new toy

i haven't had much time to play with it, but yesterday for about an hour i tried out my fancy new lens with a killer macro mode. the poor bush in my front yard seemed like a good place to start. there's a gorgeous fruit tree trying to bloom right in the middle of it. and doing a pretty good job of it too!

"bloom where you're planted", this guy did.

the blossoms are these sweet little pink pods, i just couldn't help myself, i kept getting closer...and closer. so beautiful.next i moved on to the lilac bush that is just starting to get some blossoms from it's new buds. i have such an affection for lilacs that it was hard to stop shooting. their tiny little four petaled flowers are something to behold for sure.

our neighbors have a few tulips, so i wandered over to their yard for a few minutes. i hope they don't mind, would you mind if you looked out the window and saw someone photographing your flowers? i wouldn't, and i'm sure my neighbor's don't either, we have great neighbors.

but as always, the daisies drew me in. i have an addiction to these daisies. every time i walk past them my right index finger starts twitchin' for the shutter button. most times i can talk myself through it, today i couldn't.

i did resist the urge to post all 116 photos i took of JUST the daisies. i told you, it's a sickness. instead i put up a few of my artsy-fartsy favorites. here's the problem though, i take so many that they sort of all blend together and my judgement becomes some what blurred. so i need your help, tell me, are any of them frame worthy? be honest. you won't hurt my feelings. i'm sure i'll be out there all summer, lying on my belly across my front steps, for everyone to see, holding my tongue in just the right spot trying to compose the perfect photograph. because that's just how i roll.

abandoned

life of the tail-ender is not always easy.

after ethan woke up on monday morning, this was our conversation:

e: where's allie?

w: she's at school?

e: (looking a little sad) well, where's taylor?

w: he's at school too.

e: well, where's spencer?

w: he's at school too.

e: (in a soft whisper voice) is papa at work too?

w: yes buddy, it's monday so everyone went to school and work.

then came the big puffy lip and the saddest eyes you've ever seen and even a few tears. i tried not to take it personally that he wasn't over joyed to be home alone with me. i mean, we do fun stuff like play dough and puzzles. but i know that he is happiest when everyone is home because he loves and looks up to them so much and when they're home, it means there's always someone in the house willing to play.

life of a tail-ender is not always easy.

cheap labor

one of the "perks" to have teenagers, is that they are the type of children always interested in purchasing something or going to a movie with a friend or some other activity. all of which require money. enter my brilliant idea for cheap labor. anything that is not required by the state for me to buy for them is always negotiated by some sort of chore not included in their regular chore list. as an example, saturday, allie wanted little dance socks for her upcoming receital. i hate mopping the floor and so, you can see where this is going. i'm keeping all my fingers crossed that i can get some good yard work out of all three kids this summer using this tactic. is this child abuse? oh wait allie...you missed a spot.

ps.. do you love her knee pads? that was my genius idea, they save your knees from mopping stress, fabulous.

got skills?

allie's nail art skills are starting to pop up in other areas. maybe she should forget nail technician school and go work for ace of cakes on the food network? ok, she's not quite ready for that, but they do use toothpicks a lot on that show, and tooth picks are allie's spe-ci-al-ity.

perfect fit

i found this shirt for spencer at target and snatched it right off the self without even looking at the price tag. it fits his personality so perfectly, i was willing to pay whatever. as it turns out it was only $10, and of course he loves it. wears it ever so proudly.

It says, "i'm just one big freaking ray of sunshine aren't i?

and really, he is - freaking ray of sunshine that is. a lot of the time, he plays the part of eeyore with the dark cloud hanging over his head. not exactly a glass is half full kind of guy. mostly because chores and homework cut into his nintendo and hanging out with friends time. parents and responsibilities can be so inconvenient some times! gosh! anyone have any great ideas on helping him understand that having a happy attitude is the key to living a happy life? it's something we sort of tease him about - being a grump, i mean. but the older gets, the more i start to worry about how he'll function as an adult in the real world.

not your mama's self portaits

whenever i pull the SD card out of my little point and shoot, i can almost bet on finding a few self portaits from allie. she doesn't really like to take plain old boring self portaits, they always have some sort of allie type flair to them. today was no different. look what popped up on my computer screen this afternoon... i have no idea when she took these silly self portaits, but i cracked up at the idea of her laying on my bed, fanning out all her long hair just right and photographing herself. probably a product of pure boredom. i love them because they are just SO allie. love that silly girl of mine.

breakfast of champions

according to a reader's digest i was thumbing through at the doctor's office, what you eat for breakfast says a lot about you. i thought this was kind of dumb slash interesting and filed it away in my brain for later.

flash forward to this morning when i see this little grouping on my counter, and a little voice says, "what does this breakfast say about you?" i have a little chuckle to myself and decided that maybe there is something to this theory. let's try it out shall we?

first of all, i have this almost every single morning, i don't really love breakfast and the slim fast (kirkland brand because i'm cheap) really helps to settle my icky morning tummy that i wake up with most days. and, i'm usually trying to get ethan and i out the door somewhere and i only have time to "fix" (read pour bowl of cereal) for one of us, and i can easily take it in the car with me. so right off the bat we learn that i'm a cheap habitual person who has icky tummy in the morning who is always in a hurry. WOW! all that! it's true too!

next, is One a Day vitamin with energy booster (really the target brand). i take this because i am concerned for my health and want to make sure that i'm getting the proper vitamins and nutrients my body needs. the energy booster - c'mon, do i really need to explain that? so from this we learn that i'm a cheap (still), tired person concerned about her health.

next is Wellbutrin (again, the generic brand buproprion). so here we learn that i'm a cheap (still) person trying to get a handle on her depression issues. which by the way are doing better, i like these meds.

ok, so put it all together and what have ya got? i'm a tired, sad, late, sick to my stomach, vitamin deprived old lady stuck in her ways who makes food decisions based on level of convience. oh, and that i'm cheap.

hmmm. you know, maybe there's nothing to this reader's digest theory after all. nope. absolutely nothing at all.

so what does your breakfast say about you?

i want to read all about it, so consider your self TAGGED!

a little tree huggin' on a soap box

i think i have been the only one grateful for the lousy weather we've been having lately because it meant it i could delay the massive amounts of yard work that need to be done around here. but i was a totally inspired by the beautiful sunshine today, and i sort of felt like i should do something in the dirt being that it was earth day and all. i love the idea of having a day to honor our beautiful earth. so i cleaned out and tilled my front flower bed and planted several of my favorite flower - these beautiful gerber daisies.i almost didn't post these photos because they are so bad, by the time i got all the dirt scrubbed out of my fingernails it was too dark for great photos. i actually really love planting flowers, especially the look of the freshly tilled dirt and visualizing how beautiful and full it will all be by the middle of summer. it was great to get my fingernails dirty - i usually wear gloves but i couldn't find them anywhere. so i only got done about 1/100 of the yard work that needs to be done, but it counts!


AND, just in time for earth day, i found a notice from our city in my mailbox today that they are FINALLY starting a curb-side recycling program at the end of may. can i just say, "welcome to the 21st century". we have been bagging and driving our recycling to the neighboring city forever, which is a huge pain but totally worth it. i love seeing the whole back of the van packed full of things that never made it to the landfill.and while i'm glad to finally have this service available for the great convenience it will be to me, i'm even more excited about inspiring more people in our city to recycle. awesome. and one more thing...did you know that your local school probably has a paper recycling container in the parking lot? most people know it's for newspapers, phone books and junk mail, but you can also recycle cardboard, including the boxes that a lot of our groceries come in. that school earns money from all that would-be garbage, for things like books. and turning garbage into money especially to help a school just seems like simple math to me. and now i'll get off of my soap box. happy earth day ya'll.

retraction

ever since friday's impromptu decision to participate in project 365 i've been kicking around different twists i could put on it to make it more interesting and personal to me. i thought about having a separate blog for this purpose, but thought, i already sort of have a blog for this purpose, i mean, that's what this blog kind of is right? so the point is, i'm still weighing my options. i will definitely be doing something like this in the near future and maybe even get some of you to participate too, but until i can put my own spin on it, project 365 is officially suspended until further notice.

channelling michael

channelling michael on the freeway this morning. "that's what SHE said."

please forgive me, i could not resist.

project 365 - 1/365

sometimes, all a girl really needs to feel better, is a really good hair day. when your new hair cut that you just can't get the hang of styling, finally comes together and lays the way you hope it will and you stop feeling like a big mushroom head.

as a side note, i've decided to try to participate in project 365 (i don't know the link), which is basically trying to take at least one photo every day for a year. i think it started as a scrapbook idea, and maybe some day i will put a book together, but i'm also going to try to post as many as possible, at least the ones that represent what's going on in my little world. starting today.

thankful

i know it's easter, not thanksgiving, but today i just feel so thankful.

thankful to be the sunbeam teacher and that it was my week to teach the lesson. it was wonderful to teach these sweet little guys about the resurrection in such simple terms and to feel the spirit that was there.

thankful for the sun that came out long enough to give us one beautiful day.

thankful for a little boy in bright spring colors, oh that little tie just melts my heart

thankful for older boys who wear a sweater vest once a year just to make me happy.

thankful for a daughter happy to wear last year's easter dress.

thankful for a family willing to take photos with (almost) no complaining.

thankful for millions of cousins on both sides and for family get togethers.

thankful for really good food including cute bunny cupcakes made by my mom and yummy marshmallow eggs homemade by lauren (april's sister who we love).

thankful for the look of excitement on all the little kids faces as the egg hunt began.

thankful to find a dress this year for ME - first time in a long time - and feel kind of cute.

thankful to finally get out of my too-high heels, my feet may never be the same.

but most of all, i'm thankful for my Savior who did this, so that i could have this. HAPPY HAPPY EASTER!

it's not my birthday

having birthdays and getting older has never really freaked me out, but lately, i'm just starting to feel it, you know? like being able to use my achy bones as a barometer to predict the weather, isn't this something reserved for geriatrics? and hearing my kids say things like, "hey mom, can you help me set up a facebook page", and "mom, tuesday is registration for high school", and worst of all - "should i do driver's ed over the summer or next year during school?", reminding me that we are definitely in the full swing of teenagerhood. and until recently, i've only ever had maybe one grey hair visit me every few months or so, and now it seems like they must be having some kind of family reunion on my head because i'm constantly plucking them out. and i just won't even get into the "excessive chin hair after thirty" issue, except to say, what the in the world? why didn't someone WARN me about this so i could've braced myself? and what, may i ask, is happening to my neck? what kind of a cruel joke is saggy neck syndrome? sigh.

ok, so really it's not my birthday, but it kind of feels like it is. only, not in a good, i-get-to-eat-cake-and-get-presents kind of way, only in the i-feel-old kind of way. the scariest part is, what's next? could someone please just give me a heads up!?

productivity = happy me

spring break was the perfect mix of lazy and productive. we spent equal amounts of time in our pajamas playing boardgames (thanks to all the rain and lousy weather), and making good progress on some projects around the house. and just to satisfy my need for a pat on the back, here's a few of the things i crossed off of the list.

*finished hanging eight new sets of blinds - complete with cursing, don't judge me. * hung three of the four new valances that my sweet MIL made for me, including getting the hardware up. by the way i am IN LOVE with this fabric! * took down ethan's crib (i know, i know, i don't know - why did we wait so long?). * set up allie's old bed in ethan's room with new bedding. * sanded, washed, taped, primed and painted all the red drawers and five cupboard doors.* scrubbed my bathroom which hasn't seen a cleaning chemical in far too long.

* sent EIGHT ginormous bags to good will and four more bags to friends for hand-me-downs.

this week i learned that i am more productive when people are home, play time feels more fun and less indulgent when it's preceeded by accomplishments, and i am a happier, more patient mom when i can make a dent in my to-do list. and that SNORTA is my new favorite game to play, if you haven't tried it, you definitely should. it's one of those easy to catch on, belly laugh enducing kind of games. oh, and one more thing, i really enjoyed having lousy weather because it meant i didn't have to start on the spring yard work just yet. yee ha.