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.

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!

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.

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 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

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.