Friday, July 31, 2009

Thoughtful Friday...

(Click the images to see them larger)




Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.

-Ansel Adams


Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Wordless Wednesday... (and a few words)...



And Happy Birthday to my little sister and Noelia! Today is both their birthdays! I hope you both have a wonderful and many wishes for the best year yet!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Hooray! It's Thursday and time for...

Thursday Thunks!

1. You walk into a store and the cashier is being held up by a robber. The robber's accomplice is dead on the floor at your feet with a shotgun laying next to him. The robber does not see you, but the cashier does - what do you do?
**If the door is close, I walk back out and call the police.** But I'm pretty sure this wouldn't happen at Target and that's about the only store I frequent. Because of pay-at-the-pump I don't go in gas stations anymore!

2. We go to an ice cream shop for an ice cream cone. You say you are buying and I am going to stay in the car. You ask me what I want and I say "surprise me", what kind of ice cream cone am I going to get?
**Bubble gum, or something weird like that. Because I don't know you and you are sitting alone in my car and I'm buying you ice cream. You get something weird. I'm just mean like that!**


3. You have a dream that your co-worker, friend or whoever is hit by a garbage truck after they back into a ladder with a black cat on it. The next day you see that person standing by a ladder with a black cat on it and there is a garbage truck driving down the road.... what do you do?

**Tell the co-worker about the dream. But if it was Maggie I would have already told her about it. And she wouldn't have been anywhere near a cat anyway!**

4. What is the most money you've won on a lottery or scratch off ticket? **$200. It was a scratch off thing at the casino.**

5. A neighbor kid down the street comes to your door and offers to wash all of your windows outside for $10 - do you have him do it?
**Hell no! It would probably be those kids that raked leaves a few years back and they did such a crappy job at that I wouldn't let them touch anything on the house!**


6. Go to Google Images. Type in the name of the last movie you saw. Post the first picture that comes up.



7. Your local animal shelter calls you and says there are 3 dogs that need an immediate foster home for 3 days. If you do not accept, the dogs are put down that day. Do you take them in? ** Well yes, if it means they won't die!** I hate those rock and a hard place questions!

8. What is the messiest room in your home? **Usually the kitchen. But today it's the living room. But in reality it's probably the laundry room/storage room downstairs.**

9. Have you ever been to a wedding that participated in a strange tradition that you had never heard of? **No**


10. Name one sport that you just don't get. **There are a lot of those. But at the top of the list would be football. Grown men dress up in spandex, grab each other in the ass, themselves in the crotch, and then pile on top of each other. Kind of dumb.**

11. What was the last email that came into your inbox about? **ECFE Ladies Night**


12. Have you ever purchased anything from a sex shop? Extra points if you tell us what it was.... **Nope**


13. Go back to that Google Images link... type in the last food item that you ate. Post the 2nd picture it comes up with.


14. Got any bumper stickers on your vehicle? What are they? **Nope**

15. What meme question do you wish was never asked again? **Hmmmm... I can't think of anything that I've written about too much. And if I think a meme is dumb then I just don't do it!**

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

At the moment...

  • I am eating red licorice nibs, sipping a diet coke with lime and wearing my PJs (still).
  • Owen is watching Madagascar while wearing spider man underpants and sipping OJ.
  • Waiting for PSE 6.0 to arrive. (I ordered it an hour ago. I'm sure it won't be here today.)
  • Contemplating cleaning the house. I like the house clean. I just would prefer it stay clean longer.
  • Wondering why I can't get on the WW bandwagon.
  • Thinking about working on my photography and design business blog. Or maybe I don't want to do that for a business.
  • Wondering if Owen will go down for a nap easily today.
  • Wishing PSE 4 wasn't such a PITA to run lately.
  • Craving a cheeseburger.
  • Wanting to do some painting.
  • Need to do some sewing.
  • Dreaming about a bigger/faster computer, a new camera and a room for a studio and an office.
  • Hoping to get out of this creative rut.

Here are some pictures from our trip to the north shore.





















This is just a sampling of the 500+ pictures we collectively took! It was a great trip.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

And now it's time for...

Thursday Thunks!

1. Do you tend to have a guilty conscious? No, not really. But I don't tend to do things I should feel guilty about either.

2. Do you still have your wisdom teeth? No.

3. Peanut Butter - creamy or crunchy? It depends on the brand.

4. Get up off your butt. Take 5 steps. Which leg did you start out on? The right.

5. What color is your favorite kitchen utensil? Silver.

6. Did you watch the Michael Jackson memorial/funeral?
No.

7. Do you know anyone who graduated from
high school this year? Yes. My first class of third graders graduated this year!
Were you invited to their graduation party? Yes. Did you go? No.

8. White with black stripes or black with white stripes? Seriously? It comes out the same!

9. If we were to call your 6th grade teacher, what would they say about you? Probably not much. I ran into her at Wal-Mart a few years ago and I don't think she really remembered me.


10. Can you draw a perfect circle? Pretty close, yes.

11. What was your favorite scratch & sniff sticker scent? Popcorn!

12. What does your sibling do for a living? Right now she watches Owen 2 days a week. It's a tough gig but someone's got to do it.

13. How many light switches and electrical outlets are in the room that you are in right now? 1 light switch, 2 outlets.

14. Do you know sign language? I know a few popular signs but not actual American Sign Language!

15. Do you step on cracks in the sidewalk? Yes. Sidewalks have a lot of cracks sometimes.

16. And the sheets on your bed look like....? A crumpled mass in the laundry basket.

17. What is something that everyone else has, but you don't? Height. Most people are taller than I am.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Things to be happy about...

I have been a lazy blogger lately. Partly due to facebook and partly due to being busy. But I wanted to write something today and for lack of a good subject to write at length about I thought I'd post a list of things that I am happy about right now.

  1. Nikki received her bone marrow transplant today! It was actually a cord blood infusion, which I guess it a bit different than the BMT but it is no less monumental. It's a rather anticlimactic procedure for all of the importance that it carries. But it happened today, and today is day zero and now we count up. Please continue to keep her in your prayers and know that all your prayers are appreciated.
  2. We have a working exhaust fan/light in our bathroom! We have wanted this for ages and finally got it taken care of yesterday.
  3. In addition to the fan in the bathroom we also have outside water again! Our outside water was previously on a well. Which had a pump. Which went kaput last year. So we've been managing with some creativity. (Hooking the hose up the kitchen faucet! or hauling the watering can in and out!) Our fabulous handyman connected the pipe from the pump to the city pipe! He also replaced both our outside faucets which wouldn't actually shut off. That was controlled by the pump switch. So now we have working faucets and water that comes of out them! Pretty awesome.
  4. One last fix-it item. A light in the laundry room. Morgan managed to pull the string out of the fixture sometime last fall. It's not difficult to replace but it involves turning off the electricity and getting the ladder into the basement. I'm just lazy about that. So I asked fabulous handyman to do it today while he was finishing up the faucet work and he did!
  5. We had a nice 4th of July camping trip with The Johnsons. Owen loves camping. He was not happy to go home. He wanted "more camping".
  6. A week from today we are going on the Holle Family vacation trip to celebrate Morgan's parents' 40th anniversary. We are spending 3 nights at Bluefin Bay in northern MN and 2 nights in Duluth. We haven't been to Bluefin before and it's supposed to be a beautiful resort.
  7. Friday night I am scrappin' with Lisa! We haven't been scrappin' without children since we went on the retreat in March. Wait, that's not true. We've been to Dawn's house. I'm still looking forward to it! No kids around while we scrap and chat and drink diet coke! In a scrapbook store! To quote Lisa, "AWESOME!"
  8. Our vegetable garden is growing very nicely. We've already had spinach and basil out of it. This is our first year of spinach. It's delicious. I can't describe how it's different but it is and it's just way better than what you buy in the store. Probably because it's just-picked fresh!
  9. This photo makes me happy. I got the fly in focus!
  10. Jessica Sprague's free photo class I'm taking! Which is why the above photo is jazzed up a bit!