• Going through pictures from Scarlett’s bday party and found this one of Chloe. Played with a bunch of textures using Photoshop and got a few fun versions. I think I like the one on the lower right the best.
• Went to an anniversary party on Saturday for Laurel & Steve, my neighbors growing up. It was nice to see them and their daughters, April and Holly. We had a good time reminiscing about the good ol’ days.
• Did something to my back this weekend. Not sure what, but I am in a lot of pain. My lower back is extremely stiff and sore. Hurts to sit for long periods of time and when I do sit and then try to get up … it makes me wants to cry. Hope it gets better quickly.
• Watched “Facing the Giants” yesterday. A little family time! That movie is so wonderful.
• Lots of storms this morning, so we’re having a quiet day indoors watching TV, knitting, playing on the computer. Chloe and I sat on our front porch for a while watching the storms. She read some books and I knitted her a headband. It was nice.
• Hoping for some nice sunshine this week so we can spend some time in our beloved “Big Blue” pool.
It’s been a fun couple weeks. The summer is starting to pick up speed now with lots of things going on here and there.
Scarlett’s 1st birthday • We went over to Canton a couple weekends ago to celebrate sweet Scarlett’s birthday. It was a special day. I still can’t believe it’s been a year since MomO and I hung out with Heather and Jeff at the hospital and I photographed all the moments of Scarlett’s birth. She’s grown so much in the past year.
Tim’s 35th • We had a yummy dinner at the farm to celebrate my brother Tim’s birthday. Lots of laughter and silliness, cake and ice cream, and handmade cards.
Movie day • (no pictures of this) Zach went with Jake and my brothers to see the new Transformers movie, while Chloe, Mom and I went to see Mr Popper’s Penguins. It was such a cute movie. We all really liked it. And the boys had a great time together at their movie, too.
Girls Days • Mom and I met Aunt Pat and Tonya in Auburn Hills on the 4th of July for a couple days of shopping at Great Lakes Crossing. We spent our 4th walking around the mall, shopping, eating, catching up, chatting over some Tim Horton’s (my first time having Tim Horton’s mocha iced capp. SO yummy!), and watching fireworks in the distance from our hotel room with all the lights turned off. The second day, we headed south to Canton and spent the afternoon at Ikea. It was my first Ikea experience and that place is awesome! It was a very fun time together, as always.
I was actually a little jealous of Jake and the kids. While I was gone, they spent a couple days at Mom+DadO’s with lots of good food and Slip ‘n Slide fun. haha!
Maranda’s Park Party • Took the kids to the fairgrounds (Barry Expo Center) for the big park party. It was great. Very hot out and very long lines since thousands of people showed up. Chloe had a lot of fun petting the animals, riding one of the rides, going down the big bouncy slide. We missed most of the stuff going on at the big stage that was set up because we were waiting in lines, but it was still a good time. It’s really great that they put these parties on and everything is completely free. It’s a wonderful way to give area kids some summer fun!
What next? The Barry County Fair. Maybe go to the zoo sometime soon. Maybe a Whitecaps game. Lots of nice weather coming up. Lots of fun options. What to do? What to do?
Making • Doing a little knitting this week. Made a headband for myself. Kind of fun. Might make some more and put them up on Etsy maybe.
Listening to • Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield. Just watched the movie “Easy A” again the other day. Must make this song my ringtone.
Watching • How I Met Your Mother: Season 3 – Jake and I are working our way through the seasons. Love it!
Shopping • I have two words for you. Garage. Sales. Every summer I think, “I should go to some garage sales this year and find the kids some clothes.” Well, mom and I went to some the last week of school and then again last week we took the kids. Chloe is pretty much set for the next year or more. We found her so many nice things. Haven’t been as lucky finding things for Zach, but he does have some new jeans and shorts and a couple shirts. Garage sales are awesome! Mom and I usually have a sale each year, but we just haven’t gotten around to it this year. Maybe later in the summer.
I just finished reading the book Eat, Pray, Love last night. I had heard of it a couple years ago and I picked it up from our local library last week and finished it pretty quickly. I really enjoyed following along on her journey from brokenness to happiness and peace.
Because I have visited Italy, I found it easy to envision the places she went in the first leg of her journey – Rome, Naples, Venice, Florence. When she described the pizza in Naples, I could almost taste it again. This strange doughy creation with sauce that is nothing like the pizza we’re used to. I loved Italy so much and reading this book made me want to go back. Like now.
The book has been made into a movie starring Julia Roberts, which will be coming out sometime this summer. I found the trailer online. Can’t wait to see this one.
• Came across this little gem this weekend while browsing movies on Netflix. “Lost in Austen” is a fun, quirky retelling of Pride & Prejudice from the perspective of a girl who loves the world of Jane Austen more than her real life. Through strange (and unbelievable) circumstances, she switches places with Elizabeth Bennett and lives in the story. It was a mini-series in the UK a couple years ago and I really enjoyed watching it. Found the trailer on youtube:
• Still having some shoulder pain. It’s better than it was, but still annoying. Just want it to be normal again. Spent most of the weekend relaxing. Put the heating pad on a bit. Watched a lot of HGTV.
• Enjoyed church at TVC again on Sunday. We are really loving Pastor Jeff. He’s a great speaker and I’m getting a lot out of his sermons. Do sort of miss the comfort and familiarity of the church I grew up in, but am glad we stepped out of the comfort zone to try something new.
• Zach made the honor roll with all A’s and B’s. So proud of him!
• My camera made its way back to me safely. All fixed and they even cleaned the sensor for me. Yay!
• Just found out my sis-in-law Michelle is going to have a baby in the fall. Sort of unexpected (their youngest is a teenager now), but it’s exciting to welcome another baby into the family. My SIL Heather is due with her first baby in June, so it will be nice to have two little ones running around at family gatherings.
• Mom and I went walking this morning. It’s so nice to walk on clear sidewalks again. No more snow. We had lots of the nasty stuff when we woke on the first day of Spring, but by Sunday afternoon it had all melted away.
• The kids teacher conferences are this week. That’s really a sign that Spring Break is almost here. Can’t believe it’s almost April. Where did March go? Isn’t that the way it goes, though. In the winter months, when you want time to move along to get to Spring, the days go by at a snails pace. Now that we’re getting some nicer weather, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Ah well … such is life.
• I think it’s time for some serious Spring cleaning around here as well as some home improvement projects. We are in the process of figuring out how to make our current office into a bedroom for Chloe. The kids are getting older and it’s hard to get them to go to sleep when they’re in the same room. They stay awake and goof around for hours after bedtime and it’s just not working anymore. So we’ll probably be doing some painting and moving rooms around and getting Chloe situated in the next couple months. I think she’s kind of excited about the idea of having her own space. Zach is thrilled!
I posted this same picture last year of my brother’s t-shirt on St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s fun so I’m posting it again.
On my mind today:
• The weather is glorious. 60 degree temps and sunshine! I’ll take it! The kids spent a couple hours outside after school yesterday riding their bikes and drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. I sat in a chair and read.
• Went to a new church on Sunday. Much different than my church growing up. Loud worship band. Pastor in jeans. Casual atmosphere. We really enjoyed it. The kids had a blast in their classes. They excitedly told me what they’d learned and both said they can’t wait to go back next week. This makes me extremely happy.
• Did something to my shoulder. Not sure if I slept wrong or what, but I woke up Sunday morning with a pinched nerve or a tight muscle. I don’t even know what is wrong, but it is difficult to turn my neck side to side and it’s hard to sit here at the computer for any length of time because my shoulder/back/neck start throbbing. I keep trying to go about the day as usual, pretending that it doesn’t hurt. I swept some leaves off our driveway last night and I regretted that later. Guess I should take it easy and heal.
• I’m starting to get excited for the kids’ Spring Break. Not that we have any grand plans, but it will be nice to have a week off the usual routine. Must think of some fun things to do around here. Need to start saving so we can possibly go on a vacation for Spring Break next year. We shall see.
• Watched the movie “Food Inc.” the other day. Wow! I was completely disgusted by the food industry. Made me realize that I need to be much more mindful of the foods we eat and where they come from. I’ve started researching local farms where we can get chickens that aren’t full of growth hormones and beef that’s from grass-fed cows. Found some great farm markets to check out this year, too. I highly recommend this film.
• Very excited that “New Moon” comes out on DVD this weekend. Yay!
• The kids are very excited for the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movie that opens in theaters this weekend. I think we’re going to see it the following weekend with friends.
• My camera is all fixed and scheduled to be delivered to me today! I’ll be so relieved to have my baby back in my hands again.
• Posted some pictures from my cousin’s wedding over on my biz blog yesterday. Such a happy day. I’ll leave you with a couple favorites. There are more HERE
Well … the hard drive in my computer finally died. I knew it was coming. I had trouble starting it a month or so ago, so when I got it up and running, I backed everything up using the Time Machine program on my Mac. I’ve been so concerned with it not starting that I actually have left the darn thing on continuously and backed it up daily. Finally, I couldn’t get it to respond and when I tried to restart it … well, it decided it didn’t want to do that any more. I absolutely hate that I don’t have my files or Photoshop or anything. And because I hate blogging without a picture, I looked one up from February 2008. I figured this picture was appropriate since we’re supposed to get 6-10″ here today. ugh!
So, what’s next for my computer? I ordered a new hard drive. A nice big 1Tb hard drive. Mine’s been so full for so long that I’ve had less than 10Gb left for some time now. It will be nice to have the extra room. Jake and I are going to attempt to install it ourselves with a little help from some tutorials and videos I found on the internet. I love that about the internet. So many people willing to share their knowledge. So hopefully we’ll be able to figure it out without completely rendering my computer useless. My brother’s an electronics repair technician, too, so if we need help hopefully he’ll be able to assist us. I’ll be relieved when the new drive is in and formatted and restored using my handy dandy Time Machine.
Until then, I’ll be on facebook and twitter on Jake’s laptop or my iPod touch.
Had a pretty nice weekend. Jake rented The Time Traveler’s Wife for me. Pretty good movie. I almost wish I hadn’t read the book, because I knew what was coming and, toward the end of the movie, I started anticipating when it was going to happen. Having not read the book, Jake said there were certain scenes that left him with questions. I told him they left lots of things out that were in the book, which probably would have helped him understand a little better, but it was understandable why they cut things for the timing of the film.
Last week, with the help of some YouTube videos, I taught myself how to knit. I took a few pictures of my first test projects, but they are on my dead hard drive for now, so I’ll share some things later. I picked up a few more knitting needles today. So far, I’ve only made a couple washcloths and some random sections where I practiced different stitches. Jake said it looks like a section of highway where they’ve tried out different types of cement. I’d like to make a scarf and maybe try my hand at some socks. Yikes!
Crossing my fingers for a snow day tomorrow. Snow is supposed to fall at .5-1″ per hour. It’s already snowing out there right now. We shall see.
Have a wonderful week! Hopefully next time I blog, it will be from a newly replaced hard drive.
I recently watched the movie “Bright Star” about the poet, John Keats, and the love of his life, Fanny, and I adored it. It is a gorgeous movie, beautifully shot, and such a sweet, romantic, heartbreaking love story.
This may sound strange, but one of my favorite things about this movie visually is the wind. Maybe it’s because we’re in the midst of a cold winter and I’m longing for warm breezes, but I love the way the wind blows in so many of the scenes – the trees and grass blowing, the curtains in the house and in Fanny’s room, Fanny’s hair as she sits sewing by the window. Love it!
“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness”
I thought this movie was definitely a “thing of beauty”.
- Went to Indiana on Friday for the premiere of “Homeless for the Holidays”. It was a really good family-friendly, inspirational movie about a guy who loses his corporate job and has to figure out a way to provide for his family. He takes a job at a burger joint, but it’s just not enough. Little by little, they start to lose everything – electric, phones, cable, car, home. It’s totally sad and something many many people will relate to right now. I know we did. But it’s the way they reacted to the situation, what they learned from it, how they looked at it with a positive attitude as they approached Christmas with no presents under the tree, giving even when they had nothing left to give, that are the most important messages of this movie. It’s not the things of this life that matter, it’s our family and our faith and serving others. Right now, they are trying to get the movie shown in as many theaters as possible, so if you’d like to see it, contact your local theater and request it. Here’s the trailer for the movie:
- Took family pictures for Heidi on Saturday. Above is one of the pictures. Today is Grady’s first birthday, so I thought sharing this sweet picture of him with his mama was fitting.
- Had a bad day Sunday. Our stupid drain started backing up into our basement. Luckily, Jake caught it before anyone flushed the toilet. Nasty. It took us until almost midnight last night to get the problem fixed. We first determined that the blockage was outside of our house, we just weren’t sure how far outside. According to the city, we are responsible for the drain from our house to the middle of the street in front of our house. They sent a crew and determined that the blockage wasn’t in their lines, so it was up to us. The Fire Dept. here in town has a great big 100′ snake that you can borrow for free for just this purpose. Jake used that and we think it helped a little, but the water was still backing up. We were so frustrated. We just stood there for a while, not quite knowing what to do. We didn’t want to call a plumber because we can’t afford that right now. I suddenly had the idea to run some really hot water through the drain and see if it would help break up whatever was blocking it. So we did that a few times, then Jake plugged up the drain vent and we let the water fill up into the pipes and Jake suggested I take a plunger to our shower drain. After only a few plunges, there was a gurgling sound and a little water came up into the shower, so I did it some more and suddenly something big let loose and the water quickly drained through the pipes like it was supposed to. It was the most wonderful sound and we both felt so relieved and so happy that our teamwork and problem solving had saved the day! haha! So happy and thankful that we can flush our toilets again.
- The weather is a bit warmer this week. Into the 60′s. This is what fall is supposed to be, but so far the kids have been in winter coats every day for the past few weeks. Crazy. Trying to enjoy the temps while I can because the forecast calls for highs in the 40′s again at the end of the week. ugh!
- Teacher conferences are coming up for the kids. That should be interesting. We’ve had some issues with both kids this year already, so I’m looking forward to talking to their teachers to see how things are going in the classroom.
- Engagement pictures this weekend and family pictures next weekend and then I’m done for the year. I’m actually starting to look forward to the holidays. I won’t mention how many days are left until Christmas so I don’t freak you all out.
It’s been a little quiet around this blog lately. I’ve been sick off and on for a couple weeks now and haven’t felt like doing much at all. But here I am, pushing through, trying to ignore this scratchy throat and feeling of fatigue. There’s just too much to do to let this get me!
Had a fun weekend. Baby shower for my friend Amanda and her sweet baby boy Landon. They waited until after the baby was born for the shower so everyone could meet the baby. I thought that was a good idea. He’s so cute. I didn’t hold him, though, so I wouldn’t spread the lovely sick germs. FIVE of my past brides were there – Erinn, Amanda, Lindsey, Janna and Kelli. It was SO fun seeing them all. I’ll have pictures to share soon.
Also went to my parents house yesterday for my baby brother’s birthday. Had a wonderful roast for dinner and the most DELICIOUS dessert in the world – pumpkin cake! I have GOT to get that recipe from my mom. It’s so good. SO fattening … but SO good.
After dinner, we took a walk to Mt. Baldy, which is just up the road from my parents’ house. It’s supposed to be a scenic lookout and it used to be when we were little. We used to be able to see Gun Lake from the top off the hill, but the trees are so grown up now that you can’t see past them anymore. I think it’s supposed to be like the highest point in Barry County, too. Anyway, it was the kids’ first time up there and we took a bunch of pictures at the top, then hiked through one of the trails and walked back along the road. It was fun. The photo above was when we reached the road. The kids both jumped up on the rocks and struck a pose. Chloe is such the little model. It was a nice family walk. My mom came along, but my brothers wouldn’t join us.
This morning, it is bitter cold outside (high in the 40′s today), but my mom and I walked 2.8 miles. Yay! It feels good to start the day that way, get out and get moving.
Lots of work on the horizon for me this week. I’m still working on the wedding I shot at the end of August and hoping to finish that up for them this week. Some family pictures and an engagement session coming up and then I’m done for the year.
Jake and I are very excited for Friday. We’re going to the premiere of “Homeless for the Holidays”. Jake was in the director, George Johnson’s, first movie a few years ago called “Dreamer: The Movie” and he has a small part in this one as well. I think it’s going to be a really good story and one that will touch a lot of people, especially those who have gone through job loss. We can definitely relate.
I’ll share some pictures from the weekend when I get a chance to go through them.
last night. I had heard of it a couple years ago and I picked it up from our local library last week and finished it pretty quickly. I really enjoyed following along on her journey from brokenness to happiness and peace.
” about the poet, John Keats, and the love of his life, Fanny, and I adored it. It is a gorgeous movie, beautifully shot, and such a sweet, romantic, heartbreaking love story.
AJAXed with AWP