Okay, okay

here's the hair and eyes, and trust me, there are ears under the hair ;)

This one is courtesy of JoAnne (with some color burning on the lashes, lips and brows from me). Thanks!

Cutting ties

A couple of years ago I walked away from a forum that I'd been a member at for a while... sort of. It used to be run by someone, then they quit and then we picked it up and moved it somewhere else. I left because there were several personalities that I found difficult to get along with, and frankly I just walk away when I run into those kinds of people, sometimes after arguing with them.
I find it easy to drop people from my life. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but it works for me. It's like cleaning out a junk drawer, sometimes you have to decide to just dump the whole thing and make it a towel drawer.
I've been on a photography board recently that was branched off another board when a member left. I followed thinking it would be good to keep networking with these people because most of them are local, but it hasn't paid off at all. I keep putting my name and my business out there to them... I'm looking to second shoot, or I'll respond to a post they make about someone needing a photog, but I see no evidence of them ever sending someone to my site. The only inquiries I get is from people visiting my site because they saw my work for someone else.
I see them talking about shooting with and for each other. This hurts. I hear good things from them about my work for the most part, I even have one of the newer people wanting me to be her photog for a trash the dress session... so I don't get it.
I asked one girl that I trusted to look at my site and to give me some CC. I know she's been to my site after that, and she told me she was still working on it, however I haven't heard a peep from her about it, which makes it hard because I'm wanting to revamp, but have been putting it off until I hear the feedback.
Guess I'll be going it myself because tonight I deleted that board from my favorites and have no way to find my way back, which is probably for the best. This time I decided not to delete my account because that would raise questions. Instead I'm slipping out into the night, so to speak.
All in all I'm not really losing out. I haven't learned anything new from them except that I'm stealing food from the "old farts" (as they call the more experienced photogs) kids mouths. Nobody else there shares any techniques.
There are two men there that I clash heads with... one for sure is a Gemini, so that explains that. Joel is the only Gemini I've ever gotten along with on a long-term basis.
Anyway, time to move on, find new "photog friends".

Smile!

Ok, I promised a picture of my smile.

What? you were expecting eyes, ears and hair too? Hahaha, nope, not a chance ;) And yes, my teeth are now that freakishly white.

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.

GNO

Ahhhh... I feel refreshed, and so do my nails!

This week I got an email invitation to go to a party at my friend's house that she was throwing for all the birthday and moving people in our ward. When I arrived I saw that her driveway was colored in chalk super cute by her kids welcoming us to the party. Only a couple of us showed up, but it was nice. I like these ladies and it was nice to get to know them better, I wouldn't have been able to if we had a ton of people show up. We ate cake, chatted, painted our nails and played a crazy kind of game that I will be rating in my Thumbs Up! section next Thursday.

It was a really nice time and I so enjoyed the break from the kids and house. Thanks Joel for watching the kids and going into work late so I could have some girl time :)

Jesus walked on water

and I can walk through paper.




can so.



yuh huh.




i'll prove it..... here

Minnesota is not Kansas

So this weekend my sister-in-law had a birthday party at her house. I'd spent the morning with a family doing a session and the weather was pretty nice. When I came home I took a nap because I had not slept well the night before. After that we went to my sister-in-laws for her birthday party. When we got there my s-i-l is trying to tape a table cloth to a table. That's when I started to notice the weather... how convenient I waited until we got there to decide that perhaps we should have brought jackets. It was windy and cloudy and a couple of times it sprinkled a little on us while we sat outside. She had a tent thing, but we weren't under it.

Joel and I talked about going home for jackets and I could tell he didn't want to go, but I made him be the one to go anyway.

So after he leaves we start getting some really big gusts of winds that were pretty seriously strong. They moved the table into their shed, so if it rained we could have somewhere dry to keep the food.

All of a sudden a huge gust came and everyone started running to the house, and whoop! The tent goes flying in the air and the next thing I know Jake is holding onto the leg of it keeping it from going farther! He gets his cat-like reflexes from me :)

So long story short- I saved Joel's life by making him go get coats, because if I had gone, they'd be calling my cell phone to tell me that they were taking him to the hospital with head injuries. His chair was right in the path of the oncoming tent.

It's just another day in the life of Super Mom :)

Oh Yeah! Duh!

I totally forgot today was Thursday! Forgive me, it was a super busy day.

Thumbs Up!

Movie- Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium. Oh my gosh, this was a super wonderful movie. I so loved it! Dustin Hoffman was brilliant, the story was touching and magical. I will for sure be buying this one! Ten thumbs up!

Movie- The Golden Compass- Ok, I know I gave this a Thumbs Down! a few months ago. However I did decide to watch it, based on my friend's recommendation. I think separate from the fact of who wrote the story, and the books, this movie in it's self was a really great movie. I loved the special effects, the little girl in it was a great actress (I have issues with child actors) and I liked the story, it was very creative. I rented the movie, but probably will not buy it because I don't want my kids to want to get into the books, so it's probably a movie we will forget about.

Thumbs Down!

Movie- The Bee Movie- This movie bored my kids, it wasn't a great story, it was just ok. I'm not a tree hugger, so maybe that's one reason I didn't find it so fascinating.

On a side note: during my busy day today I had to travel downtown to Minneapolis, and exit right before the spot where the I-35W bridge had collapsed into the Mississippi river. On my way back onto the freeway I could see the construction very clearly. It was the first time I've been down there since the collapse. I'd been on it just days before it fell last summer, I was on it with Gina, even just days before! It was very sad to see it and remember what happened.

When I got on the freeway, it was weird entering a freeway, trying to build up speed and merge, and then remember there's nobody there to merge with because the road is gone from behind you.

Back on the horse

So, now that we've all been sick and I missed a bunch of days last week at the gym, I've been to the gym 3 times this week, and I'll be going tomorrow. I missed one day because that was the day I had a dentist appointment and too much else going on.
I know that I need to be drinking more water. I also need to curb my snacking at night.
I've also been going out and playing HORSE with Jake and all the neighborhood kids who come by and beg to join in. It's kind of funny. Tonight we had 8 of us playing one game at the same time. Kids come and go throughout the game so it's been hard to keep track of how many letters everyone has or what order we shoot in, but it's been a lot of laughs and fun.
I think everyone is done being sick now, it's made all it's rounds.

Tonight I took my 30D in for sensor cleaning. I am a little leery of doing it myself. Blowing it out didn't get it clean and after doing a dust test I saw a ton of yuck still on the sensor. I have a shoot on Saturday so it should be nice and clean for it. So I have them cleaning it, and when I pick it up the guy might show me how to do it myself next time if I buy their 60 dollar kit, lol. Then I can clean my XT for practice. I've had the XT for almost 2 years and have only had to blow it out and it still doesn't have much dust. I've had the 30D for almost one year and it's FILTHY! I think it might be due to the lens I have on it... maybe? Or maybe I use it more, or maybe I change lenses on it more? I dunno...
I'm rambling, so goodnight.

This Smile is for YOU!

YAY! I got my new smile today and it is be-U-tiful! It's a little whiter than my natural teeth, which is strange because I helped her pick out the shade and we had it matching the tooth next to where it was placed, but, to make that better they gave me a kit with a years supply of Crest White Strips Supreme. Yahoo! :) so now I will not only have a great smile, I will have a very white smile! My teeth are already quite light, I've been asked often if I bleach them, which I don't.
It all feels great. Two more weeks and I will have the rest of my smile and can be done with all this stuff. :D yay!

Really?

As my Google page opened today three words caught my eye... "Forgive the Unforgivable".
Some of you may know that I am dealing with two occasions that happened with two connected family members that have tied me down in unforgiving darkness. So naturally my eyes were drawn to those words on the page.

Interestingly enough those words were found in the "How To" section of my Google page. Each day there will be two topics in there from "How to make a birdfeeder" to "How to make a paper airplane". So my interest was intrigued when I saw "How To Forgive the Unforgivable." How can a website that teaches how to make paper airplanes tackle such a mountainous subject?
I thought I'd share the link with you. What are your thoughts?

Well, it started out well

However on the actual Mother's Day I woke up feeling horribly sick. It was really sad because Joel made me breakfast and then I ended up being too sick to eat it. I spent the entire day on the couch in and out of sleep, which normally would be heaven if my hips and all my joints didn't ache so badly. I was able to eat the chicken he cooked on the grill and several hand fulls (or would that be hands full?) of cereal later. The kids all made me cards. They also gave me a rose plant and they searched all over town for my most favorite ice cream- Bubble gum flavored. However they couldn't find any for sale and ended up getting me another flavor they thought I would like, but I wasn't feeling well enough for trying it. Maybe tomorrow when I get home from Enrichment.

Tuesday's Enrichment is about family vacations. We have one speaker talking about camping, I think, and one talking about local attractions, one talking about long road trips with kids, and then one talking about traveling tips, like peak times, getting great deals, how to pack, packing for air travel, etc. It should be a fun evening. I'm already working on June's, which is based on Kate Kirkham's talk, at BYU, "We Being Many Are One." We are basing it on her suggestions for three things that can accelerate our Relief Society (or ward, church) being one. Then we are having them do activities where they have to rely on each other to accomplish the task in a relay. It is promising to be a good evening.

So I am feeling much better today, my stomach is settled down, and am really excited to be getting my new teeth tomorrow!
If you've ever had one of those horrible dreams where your teeth are breaking or falling out, I've lived that horrible nightmare. It is my reality. So you can imagine how excited I am to be finally getting that under control and getting my mouth back to normal. I can imagine how tomorrow night at Enrichment I will at least once, just because it will feel so good, throw my head back in a good heartfelt laughter, and it will feel amazing. How many people will I give a huge wide grin to? I am going to try giving every lady that shows up tomorrow an amazing smile. Wish you could be there to see!

Happy Mother's Day!

I love you mom!

The first song playing here on my blog is dedicated to all of my beautiful children whom I am so very blessed to call my own. I'm the luckiest girl in all the world because of the 4 amazing and beautiful children I have. I love you guys, thank you for letting me be your mom!

Last night I got the rare opportunity to spend the evening and most of today with my best girlfriends...



and let me tell you it was the BEST time I've had in a long time!
We ate junk food...



We painted our nails with polish we'd picked up earlier in the day...



We had pizza for dinner and nachos, popcorn and candy for dessert. We also rented movies, which I will rate this Thursday in my Thursday's Thumbs segment. We were going to tent it in the family room but discovered that both tents were broken, so we group slept in my bed. Then this morning we went to Perkins for breakfast. Jaeden had chocolate chip pancakes, Joy had regular pancakes and I had steak, eggs and hashbrowns and pancakes... man was I full! Then we went to the YMCA for the girls classes and I did 40 minutes of cardio.

After that I took them to the local park where we played on a big grassy hill and I took some pictures of them...









I have to tell you I am so thankful for the time I got to spend with them, just chatting, one on one, rocking out in the car to the Chipmunks, making jokes, singing at the top of our lungs, cuddling on the couch and just connecting. I wouldn't have traded that night for the world. What a great way to start Mother's Day weekend! I hope I get more chances to have those kinds of evenings with all of my children.

Song and lyrics-

I'll Be There Too- Michelle Featherstone
I see myself in you
In everything you do
And when you’re all alone at night
You know I am by your side
Cuz I’m there too

I see me in your eyes
And I’m the tears you cry
And when you fall apart
And I’m dying from a broken heart
I’m there too
I see your footsteps in the sand
As you journey on across this land
But if you should fall on your way
Then I will carry you that day
Cuz I’m there
I’m there too

Yeah I’m there too
I see your face in mine
And I know there’ll come a time
When you will take my hand
And I will understand
That you’re there too
When you will take my hand
And I will understand
That you’re there
You’re there too

Friday's Feast

Feast #190
Appetizer
When someone smiles at you, do you smile back? Yes, but in the last few years it's been an awkward smile- After Tuesday, it's going to be a big, huge, broad smile! :)
Soup
Describe the flooring in your home. Do you have carpet, hardwood, vinyl, a mix? We just put in wood laminate flooring in the kitchen, living room and family room. It's sooo beautiful! The bedrooms have carpet and the bathrooms and washroom have vinyl.
Salad
Write a sentence with only 5 words, but all of the words have to start with the first letter of your first name. Jen just jiggled jeans juxtaposed.
Main Course
Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by adoption? Me! :) I have a daughter who is adopted. She is my other children's biological cousin, but she's ALL MINE! Some people know the story. Someday I'll share it again. I have a "Touched by Adoption" sticker on each side of my van. I want to promote adoption over abortion and hope that people in that situation see my sticker and think twice about what they are thinking about doing.
Dessert
Name 2 blue things. The sky is my favorite shade of blue, I just LOVE it! My favorite pair of jeans are blue too.

Thursday's Thumbs

Thumbs Up!
Movie- The Water horse- Ok, I heard rumors that this had scary parts for kids, but my kids weren't really bothered by them. Maybe I've desensitized them, or maybe other people's kids are more sensitive. Either way, this was a good movie and I liked it a lot. I like how mostly realistic the water horse looked.

Toothpaste- Colgate Total- I've had a history of bad teeth and rapid decay issues. I started using this toothpaste at least twice a day for the last 5 years. A couple of weeks ago I had my first dental visit in four years. I had only one small cavity. I owe it all to Colgate Total! It saved the rest of my teeth! I can't rave about it enough.

Book- Miracles on Maple Hill- by Virginia Sorensen. A friend from church borrowed me this book. I think she said the author is LDS. It's kind of for teenagers, or younger readers like age 10-14. It's an easy read. I liked the storyline and the author's writing style. I almost felt like I could see all the forest and farmlands around them. It's a warming story full of promise and hope.

Thumbs Down!
I have no Thumbs Down for this issue.