Monday, January 31, 2011

Bracing Ourself for Mother Nature



So this is the view from my back porch at 8:00 pm. It started raining around 4:30 pm and already the ice is thick on the trees, porch, and bird house. I knew it was starting to get bad when Jack went out a little after 6:oo pm and his little back legs were sliding out from underneath him.

So we are charging, charging, charging...while we have power. Charging phones, DSI, and DVD players. We have all taken a nice warm shower and have gotten good and clean. Candles are like wine and beer at this house ...we are good to go. School already closed tomorrow. The Bank has to be open. Paul's work might be closed.

We each took a trip to a different grocery store and waited most of our lunch hour to pay for what we could hold in our hands only because there were no carts left.

Stay tuned for more post...if I still have power!

iheartfaces Photography Contest - Best Face Photo of January 2011

Here is my entry to this weeks contest. Go on and vote for mine at the link below, and to see all the other entries.



Sunday, January 30, 2011

My Week in Words

It has been a most bazaar week. I don't want to share all the details.. as juicy and exciting they would make this blog, and as captivating the photos could be...these things don't always just happen to me, but to others that are a special part of my life. So I will sum up some of the events with a few words and you can guess or think whatever...but this has been my week!

An old dead car, a heart broken daughter, a call from a dear old friend who needed her baby crib back, taxes, runaway dog, goodbye's, missing teeth, Macey's true fears in action, a pet show, sleeping on the sofa, clean up a pee accident, boulder hitting my windshield on I-70, talks of Romeo handing out valentines to a few girls that might be his girlfriend, a weird story of an ex-boy friend watching a dog while a new friend stays the night, refinancing the house, cleaning the house for appraisers, and no one moves or touches anything in the house because the appraisers are coming!

Whew...I am not sure if I am ready for another week. We all have to pay the piper..but even if we are not the ones making the direct payment we are still sad when the ones we love have to do so too!

In keeping with the theme of this blog...here are a few pics for your enjoyment! I hope today that the piper is not visiting you and that you are debt free and can enjoy life!


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Questions and Answers with Gavin B

Yes, I do have another kid that I am very proud of...but he really is not up for pictures. Lucky me that I talked him into a question and answer session. Here goes...



Mom: What is your weirdest relative like?
Gavin: Well, she has bright blue eyes. She is annoying, and she lives with us.

Mom: What holiday would you invent to get you out of school?
Gavin: Pickle Day. A day where everyone would only eat pickles for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. Pickles are great!

Mom: If your dog Jack could talk what would he say to you?
Gavin: "Could you pop me some popcorn?"

Mom: Tell me about something that made you laugh hysterically?
Gavin: The Jesus Saves bank that Aunt Katie got for Christmas. A Jesus bank that says Jesus Saves. It was very funny at the time, remember it made me cry I laughed so hard?
Mom: Yes, I remember. I thought I was going to have to pull over on the side of the road cuz we were both laughing so hard.



Mom: When you get older will you get a tattoo or your ears pierced?
Gavin: NOPE

Mom: A place you want to visit?
Gavin: Paris

Mom: A quality you want in a future girl friend.
Gavin: (answer not for this blog)
Mom: Gavin...try again...
Gavin: A great personality and to be hot.

Mom: If you could change your name would you and what would it be?
Gavin: Nah, I like it just the way it is.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Could-have-been love story

Since I did meet my husband online I am so happy that we didn't have this problem!


Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Tooth Fairy

At 6:45am this morning I was woken by a very exclamatory "Mom! My tooth fell out!" Finally after weeks of wiggling she woke up to have it laying on her lip.

As you can see, there is no empty space, the other one is already there.

I was a silly mommy to believe that I could actually get her to climb back into bed with me and fall asleep. That didn't happen. She went on and on about how she was the last one at her table at school to loose a tooth, how funny the empty space felt on her tongue, how she was happy she didn't swallow it in the middle of the night, could we turn the light on so she could go and see how she looked. The best was when she asked me what the tooth fairy did with the teeth. Great question, one for which I didn't have an answer. But my friend Emily did. She said that the fairies release them into the sky each night and they become stars. Of course, now why didn't I think of that!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The library...

Random facts about me and the library...

In Lisa Scottoline’s “My Nest Isn’t Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space,” she refers to herself as a library slut. I laughed out loud, for I do resemble this statement!!!

Currently there are 18 items checked out on my library card.

The first library that I remember going to was in Kennebunk, Maine. My great grandmother whom I called Great Grand Nana introduced me to this wondrous place. In the summers when I went to visit her, she would let me use her library card. The building was beautiful with black and white floor tiles and real woodwork on the doors and trim. I would walk down into the basement where they had the children’s section and I was transformed into my own little world.

I think the library was the 2nd thing I got to go and do on my own. I think walking to the post office to get our family’s mail was the 1st. And the first few things you get to do all on your own are always a big deal.

When I was a single mom with Gavin and we had no money to buy things, or do things, you could always find us at the library.

At one point Gavin and I lived across from the library, and one evening my mom came to see us. We were not at home…she drove to the library, and of course that was where she found us.

When Gavin was young he made friends with a librarian named Pat. She was so good to my little Gavin. I missed her when we moved away.

Having a glass of wine, buying a new outfit, or visiting the library all have the same gratifying effect on my mood without the guilt or the hangover.

I visit the library at least three times a week.

Once I had to replace a library book because Macey threw it in the bathtub. She was two, and it was my book, I was right in the middle of it…and I never did finish it to find out what happened.

Once I had to replace a photography book from the library because Jack got a hold of it and ate the entire cover. The inside of the book was intact…so I was actually happy he ate it because it is a really great book and I am glad to have it, chewed cover and all.

In all this reminiscing of the library I decided to take Macey today to get her own library card. Her first real piece of identification. She has to sign her name and everything.

It was great that they had her favorite book to check out first!

I wish I had taken a picture of her signing her name on the application. I was too busy enjoying the moment. She was trying so hard to be cool and not be beaming ear to ear, but she was. I saw it.

Macey says she is going to keep her library card forever, or until she dies. I am happy she is so proud! It is a big deal!

Friday, January 21, 2011

His Almost 3rd Birthday...

I wonder if he will make it. His birthday is on the 24th. Recently he has been a very, very, extremely terrible dog! Maybe it is the weather, as it has not brought out even the best in me. But he must stop running away when we let him out. I sometimes wonder if he has a secret home....

Macey says we have to have a birthday party. Even if he cannot eat cake...we can. So stay tune, I am sure there will be pics!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

My pick me up at work....pics of course

So I am staring at the photos on my desktop hoping that they will help me get out of my winter funk. I have them at work for a reason, they just help when I am having a bad day.


Our blue eyes

A girls night out!!!

Jack's 3rd birthday is next week...if he lives that long

A very good looking son

Kennebunk Port Maine... (I had to rush this photo..but next time I will take all the time in the world...it is such a tease. As a photographer it stinks..as a lover of Maine it is wonderful!!!)

My favorite picture ever!!!!

The dead stude...and the dead barn!

me..doing what I love!

I always am wondering "what is she thinking!"


These images may not be able to melt the snow outside, but they sure can melt away my heart and bad mood!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Just what they do....

Every since Macey was a baby I have always handed her off to her dad after I got her out of her shower/bath. It has stuck...she always want to go and get warm with her daddy after getting clean. It is just a cute ritual.

Mostly they just horse around and be silly!

I hope they both hang on to this time for as long as they can!

A Macey mustache...

Daddy...you already have a mustache!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Fashion Show

Macey was invited to a fashion show birthday party. The girls had so much fun...making dresses, getting nails and makeup done, and walking the run way. It was a good time!




I love that at their age they are always holding hands!!!




Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Great Lines From Great Books

I read all the time and I keep a log of great lines from books that I have liked. Here are a few....



"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." Henry Miller

The Geography of Bliss – Eric Weiner



"There is a moment in all acts when there is no turning back. The step over the cliff, the finger committing to the trigger and the hammer falling the bullet erupting from the chamber unstoppable."

The Walk by Richard Paul Evans



"Death is like being in the next room."

The Walk by Richard Paul Evans



"Revenge is a dish, best served cold."

A Prisoner of Birth - Jeffery Archer



"Can someone really be gone if you know where they are?"

90 Minutes in Heaven – Don Piper



"that there are no random acts. That we are all connected, that you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind."

The Five People you Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom



"God provides through people. Am I willing to be connected to the people in my world?"

Mosaic - Amy Grant



"So this is how you pack for Heaven…touching everything and taking nothing."

Have a little Faith – Mitch Albon



"There are heroes and there are the rest of us. There comes a time when you just let go of the ghost of the better person you might have been."

Reservation Road - John Burnham Schwartz



"And a person ought to pay the fate on their own obsession."

The Tommyknockers – Stephen King



"It’s a lot easier to see actions as either right or wrong without shades of explanation between them."

House Rules - Jodi Picoult

****************************************************************************
And this is a long one...but I think she said it perfectly! I couldn't of said it any better myself...


"The search for God is the reversal of the normal mundane worldly order. In the search for God you revert from what attracts you, and you swim towards that which is difficult. You abandon your comforting and familiar habits with the hope, the mere hope, that something greater will be offered to you in return for what you have given up. Every religion in the world operates on the same common understandings of what it means to be a good disciple; get up early and pray to your God, hone your virtues, be a good neighbor, respect yourself and others, master your cravings.

We all agree that it would be easier to sleep in, and many of us do, but for millennial there have been others who choose instead to get up before the sun, and wash their faces and go to their prayers, and then fiercely try to hang on to their convictions though the lunacy of another day.

The devote of this world perform their rituals without guarantee that anything good will ever come of it. Of course there are plenty of scriptures and plenty of priests who will make plenty of promises as to what your good works will yield, or threats to the punishments awaiting you if you lapse. But even to believe all this is an act of faith, because no one amongst us is shown the end game. Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying that “Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.”

There’s a reason we refer to leaps of faith because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don’t care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of book and prove to you though scripture that their faith is indeed rational. It isn’t. If faith were rational it wouldn’t be by definition “faith.” Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face first in full speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life, and the nature of God, and the destiny of our souls our believe would not be a leap of faith, and it would not be a courage act of humanity it would just be a prudent insurance police. I’m not interested in the insurance industry. I am tired of being a skeptic. I am irritated by spiritual prudence. And I feel bored and parched by empirical debate. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I couldn’t care less about evidences, proof and assurances. I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my blood stream the way sun light amuse itself on water."

Eat Love Pray – Elizabeth Gilbert


So what are some of your favorite things you have read from a book?

The Winter Blues

I totally have them! This is the highlight of excitment at our house...our DS's... I have one too!


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Our family Mooish

A while back I posted a bit about Mamoo’s special vocabulary. Since then I have been listening to us as a family, and I think we speak Moo too! These things you don’t really notice until you actually hear yourself ask the girl on the other side of the deli counter for a ½ pound of “smack and cheese” and not mac and cheese. Yes, I really did this the other day, but smack and cheese is what we call it at our house.

We have lots of code words in regards to foods. Gavin use to ask for chicky buckets, when he couldn’t say chicken nuggets. Last night we had Crawfish Etouffee, we call them mud bugs like a lot of people down south do. When Macey says “pass the stinky cheese” she is asking for the parmesan cheese. She use to ask for keppy, meaning ketchup. Macey’s favorite place for lunch is Pajoli’s or as you would know it Fazoli’s. When we want to eat a Red Robin, someone just has to say “Yummmm”. When we want to visit our favorite German restaurant Gerhardt's Bierstube someone just has to mention the name of our favorite waitress ever Anna Leigh.

When we are not talking about food we even call the things we love after food. Like Daddy drives a “cheese stick” which is really a G6 (but we think the recent song by Far East Movement that sounds like she is singing “like a cheese stick”.)

Then there are places. When we mention “daddy’s special place” we are always referring to Lookout Mountain Tenn. Last spring we caprized (surprised) the kids to a trip to the Rat’s Nest or Disney. We frequently shop at Wally World or Wal-Mart. Sometimes the kids ask if we can go to Their City which is Indy. Every fall we go to the “ribber” aka river in Derby Indiana. Sometimes daddy tells the story about the puke stick he rode with my father in the Wisconsin Dells the day before we got married.

And it is not just the things we say, but the way we say them that I cannot even put into a blog. The high pitch way we sing Hello Kitty, one of Macey’s favorite things.

Then there are the countless ways we refer to one another via pet names, or your in trouble now names, even nostalgic names. Here are a few of them…Mike, Myrt, Bubby, Mister Paul P, Mister Gavin B., Ann, Indy Girl, cupcake, Vic, butt cheese, and Frog. Jack as a few words we add to his name when he is not so nice…but you can figure that out.

I know that there are many, many more…but these are the ones that come to the top of my head. And I think this is super cool! It is like being part of an elite club that only a very special few belong too. I love this club that I belong too, and all the inside jokes and secret words that weave our special memories from days past into what we are today!

I Heart Faces Photo Contest

This week's theme - Smile
These two giggle girls are always smiles when they are together!


want to see other entries click on the camera below!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A little late for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Macey is a little late...she is working on her first loose tooth.




Tuesday, January 4, 2011

the definition of Cute:

2003 Webster's New World Dictionary's definition of cute is as follows:
cute adj. cut'er, cut'est 1< ACUTE {Inf.) 1. clever, shrews 2. pretty or attractive, esp. in a dainty way.

my definition of cute: see below





and this one...miniature me. People tell me that she looks like me and I think she favors her daddy. Maybe it is the lip color I let her put on, but she does kind of look like me here. Not going to lie about it, but it...it feels good!

Monday, January 3, 2011

I Heart Faces 2010 Best Faces Contest

I knew I was going to enter a photo in this contest weeks ago...but how do you pick your favorite photo? I know this is not the best as a photographer, but the mere fact that every time I stumble upon it I really have to laugh out loud. I can hear her singing...as she is always singing.

I don't know that I truly have a favorite face photo...or a favorite photo of this year...but this one makes me smile, even on a bad day!

Hope you enjoy it a little!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

I hate goodbye

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend a little time with my grandparents, aka Nana and GG (GG stands for great grumps, and in case you were wondering I had the privilege of being the first born and couldn't say grandpa, but grumps).

Nana and Grumps came to spend the Holiday's with us all the way from Maine. While they have been here visiting we have had snow, an unseasonably warm day, twisting winds and an earthquake. Us Midwesterners know how to show a good time to our guest!

It was great to see them, but the goodbye's ALWAYS suck! All the things you want to say but can't, so you wrap them up in a giant hug and hang on a little longer. Till next time you say!

(Macey took the above photo...didn't she do a great job?)