Pizzazzzzzzz

Today had so many things happen but I actually didnt actually get a picture of any of it until dinner time, so thats what my photoblog is about. But for starters, today started off with a life lesson. Triston had filled a small water balloon up before school and decided to take it with him on the drive there.... Now if I had told him no, he would have resisted and resented.... Well does anyone want to guess what happened?  Well, needless to say, he was pretty upset when he had to go to school looking like he had wet his pants!!! We tied his sweatshirt around his waist and I sent him on his merry way... telling him that next time I might issue a warning about what might possibly happen in a similar situation & would hope that he might listen...

In the evening we had Open house at Triston's school which was also the book fair as well as the science fair. I took my camera in to take a photo of him by his science fair project and I completely forgot to take one!!! So after that we headed to Bella Vista's "Pizza shack" to celebrate Shawn & Jose's promotions. We ate good pizza, had fun visiting and some even braved the Karaoke stage...

"Chilling with good people"

~ Paul McLean~

Rain, Hail, wind, clouds, sun..... today had it all!

And I swear my best friend has this dial at her house, and she turns it on ALL the time!!! :)

Ive never seen it this clean...

All the bedrooms are clean at the same time :) Actually, Ive never seen Ethans room so clean.... I hope he keeps it this way... for a day or two.... 

Ahhhh My Photoshop, oh how I've missed you

Its been a while since I have had anything to edit, so I actually looked forward to doing the edits on Sage & Racie's Prom pix. This is how I spent a good part of the day... At my desk, working in photoshop :)

Let's play Ball....... and Fish on too!!!

Today was opening ceremonies for West Redding Little League. Triston is excited because he has 2 of his good friends on the team & his dad is the coach for one last season. Here are just a couple images from the ceremony.

“Youngsters of Little League can survive undercoaching a lot better than overcoaching.”

Willie Mays
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Had to throw this photo in too because I had already blogged todays baseball picture
when Steve & Triston got home from their day of fishing.
Triston told Steve that this was his best fishing day ever. The biggest fish he has ever caught
and he reeled them in all on his own.

Lazy day......

 For the animals that is.... not me! I took the day off and got the house almost all put back together. Everything but the photos that are going back up and I am working on that right now. Here are the pix of all of our creatures, taking it easy today.....

Stormy on the back of the couch

Beau snuggled up in Steve's sweatshirt & a blanket

Bella in her bed :)

Luna and Hera found the best place in the house.

A real bed with sun shining on it thru the window!

End of a good day

This is just a photo of the storm clouds over our house as the sun was going down.

 It was a very cool day.... We had thunder, lightening and hail. Then the storm blew over

and left some really neat clouds and colors in the sky.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Charles R. Swindoll

Blink

I thought all day about all I needed to get done at the house, and when I got home I got right to it.... after a while Steve asked if we would all go for a drive. I hesitated because I was in the middle of organizing one of the many messes in the house right now and I'm the type that likes to get tasks finished before stopping or doing something else....He took us all up to the Dam to see how full the lake is right now. It was cold and windy, but the kids enjoyed looking at all the debris floating in the water, and talking about where they will fish during the tournament in May & I got some pictures.... Then later on my way home from dropping off Ethan at youth group I heard the new song "Blink" by Revive.... Life really does happen in a blink. You've gotta slow down sometimes and just enjoy it....

BLINK by Revive

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it.”

Motion blur.....

Usually the words Motion blur mean bad news for me if Im taking a picture, but today was so busy it literally was a blur..... So Im calling this Motion blur. Hence the reason for my blurry image. Its supposed to be like that because today I never stopped moving and it was a complete blur..... oh, and im still not done.....

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It is perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday

~John Wayne~

Great expectations

I took today and tomorrow off to put the house back together now that all the new flooring is put in. Truman has to help me with the baseboards before anything else gets done. I cant wait to have my house back and see what it all looks like put together!!!

 This is just an image of the wonderful candle my bestie gave me for Christmas, sitting on my new carpet :)

“Long is the road from conception to completion.”

Enjoy the view

Our house is getting all new paint in all the rooms. With the carpet out waiting for the new to be installed tomorrow, its the perfect time to paint. Ethans room got "Indy Colts Blue" walls, Tristons got a fresh coat of white above his green bottom half, and the master bedroom got brown walls with a sea foam green accent wall. I absolutely love it. Thank goodness we live next to a painter, or I'd still be painting away and it would be a mess...... It looks awesome Truman! Thanks!

A fresh coat of paint, changes the whole way of seeing things...

Birthday Bash!

Today had so much going on, that I found it hard to choose which images to post. This morning was the first official practice for Baseball for Triston, then it was off to the mall for football sign-ups. Then to a swim party for cousin Jett. Busy busy day. Im posting several from the swim party... Sorry, just couldnt choose... :)

You carry the future on your shoulders....

How many times has your child done somthing and you found yourself saying "what were you THINKING???" Kids have a way of doing things and not thinking about what will or might happen. They often live in the moment and thats about all that matters to them. Well as a parent when something does go wrong, you have to determine if the act was childish or childlike (something I learned about in a parenting class called "Growing Kids God's Way"). Evaluate the situation and determine if it was an accident, or if the child was acting out in defiance... Well, thats what happened tonight when a can of soda was spilled on my new rug that I just bought... I reacted... I didnt take the time to evaluate and look at the situation. It WAS an accident, but that accident was purple and it was all over my new rug that cannot be washed in any machine....

Well, after we cleaned up what we could, I was in the kitchen doing dishes and my little man brings me this message, written on a magnadoodle....... Man parenting is hard! My heart melted. I know he didnt mean for the soda to fall, but sometimes its hard not to just react.... Its an ongoing process, this parenting thing....

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

-- Charles R. Swindoll

Wings of an angel

This is a Willow Tree figure that my mom got for me. It's one of my favorite decorations.  I was being rather simple yet creative with the lighting.... The figures body was lit with a regular flashlight and the blue light behind it is from an LED flashlight

The saying on the tag says

 " May you find strength, beauty and peace each day"

Enjoying the sunshine

Today on my lunch break I decided to take a drive in the sunshine and see if I coud find something interesting to photograph... I headed out 299 in hopes of finding an old barn or something, but i only get 30 minutes on my break, so I decided to head down Churn creek and see what I came across.... All I found was this semi cool fence with some pretty interesting colored plants and vines hanging over it...

Find beauty in ordinary everyday things.....

My new "office"

Just a picture of my home "office" for my photography business. I love having the desk set up this way, before the remodel it was turned where it blocked half the window. This way its like a little cubicle for me.... Erin, you know how I wanted a cubicle :) haha

My little office space :)

New floor!!!!!

Just a pic of my new rug on my new livingroom floor in what is starting to feel like my new house :)

Love it!!!!

ahhhhhhhhhhh

Brithday bash

Today while the guys all worked on finishing the wood flooring, I took Triston to Christopher and Evan's birthday party at Galaxy Gymnastics. The kids all had a blast. Looked like fun, wish we could have played on the equipment, but they wouldnt let the adults.....

One board at a time....

Truman and Steve worked so hard today on the flooring, its looking sooooo good! The baseboards dont go up until this is all done, so it doesnt look finished in the pictures, but they are almost done with the hallways and thats the hard part, with all the corners, and bends in the walls..... 

Truman working very hard! Thanks for all your work!

“When we become more fully aware that our success is due in large measure to the loyalty, helpfulness, and encouragement we have received from others, our desire grows to pass on similar gifts. Gratitude spurs us on to prove ourselves worthy of what others have done for us. The spirit of gratitude is a powerful energizer.” — Wilferd A. Peterson

Lifetime Friendship

My best friend Erin and I are going on 20 years of friendship. We became friends in High School when I was a senior and editor of the yearbook and she was a freshman and on the yearbook staff. We have stayed close all these years thru lifes many ups and downs and every year it seems our friendship grows stronger and stronger. We may go months without seeing eachother even though we live 2 minutes apart but hardly a day goes by that we dont talk thru texting.

Well, its March and we had not yet celebrated Christmas together and exchanged gifts, so tonight we got together and made some good food, hung out and had Christmas together.

I had to beg her for this picture because having her picture taken is right up there with going to the dentist with her, but she gave in :) yay!

“The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.”

Dawn of a beautiful day

Just snapped this picture of the cloud formation in the skies on my way to work. They looked really interesting, but I enhanced them to make the image more intersting.  :)

“It's tough trying to keep your feet on the ground, your head above the clouds, your nose to the grindstone, your shoulder to the wheel, your finger on the pulse, your eye on the ball and your ear to the ground.”

Ice Princess

Freezing temperatures coupled with a heavy rainstorm last night made for a lot of ice and frozen water dropplets all over my truck this morning when the kids and I were leaving for work and school.... I normally park in the garage, so this isnt something that we normally encounter, but the garage is filled with all the stuff from our renovation, I've been having to park in the driveway.

My truck actually looked pretty cool!

Very cool!!!! These are not just raindrops, but frozen beads of water all over the hood.

Organized madness.....

So the tile is done, on to the hardwood.... which means everything in the living room is now in the dining room and the garage. The hallways are stripped of carpet, baseboards, photos and door casings.... its emptier than when we moved in.... I really hate the mess this is all making and I have to keep reminding myself of how nice everything is going to be when we are done, because this is pure madness. The ground in our house is the concrete slab and everything echo's.

So my photo is not of pretty things, fancy things or even interesting things.... Merely an example of what's going on in our life right now...

This is my dining area that is now the temporary home for the living room stuff,

and below is the breakfast bar, which has been taken over by the desktop and camera equipment.

“See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.”

Another from my series "When all else fails...... shoot Dinner"

Tonight when Erin mentioned that she needed dinner ideas, I started describing to her what I have been craving for about a week now, and in doing so, made me decide to just go to the store and buy the stuff, since I didn't have any of it at home. Home made Onion Rings with Gourmet burgers with bacon, Avocado, Bleu Cheese (in mine) Pepper Jack on everyone else's, and all the other fixings.... My only dilemma now is....

How do you eat this thing.....?????

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. ~Mark Twain

Quad fun!

The boys missed riding quads because we havn't gone in a long time, so they asked if they could go out to Grandma & Grandpa's house to ride. For some reason, I STILL have a tendency to forget to take my camera with me everywhere, so this image was snapped with my celly, and Ohhhh how I really cant stand those cell phone pics, but its better than nothing....

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.~ Dale Carnegie

Here we go again.....

So even though we already have a boat, quads and an RV to top it off, for some reason every year we wind up heading down to the fairgrounds for the boat, sport and Rv show.. Triston likes to do the fishing they have and we all enjoy walking thru the buildings and collecting all the free (junk mostly) stuff they hand out, just so we can come home and look at it thinking... What am I going to do with this....?

Then toss most of it into the pretty gray bin next to the house....

This year they also had a Splash Dogs competition and our Neighbors Paul and Debbie had Cole go get Rugar their Chocolate lab to have him do it, but he chickened out.

 I did get some good pictures of a few of the dogs.

First though, a pic of my little man with his fishy :)

Rugar refusing to jump

This little guy was sooo cute, this is how he waited for his cue to jump.

 I dont blame them at all for not wanting to get in!

Finally a Splash Dog!

Ok, that was way more than 1 picture for today, but I couldnt choose!

Caught in the symmetry

We had our friend BJ do the tile work in our kitchen and dining room and it turned out BEAUTIFUL! I love the pattern of the tiles and the way it all turned out. I cant wait till the trim is done and the room is finished, although, the hardwood project will have begun, then on to the carpet project, so its going to seem like a never ending ordeal... But the house is going to seem like a brand new home when this is all done!!!

Thanks BJ!!!!

Mathmatical thinker

My little man had a mathmatical mind like his Daddy. Everytime he gets an award at school its for something in Mathmatics... When the teacher called to tell me about the award he would be getting at the ceremony she even apologized saying "i'm sure this is the award that he gets every time".  Thats ok with me, you can do a lot with a math brain!

Outstanding Mathmatical Thinker Award

The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.

~S. Gudder