Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Ruby Tuesday - Ruby Sarah

Well, it's Ruby Tuesday time again. For more Ruby Tuesday participants, there's a whole list over at the Teach's site www.workofthepoet.blogspot.com

I'm going with the little bit of red theme here. Can you see Sarah in this photo below? She has a red shirt on. This was taken today at the school Sarah attends and where I work. I did some ttv photos today, after reading a post at www.shuttersisters.com
Here's Sarah again. She's swinging her purse on the bike path. She is so darn cute.
Sarah is again at our school here. Check out that tree. It looks so Fall-like, but the temperature was in the 90s today.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sloppy Sunday

I've had the weirdest day. I started out good- gave Max a shave and a haircut, but then I pooped out. I've spent the rest of the day on the couch either doing computer stuff or trying to figure out GIMP or watching season one of Alias. I'm so bored that I've got a headache. I always tell my kids that being bored is a luxury, but honestly, it doesn't feel very luxurious right now.

Maybe I should get Sarah to take a bike ride with me? We could ride down to the school and shoot baskets. Or I could read, but I'm not in love with any of the things I'm reading right now. I'd like to be reading the 3rd book in the Twilight series, but I'm waiting for paperback.

Sarah has been doing puzzles today. And games were her thing yesterday. I think she is of the opinion that I am boring.

Okay, enough. Time to get busy. Sarah has Girl Scouts tomorrow and I need to update the patches on her vest.

Then, I need to make soup for dinner.

Clean my room a bit.

And fold a huge mountain of laundry.............................

Here's a couple of pictures that I took last week with Sarah. Look how she's plugging her nose as she jumps. She is so cute.

Here's a close shot of the bridge. I love these bridges. They look old, but this one has been around probably less than 10 years. It's lovely.

Time to get busy. I hope that you have enjoyed your weekend. And if you have any GIMP advice, I'm all ear. Or eyeballs, because that's really more accurate.

And that reminds me, have you seen the photo of Heather Locklear from her arrest (was on the AOL welcome page), that woman is all eyeballs for sure. I hope she will be okay.

Blogtoberfest Call For Prizes


The company that I write the Dating Dames blog for, b5Media, is having a two-week event in October called Blogtoberfest. During the event, b5Media bloggers will be offering prizes to readers. It's an opportunity for people to get their wares and/or services a bit of publicity throughout the b5Media Lifestyles network. The network includes blogs on a large variety of subjects.

For more on Blogtoberfest, including contact info, please look at b5media Lifestyles Channel - Blogtoberfest Call For Prizes! That's a link to my Dating Dames blog where last week I talked about a free few days at Chemistry.com, cheating, science and how to use it to avoid infidelity, National Unmarried and Single Americans week, as well as how my boyfriend is The Man (the fisherMAN).

You know, I think I'm going to get something ready and offer it up as a prize. Why not? I've got to jump in at some point. Right? I've I want to be a photographer, at some point I've got to BE a photographer.

Friday, September 26, 2008

No Luck With Updates This Week


I've tried to update a few times this week, but for some reason my photos would not upload, so I skipped it. Sarah and I took some pictures while on a bike ride the other day. I will post them tomorrow.
For now, Sarah is shown above, right beside the bike path and an actual Fall-looking tree. Woohoo- Fall!! It's still very warm here, was 92 today, but that's a whole lot better than 102. :D

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Ruby Tuesday - Pink and Red Flower

Once again, it's Ruby Tuesday, which is hosted by The Teach at www.workofthepoet.blogspot.com.

Today I have one pink and red flower held in the hand of my sweet Sarah. And an update about the boy who broke his arm... he is back in school and the bone was set with a pin. He now has special permission to bring a checkers game out to recess. He has his choice of many checkers partners as his pals all crowd around him. His cast is full of signatures and he's smiling once again. He's such a brave boy.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Weekend in the Mountains

This weekend, the kids and I drove up to Lake Almanor with my good friend, Leah. We stayed the night with another good friend, Jackie, and her son Wyatt. We had a wonderful time talking and laughing and relaxing and eating.

Jackie lives in a beautiful area. This is the view off of her back deck. There are huge trees all around her and it was so quiet. The first day, there were about 4 cars that went by on the road. The second day, only 2. Sarah loved Jackie's dog, Ally. She was so sweet. Sarah loves dogs. At one point, Sarah was laying beside Ally and Ally put her paw up on Sarah. Like a hug or something. I tried to get a picture of it, but she moved when I walked over to her.
Jackie drove Leah and me down to the boat launch area. There were beautiful views in every direction. The sky seemed bluer and the clouds were fluffier. Leah said it was because we were closer to the sky, up there in the mountains. Sounds believeable to me. :D
Then, we drove out to the pennisula. This was taken from the west side of the pennisula. I don't know if they have these plants, or weeds if you want to call them that, all over the country, but they are something that I always associate with Northern California. When I was a kid, we lived in Orange County, in Southern California. So much of it was developed and I didn't see plants like star thistle (ick) or wildflowers or manzanita.
Here's another shoot of the boat ramp area. Doesn't that water look cold? Leah and I were so relieved to be in cooler temperatures. When we got home, I walked her to the door and she said, "Feel that?" and there it was, the heat again.
It was so lovely to visit with good friends. My kids had a blast and we all enjoyed Jackie's son, Wyatt. That kid, he is hilarious and also very sweet. I asked him if he could shoot some baskets with Sarah because she wants to play basketball with the parks and recreation district and he took her down to his hoop. He did this funny Urkel imitation and Leah taped it. I wonder if I can find out how to post it here.........hhmmm, I'll ask Leah.



Friday, September 19, 2008

Sometimes They Break An Arm

First let me say that these photos are not of the kids at school. They are of Owen and some neighbor boys.

Today, at school, a little boy broke his arm.

It was during the third and final recess of lunch - we break the kids into 3 seperate groups. Every recess was busy and I gave out a lot of passes to the nurse when kids, mostly boys, would do things like get hit in the head with a ball or tun into pole. I've noticed that boys are very hard on their heads.

I noticed that the kids were all grouped around a boy, lying on his back, under the bars. As I approached the bars - at a run - another student reached me and said that the boy had hurt his arm. I could see immediately that it was broken. It hang noodle-like just past his left wrist. It was terrifying to find him broken in that way. He is such a little guy - a second grader, 7 years old - and he was not crying, but moaning and saying, no, no, not again. I cannot express how hard it was to hold back the tears. I stayed beside him, radioed for help, and waited with the boy. My partner, he tried to move the kids away, to give the boy room, but they were curious and concerned. I heard him snap at the children, something that I have very rarely heard before, so I knew that he was very concerned.

The bell rang and the boy's teacher, she had the class line up along the edge of the playground and I could see some of the girls crying. I asked him about sports, what his favorite color was, what color his last cast was, what color he would like this time, what movied he'd like to watch this weekend, pretty much anything I could think of in an attempt to distract him. At first, he kept trying to move his hand, with the other hand, sort of testing it's brokeness. I said, honey leave it alone, leave it be. It scared me the way he'd do that and he'd say, it burns, it stings. I tried to support the elbow of the broken arm, so that he could hold it in a neutral position, across his chest, and I held the hand of the unbroken arm. I was worried about him making it somehow worse.
When his mom arrived, she was shaking. Apparently, she was working in the class all morning and had only returned home for lunch. I tried to reassure her, said, you are doing good, Mom, but she just looked at me blankly. It's hard to know what to do first or next in a situation like that. Your child is in agony, looking to you to fix it, and you need professional help, no bandaid is going to fix a noodle-arm. Oh man.

Bay has broken two bones, neither this bad, but Max, that boy has scared the crap out of me more times that I can remember with his seizures and turning blue. Children, they are so fragile.

I know that working during recess or in the cafeteria might seem like a simple job, but I take caring for other people's children very seriously. This little boy, he was so brave and so scared at the same time. I feel as if I'm going to hold a picture of him in my head forever now. I know that I'm going to be watching him very closely on the playground, afraid that he will break again.

I hope he's resting quietly now and that his mom is better able to relax. Poor little guy. He's going to miss playing with his soccer team, The Half-Pints tomorrow. He told me that they had a game. :(

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Wordless Wednesday - Storm Coming In



( All those clouds....... little bitty bit of rain).

Ruby Tuesday Location

For some reason, my make a post box will not save an edit for me. Grrr. Here's what I'm trying to say...... For more Ruby Tuesday posts, go check out The Teach's blog at www.workofthepoet.blogspot.com

Ruby Tuesday: Super Slip-n-Slide

Today is Ruby Tuesday, hosted by The Teach over on her blog, www.workofthepoet.blogspot.com.

Here's some photos of the huge slip-n-slide that so many kids enjoyed at the big party at my apartments last weekend. It had red stripes around the sides. It's a combination bounce house/water toy. The lady who was running it would say, "Go!" and the kids would run as fast as they could, then leap forward, onto their bellies, and slide all the way to the other end.
They'd come out the other end, then run as fast as they could back to the line, in order to get another turn. The lady tried to keep them spaced apart pretty well, but the bigger boys, these guys were about 14 or 15, they would jumble together and smash into each other at that end wall. The line was fairly long, but it moved briskly.

Here's a closer shot of a child's face. She has just ended her slide and she's thrilled.
I didn't take a run at the slide, but I'm a big fan of the traditional ones. For more Ruby Tuesday posts, check out the list at the Teach's site, http://www.workofthepoet.blogspot.com/.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sunday Night, Last Minute Post

More photos from the party. Here's Sarah hiding behind a monkey ballon. I don't think that I put this one up yesterday. Here's Alex with some cotton candy. Sarah brought me a blue one. It was the first cotton candy that I'd eaten since Bay's 5th birthday. I imagine that the cotton candy lady goes home with it everywhere, it sort of floats on the wind. I was behind Alex when she walked away with hers and that traily-tail that's hanging from the bottom, it went all the way down her back and almost to the ground. Messy stuff.
Here's a couple of Spider-Mans. Or would that be Spider-Men? Whatever you call them, these little guys were adorable. I'm a big Spider-Man fan.
This one is so serious and he has a mohawk. See what I mean? Adorable.
That is all. I'm sick and I'm going to bed.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Party Day

Big party in my neighborhood today. I have so many pictures that it's going to take me quite a few days to share them all. Our apartment management throws a tenet appreciation day once a year. They go all out and this year was even out-ier. They had two bounce houses, another bounce house/slip-n-slide combo, a clown who painted faces and did balloon animals, a bbq, a DJ, games for the kids, a raffle with seriously cool and useful prizes, a dunk tank, cotton candy, and snow cones.

Here's my pal, Karlee, who you may have seen in kitty face before, back when we went to the ballgame last June. This face, I can't help but smile when I look at it.
Here's the clown who did the face painting. She's working on Alana here. I'm not a fan of clowns. I think that they are creeping and I don't get the appeal of a painted on face that looks like a scary monster. This clown, she was nothing like that. She was so darn cute. She reminded me of Rainbow Brite.
See what I mean? Mom took her card and she's going to recommend her for the functions they do for the kids at her work. This is the first time in 10 years that we did not have the same male clown. I'm worried about that, worried that means that maybe he's not doing well. He was such a nice guy. Same creepy make-up as the other clowns, but a sweet man underneath it.
My friend, Natalie, had a baby girl a couple of months ago. Her name is Gabriella. Isn't she pretty? Her big sister, Kayla, is right behind her.
Zac came over for the day to hang out with Sarah and Karlee at the party. The kids had such a great time. Sarah brought me one of these snow cones. Yum.
In closing I want to share a funny Sarah story. Last night, after dinner, she popped up from the table and ran over to grab my keys off the key hook. "I'm going to the mall," she announced. She took a few steps to the door, then said, "No, not really. Everybody knows that I can't park."

Park? She can't park. I wasn't aware that she could drive either. She so cracks me up.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Remembering 9/11

I watched a presentation of 9/11 film on the History Channel tonight. So much of it was still with me, I can remember watching hour after hour of it on the tv at the time, but this was different. They took the events minute-by-minute and they used video taken by New Yorkers who were on the street or in their homes with a clear view of the towers.

At one point, before the 1st collapse, but after both towers had been hit, there was a line of firefighters filing past the cameraman. As I watched the footage, it occurred to me that I was probably looking at men who never made it back out alive. One face in particular appeared very young to me. Later, I watched a show where the photographers spoke about their footage and the man who shot those firefighters, he confirmed that those men did not make it.

My older daughter walked in, asked me why I was crying, why I was watching it. I tried to explain to her that it's important to honor the memory of those people, what they went through that day. We can't just forget. It's a horrible thing and it's important to remember it. She sat down and watched part of it with me. I described to her some of what I saw, about the smoke from the first collapse, how it billowed down the street like some sort of live being, just snaking up and around the buildings, chasing the terrified people down the street. Incredible.

After the second collapse, it was so quiet and the rescue workers were shown walking through as if they weren't sure where to go. Where to start? I'm sure the task in front of them was overwhelming. They were so brave. All those people so brave.

Love Thursday - Pot o' Hearts

It's Love Thursday at Shutter Sisters.com

I found this pot of heart-shaped leaves just outside my front door. They remind me of a little family. This is not a naturally occurring heart, but it is one that lives in my garden. My sister gave me this some years back for my birthday. It bobs in the breeze.
Happy Love Thursday to you!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Dew Drops

I noticed that everything was covered with a water drops today. So, as soon as I loaded Max on the bus, I grabbed my camera and headed out to try to catch some water. As usual, I couldn't get exactly what I was hoping to capture. I love any sort of "dew" pictures. There's something about that rounded drop of water.

Here is one leaf. Very crunchy.

The water makes some interesting bokeh. I saw more of it before cropping, but then the drops were small. I wish it would rain.
Tracee Sioux has a blog encouraging girl empowerment. She's looking for photos of girls to use in future posts. She would like to feature a wide assortment of girls, so if you have an empowered girl, please click here http://traceesioux.blogspot.com/2008/09/poster-girl-send-photos-of-your-girls.html for instructions on how to send her your photos.

I sent her photos of Sarah and Karlee. They are both interesting, empowered individuals.

Now I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Ruby Tuesday - Red BBQ

Here is my neighbor's red barbeque. They've been out neighbors for about 4 and a half years and they are moving to Washington state in a couple of weeks. :( We are really going to miss them. This barbeque looks like it used to belong to an old cowboy. See that horse shoe handle? Orion, he produces some great smelling bbq with this thing. I'm so curious about where it came from - one day it was just there. Where does someone find something like this? It's got to be heavy.
Here's a bonus red, the book that I'm reading New Moon, it's the second book in the Twilight series. That's Sarah's legs - we were sitting together on the patio.
The kids called me out to see this Praying Mantis. It had a very weathered look to it, unreal, as if made of old paper. The head kept swiveling, back and forth. When Taylor, the girl who is holding it, put her hand down by the bush it was sitting on, it hopped onto her finger. When Taylor was younger, she used to go out to the lawn in the evening, lay in the grass, and catch Dragonflies. This year, she's in the 6th grade. She doesn't spend as much time catching insects.
Out of all of Sarah's friends, she loves Taylor best. I'm not sure if it's because she's a little older or if it's because of the way she speaks. Is it because she's never met a video game that she can't master or that she practically flies to school on her scooter? Sarah is crushed that they are moving. I try to remind her that it's very exciting for the family. That they will love Washington and that Orion will have a great new job. Kids don't care about those things. All Sarah is thinking is that her friend will be gone and if she wants to talk to her, she's going to have to get on Runescape. Not quite the same as walking next door and knocking on the door.


Sunday, September 7, 2008

Sunday Sleepover

My daughter, Bailey, has changed a lot over this Summer. She's grown taller and slimmer and her confidence has soared. She's become very social - lots of fun times out with her friends, less time sitting in her room.

She and I, we find each other's company challenging, at times. She's doing what she's supposed to do at this point - she's driving me crazy so that I will be able to let her go someday. I get that, but getting it and surviving it are two very different things. I need to take some new photos of her. She's with her cousin, Chance, above. I'm going to see if I can get Bay and her friend, Kimm, to sit for me. I want to do some examples of Senior photos. I know that it's probably too late for that this year, but I want to have some seasonal examples for a portfolio. Next year I hope to be very busy with that sort of thing.

Anyway, back to Bay........ She and I had a sleepover last night. It was so fun!! Sarah was out of town - a Girl Scout Sleepover at a water park in Redding, CA - and we drug her mattress out to the living room, watched movies, ate Taco Bell and brownies, and got silly with YouTube. Did you know that much of YouTube is baby farts? Well, it is and baby farts, much like boys screaming like girls, always funny. Either that, or I'm very easily amused........ Okay, it's probably that.

Bay told me that she liked having me to herself. Who knew? I'm feeling very peaceful tonight. :D

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Sarah is Running For Office

Less than 28 hours ago, my boyfriend left us to return to his home in Oregon. We had a great visit, but as all visits go, it was too short. I appreciate the time he takes, driving 6 hours down, then 6 hours up, in order to visit us for about 36 hours. I've spoken with Sarah about the visits, about how we should try to wait until he's gone before we cry. It's hard to do that, but I don't want to make him feel guilty about leaving. Sarah did pretty good until he was out of sight. Saying goodbye is never easy.




As Sarah cried, she told me that she was sad about Steve, sad about Taylor next door moving to Washington, and sad about Grandpa's death. She was sad and it all sort of hit her at once. I can remember Bay doing the same thing. She'd start crying and it would go on until she'd fall asleep, exhausted.

Tomorrow, Sarah is running for the Student Council. She is excited. I am scared. She's so bold, I follow her lead, try my best not to let her know that I'm worried. She isn't worried about losing, she wants to give it a try. We worked together on her poster and speech. So much fun.

I ran for Student Council in the 8th grade. I didn't run in the big election, the one at the end of the 7th grade school year. I ran in a special small election because we were short 3 homeroom representatives. I don't think I gave a speech. They just put my name on a ballot with 5 other people and 3 of us won.

Student Council was fun. We took turns doing these inspections of the hallways and the restrooms. We'd rate the way they were left, if there was garbage on the floor, that kind of thing. If there wasn't, we'd give a good rating and with a week of good ratings, we'd get out early on Friday afternoon. It was called.... well, I can't remember. I'll have to ask Leah and Jackie if they remember. Anyway, it was fun. I can remember that we were all really tough with the inspections, we took our responsibility seriously.

Sarah would be that way. She loves her school and she has some good ideas about what would make a good homeroom representative. Here's a quote from her speech, "... I will do my best to make sure that your voice and your ideas are heard..."
Well, it's late and I've got a new book, New Moon, to read. After that, I'm pretty sure that I'll be dreaming of this guy.