The little whipersnapper ratted me out!

Today was a baby shower for a friend from church. It's also the weekend in which I have my final two recitals of the year. Church went from 10:30 to 12. Recital at 12:45, shower at 2. Tight schedule, indeed. Needless to say I did not finish the cute little outfit that I had planned to make for the darling baby boy. Typical. It's still sitting in my cupboard. I will eventually finish it. Hopefully before he's born. Realistically, possibly not before he grows out of that size. (as a side note, in case this does happen, i wonder if she'd consider having baby number four just so he could wear the outfit? probably not)

However, I saved myself the embarrassment of showing up to the shower without a gift by swinging home after the recital (west side of town) before heading out (twenty minutes late--the main violinist didn't show up on time) to the shower (east side of town) to pick up the extra toy tractor which I had called on my way to ask J to wrap for me. It was an extra tractor because we bought it just in case Mom and Dad weren't able to find one for Judah for his Birthday. They did, after all. Hence the extra tractor. I knew it would come in handy.

My cleverness blew up in my face as C unwrapped the gift and Sofi interrupted her ooos and aaahs with...

"It was supposed to be for Judah's birthday, but then he already had one, so this one got left over."

*general delighted laughter*

People love it when this sort of thing happens to Other People.

*sigh*

Ah well. All my pretensions to Proper Southern Party Etiquette have now gone up in smoke. But I do want you all to know that I own a a deviled egg plate. And I use it. Occasionally.

House Pictures '09

It's time again for the annual "See How Far We've Come?" post. To refresh your memory...

We first saw the house in May, 2005. It looked like this (notice the teeny, tiny, pitiful looking rose bushes?):



And the back:





That year the transformation went to this (notice the teeny, tiny, pitiful looking rose bushes have moved?):





Last year looked like this (again please notice the teen-tiny, but not quite as pitiful looking rose bushes, now with two new additions!




And now we come to 2009! (and look at those ROSE BUSHES!!)









Need I say how proud I am? Anyone know where they might give out a medal for this sort of thing? Inside view later this weekend...

My Best Shot

I'm trying out a new meme this week, because I'm photography mad right now. You'll just have to bear with me for a bit here. This is hosted by "Life Is Sweet", a blog new to me and one I enjoy a lot :)

This is Lil, checking out the big kid bike! It's one of my first attempts at shooting in Av Mode. Next will be Manual!! Hooray!

Extra Friends!

This week I got to experience what life was like every day for my Mom :) It was fun!

Judah enjoyed all the extra company. And Sofi enjoyed having someone her own age around for a change. Lil now knows to pose for the camera. She's workin' it! Look at that grin!

Noah's there somewhere, too. But he's not as fast as the others, so sometimes he doesn't make it into the shot ;) Come on boyo, catch up!

When does enough Raffi become too much Raffi?

Pretty soon!





Thank you Uncle Sam and Aunt Mina for the awesome Band in a Box! We love it!!

I've been having LOTS of fun with Photoshop, Wanna see?

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



Before:



After:




So, confess, Ben, are you just a little sorry you gave it up?

Today was the day...

The day we went from this:



To this:



And this:



And look at him now!



Wow.

It's still raining...

...need I say any more? You all know how I feel about rain.

This is my last week of teaching before break. Hopefully I will now be able to finish weeding my poor neglected vegetable garden. The lettuces don't seem to be holding it against me, however. They've been just exploding all over the bed and we have enough for at least three families right at the moment.

Hopefully I will also now be able to finish the chair railing and wallpaper project. That picture was somewhat deceiving, as it only showed the one fully completed wall. I actually have to confess that I ran out of paper halfway round the next wall and had to go find a place online that still had some left (it's been discontinued).

Maybe now I can also do the rest of the mulching in the back and put in a new load of woodchips in the kid's play space. And I still have several bushes to plant. And then there's this weird fungus on my roses. And my annual pics of the house to take and publish...

Oh yeah, and L's birthday gift is still unfinished. And Father's Day is coming up, and so is our anniversary. And I've got to make Judah's hat, too, since the pool opens up next weekend.

And of course, there's always laundry and ironing, and for some reason the kids and J still seem to insist on meals at regular intervals.

*sigh*

If it would just quit raining so I can get back to work!

Two Things

The chair rail is up!

And Mom finished Judah's story quilt! Isn't it awesome?? Can you tell what the story is?

For Jeremiah and Ben, with love, remembrance and a LOL

Scroll

All

The

Way

Down...

to the last pic.


Not even the jungles of Honduras....

ROFLMAO

Another I Heart Faces Giveaway

Here's a cool thing to do for the grandparents for Christmas! And I Heart Faces is doing a giveaway for a gift certificate (for $80) to this site. Hope I win :)

I Heart Faces: Blurb Book!

My favorite photography blog has an extra special theme this week! They are choosing photos to include in their Blurb Book! I am sooo excited. I've been loving playing with my new Photoshop (thanks, Ben) and trying to decide which one is my Best Face Photo Ever. I'm entering the amateur Category (of course) and...

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

I chose this picture ultimately because I love the angle of her face and the sweet, faraway expression in her eyes. And, in this one shot, I got some great porch railing bokeh going on-- sheer luck, I assure you!

My Day

Today I;

Cut the tip of the left index finger off. The violin-playing finger.

Didn't finish the costumes for Tuesday's (yes, tomorrow) show.

Forgot to drop off the electric bill payment...

...and the movie returns. Two of them.

Decided to quit several things. Par for the course at this time of year.

Got mad a lot.

May have incited a neighbor to call CPS on me by allowing Judah to wander a little too far down the road.

Sort of showered, anyway.

Did not mow the grass after all.

Or enter a photo for the super cool challenge at I Heat Faces this week.

But I also...

Picked my very own lettuces, first fruits for the neighbors and enough for us for one meal :)

Bought portabello mushrooms on sale and cooked them for dinner in a white wine sauce.

Visited a friend.

Laughed at my babies.

So, all in all, it could have been worse.

These are MY people...

They may not have great water pressure, but back where I come from, the people know how to have a good time! The annual Barn Dance, in Halifax County, Virginia. This is a time when young and old mix and mingle and have a grand old time.

I Heart Faces: Laughter

Once again I didn't get to do a photo shoot. This time we were at Mom's all weekend. I planned to just not enter again, but then I found out that Ree Drummond is the guest judge this week and that's just too cool to pass up! I love her blog, as I told you here. Hi, Ree! I LOVELOVELOVE your Black Heels :)

This photo is form one of the first shoots I did with the kids after we got our new camera last summer. This one shot is one of three in a series that I framed and hung in our dining room. I love the way she's sticking out the tip of her tongue as she giggles! All my nearest and dearest will recognize this as something she inherited from her mommy :P This was during that "super tired and extra silly" stage, right before bed.

Let's see, what edits did I use... (I've started including these because I love it when other photographers include theirs) I reduced the noise a tad and upped the saturation, hoping to darken out some of the wood grain in the background. It worked pretty well, I think. Any suggestions from other photographers? WWYD?







You can go here and check out all the other laughing faces!

I Wanna Win This One!!

I Heart Faces is giving away some MCP Actions for Photoshop! Yay! And since a Certain Person has promised to give me his unused copy of PS, I am dying to win this giveaway! I am pulling out all the stops :) I may even Twitter about this one. If I can find my Twitter password.....

WFMW: Yoga with Mama

Here's another thing we like to do on Rainy Days! Exercise inside with Netflix Watch It Now's Ten Minute Solutions: Yoga. Nope, this is not a paid advertisement, but seriously, can you tell why I love it? What other way do you know to get a good workout with two kids on a rainy day?

From 4-6-09

From 4-6-09

I plan to blog more about Netflix and this video in particular. It's a new staple in my workout routine. (Yes, I have a workout routine, what do you mean by that??) Stay Tuned!

Go here to check out other things that work for other moms!