher note... today is my sister's birthday! She is 28. Which I can't believe. So Happy Birthday Sissy! We'll try and stop over to see you if you aren't too busy!

If I were an M&M...

I was looking for some M&M related stuff on the internet when I came across the Become an M&M part of the M&M's website. You can create your own M&M's character. I am doing a layout about Owen's first time eating M&M's and wanted a little something extra for it. So I created one for him too! Maybe I will use it on the layout!
Owen's album is done. Except for one thing on one page that I can't put on until I get my sizzix back from Lori. So it's as done as I can get it! I feel a little lost without those layouts to do! But I'm going to get a big album to start keeping his layouts in now so I can scrap whatever size I want!

Almost done...

This is the second to last layout in Owen's 1-2yr album. (Click it to see it larger). I think it's my favorite so far. I have one left to finish up and then the album will be complete! The pages are all 9x9 which makes it tricky to scan them. There's about an inch lost in the middle. I've got to scan/photograph the rest to share! I spent yesterday night at Archiver's scrapping with BJ. I'm amazed at how SLOW I scrap! I got two layouts done in six hours. Of course there was chatting and shopping and assisting each other but still, I spent forever arranging the pictures and the PP on the bottom. Okay, it didn't take me long to arrange them. It took me forever to stare and them and contemplate and then stick them down!

Sacrifice...

Sometimes a photo really does say it all. His happiness is worth all the sacrifices Morgan and I make.

Thoughtful Friday...

I was at a loss for something to post today. I've been feeling like that lately. But then I stopped by Jill's blog and found her Thoughtful Friday post and decided that was a great idea. She found the inspiration at the Thoughtful Friday blog. Happy Friday!

Thursday, already!?...

How did it get to be Thursday already?? This week has flown by. I was going to do a Wordless Wednesday post but then I realized it WAS Wednesday so I have to share these for Thursday with words.

This was originally a yellow daisy but I did a couple actions and made it black & white. Maggie said she will be wanting some B & W daisy pictures for her bathroom when she decides to repaint it. So I'm practicing. This is some carnation petals from the memorial flowers we had. They've all expired now so I'm out of subjects again!

Yesterday we went to the zoo with my mom and sister. Around the welcome center and conservatory are water gardens and there were beautiful lilies and lily pads in them.

This is a lotus. I'd never seen one before. They are quite large and the center thing is really interesting.

We wandered around and saw a few animals. Owen is fascinated by giraffes right now. I had no idea how long their tongues were! There was one licking the paint off of a big pole!

Our main reason for the trip to the zoo was to see the butterflies. They have an exhibit going on right now with all different kinds. Here are few of the pictures I took of them.

I would have liked to have gotten closer to some of them but I didn't want to climb around too much and most of them didn't stay still for too long! They were really fun just to watch flying all around. They were in a big tent sort of structure and once inside Owen kept saying "door, door, door". I don't think he liked being able to see out but not being able to get out!

This week I've not felt all that well. I've been really tired. Exhausted tired. Even though I've gotten enough sleep. Perhaps I'm not eating right or getting enough water or maybe it's the heat and humidity. I'm just not feeling up to par. I've made an appointment with the doctor but that's not until next Friday. Maybe I just need to catch up on some more sleep.

More for Monday...

If you've not seen the Dancing Matt videos you need to check them out HERE. Thanks Maggie, for sharing this!

Manic Monday...

Good morning! I'm back! I had a great weekend hangin' with The Girls. I did not accomplish as much in the way of scrapping as I had planned but I got a few layouts done. I will try to get them scanned or photographed this week so I can share them. We had a good time hanging out, scrapping, taking the boat out, sitting on the patio and just enjoying each others company. Unfortunately we had to come back earlier than expected due to some weather conditions so we got back to MN about 11:30am. When I got home the boys weren't back from church and grocery shopping so I laid down for a bit of a nap. Even though I slept well while we were gone I was just exhausted yesterday and just not feeling right. Today I seem to feel a bit better.

Today I'm trying to get my house back in order. So far this morning I've vacuumed all the floors, cleaned the bathroom, changed the sheets, dusted the bookshelves in the study and all the frames on the pictures upstairs. I've also tidied up Owen's bedroom. That is always a constant job! He loves to take out whatever I put away! Later I'm hoping to get my craftroom tidied up and vacuum in there and the rest of the downstairs family room.

Happy Monday!

Happy Friday!

Flowers for Friday. These were the same green flowers from the other day just photographed on a black background. I ran a bleach action (by Renee Oakenfull) on it.

I am all packed and ready for Girl's Weekend! I've got 9 layouts planned out. 6 of them are to finish off Owen's 1st/2nd year album. I'm loving this album. I've never completed a big whole album like this before and it's very exciting! I've also got three other big layouts planned. Owen's album is 9x9, which is a size I've scrapped for a long time. I've also done a lot of smaller albums for family and friends and of course minis so I'm looking forward to doing some 12x12s! Which is odd for me since I've been afraid of that size for awhile now. I never felt like I filled the page very well so I eventually stopped doing that size but now that I do all digital photos and I can resize and print almost any size I want I have more options and am looking forward to a big page!

Not sure what time we are leaving yet, the transportation plan is a bit up in the air right now. Literally. It's dependent on the weather. If there's percip or storms we don't fly. So we're just waiting to hear what the pilot says and then we'll have a plan!

Have a great weekend!

Dreary Thursday...

No photos for today. I did more of the flowers on a black background yesterday with Owen's help, sort of. He was good at moving things. Especially when I didn't want him to. But I haven't had time to edit them since I worked last evening and then spent the time before bed getting layouts organized for the weekend. This weekend is our second annual Girls Weekend in Wausau! I've got 8 or 9 layouts planned as well as a birthday book to start for Owen. I'm really looking forward to this!

Today Owen and I are going to the outlet mall with my mom. Hopefully it doesn't rain while we are there. It's been HOT and humid the past few days and it's be very uncomfortable. There were storms forecasted for yesterday but we didn't get any. Supposedly it's supposed to dry up a bit for us.

The challenge I posed at 2P's for today was: what is something about people (in general) that really irritates you? And where to begin! Most anyone that knows me knows that I find people, in general, irritating. It's the stupidity mostly. People tend not to think before they speak or do things. And I find this irritating. From someone not holding the door open for me when I'm pushing Owen in a big clunky stroller to another one throwing litter out the car window. I don't understand thoughtless behavior. One particular thoughtless behavior that I find annoying is "foot in mouth" syndrome. At my aunts memorial service a relative made a rather bad-mouthed comment about my aunt to my mom and my sister. Whether this relative knew it was inappropriate or not, I don't know, I suspect she didn't because she's just a b*tch from what I understand, and my aunt couldn't stand her anyway, but for this person to make such a rude and disrespectful comment about my aunt to my mom (HER SISTER) was just thoughtless and stupid! I THINK lots of things but they don't ALL leave my lips! I'd love to go through life ranting about all the dumb and stupid things I see people doing but I don't. Because it's not polite and I think this world would be a nicer place if people were truly more thoughtful and polite.

Wordless Wednesday...

I love green...

Had to share another one.

A little senryu...

Oh round chubby face,
how I wish you'd go away.
Could it be the cream filled donuts?

(A senryu is a humorous haiku. And like haiku it has a 5-7-5. I didn't adhere to that completely. But that's okay!)

10 things for Tuesday...

Ten Things I have no desire to do:

1. I have no desire to color my hair
2. I have no desire to go to the doctor, dentist, or OBGYN even though I need to.
3. I have no desire to drink coffee
4. I have no desire to garden
5. I have no desire to talk on the phone
6. I have no desire to get dressed or put on a bra
   
7. I have no desire to have a period ever agan
   
8. I have no desire to stop eating chocolate and ice cream
   
9. I have no desire to leave the house some days
   
10. I have no desire to get a full-time job
    

Ten things I desire to do:

1. I desire to take photography classes at the local community/tech school and become a photographer
2. I desire to take a vacation that does not include Montana
3. I desire my house to be tidy, clean and organized
4. I desire to lose 40 pounds
   
5. I desire to eat whatever I want and not have to worry about it
6. I desire to get caught up on Owen's scrapbook
7. I desire to get back on my exercise routine
8. I desire to have a patio built in our backyard and have the rest of the yard landscaped
   
9. I desire to write a book
   
10. I desire to sell my photography work

I read a list of these on someone else's blog and thought it would be fun to do.

Hello Monday...

This kid cracks me up! He had a bath this morning after a couple of not so pretty #2s consisting of a lot of blueberries! So I did what any mom does when her child spends a long time in the tub, I get the camera!

This is the "I can see you with the camera but I'm not going to look at you" face.

I was really bummed that this didn't turn out. I thought it was so cute!

He was all gung ho about the potty today. He was on the potty chair several times and each time worked something out. Even at church he went with me to the rest room and wanted to go so I took off his shoes, and his shorts, and his diaper and he did a little tinkle. I think he really does it so he gets to flush the toilet! He loves to do that. And my policy is if you make it you can flush it. I read that somewhere.

I took a ton of pictures of the flowers in the baskets I brought home. Here are a couple of my favorites. I may need to do a few more tomorrow. I don't like the distracting pink blur on the upper left and lower right of these two.

Challenge for today: How do you feel about house cleaning? Do you enjoy it? Loathe it? Do you hire someone to do it? Does your family help with the work?

I love to clean. It's therapeutic for me. And if I could get a good workout doing it, I would rather clean than exercise most days. I'm not a fan of cleaning toilets or scrubbing floors but I like to vacuum and dust and throw stuff out and organize. Dishes are supposed to be Morgan's job but since I'm home more I do them regularly too. Morgan does most of the yardwork and Owen helps to pick up his toys and he likes to help me clean too. I try to include him when I do our daily cleaning because he wants to be a helper and I might as well encourage it now and make it a habit for him instead of trying to force it upon him when he's older!

The sights from Saturday...

We have fresh flowers in the house again. Beware! I'm sure there will be more flower photos to come! The flowers are from my Aunts memorial service. It was a beautiful service. The slideshow went well. After the Pastor got it to work! Thank goodness for him.

After the service we went to my Mom's house to hang out and visit. There were a bunch of old planes flying over her house. There's a small municipal airport close by so they must have been doing a meet up or something.

Owen and Auntie went in the "pool" which is actually a hot tub set low! Owen loves his "nawnee"! He can't really get Auntie Miranda out so he calls her "nawnee". He talks about her all the time and was so excited that he'd get to see her today. She's always the first person he runs to when it's time to say good-bye.

We also had a chance to visit with my cousin and his wife and daughter. Today was the first time Owen met Molly and they seemed to enjoy each other a lot. It was fun to see. My cousin and I are 4 months apart and were basically like siblings for a long time. So it was fun to watch our children, so close in age, play together and get to know one another. I hope we will be able to see more of them.

Cracked pots...

One of the women I used to teach with and still scrap with sent this to me in an e-mail and I thought it was so cute I'd share it with all of you.

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots; each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

"That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."

"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

In loving Memory...

Today we will celebrate the life of my aunt Judy in a memorial service. My contribution to the service is a slideshow of photographs I put together and set to music. It's a rather large file so I hope you will be able to view it. The song is Heavenly Day by Patty Griffin. I heard it a couple days after she passed away and knew it would be perfect for this.

A little Minneapolis...

On Tuesday Morgan and I spent the evening in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Center for a networking event through his work. We played miniature golf on an artist designed course and then had a dinner catered by the Wolf Gang Puck restaurant there. It was a lovely evening to be in Minneapolis. After the event we wandered the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and took some pictures.

This is the Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg. It is a signature piece of artwork for Minneapolis. Morgan took this photograph. I took the other three.

In the background of this one is another church whose name escapes me at the moment. I think it's St. Mark's Episcopal but I'm not certain. Another beautiful church though.

In the background of this one is a building of condominiums. The view from them is spectacular and the building it self it very nice. If we were rich and childless, I'd live here. If we were just rich now, then we'd live in the neighborhood up the hill from here.

This is the Basilica of St. Mary. Every year they host the Basilica Block Party which began 14 years ago to fund the restoration of the Basilica.

Morgan took this picture of me. It's one of the better ones. Stay tuned for my haiku tribute to my chubby face! Which won't actually be a haiku but a senryu. Which is really just a humorous haiku.

Here are several I took of Morgan.

I think my husband is a handsome man. However, it makes it nearly impossible to take a good picture of his handsomeness because he's always hamming it up or making some obnoxious face! I didn't post the one of him in a suggestive position on the lawn by the pond. I just didn't think my friends and family needed to be subjected to that!