fitful thoughts

I miss blogging

2011-12-15T21:15:00.003-07:00

It's coming back...that old blogging feeling...if only I could figure out why my laptop is not letting me post pictures here it would make life soooo much easier.

Life has been, busy, for lack of a more descriptive term. Its too overwhelming to do a catch up so instead I will look forward and do a ~whats happening now~.....NOW.

Well, right now I am off to do what I have been doing most these evenings, a kid pick up, drop off, transfer. It's good they are so involved and busy right? just say right and make me feel better for 5 minutes. Its good to give your kids opportunity to do and be involved, but some times...sometimes there is something to be said for being bored.

Until next time (soon-ish)

D

The Wedding

2011-07-10T18:57:00.009-06:00

One week ago yesterday we had the pleasure and the honor to be in Winnipeg to see my beautiful cousin get married.

Becky & Tom are high school sweethearts and July 2nd 2011 they sealed the deal.
And what a wedding it was! Candy and dancing, wine and great food. Lights, decorations, family, friends and perfect weather. It was a perfect wedding.
Look how happy they are......awe....so sweet.

Did I mention there were bubbles?!

The signage was amazing. The handmade flower decorations and streamers were obviously made with a lot of love, care and attention.
Check out these photos of the bride and groom. There were photos of the two of them together throughout their early relationship as well as individuals of each of them as children....Loved this!My favorite photo was of Becky & Tom (to the right of the photo) and Kim & Nick (to the left) at Kim & Nick's wedding three years earlier who also happen to be the brother AND the sister of the bride and groom of the day....awesome.

Bravo to the main brains and creative of the whole affair for a job well done. Becky and Tom are truly blessed.

Congratulations Becky & Tom. Wishing you a world of happiness.

A special Thank You to my super talented friend Michel over at the new and fabulous Ampersandgrey.com for helping take some of my simple photos and making them look damn good.

Mambo #5, the way is was meant to be interpreted

2011-06-12T19:48:00.006-06:00

Who is this darn cute little tap dancer making his on stage debut? Why it's Nathan Morris of course. Be watching for him on any dance show in the future... :)

i hope you can see it

*proud* Mommy moment.

ouch!

2011-05-12T08:14:00.000-06:00

Tayler went and got herself some face jewelry.

I hear it's called a Monroe.

She had our permission, she didn't sneak. Her lip is a bit swollen today but she seems proud as punch with it. Where did that saying come from? proud as punch. funny.

riding my bike

2011-05-06T08:11:00.002-06:00

This is day two of riding my bike to my new job.

What a feeling of freedom, happiness and independence.

I realized yesterday thou that I had better hone up on my hand signals. I couldn't remember how to signal left so instead I pulled off to the side and got off my bike to cross the busy street. Silly.

And really, I think it may even be faster for me to get to work on my bicycle than by car with all the waiting on lights and school zones and such in the vehicle, I really don't have any of that on my biking way there. Bonus.

I like this.

what a day

2011-05-02T08:36:00.001-06:00

It is BeautiFUL outside this morning.

I am off to my first full week at the new job and I gotta say..so far so good.

Directly after work I head over to my very first ball game of the season AND its a double header to boot!

I already walked over and got my vote in too.

What a day, what a day!

first day

2011-04-28T08:31:00.002-06:00

And here I go. Off to my first day of work...

Thank you isn't enough to express my gratitude to 'you-all-know-who-you-are' for all the love, support and absolutely needed positive words of encouragement.

I hope one day I can do the same for you just when you need it.

I think some one needs to clean that mirror..

last day

2011-04-26T07:50:00.004-06:00

Today is my last day at my 9 year job.

I am filled with many different feelings and emotions.
I am not sad. Not one little bit. No tears will flow today. I had flowers waiting for me on my old desk when I arrived at work this morning. It was really sweet. A thoughtful gesture that was frankly unexpected.

You see I have shut down here at work long ago, I withdrew from the daily gossip and political BS that goes along with every office or work place. I shut it right off except for my Terry. I realize that may not have been the healthiest of approaches. I was simply listening and giving into what my body told me I wanted. I was just unhappy here.

It has been quite the journey right from the beginning when I showed up at in the warehouse working for free as part of my Parts School work experience. After two weeks I managed to convince them to take me on full time. Thank goodness. I was surviving. I won't get into all of that again here though...the end of that chapter is here.

I no longer need to survive. I am walking out of these doors 9 years later with what I came looking for, a better me.

I may have a different last name (last name number four) then when I began this journey but I am leaving with what I started out looking for. That inner voice who used to scream at me to come out from way down deep inside is now riding proud on the outside of me. I am living out loud.

Onto the next chapter. I am pretty excited with a touch of anxious.

*NOTE: no eggs where injured in the making of this post...well, maybe just the blue one....

the making of our Easter eggs

2011-04-24T10:10:00.004-06:00

Daniel, Nathan and I set out to create some AWESOME eggs..we had dye, crayons, colored sand, glue and stickers.

Freshly dipped eggs put aside to dry.

Some eggs let their natural design shine through.

Terry joined us later showing off his egg design skills.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

2011-04-17T09:16:00.002-06:00

I think one of our eggs was confused. Maybe it was trying to tell us something...looook deeeeeperrrr..yeesssss..deeeeeeeperrrr Your eggs may hold your fortune. But what? Is there anyone out there who can read egg?

freeze,melt,snow,melt,freeze,melt,snow

2011-04-15T21:55:00.003-06:00

... so the story goes. Winter 2010/11, you sure kicked our ass this year. Apparently your not done yet.

please stop.

A New Begining

2011-04-13T11:59:00.004-06:00

After much (way to much) moaning, groaning, whining, and complaining the answer to "should I stay or should I go" back on October 7, 2009 came....I go. After 8 years it's time to move on. I feel a sense of relief, satisfaction, trepidation and excitement.

I can breath a big sigh of relief as well as look forward to not being tied to a desk every day.

I will be working at a Stationer store as an assistant (for now!) where employees having fun is up there on the priority list. I will be dealing with customers and getting in on the making and creating of some pretty great posters , manuals and what-not..... I am so looking forward to the intimacy that a small family owned business will bring. The communication, teamwork and need to ensure every one is happy with the understanding that it is that kind of an environment that will bring about the best results and product. A happy work place is an efficient work place....it's been a long time missing for me. Taking a leap of faith here, this wouldn't be possible without the support of my fantastic husband....I am not in survival mode anymore, I am in living mode. I just have to get through the next two weeks...it's going to be a heck of a ride. I'm already exhausted. It has definitely been a roller coaster of emotion since first spotting this job in the local news paper. Is this the right thing to do? Can we handle the cut back in wage? Can we work around the change in hours? How will I get through a day with out lunch with my husband? This is the right thing, we both feel it. *fingers crossed*

Choice

2011-04-07T08:12:00.004-06:00

Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them.

This is a word that has come up in my thoughts pretty prominently over the last couple of days. Whether its grocery shopping, picking out new shoes or not choosing not to change the colour of you hair for a job opportunity such as Tayler's recent choice.

She was faced with the opportunity to work at a job with an increase in pay but she chose not to accept so she can continue to express herself in the way she feels important to her.

She had a choice that many don't.

We have the choice.

I have the choice....sometimes those choices don't come as easy as I/we would like them too.

Do we choose between the high pay more stress which brings occasional extreme bits of fantasy pleasures like taking an exotic trip every year or so?

Or instead do we choose to forgo that possibility for the simple pleasure of everyday contentment with less disposable income?

In black and white the choice seems obvious. But emotionally the choice is a lot harder.

I don't have to choose between my child being fed or a roof over my head. I don't have to choose between living in a cardboard box or a plastic bag. I am fortunate to have the freedom of choice.

Even the the ones I think are the hard ones.

I finally get it!! updated

2011-03-27T09:31:00.010-06:00

After all these years I can finally say 'You were right Terry' ......there is actually only one way to to put a roll of toilet paper on the holder....it DOES matter.!! What was I thinking? ***************************************************************************************************** Well, you make me laugh family, there is no real story here. I think I have just finally been broke. All these years later and I have a 'way' that I must have the toilet paper hang...it was not a 'right' way to anyone but Terry. I never cared, I cared so little in fact that I would purposely put the roll on the 'wrong' way just to get a rise put of my guy.

Poor thing, there was so much to adjust to in the first placed for him moving in with his wonderful lady and her three adorable kids and now he is being sabotaged by the one he loves on purpose!!
I just thought it was so ridiculous to have a 'right way' to hang the roll.....so there I was, last week, doing my ~doo-dee~ reaching for the blessed cushions of wipeness when I couldn't find the end...How frustrating!! I spun and I spun only to have a big beam of light shine down on the roll with angelic music coming from (the toilet?) God only knows where, it occurred to me that the toilet paper was on wrong!!

I made a mental note to apologise to Terry (still have yet to do that) for his years of torture and abuse.....funny thing is he never complained, he never said a word, he would just quietly fix the roll to his liking and go about his business, never a peep. I thought I was so funny.

I have now officially been trained in the proper way to hang a roll of toilet paper. check this out your training awaits.

And there she goes...

2011-03-25T07:22:00.004-06:00

I know your not supposed to live vicariously through your children but I wonder if that only applies when it is something you are making them do rather than something they are doing all on their own ?~that you probably could have done yourself had you maybe been just a little bit smarter and more of a forward thinking 16 year old~

This latest form of virtual living for me comes from the fact the Tayler has now flown off to New York and not the one in Ontario either, the REAL New York. The New York that I spend my whole life daydreaming about.

This picture was taken at the airport at 4 am Thursday morning as I dropped off Tayler and her friend who stayed the night. (her friends parents are clearly smarter than I)

They have the most amazing eight days planned out ahead of them.

I had a dentist appt later that morning and as they asked me how I was and I blah blah'd about being tired and why, my hygienist Terri listened and asked questions and nodded her head. I start in about how jealous I was and how I have always wanted to go and you know what she said!?...."Then why haven't you gone?" I couldn't immediately answer that question. Why haven't I gone if I have always REALLY really wanted to go? It is possible.

As I type this my two boys are also leaving for their most amazing spring break ever. They are off to Banff with their Dad for a week of skiing/snowboarding in the mountains...How did they all get here? Mind blowing.

I on the other hand took a day off work. I am dubbing it my 'mental health' day. I have been doing this a lot more lately....this is already my third this year. I just book the day off with just minor 'maybe' plans and go from there.

My early morning plans fell through unavoidably so now that I am up and properly fed, thanks to my wonderful husband who is now at work , I sip coffee in my PJ's happily blogging away.

Is this the most boring blog ever? ...haha I think I am going to go shopping!!!

***************************************************************************

It's what happens after a gorging of crab and a few ~ah-hem~ some drinks.

At the Movies

2011-03-22T14:41:00.003-06:00

Nathan and I took in a 3D movie together a little while back...just him and I.

It was nice to get out, just the two of us.

It's a tough to find quality one on one time with the kids these days but I am determined to make this a regular thing....I know a 13 year old boy who could desperately use some although he would never admit it.

Sunshine and Happiness

2011-03-16T19:16:00.002-06:00

Showed up in my mail box today.....

written inside the envelope was:

Spring has Sprung,
the grass is riz.
I wonder where,
the birdies is?

Happy Spring!

It was signed....Michel.

What a wonderful surprise!

What was the last really cool thing you got in the mail?

Separation Anxiety

2011-03-16T07:49:00.004-06:00

This is what I get when I find myself in a vehicle alone in the morning going to work.

Terry and I have, for many years now, driven to and from work together.

Sometimes we get each other revved up for the days pending chaos. Or we talk about the schedule for the day ahead for each other and the rest of the family, or we get caught up with some feelings that may have been overlooked in the hustle and bustle of things.

Sometimes we just drive in silence listening to the morning DJ give it to the people who have nothing better to do than call in to a radio station to complain about everything.

That's kind of fun.

Driving home we use the opportunity to get all of our work day frustrations, gossip and annoyances out, this leaves room for nothing but us, family and all our many responsibilities in the evening...I consider this our bonus time, we don't have to wast time explaining to each other how our day was because we took care of that through out the day and on the ride home.

But sometimes one of us has an appointment in the city after work and we have to take two vehicles. This only happens maybe once every two months or so.

I miss him/us when we do this.....is that crazy? What ever! ~rolls eyes~ Crazy Schmazy

Sadly our drives may be part of whats keeping me at a job that makes my forehead wrinkly.

At least we still get to have our lunch together..........lucky ducks.

That's him up ahead on the right, I may or may not have been driving when I took this with my i-phone.

I ended up beating him to work even though I had to drop Nathan off at before and after school care.....! ha I'll be watching for a photo radar ticket in the mail soon, if it does come I will use it as evidence on why I should not be driving my self to work in the morning. I AM OUT OF CONTROL!

busy weekend recap

2011-03-13T22:44:00.007-06:00

A couple of major things which occupied our weekend were;

preparing for a birthday party:

Having a birthday party:
(also wishing I wasn't so afraid just to use auto on the camera so I could actually get a few decent shots)

Putting the final touches on a Potato Power'd science experiment:
Taking care of final business for the big up and coming New York trip for one lucky 16 year old:

Making final snack purchases and checking off the packing list of one lucky (er..unlucky?) outdoor ed camper for this week:
~I just don't get it...but he likes it~

In all this the usual grocery shopping, laundry doing, house caring, swimming lesson, air cadet-ing, normal weekend. But I miss my friend. ~I miss you~ life's been busy, you've been sick and time has passed....time for a dance class! Yes!? oh yeah...it's time for us!

Stupid day light savings, losing an hour in the middle of crazy-ville. Lacking an hour of sleep is just not cool.

4.5 months later

2011-03-09T11:19:00.003-07:00

I have finally finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo!!

I think that is some kind of record for me as the longest its ever taken me to read a book. I started it on the beach during our family vacation in Mexico last November...early November.

Now I get to watch the movie.

I need a new book to read...ideas? And NOT ~The Girl Who Plays With Fire~ I'm not ready for that yet.

Here I go....

2011-03-06T17:28:00.002-07:00

I signed up with a ball team!!

Something I have wanted to do for so long. Being a full time working Mom of three busy children it has been somewhat impossible to do this, or any sport, for so many years. Which was a choice I made and was glad to do it, but as the kids got older and more independent I find time becoming more my own and a slight bit more manageable to do a few more 'me' things.

So this spring I put my name out there saying that I was ready, willing and able to join a ball team if any body wanted me....how exciting/scary. After a week or so I received a call, met up with the manger guy for lunch with my husband in tow (I wasn't crazily going alone) to explain to this semi-interested team manager what I meant exactly when I said things like " I haven't played in many years but I used to be good at it" or " I can't remember the rules so much but I am a quick learner" ~ I know, I can't believe I actually got a call from that either~ In the meeting I guess I some how managed to convince this guy to take pity on me and give me a shot, I showed such enthusiasm after all.....Turns out I remembered less than I thought of the game because I found I am playing slow-pitch not soft ball...slow-pitch has that six foot or more arc in the pitch among other rules that I am sure to 'quickly catch onto', I used to play soft ball which was a more direct, much faster pitch.

No matter, I am so excited to get going.

I play every Monday starting at the end of April if the snow ever melts. Shoot, Nathan plays soccer Mondays & Wednesdays...no biggy, a minor glitch in the system, we can make it work.
I bought my self a good, used, worked in comfortable glove. I got myself a ball too. Now I just need a bat and cleats. Oh, and the stupid snowy cold weather to GO AWAY ALREADY!!

I am so excited about this new adventure.....I hope I don't suck.

But I work hard too!

2011-03-03T09:18:00.003-07:00

This is an "it's not fair" rant.....my guilty mind and need for self assurance will apologise in advance if I come off sounding like a spoiled brat who should just be happy for every I have and stop my sniveling already.

Our company is just kicking off its second annual 'biggest loser contest'. As with everything around here it is surrounded by whispers and controversy usually involving people who are to afraid to admit they need it. Harsh but true.

I am not over weight, not right now, I was for a time....kids, depression and other generic excuses made me that way....my light went on and I made changes. I work out hard. I exercise every chance I get, eat healthy-ish...more healthy now than 'ish'. I think positive (I try to think positive) and be a good example for my kids. I consciously think about what I am putting in my body and most recently cut waaaay down on my 'I was drinking red wine like kool-aid' habit to the point of not doing it at all to now being very sporadic. It was hard. All these changes were hard, but I WANTED them. I craved them.

I wanted to be healthy, have energy and feel great about my body, something I don't remember ever being...truly and fully. I am here. But its work, hard work baby, and not always fun but this is what I want and my choice.

The thing is, back to the at work contest, I watched people try last time this contest was on and only a very small few following through. This time around I see and hear people whispering and talking full of excuses and reasons not to join, they just haven't clicked yet. It makes me kind of mad...mad at them for not wanting it more, the good healthy feeling they could have. I don't say anything of course, it's not my place. It's not me they need to listen too its their body, heart and soul. They need to listen.

I can't join this contest, I don't have any weight to lose, I did it over time and work very hard to maintain this....but I am envious as all heck at the glory these people get.

Silly I know, the odd few talk and give each other advice of what to do next and how to move forward in their quest, I feel so happy for them and their new journey. I have tried in the past to join into the conversation and share what works for me and what I do but I get 'the look', its a look of " you have no idea what we are going through" " you don't understand" and I hear things like " 'yeah but its easier for you' or 'you don't have to work as hard' ....*sad face* but I do.

I wish I could join along in their contest, be a part of their quest for a new healthier life style. I wish I could be acknowledged for the hard work and daily choices I make. Feel that sense of accomplishment and change they are going through.

I watch shows like the Biggest loser and Heavy on TV and I tear up for these people, happy tears. So happy for them and their new beginning.

I want that. I want to join this contest because I think I could do well at it! I also want to delete that last line because it looks like an entry ticket into crazy town. I didn't delete it but I do now realize (thanks to this therapeutic rant) that I need to set a goal for my self, something above my comfort zone, something seemingly impossible so I can climb it and conquer it.....Just like my co-workers are doing.....I have to listen to me and pay attention to what I am making excuses not to do and do it.

OK, well...I guess my cheque is in the mail for this session.

parenting 101: life our way

2011-02-26T22:29:00.003-07:00

Giving your 9 year old a back up plan:

TEXAS HOLD 'EM

I can't remember

2011-02-23T19:57:00.003-07:00

-which arena we should be at

-what time the parent meeting starts

-what day your leaving and coming back

-when your science project is due

-what time tap starts every week (always the same time)

-what time sparing class ends

-which house is your friends so I can pick you up

-when you said y our next big test is

-when you are going to that really cool concert

-what your band name is

-when that form was due back

-what your shifts are

-how much allowance you get

I never used to be this way. I was AWESOME at remembering and organising times and schedules. I was better than awesome at it.....is there just more now?
I really don't think there is. I actually think I have pulled back on things a lot. Maybe that's it, maybe there is less for me to remember, things are becoming less my responsibility and more others responsibility and this is how my brain is responding....its putting on the back up beeper and parking on the flat bed going along for the ride now.
Sad part is I think I am still needed to help keep things going at a steady smooth pace. I think my beeper prematured beeped...premature beepulation!!

oh bother

2011-02-17T13:09:00.003-07:00

At just over 1000 kms we can officially call our new 2011 Subaru Forrester 'broken' in. Welcome to Alberta Subey.

See that lovely crack across the windshield? It identically matches the one in the old Blazer. Sexy really does come standard. Show every one your crack Subey.

(or as we affectionately call her tracaragon which is part truck, part car, part wagon. She is a little confused)

A surprise super star in the family

2011-02-10T13:59:00.008-07:00

This time it's the cat. Koddee. He's about to hit it big time in Detroit.

No seriously....Koddee is going to be on a greeting card in Detroit Michigan.

Here is a bit of the back ground story as I know it.

Our fabulously talented friend Michel Feist who has a day job on top of all her freelancing at Graphos here in Edmonton was involved in some pro-bono work with a fellow co-worker Graphos was doing for a ACTSS a not-for-profit organisation that helps pets with cancer.

They were working on ideas to use for ACTSS brocures and websites when Michel & crew came up with the idea to depict an animal in a humanized situation receiving chemo treatments, a sort of shock advertising-tug-on-your-heart-strings kind of thing.

So, Michel knows that we have a cat who happens to live with a cat whisperer (Terry, he seems to speak cat somehow) asked us if they could shoot Koddee....yes of course! So they came over and did a photo shoot last summer after work.

After torturing Kodde for about an hour they ended up with the amount of shots and angles needed in order to create this:

I believe they said it was 7 different shots used to make this one

So Chemo kitty was presented at an ATCSS board meeting and they LOVED it! Loved!! Then they were approached by Avanti cards out of Detroit who were interested in securing the greeting card rights to this image! wha...?? Graphos and ATCSS agreed to this as well as to donate all proceeds from the sale of the image to ATCSS for use in pet cancer treatments.

So there he is, our annoying none-to-cuddly cat is going to be famous in Detroit.

Who would have thunk.

For a fleeting moment...

2011-02-03T11:52:00.004-07:00

Something catches the corner of my eye as I sit typing away at boring invoices in my old grey cubical.
I turn slowly to look out the window with out removing my hands from the key board. I see balloons. Two sets of two, each with one yellow and one blue balloon.

I stopped what I was typing to stand and watch them float up higher and higher into the overcast sky until the wind whisked them away out of my sight.

One big day-dreamy-type-sigh later I am back banging away at the key board, only now my face holds the smallest of smiles for a fleeting moment.

the journey is over

2011-02-01T20:01:00.003-07:00

We have our selves a new vehicle to call our very own....she's a beaut all right. Words that have been used to describe her so far are "peppy" ,"more vroom" & my personal fave "you look good in it"

It was long and some times stressful journey but we are happy with the out come so far. We just brought her home tonight!

There are a few quirks right off the jump for me that may seem a bit trivial to some but stand out-right to me as small hurdles to get over.

The elbow rest. It just doesn't feel right. I had no idea I rested my elbows so much while I drive. Is this something I have always done or have just grown accustom to in my beloved Blazer after all these years together? This newby is lacking the elbow comfort I so apparently enjoy.
I'll get used to it.

The seats. The bottom part where your..er..bottom goes, it doesn't seem long enough. Not quite. It's like I am suddenly a gangly legged giant.
I'll get used to it.

The passenger seat. When you are sitting it you are the shrunken head beside the gangly legged giant. It seems a bit low compared to the driver with only two adjustments compared to the 10 point the driver has.
We'll get used to it.

Seems like a lot of 'getting used to it' for something we just signed our life away for....well there are definitely positives too.
Of course there are or it wouldn't be in the garage right now while the poor Blazer gets kicked to the frigid out doors. I wonder if the Blazer is sad? No matter! We have a kick butt new vehicle that has some get up and go, lives life in All Wheel Drive and is going to take us places baby!! oh yeah...we are going places!!

Welcome home Subey! (working on the name)
I do feel a little bad for the Blazer though. It just got kicked to the curb. It has always been a garage truck and she and I...well, we're tight. We had some good times. She is like an old glove with a hole in the thumb. I'm glad we're still keeping her.

Pictures to follow when time allows and the sun shines down. Don't forget to wipe your feet first.

Mr.& Mrs. Shovel Hands

2011-01-21T19:36:00.004-07:00

That is our new name. It is a good representation of what we have become. After last nights mega shovel-the-four-foot-drifts-off-the-roof-a-thon followed by the now-we-have-to-shovel-up-this-roof-snow-which-turned-to-cement when it hit the ground-a-thon.

We are looking forward to turning in our snow shovel hands for some sturdy sand shovel hands one day. That's what keeps us sane.

Why do we live here again?

just call him 'The Bieb'

2011-01-20T21:26:00.004-07:00

Nathan got a hair cut. You in blogger land may not be able to tell really, but trust me, he did. he had some sort of perma bed head situation taking root so something had to be done. He wanted to grow his hair longer and we needed him to do something to tame that mane. So we compromised...he didn't have to get it cut cut, more shaped.

He wanted his hair like Justin Bieber...

Although he didn't quite have that much hair, we are well on our way to having our very own 'Bieb' in the house. Let's time this trend shall we.

Won't the real Nathan please stand up, please stand up, please stand up......whoooot!

*I apologise to the nice person I stole the photo of Justin Bieber on the Internet from.

Spanish Wednesday

2011-01-19T20:43:00.002-07:00

Every Wednesday night I lose my husband to his other love...language.
He has become pretty darn great at Spanish in his 6+ years of casual study. It has helped us out a lot on our travels tremendously!

I know he would like to spend a heck of a lot more time engrossed in his quest for Spanish fluent-ness but instead he spends his time helping with home work, building snow forts, driving to various practices and events as well as studying for a new career in Fitness...all this and looks too!
Fix the truck, renovate the house, shovel the driveway, start the fire, fix this, fix that and "could you also please help me with my school project?", eggs every morning.....phew.

We appreciate you Terry, Ter, Ter-Bear, Bear, Step-dad and BFF. Thank you for being you.

late night dinners

2011-01-18T20:11:00.003-07:00

It was a late one tonight. Not getting dinner ready until after 8 is too late in my books, especially when I have been going to bed at 10pm every night lately.

We still have to eat and it does beat getting take out, I hope.

So what does a family of 5 minus one make for dinner in 20 minutes (or less! yes!!) late on a Tuesday night?

Well, hamburger helper on steroids of course....

And by steroids I mean lots and lots of veggies of all kinds. And by hamburger I mean turkey. Throw in a couple of nuked potatoes and wha la...a semi-healthy one pot family dinner.

I've got to look into taking some kind of speed cooking class, we need some pep around here...in 20 minutes or less of course.

cactus buddy & thoughts

2011-01-17T20:47:00.004-07:00

Look at him......Just look. Isn't he cute? He needs a name. He makes me smile.
What do you think of skinny-alien-cacti-dude? It has room for improvement.

***********************************************************************************

On another note, I recently took a couple of brand spanky new vehicles for test drives. A first for me. I don't believe I have ever set foot in a new vehicle before...the new car smell isn't all it's made out to be.

This whole searching for a new vehicle isn't as fun either. I am getting a little tired of telling our life story to every sales person we come across. Please stop trying to be my life long friend, I am here to check out your vehicles for possible purchase, tell me it's features, sell me well and you may make a buck. But be real. Please be real, I just need some one to be real. Get what I am after?....I think I should stretch out my search, make it my mission to find a car salesperson in this city who can give it to me straight.

This is a lot of money to spend after all, a big decision to make. Each vehicle has their pros and cons it's so hard to decide.

Plus, the one thing that is hard for me is how much time a salesperson will spend on me, taking me for test drives, writing down the #'s, doing the up-selling all while becoming my BFF, it's hard to have some one waste..er..I mean spend all that time on me and then I don't buy their vehicle. Will they be mad at me? What if I park next to them in the mall one day in my new 'other' vehicle? Awkward, after all we were pretty close for 30 minutes.

ooooh man! I like my truck. It's hard to let it go.

I know it's time for something new, we just haven't found each other yet.

snow white

2011-01-16T19:05:00.005-07:00

Nope. Not more snow, although it is still falling out there pretty good, this time I took some pictures of flowers.
I went on another photo walk with some fellow photo peeps.

We have all pretty much lost our tolerance of the cold and snow so we took this one indoors, to the Muttart Conservatory.

So many flowers so little talent. It took me until around the end of our walk to really start figuring out my light, angles and settings..I was surprised to see how many shots I took that were actually out of focus when at the time and on the LCD screen they looked pretty good. One step closer to a lesson learned.

Here are a few of my favorite whites...

Tomorrow I return my rented lens. I really enjoyed playing with it. Not sure if I am quite ready yet to dish out the dough involved in purchasing one....I DO want one yes...I would definitely like to own one of my very own. I could only get better right...practice and tomorrow you'll be better than today.

One of my favorite mommy things to say to the kids.

more snow...& garlic too

2011-01-15T18:49:00.004-07:00

Another set of snow pictures...just because it doesn't ever seem to stop and I was playing with a rented lens.

pretty snow,very cold, clean it up

all the roofs have big puffy blankets

my toes stay toasty warm in these, I need to work on my poor fingers now.

and garlic...because I liked it

finding my focus

2011-01-14T23:00:00.004-07:00

Tonight, through tremendously YUCKY traffic, Terry and I headed to the downtown core to rent me a lens for my camera for the weekend. I am taking a Nikon 60mm macro lens for a test drive.

Every one together go wwwoooooooo...I KNOW RIGHT!

I am very excited about it and weirded out since I don't have the time to waste on my normal 'OMG I just bought something really cool that I have always wanted but I am to afraid to use it for a good two weeks until I may or may not feel worthy enough to drop any unnecessary guilt I may or may not feel for making such a selfish purchase' (something I am working on)

So I jumped right into it....

I was shooting everything around me until we had to leave for yet another one of Tayler's high school performances...this time she was in the Sting. No pictures of that though...haha you totally thought you were getting another round of 'look at my kid on stage' didn't ya!? I saw your eyes glaze over from here. I was pretty good though..two more performances tomorrow, you should go.

Nope, tonight you will be getting a couple of my very first practice shots...that's it...me, finding my focus.....

it would help if they stayed still....

or stopped with the goofy noises...

or didn't get so testy just because I got a little to close...

Tomorrow another day of click click clicking as I dash the kids around....Stay tuned, I may indeed actually find my focus.

laundry, tea, laptop & me...

2011-01-13T21:05:00.002-07:00

Laundry always surrounds me at home but with a giant mug of tea and a little laptop surfing in my P.J.'s it's pretty easy to ignore.

bringing the work out home....

2011-01-12T19:44:00.002-07:00

While the new year craze once again takes over our gym and an arctic deep freeze invades our lives with accompanying mass snow fall it is easier and more effective to get in my exercise at home these days.

I super love that we splurged for a treadmill last year....I KNEW we would use it and not turn it into a clothes hanger/dryer! I knew it. (Thank goodness for the t.v. strategically perched in front of it.)

where do they go?

2011-01-11T20:51:00.003-07:00

No, really, they HAVE to be some where....

Tonight, it's me vs the loney one more time......One day I will triumph over....the sock box.

acoustic grooves

2011-01-10T22:05:00.003-07:00

We went to yet another school show that Tayler was in tonight...what will we do for entertainment when she graduates?....gotta get those boys involved.

There was a great number of performances of talented variety from the creative music and jazz kids at Facey.

I only took pictures of my kid of course....even then Michel took my camera down to the stage level to get a few shots a little closer up so I can't say these are all mine. Thanks buddy, I know... I need a new lens.

Seriously, thanks to all who showed up and sat through the good, the pretty good and the "hey, that was alright!'

Here is my super star:

put it away already!

2011-01-10T07:49:00.003-07:00

With us going away to a tropical paradise late last November we seemed to be in such slow motion getting Christmas up and running at our house.
Now that the festive season has passed we seem to now be towing the line in putting it all away.

These glass containers, now mostly emptied of their Christmas goodies and sparkly things, sit annoyingly and randomly in the middle of our kitchen table waiting for some good person/s to please put them away...please!?! (I may be talking to my self)

snow day 2

2011-01-09T09:31:00.005-07:00

It's still coming down pretty good out there today. Shovel fest round 2 coming up.

To top it off the 4x4 in my truck refuses to engage. Great. I have been back and forth on whether I should get a new vehicle lately with this one continuously causing problems. But then Terry finds the solution and the part and its fixed. OK, I'll keep her.
It keeps happening though and the problems get bigger and harder to fix on our own. I just seriously don't want to add a monthly payment to our budget.
Terry is out there right now tinkering away at her. *fingers crossed*

As true blooded Canadians we didn't let a few flakes of snow get in our way last night from enjoying a yummy BBQ'd dinner.

snow day 2011

2011-01-08T12:18:00.004-07:00

A snow day is a good day when you have no where to be, no responsibilities for the day. The giant flakes falling from the sky so light and fluffy still need to be cleaned up.
We didn't mind one bit today. Although this is just round one with 10 more cm or more predicted to be on the way. Movie night!!!

Friday, December 31st, 2010

2010-12-31T12:33:00.005-07:00

Thirteen years ago today.....a little baby boy was born. This very small creature was called Daniel.

Daniel came into this world a bit early. Nine weeks early.

Thirteen years ago this 3 lb not yet ready to face the world on his own little man who was facing an uphill struggle came into my life. I was scared for him, for how this way to early arrival would affect his future.

Though we had our issues and bumps along the way I can proudly say without hesitation that my premature boy has grown into a wonderful, sometimes pretty forgetful, young man whose feet I hope he will one day grow into....seriously, size thriteen!! yikes!

Today Daniel turns thirteen years old....he is full of wonder and adventure. I still worry about his future but thankfully not in the same way I had to on December 31, 1997.

michelfiest.com

Happy 13th Birthday Daniel

Vegas Christmas 2010, Do they know it's Christmas Time?

2010-12-30T21:30:00.006-07:00

I don't think so. This place was packed. Seriously packed.

The streets were crowded. The casinos were smokey, and the line ups were long.

This city is certainly not as old and stinky as I first conceived. (Sorry Vegas folks, but I really thought your city was all washed up) Such was not the case. Las Vegas is up with now. More so than we are seeing in our Northern town. And Wow Vegas. You sure know how to make a person feel welcome.

This city has a pulse. Literally. It never stops. Outside moving side walks and escalators everywhere!! EVERYWHERE!! I was in awe.

Not to say that 'ye old Vegas' is not still present. Just take a trip down a few blocks off the strip and you will smell...er...see the classic Vegas.

Vegas, Why is there carpet everywhere? You know, it actually kind of smells like vomit...some times.

Here are just a few visuals from our point of view, there are more but seriously, you should just go. Every one need to go experience this. Just go!

This was our 1.5 hr line up just to check into our hotel at 11 pm Christmas Eve.

Because there were no standard rooms left (they said we were really nice people) we got a Grand Suite as an upgrade for two nights..it.was.huge!

There were over 950 chrysanthemums in this internally watered Christmas polar bear which received new flowers every couple of days by this fine man.

Vegas in it modernest.
Bellagio at it's day time finest.

A modern restaurant inside a mall of extreme brand names we COULD NEVER afford.

The Paris. Just lovely.

The Venetian. Viva Italia.

The Wynn.

The Stratasphere full of crazy too high up in the sky rides. Not for me.

Walking by the famous Balagios in the evening.

We gambled just a little. At this $.05 machine we plugged in $10.00, played for two hours, got comped three beers each and cashed out at $40.00. We had such a good time.

Obvious

Busy busy busy. Non-stop busy.

Outside moving side walks and escalators literaly everywhere. Blew my mind.

Oh boy but we needed to catch up on some sleep coming home from a city that literally never sleeps.

So this is Christmas....

2010-12-24T08:27:00.003-07:00

We had our mini family Christmas last night due to the fact that the kids are celebrating with their Dad this year.

Although it was quick and early it was filled with all the elements of a regular Christmas day...We had the home made Christmas goodies thanks to Grandma Gamble. Some pretty thoughtful gifts changed hands. We had Burl Ives spinning on the 'ol record player, vinyl style. Christmas movies were on and of course, the Christmas 'cheer' was a plenty.

We played some video games cleaned up and hit the hay. Some of us still had to work the next day after all.

So now what does a Mom of three young-ish kids do over the Christmas weekend with out her kids? Well, I guess we could watch movies by a fire or go for long walks or drive around looking at the many amazing Christmas displays around the city.....naaahhh.

Instead Terry and I are going to Las Vegas!! Yup, that's right. A couple of years ago we started the tradition of going to Banff every other Thanks Giving when the kids were with their Dad. Well, now we are starting another one...we both ache to travel and explore different places so why not go at Christmas time? I could sit around wondering what the kids are doing and wishing I could be enjoying a yummy Christmas breakfast with them...or...we could distract ourselves with new sights and sounds filling our souls with excitement and adventure.
We're going to VEGAS....

Merry Christmas

Behind the Scenes at a Photo Shoot--or--My Dream Job

2010-12-21T19:13:00.007-07:00

Recently I had the honour and privilege to help out my very good friend and favorite photographer Michel (you might have read about her once or twice here no?) ~WishfulThinking.com~
She is nearing the end of her 365 journey and heading straight on into what she does so well, capturing our lives in beautiful photographic memories for us to treasure.

Michel will be the photographer for Sarah and Adam's September 2011 wedding as well as many other weddings I am sure as her calender will quickly fill up once word gets out she is available.

In preparation for said wedding Michel was doing an engagement photo shoot to help Sarah and Adam announce their up and coming nuptials.

Having been in front of the camera at one or two of her photo shoots I knew how much Michel moved around and went out of her way to capture 'the shot'. With it being winter and the shoot scheduled to take place in busy down town Edmonton I knew she would need a helping hand, so I volunteered to be her lackey.

I had such a good time, I brought along my camera, not as a second shooter, but to try to take in a little behind the scenes action. It was a difficult at times with my arms full of jackets, scarves, drinks and purses but I did manage a few 'from the hip' shots.

Here is a little pictory of a city winter photo shoot.

First off we arrived early so Michel could walk around scouting out locations.

Then we met up with the happy couple and Michel discusses said scouted locations as well she asks what they are looking for from the day.

Then we begin outdoors. Michel talks through what she is doing at the same time allowing the couple to just relax and have fun...

They were so easy I must say.( I wasn't the photographer but I was paying attention!) They couldn't keep their lips off each other they were so cute and obviously in love...Sarah could not take a bad photo if she tried.

Scout out the location......

...add a loving couple...

...throw in a fantastic photographer, and you have magic.

Ok...too cold out side, we head in to thaw out a bit and get some cool City Center Mall shots..and by cool I mean warm. Our cameras needed a moment to warm up but man that fog on the lens looks so dreamy.

As the pro hovers around on one of the three levels of the mall taking sneaky photos of our couple du jour....

...I hang out with them below holding the extra equipment & jackets awaiting any instruction Michel may have for the couple.. I loved watching the curious passing shoppers walking by with looks of wonder on their faces.

A peek over the shoulder of the Pro in action.

...and again.

After the warmth of the mall we head back out side to find the sun shining and sparkling snowflakes falling from the sky.....we decided to utilize the free skate rental and the freshly Zamboni'd City Hall ice surface (usually a fountain/wading pool in the summer) to capture a few more romantic moments. Perfection.

Back at the vehicle the sun sets on a wonderful day of my fantasy dream job of assistant to a my favortite photographer.....hey, we can't all be the star, and every great artist has an equally great support team right?! *wink* you know who you are!
Thanks for letting me tag a long Sarah, Adam & Michel.

Christmas rush

2010-12-20T21:56:00.003-07:00

This is what keeps me from posting here....it's been nice though. Not a crazy rush.

Not doing anything extra ordinary lately, nothing to exciting yet all the same some really cool days have happened to me recently. I will post a pic or two of one particular day that stands out as pretty great.

For now, I hope you are enjoying this snowy (in Alberta anyway) Fall which after tonight will be Winter Solstice accompanied by a lunar eclipse seen last on this special day in 1638 and not again until 2401. Hope you get a good peek at it where you are. I have a 13 year old on winter vacation from school with a camera in hand ready to capture this rare occurrence while I snuggle cozy in bed. *fingers crossed* he stays awake and/or remembers to look outside at 12:41 MST for the total eclipse.

Hope your season is merry and bright.

our tree

A perfect winters night with a ...

2010-12-11T21:57:00.002-07:00

....f.r.i.e.n....*blank*

I have two boys

2010-12-09T18:57:00.004-07:00

One likes to dance and be in the spot light......

The other is camera shy and super cute in his air cadet uniform.....

But his pictures are always blurry because he won't stand still for them.

He agreed to let me post these pictures but very reluctantly.

I am very proud of them.

we made cookies!!!

2010-12-08T22:09:00.006-07:00

Nathan and I...OMGosh. it was awesome. we watched "A Christmas Story" while we rolled it out old school!

Check it out......

Shifted icing sugar old school too.

A glass for a cookie cutter.

mmmmmmm....yummy.

Most Heart and Hustle

2010-12-06T09:42:00.005-07:00

This is the new term for game MVP I assume....or at least just for this ringette tournament.

The opposing team's coaches pick a player on the other team that they think fit into the criteria and that player gets the award for that game....Tayler Morris, come on down!!! wooot wooot!

She got this MAJOR AWARD (a.k.a. personal pizza and a pop at the local Boston Pizza) for the last of the three games her team played in this tournament.

Despite not making it to the finals, a minor dressing room incident and Tayler walking like a 90 year old lady due to a cross check in the lower back in game two I would say that the weekend went quite well.

Tayler and I were awesome and we got in a little bit of Christmas shopping. I discovered I actually like Red Deer, it's a rather cozy and nicely laid out little city. We stayed in a super new hotel, just opened in August. The beds were so comfortable and fresh, the towels were really soft and every piece of furniture was modern and shiny new, including the flat screen TV...It felt really VIP like considering we were paying a skukum team deal room rate for the weekend with an included daily breakfast. Thanks Red Deer!

Hanging with the parents was OK, kind of intimidating too. These parents have been on the same team together for years and are quite a bit older since a lot of their daughters are 18 or more and some being the babies of the family. It was fun though, they are all good people who like to pass down their wisdom and I got to feel like a little kid around them....LOL

I took a few pictures this tournament, not many of the games and rinks, they all look the same after awhile. I took pictures of tayler jumping on the bed and some of cow bells and crazy annoying clappy hands. A really cool one of my jeans in the sun, no really it was great! And by WAS I mean i don't actually have these pictures anymore. I did the huge faux pas of delteting the pictures off of my memory card with out double checking to make sure i transfered them properly...I didn't and they are gone. Lesson learned.
All i can give you is this...Tayler sitting on the hotel bed holding a t.v. remote.

Going to Red Deer

2010-12-02T08:07:00.002-07:00

This weekend Tayler and I are heading down hwy 2, or the Q.E. 2 as it has recently been dubbed. We are off to her first out of town ringette tournament of the season.

As is my normal I was excited and looking forward to going away for the weekend but now as time ticks closer and closer I am feeling the swells of anxiety filling my insides.
The typical reasons for this are things like socializing by myself, NOT my forte and a huge cause of daily stress in my life, and having to fulfill my parental duties of working my scheduled time in 'the box' during one game...I am horrible at the time clock and the shot clock and during a tournament the stress will make me worse and I know how nasty parents are when someone screws up in there.

But a new worry for me this trip is spending all whole chunk of alone time with my daughter. I know, seems odd, but we really don't get to see each other much any more and most of our communication is done through text.
She lives at her Dad's for two weeks then switches to our house, her Father's house is a little more controlled as far as her going out is concerned where at our house I try to compensate by making sure she is getting time with friends and just hanging out as kids should do (trying to avoid any awkward social issues when she is older...hhmmm?), all this while she works, has ringette and band practices. So we will be getting acquainted again my daughter and I.

Do I take this time entrapped with me in a vehicle alone for a couple of hours and talk about all of life's ups and down's and how to best deal? Do I just let her lead the way and talk about her? Do I push for more intimate conversation? Do we sit in comfortable silence projecting no pressure or expectation to be productive at every moment? Is that what normal 'together all the time' parents and kids do?

I have a feeling what will be is what will be and I all this pre-worry (probably some of the cause of my high blood pressure) will be looked back at as unnecessary.

I often wonder will they look back at me when they are older and wish I said or did more of this or didn't do so much of that as a Mom.......again with the pre-worry. I get it at different levels.

Off we go to Red Deer tomorrow, Go team Boom, let's come back as winners, and I don't mean just on the ice.

The "We've been home from Mexico for two weeks and I miss the warm moist air" post

2010-11-25T21:23:00.008-07:00

yummy ocean air.....awesome beachy hair.....bathing suit for underwear

Thanksgiving Day

2010-11-25T08:09:00.003-07:00

But only for our neighbors to the south, us Canadians enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast back in October,
In hindsight, and I hope I remember this next year, I should have booked off these next couple of days for my own relax at home vacation time.
Every time I go to do something here at work this morning I find that I can't because most of my dealings are with the U.S. I am roadblocked by the turkey.

I may spend some time doing some 'Black Friday' investigation though. It sounds interesting to me....from what I've seen so far there may actually be some real deals, not like "boxing day" deals but real actual sales....and BEFORE Christmas to boot....This may sound crazy but, I think those Americans might just be onto something!!

~The bright side of today so far~
The weather is warm today, jumping from -25c yesterday to -1c today, I have completed all the parent teacher interviews. (yay) I am ready with supplies for a little guy/man to celebrate becoming 9. My coffee tastes great. Michel's photo today made me smile big. I am wearing my favorite boots today and my husband made me a yummy breakfast this morning. I'm thinking we may even get our Christmas lights up....let's not push things...back to aawwwww today.

-27 wake up call

2010-11-23T08:00:00.002-07:00

Funny thing when it gets to be this cold (-35 with the wind chill) It makes me feel happier about it being winter. (until I have to to something out side) I wish I was staying home and not going out in it but at the same time it brings a sence of comradery in the work place. It is something that is affecting every one, all together at the same time.
I can associate it (in my brain anyway) to the feeling I get when I am at a sporting event, of any kind. We are all here together experiencing the same thing all at once.
We're all in this together.

It may be harder to explain than I thought.

I was even surprised to see that all the buses were running and no school was going to be affected. It seems that over the past few years the schools shut down at the drop of a snow flake, that may be exaggerating a bit but not to far off.

And the thing that put a smile on my face when I got to work this morning.......some one looking at me with a straight face as I walk into our office area and asked me:
"Is it cold enough for you?"
With my mouth agape for a few seconds all I could pre-coffee muster was "Did you seriously just ask me that question?"

In case your on the edge of your seat, the answer is yes...YES it is cold enough for me today.

Not Mexico & No pictures

2010-11-22T09:08:00.002-07:00

Wow...are you still here?! LOL

We went shopping yesterday at West Edmonton Mall. We can't call it Christmas shopping since we bought a birthday gift and some discount rack clothes for our selves.

I really love going to WEM around Christmas time. The lights, the sounds, the music & the people...oh man the people. So many people. Some grumpy, some oblivious to others around, some rude, some happy, some friendly....A good mix of personalities for sure....The line ups are starting to get long and it seems the Christmas staff is in place to accommodate. The shelves are freshly stocked and not yet rummaged through where everything thing is all over the floor and usually in wrong spots. WEM is bad for that I find.

The one thing that struck me though was how flaming hot it was in every store...We left our jackets in the car even knowing we would be warm inside lugging them around, but even in just our sweaters we were cooking. Please turn down the heat in your stores when its cold out side. We dress for the cold out side so by the time we make it to the mall we don't require the heat cranked up, and with all the people.....oy! It was pretty uncomfortable.

We took the boys too....I had a 2 for 1 coupon for a WEM all day attraction pass and I told them they could go spend a few hours there but they had to come up with half of the amount for a one person ride all day pass....they were pretty happy to do this I'll tell ya what! They were counting their coins and making deals (Nathan had waaaay more money than Daniel) and really getting along about it all, these two don't always 'agree' on everything. I admit I was a little concerned leaving them alone but we created meeting spots and had cell phones hooked up and made them swear they wouldn't leave each others side....They had a blast and we had four hours of leisurely people watching and window shopping and it only cost us $16.00. Not bad I say.

WEM doesn't wow me though. I don't find it spectacular or as incredibly large as described...it is surprising to see the same store over and over again just on different levels and in different phases. It seems to be showing it's age and besides a few new rides at Galaxy Land doesn't show much in the way of upgrading like many smaller or regular size malls have been lately. It can be quite run down even when it comes to some washrooms.

Stores come and go. Big named fancy stores like Victoria Secret among others have recently moved in, maybe its just me but they seem to unimpressed and look like every thing else offered just with bigger price tags. Much bigger.

With all my wha wha wha-ing about this mall I will be going back a couple more times before Christmas...there is just something about this time of year that draws me into it.

Mexico Potpourri

2010-11-18T19:21:00.008-07:00

Still a no show on Nathan's pics so in the mean time you will see a potpourri of fuzzy, weird, goofy, first time and a reality check and what ever.

First I'll start with an exciting first. Nathan's first time on a airplane...yaaaay!

Goofy. These boys are really starting to look alike.
Some kind of alien Tayler doing the conga line

weird and wonderful. Yup, that is Daniel and Tayler up on stage in front of hundreds of people doing a traditional Mexican dance. Except not reeeeally doing it, more like giggling to music.

Some of the survivors of a turtle rescues gone by.

Terry, Tayler and Daniel have not yet learned the art of not making eye contact when the performers come looking for conga participants. I however, am a professional.

Dos cerveza por favor!

Nathan and Mommy playing on the shore, what a fun mom and son moment.

And now here he is looking at just one of the many inappropriate t-shirts and souvenirs available for purchase while his Mommy laughs and takes a picture of his shocked little face.....do you think he understands what he is seeing? I can only hope not.

And this pic because its so very rare to catch this one being goofy with a camera around. amazing what vacations can do to a person.

Ahhh yes, this was our little treat at the end of our Mayan village adventure. Although she had permission, Tayler opted for the soda instead. Smart move Tay.

And here it is, the reality check. We came home to Christmas on the shelves, a high of -15 in the forecast and snow, snow, freakin snow.

And for the piece de resistance...I give you a dead truck....deader than dead. My extremely mechanical and talented husband did everything he could to get my baby going again....the ignition was locked. locked up tight, there was nothing he could do to get her going...sooooo, away she went, just before the snow flies.

Welcome home bank account. *Reality bites sometimes.

*and when I say reality bites I really mean that we are so very fortunate and happy that we have the means to travel and enjoy such luxuries as tow trucks and hourly shop rate charge.

It's Terry's turn...

2010-11-17T18:13:00.011-07:00

Through Terry's underwater camera I give you his view of our Mexican vacation 2010.

Meet snorkel Dan...Hi Dan!

Meet snorkel fishy, he actually isn't snorkeling.

Meet giant sombrero Nathan loving the mariachi music...

...he's also a wave runner

Our three Canadian touristas.

Tayler and I wearing the yellow tanks looking at a Mayan temple. Though this by far was not the biggest temple there, it was the more preserved. As the Mayan calender is circular and in three sections of different sizes...as they move and come together over the years certain significant dates repeat. As like we like to renovate our homes, it is known that every 57 years the Mayan calender comes together to a point that tells them it is time to renovate...not just change the paint colour but total get rid of all they have and start clean...instead of tearing down the temples and building new they build new ones over the old. The one in this photo, one of the smallest had 9 temples inside where as some of the larger ones, like the one you see us (not me) climb had only 7. Cool huh? Oh, and you know the prediction of the end of the world in 2012 according to the Mayan calender? yeah, well that is simply just the calender starting completely over. We never see the same day again in our calender system, it will never ever again be November 17,2010, but the Mayans see the same days. So 2012...this is actually the begining!!

From inside the Cenote everyone (but me) repelled down.

What would our trip be with out a coral Inukshuk?

Snorkel Nathan makes an appearance.

He found a feathered friend.

Tayler playing a wee little guitar on the streets of Playa.

These iguanas clearly didn't respect the wet floor sign. Must be a rebel gang.

Highlight of the trip for me.....coming across a fresh hatching of sea turtles and getting to hold them!! No kidding. Eco-Bahia works hard to monitor natural turtle nest in the sand of a few varieties...they time the fertilization period then dig up the nests when they think/know its hatching time. It is their goal to make sure that every turtle gets at chance a life...no running for their lives towards the ocean where if left on average less than 5% make it....in this hatching there were over 150 turtles, I got to hold one and man did he want to make a break for the water, just doing what comes natural. It was cool to find that their shells are actually hard. Cool? I can tell you it was beyond cool.

And for those of you sitting on the edge of your seats waiting with great anticipation for a glimpse through Nathans lens, ~~Hi Grandma!!! ~~Hi Pam!!~~ I can't make any promises. We can't seem to get the photos off right now....he was using an old digital that was bound for the recycle bin at his dad's work and is old style...so old we can't find a way to get the pics off the memory card. We will make every effort I assure you. :o)

Stay tuned.

Mexico via Daniel

2010-11-16T19:20:00.007-07:00

Its only right to carry on with the "borrowing" of photos from the rest of the family. Mine could get boring after a while and I think its kind of neat seeing what the kids deem picture worthy. We even have a few from Nathan. I haven't actually seen Nathan's yet though so I am not sure how that will go. He dropped his camera in the sand pretty early on so we'll see what he came up with. That will have to be for the end of the week though since he is at his Dad's right now.

So, with out further a due, I give you some of Daniel's POV.

Daniel's favorite part...the flight!

Some kind of wild Mayan creature.

Ancient stone tablets giving some clues to a civilization that once was. Not much left of their history due to the mass destruction of all that was Mayan when the Spaniards laid claim to the land.

A windy day for walk up and down the beaches of Playa Del Carman. We had a fantastic lunch on the sand (but really on a table on the sand)

And of course the daily towel art we found on our beds upon our return to our rooms after long days in the pool and on the beach.

Daniel with the Mayan Shaman right after he cleansed us before we could go into their sacred Cenotes
A home of one of the families in the Mayan village we had the pleasure to visit.

A poisonous snake of the ~I can't remember the name~ variety...this snake is actually eating another of the same kind in this photo...turns out it was very disrespectful of us to take photos of this (all of our group stopped, not just us) so our guide had to return to this spot and ask for forgiveness or something like that.
He didn't really tell us what he did when he returned.

I just kinda liked this picture of me. Look how well I am paying attention to our guide.

And of course the guest photographer of the day. A self portrait of the ~hey, check out my nostrils~ variety. So cute.

More Mexico...

2010-11-15T17:22:00.003-07:00

Here are a few pictures I grabbed from Tayler's camera....some of her point of view.

From the top of the Coba ruins, if you look really hard you can probably see me waaay down below.

And there she is Miss "look at me climbing a pyramid while my Mom is to chicken to do it" ok, she may not be say that exactly. Yaaay Tayler.

Strolling the streets of Playa Del Carman...pre explosion thank you God.

One of these things doesn't belong here, three of these things are kind of the same...can you spot the fake.

Fooooood....did i mention we ate A LOT!!

We're back from our Mexican vaca....!

2010-11-13T15:50:00.007-07:00

So many many maaaaany pictures. Such a lack of organisation.
I have a problem, I take the pictures, but I don't sort, organise or do anything with them.

We had such a good time in the Riviera Maya. No one got sick, not one got hurt, well, I might have hurt my ankle just a little jumping into the sand off a half wall with wedges on and a weee bit of alcohol in me. FYI:Do not attempt. ouch.

I persevered. We carried on with our wonderful evening beach walk with seriously wonderful waves lapsing onto the shore and the stars above twinkling just for the five of us.

We ate. We ate and we ate. Oh my but my body could not handle two weeks of all inclusive buffet. After just one week I am slightly rollie pollie. Man how I ate.

The kids had a blast, you could tell by their sad little faces as we landed in Edmonton last night. Tayler was wishing her heart out that some one would come up to her and say "just kidding, your heading back again tonight"

Nathan wanted to speak Spanish so badly, he was asking Terry every five seconds "how do I say this? how do I say that?" He was the biggest snorkeler of the bunch, always in the ocean chasing the fish.

Daniel was amazing, sometimes amazingly annoying since he couldn't seem to make a move on his own, that was surprising since at home he is the most independent of them all. He seemed to need some one to go with him to do everything. But he was our trolley guide. With us having access to three resorts there were numerous different trolleys, very poorly marked, to take you to various locations through out, you could only tell them apart by what lane they were in.

Daniel had the system down. That Dan, he used to be so afraid of EVERTHING, not anymore, now I have that only honour. He climbed to the top of pyramids, zip lined across crocodile infested waters, repelled down into deep dark cenotes ,mastered the call of the monkey and took a scuba lesson. Nathan & Tayler did amazing too. Tayler was so easy going, so relaxed so easy to please. So happy to do or not do anything...she is a good companion traveler, just so happy to be there.

Here are a couple of unedited pictures in no particular order.

If I don't do it randomly like this you will never get to see them. I need to get more organised.

Nathan loved Mexico.

Tayler got the relaxation gift that the salty Mexican air gives.

Daniel pushed his limits and found they couldn't hold him anymore.

Terry drank his fancy drink.

The kids played.

Me. Making a rare apearance.

The five of us spending our last hour there in a hamock. Perfection

And Away We go...

2010-11-04T20:50:00.004-06:00

We leave tomorrow...at the proverbial butt crack of dawn, except it will still be really dark.

We are off on our family vacation/honeymoon to Mexico.

Woooo Hooo we are all so excited.

We are packed, arrangments made, map of resort printed and passports ready.

For one of us this will be a first airplane ride...for three of us, the first tropical vacation, and for 5 us a great family adventure lies ahead.

Tomas

2010-11-01T07:44:00.003-06:00

I am so sorry Haiti.

I was all worried about Tomas ruining our vacation. I was wishing and praying it would take a turn in another direction, away from our resort, so we can lay on the beach and eat crap and swim all day long with out rain, wind or worry.

Well it did.

Hurricane Tomas is now heading directly toward the already devastated Haiti. Their world recently being rock to the ground by a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake, they live in tents with no plumping, sporadic violent out breaks, looting and now terrible disease is ravaging their make shift homes.

I didn't want this Hurricane to interfere with our seven day luxurious family vacation. And now its not going too.

A great big sarcastic *yay* from me as I hang my head in spoiled shame.

Be strong Haiti......Stand strong.

Halloween photo time!!! new photo added

2010-10-31T21:24:00.004-06:00

Ninja Nathan!

At one house the tomb stone read 'I.P. freely' Ninja Nathan is laying next to it for he does...pee freely.

Our house as we passed on buy. The spooky music was loud and the fog machine creating a fog that carried for a block. The house was so awesome we got over 80 kids tonight where our normal is 20 or so.

We loved this pumpkin display.

Ninja Nathan in his candy bliss.

No photo of Daniel dressed up. He got so busy with his display he didn't get time to dress. It was fun to see him sooo excited about making others happy on Halloween.

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Tayler and her B.F. Rob at school dressed as Jack Skellington & Sally from the Nightmare before Christmas.

Halloween time!!

2010-10-31T13:07:00.003-06:00

I love it! Booooooo
But in the same note I am losing a little interest.

I have one trick-or-treater left to lead around house to house begging for candy.
I do enjoy that part, it will be a bit sad when I no longer get to be out where the action and energy is.
This year, my latest trickster to hang up his candy bag, decided he was going to take a giant leap to the other side and be 'the house'.

He has only just begun, only my purse strings and his lack of them holding him back.

I convinced him that starting off slow and small was the best way to go, taking years to build up his spooky spectacular house of creepy.

We had him start by building his own tombstones and I helped him with his "big" purchase of his pride and join, the fog machine. "Next year it will be a strobe light" he has assured me.

He is just setting up now and much to my delight in amazingly warm weather, not a snow flake or rain drop in sight!

I will try to capture the finished spooky project later tonight. And possibly get a shot of my Ninja assassin.

Great music!

2010-10-30T11:54:00.005-06:00

What an AWESOME set!!!
New songs....big check mark in the excellent box.

Isabel's song~cried like a baby~

Kim's song about Becky...On her way?, shoot I can't remember the title..I called it Becky's song....freakin fantastic...Kim, put me up there on top of the list of people who have to have that new EP of yours.You know, the one in your head. Love your songs!

Don as always was entertaining and sounds better than ever.

People started flowing in through out the show which was great to see. You could also see how blown away they were with Kim & Don. One guy was even taking pictures of the poster to send to his friends and family in S-Toon and WPG so they can catch the show while there....!!

Thanks for the show and the great visit guys, it was really cool of you to stop at the ringette game on your way out of town.

See you next time!!

Pork Mountain

2010-10-29T09:46:00.002-06:00

We have the pleasure of housing the Don Amero band for a couple of nights, or a portion of said band. I will also proudly call this talented portion my cousins....

Going to see them play tonight at the Axis Cafe in Edmonton which will be nice since we didn't get to see them play while they were through the last time. Poor scheduling/organising on my part.
Still, our group has dwindled as the time got closer due to other obligations and/or basking in the Mexican sun.
I am excited. I don't get tired of hearing them play live. I wish I could fill that place with bodies for them though, somehow get it through to Edmontonians what they are missing out on.

It was nice chatting last night, usually things are so rushed, although I was trying so hard to get out all my words and thoughts all at once before I forgot ( I do that a lot more now-a-days) that I sliced open my finger while chopping up the potatoes for dinner. Now everyone knows my secret ingredient.
Then Terry BBQ'd us up a mountain of pork loin chops....there was A LOT of pork.

What was super cool was our blood pressure taking contest....Um, Don, you better check on that when you get home. Yeah, we know how to party folks!!

I hope to grab some pictures while at the show tonight. I have been desperately lacking in that department as of late.

7 more sleeps until our much antisipated vacation....come oooon vaca!!

It's snow time! now with added snow!

2010-10-25T13:04:00.003-06:00

Of the stick-to-the-ground variety.
Yup.
Woke up to the stuff laying all over everything this morning.
We didn't get dumped on but it seems to be flaking down nice and light all morning leaving itself everywhere.

It had to be.
It will melt I'm sure. This is just a practice run, for AFTER trick or treating day.
Right Mother Nature?

That's right.

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A little example of today...this is 9:30 at night. Our back porch. No more snow is falling right now. Nothing left but the after crunch and the promise of just a wee bit more.

Time to put away the 'ol patio set I figure.

Home Team-a-Thon the photo edition

2010-10-24T14:21:00.008-06:00

It turns out Stadium and Coliseum beers cost way to much money to actually get too drunk, at least for us anyway, others seemed to prove other wise last night.

Cold beer heeeerrrreeee

What a super great night. And I mean super.

It was such a surreal feeling us bouncing from gold seat at a football game too gold seats at a hockey game. I may have said the phrase "we are so lucky" one to many times last night.

Thank you Mr. Customer for allowing us to feel like VIP's for the night.

Nice a close the the action, and probably a lot warmer too.

First the Stadium....our Eskies beat out those green Riders which is good for the playoff run. As expected the fans didn't let us down....a true 50/50 mix. We were pleasantly surrounded. I got such a kick out of all the yelling and a couple of Esk fans even popping the thunder clappers of a Rider fan while he was on a beer run then every one around him giving theirs to him on his return....fun fun.
Ummm, what city are we in?

thunder clappers

Touch down Eskimos!!

Eskies won 39-24

We were pretty cold and hungry by the end of the 3rd quarter and we wanted to make it to the hockey game before it started because I LOVE IT THERE ....!!!!!!

So we left in what turned out to be a large crowd of people doing the same thing. Just a hop on the LRT and one stop later we were filing into the Coliseum for the start of what we would soon find out to be a way less entertaining game.

We were so super close to the action and aloud down into the secret cave where only the club seat members were aloud to be....a dream come true. Now I will be able to see the green green grass on the other side.

People PAY this much for one seat!!!

But oh my you could damn near smell these guys.

wa wa waaaaaaa.

BORING!! And wow, seriously ladies...that is how you dress to come to a hockey game? I was desperately uncomfortable in the sea of make up, high heels, fancy hand bags and men in shoes that are obviously way to long for their feet. Wuz up wit dat?

No picture here.

Back to the game...Our rookies had the game handed to them in a nicely wrapped whooping. OUCH. We've obviously got a ways to go in our climb out of 30th in the league. Still though, I loved it. We had a good time and I would do it again in a heart beat.

Celebrating our first goal.

Aaaand they should have called the game there. They would go on to lose 6-1.

Home Team-a-Thon

2010-10-23T10:45:00.004-06:00

Thanks to my husbands customer dealings at our work we are going to do today something I have never done before. I have never even considered doing it actually.

Today we are going to take in a home team double header.

First we will donne our winter attire and go cheer on our climbing out of a deep dark hole Edmonton Eskimos. The best part about going to todays football game is that they are playing the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. At these games, with so many Saskatchewanites living in Alberta, the crowd is a 50/50 mix which makes sitting in the stands all that much more fun.

We haven't watched a lot of football this year so we are looking forward to some fun times sitting with the melon heads tonight.

I really don't see the connection with the team and the watermelon helmets but who am I to judge......

Immediately following the football game we will whisk our frozen runny nosed selves off to the Edmonton Oilers vs San Jose Sharks hockey game!!

Our first of the year....I know I made a pledge to not watch as much hockey this season and so far, due to other obligation and parenting duties I haven' t actually so YAY me for sticking to something for more than a week.

Seriously though, going to sit behind the penalty box on someone else's dime during a Hockey Night in Canada game...You bet your butt I will be there!! Woo Hoooo. (OMG I get so excited when the theme song starts..even the new one!!)

Tune in tomorrow to hear what happens to a person when they drink to many stadium/arena beers.

Pickled Things

2010-10-22T20:14:00.004-06:00

It's been days......I didn't mean for this to happen. I was really enjoying posting everyday.

Sadly though most of my blogging happens at work. Wha...?! No real surprise there.

I've just been so busy.

I have been doing this same job for many years now so I have it down to an art...easy schmeasy, as long as its a a normal time line...throw in a weeks vacation and I have got myself one month of crazy busy.

It's some weird kind of science I can't explain.

Daily I may have 30 minute spurts of go go go...but generally I just do it, then its done. Do it, done.

As soon as we decided to go away for one week all bets are off. For some mad reason I have to work my tail off in order to maintain, well...order, in my one gal show while I am away. I am one gal in my department but I do have to manage 11 branches...ANYWAY!

Who cares!!!

Certainly not me right now.

This is what I care about at this second.

Me with my man, eating a variety of pickled things (asparagus, olives, artichoke hearts, pimentos, pickles) and sharing in a TGIF wind down weekend bevy. (He is actually just studying while I am cooking and blogging, but it works.)

Hasta Luego Matt & Michel.....we miss you already.

Hey Hey I wanna be a rock Star

2010-10-20T08:13:00.002-06:00

And this is as close as I am going to get I think.

We, the Gamble/Morris family, had the recent pleasure to have some family photos taken by a professional photographer.....I COULD NEVER DO IT! I don't have the patients for other people's children. Nathan was.....challenging.

None the less, we got some pretty great shots thanks to our Fan-tab-u-lous photographer.

We are featured on her web site today! Yay.....!!

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I missed posting a Picture Fall photo yesterday on both my blog and the class picture gallery. Again. Fail.
The prompt yesterday was scattered I didn't even attempt anything but I was thinking about Lego or dominoes...that would have been fun. Puzzle pieces?
Either way, today is anew and I will see what I can pull off later....for now it is work work work. Like actual work. Believe it or not I work and don't just blog all day....well, most of the day anyway. ok!! Some of the day.

Muse

2010-10-18T19:24:00.004-06:00

We are supposed to honour today what inspires us in photography daily.

Our Muse.

It is definitely no secret that when it comes to photography (and really the inspiration doesn't end there) Michel is my #1 inspiration.

I have always loved photography. Not necessarily the act of taking a picture but I would swoon over National Geographic photos, nature, people... things. I LOVE love magazines with beautiful pictures, fashion included but I never thought to pick up the camera and start taking the photos my self. I knew it was a lack of confidence to the extreme.

Michel gave me the push I needed. The support and encouragement to just DO IT! You don't have to be great at something to do it and have fun. Its not about being perfect, it's the journey the discovery, then comes the pride.

She is kind, patient and full of passion for her art. She never hesitates to stop and show me something new explaining it in red crayon, so to speak, so I understand. Never rushed, annoyed (at least out loud) or put out with me or my questions.

Not to mention she takes amazing photos. AMAZING!!!!

Ok ok, I have mushed on long enough...I honour you today, my Muse:

I LOVE YOU WO-MAN!!!

Bounty

2010-10-17T17:58:00.005-06:00

I have to admit, I just didn't feel like it today.

This morning before any one else got up and the sun was streaming in the window highlighting the bounty of dust of every surface, I broke out my camera and borrowed macro lens (thank you Michel) and started shooting.

For the first time I ventured a little bit out side my pursuit of perfect light metering and trying to maintain the perfect composition right out of the camera. (I still have not ventured into the world of photo editing)

This is the shot I posted very early this morning in my Picture Fall gallery.

Bounty:
ceramic pumpkins in our house

But this is what I was really doing.....

Playing:
with light

But then the family woke up and I was back on duty. Away we went running our errands and doing our chores.

I had fun taking pictures this morning. It felt good.

Juxtaposition

2010-10-16T08:52:00.002-06:00

Definition:

Simply stated, juxtaposition means placing things side-by-side. In art this usually is done with the intention of bringing out a specific quality or creating an effect, particularly when two contrasting or opposing elements are used. The viewer's attention is drawn to the similarities or differences between the elements.

I found it!

Juxtaposition

rocks, sky, wire, sun

Well, I found it in definition but Tracey is asking us to find a story. Take a photo consisting of two seemingly opposites that may bring two different feelings out.

I may not have done that here exactly but I see soft sky and light next to hard rock and wire. It is a contradiction of sorts.

The day is young......here's a juxtaposition:

Daniel is going up in a gilder today at air cadets. My son, who couldn't walk up steep flights of stairs because fear gripped him just a couple of years ago is going up in an engine-less flying vehicle. I never thought I would see the day...that boy has conquered fear after fear and he is only 12. I could take a lesson.

Mid-Month Message..??? ~and then there it was~

2010-10-15T10:16:00.005-06:00

What the....?

I got all of my messages and reminders out here, so now what?

This is what we are supposed to do today...

Seek out the message you need to hear most today. Something that reminds you that you are exactly where you are supposed to be and that it is enough.

If I am looking for something to tell me I am exactly where I need to be today I won't find it here at work. That. is. a. FACT.

Oh my, I could use some help with this one...I guess it may be slightly different. Others seem to be rolling along in the gallery with little mid-month messages in the form of notes, t-shirts and phrases that grace their lives.

Here is my favorite so far today....am I allowed to share others pictures on my blog?.....I would die of pure heart-filling-up-glee to open my locker at the gym to find this:

Mid month messages.
I've been dropping little love notes in the lockers when I go to the gym, lately. Here are the ones that will be going in random lockers today.
10/15/2010

This was posted by this talented, big hearted gal, AnnGeeDee, who is a fellow participator in my month of Picture Fall. here is her flicker site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anngeedee/

Well, it looks like your not getting a photo out of me regarding this prompt, at least not right now anyway, maybe tonight from home.

Got any ideas? Inspiration of your own messages that you are enough right now, right where you are? share.

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And there it was the whole time....the message I was sure I wouldn't see at work because my mind wouldn't let me. I had my super negative force field on. My wall was up. It was as I was finally starting to shut down for the day I started to relax knowing it was Friday and the kids were coming back from their fathers house.....my negative force field was shutting down, I hate that thing anyway, I looked up and saw what had been in front of my eyes the whole day, for 5 years actually!! A simple note left on my desk one morning from the man I was falling in love with.

Out came the point and shoot from my purse:

I stumbled upon what matter when I stopped long enough to listen.

This is my most favorite at home message. It speaks volumes to me.

Unexpected Enchantment

2010-10-14T09:48:00.003-06:00

Today I am home from work. My darling daughter Tayler is getting her four wisdom teeth removed today. Nursing and caring for someone is quite low on my list of strong suits. I crumble at the sight of blood and although I know I am a loving person with empathy to spare something gets lost in me when I see some one hurt or weakened by sickness. I freeze.
I would function much better and be waaay more helpful if some one was telling me what to do. Give me the direction and I will busy myself full tilt until that task is completed and good!

To bad for Tayler. she's stuck with me today. I hope I don't throw up when I see blood oozing out of her. BLECH!!

I am a strong confident woman!

Today's photo prompt, number 14, asks us to look back and remember the good old days. Look back to a time when things were simpler. The first picture that came to mind was laying on a bed next to my Grandpa in front of a mega small t.v. watching the (NHL) playoffs while others were gathered around the much bigger t.v. or busy in the kitchen. THE BEST!

I have no photos of such thing sadly but I do have one very special 'dude' who came into my life about 5 or 6 years ago as a birthday gift from the man I now proudly call my husband.

This is the one treasure I share with no one, no kids are aloud to play with or remove it from its place...the comfort and need for this little 'dude' near me at night boggles my mind. There is just something so enchanting about him.

Unexpected Enchantment

turtle

p.s. OMG, how the heck can I get paid for staying home!? I love it here during the day. I can't decide what to do first. I could clean, rearrange furniture, cook (or learn to better), work out, take photos, MANAGE photos, paint, bake, decorate, walk....I love it here. I could go grocery shopping during the day even! nice. I could get used to this fast.

Good Day Sunshine!

2010-10-13T08:01:00.003-06:00

Today we are supposed to break free from using natural light to create our own 'sunshine' so to speak.

We are to channel our inner creativity to find our own brightness....using vibrant colors against contrasting back grounds for example.

Finding fun, plump, juicy bursts of colors is not something I think I will run into at work today but I will put on my ~photographer glasses~ to see what I can see. One never knows what is lurking around the corners here.....*shiver*

This morning I posted a picture of my wonderful but always busy husband surrounded by his own evening sunshine. He is constantly illuminated by the light of his laptop night after night course after course in the pursuit of his dreams.....

Good Day Sunshine! :

hello sunshine

Take Some Time Out

2010-10-12T12:48:00.004-06:00

What a coincidence!

Today's photo prompt is titled 'Take Some Time Out' and that seems to be just what I have done for the last couple of days. yummy turkey.

Hats off to you 365ers, I made it ten days....fail!

So for today we once again take a page from our lunch time outings which also works quite appropriately into the prompt since Terry and I lean on each other so much on our brief escapes from work, it really helps break up the long days at the desk.

On the rare occasion when one of us isn't at work you can imagine how much longer a the day feels. We are very fortunate.

When old man Winter shows up we take our 'time-outs' to the closest mall.

Take Some Time Out

lunch time walks together

What Remains

2010-10-09T08:51:00.003-06:00

Seems to be our beautiful Fall weather, that's what.
It's a gorgeous Saturday morning here in the northern hemisphere. The sun is shining and there is a breeze dropping yet more leaves onto the lawn.

Today is the day we are having our Thanksgiving turkey due to other activities and family obligations fighting for our attention on Monday. Saturday just makes sense this time around..plus..more wine, longer night, no work the next day. OH yes people I will be enforcing game time!! yaaay.

With 'What Remains' being our photo prompt for the day my first instinct was "Really? didn't we just do 'After the fall'?" seemed like the same thing to me.

It occurred to me though, as I devoured my second cup of coffee, that what is left behind is not just a leaf on a tree or the remaining petals on the roses, it maybe a little deeper.
I have some ideas as I am sure many others do and will display our photo galley today, the talent is intimidating in there at times, I will play around with this one today if my time allows.

Here's a look at what I have so far:

What Remains

always the last sip of juice

In other news....

2010-10-08T08:38:00.002-06:00

....my beloved Oilers played their first home opener last night against our provincial rivals the Flames....

I didn't watch it.

I decided that this year I wasn't going to watch as much hockey. I was cutting back. I have other interest to explore and things to discover. For the last few years NHL season has ruled my life and our t.v. which drove us to bring in cable and banish satellite so the rest of the family didn't have to suffer through my obsession of watching alllllll 80 games.
I would plan my weeks around it. Leave things early, make sure I didn't miss the first puck drop. Even intermissions had me glued. The interviews, the replays, what was happening around the league!!

Enough!

I came to work this morning and all I heard around me was "oh my gosh did you watch the game last night?" "I know It was awesome right?"" Did you see McIntyre's fight?" "I gotta say, those rookies (first round draft pick Tayler Hall for one!!) are looking great!!" ~the last one coming from an extreme Flames fan walking among us~

*deep breath in* I'm fine, I am not missing out on anything. I am weening myself down (not off) in order to pursue a more rounded life from Oct to June....*deep breath again* aahhhh.

So when the family is over for turkey dinner this Thanksgiving weekend and the Oilers are taking on the Panthers the t.v. will (*may or may not) be off.

*Well, I am just cutting down, not cutting off, I still get to watch some games..... :o)

only 79 more games to go.

Here we go OILERS!!!!

Keeping it Simple *pictures added

2010-10-08T08:03:00.005-06:00

It says a lot about my character when I see the title for today's photo Prompt and I start to instantly panic.
Keeping it Simple?!

All Tracey is asking from us today is to take one simple object and play with it in different angles of light. Turn it, move it around, watch how your vision of it changes as the light moves over it.

I've got nothing. I am looking around like I can't find my kid in the department store (don't judge) Looking at different objects on my desk and around my cubicle. There are a couple of things reflecting the light I guess....blah.

Here's hoping inspiration will come find me today.
Check back in later.

Keeping it Simple

with a manual shifter

and....a simple office stapler.

Doesn't the light make it look so exciting?! ha ha I know. NOT.

The quest continues.....

After the Fall *added picture

2010-10-07T08:17:00.005-06:00

Too bad I went off on rant against Mother Nature here because those photos are perfect for today's prompt.... (I did post them in today's online gallery though because I hadn't shared them there yet)

Tracey says today that we should go gathering...on a mission to scoop up leaves and all that is left behind by Fall, on a search and rescue adventure.

Again I will head out on our lunch hour walk, camera in hand, eyes in search mode for more Fall leavings.

I really think though that I would like to wait until I get home to go on this hunt with my little guy Nathan....he has been waiting for his call into the 'game' for his chance to help make what he calls 'the word of the day' come to life in my camera.

For now I will leave you with this *shot which to me says "good-bye Fall, Winter is right around the corner" like nothing else can:

After the Fall

good-bye

*you would NOT believe the amount of geese flying over our house nightly announcing their pass over in a chorus of loud honks biding us adieu. I couldn't get my camera to focus on them as they came directly over me (I now know it is because I had my stupid auto focus on and was in such a panic to get these beauties I didn't even think about it) so far away with a tree will have to do. Untill next time birdies...

************************************************************************************

Well, Nathan and I didn't manage to get out to look for fallen treasures of Fall. Life got in the way again. But it's all good. I found some books for the kids on for half price at the second hand store while I was out. Half off of $.50 is not so bad I think. I got a stack!

I took this picture on our lunch walk and I think it says 'after the Fall'. What do you think?

Subtleties now with added photos!!

2010-10-06T09:43:00.006-06:00

...or, in other words monochromatic subject matter (all one color). Yeah, I know.
Who knew I would have to learn such big words for photography.

Any who, we are looking today for palettes of single colours but finding ways to use light and texture to make it "pop" as our guide Tracey tells us.

Thanks to the fabulous photo walk I was able to partake in a couple of weeks back I had just the thing already loaded in my photo library of happiness (I just came up with that title now! Fun.)

I will be bringing my camera on our regular lunch hour walk today to see what else I can find keeping my eyes open for what Tracey calls "intricacies just begging to be discovered".

I can do that!!

Subtleties:

Yellow Fall Leaves

I will post back here what, if anything, I find in my travels today....Keep your eyes focused on the light and textures of ...er...mon-o-chro-ma-tic subject matter today and keep reaching for the stars. :o) (how the HECK did Casey Kasem's tag line pop into my head there?)

*********************************************************************************************

Back from our lunch walk but didn't come back very successful...I think I was trying to hard. I may be a one shot wonder. I don't think these two photos say 'mono-colored' quite like my original post. Most especially the pine cones? I was reaching.

Little Reminders

2010-10-05T09:45:00.008-06:00

With this prompt I could go on and on taking pictures all day.

I am just going to show you some of what Tracey Clark is telling us to look for through our lens today.

Her words say it better than I could:

Having visual reminders around is one key to self-talk success. We all have doubts and fears but surrounding ourselves with meaningful messages can be just as important as any other support system. Taking pictures of these words give them that much more power and influence on our daily lives.

All around me in my daily life I have visual reminders of love. Whether at home or at work I know I need these reminders to help keep me centered.

Words of affirmation. This is my love language:

Little Reminders:

fortune cookie message

Little Reminders

my at work love affirmation

Morning Light

2010-10-04T08:32:00.004-06:00

Not the best day for this prompt for me....We leave just before 7 am for work and school, since we have not yet reached our 'fall back' of the clock we see a lot of darkness in the mornng. Most especially when we are experiencing sprinkles of rain. Warm Fall sprinkles of rain. I quite enjoyed opening the door up to the fresh smell as we left the house today....unfortunatly this is my morning light shot:

Morning Light:

garage light beacon

The garage lights sensing my aproach light up the way.

On the way to work I set the camera on the dash trying to click the lights of the cars and street lights around us thinking that this could be another cool shot for my morning light.

As you can see below, between the slow shutter in the dark and the bouncy truck I wasn't very succesful but I thought it was kinda neat anyway:

Morning Light:

squiggley car lights

I only shared the garage one in my workshop gallery..you should see some of the beautiful moning rays of sunshine posted by those in the South East...Gorgeous. Makes me feel like we are so far up, up and away.

Mother Nature

2010-10-03T19:21:00.003-06:00

You sneaky sneaky b!tch.

Every year you suck me in. Every year I fall for it.
You give us this amazing view filled with colour so wonderful, the air so crisp and fresh. You give us the most amazing mesmerizing beauty.

Then, when we are all in a fog of peaceful happiness ready to go for a walk in the gift we were given, you slap us out of it opening our eyes suddenly to the consequences. We have to clean up after this?! We have to pick up all of Fall's leavings?! Wha...? But..but we were just getting used to it, just really starting to enjoy it.

We can't go for a walk? We have to stay here and spend hour after hour picking up tree poo?!
Nice!
The power of Fall is great, it makes us forget every year that nothing comes with out a price.

I love Fall...just not the work involved.
&^%$ you Mother Nature you sneaky sneaky b!tch.

Next year I am NOT 'falling' for it....

The Beauty Challenge

2010-10-03T10:43:00.003-06:00

Today we were instructed to look beyond the obvious and find the hidden beauty . Look for what is often over looked. Instead of the rose shoot the thorns.

I find I do this in my daily life. I don't always secede at this with the hustle and bustle of life dictating that we keep looking forward, upward and beyond. I can see the hidden beauty when I manage to slow myself down, another self project I have been working on for the past year or so.

I can see the hidden beauty on the streets and in nature. I look at people, try to see beyond what society says we should see.

My Beauty Challenge photo is of fungus....hidden in the darkness at the bottom of a tree I see beautiful texture and curves:

The Beauty Challenge

mushroom

Get Comfy

2010-10-02T09:19:00.004-06:00

Today we are prompt to find our spot. Our cozy corner in life where we can curl up with a good book or our favorite hobby and just be.

Warm, comfortable, at peace.

Every Saturday and Sunday morning I try to get up before every one so I can curl up in my corner of the couch with the morning paper and a cup of coffee. Sometimes I end up just staring out the window. So Relaxing.

This is something I have only started doing for the last year or so and I find my self getting giddy Friday nights with the thought of at least 30 minutes in this place. One by one the family rises, I remain perched in my spot as they either snuggle next to me for a few moments wiping the sleep out of their eyes or give me a good morning kiss on my cheek. The cartoons come on, the computers fire up and the cereal gets poured. The day begins, the chores and events of the day need attending...in a few more minutes.

I sit in my weekend comfy spot taking it all in:

Get Comfy :

my morning

Happy October!!!

2010-10-01T08:14:00.004-06:00

This is the best month of the whole year!

I love October. Love Love Love.

I am signed up in yet another on line photography work shop. This one is called Picture Fall. We get a prompt sent to our email every day and we set out on our merry way click click clicking away our interpretation of said prompt. Then we go on line to post our finds in our very own student gallery where we can gaze at others perception of the same.
It always amazes me how many different ways a word or phrase can be perceived. Things you would never dream of then when you see something you go 'aahhh, I wish I would have thought of that' and gives you the gift of looking at things from more angles than you thought possible from your silly little head.
(speaking personally there of course, I am sure you don't have a silly little head).

So everyday I am going to TRY hard to post my photos..sometimes more than one, sometimes not the same one I post online, and sometimes it won't be any good...I will share with you the prompt and show you my take on it that day (I usually take my photos on my lunch breaks so we'll see how creative I can get) Then, maybe you can try too. Post it, don't post it. what ever. Just have fun and try to see the world through your lens for the next month.

It's not to late to sign up for the online work shop either if you want to play along with everyone.

I left the link for you at the beginning of this post....there are so many free on line workshops you can participate in as well. You don't need a big fancy camera or expensive lens to do this either. Just an imagination and a love for this season of gratitude.

Bear with me for the next month. Because your going to be getting lots of this:

The Quintessential Fall:

the leaf

p.s. you may or may not have noticed I already posted this photo here, but it was perfect for this prompt and I was super excited to get started so I went with it.

Locked out

2010-09-29T20:32:00.005-06:00

I took my bicycle to the gym tonight. I felt amazing riding in this extraordinary Fall weather. What a fantastic way to de-stress at the end of a rough day.

I got to the gym realizing that I had forgot my bike lock. Instead of turning myself around I braved up and asked the ladies at the desk if they could help me out, turns out they use a janitors room for just his purpose. Brilliant!

I had a great work out, did every thing I went to do...I felt the burn baby.
Heading back home I was sitting on top of the world. What a feeling turning the day around like this. Yay me. Listen to the crunch of the leaves under my tires. Look up at the Canadian Geese honking over head flying in perfect formation.

I couldn't wait to get home to eat.

Eating would have to wait.

We have a key pad on our back door we use to get in the house that seemed to be running out of batteries. It didn't work. I had no cell phone and my keys were in the house. No hidden key.
Terry was at Spanish practice on the other side of Edmonton. Daniel was in a TKD sparring class, Tayler was at a band practice. I decided to wait knowing Tayler had to stop by on her way to ringette practice and Daniel had to come sort his flyers for delivery the next day.
I waited....waited...waited.
The sun was going down, I was getting cold and hungry. I knew as soon as I left SOMEONE would show up.
One hour later Tayler comes running up the driveway in a hurry to get to ringette. Kudos to her for not busting a gut at her poor cold hungry mother and just letting me the heck in the house.

After getting in and warming up with some soup, I poured me a jumbo goblet of red wine, ignored the dishes and proceeded to sit.

Feeling good right now.
Life is funny that way. I like how it throws you little curve balls just when you need one.

Anxiety

2010-09-29T11:45:00.004-06:00

I think I have got me some of that.
It is debilitating at times. Overwhelming mostly.
Heart racing. Blood pumping. Scary. Confusing. Frustrating. Stupid. Inconvenient. Intrusive.

In my head I tell myself I have some sort of social anxiety. I refuse to go look it up though. As soon as I do I will either see that indeed I do have it and instantly start feeling things I didn't know I was feeling and start unconsciously using the label as a crutch or what will come up when I google what I think I got is a website telling me I need to suck it up and get over it already, you don't have an issue or a problem it's all in your head now go put your energy towards feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless.

I am not yet ready to see either one of those results pop up on the other end of my search for self diagnostic.

In the mean time I will keep talking to my Angel of love and happiness, my husband. ~but not to much so I don't send him running thinking he married a crazy~ Or I can always talk to my good buddy Michel ~but not to much because she tends to tell me 'like it is' and says things that are logical and truthful and makes me look at things in black and white instead of fuzzy purple~ It's not always easy but I'm dealing.
This helps.
I am finding outlets, the suggestion of a journal is one I may have to look at seriously.

Next I will be on here bitching about my writers cramp.

Are the Smurfs moving in?

2010-09-28T20:03:00.009-06:00

Because there seems to be a new neighborhood popping up just outside our house.

Fall walk Photos

2010-09-27T20:59:00.006-06:00

We went for a walk at Elk Island National Park this past Saturday with some like minded photo shooters.The day was so very very super ultra amazingly fantastic. It was a darn ok day.

The colours were so bright and vivid.
Michel let me play with her macro lens for a bit too...really cool, and now I want one!!
Here are just a few shots from that walk. I won't torture you this time with a boat load.

Looking back at these I see all I am really showing you is some extreme close up's not giving you the full effect of the beauty that beheld us that fall walk day. Your gonna just have to believe. It was pretty. And maybe sometimes it's the little things that get to stand up and get noticed.

Friday's Fitful Thoughts

2010-09-24T08:12:00.002-06:00

~How does that one dark sock always sneak its way into the load of white towels and sheets when I am bleaching? I swear I checked.

~When you haven't heard from your kid after school as normal you accept that the day is beautiful and they are probably just enjoying the last bit of sunshiny warmth before winter hits, leave them alone and pretend there are no cell phones, give them a moment of down time.
Then you get home to a phone call/message that their school was in lock down for an incident (which was never stated) and that the RCMP take these matters very seriously....!!!!!!!!! Oh, you bet I will be requiring a call from now on. Technology is here now people, let's use it for what it is.

~I am so very comfortable at work on Fridays. Way more at ease and relaxed. I swear I get more work done (the first half of the day anyway, I fade fast after lunch) I wonder if I would be this happy and content at work if I wore jeans and a t-shirt everyday or would it just become the 'everyday' and not be special anymore? I might do a test one time....if I get brave enough.

~We now have an air cadet in the family. Daniel has let go of his flyer delivery technician post to pursue other interests. haha..Daniel has always said he wants to be a pilot one day, now that he is twelve he can join the air cadets which he is unbelievably excited about. That kid, like he doesn't have enough going on. He wants this so bad though, you can see a sparkle in his eyes that wasn't there before. He will fly one day guaranteed. I feel such a big lump of happiness for him chasing his passion.

~Tayler is getting her wisdom teeth removed next month. It will be nice to see her stop. Even if its not for a nice reason, am sure there will be pain, discomfort, blood and swelling cheeks...but she was told to rest and do nothing for 3 to 5 days afterwards. I can't remember the last time she had a day doing nothing. Between school, work, sports and B/F she is constantly on the move. I don't want her making this go go go schedule a life style she adopts permanently. She may miss seeing her double rainbow.

~Leela Gilday, if your out there reading this (and I am sure you check in daily.....LOL) I have an 8 year old son who is crazy over your music. He sings like he knows all the words (he doesn't and he doesn't stop to really listen to try to learn them which is making his older brother lose his mind, I like it) he always asks to put your CD in when we are in the truck, Sedze, and he sings loud and proud and happy. He knows we saw you sing in Banff one time and he asks a million questions, "what songs did she sing, did she talk too, was there lots of musicians there" it's just realy cute because this isn't normal behavior for him. I think he is just starting to get on his music groove and this is where he wants to begin. He says he wants to sing and dance all the time. Cute. You have a big little fan.

~Going on a Fall photo walk this sunday in Elk Island National Park. I am looking so forward to the quiet, peaceful beauty that Fall displays for us. It is my hope to be able to capture some of that beauty to bring back into our home.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.
Take a few quiet moments to look around and see.

I am happy just to be nominated

2010-09-22T13:20:00.005-06:00

I am not an actor by any means. Extreme stage fright overwhelms me just thinking about it. I believe my acting abilities come shining through in other ways. Real life role playing for example.
Today, as with a few other days in the past, I was a shining star in my performance in the reality series titled 'Calm-ish Mother sits in Passenger Seat while Teenage Daughter Drives'

It takes all of my Oscar style talent not to let show on my face what I am really going through "OH MY GOODNESS, WE'RE GONNA CRASH INTO SOMETHING!"
Not that she is a horrible driver, heck I wouldn't really know. She is new, she's a bit jerky and tight on the wheel. She swings way to wide and goes to darn slow for my taste but that is all normal just-learning kind of stuff.

I just don't trust her. That's crazy. I should trust her. But I don't . Not yet. I'm too scared right now.

I try to remain calm so as not to startle her and cause any erratic type behavior. I try not to let show my foot pushing so hard into the floor board my muscles are screaming at me to stop. I try, oh but I try, to keep a smooth even tone as I give her directions. Can she see my tongue bleeding? I bite on it so hard sometimes I fear in may fall into my lap which would of course ensue into mass screams and extreme hazardous driving.

I love that daughter of mine. I love her with all my shivering-in-fear heart and I want her to do well, to be safe.
But how can I trust her, please tell me how, when she can't ever remember to put her dishes away? Will she forget to shoulder check? And how she misses her bus to school. Will she hesitate to long at a stop sign and cause an accident? Food is spilled all over the counter and not even attempted at wiping it up. She doesn't scrape her windows enough one day and misses seeing that child step off the curb. She can not seem to keep her bedroom floor free of debris. She reaches down to grab that old pop can that rolled under her gas pedal.

I could go on, believe me I could. My mind is full of this stuff. It's in my job description I think.

I will accept my prize gracefully and keep my lecture..er...I mean speech short when I win.
It will start off something like this

"I am a Stong Confident Mother...........

Problem*

2010-09-20T09:56:00.003-06:00

We have a new tread mill, it's about two months old now.
We found a great spot in our basement for it. Right in front of the t.v. in the office. It's perfect really, it is not out in the middle of the living room for every one to throw blankets or jackets over. No hanging your hat on this baby.

I was so excited getting this tread mill promising I would use it every chance I got...and I meant that! I really did/do. I was using it like crazy, for an hour at a time with out thought. I love those shows where they help people fix up their houses to sell or the ones where they help people realize their debt problems and show them the light. Fantastic.

Anyway. My problem* is this. It is now September. ALL THE NEW SHOWS ARE STARTING!!.
So what's the big effing deal you ask?
The only way I can watch all the shows that I have 'allowed' myself to waste time watching (seriously, there are way to many so I had to sacrifice some) is to PVR them. The big effing deal with that is the only room we have a PVR is not the one with the tread mill!
Oh what's a girl to do?!!

So here I am, I have some time for me. What do I do? Do I try to catch up on some of my precious recorded episodes? Or, do I hop on the tread mill for a bit of sweat-it-out/home decorating take care of me time?
Divide the time? no way.
It's all or nothing.

Dang it!
I think I will spend the rest of my day here at work trying to solve this desperate situation I am in.

*I realize this is not a REAL problem. As a matter of fact I wish this problem on all the starving, cold homeless people in the whole world. I also hope for them to be able to chow down on a yummy home cooked, warm meal in front of the t.v. on the couch or while on the tread mill even.

I Am a Strong Confident Woman

2010-09-16T09:13:00.003-06:00

At least that what I have to keep telling myself.

My hope is that it will kick in and become real.

The little voice inside me says it wants too.
I need that voice to be louder. Stronger. More confident.

I need to get over it.

I am a strong confident woman.

Banff: And oh how we hiked

2010-09-14T19:19:00.014-06:00

Hi!! We are back from another mountain weekend. We take every opportunity to run away to the mountains. we're pretty darn blessed, not gonna deny it. (ok,we've been back for a couple of days)

We took off Friday on our way to Bliss ville (a.k.a. Banff/Canmore) driving our first adventure in Terry's 110 Land rover Defender.~picture time~

We drove in this loud smelly truck (sorry Bear, but you know it's a bit smelly) in some kind of surprising comfort. How very unexpected!
We had some company though...a mascot!
Cute bobble head bear...oh, and his dash toy too!

So we stopped in Canmore before hitting Banff for some pre weekend hiking,hiking. We strolled up up up to Grassy Lakes to see the water falls:
We also checked out some fellow hikers and their dog in a back pack!?
Weird!

I then stood on a bench with thoughts of my good friend Michel.
(although I realize it's not Monday)
We finally made it to the beautiful, mesmerizing lake on top.

*a whole week end and most of our pictures are from the first day*

Check out this guy I found up by the climbing rocks.
We had a great hike that Friday but we did head off to Banff pretty quick to get to our hotel. We just love it here. We each get a perma grin for our whole stay, as a bonus offer I assume.

The next day we headed off to lake Louise where we we hiked up to Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House.

It was so hard at the end but worth the lack of breath to enjoy the tea and home made soup after 2115 feet in just 2 kms. Phew. But noooo, we weren't done yet! "Let's go check out the Lake Agnes Tea House now" he says. Well, since I had got my breath back by then and I knew we had to head 1 km back down to hit the trail, I was in.

Inukshuk moment.

Well, we hiked. It rained. Then it didn't. Then we were sweaty. Then it rained. Then it didn't. Then we were sweaty. repeat.

Words that later haunt me in a leg pained dreams filled with hurt "Hey" Terry says almost too cheery " I have always wanted to go check out Big Bee Hive but no one has ever wanted to go with me. Want to check it out?"
Needless to say, I horked my first loogy that day...no pictures please. We went straight up what turned out to be the back side of Big Beehive. What an amazing sight it was but we couldn't breath a lot so I took no photos on the way up.

We found a friend on top who liked my camera bag:

And this relaxing view point of where we once started mere hours before:

Ok well, that is all there is for pictures from our weekend even though there was another day and a half of fun in Banff.

We hiked 7 hours total that day and could barely manage to take the steps up into the truck when we finally returned to it. We ended up at the Keg having a DANG fantastic dinner thanks to Ma and Pa Gamble for a 1st anniversary gift. So so very good food. We basically just stared at each other the whole time. ~That's love baby~

We walked the tourist filled streets of Banff and the equally tourist filled streets of Canmore where we lunched and hiked just a wee bit more, only this time through the town's trails lined with houses of our dreams.

Nice of you to stick around to the end.

That's it. All done. Back to reality...(which happens to be not too shabby)

fitful thoughts

I miss blogging

The Wedding

Mambo #5, the way is was meant to be interpreted

ouch!

riding my bike

what a day

first day

last day

the making of our Easter eggs

Sunday Morning Breakfast

freeze,melt,snow,melt,freeze,melt,snow

A New Begining

Choice

I finally get it!! *updated*

And there she goes...

At the Movies

Sunshine and Happiness

Separation Anxiety

busy weekend recap

4.5 months later

Here I go....

But I work hard too!

parenting 101: life our way

I can't remember

oh bother

A surprise super star in the family

For a fleeting moment...

the journey is over

Mr.& Mrs. Shovel Hands

just call him 'The Bieb'

Spanish Wednesday

late night dinners

cactus buddy & thoughts

snow white

more snow...& garlic too

finding my focus

laundry, tea, laptop & me...

bringing the work out home....

where do they go?

acoustic grooves

put it away already!

snow day 2

snow day 2011

Friday, December 31st, 2010

Vegas Christmas 2010, Do they know it's Christmas Time?

So this is Christmas....

Behind the Scenes at a Photo Shoot--or--My Dream Job

Christmas rush

A perfect winters night with a ...

I have two boys

we made cookies!!!

Most Heart and Hustle

Going to Red Deer

The "We've been home from Mexico for two weeks and I miss the warm moist air" post

Thanksgiving Day

-27 wake up call

Not Mexico & No pictures

Mexico Potpourri

It's Terry's turn...

Mexico via Daniel

More Mexico...

We're back from our Mexican vaca....!

And Away We go...

Tomas

Halloween photo time!!! *new photo added*

Halloween time!!

Great music!

Pork Mountain

It's snow time! *now with added snow!*

Home Team-a-Thon *the photo edition*

Home Team-a-Thon

Pickled Things

Hey Hey I wanna be a rock Star

Muse

Bounty

Juxtaposition

Mid-Month Message..??? ~and then there it was~

Unexpected Enchantment

Good Day Sunshine!

I finally get it!! updated

Halloween photo time!!! new photo added

It's snow time! now with added snow!

Home Team-a-Thon the photo edition

Subtleties now with added photos!!