House beautification project...

Hallway painted - Check
Living Room painted - Check
Curtain Fabric has arrived - Check
First coat of candy apple red paint finished inside the china cabinet - Check
Fun Fun Fun!

Friday 5 in pictures(at Nana and Pop-pop's)

1. Our favorite place on a recent zoo trip with Nana and Pop-Pop, the butterfly garden!


2. Me and my girl!



3. Funny Faces.



4. Sitting at the very piano I sat at growing up.



5. We loved seeing a baby polar bear at the zoo! I know he doesn't look very babyish, but you should have seen his mama!



We are home now and getting ready for dance, preschool, gymnastics, Daddy and Mommy going back to work, a new gym membership, painting and decorating our living room/hallway, finishing the basement and whatever else life holds for us this fall! So, not necessarily in that order and the time frame is flexible as teachers begin their year in September rather than January. Blogging less and working more, spending those precious moments with my fam. If you have a minute, say a quick prayer for my brother and his family. They are going through a really hard time right now. It just makes me appreciate all that I have and the wonderful life God has given me.

brief break(and some enabling)...

Do you miss us? We're visiting Nana and Pop Pop for a couple days before the busy-ness of fall catches us as everything begins once again. Today we went to the zoo and our most favoritest part was the butterfly house! I promise pictures to come! See ya soon.

oh yah- the enabling part- Go here! Simply adorable and reasonable!

HSM2

Ok, so I'll admit it...I loved High School Musical 2. I've watched it.......twice. And I even cried. Of course that's no surprise to those of you that know me. I did completely love the first one. But still...I thought the 2nd would be "just one of those sequels". The message is so positive and some would say, too positive, sappy, silly and teeny bopper. But I would say exactly. Kids need to know that the mean girl never wins, be confident in yourself and what you believe, be true to your friends, it's ok to have a cause, something you really care about....ok, I digress. Just needed to share...

10 on Tuesday, the eye issue...

1. My eye swelled up again out of nowhere today.
2. I happened to be at the gym which was most embarrassing.
3. I do however love my new ipod arm band.
4. So I bought a new pair of slightly larger sunglasses to hide my eye. (I lost my most prized Oakley's at a wedding back in July).
5. I know that it won't exactly help my eye, but hide it very well at the baseball game tonight that we are heading to.
6. TJ Maxx is great for cheap yet functional and hopefully durable, also name brand sunglasses.
7. It's also great for a $3 swimsuit for Maya for next summer!
8. Maya's 3 year old(pre-preschool) check up is tomorrow.
9. I think I may have to sneak in a few questions about my wierd swollen eye at her appointment tomorrow. Not that I didn't already because I was at the Dr. twice last week because of it.
10. Off to put in more eye ointment. Just lovely!

One of those moments...

I glanced in the back seat while driving Maya and myself to church this morning(Ben was already there setting up music stuff) and she grinned at me in her little fruit sundress with a pink star bead necklace around her neck, a pink jelly bracelet on her arm, pink strawberry sandels and topped off with her sparkle blue sunglasses. She said "Can you turn on My Heart is Set on You, please"(a great peppy little worship tune on the Girls of Grace cd) So I did and glanced back at her again as she bopped her little head to the beat, singing to herself while looking out the window. I teared up with an immense flooding of love for my little person in the back seat and thought I couldn't love her anymore than I did right then at that second. I mean I could, but that's the closest I can get to the feeling that I had. It's overwhelming the gifts that we are given. I think being a mommy is the greatest!

Five on Friday

1. The beverage drive-thru did not have a gallon of milk tonight. Can someone please tell me it's ok I did not want to get out of my car again after errands with a toddler..
2. Getting ready to paint the living room. Sage, Candy Apple Red, pink and cream are my colors. So fun! Still looking for the right print(s) for curtains.

3. Stromboli and fresh steamed broccoli for dinner tonight. I love my steamer and I wish I used it more. Even Maya eats broccoli from the steamer.

4. Why do I get so excited when the UPS and FedEx trucks drive down our street even though I didn't order anything and it's for the neighbors?

5. Family zoo trip this morning! Check out these guys!

These two love birds were the talk of the zoo today.

Sassy Seal- he jumped right up under us and wailed away. Maya screamed so loud I thought we'd be kicked out of the zoo for scaring the animals. (sorry for the side view)

Kermit's relatives.

Wouldn't want to run into him in your garden would you?

This guy won over my heart. Zebra's are just beautiful!

peek a boo we see you!



beautiful rain forest flowers!

Sally the camel has 2 humps, sally the camel has two humps.

I know he's blurry, but whoa-he's a doozy isn't he!

2 days of doctors...

So I woke up Monday with a swollen eye. I know, fabulous. Went about my day just thinking that it was nothing, took some benadryl and all is good. Tuesday, happened again, a little worse, so I went to the store and got some visine and more benadryl. It got better through out the day. Wednesday-very red eye and swollen underneath big time. My dr. office had closed at noon and of course I waited to call afternoon. So I went to the local med center. He said eye infection probably sinus related hence the swollen under eye by sinus cavity. Z pack and some drops. Ok- Wednesday night- 2 drops in eye once every hour. Feeling better. Thursday morning- very swollen eye again. The drop schedule today is 2 drops 4 times a day. Do my morning drops, go to work for a bit. Do my afternoon drops- big swollen eye with hives underneath and candy apple(my new favorite color) red eyeball. Soreness, itchiness and pressure in my cheek bone. So I head to my family dr. which is open today and I could get an appt within the hour. She says- I either was bit by something or something I was allergic to got in my eye. No sinus infection, no eye infection. AND....I was allergic to the drops the first Dr. gave me. Great! So I dumped the z-pack and the drops and now I am on a steroid for the inflammation and some wierd ointment that I.squeeze.into.MY EYE. EWWWWWWW

But I feel better, no more redness and it is only a little bit swollen underneath. And since posts are boring without pictures, I give you(no, not my swollen eye), a pic of my sweet girlie.

I know- she has food in her mouth, but I got her to look at me and smile so it was way worth it and I was practicing in AV mode so it's all ok.

What to do at 12:02

AM that is... ***EDITED***
1. Read cool tutorials on aperture and F-stops. http://karenrussell.typepad.com/my_lifejust_not_on_the_ro/photography_tips/index.html
2. Read about picture file organization and realize you are crazy for not backing up your pictures.
3. Load over 3000 pictures onto CD's knowing that an external hard drive would also be a good idea, but the stores are closed right now and CD's is the next best thing until morning.
4. Play around with new photoshop tutorials you have found and actually understand them and see them work. I learned how to change(or enhance) eye color. Some turned out cool, yet some a little freaky. Examples below: http://www.sxc.hu/blog/post/623

before

after
5. Play with sweet sharpening tutorials.http://www.sxc.hu/blog/post/411
Examples below:

before

after
6. Blog(tee hee hee)
7. Think about what to make for a church picnic on Sunday(any ideas out there?)
8. Return emails from dance parents about the fall schedule(one more month of vacation)
9. Look up dance costumes for your performance groups.
10. Realize it's 12:30 and the computer has sucked you in with its magic powers. Time to go to bed.

July CJ entry

So for some odd reason 2Peas is not allowing me to post this tonight. So I'll post it here.
Here is my July CJ entry for April. The theme is self portrait. I had fun searching out me...