Sarah Heads To the Basket

The painters have been here all day and it's freaking my cat out. She could hear them talking and laughing as they papered and taped off the windows. They'd slide their hands down with the tape and it was a kind of creepy-sounding. You'd think we'd be used to noises in an apartment complex, but w..........

Okay, I was gone for a minute. The FedEx man just brought a huge box of Burt's Bees skin care products to review for Pretty By Nature. WooHoo! I love my job.

Oh, here's Amelia........ And I can see Greg out front. All my kids are working their way home. Sarah, too. She started choir. Max's bus. This is a busy time of day.


I took some shots of Sarah playing basketball this weekend. She played in a tournament and now it's all over until next year. I loved every minute of watching those girls. They were so bold and scrappy. I know that I've said that before, but I've watched Sarah sort of retreat into a shell this year and it's been sad to watch. Basketball was an adventure. She was Larger Than Life Sarah again.

Here's Sarah heading toward the basket. In this game they played against their "sister" team. The other Notre Dame team - one was White and one was Blue, although they look black and white here.



This is from the second game. I really don't know what I'm doing with these action shots.


Is it wrong that I'm proud of her agressiveness in this shot? The first day we were shocked by how rough the girls got. They would knock each other over and grab the ball and roll around on the floor. Sarah got more comfortable with the more physical side of the game.

Heading back to the basket...........

We are transitioning at work again. We are changing Lifestyles over to Blisstree this afternoon. This was my last official Dating Dames post. After this I will be one of the Relationships team. I think they plan on having 5 of us.

Veggie Chic was going to be gone, but somehow it's going to make it and be part of.....food, I think. I was running out of time, they were due to lock us out, so I quickly wrote about my lunch, which was so damn good. And I'm giving away some skincare at Pretty By Nature.

Now I'm off to get Bay............

Rounding it Up

We have had some Spring moments here in Chico, California. See above for an example. That pot of pansies sits on the table on my patio. When I take product photos for my blogs, I put them next to the flowers.

I took a run with Bay in the park and.......did I already mention this? I might have mentioned this....... anyway, I could feel the pollen in the air as I ran. It doesn't feel good going down, super-sweet. We have crazy pollen here - I never even know that I had allergies before living here.

Tomorrow is the last day of my current mandarin orange giveaway. If you'd like to enter, please do so. I don't have a lot of entries, so your odds of winning are really good.

Also, I was able to put my first post up at Pretty By Nature today. I'm very excited to get into that one.

If you are taking part in Wear Red Day and you post your picture, please take part in my little Wear Red Event. You can see the details here. The girls and I are going to do it and I'm hoping that we won't be the only ones.

Okay, it's late. I'm sleepy. More tomorrow.

Bailey and Greg

Bay wanted me to take some pictures of her and her boyfriend, Greg, but by the time I was able to do that, I'd lost most of the light. We are going to try again tomorrow. Here's what I could get............ He always has a hat on. She got him this one for Christmas. At first she picked out another one and when it didn't fit (and he didn't like it), she cried. It was sad. It's hard to pick out present sometimes - a lot of presure.

The focus is really not good here, but I had a little light.

Greg has almost the same expression in every photo. I almost said that when I was looking at the shots in my camera, then I thought, hhmm, no don't say that - teenagers are so sensitive. Well, the female ones, maybe boys are tougher.

Sarah keeps doing these silly things. She stands up and does a sort of dance/pose thing and watches herself in the mirror over the couch. She really enjoys looking at herself. I'll say, "Sarah, I'm right here," when she's talks to me, but looks at herself in the mirror. If I was as cute as she is, I'd probably do the same thing. ;D

At school today a boy cut his knee so bad that I had to call the nurse out to the playground. He was having trouble walking, the cut was on his knee, and his sock was all bloody. He was making a lot of noise and it really drew a crowd. I kept saying, "Back up, please." And he'd cry harder, then they'd come back around, "What's wrong, what's wrong?" I checked on him at the end of my shift and he was still freaked out. I think that he was worried about getting it cleaned, more than anything else.

Yesterday, a little girl was looking like she was sick. When I asked what was wrong, she said, "My daddy was arrested last night." When I saw her today she said, "My daddy was on the news!" and she was excited. Yikes. Whatever he did was big enough to get on the news. Her dad is Logan's stepdad. I've mentioned Logan before, he's my favorite student at the school.

Another little girl, who lives by the first girl, told my friend Tammy (cafeteria lady) that she has not bedroom window and that she woke up with snow on her face during the Christmas break.

Sometimes my kids will complain. They don't know how good they've got it.

I'm going to be giving away some Cuties Mandarin Oranges at Veggie Chic soon. Cuties are so darn good. I will let you know before the giveaway starts - they will be 10 winners.

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!

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.

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.

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!!!

Sepia Scenes - Looking Outdoors

I'm taking part in Sepia Scenes, but I may be late again. I'm not sure what day it runs. I do better with memes that have the day in the name, like Ruby Tuesday. ;D I have a couple of Summer shots at the Concert in the Park, then a look outside my front door.

I took this shot this Summer when Chance, Casey, Trin, Sarah, Mom, and I went to the Concert in Park in downtown Chico, CA. I was trying to catch that flare on the side of the building. This fountain goes all the time in the new City Plaza. The Plaza is a big Chico controversy, as it was built after the city removed a whole lot of diseased trees. Here in Chico, we love our trees. I mean, really, really love our trees. The Plaza appeared - the old one - in a movie made by Disney years ago. It was called Under Wraps and it shows the big trees and the diamond-patterned walkway. It was beautiful, as is the new Plaza, but in a very different way.
Here is Chance. I used a color version of this photo at Dating Dames a week or so ago. He looks deep in thought here.

Here is a view out my front door. I was sitting on the floor, back against the couch, looking at this view and I thought, hhmm, kind of pretty. I am lucky to live in a lovely little complex. We've been here for 10 years now - longer than I have ever lived in any place.

I got a new writing job. I'm going to be taking over the blog Veggie Chic.

I used to write for a vegetarian magazine a few years ago. It was Vegetarian Baby and Child and my editor lived in Mongolia. Seriously, in Mongolia, where there is not a huge selection of vegetables. Her husband was a doctor for the Peace Corps. I haven't spoken to her in years. She was such a nice lady. I ought to see if I can track her down. She was from California, too.

If you are interested, I wrote a quick tutorial for making your own Bath Salts here and I have the information about a Benefit cosmetic contest here . The prizes include a shopping spree at Bloomingdales.