Fabulous finds...

Morgan LOVES garage sales. The thought of a deal is exhilarating for him. We will drive around and preview them (slow down and look) and if it looks good we will stop. He often goes to them without me. Just him and Owen. Owen loves them too. This weekend we drove around to a few while we were out. One of my favorite finds was this little red easy chair for $2. It's the perfect addition to my collection of props for childrens portraits. Owen of course thinks it's for him but we told him he could only sit in it when I take his picture. He posed for me but not for long!

This is my favorite. There is just something about the pensive look on his face.

I'm really excited to use it for Baby Q's 6 month portrait session! I also found a Tupperware Jello mold set for $2. I don't know why I love them so much but I've been obsessed with finding one for ages. And $2 is just my price.

Morgan also hauled home a desk he found by the curb. It's not huge, more of a child's study desk. But in decent shape. I want to paint it in a fun/funky way. Morgan wants to refinish it in just the wood. We rarely agree on things! But we did agree that the price was right! Free! Curb-side-thrift is our decorating style! Which I'm not always happy about. But it allows me to have other expensive things like a new 24" Dell monitor to do my photography editing work on. I was dreaming about a new MAC but the reality is that I didn't need one. I just needed a larger display area. We went to the Apple store last weekend to look at them and of course the price of a new monitor to use with my iMAC was $900. But turns out it wouldn't work with my model. Darn. So the guy recommended I look into a Dell or Samsung. The Dell 24" had great reviews online (from MAC users even) so I found a good deal at Dell and Best Buy price matched it. I was thrilled! And Morgan is excited that we can watch movies upstairs on it! So cheap furniture and to afford nice gadgets is just fine by me.

Friday fill-ins...

1. I remember, I remember the crispness and energy of fall.

2. Dear Grandma & Grandpa, I want you to know I miss you and think of you everyday.

3. Is that my BUTT!!???

4. I'm trying to resist the temptation of sugar. I LOVE sugar!

5. I'm saving a pile of junk just for you!

6. If I made a birthday list a really huge laundry bin would definitely be on it!!!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to spending the evening with my boys, tomorrow my plans include cleaning and crafting and Sunday, I want to craft some more!!!

Wordless Wednesday...

8/13/09 Thursday Thunks...

1. Hypothetical question- you are in a building with famous works of art, old manuscripts of famous novels, and original sheet music from famous composers. The building is on fire and looks to be completely destroyed. Do you grab any of the famous works before fleeing, and if so what? Hmmm, I guess it depends on how many people are in the building and if they are all freaking out. And I would think this building would have measures to protect such treasures in the event of this kind of disaster!

2. In August 1969, the Manson family went on a 2 night killing spree. Do you think 40 years later they have paid for their crimes? I'm pretty sure those people, and specifically Charles Manson, will not have fully paid for their crimes until they meet their maker. I just don't think there can be a price to pay for a "killing spree". Maybe it's just me, but there is something not quite right with the Mansons.

3. Power Outage! What's the longest you have been without power? 15 hours maybe. But then again, we do go camping!

4. Just bought a new tazer gun. Will you let it be tested it on you to see if it works, and how it feels to be tazered? Nope. No thanks. Find someone else to taze!

5. A neighbor's mail was delivered to you. In it is a magazine not wrapped in plastic. Is it ok for you to flip through it before giving it to the neighbor? Do you tell them you looked through it? If your fingers are not dirty, and flipping through is not the same as reading. And when we get the neighbors mail it ends up sitting on the table for a few days. Unless it looks really important. They have a big dog that I don't like so the timing has to be right for me to take the mail over there!

6. If I went through your purse/wallet right now, what all would I find in there? Not much out of the ordinary. I carry a small purse. My wallet, my phone, a notepad and pen, calculator, gum, a pill box.

7. Have you been living under a rock? No, why?? Do I look like it?? Did I miss something!? I don't watch the news you know! It either makes me mad or makes me cry!

8. Tell us something crazy you did this week. I had blood taken. I know, it doesn't sound that crazy. But I'm a big pansy.

Wordless Wednesday...

Thankful for...

M- My mother. She is awesome. And I am super proud of her. She passed her counseling licensure exam.

O- Owen. He's a wonderful boy and I have learned so much being his mama.

N- Neighbors and our neighborhood. We have great neighbors and live in a very nice little neighborhood. While we certainly don't live in a coveted city we have a nice little niche here.

D- A new doctor. So far so good. Although I didn't enjoy having blood drawn today.

A- Answered prayers. Nikki was released from the hospital today. She still needs to go to the clinic everyday but she gets to sleep in her own bed every night and be with her little family. That is most certainly something to be thankful for!

Y- Yard, our yard. I'm thankful that we have a yard big enough for Owen to play in but not so big that we can't take care of it (mostly). And it's a safe yard for Owen too. And has a fence to keep Ludwig in.

I've been quite busy lately. Sewing. Cleaning (trying to keep up with it!). Working. Editing pictures. Enjoying playdates. And I've not had a whole lot to reflect upon to write about. And when that happens I like to just think about what I'm thankful for and all the good things I have in my life. It's always so much nicer than dwelling on the things I want to change or can't change or the things I worry about.

Wordless Wednesday...

Stare at this for a bit...

Created by Akiyoshi Kitaoka. I first saw it on How About Orange. Click to make it bigger and you will get a much better effect.

Things to share...

This is a panoramic that my father-in-law took in the Hyalite Canyon just south of Bozeman, MT. I did a little color work on it but just to bring out what was already there. I don't often share the photographs of others but this is one of my most favorite of what my FIL has taken. We both share a passion for photography and enjoy discussing photography topics and our cameras. But for as grand as he takes pictures I like to get in close!

I don't think I posted this but I can't remember and I could go back and look but I'm not going to! This is Owen sitting on the world during an outting with Lisa and her kids. I used it for the selective coloring lesson in the Jessica Sprague class I took.

I took this one at the vehicle fair we took Owen to in May, or maybe it was June. Anyway, I ran the News Print action on it from Coffee Shop actions.

I created this frame and text from the tutorial on Cathy Z's blog this week. I'd been wanting to know how to make a simple line frame for ages!

This digi layout I created for a challenge this week at Designer Digitals. The challege was to use three photos. The photo frames were a freebie!

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

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!

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!**

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.

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.

Wordless Wednesday...

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!
    

Family photo shoot...

We had a busy weekend. Saturday Owen and Morgan went to watch my nephew's fencing matches. I got some crafting time in. Saturday night Owen and I went to the city celebration fire works. He did really well considering it was only the second time in his life he has seen them!

Sunday I did a photo session with my best friend, her husband and daughter. It was lots of fun and went really well! I am super happy with how the pictures turned out. Here is a little sampling of them.

I am about 1/2 way through editing them. If you are a facebook friend then you can see the rest of the ones I've posted there.

Sunday we went with some friends to the St. Paul Beerfest. That was a riot! I was the DD so I was in charge of keeping track of all of us and tracking where we had been and taking notes on the sampling. I did have a few tastes of anything that someone thought was particularly good but since I am not at all a beer connoiseur I was the best choice for DD! Although I got a bad headache while we were there (I hadn't eaten much before we left) and I also didn't have much for sunscreen on. As a result I have a pretty nasty sunburn. Although I've definitely had worse so this is manageable.

Father's Day...

Having a child makes you no more a parent than having a piano make you a pianist.

Michael Levine
Lessons at the Half way Point

I read this quote on Stacy Julian's website this morning and it got me thinking about fatherhood. There are lots of reasons why I've not be a celebrator of Father's Day until Owen came along. The biggest one is that I don't have one. Not because of immaculate conception or anything. But for the unstated reason in this quote. He was absent. Father's Day was about my grandpa until he passed away. And for a few years probably my step-dad but that ran amuck years ago too.

Not having a father wasn't as difficult for me as one might think. It certainly wasn't cake but there were men who filled in. My grandpa (mainly). My uncle. Friend's fathers who I looked up to. Boyfriends' fathers (who were harder to part with than the boyfriend!). I always knew my father was gone. Because he was always gone. There wasn't a time when he was around and then left. And I always knew (and I'm not sure how) that it was easier for us for him to be gone then to be around. (He was/is not a good person.) And later when my mom and step-dad divorced, I was relieved. Some men are not cut out to be a parent and therefore it is my belief that they should not father children. And I feel I am qualified to make that statement. From my own life experience and my experience as a teacher. The above quote says it all. If you can't do the job don't contribute to the equation.

Now Father's Day is about celebrating the men in my and Owen's life who are great role models. His father and grandfather. To say that I love and respect them as human beings is and understatement. And I am fortunate to have them in my life. And thankful that they are Owen's father and grandfather. Thankful that they are my husband and father-in-law. Because of the choices I could have made to fill these roles, I did pretty well. I didn't have much choice in the father-in-law department but I think I did pretty well in choosing a husband. Stacy Julian also wrote on her blog "It's an amazing thing to share life with an imperfect person that is perfect for you." So true. So absolutely true. Somedays there is nothing more comforting to me than knowing that they person I chose to spend my life with is the right one. A man who is honest and kind and good. Who does a good job loving and caring for us and enjoys his role sas husband and father. not everyday is cake and ice cream but we do it together and that makes it all that much better.

I love you Morgan. You are awesome!