Friendly Friday

Good morning. :D It's a lovely day here in Chico, CA. I ran some errands this morning, after taking Sarah to school. As I drove into the parking lot, it struck me how pretty it is where I live. Sometimes I take that for granted.

I put away my groceries, grabbed my camera and this is a little of what I found in about 10 minutes of walking around my neighborhood. Below, see a grasshopper's eye-view of the sun shining on the wet grass.

The light was perfect for reflections. I'm not sure if anyone else thinks this looks cool, but I love a good reflection.
Some of the trees are turning, but we're still enjoying Summery temperatures here. I think it's supposed to get to 88 today. I've noticed jackets all over the playground at work. I try to gather them up, put them where the kids can see them, because I know how much it sucks to have to continually replace lost items. You should see how full our lost and found gets.
My Cannas are still going strong. The yellows, in particular. I think when it cools off more, I'm going to dig some up and move them around a bit more again. I'd like to stash some in my potted plants, too.
I didn't end up with any zuchini or pumpkins, very few tomatoes. I really don't know what happened. Oh well, there's always next year. :D My flowers were lovely, so I still feel very lucky.

We are nearing the end of Blogtoberfest over at b5Media's Lifestyle Channels. Lara put a prize-sponsored post up yesterday and there's still time to leave a comment for a chance to win. My friend Eliza has one up at Babylune.com, as well. Eliza's wondering about Mom's and stretchmarks......if you have a story to share, your comment could prove to be a winner. I will have a new post up, my last prize-sponsored post, at 4pm Central time. You can find it at Dating Dames.com.

Well, it's time to head out to recess. I wish you all a beautiful Friday!

Love Thursday - I Love To Be Outside

I haven't taken part in Love Thursday for awhile. I've been distracted, I think. Not on the look-out for hearts lately. That can't be good - nobody should be so distracted that they miss out on hearts. I need to fix that.

Here are the hearts that live right outside my front door. My front door is just inches away. Hey, c'mon in. :D And this is a close-up of a heart that my sister gave me a few years back. I love my sister. See the fuzz on there, it's left-over from Halloween 2007 spiderwebbing. It's hard to get rid of all of it, always a bit still hanging around when I hang the Christmas lights. Anyone else have that problem?
That reminds me, I need to decorate for the holiday. They are painting the apartments and I've been waiting to see how fast the painters are, because as I mentioned above, that webbing, not so fun to clean up. The wind has proven tricky and that appears to be working in my favor - the painting is slow-going. I'm going to decorate. I will get to it tomorrow. I'll surprise Sarah when she gets home from school.

Today I got to do something fun. I did the random drawing that picked the winner of Dating Dames.com's Blogtoberfest prize. I was so nervous, afraid I'd screw it up somehow, but happily I can assure you, it's pretty much goof-proof. You see how many comments you have (in my case, I had 190!!!), then you go to this place that picks the number for you online. You input some info - like pick one number, from 1-190. The number comes up, you contact the winner by email, she sends you her contact info, you send it to the vendor, you write up the "We've Got A Winner" post, and ta-da!! you are done..... until the 17th, when it starts all over again with a new prize-sponsored post. I wish I could do a prize post a week over there.

Well, it's late and I've got a stack of library books waiting for me. I wish you a very happy Love Thursday!

Ruby Tuesday - Red Helmet

Today is Ruby Tuesday, again.

It is hosted by the Teach at Work of the Poet. You can find links to many more red-themed photos over there.

Here we see my neighbor's bike helmet. Oh my goodness! I just realized that it's my friend, Mason's helmet. Mason and his family (his sister Taylor has been featured here a few times) moved a few weeks ago. As I was looking through my photos tonight, I saw the red helmet and thought, a-ha! not even thinking until about the owner of the helmet until my second read through. I sure hope they are settling into their new home. Mason is in the 8th grade, not an easy time of life for a school change.
Anyway........My town, Chico, CA, was named one of the top US bike towns back in 1997. I'm sure it's got to be even higher ranked now with bike paths are all over town, bike lanes on most major streets. When I first moved here, 15 years ago, I was nervous driving alongside the bikes. Now it's nothing - I give them room and we are okay. When I'm riding my bike, I make eye contact with the drivers, it's the only way that I can know that they see me. I teach my girls this, as well.
Happy Ruby Tuesday to you!

My Doodle

Here is my doodle for Nine Acres: 20 Miles North of Nowhere. I will look at how to figure it out when I get back from school. I'm rushing out the door now. Bye for now. *Edit*

Okay, I'm back with my analysis.


Analyzing my doodle.......... I want to be important in people's lives, because I've got a large picture in the middle there. I started my doodle on the left, but that may have been influenced by the red nine (this was part of the instructions, start with a red "9"). I filled in most of the right side first (the face, then went to the flower pot, the hearts, etc) which signifies that I use logic. I have a combination of light and dark strokes, probably more of the light, the dark was to show hair, lashes, coloring. Dark can show depression and while I'm not at the top of my game right now, I am in no way depressed.

Now some of the symbolism:

Eyes - this can show a need to be alluring or that I'm feeling like I'm being watched. I have a total of 4 eyeballs in this doodle.

Flowers - Usually drawn by women and are romantic in nature. They show a desire to blossom and be fruitful in life. This absolutely fits me. I just opened that shop and sold my first photo. I'm looking for an additional writing job. I doodle flowers often, now that I think of it.

Lips - These are usually drawn by women and show some sort of sexual frustration. I drew lips on both fish, but none on the man in the middle. I'm currently pissed at my boyfriend, so yep, that fits, too.

Oceans - These doodles are typical of people who spend a lot of time indulging in their imaginations, but who rarely put their dreams into practice. Well, I did not draw the ocean, but I did draw under the ocean. I am currently really trying to take my goals beyond dreams (where they've been hiding for a long time) and into practice. Baby steps, as long as I keep moving forward.............

Portraits - Drawn by young girls to show an idealized self-portrait. Comic faces are drawn by men and show a desire to be the center of attention. So apparently I'm feeling like a man who wants some attention??

Stars - Repeated stars are drawn by irrepressible romantics. I like stars.

It doesn't mention hearts or fish. I draw a lot of both when doodling.

I think that's me pretty accurately. Interesting. If you try it, leave me a comment and let me know where yours is and what you find out.

You can anaylsis your own doodles at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A256466

Giveaway!

Today Dating Dames is taking part in b5Media's Blogtoberfest. If you'd like a chance at a prize, you can comment on my post I Do Not Suck. There are various other prizes hiding around our Lifestyles Channel. I have a list of links at the bottom of my post.

Opened My Etsy Shop

I just opened my Etsy shop with one item. WooHoo! I'm very excited, but also very nervous. I do not want to suck. It is available here Chase Your Bliss Photography. I will update as I add items. I need to find out where I can get those TTVs printed up. They are a funny size - square 5x5s.

Times Flies

This is a photo of my nephew, Casey, running with the ball. I think my sister took it. I then took it from her MySpace. I look at him here and I can't believe how much he's grown. He was always such a slim little guy and now he looks just...........well, he looks big.

When did that happen? Slow down, please. Well, maybe after the game, after you put that ball down, then slow down. Next thing I know, he's going to be Bailey's age.

Yesterday, Jackie came down for a visit with her family. She has two boys - Wyatt and Emitt - and a daughter - Brianna - who is in her freshman year of college. (I hope that I spelled everyone's name correctly). Emitt, he looks a lot like Casey. I noticed that Sarah got familiar with him very quickly. She kept grabbing him, carrying him around. It was funny, but also sort of embarrassing. I reminded her, "Sarah, you just met him. You've got to respect his personal space." She shrugged her shoulders and went right back to grabbing him. He was extremely patient with her.

I kept wondering what happened, why was she so comfortable with him?? Then, it hit me - he was being her Casey. She and Casey are good buddies, running around doing all kinds of crazy things together and Emitt looked like Casey, so she felt a bond with him. Plus he's a nice kid. It's not just that he looks like Casey, but I have a feeling that was the first step.

Oh, here's something funny that happened about two minutes ago ........James, from Sarah's class was out front with Alana, when Alana came to the door to fetch Sarah. She was embarrassed for him to see her in her pjs. When did James become a boy and not just James?

These kids, they are growing up too fast for me.