Happy New Year

It's New Year's Eve, as I type this....

This year, well it's been an interesting one. I've felt a bit off all year, but I've also taken on some exciting challenges. I'm working on my resolutions right now. Do you do resolutions? I usually complete some, but not all of them. This year I have some of the usuals - get fit (again), get organized (again), and try to be less of a yell-y mom (someday my kids will hear me when I speak in a normal tone. Right?)

In the coming year I want to accomplish a few things. I want to run a half marathon and I want to ride the 60 mile loop of the Wildflower. Last year I did the 30 all by myself. I hope to have roped in a partner for the 60 because that's a long way to ride all by myself. The run, not sure I can get someone to do that with me, but I'm going to try to get Jackie to do it. Shh, don't tell her, but she's also the rope-ee that I have in mind for the ride. Hee hee.
I was looking for some good graphics to use for my New Year posts for my Dating Dames and the Scented Life blogs. I have been finding some cool shots at All Posters.com. I can use them because it's a shop. That's something that I found out by working on TSL. I use shots all the time from Sephora or MAC or wherever and I just give credit at the bottom.

I love this New Year's Kiss. They are so lost in the moment and the photographer seemed more focused on the gentleman. I wonder what the story is here. I'd love to know.

This one looks like a fun party. That will be Max, Sarah, and I in a few minutes. Okay, well if you switch out fancy party clothes for pjs first. :D

Happy New Year to you!! Thanks for reading my blog.

Image credit for two New Years posters - All Posters.com

The Days Following Christmas Kind Of Run Together...

My nephew, Brad sitting quietly, studying Sarah's technique with the Guitar Hero. Look at his little fingers. My brother, also named, Brad, has the sweetest hands. He is a grown man and he uses his hands for his work laying tile, but there's something very young and child-like about his hands. I noticed yesterday that they look like Sarah's hands in a way. Maybe it's the roundness or them or the dimples. Anyway, I looked at them and instantly I remembered him as a baby. He was the sweetest little baby. Seems like it was just yesterday, not almost 30 years ago.

Here's his youngest son and his lovely wife. That baby, he has such an expressive face - smile, frown, smile, terror, smile, bigger smile. Very entertaining. :D

Here's another shot of Guitar-Hero-ing. Big hit, that game is.

Hayden in motion, pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down, pick it up, taste it, put it down, and on and on and on. He's got a job to do and he's darn serious about it.

A momentary rest, some eye contact and then he's back to work. See the one bare foot, he was gripping those toes over and over. Just thinking about it cracks me up.

Max and I are home alone tonight. It's so quiet without either of the girls. I think I'll go to bed and read.

The Day After Christmas

I have to make this very fast, because Sarah and I heading to bed.

My brother's family came for a visit today. It was the best day after Christmas that I've ever spent. Here's a shot of the kids playing with some moon sand. I got Brad Jr a set that includes this little plastic truck.
Hayden was in constant motion, until he fell asleep on his mom's lap. He's got the blur-thing going here.

Here's the whole family. Brad Jr by the front door, Ashlee leaning over talking to Dad, mom Shawna, and baby Hayden. And my feet. Can you see them? Pretty silly looking.

Here's a close-up of Hayden. He is such a handsome little guy. I couldn't use the flash - it made him cry, so it was hard to see if these shots were in focus. As you can tell, they really weren't, but my family is beautiful in spite of my faulty photography.

I hope you enjoyed your day, as well. Thank you for reading. :D

Surviving the Week

Hello. I haven't written in a week. I'm sorry. It's been kind of a tough week.

Our guinea pig got sick all of a sudden. He wouldn't eat and I fed him with a syringe - water and applesauce (he likes apples). The next morning he seemed a bit better, but still very subdued. I made him up a box and he sat next to me all day while I did my work on the computer.

Well, it ends up that he wasn't better and that afternoon he died. It was so sad. I could tell when it was time to go, he leaned to the side and it looked like he was trying to squeak. Sarah and I petted him and told him that he was a brave boy and a good friend. We told him that he was strong and handsome and sweet. He looked pretty peaceful, but it was heart-breaking. I wouldn't want him to hang on just for us if he was hurting, but it's so quiet here without his squeaking. I miss that little guy.

The whole thing happened so quickly. I think he just got to be an old guy - he always seemed like a youngster, all hyper and super-fast romaine chomping. The romaine would give him a green beard. So cute.

I still feel so out of sorts. Bay was gone when it happened and Whoobie was officially her pet. He slept in her room for years. When she came home, she cried, but then she seemed okay. That is until she and my mom got into an argument last night and she slammed into her room. She has messed her doorway up over the years and it's all loose. The frame moves back and forth. This time, she slammed it so that I couldn't get it open at first. Darn kid.

This morning the kids enjoyed their Christmas, I think. Sarah and I looked outside and all the reindeer food was gone. Do you make reindeer food? They like to eat oats and glitter. It's so pretty when you toss it out, sparkles in the lights. Reindeer get pretty hungry with all that flying. Sarah slept in until 10:30. Can you believe that? She and I were up until midnight tracking Santa on NORAD. So hard to go to sleep when you know that he is coming.

I better get busy now. Happy holidays to you!!

I'm Building Me A Love Altar

I had an interesting horoscope today. So interesting - to me - that I wrote about - me!! - at Dating Dames. Anywhere, here it is:

Happy Holy Daze, Leo!
If I could give you one gift for the holidays, it might be a magic object
to add to your love altar -- something like a pomegranate resting on red velvet,
or a golden heart-shaped magnet, or Pablo Neruda's book 100 Love Sonnets. What?
You don't have a love altar? Well then please begin creating one as soon as
possible, and continue building it throughout 2009. For the next 12 months, the
time will be right to get smarter, wilder, and kinder in your approach to
creating intimate connection.

I like it. I think I'm going to build that Love Altar. What can it hurt? I'll make it pretty.

My daughter has a tattoo. Seriously. I had no idea. Last night she raised her arm, her shirt slipped up and I said, "What is that?!" and it was a tattoo that her friend Mia gave her with her very own tattoo-making-whatever-you-call-it, because doesn't every freshman in high school need their very own tattoo -making -thingy??

I was upset, but what can I do? It's there. It's permanent. It's a tattoo.

It's messy, too. And big. The bottom is all smudgy. So, now it needs to be fixed. Why couldn't she wait one and a half years, when she will be 18, so that she could get it done by someone who was not 14 years old? I didn't punish her because I know that she has to look at it and go, "what was I thinking??"

She exhausts me.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for 2008. I'm looking forward to the break, but I'm going to miss the kids. Sleeping in a bit, now that's going to be good. I do love sleep.

Ruby Tuesday Geraniums

Happy Ruby Tuesday! I still have some color on the patio - my Geraniums. I used to have a candy-stripe colored plant, but it froze a few years ago. It was so pretty, white in the center, red along the edge. I think I'll look for another one this Summer.

Summer.........sigh......

These Geranium's are "men's red." I wrote about men and red at Dating Dames once. Apparently, men are drawn to an orange-red and women prefer a bluer-red. What do you think? I've even heard women say, ooh, I don't like orange-red. Personally, any red is a good red to me, but yeah, I prefer the bluer-red.

One time, we were camping at Fort Bragg, over in Mendocino, and against the campground's bathroom building, there was a HUGE red Geranium plant. It was bush-like, came out about 3 feet and my sister and I were eye-level with the top of the plant. I keep thinking, wait, didn't it go all the way to the roof, but I think I'm exaggerating in my memory there. Anyway, it was huge and beautiful and instantly made me think of my mom, as red Geraniums always do. Mom loves red. And Geraniums.

The Spinlash giveaway is still open at The Scented Life, if you are interested in entering. Right now, your odds are better than 1 in 5 to win. I'm just sayin'............

Happy Ruby Tuesday to you and if you'd like to participate or view the photos of other participants, please visit Mary over at Work of the Poet.

Baby's 1st Christmas

I was playing around with my camera the other day, something that I've not had a lot of time to do lately. I was trying to take a shot of a candle that I was reviewing, I wanted to show it lit because the holder was so pretty.

I don't know the trick to taking low light photos. I tried changing the shutter speed and that was interesting. Then, because I had the camera in my hand, I started pointing it at pretty much anything in the room. Do you do that? It reminds me of when I start watering the garden and pretty soon I've sprayed off the entire patio, including the overhead spiderwebs because it's just so darn much fun to play with the house.

Later, after I drove Bay over to Greg's house, I held the phone in my lap and would put it up and shoot blindly down the dark road in front of me. The lights looked like streams, slippery, swirly, stripes.
I decided to try some closer shots of my tree, which got tricky because I couldn't tell if the camera was fully in focus. Can you see me in the pink bulb below?

One of our family traditions is the Baby's 1st Christmas ornaments. Here is Sarah's ornament, from 1998.

And Bailey's little bear from 1992.

Max's ornament is a little harder to see. It's a white baby bottle. Can you see it? It's in the middle. Max's first Christmas was 1990. That was probably my most exciting Christmas ever. I can remember opening all my presents with my tiny little boy in my lap.

Mom got all the ornaments for me. I'm very excited about the holidays this year. I think we are going to do a bunch of baking this weekend. We make chocolate chip cookies, decorated sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, fudge....... and I think we'll do something else, something new. Maybe some sort of brittle. Any suggestions?

I still haven't heard from Steve. I have an ad up at Match.com, thinking that if he doesn't want me, doesn't want to continue to pursue a committed relationship maybe it's time to move on. But he never said he didn't want one, he just said he did not know about the future right now. I'm so confused. I want him, but he does this out of contact thing that makes me crazy. It hurts to be ignored. For days. For weeks. Doesn't he feel that I'm interesting? I don't want anyone else, but I feel like an ass sitting up here on the shelf for so long.

So, I made an ad and I really think I'm very relieved that nobody else wants me either and that's why I'm baking and taking picture after picture of my tree. I'm focusing on Christmas. I bought Max a little iPod Shuffle. Shh, don't tell him. He's going to love it. I hope.

Interested in Some FREE Mascara??

Today Bay and I got to do something very fun. We got to try the new Spinlash mascara with the spinning applicator brush. We loved it. It stays very soft and flexible, not sticky. I liked that. I'm giving away 4 of the Spinlashes at The Scented Life.

Come check out our before and afters and leave me a comment. I will be choosing 4 random commenters to win a Spinlash mascara of their own. Here's Bay with the mascara on.
She has some fancy lashes even without makeup. I haven't had lashes like that since I was 16.

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to take some senior photos for some girls that Mom knows. I'm very excited. To practice, I took some shoots of my super special senior boy, Max. Here he is waiting for the schoolbus on the front porch.

Now, I'm off to give him some medicine before bed. I hope that you have a wonderful evening/day.

A Very Girly Christmas

I took some photos of my family's Christmas decorations. For most of my life, I did the traditional real tree with a bunch of collected multi-colored balls, including many that were used when iIwas a kid or were made by me. Then, one year I was at Walmart and I saw the cutest little tree all done up in pink, purple, and a funky lime-green. I loved it! So, I picked up a little tree, set it up on a table (eek, so not what we did growing up), and I decorated the rest of the place in girly colors. My little tree saved me so much money and I liked the idea that I wasn't hurting any live trees.

I usually put shells in this glass vase. I really like the bubbles in the glass. You can see my little white tree in the background, above.

I know that a pink, purple, and blue is not for everybody, but I really enjoy it. It's fun to change things up - to hang purple stockings and ropes of pretend pearls (I hung those above the artwork in my living room).

Here's the tree. It's almost like an Easter tree, in a way. I couldn't take a photo that didn't wash out the pink glow with the stronger flash. Trust me when I saw that it's pretty.

I hope that my kids enjoy Christmas this year. I'm trying so hard to make it special, but I can feel myself starting to slip into a sad place. I miss my boyfriend and I'm pissed at him, too. I miss my Grandparents and I worry about how the holiday is going to be for my Grandma. This will be her first Christmas without Grandpa.

Mom, it's going to hard for Mom, too.

Sometimes the holidays can be tricky. There'a a lot of pressure involved, pressure to make things nice and memorable. Special. I look forward to them, sure, but there's also a part of me that wants them to hurry up and be over. I'm really fighting that part of me right now.

I'm going to sit back and enjoy my pink Christmas. I'm determined.

Ruby Tuesday - Pencils

I haven't taken part in Mary, the Teach's Ruby Tuesday for awhile. So, I shot my box of colored pencils this morning. I haven't used any of them in so long. I have the Prisma colors and some watercolor pencils - I love these pencils, but I haven't used them for awhile. The top of the box was very dusty. I think I'll get them out this weekend. Sarah and I can draw something fun.

I bet a lot of people are going to have holiday decorations for their Ruby Tuesday shots. That wouldn't work for me - my decorations are white, pink, purple, and blue. Bay came home and said, "It's so girly in here!" and it is. I'll post some photos of the decorations later.

Do you color with the traditional red and green or do you like to mix it up?

The Happening, With Toots

Bettie Page is ill. Did you hear? Did you know that she's 85? In my mind she's still the young girl with the bangs. Someday, when I know what I'm doing and I have a studio, I'd like to have a set up where I could do fun pin-up type photos for ladies. Sort of like the way they used to do those makeover glamour shots with the pink frou frou wraps back in the late '80s.

Leah came over to watch a movie with Max, Sarah, and me tonight. It was nice to have company - I was so excited that I ran right out to buy snacks. Leah brought the movie, The Happening . It was interesting. I like Mark Wahlberg - he's cute and he has this low, soft voice. Very effective. I'm not clear on some parts of the movie and I won't talk about it here in case you have not seen it and plant to at some time.

Sarah kept tooting. And tooting. And tooting. She finds this hil-ar-i-ous. I do not. I think that the first one embarrassed her, but we giggled, so she kept it up. I love my girl, but I wish she was not so crazy about the body humor. Poop jokes, toots, boogies, barfing on the cartoons - that kid loves it all.

Time to get the tooter and her brother to bed. I wish you are good evening/day/morning!

Wednesday - Just checking in!

It's time to get moving again. I have turned into a couch potato. Okay, I have always been a couch potato - I was temporarily an active person. I want to be an active person AGAIN!

I wrote about The Flat Belly Diet over at Veggie Chic last night - ran across it over at Prevention.com while surfing around trying to think of something to write about. I did the first of 3 day Jumpstart, but I went nuts this evening. Something about the word "diet" makes me wonky. I get a headache. I crave pretzels, then I think, okay they are only pretzels, so I eat them, then I eat some more, then Sarah goes to a Christmas party and brings me back some goodies and I eat them, too........so really, getting active is the way to go.
Here's a sleepy shot of Sarah before our 5k on Thanksgiving. We were active on Thanksgiving, at least. ;D

Sarah got to ride in a horse-drawn carriage tonight. Pretty cool, don't you think?

I'm off to make some dinner now. I wish you a wonderful day/night!

Blogging Postcards

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Tell your blogging buddies that their blog rocks...or send them the
ULTIMATE comment in the form of a postcard!

Maybe you want to buy a set and send it to another blogger to surprise them
and "pay it forward."THE FIRST THREE PEOPLE WHO ORDER WILL GET 12 POSTCARD STAMPS FREE! No need to do anything...if you are one of the first 3, i will automatically send the stamps with your order!

Sunday is for Holiday Gift Guides

Hello. I'm not feeling sorry for myself today, which is a relief.

Today, I worked on sharing the links to the shopping pages that the people that I work with have compiled. (Wow, that was a very awkward sentence). I have 3 blogs at b5media, and I belong to two different channels, so it was a total of 6 link guides. If you are interested in seeing any of them (some are really very cool), then you could find a link from one of my blogs The Scented Life, Veggie Chic, or Dating Dames.

I signed up for a bunch of beauty sites when I got the job at The Scented Life and every day I've got email for free offers or super savings. One of the best is the one they have at Sephora, called Beauty Insiders. They sent me a code for $15 off of a $35 purchase. I've read that other people have used the offer on a smaller than $35 order. Pretty tricky. If you are a fan of beauty products (toys for grown-up girls) then check in with me at The Scented Life. I put new savings up every day lately. Apparently, people shop a lot this time of the year. Go figure............

Time to get moving again. I hope that you've enjoyed your day.

Not At My Best

It's late-ish on Saturday. I'm feeling funky.

I feel good about a lot of what I'm doing right now. I am glad that I'm writing again - I missed it when I was away. I feel excited about what I'm learning with the photography. Max is doing okay. Bay is doing okay. Sarah is Sarah. I'm going to be able to give my family a Christmas. Gas is now officially "cheap". My mom is still talking about the meal that I made for Thanksgiving. These are all good things.

I just wrote this whole paragraph about why I think I'm going to be single forever, but it was pitiful and I don't want to be pitiful, so I deleted it. I want to feel proud of myself, but it's very hard right now. I feel absolutely unlovable and icky. I hate feeling this way. It might be hormones or maybe it's just the truth. Bleech. It doesn't help that my head hurts so bad that I'm nauseous.

A year ago I had so much hope for the future. I was very excited about moving to Oregon, to live with my high school sweetheart. I had no idea that everything would blow up so badly - it felt very right at the time. I was certain that if I lived unselfishly and keep my focus on what would be good for all of us - Steve, me, my kids, his kids - it would all go well. Sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you try, it just does not work. Or maybe it's that I don't work. It doesn't help when your partner gives up on basically everything.

Oh well. Maybe I don't get this dream, I don't get a partner. I'm okay - I've been doing this on my own since Max was less than 2 and Bay was only a few months old. I can do this alone forever, if necessary.

I'm going to work on being a better mom. It occurred to me this morning that Sarah will soon be in the pushing-me-away stage. I need to enjoy this time while I can. I waste too much time saying, "Honey, I need to get some work done first." I mentioned this to Bay and Bay said, "Don't worry, you've got another year." A year? Oh boy.

I want to get my work organized, so that I can find the time to exercise again. It felt great to run with Sarah. I would like it to become a habit for us again. We haven't hiked in a long time or gone on a bike ride in more than a month. These are habits that are good for our health, as well as our happiness.

Okay, maybe I will be single forever, but that will leave me more time to give Max what he's going to need. As he gets older, his health is going to be challenging. I don't want to feel guilty because I'm torn between him and a man. He trusts me to be there for him always and I will never let him down.

Bay, she's going to be fine no matter what. She didn't make the same connection with Steve that the rest of us did. She has her boyfriend and that's where her head is right now.

Okay, I've just about talked myself through this, but honestly, my heart is a bit fragile and I'm worried about him way more than I am worried about myself. I know that I will be okay. I hope that he will be, as well, but I have my doubts.

Sarah and I Run For Food

For the second time, Sarah and I did The Run For Food. A 5K event that benefits The Jesus Center - a facility that provides aid to homeless people.

We had a good time, but every time I do something like this, I am reminded that my daughter needs more time playing outside and less time sitting in front of the computer. An overweight, 42-year-old mom should not be able to run circles around her 10-year-old daughter. :( I will fix that. It's my new purpose. I want to not be able to keep up with that kid.

Here we are before the race. We got there just before it started - our clock apparently needs a battery and it was later than I thought. Oops. The announcer said that there were more than 2200 entrants this year.

Here's a shot of the crowd. Everyone was so excited and chatty. I saw a lady lean in and sing to her husband - lots of music - and it was so sweet that it gave me goosebumps.

This approximately the midway point. We cross the creek and go back the other way. It's a 5K event.

After the race I took this and it has a curious whirly feel that I thought was kind of cool. It makes me dizzy to look at it.

Here we are at the end. Hurray!!! Look how pink our faces are. Time to go home and start the pies.......in theory, anyway. Instead I uploaded the photos. I gotta be me. The pies will get done.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Today was a big Bay Day. I took her down to the Dr, to discuss what was behind her recent fainting spell. Her Dr, also Max's Dr (and soon to be Sarah's), is a pediatrician. She is incredibly thorough (and smart). She questioned Bailey about her diet, her medications, what she ate or drank, how much water she had, if she felt funny when she stood up, how her ears were affected by the fainting............ she covered pretty much anything and everything.

In the end, after much examination and blood pressure tests in various positions, the Dr decided that it was probably due to a problem with Bay's inner ear. That's what regulates balance. She also explained the importance of eating correctly so that she doesn't suffer from low blood sugar. I've spoken with Bay about nutrition time and again, but I'm Mom, what do I know?

Bay hates it when she learns that I'm right about yet another thing. Hee hee. I love it.

Here is a photo of Bay with her boyfriend, Greg, at the dance that they attended a couple of weekends ago. I cannot get over those legs.

I found this one while looking for some Bay shots for this post. This is Bailey standing next to my nephew, Chance, at the creek. I need to get over there. I look forward to floating in this water in about..........6 months. Possibly 7. Ahhh......

I missed Ruby Tuesday this week!!! Darn it! I hope that you all had fun.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, if you haven't already. I'd really like to give you that photo! ;D

Now I'm off to bed, because I'm out of time - today is now tomorrow!

Protecting Our Children

This evening, I found this in my email - Protecting My Child’s Innocence « MrsG’s Other Life . Mrs G is a fellow b5media blogger, living in New Zealand, and today her daughter was a victim of some disturbing racism. She is hoping that by reading about her family experience, people will stop and think about the way they act in front of children. Careless words can turn into something bitter and ugly in time.

Please read what she has to say and really think about it. Words can hurt. In my own family, we have some phrases that we are sensitive about, because of my boy Max. People throw around words like "retard" without any thought. I see my girls flinch when this happens.

It's been awhile since we had to deal with much in the way of prejudice, but I can remember a time like the day three boys (a friend of a friend's children) were standing in front of Max, making fun of his teeth. He had a problem with gum over-growth from one of his anti-seizure medications and it made his gums look huge - you couldn't see his teeth.

I was horrified and really, really pissed when I noticed what they were doing. I can remember smiling and then just.....freezing. We were trying to enjoy our town's annual Kite Day Celebration. The thoughtlessness of those young boys changed everything - turned something fun into something heart breaking.

It's silly and not the fault of the kites, of course, but I've never taken my kids back. We fly out kites out by on the grass by our apartment.

Catching Up on Monday

I'm having trouble uploading pictures today, so I'm going to skip it for right now. We had an interesting weekend around our house.

Friday, I met my girlfriends for a viewing of Twilight. I was so worried about the tickets selling out (they did) that I went down to the theater at 1:30 and picked them up. We arrived very early, waited in line, I handed out the tickets, and my ticket was not a ticket, but a receipt! I panicked. I switched out purses - my fault, darn it, I wanted to sneak in a water - and it was in the other purse.

I ran to the ticket office and explained that when I bought the tickets, the girl said, "Here are your tickets," handed me a strip of 4 connected tickets, and then, "and here is your receipt," a single small piece of paper. That's the part that I left behind.

Luckily, I was able to talk them into letting me in. I told them that I would pay for another ticket, whatever it took, but for some reason they decided to believe me. I guess I should thank my believable mom-face for that.

Saturday, Sarah and I sold nuts for the Girl Scouts, outside Trader Joes. We had a lot of fun selling the nuts with her former Brownie troop leader and her daughter. I always dread these booth sales, but they are usually fun. I get to chat with another mom for awhile, the girls have fun.

Saturday night, I dropped Bay off at one place, but she was supposed to spend the night at another place. She did not check in, did not respond to my texts or phone calls. I was very concerned. And pissed. Finally, after midnight she checked in.

Sunday, Sarah and I went to see Twilight. I liked it much better the second time that I saw it. I was prepared for the changes to the story and I enjoyed the opportunity to stare at that handsome boy for an additional few hours. (Honestly, I am adding him to my movie star boyfriend list).

I got a call from Bay's work (Round Table Pizza). Bay said that she had fallen at work, could I pick her up. Heck yeah. I raced over there and was told that she had either fainted or had a seizure. Oh boy. I took her over to get something to eat immediately. I don't think that she ate much over the weekend, I can't be sure, as she spent most of her time away from home.

I'm making an appointment for her to see her Dr today. She has a bump on the back of her head and a really bruised elbow from the fall. That kid scares the stuffing out of me. All the time. People think that Max must be a challenge, but he has never been the challenge that Bay has been. I love her like crazy, but it is exhausting to be her mom.

Okay, now on to business..... I am holding a giveaway over at my Veggie Chic blog. To enter, go to Veggie Chic, click on the post about the giveaway, leave a comment there, and I will pick a random winner on Black Friday (this coming friday). I will be giving away one of the photos from my Etsy shop.

I'm going to go lay down with a book for about 30 minutes now. I have a really busy day ahead of me and I woke up well before dawn because I could not sleep. I'm so worried about Bailey. I need a little break before I continue my work day. My head hurts.

I'm Looking At You!

Boo! Bailey took this for me today. I needed a picture of my eye before and after a mascara trial. We did that with one made up eye and one not made up eye. I kept blinking, so this is me opening wide. Scary, a little. If you want to see it, the post is here. I think that the mascara is very effective, by the way.

My eyes are different colors. I hadn't noticed that until the photo today. I guess it's similar to the way the two sides of your face don't line up. Well, except for Amber Valletta - her face is almost completely symetrical.

Tomorrow, my girlfriends and I are going to see Twilight. I am very excited! I read the book this Summer - my sister had it shipped to me, she loved it so much, and apparently me, too ;D. I'm rereading it now, in time for the movie. I'm also reading the memoir of Paula Deen. She is a much spicier lady than I thought.

Wow, Bay and I just had a very loud exchange. She brought out this huge (HUGE) basket of dirty clothes. I told the girls that they are now in charge of their own laundry and I think she's rewashing instead of folding clean c........ she just knocked over the cofffee pot. Gotta go.

I Won An Award!

I won my first ever blog award! I am very excited!! I received it from Dianne over at Forks Off Tthe Moment. She is a peach, that's for sure. I've enjoyed getting to know her through her blog and I look forward to getting to know her even more.

I love writing this blog. I started it last Spring and my goal was to write something every day. I used to write freelance, but after a long break, I was finding it hard to get back into the writer's head space. It worked - I now have 3 regular paying jobs blogging.

This week I started the newest blog Veggie Chic. I am a little overwhelmed work-wise and currently unable to keep up this blog the way I'd like. I am going to work on a system, a better way to organize my time, because this blog is my fun time and I want to continue to meet cool people like Dianne.

And now I'd like to pass this award onto a few of those cool ladies.

Eliza, of Homemom, is my oldest internet buddy. I first met Eliza more than 9 years ago. She's a great friend. In addition to Homemom, she writes Babylune a blog for pregnant or new moms.

My buddy, Leah, does not have a blog, but I'm hoping that she will start one soon. She takes some great photos and we had fun shooting Lake Almanor together. When she starts her own blog, I hope she puts this award on it. Or maybe she could put it on her MySpace. That would work.

(i)Post, of Nine Miles North of Nowhere, is my one and only subscriber. I appreciate that so much every time I see her lone name sitting there. She's an incredible photographer and is going to be teaching an online photography class very soon. I think she's still got some room available, if you want to check out Nine Acres Photography.

Okay, I hope that this entry made sense. My tired brain is a little slippery right now. If I haven't got to your Ruby Tuesday today, I promise to get to it tomorrow.

Ruby Tuesday - Christmas in November

Here are some more photos from my portrait session with the Yorks. Ruby Tuesday is hosted by Mary, The Teach at her blog, Work of the Poet .

This first one, well it's not red, but it is pretty impressive. Today, I was showing the photos to Mom and she told me that her parents told her, "Don't wiggle it," because they were afraid it would fall out before the photos. That cracks me up!

Shawna had some Christmas decorations for us to use as props. The kids loved them, although Hayden was not a fan of laying down here. Crying baby photos are so cute.

I got this one, the only one without him crying in the lay down position, just in time. They are so darn pretty. I love these kids. I hope that Shawna and Brad like the photos.

The boys liked tasting these balls. Don't worry, they are not glass. We watched them very close.

I got to start Veggie Chic today. WooHoo!! Only a "hello" and some background on my previous writing, but.....well, it will get better.

Happy Ruby Tuesday!!!

Sunday with the Yorks - My First Family Portrait Session

I had the opportunity today.....err, well yesterday, as it's in the very early hours of Monday, to do a family portrait session with my brother's beautiful family. I had so much fun. I was nervous, as this was my first official job, but as soon as I got behind the camera, my nerves just went away.

My brother's kids are gorgeous. Here is my favorite shot of the day, so far - I'm only 1/4 of the way through the editing. This is Brad Jr. Look at those eyelashes - the sun caught them here. This is Brad and his lovely wife, Shawna. Shawna is the one who asked me to do the photos. There was a funny moment here where Shawna was saying, "Lets try one like this....... " and then she made a comment that I so wish I had caught on my brother's face. Dagnabit! I do think that the way they are looking at each other here, well it's very loving. They were high school sweethearts, too.

My youngest nephew is Hayden. His older sister, Ashlee, and his older brother, Brad, are constantly loving on that boy. Hugging him, kissing him, it's all about the little brother. I love to see close sibling relationships like that. My brother is almost 13 years younger than I am, so I was this way with him. He was the best baby - sweet and cuddily. I need to find a photo of him........ I'll get back to you with that. He was the best surprise of my childhood.

Heres's a taste of the devilish charm I saw today. These two crack me up. I was showing Sarah the photos and she laughed so hard, making up commentary as we went through all the photos.

Here they are all together in their backyard. The kids love this yard - they have so much room to run about. What do you think of the boy's matching outfits? Those hats, so darn cute. I have a lot more that I will share later in the week. I had so much fun shooting these guys. I hope that they had fun, too.