Day 274 [I Love You!]

I know I've said it before, but I have the BEST husband EVER!

He left this for me to find when I opened my laptop this morning.

It's the simple things he does that warms my heart so much.

I love you too!

Day 273 [She's All That!]

Spent the day with this cute firecracker and her baby brother.

Their Mom had a busy work day that meant getting home later then daycare allows, since Daddy has moved to their new place in another state (mommy and babies are staying behind until house gets sold) I was called upon to help out.  I did so happily!  This gave me something to do, since my days are BORING now with Jarod at Kindergarten and me with no job!

We had some sunshine that allowed for a walk over to the park.  The kids enjoyed the slides and the swings!  So fun to spend the day with little people full of smiles!

Day 272 [In The Kitchen]

Today was a downer day.

Just moody...me that is....hate it when I get like this.

So, today you get a shot of the inside of the dishwasher.

Ready to be unloaded!

Day 271 [Monday, Laundry Day]

This is it.

How I spend my Mondays.

Laundry, all day!

Day 270 [Hawk's Nest]

Thanks to Michel's Aunt and Uncle who were unable to use the Seahawk tickets they had for Sunday's game...we got to be there for an amazing game in totally the BEST seats we've ever had!

44th yard line, 17 rows from the field!

This shot was taken from my seat with my zoom lens zoomed to 200.

Seahawk games are always fun.

The crowd really is the 12th player!  We (the crowd) were so loud that we produced 2 false starts during this game, bringing the total since (now I can't remember the year!), anyway...99 false starts after this game...we are the leaders in this ability! 

The energy of the crowd adds such a great element to the game.

Fun, FUN day!

Day 269 [Special Day]

Kennedy.

She's my Goddaughter.

Starting on her 4th birthday I decided to do away with the a traditional birthday gift and chose to start a tradition of special moments, just the two of us.

I document our special day with photos, create a mini album of our special day and present her with the album on her next birthday.

Today we did our Special Day to celebrate her 6th birthday.

She will turn 7 on November 30th...so this Special Day was had not a moment too soon! 

We ventured out with our first stop being a morning treat.

Doughnuts at the new doughnut shop near my place.

Krazy Clay to paint pottery.

That was lots of fun!

Lunch at her choice, she chose Red Robin, according to her they have THE BEST mac & Cheese!

Then a stop into Dairy Queen for an ice cream treat before returning her home.

It was a fun day and we are looking forward to getting our painted masterpieces in 7-10 days after they've been fired in the kiln.

Day 268 [Fungus]

This guy popped up on the rim of the front yard in the past few days.

His striking white against the green of the grass really makes him stand out.

While I'm not a fan of mushrooms, the eating kind, I find there is something oddly magical looking about these fungi.  Maybe it's the way they are 'cute' in fairy tales, I don't know, but I had to capture this one.  I'm amazed at how this one looks like it has feathers.

Day 267 [Dozer]

It's not every morning you wake up to a bulldozer/big rig/thing-a-majiggy parked in front or your house.

They are repaving the 'trail' at the park across the street.

It's been in dire need of an excavation/repave.

The tree roots have reached the path, causing large bumps and making it unsafe for walking and running. 

Thankfully today is not an 'open the windows' kind of day, as the noise would certainly drive me crazy after a while.

I'll have to check out the new trail when they are done.

Just a little repair is better that what's over there now.

Day 266 [Skull Candy]

My ears needed some new buds for my tunes during my run.

The headphones that came with my Zune have great sound quality and generally aren't too bad, but I have found that if I don't get them in my ears just right before I head out, I'm left with a run where I'm constantly adjusting them.

This does not make for a fun run.

My son had me pick him up a pair of these Skull Candy headphones for him a few weeks ago.  He's hard on his headphones...they always seem to be broken or lost!

Anyway, I noticed that the new ones I bought him actually go into your ear.  That got me to thinking that these might be a better option for running, so while I was out today I picked up a pair for me!

Tonight's run will put them to the test.

Day 265 [Hand in Hand]

After being out of town for two nights on business, I have my husband back where he belongs.

I enjoy my life, hand in hand, with this man.

I am not a fan of when he leaves town for business.  Luckily for me when he does go it's only for a night or two.  I miss him when he's gone.

Day 264 [Nice Rack!]

I crack myself up!

I was trying to get a shot of my running outfit prior to my run tonight.

This is what I got.

I have to say, my 'girls' never looked so good!

perky, slimer, youthful

LOL! 

I love the optical illusion this photo is giving my body.

I do strive for it to look like that one day, without my arms up at a certain angle and the illusion of the lens...thus the need for running!

Tonight's run started out dry and ended up soaking wet!

My first wet, wet, wet run.

Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Day 263 [Viewer's Choice]

I'm having trouble deciding between which shot to make my photo for the day, so I have decided to make it a viewer's choice!

I like both these photos, for different reasons.

Which do you like best?

My goal is capturing evidence of fall.

Leave me a comment for your choie, 1 (picture on the left) or 2 (picture on the right).

I will post the winning choice tomorrow.

Thanks!
***Updated****
The results are in!  Between votes via email, facebook and comments here, the results were 5 for picture #1, 9 for picture #2.
I present 'Evidence of Fall'
I also took the much valued advice of a good friend and cropped the photo to have the leaf favor one side.  I like that look much better. 

Day 262 [Evening Glow]

There's just something magical about the evening glow of candlelight.

Day 261 [Puuuurrrr]

Oh momma....I love that!

My baby kitty loves to be pet.

He loves to get all up in my face, knead on me and then plop onto my lap and allow me to scratch his head.  Is he not the cutest kitty ever!? 

No need to answer, I alread know he is!

Day 260 [Night Out]

Do you think I'm happy!?

That's me, just prior to leaving for a girl's night.

I met some friends for dinner, then we headed over to this month's hostess's house for our monthly Bunco game.  Always lots of laughter and chatter.

Day 259 [New Scrappy Tool]

If you are not aware...I'm a scrapbooker.

I love this hobby so much, the memories I have preserved for my family and the countless little mini albums I have made for our family and for others as gifts.

A main componet of scrapbooking is adhesive.

I have been a loyal Herma user since I started this hobby 13+ years ago.

I'm always on the look out for a good price for the refills and seem to always be buying adhesive.

A few years ago the rage was a Scotch ATG framing gun.

They were EXPENSIVE and huge....I couldn't justify spending the big $$$ on the gun so I have pushed on with my Herma.  Now that finding my Herma refills under $6 each is near impossible, I started the search for a new adhesive.  I came to find out that Scotch has created an ATG gun for scrapbookers that is smaller, lighter and much cheaper then the framing gun. 

It holds an insane amount of adhesive, which is much more cost effective then the herma.  For the same $$ of a 49 foot roll of herma refill I can get TWO 36 yard rolls of general purpose or for double the price TWO 36 yard rolls of acid free refills! 

That is an amazing value that I'm looking forward to!

Scrap on my friends...scrap on!

Day 258 [Daddy Homework]

Bailey brought home some homework today.

Apparently it was really parent homework.

The assignment was to have you parent answer the following question:

Why is studying about US history important?

I passed that index card right on over to my husband to answer.

I had to laugh at how easily my son was able to read my husband's chicken scratch.

Must be a case of if you write it you can read it.

I certainly don't write like either of those boys and usually have a hard time reading what they write! 

Day 257 [Twenty-One!]

That's me, with my baby girl.

Yeah, I know, she's gorgeous!

Today she turned 21!!!

She made me a Mom.

She's older, by 3 years, then I was when I had her!

Time goes so fast, babies grow up in the blink of the eye.

You can read more about her here!

Day 256 [Messy!]

Our cat Roamin.

A neat eater, he is not!

I bought him the nicest food and water dish after we first got him.

I'm still shocked, after 3 years, he is such a pig when is comes to eating!

There is always food under his dish and in his water.

Some days I put his dish up to make him 'clean' up his food area!

He doesn't much like that.

Day 255 [Birthday Hugs]

Friday my nephew turned 6.

Saturday we celebrated.

He's quite the character, my nephew.

It was a SpongeBob themed party.

He made out with quite the haul in gifts.

My favorite moment of the day...

this sweet hug to his Daddy after opening the Toy Story 3 drum set his Dad gave him.

Just a sweet, tender and authentic moment.

Day 254 [Feelings]

It's after 9 pm.

No picture taken as it was a rather boring day.

Ventured out for my morning coffee run, I guess I could have captured my running a red light, but I didn't know I was going to do it until I was actually doing it!  In a total daze, not paying attention and bam!  I freaked out when I realized that I'm in the intersection and the light is RED!  Thankfully it was about to turn green for me, no cars in the intersection...no harm, no foul.  Just one very embarassed lady behind the wheel.

Some days the pictures come easily, present themselves on a silver platter.  Other days I have to put in effort to seek out my shot.  Then there are days like today...nothing!

So, this is what you get.

Our feelings on the picture of the day today!

HA!

Day 253 [Zune Support]

It was the first full day of school today.

I had so much I planned to do.

I made the grave mistake of doing this one first!

My son's Zune player suddenly had a problem connecting to the internet.

I told him I would call and see what could be done about, especially given he's only had the thing for 9 months.

After 1 hour 45 minutes, trying the same stuff 3 times without success, the gal transfers me to the 'advanced' trouble shooting department, where I will not have to re explain my issues to the tech as she has made detailed notes.  After impatiently re explaining, very briefly, the issue, he started me in on the same stuff we had just tried 3 times without success!  When we got to the part where email/password to link Zune is required (the gal had me put my stuff in since I didn't have my son's info and he was at school) he told me we needed my son's stuff and to call back with case number blah, blah, blah.

I hung up after 1 hour, 57 minutes and 45 seconds....nothing accomplished!

I complete waste of my time!

I made my son do the call back when he got home, after 10 minutes on the phone with them, just talking, not trying anything....they told him they would send me an email with the instructions/label to send them the Zune.  Once they recieved it if they can not fix it they will send him a new one!

WTH!?  Why couldn't I get that kind of service????

THEN....this is rich....my son is fiddling around with the Zune, low and behold, he can now connect to the internet!  I'm over it! 

Day 252 [The Wheels On The Bus...]

Yeah!

The wheels on the bus are going round and round!

It may have only been a 2 hour 'first day', but it's back in session!

I'm happy, he's happy, we're all happy!!!

Tomorrow will be my first full day with no kiddos.

Party on moms!

Day 251 [Education]

Tomorrow!

It may only be for 2 hours, but tomorrow is his first day of his sophomore year!

The school allows the incoming freshmen the opportunity to have the school for themselves for most of the day before inundating them with the entire scope of high school...the upperclassmen.

I got the boy's back pack all prepared for the first day.

We have run the gamut on all things organizational regarding his school work.

This is the last idea I have and I'm hoping this will be the ticket to some organizational success!

Separate binders for each subject.

The goal being that it's the only binder out during that class period, therefore the only place that subjects papers will end up.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Day 250 [Hubba, Hubba]

He has been a bit under the weather this weekend.

It started on Saturday while we were out of town.

Head cold turned into sinus congestion, fever and exhaustion.

He's still not up to par, but getting there.

We did a lot of this today.

Zoning out on the TV.

Day 249 [Evening Drive Home]

After an enjoyable weekend with our friends, we headed out after 7 Sunday night to avoid the masses on the way home Monday.

While on the way home I got out my camera to get a good night time shot...not the greatest, but cool enough for me.

Day 248 [Farmers Market]

Saturday morning we headed downtown Vancouver for the Farmers Market.

I was quite surprised by how much it's grown since we lived in Vancouver over 8 years ago.

Loads of fruits, veggies, arts & crafts, prepared food and of course flowers.

It was pretty busy for a holiday weekend.

We left the boys at home to bang out on Rock Band while we were gone because once we returned they were banned from it!

We got back to the house, got out the dominos and snacks to play and eat before the big boys herded to the couch for the UW/BYU football game.

Day 247 [Slow Go]

We headed out Friday late afternoon, as we were merging onto I-5 we hit rush hour-holiday traffic.

We did the crawl from south Tacoma to Olympia, broke free for a bit, hit a patch of crawl again, stopped for dinner at Burgerville in Centralia...YUM! (which the furthest north BV is) making to our destination just north of Vancouver WA/Portland OR by 7.

I was bored on the trip from the beginning, so I decided to list the different states of plates I saw.

I was surprised by how many we saw.

20 states, 2 different Canadian & 1 government.

Washington (duh!), Oregon (countless), California (11), Indiana, Nevada, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, New York, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, Arizona (2, 1 u haul, 1 car), Montana (2, 1 car-1semi), Oklahoma (3, 2 semis - 1 car), North Carolina (semi), Rhode Island (semi), Idaho (semi), Wisconsin (semi), BC (british columbia canada...5), Ontario Canada (semi and my first time seeing that one), and the oddball...USA Army (semi).

It was fun way to pass the time in the car.

Day 246 [Goodbyes]

6 years 24 days

Today we said goodbye.

It's not like I'm never going to see you again, afterall, we are related.

It's just going to be hard not seeing your smiling face everyday like I have for the past six years and twenty-four days. 

You really became like one of my own and I'm going to miss you dearly from my daily life.

It's bittersweet to say goodbye.

You are ready for Kindergarten and the open doors that await you in life.

I'm ready to start the next chapter in my life and see what that may bring.

But there is a piece of me that wishes I could hang on just a little longer. 

I can't though, I have to let you go. 

Your big boy life is starting to take off!  New friends, new school, new things to see and do.

While I won't be there, day to day, to share in it, I will be cheering you on.

There will always be a special place in my heart just for you.....

my little buggaboo!

Day 245 [Tube O Paste]

I have a fantastic husband.

Really. FANTASTIC!

He does the dishes, irons his own clothes, puts the toilet seat down, provides well for our family, works hard, makes me laugh, just a great, all around guy, until....

we get to the tube of toothpaste!

I like the tube squeezed from the bottom, keeping it nice and neat.

He man handles it, centers his hand on the tube and squeezes it like he's milking a cow!

Drives me insane!

The seam on this tube is starting to buckle under the man handling.

I'm seriously considering separate tubes next time I buy paste.

Day 244 [From the Side]

Today I set my camera down on the little accent table that sits in my studio.

I removed the lens cap, turned the camera on and pushed the button.

This is the view of my studio table, in the process of updating my photo a day album.