Sporadic

Sorry my posting here has been so sporadic! It's been great though, I've had a lot going on and I do love to be busy, winter was loooooooong and boring, I'm so glad to be getting out of the house! I just wish that global warming would become a reality because I'm freezing my butt off here in 60 degree weather, at the end of May. What's up with that?

I have a few posts started in my head, but they've been waiting for pictures, and pictures have been waiting for the time I've had to play. Today I had a little time to play before dinner.

So first, let me say, if you heard about our weather the other day, we did not have a tornado close to our house, however my sister-in-law did. Their home is ok, but they lost a fence. Her husband saw the twister from the back yard and yelled to the family to all go into the basement washroom. Luckily their house was spared too much damage. (I do have a related story below about the storm and an orphan.)

My mil keeps trying to talk them into claiming a window that was already broken, to the insurance company when they look at the house for damage, but my bil told her he didn't want to, that it was dishonest.... well, duh! I don't know if he will stick to that, if he does I'll be impressed, because my in-laws aren't much for moral character sometimes.

So, I'd mentioned the other day how I went out with my friend JoAnne, from church, and helped her learn a bit about using her new camera in manual mode. She said I actually did help her and she was starting to understand it. YAY! I was a little worried I'd confused her. There's so much to remember that it's easy to get confused, but seriously I can't shoot any other way. I have to have total control over my images.

Here's some pictures of her and her little guy with my kids. I can't believe how big her little guy is getting, seems like just the other day he was baby Jesus in our church's Christmas program. *sniffle*

And also she taught me about a lot of different plants that were growing at the flower garden. We played with some DOF.

And here she is looking like a major pro.

It was a lot of fun. I hope she calls me again to go out and play!

Ok, so a few things from this weekend.

SATURDAY- Joyanna got a new bike! Her daddy decided she needed a regular bike with training wheels. He didn't buy one first because he wanted to know what I would say to that, to which I said, "Clean out the shed." He was supposed to do that this weekend, but with working on the floor and going out to dinner and all, he didn't have time. I hope he finds time next weekend, because it's grossing me out.

Here is miss Joy in her cute little hot pink cowboy boots that totally match the hot pink in her new bike!

Here are some of the neighborhood kids that have been hanging around the house every day. Duky (in the camo shirt) and Supha. I know how to spell their names because one day they wrote it all over my driveway in chalk when they came to play horse with us... "Duky Rules!" "SUPHA". They have way cool bikes. Ducky was trying to kiss Joy the other day and she came in and told me. I told her, "no kissing boys", so she promptly went back outside and yelled, "Hey Duky, my mom said NO KISSING BOYS!", lol!

SUNDAY- We had the storms go through in the evening. Then Monday we found this little guy in our driveway. We went into the house, and watched, but it's mom wasn't taking care of it, and we couldn't see her around. It didn't fly yet. It was in our yard all day. After Joel and I came back from our dinner we saw it still in the yard. My heart went out to it, so I googled "baby Robbin fell out of nest" and immediately found a site that led me to a wildlife rehabilitation center just a few short miles from my home and wonder of wonders they were open 365 days a year, and were open until 8 that night. I called them to see if the robin would be something they'd be interested in and they were. My sweet husband caught the little thing for me, put it in a paper bag and drove us over to the center.

It was a super cool find! We learned they had a nature center back in their lot with walkways around a swampy marsh. I took the kids back there today. While we walked on the walkway two ducks flew in and landed right on the walkway! Even before they landed my kids started running after them, lol! They got off the walkway in a real hurry!

Then we went across the street to an arboretum. It was just gorgeous there! Trees in full bloom, fountains, green grass, beautiful! I talked to a lady that was there with her granddaughter. She told me about the paths and told me that one goes by a waterfall. I wanted to take my kids to it, but Joy decided she had to pee and sat down and had a tantrum, so we went home. I'm going to scout it out tomorrow. I have two girls now that want trash the dress sessions, and a possible engagement session, a waterfall would be fun!

Oh and I forgot, we found some kind of bone next to the walkway... not sure what it's from, but that's a little eerie!

Today I got the rest of my smile! :) YAY! I'm all done with the visits to the dentist. I'll have Jake take a picture tomorrow... really.