This N That

A photo from Miss K's party and a photo from Miss M's party..... i was getting ready to add a few more, but my cd is done writing and I need to get these off to Jill!

I have been editing for hours and hours!!! 110 edited photos, yikes!!!!!

It was fun taking photos for these parties.  I am happy with the results, but as with anything hindsight is 20/20...I see things I wish I would have done differently, or could have done better, but that is part of the learning process.

Jackson has strep throat!  Who knew?  Not me.  He has had no fever and has acted just fine....until he broke out in hives. All over.  I was giving him a bath at 3:30am for the itching.  Ay yi yi.
I will try to take a picture and post it...you know....in about 2 weeks or so.  ha ha
:o)

First Day of School & Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I sent 2 of my boys off to school.

No, they aren't 4 and 1 , they are starting first and fourth grades. boo hoo.
Cody starts school next week, he will be in 7th grade... and Hayden will go to preschool 3 days a week starting in September, so I have a couple more "back to school" posts to make.

Yesterday we watched Reese while Brooke was at work, here are a couple of photos we took while she was here. Hayden just LOVES her and we have already printed a couple of these with my NEW PRINTER that I got for my birthday today. I am joining Tracie and Doris and owning one of these cute little jobbers.

Just so you know, amazon has upped their price recently but you can find it other places online for much less. It is really cool, I have printed 8 pictures so far and my frames that have been needing photos are so happy now to have something to display!

We went to Pigeon Forge a couple of weeks ago, I have photos to share from that later. We celebrated Cody's 12th (ugh) birthday while we were there.

I have also taken photos at a couple of birthday parties and tomorrow I think I will post a few photos from each. :o)

Bunco will be at my house this week, I have a lot of cleaning to do!!

Not much else to report, I really want to run out to Hobby Lobby before Resse gets here, so I need to move along and get crack-a-lackin.

Where I Have Been....

have been busy because these people are visiting me and have been since last Saturday!
We took some pictures while they were here and I think they turned out pretty good. I was paid a compliment on my photography skills by my printer (who is a professional photographer as well) and encouraged to take the step I have been thinking about for at least 2 years now...She said my composition was excellent and that I had a good eye for photography and my editing skills (which I promise I have no idea what I am doing!!) were good as well. (Mind you, I only changed them to black and white...still working on learning how to pop the colors like I like...a la Jennifer Johner & Joanna Bolick) She told me that it would be a shame if I didn't pursue it, which I thought was so nice of her to say.
I have always wanted to take family photos and possibly photos at children's birthday parties. I am getting a chance at that this weekend when I take Miss K's pictures for Hollye so she can enjoy the festivities. Indoor photos though, so wish me luck!!
We have also been busy with soccer camp and soccer practice.
This week, we have been shopping, eating out and took the kids to the park and to pump it up for open playtime. I think we are going back today as well....they have wi-fi there, did you know?
Hope to check back in soon...
:o)

A New Look

Thank you to Jill for noticing!!!
Now that I have PSE again, I can make blog banners! :o)

How about this little guy...or girl. We didn't check! We went to Virginia last week and on the farm, my dad had this little trap set in the grainery for the creatures who keep trying to steal his cat food and other feed. He said they are quite the resourceful critters and they manage to get into anything he puts stuff into, no matter how hard you might think it would be. So, he traps them and then takes them to a friend who has coon hunting dogs....He gives the raccoon a head start and sends the dogs to practice their skills. Don't worry, I don't think anything happens to them, they just get scared and relocated. This particular week, the man was out of town, so dad just let the thing go, but he said it wasn't the smartest of raccoons because it ran right up and past one of the dogs.

We did our usual fishing in the creek and splashing in the creek...I have photos to prove it.

I have more, but I think I will put up a new photo album on the sidebar later.

We also went to visit my great grandmother. She lives in an assisted living facility, she was very excited to introduce all of us to her friends. My mom as her granddaughter, me as her great granddaughter and my four boys as her great great grandsons. She was very tickled at that. She does NOT like to have her picture taken and she let us take a few, then she started looking away and then she said that it was enough!! ha

We also took a few pictures outside of the Catholic church, here is one....
Okay I have to get ready to take the boys to soccer camp....
see ya

:o)

Long time, no post.  I know.
I finally have photoshop...ok, it is only elements, but still it is something!!  i can resize my photos...and rotate, but i swear everything i open up rotates the dang photos so i don't know which way to turn the darn things.

I finished a mini album of Jackson's 4th birthday.  He will be 7 in December, but hey, getting the 4th one done is something right?  It is super simple, but he likes it and carried it around tonight. This is the cover.  The other 2 photos I took of it are blurry.

Tonight Hayden hurt his toe.  Good thing Michelle was here when it happened, I don't do blood very well, especially when everyone comes in yelling that Hayden's toe is bleeding really bad.  Yikes!! That scared me.  So, we laid him on the couch with a wet paper towel to hold on it, gave him a blanket, turned on the tv and I gave him some motrin because he kept telling me how it hurt.  And I am sure it does.  He took a little chunk of skin up and I am pretty sure his toenail came up a bit too.  ICK.  And this is what I found a little later.  Him still curled up holding his foot...fast asleep.  Poor baby.  He has since woken up and seems to be recovering just fine.

Last week we went to VA for a family reunion.  I have tons of pictures, but I really want to play with photoshop a bit with them.  I know nothing about photoshop really, just what i play with, but I want to know what I am doing, not the guessing game I play.  I have downloaded some actions, but for the life of me I can't seem to get them installed.  I have googled and nothing is plain enough english for me.  Still working on that....
We also had a fun family gathering last night, why didn't I take any pictures???  We had mexican food...and played rock band!!  Too much fun. :o)

Oh, I need to add a funny PS. Today I picked up Peyton and Dalton from Kids Club. On the way home I heard Peyton tell Jackson..."I'm sorry, I don't have a very good mind. I got my mom's brain." Ha Ha Ha I about died laughing.

randoms

So, last night I was going to get dinner from Cracker Barrel.  I asked Hayden what he wanted.  He said he hated Cracka Barrel <no that isn't a typo> and he only likes eggs from there and it was too late for eggs.  I explained you could still get eggs at night.  So I said you want scrambled eggs?  And he said NO!  I just want regular eggs.  So I was like then how do you eat your eggs?  and he gave a laugh and said "with a fork, that's easy!"

I guess I walked right in to that huh?

Another thing Hayden said to me recently...I was holding him in my room and he was tired and I asked him if he wanted me to sing him the "baby song"...which in our world is "Hush little baby"...he said, no I am too big for that.  Ouch...that hit me right in the heart.  He said he was too big for the baby song?  That can't be true!  In the end, we went down to daddy's chair (rocker/recliner) and rocked and sang and realized he still liked it. Phew!

Then he had a song request.  You know mom the song where the guy is asleep and he wakes up....I had to think.  OH yeah!! Are you sleeping....Brother John....and we do the french version too.  :o)  See, he is still the baby!!!

I can't wait for this....

Camp Rock!!!  Premieres Friday Night!!
On Disney...does that make me lame??
Oh well, I can't help it...it just looks like a feel good movie.  I liked High School Musical 2...so I am sure I will like this.
I feel like HSM is a take off of Grease, and I am curious to see how Camp Rock plays out...from the clips I have seen, it reminds me of Dirty Dancing..with the lake setting, the dancing etc.  and I loved Dirty Dancing, loved it....I used to be able to quote almost the whole movie.  I probably still could if I turned it on and started watching it again.
On a scrapbooking note, I almost have my area completely put together...with the exception of some things linering in the closet of my old house, which I plan to get out next week.  But I think I can scrap in there now.  My 2 Making Memories totes are unloaded from Scrap Etc (from back in <cough> April) and I am excited to scrap again.
Have you checked out 2peas today?  Tia Bennett made the CUTEST album out of a Maya Road sheer album.  Oh my goodness, it made me want to run out to JoAnns and buy some plastic canvas and some yarn. You will have to check it out.  It is the Layout of the Day in the garden today, but if you are reading this and it isn't the 19th of June, just look in the garden under Tia Bennett's garden seeds and you are sure to see it.
I am wearing my new yellow converse today.  They are a yellow with little white polka dots, so fun.  I don't really have the clothes that go with that sort of thing, but I thought they were cute, so they are mine.  Eventually I will have a wardrobe worth wearing....I hope anyway.  Right now I am pretty down about my clothes and my weight.  I won't bore you with it, it is really the same ole same ole.  I have been trying to cut back on my sugar intake...replacing sugar with splenda in my ice tea and drinking water in restaurants instead of dr pepper.  Some other portion changes and I am down 6 pounds so far.  Not that you can look at me and tell, but I know and it helps to keep me motivated.
I guess that is all to report from the home front.
See ya!

let's see

if i can post those 3 pics it wouldn't let me post last night
darn thing kept shutting down on me!!

ok fine...

i have spent the last several nights googling and downloading and trying to rotate and resize pictures on this silly mac.  turns out if i upgrade my operating system to leopard i will be able to do it in iphoto.  barry says my birthday is coming....so i guess i have to wait until then.

so fine, i will just blog.

  on friday may 30, brooke (my cousin) had her baby girl Brooklyn Reese.
on saturday we went to kentucky to see her.  i took hayden and dylan with me, they were very excited to see her.  hayden has especially been waiting and was so anxious to finally see her.  since he knew we were spending the night, on the way there he said "i call sleeping with reese", it was so cute.  i had to explain that we were sleeping at brooke's and reese would be sleeping at the hospital.  he said lots of cute things that day.  like when i asked if he wanted us to have another baby, he said yes and i said you want mommy to have a baby? he said, no i want a baby named reese.

isn't this a cute picture?  a lot of my pictures lately are blurry, i am trying to figure out what is going on.  very frustrating!!

school is out, happy happy, joy joy!  well, mostly.  the fighting i could live without.  and everything i did today seemed to get undone rather quickly, so i was feeling a bit useless!!

okay is this typepad doing this????  it has closed like 4 times already?  i keep saving so i don't lose anything.  but i don't always beat it.  ugh.

so  a few more pictures.  dylan and hayden each snuggling with reese and hayden giving reese her first bunny ears in a picture! :o)

Finally Friday!

Happy Friday to you!

Last night my sweet husband took me to dinner for our anniversary.  We went to the Melting Pot where he had a dozen roses waiting for me on the table.  It was funny because I didn't realize they were for me, I just thought they had flowers on the table for decoration! Ha  Dinner was wonderful and fun too.  We had a good time.  Thanks to Beverly and Cecil for babysitting for us, we appreciated it SO much!

I bought some flowers yesterday and some things to hang a flower box off of a deck.  Instead of buying a box to go in it, I am using that coconut material they sometimes use for hanging baskets.  I finished one yesterday and I think it looks great.  I need to go out there this morning and finish the other one before it rains.  I hope to take a picture to share soon.

This afternoon Cody has a soccer tournament.  Have I mentioned that I didn't  take one single picture of him playing soccer for his middle school yet?  How terrible, how unscrapbookerlike of me.  Hopefully it won't rain and I can get a few of him in his uniform today.

Tonight my friends and I (Doris and Michelle & Ann if her campout is cancelled) are going to do a scrap caravan.  What is that you ask?  Well, all of my scrap crap (said in the most loving of ways) is still at my old house and well, I can't scrap so good that way.  So we are going to load it up and bring it here so I can get set up and maybe do some scrapping on National Scrapbook Day.  (That is Sat. for those of you who don't know!!)  I am so thankful for good friends who don't mind lending a hand to help me out!!  I am ready to get back in a scrapping groove!!

Alrighty, I need to get back to working on things here.

Ta-ta for now.